‘They juggle multiple tasks and are often unable to vent their frustration’

Fifteen people commit suicide every hour in India, shows the most recent data by the National Crime Records Bureau. Of these, around 17 per cent are housewives. In contrast, suicide by farmers makes up only 3 per cent of all suicides.

The NCRB divides the total suicides into 10 professional categories — housewife, service (government), service (private), public sector undertaking, student, unemployed, self-employed (business activity), farming/agriculture activity, retired and others.

The NCRB data for 2013, the latest available year, shows that 1.3 lakh people committed suicide that year. Among suicides by women, a whopping 51.4 per cent are committed by housewives (almost 23,000), despite the fact that the “non-worker and marginal worker” female population engaged in “household duties” make up only 33 per cent of the entire female population, according to the 2011 Census.

The previous Census in 2011 recorded that 52 per cent of India’s population married at least once. The 2013 NCRB data shows that a whopping 76 per cent of all suicides are by people who have married at least once.

Worrying trend



“This has been the trend over the years. Suicides among housewives are increasingly becoming a matter of serious concern,” said K.R. Renuka, director of the Centre for Women’s Development and Research, a Chennai-based NGO dedicated to the uplift of women.

Stress and pressures



According to Ms. Renuka, the stress and pressures faced by housewives are a leading cause of suicide. “Housewives have to take care of all the domestic duties as well as look after the elderly and children in the house. Often, they do not have an outlet for their frustrations and this leads to them taking spontaneous decisions,” she said.

This problem, says Ms. Renuka, is exacerbated by modern lifestyles and occupations. “With the husband working long hours and preoccupied with work even when he gets home, the wife does not have anybody to talk to and vent her feelings,” she added. Most of these suicides are not planned but acts of impulse when the woman in question is pushed past her endurance.

Mental illness & stigma



To compound this problem, social stigma surrounding mental illness, or even the perception of mental illness, makes it next to impossible for the women to seek professional help.

“Often, these women just need somebody to talk to. We recommend they go to psychiatrists. But then they question themselves whether they are actually mentally ill to need to see a psychiatrist,” explained Ms. Renuka.

Although the percentage has come down to 17 per cent from the 21 per cent a decade earlier, suicide by housewives continues to be a serious problem.

In fact, marriage counselling and psychiatric help seem to be the need of the hour.