Suicide among women in India is a significant public health issue, with over 45,000 women suicides reported in 2021. In the year 2016, India accounted for 36% of global women’s suicide deaths. Suicide is the leading cause of death for women aged 18–30 in India, and India has the highest rates of suicide among young and middle-aged women. This paper aims to identify the various factors contributing to suicide among women in India, such as domestic violence, sexual harassment, and academic failure etc.
The present study is based on secondary data obtained through newspapers. The researchers have collected 77 cases of suicide among women from January 1, 2023, to June 30, 2023 through Hindi language newspapers (Amar Ujala, Dainik Bhaskar and Dainik Jagran), English language newspapers (Hindustan Times and The Times of India) and other news websites using ontological textual analysis.
This study reveals that a total of 35 (45.45%) incidents of suicide are related to married women as compared to 29 (37.66%) incidents of suicide related to unmarried women, while 9 (11.69%) cases of suicide are related to widow women. The study also reveals that 20.78% suicide cases of women are mainly due to family problems including other factors such as love affairs (18.18%), frustration (16.88%), sexual harassment (14.29%) poverty (11.69%) and harassment (8.57%).
This is an original work of the authors. The research work is based on ontological textual analysis that examines the nature and causes of suicide among women in Indian society through stress theory.
