NPR

Suicide By Women Is A Major Public Health Concern In India

A newly published study on suicide offers startling revelations about the rates for women and men.
Relatives mourn before the funeral for family members who reportedly died by suicide at their home in Burari, India, this summer.

In June, M., a 28-year-old woman jumped from the second floor of her home in Madurai, India — 20 feet above a rocky, tar road — after a bitter argument with her husband. He had accused her of having an affair.

This was M.'s second attempt to kill herself. She survived the fall. M. had been prescribed antidepressants after her first suicide attempt seven years before but had stopped taking them. She was admitted to Madurai's Government Rajaji hospital shortly after her second suicide attempt. Three weeks later, doctors recommended that she have surgery using metallic plates to fuse her shattered spine, but her mother, uncertain and fearful about the outcome, refused to let M. go under the knife.

She was discharged a month after

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