SOCIOLOGY-I

1st Semester(Resubmission)

Project Topic:
“A Critical Analysis of suicide and Durkheim’s theory”
Submitted by:
B. NIRAJ KUMAR B.A.LLB. (Hons)

Course Teacher: Assistant-Professor HEMALATHA BHAT

TAMIL NADU NATIONAL LAW University

 DECLARATION
I hereby declare that the project submitted on the topic “A Critical Analysis of suicide and
Durkheim’s theory” which I being submitted as a project of the 1st semester course in
Sociology-I as a part of my Project Resubmission to Tamil Nadu National Law School as an
authentic record of my genuine work done under the guidance of Professor Hemalatha Bhat,
department of Sociology, Tamil Nadu National Law University and has not formed basis of
award of any degree or diploma or any other title to any other candidate of any university.

B. Niraj Kumar
BA0180029
21/07/21
 INTRODUCTION
The sociological study of suicide is still anchored in Émile Durkheim's (1897-1951) empirical
research of suicide, which is still considered the discipline's most important contribution to
suicidology (Joiner, 2005). Durkheim's thesis is based on two basic principles: (1) that the
structure of suicide rates is a positive function of the structure of a group or class of people's
social connections, and (2) that the amount of integration and (moral) control of social
relationships varies. Suicide is the third highest cause of mortality among adolescents and young
adults throughout the world. Prevention methods are increasingly being recognized as needing to
be customized to a country's regional demographics and executed in a culturally sensitive way.

Suicide rates have risen in India throughout the years, however there have been tendencies of
both increases and decreases. In India, unlike in the rest of the world, married status is not
always protective, and the female to male ratio in the suicide rate is greater. Suicide motivations
and methods differ from those in Western nations. Community-based prevention measures and
the identification of susceptible individuals may be more successful than global strategies. India's
suicide rate is equivalent to that of Australia and the United States, and rising rates in recent
decades are in line with a global trend. The National Crime Records Bureau has information
about suicide in India (NCRB; Ministry of Home Affairs). Suicide rates in India climbed from
6.3 per 100,000 in 1978 to 8.9 per 100,000 in 1990, a 41.3 percent rise and a compound annual
growth rate of 4.1 percent from 1980 to 1990.

Research Objectives

1. To derive upon the status of suicide in India as well as other countries through state wise
analysis of data from NCRB.
2. To elaborate upon Durkheim’s historical era and his empirical research of suicide.

Research Methodology

The research will be conducted through various secondary data methodologies such as journals,
books, police records, official reports, etc.
 CHAPTER 1: DURKHEIM’S HISTORICAL ERA

Until now, only a few sociologists have looked at suicide or self-mutilation. However,
psychologists and, in certain cases, medical practitioners have always found it to be an intriguing
subject of study. Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), a French sociologist, was the first to write an
entire book about suicide, "Suicide: A Study in Sociology" (1897). The goal of Durkheim was to
afford sociological reasons for the growing number of suicides in France and other European
countries. Because suicide is a rather noticeable and specific phenomenon, Durkheim opted to
inspect it. Durkheim's focus as a sociologist was not in studying suicide as an independent act,
but rather in explaining disparities in suicide rates and determining what societal forces are
accountable for such acts. As a result, his primary aim was to define suicide. “The word suicide
is given to all cases of death occurring directly or indirectly from a positive or negative act of the
sufferer himself, which he knows will result in this result,” he stated in the book (1897). 1

Suicide rates were generally stable across countries and types of persons within each country,
implying that there was a social fact that a collective inclination to commit suicide existed. These
collective characteristics might be linked to a collection of reasons, resulting in a categorization
of suicide types. The sets of causes were proposed on the basis of Durkheim's theory of potential
imbalances between centrifugal and centripetal forces (too much individualism) (too much social
pressure). He discovered that egoism, altruism, and anomie are all indicators of a society's social
cohesiveness or integration, and that suicide "varies inversely with the degree of integration of
the social groupings of which the individual is a member." According to Durkheim, egoistic
suicide happens when the group or community's cohesiveness and solidarity has deteriorated to
the point where the individual can no longer rely on it for assistance. The individual feels lonely
and maybe suicidal as a result of the "weakening of the social fabric," which causes "connections
linking him with others to slacken or break." Altruistic suicide, on the other hand, is the outcome
of an individual's excessive absorption into the group. Suicide is caused by the fact that the "ego
is not its own property." Suicidal people who have become totally absorbed by the group believe
it is their responsibility to commit suicide in order to help the group or collectivity. Anomic
suicide, which is a result of the disintegration of moral community and the ensuing disturbance

1
Durkheim, Emile (1897, 1951). Suicide, trs J. A. Spaulding and G. Simpson, Glencoe, Illinois, Free Press
of social balance, was another kind that Durkheim thought was the most important. It is "man's
nature to be constantly dissatisfied and to have limitless aspirations," according to Durkheim.

Unlimited wants, on the other hand, are insatiable by definition, and insatiability is correctly seen
as a symptom of morbidity. As a result, man accepts the constraints of society "He has a
conscience that is superior to his own. When this conscience is aroused, however, it is unable to
contain itself, and the outcome is "Sudden increases in the suicide rate. Durkheim also defined a
fourth form of suicide, fatalistic suicide, but his treatment of it was brief and he placed little
emphasis on the character of this type of suicide. He claimed that excessive societal control was
the cause of fatalistic suicide. Slave suicides and those subjected to "extreme physical and moral
tyranny" were instances of this type of suicide in the past. Nonetheless, Durkheim claimed that it
is of little current relevance and that instances are hard to come by.
CHAPTER 2: STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF SUICIDES IN INDIA AND OTHER
COUNTRIES

STATISTICS OF RATE OF SUICIDE GLOBALLY

Suicide was the eighth greatest cause of potential years of life lost globally in 2004 among those
aged 15 to 44, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). 2In certain nations, suicide is
the third highest cause of death among those aged 15 to 44, and the second leading cause of
death among those aged 10 to 24; these numbers do not include suicide attempts, which are up to
20 times more common than successful suicide. Eastern European countries including Belarus,
Estonia, Lithuania, and the Russian Federation have the highest suicide rates. According to data
from the WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia, Sri Lanka has a high prevalence of suicide.

There's an intriguing theory that latitude and the daily quantity of sunshine have an impact on
suicide rates. Suicide rates are greater in the northern sections of Japan and northern European
countries than in the southern countries. 3 However, nations with similar latitudes, such as the
United Kingdom and Hungary, have very different suicide rates (21.6 per 100,000 and 6.9 per
100,000, respectively, in 2009). Low rates can be seen mostly in Latin America (particularly in
Colombia and Paraguay) and a few Asian nations (e.g., the Philippines and Thailand). In 2003,
there were no suicides recorded in Haiti. Other countries in Europe, North America, and Asia
and the Pacific tend to lie somewhere in between these two extremes. Low and middle-income
nations accounted for 86 percent of all suicides. Suicide rates climbed by 60% globally between
1950 and 1995, according to the World Health Organization. Suicide rates climbed from 10.1 per
100,000 in 1950 to 16 per 100,000 in 1995, according to statistics. In 1995, worldwide male
suicide rates and overall suicide rates reached new highs in the 1950-1995 period (24.7 and 16
per 100,000, respectively). Surprisingly, the global female suicide rate per 100,000 fell from 8
per 100,000 in 1975-1980 to 6.9 per 100,000 in 1995. The rise in worldwide suicide rates, on the
other hand, should be taken with care.

2
World Health Organization. Global Burden of Disease. 2004.
3
Terao T, Soeda S, Yoshimura R, Nakamura J, Iwata N. Effect of latitude on suicide rates in Japan.
SUICIDE IN INDIA

Since 1967, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) of India has released annual reports on
suicides in the States, Delhi, and Union Territories. According to their data, the suicide rate per
100,000 of the entire population climbed from 6.3 in 1978 to 8.9 in 1990. The stated percentage
thereafter varied, reaching 11.25 percent4 between 2006 and 2011. Using NCRB data, Arya
projected age-standardized suicide rates from 2001 to 2013. There have been a lot of suicide
studies done in India between the 1970s and the early 2000s. The majority were from specific
locations (e.g., West Bengal), with many pertaining to villages or rural areas, while others
concentrated on cities and data from tertiary care facilities. 5 Several case-control studies in those
locations allowed for the investigation of probable causal variables. In many rural regions, verbal
autopsy investigations revealed significant suicide rates. In a catchment region of Tamil Nadu,
Prasad found an annual suicide rate of 92.1 per 100,000 in 2000-2002, with a male to female
ratio of 1.5:1.

Inefficient civil registration systems, incomplete death reporting, variable standards in death
certification, and the legal and social consequences of suicide, according to the authors, were the
major obstacles to investigating suicide in their area from 1985 onwards, but these obstacles
were overcome in their area by comprehensive data collection involving community health
workers who lived in the villages. Unnatural deaths in India are reported to the police, who
investigate and produce a First Information Report (FIR), which specifies the apparent cause of
death based on evidence and (where available) autopsy findings. The NCRB receives the FIRs.
As a result, NCRB data are reliant on community reporting. In India, there is an imperfect
medically verified cause of death system that covers just a tiny percentage of deaths and varies
by state.6 The NCRB, it is widely accepted, under-reports the rate of suicide. Despite the under-
reporting, the NCRB provides valuable information for suicide intervention planning. The shown
variability of NCRB data recording, on the other hand, necessitates an understanding of State
reporting procedures.

4
Accidental deaths and suicides in India. New Delhi: Government of India; 2015. National Crimes Records Bureau.
5
Suicide in India: a systematic review. Rane A, Nadkarni A

6
Gender differentials and state variations in suicide deaths in India: the Global Burden of Disease Study 1990-2016.
Despite the under-reporting, the NCRB provides valuable information for suicide intervention
planning. The shown variability of NCRB data recording, on the other hand, necessitates an
understanding of State reporting practices9. The documented numbers and proportions of people
who died as a result of a ‘Event of Undetermined Intent' (EUI; introduced as a diagnostic
category in the 8th edition of the International Classification of Diseases), or coded as having
died from an ill-defined or unknown cause of death, vary widely across jurisdictions.

A nationally representative research by Patel et al was the first to determine India's national
suicide rate, outside from NCRB data. The Sample Registration System of the Registrar General
made this feasible. India was split into one million tiny areas based on the 1991 census, and in
6671 of these regions, a field surveyor visited every house where a death had been recorded
between 2001 and 2003. Suicide was the cause of death in 2741 (2.24 percent) of all 122,427
fatalities and 2684 (2.8 percent) of the 95335 deaths of persons aged 15 or older, according to
extensive questioning and medical participation. The suicide rate among individuals aged 15 and
above was found to be 22.0 per 100,000. (men 26.3 and women 17.5).
 CHAPTER 3: FACTORS RELEVANT TO CAUSATION OF SUICIDE

One striking finding from suicide research in India is that suicide rates and patterns vary
significantly between states and territories. Possible reasons for these discrepancies might point
to variables that contribute to suicide's occurrence. According to statistics from 2001 to 2013 7,
the southern states had the highest rates and the northern states had the lowest rates for both
genders, while rates in the center and western states were mostly in the middle. For example, in
2013, the male suicide rate in Tamil Nadu was 29.9 per 100,000, while the female rate was 14.6;
in Maharashtra, the rates were 19.7 and 8.5, in Uttar Pradesh, 2.9 and 2.1, and in Bihar, 1.1 and
0.8.

Suicide rates were greater in populations with more agricultural employment, states with higher
levels of male unemployment, and states with higher literacy rates. In northeastern States, where
Christians were the majority, Christians had a significantly lower suicide rate than Hindus, but
elsewhere in India (where Hindus were the majority), rates were lower in Hindu, and rates in
Sikh and Muslim were even lower. Scheduled caste and scheduled tribe people, as well as ‘other
backward classes,' have lower rates, particularly in areas dominated by these groups.

In its 2015 report on suicides, the NCRB presented an analysis of identified suicide reasons
based on the age range of the decedents. Dowry-related issues (8%), other marriage-related
issues (7%), love affairs (6%), and family problems (32%) were thought to account for the
majority of female suicides between the ages of 18 and 29, while illness other than mental illness
was thought to account for 25% of both men and women aged 60 years or more. In India,
married women account for the greatest percentage of suicide fatalities among women. Because
of planned and early marriages, young motherhood, poor social status, domestic abuse, and
economic dependency8, marriage is less protective against suicide for women in the United
States than in many other nations.  Suicidal ideation has been linked to social isolation, sadness,
functional impairment, and a sense of being a burden on one's family among older people.  Age
and gender are obviously characteristics that should be investigated in relation to suicide
causation.

7
Trends and socio-economic determinants of suicide in India: 2001-2013.
8
Gender differentials and state variations in suicide deaths in India: the Global Burden of Disease Study 1990-2016.
The majority of persons who kill themselves in India do not have a significant mental illness,
according to the findings of a psychological autopsy research conducted in rural south India. In
this case-control research, 37 percent of the 100 suicide decedents (mean age 42 years) had a
DSM-III-R psychiatric diagnosis: two each had schizophrenia, dysthymia, or severe depression,
while 17 had adjustment disorders and 16 had alcohol dependency.
 CONCLUSION

Our Durkheim insight into why individuals commit suicide is well recognized in sociology –
specifically, that a lack of meaningful social ties that support us through tough times and
celebrate us when things are good is highly detrimental to individual well-being. However, a
survey of all sociological literature, particularly empirical and theoretical advancements in the
last ten years, reveals the societal roots of suicide. Incorporating sociological insights on how the
external social environment influences suicide and suicide prevention might help us better grasp
the complexities of suicide and identify how to act successfully.

REFERENCES

1. Durkheim, Emile (1897, 1951). Suicide, trs J. A. Spaulding and G. Simpson, Glencoe,
Illinois, Free Press
2. World Health Organization. Global Burden of Disease. 2004.
3. Terao T, Soeda S, Yoshimura R, Nakamura J, Iwata N. Effect of latitude on suicide rates
in Japan.
4. Accidental deaths and suicides in India. New Delhi: Government of India; 2015. National
Crimes Records Bureau
5. Suicide in India: a systematic review. Rane A, Nadkarni A
6. Gender differentials and state variations in suicide deaths in India: the Global Burden of
Disease Study 1990-2016.
7. Trends and socio-economic determinants of suicide in India: 2001-2013.
8. Gender differentials and state variations in suicide deaths in India: the Global Burden of
Disease Study 1990-2016.