Indian suicide and marriage: A research note

Abstract

This study explores the impact of gender and marital status on suicide rates in India. It was hypothesized on the basis of established findings elsewhere that suicide rates for those who are married would be lower than for all other marital categories. It was also predicted that with two significant exceptions for all marital categories, male suicide rates would be higher than female rates. The predicted exceptions were for suicides by widows and widowers and for those who were divorced. Because of the traditional stigmatization of widows, it was hypothesized that their suicide rates would be higher than those of widowers. It was also predicted that the social disapproval of divorce in Indian society would result in higher suicide rates for divorced women than for men. Data are official suicide statistics provided by India's National Crime Records Bureau. The results of the study do not confirm the conventional patterns of variations in suicide according to marital status. In accordance with the traditional hypothesis first enunciated by E. Durkheim, married persons are less prone than the unmarried to commit suicide. Sociological studies over the last eighty years have consistently supported Durkheim's theory. The present data reveal that while marriage provides better protection against suicide for Indian women it does not do so for Indian men.