Lancet<\/em>, reveals that India sees perhaps as many as 230,000 suicides annually, nearly double previous estimates. \u00a0While India has 18% of the world\u2019s population, its male population commits nearly a quarter of the world\u2019s male suicides \u2014 and almost four out of ten women who commit suicide worldwide do so in India. \u00a0For Indians between the ages of 15 and 39, suicide is the leading cause of death, as it is for Indian women in particular between the ages of 15 and 49.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Congruent with global trends, India\u2019s female suicide rate is falling. \u00a0But it has fallen by only 25% since 1990, whereas that rate has fallen by half worldwide and, in China, by 70%.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
But there is significant variation in suicide rates between Indian states.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
A woman in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, for instance, is ten times more likely to kill herself than is a woman in the northeastern jungle state of Mizoram.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Is this a function of poverty? \u00a0Very likely not. \u00a0Karnataka, the southern Indian state that is the center of India\u2019s impressive technology economy, has a male suicide rate that is four times that of northeastern Bihar, India\u2019s poorest state. \u00a0Suicide rates actually seem to rise with wealth and urbanization, and then to fall again as the new wealth and urban lifestyle become \u201cnormal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Is it a matter of religion? \u00a0Well, there seems to be a religious effect, but it\u2019s not, perhaps, what critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on this topic might expect (or hope) to see: \u00a0\u201cThere have been no studies of differences among India\u2019s religious groups,\u201d says The Economist<\/em>, \u201calthough there is some evidence that Muslims are much less likely than Christians and Hindus to do themselves in.\u201d \u00a0Along similar lines, while South Korea and Russia have relatively high rates of suicide, most majority-Muslim countries have relatively low rates. \u00a0A chart accompanying the Economist<\/em> article puts the number of yearly male suicides in Karnataka, India, at more than 35 per 100,000 men. \u00a0By contrast, male suicides in the United States come in at just over 20 per 100,000. \u00a0In all of the countries and regions on the chart but two, the male rate of self-destruction is dramatically higher than that among females: \u00a0The two exceptions \u2014 which also have the lowest overall suicide rates represented \u2014 are the impoverished and overwhelmingly Muslim nations of Bangladesh and Pakistan, where the rates for suicide among men and women are essentially identical at, respectively, slightly more than 5 per 100,000 in Bangladesh (roughly where the U.S. rate for women comes in) and approximately 3 per 100,000 in Pakistan.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The causes of suicide appear to be quite complex and ill-understood. \u00a0Efforts to blame it on religion in general and on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in particular should be subjected to very careful scrutiny before they\u2019re accepted.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 This item from the NCAA, about a major meeting recently held at Brigham Young University on the treatment of LGBTQIA athletes at conservative religious schools, will interest more than a few of you, I think: \u00a0 \u201cBreaking Ground\u201d \u00a0 *** \u00a0 One participant in the NCAA \u201cCommon Ground\u201d meeting at BYU asked \u201cHow […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1809,2752,2740,861,2854,55,2749],"class_list":["post-69511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints","tag-gay","tag-homosexuality","tag-india","tag-lgbt","tag-mormonism","tag-suicide"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>