Nepal witnesses alarming rise in suicide rate, reveals latest police data

Kathmandu: As many as 7,223 people committed suicide in Nepal in fiscal 2023-24, a latest data released by the Nepal Police revealed on Tuesday.

This staggering number, averaging 20 suicides every day, highlights an alarming mental health crisis affecting a broad range of people, including farmers, students, housewives, and unemployed youth, the country's leading newspaper The Kathmandu Post reported.

Nepal, which was ranked seventh globally for suicide rates by the World Health Organization in 2014, has seen a troubling rise in deaths by self-harm in recent years.

The latest statistics reveal that over 40 per cent of the suicides were from farming backgrounds, with 5,556 farmers taking their own lives. Students made up 15.4 per cent of the total (2,128), while 11.6 per cent were housewives.

Despite this, the specific reasons behind these suicides remain unclear.

"The suicide rates among farmers, students, housewives, and unemployed youth are very high compared to other groups," said Dr Ashish Dutta, a senior police official, told The Kathmandu Post.

He emphasised the need for a detailed study to identify the underlying causes.

The WHO, quoting a National Mental Health Survey in 2020, mentioned that nearly 80 per cent of people in Nepal need mental health care but do not get it. According to data obtained from the Nepal police, the average annual increase in suicides in the country between 2015 to 2020 was 7.2 per cent which increased to 14 per cent in 2021.

"Considering the severe absence of mental health services and resources for a large part of the population in Nepal, the WHO country office in Nepal in consultation with programme managers, mental health experts, and civil society organisations, developed a concept paper with two strategic recommendations," the WHO stated.

"The first is a short-term one to operationalize a National Suicide Prevention Helpline Service to provide crisis support- followed by a long-term strategy to establish a National Resource Centre for suicide prevention in the National Mental Health Hospital to lead a multi-sectoral response," it added.

As per the recommendations, the Ministry of Health and Planning (MoHP) agreed to establish the National Suicide Prevention Helpline Service at the Mental Hospital in Langankhel, Lalitpur, Nepal, the only government hospital in the country currently capable of treating patients with mental health issues.

In May 2021, a dedicated four-digit phone helpline number also became fully functional as WHO provided technical and financial support to run the suicide prevention hotline service round the clock and the Transcultural Psychosocial Organisation (TPO) Nepal provided operational support by recruiting and training counsellors and psychologists to answer the phones and counsel callers.