A startling reversal in suicide patterns linked to marriage has been recorded in India, with official data revealing that more men than women have died by suicide due to marriage-related issues in both 2022 and 2023. This trend is a sharp departure from the historical pattern where women consistently accounted for the majority of such tragedies.
Analysis of the latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data highlights this critical shift, underscoring the urgent need to broaden the public discourse on mental health and marital distress beyond traditional gender focuses.
The Reversal in Numbers
Until 2021, women made up the greater share of marriage-related suicides. However, this gap has not only narrowed but completely flipped.
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In 2023, 4,863 men died by suicide over marriage-related issues, surpassing the 4,180 women who died for the same reasons. A similar reversal was seen in 2022, with 4,237 men and 3,926 women. The daily average for male suicides in this category has risen dramatically from seven in 2015 to 13 in 2023, while the figure for women remained steady at 11 per day.
Rising Male Distress Drives Overall Increase
The surge in male suicides is largely responsible for the overall rise in marriage-related suicides, which climbed from 6,412 in 2015 to 9,043 in 2023.
In the past (2015-2016), men accounted for about 35-40% of all marriage-related suicides; in 2022 and 2023, this share increased to over 50%.
Key Triggers for Male Suicides
While dowry and abuse remain devastating factors for women (dowry-related suicides are the only sub-category where women’s numbers still outnumber men’s), the NCRB’s marriage-related categories for men point to other mounting pressures:
- Non-settlement of marriage.
- Extra-marital affairs.
- Divorce and its aftermath.
For men over 30, the number of suicides due to marital issues between 2019 and 2023 significantly surpassed that of women in the same age group (10,816 men vs. 6,619 women).
The case of a 34-year-old techie, Atul Subhash, who died by suicide citing harassment from his estranged wife and her family, serves as a poignant example of the severe distress faced by men.
A Defining Moment for Mental Health
Marriage-related issues were the fourth leading cause of total suicides in 2022 and 2023, following family problems, illness, and drug abuse.
These evolving statistics present a defining moment for India. They signal that the distress associated with marriage is no longer exclusively a women’s issue. Recognising and actively responding to the mental health crisis affecting men—often compounded by societal stigma and a lack of support for expressing vulnerability—is now a public priority.