Indian Armed Forces Record 16.5% Suicide Rate Per 100,000 Personnel
Disturbing Trend: 800+ Suicides in Indian Armed Forces Linked to Supervisor Behavior in the Last 5 Years
India- alarming trend of suicides in the Indian Army is escalating rapidly, with a suicide being reported nearly every third day. The suicide rate in the Indian Army has now reached 16.5% per 100,000 soldiers.
According to reports, from 2010 to 2019, a total of 895 Indian Army personnel, 185 Indian Air Force personnel, and 32 Indian Navy personnel took their own lives. In India-held Kashmir alone, more than 100 suicides occur annually on average.
Since 2014, there have been 983 reported suicide cases in the Indian Army, 96 in the Indian Navy, and 246 in the Indian Air Force. Overall, since 2001, more than 3,300 Indian soldiers have died by suicide.
In the last five years, over 800 personnel in the Indian armed forces have ended their lives, often citing unbearable treatment by their superiors. Among these tragedies, on January 23, 2023, Colonel Khanna was found to have hanged himself. Similarly, on January 9, 2023, Lt. Col. Nishant shot his wife before taking his own life in Ferozepur.
The issue isn’t confined to male soldiers; female officers in the Indian Army have also faced such pressures. In 2006, Lt. Sushmita Chakraborty committed suicide just 10 months after her recruitment, citing harassment and illicit demands from her superiors, who allegedly pressured her to attend late-night dance parties.
Other cases include Lt. Col. Rashmi Mishra, who hanged herself in Pune in October 2019, and Major Anita Kumari, who shot herself in the head in Jammu in December 2016.
Due to ongoing discriminatory and abusive behavior from senior officers, approximately 47,000 personnel and officers in the Indian armed forces have either sought voluntary retirement or resigned from their positions.
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