Of the 3,640 people who committed suicide in Mumbai between 2013 and 2015, over 91per cent of them, or 3,321 people never attended school or dropped out of school or college, an RTI query has revealed.
According to the data furnished by the Mumbai police, 332 of these people never attended school, 607 dropped out of school after their primary education, 1,016 left school before passing class X or SSC, 838 completed only their SSC and 528 were college drop-outs.As many as 2,837, or around 80 per cent, were between 15 and 45 years old. Sixty-three per cent of those committing suicide were men. The most common ways of ending life were hanging (2,600), setting oneself on fire (450) and poison.

For men, the top three reasons for committing suicide were unemployment, drug abuse and fail ing examinations and for women the top three reasons were marriage-related issues, love affairs and failing examinations.

Dr Sagar Mundada, president, Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors, said the Mental Health Care Bill, 2013, which decriminalises suicide attempts, will help in many ways.

“It will remove the stigma attached to suicide and allow anyone who has attempted suicide to be treated immediately,“ he said. Dr Mundada said it would also help improve the data’s accuracy .