Suicide Rates in the Telugu States of India and their Relationship to Developmental Indicators

Background: Macroeconomics, development, and health are in some way connected and impact suicide rates. Aim: Analyse the relationship between the Human Development Index (HDI) and other developmental indices and suicide rates in Telugu States of India. Subjects and Methods: Information relating to suicides of India, Combined Telugu state, and separated states, was extracted from the Indian government’s official website on Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India. National Crime Records Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt. of India website for different years. The data for the Subnational Human Development Index (SHDI) and other developmental indices- Health Index (HI), Education Index (EI), Income Index (II), Fertility Rate (FR), and Gini Index (GI) was obtained from the Global Data Lab and MacroTrends. The suicide rates were correlated to the SHDI and other indices by the Pearson Correlation Coefficient. Results: The Telugu share of total Indian suicides in 56 years (1966–2021) showed a rising trend. There was a total of 350,500 suicides between 1966 and 2013, averaging 20 suicides per day in the united Telugu state. After bifurcation (2014–2021), there were 120,785 suicides, averaging 41 suicides per day. HDI reported medium human development and fertility rates declining towards replacement levels. While Telugu state, before bifurcation, was in tune with India in significant relationship with all the parameters, after bifurcation the relationship turned opposite and non-significant, except for II.Conclusions: Developmental measures, in general, have an impact on suicide rates. This should be factored in with other parameters, keeping cultural factors in mind while thinking of preventive measures.