Thinking clearly about suicide in India: desperate housewives, despairing farmers

Part 1 of the study Thinking Clearly about Suicide in India. Part 2 of this study appeared in EPW, 8 October 2016. Part 3 appeared in EPW, 24 December 2016.The patterns of suicide in India are quite different to those observed in industrialised societies. Those differences must lead us to question many generalisations which almost approach sociological “law” such as the protection against suicide afforded by marriage. This paper contrasts media coverage of farmer suicides in India with the near total neglect of the suicides of housewives, though there are more than three housewife suicides for every one of a farmer.Peter Maye