A total of 1.31 lakh suicides were recorded in India in the year 2016. More than 29% of these suicides were attributed to family problems and a further 17% were attributed to illness. Thenumber of suicides due to poverty has decreased while those due to property disputes has increased in the last 10 years. There are various factors which influence a person to commit suicide. In a few cases, the reason for committing in suicide is explicitly known, while in others, finding the exact reason for the suicide may be a challenge. The Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India (ADSI) report-2016, published by NCRB provides information of the suicides in India during 2016. Among the varied data available in this report, one set of data is about the cause of the suicides committed. The information in the report is a compilation of the information received from States/UTs and the causes enlisted in this report are based on the FIR registered by the police. Family problems are the cause of the highest number of suicides followed by Illness. Outof the 1.31 lakh suicides recorded in 2016, ‘Family Problems’ is listed as thecause for 38,627 suicides i.e. 29.2% of the total. 22,411 suicides are reportedas caused due to illness, which is 17.1% of the total suicides in 2016. Marriage related issues have resulted in 5.3% of the total suicides with 6,880 incidents. Drug abuse/Alcohol addiction have resulted in 5,199 suicides in 2016. Causeswhich are related to financial matters also account for a major share in thenumber of suicides. Of these, 3,709 suicides are due to bankruptcy/indebtednessand a further 2,590 are due to Propertydisputes. 2,298 suicides cite unemployment as a cause while 1,172 cases ofsuicides are caused due to poverty. ADSIreport categorizes 16.2% of the suicides in 2016, under the head ‘other causes’for which the cause is none of the18 specified categories. Meanwhile, the causeof suicide for a significant portion i.e. 11.5% is not known. Increase in the number of suicides committed due to Family problems FamilyProblems and Illness, which are the two top-most reasons for suicides in Indiahave varied trends over the past 10 years. In 2007, the number of suicides due to family problems was 29,238 and has continuously increased over the next few years. The year 2012, witnessed the first drop in the number of suicides due to Family problems with 30,792 suicides, 2117 less than the previous year. There was a major drop in 2014 when suicides due to family problems reduced by 3,723 compared to the previous year. However, the next year i.e. 2015 witnessed the steepest increase in the number of suicides due to family problems with 8,326 suicides i.e. a total of 36,928 suicides caused due to family problems. In 2016, this number has increased further. Meanwhile, the suicides due to illness witnessed a decreasing trend in recent years, even though the number has increased in 2016. The year 2010, witnessed the highest number of suicides due to illness in the 10-year period (2007-2016) with 28,464 cases, followed by a decrease in the following two years. The year 2015 recorded the least number of suicides due to illness with 21,178. The number of suicides due to illness has again increased in 2016. In2007, 23.8% of the suicides were due to family problems with a gradual increaseover the years and peaking in 2012 with 25.6% of the total suicides. After afall in the share over the next two years, the share increased by 5.9% in theyear 2015. It further increased and in 2016 when 29.2% of the total suicides weredue to family problems. This is the highest ever share of suicides due tofamily problems during the 10-year period. Theshare of suicides due to illness in 2016 is 17.1% which is an increase over theprevious year share of 15.8%. However, this is less than the share 10 years agoi.e. in 2007 when it was 22.3%. Family Problems & Illness have followeddifferent trajectories both in terms of number of suicides and share in thetotal suicides. The share of suicides due to Drug Abuse/Alcohol addiction nearly doubled since 2009 Since 2009, the ADSI report has included the category ‘Drug abuse/addiction’ under the cause for suicides. In that year, the total suicides attributed to this cause was 2,942 i.e. 2.3% of the total suicides. Over the years, the number has gradually increased until 2013, when 4,591 suicides were caused due to Drug Abuse/Addiction. In both 2014 & 2015, the numbers along with its share in the overall suicides have fallen. However, in the year 2016, 5,199 suicides with a share of 4% were due to this cause. It needs to be noted that in 2016, the term for the category was changed to ‘Drug Abuse/Alcohol addiction’.