Record suicide cases in Nepal raise emergency concerns

According to recent data from the Nepal Police, a record 7,223 suicides were reported in the fiscal years 2023 and 2024.

This development marks the highest number ever recorded in a single year. The police also translate the alarming statistics to an average of 20 suicides per day.

“Around 20 people killed themselves on an average every 24-hour in the last fiscal year,” said Dr Pomawati Thapa, chief of the Non-communicable Disease and Mental Health Section at the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division. “The number is the highest ever recorded in any fiscal year.”

According to Basudev Karki, a consultant psychiatrist, these suicide cases are a result of the government's lack of continued commitment to eradicating or mitigating the high numbers which stood at 16 cases per day in 2015.

“At the time when the government committed to SDGs in 2015, around 16 people took their own lives every 24 hours. w the number has risen to 20. Our government had committed to reduce the suicide rate to 9.7 per 100,000 each year by 2022, but this number rose to 24, and last year it increased further to 25," said Basudev Karki.

Mental health experts attribute this surge to various factors: rising cost of living, financial instability, and the struggle to meet basic needs such as food, housing, and healthcare in a country still trying to recover prepandemic status.

Nonetheless, before the pandemic, a study by the Nepal Health Research Council found that over 10% of adults had experienced mental health issues, with 4.3% currently facing a mental crisis.

“Even those individuals who appear healthy on the outside could also be struggling with serious mental health problems. People generally do not like to talk about mental health issues due to the social stigma attached, and lack of awareness. To tackle the growing mental health problems, authorities concerned have to take multiple approaches,” added Karki.

The Nepal government regardless wants to reduce the suicide rate to 4.7 per 100,000 population by 2030 and has put in place measures to ensure that as confirmed by the Ministry of Health and Population.

“Along with providing free medications for mental health problems at state-run health facilities, we have been taking several other measures that include imparting mental health screening training for health workers. We have been working to declare two local units—Palungtar Municipality of Gorkha and Bagchaur Municipality of Salyan—as model municipalities for mental health,” said Thapa, chief of the Non-communicable Disease and Mental Health Section at the division.