Suicide in India represents a complex phenomenon situated at the intersection of law, public health, socio-economic inequality, and governance. Despite significant legal and policy developments, including the enactment of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 and the launch of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy, 2022, suicide mortality remains persistently high. Drawing upon data from the National Crime Records Bureau's Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India (ADSI) reports, this paper examines the socio-economic determinants and temporal trends of suicide in India between 2010 and 2023. The study adopts a doctrinal legal methodology supported by empirical evidence from NCRB statistics, scholarly literature, and policy documents.

The paper argues that suicide in India cannot be adequately understood through a narrow psychiatric or criminal-law framework. Analysis of recent ADSI data reveals that suicide is disproportionately concentrated among economically vulnerable populations, including daily wage earners, low-income households, farmers, agricultural labourers, students, and individuals experiencing family conflict or illness. The persistence of elevated suicide rates, particularly in the post-pandemic period, indicates the existence of deep structural vulnerabilities linked to poverty, precarious employment, educational pressure, agrarian distress, inadequate mental-health infrastructure, and unequal access to social support systems.

The study further evaluates the evidentiary value and limitations of ADSI as an official source, highlighting concerns relating to underreporting, classification practices, and administrative variation. It examines the transition from the punitive regime of Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code to the rights-based approach embodied in Section 115 of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017, and assesses the constitutional implications of suicide prevention through the lenses of dignity, equality, and the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.

The paper concludes that while Indian law has moved decisively away from criminalisation, existing legal and policy responses remain insufficient to address the socio-economic determinants of suicide identified in official data. It advocates a comprehensive rights-based framework that integrates mental-health services, labour protections, educational support mechanisms, agrarian security measures, family welfare interventions, and improved suicide surveillance systems. Effective suicide prevention, it argues, requires not merely legal reform but a coordinated governance strategy capable of addressing the structural conditions that make self-harm foreseeable and preventable.