Odisha reports 13 suicides, 4 deaths due to drowning everyday

Bhubaneswar, Aug 01: Odisha witnessed around 13 suicide deaths and four drowning deaths every day in the last five years, Minister of State, Home,T K Behera informed the Assembly on Monday.

While replying to a written question of BJP MLA Sukant Kumar Nayak, the minister said that 935 deaths due to drowning were reported in 2016, and there has been a consistent rise in this incident with 1,079 fatalities being registered in 2017 and 1,406 in 2018.

Similarly, 1,441 drowning cases were reported in 2019, 1,840 in 2020 and 1,805 in 2021, he said. The state has witnessed 8,506 drowning deaths from 2016-17 to 2021-22, he said, adding that that an average of 1,417 lives are lost every year due to drowning.

The highest number of 121 drowning cases was reported from Cuttack urban police district in 2016 followed by 57 from Mayurbhanj district and 54 from Balasore district the same year, he said.

The statistics provided by the minister stated that Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar and Ganjam reported more drowning deaths compared to other districts every year. In 2021, 167 drowning deaths were reported in Mayurbhanj district, followed by Keonjhar (145), Ganjam (111), Bhadrak (98), Kendrapara (95), Puri (80) and Jagatsinghpur (80). The minister informed the House that the state has included drowning deaths in the list of state-specific disasters and provides financial assistance of Rs 4 lakh each to the victims' families.

While replying to a written question of Congress MLA Suresh Routray, the minister said 24,365 suicidal deaths have been reported in the last five years. Every month, the state witnesses 400 suicides.

On another question on custodial deaths in the state, Behera said that there have been 25 such cases in the last 5 years. "Inquiry has been completed in four cases while probes into the remaining 21 are still underway," he added.