A significant 2,200 Central paramilitary forces’ personnel died due to reasons like accidents and suicides in a five year period from 2014 to 2018, according to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data.  

However, such casualties are declining over the years. A total of 132 deaths that included 28 suicides and 104 accidents were recorded in 2018.

In 2014, when the NCRB had first collected data of such cases linked to paramilitary forces, as many as 1,232 accident-related deaths were reported and suicide figures stood at 175.

The number of accident-related deaths stood at 113 in 2017, 260 in 2016 and 193 in 2015. Suicide cases stood at 60 in 2017, 74 in 2016 and

60 in 2015, according to the NCRB data.

According to the data, 1,902 CAPF personnel died in accidents, while 397 in suicides, totalling 2,199 such casualties from 2014 to 2018.

The NCRB has included data from five forces — Border Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) besides Assam Rifles (AR) and National Security Guard (NSG).

A cause-wise analysis of accidental deaths of paramilitary personnel revealed that maximum causalities of forces have been reported under ‘Killed in Action or Operation or Encounters’ -- 31.7 per cent (33 out of 104 deaths) in 2018, the NCRB said.

It was followed by ‘deaths due to other causes’ accounting for 21.2 per cent (22 deaths), while road or railway accidents’ (21 out of 104 deaths) accounted for 20.2 per cent of total fatalities during the year, it stated.

There were also four deaths each because of ‘forces of nature’ and ‘fratricide’ during 2018, according to the NRCB data.

A cause-wise analysis of suicidal deaths revealed that 35.7 per cent, which is 10 out of 28 suicides, were due to ‘family problems’, the data showed, adding, another 17.9 per cent (5 out of 28 suicides each) were due to ‘marriage-related issues’ and ‘service-related issues’.

Overall, 1,34,516 suicides were reported in the country during 2018, showing an increase of 3.6 per cent in comparison to 2017.

The rate of suicides, deaths per one lakh population, also increased by 0.3 per cent during 2018 over 2017,

the NCRB stated.

Medical experts, however, say that suicide is a serious public health problem but are preventable with timely, evidence-based and often low-cost interventions.