In a cramped one-room house in Hubballi, 28-year-old Suresh’s mother still waits for the sound of his scooter each evening. He had married just 11 months earlier. The wedding photos—bright, garish, indulgent—are still up on the wall, but the man in them is gone. His death was officially recorded under ‘marriage-related problems’, a category that, for the first time in 2023, saw more men dying by suicide than women in India.

Sudhir Kumar, a 25-year-old man from Barabanki, died by suicide after posting a chilling Facebook message alleging constant harassment from his wife's family following their love marriage in 2024. (January 10, 2025)

Read in Hindi: ‘शादी’ बन गई है ख़ुदकुशी की एक ख़ामोश वजह…!

A 36-year-old Income Tax officer in Nashik ended his life by suicide after his bride-to-be, with whom he was in a long-term love affair, threatened to file a false dowry case against him unless he paid her off. (April 20, 2025)

In Begusarai, a young man and his inter-caste partner died by suicide eight months after eloping and marrying against family wishes. He shared a farewell post on Facebook before the act. (July 30, 2025)

Dipra Bhattacharya, a doctor at RG Kar Hospital in Kolkata, took his life after sending WhatsApp messages to his wife expressing deep regret over his ‘failure to love her completely’ amid a crumbling marriage marked by emotional disconnection and unresolved relational failures. (November 8, 2024)

A newlywed man in Tiruvallur district locked his wife in a room and died by suicide following a heated argument, just days into their marriage. (September 25, 2025)

A 25-year-old man in Gwalior set himself on fire and died after being blackmailed and tormented by his lover, who refused to marry him despite promises and demanded money to end the relationship. (June 16, 2025)

In Karnataka, A 32-year-old private company employee in Tumakuru died by suicide in front of his prospective bride's home after her family rejected his marriage proposal despite his persistent efforts. (December 9, 2024)

Suresh, a 39-year-old man, died by suicide after recording a video blaming his wife's relentless mental harassment, frequent quarrels, and abandonment for her parents' home. (January 4, 2025)

Narsingaram, a 34-year-old man in Jaipur, hanged himself due to distress over his wife's alleged illicit relationship with another man. (August 11, 2025)

An engineering student in Andhra Pradesh, a specific college near Vijayawada, died by suicide, with police citing a failed love affair as the trigger. (November 6, 2025)

Across India, similar stories echo: strained marriages, broken engagements, love betrayed, dowry stress, financial pressures, and accusations flying freely in homes that once promised companionship. The numbers, cold and unforgiving, now confirm what families whisper in mourning—marriage has quietly become one of the most lethal stress points in Indian life, second only to failed love affairs among relationship-related causes.

And, men are dying far more often than women. According to the National Crime Records Bureau’s latest Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India 2023 report, India recorded 171,418 suicides last year—a 4.1 per cent rise from 2022 and the highest ever documented. A staggering 72.8 per cent of these victims were men (124,792 cases). Women made up just 27.2 per cent (46,626 cases).

In other words, for every woman who dies by suicide in India, nearly three men do.

The disparity persists across states, but Karnataka offers the clearest mirror: here too, male suicides are nearly double female suicides, driven by joblessness, social expectations, failed relationships, and increasingly, marital anxiety.

Age-adjusted rates paint the picture sharply. For every 100,000 Indians, about 14.2 men die by suicide compared to 6.6 women. And these aren’t mere statistics—they reflect the crushing weight of India’s silent gender burden: the pressure on men to be earners, decision-makers, protectors, and providers, even when the modern world chips away at every one of those roles.

Though ‘family problems’ (31.9 per cent) and ‘illness’ (19 per cent) remain India’s top causes for suicide, marriage-related issues have emerged as a worrying third—small in proportion, but big in emotional intensity.

Between 2015 and 2022, more than 60,000 Indians killed themselves over marriage troubles—26,588 men and 33,480 women. That historical bias toward women changed dramatically in 2023, when marriage-related suicides totalled 9,043, and men (4,863) outnumbered women (4,180) for the first time.

For men, however, the landscape is changing. The largest contributor for them is ‘non-settlement of marriage’—a deceptively simple phrase hiding complex realities: broken engagements, love affairs that implode under family pressure, deceit in relationships, financial exploitation, and emotional manipulation. Between 2015 and 2022, over 10,000 men died by suicide because a relationship didn’t culminate in marriage.

Extra-marital affairs—historically responsible for over 1,100 suicides a year—have also increasingly affected men, often intertwined with accusations, marital conflict, or legal threats. The shame and stigma surrounding a collapsing marriage, or an affair gone public, weigh disproportionately on men, who are culturally conditioned to be ‘strong’ and silently endure emotional turbulence.

While marriage triggers remain significant, failed love affairs—especially among the young—are even more explosive. Minors showed an 11 per cent rise in suicides due to love affairs in 2021, and the trend continues. Among adults, love-related suicides contribute 1–2 per cent of overall cases—numbers that mask intense emotional upheaval amplified by academic pressure, unemployment, and cultural taboos on inter-caste or inter-faith relationships.

International comparisons complicate the picture. India’s suicide rate—around 12.6 to 13.9 per 100,000—is higher than Pakistan’s (5.6–6.8), though Pakistan’s numbers are widely believed to be underreported due to religious stigma. It is Lower than Japan’s, where rates range between 17.4 and 21.5. And, it is Similar to Western countries like France (16.1–16.6), Germany (12.9–15), and the US (15.3–15.6). But, here lies an unusual divergence: Indian women have a far higher suicide rate (11.6) than women in the West (4–7).

India’s rising suicide numbers are not just a mental health problem; they are a social, cultural, economic, and gendered tragedy. Marriages collapsing under modern pressures, young love burning out in the face of familial control, men silently buckling, women trapped in abusive systems—the warning signs are everywhere.

And, the solution cannot be statistical. It must be human. Every suicide is an unfinished story. Every number is a life that could have been saved.