NCRB data from 2020 to 2023 shows a grim and largely worsening picture for India. Suicides kept rising every year until 2023, when the count crossed 1.71 lakh – a level the country had not seen in 56 years. Dowry deaths did fall in 2024, down to 5,737, but between 2017 and 2022, nearly 20 women were dying every day over dowry demands. Roads killed close to 1.7 lakh people annually, and whatever hope there was of improvement faded fast – the first half of 2025 alone showed national highway deaths were nowhere close to coming down.
- Four years, over 6.59 lakh suicides. Between 2020 and 2023, India was losing around 470 people a day to suicide, and the number kept climbing each year without a single dip.
- It is not farmers or students driving the suicide count; it is daily wage workers. They made up 28 per cent of all suicide victims in 2023 – more than any other group, including farmers and salaried employees put together.
- Three states – Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh – account for nearly 58 per cent of all dowry deaths in India. In those same states, fewer than 15 out of every 100 accused are actually convicted.
- A law banning dowry has existed in India since 1961. More than six decades later, only one in six dowry death cases ends with someone going to jail.
- National highways are just 2 per cent of India’s road network. Yet they keep producing the majority of road deaths year after year.
- In just the first six months of 2025, 26,770 people died on national highways alone. The full year 2024 toll was 52,609 – at this pace, 2025 could cross that figure.
- Pothole deaths rose 53 per cent between 2020 and 2024. Over half of those 9,438 deaths happened in a single state – Uttar Pradesh.
Suicide Deaths: What Ncrb Data Shows Since 2020
The suicide numbers in India have been moving in one direction for years now – up. In 2020, 1,53,052 people took their own lives. The following year it was 1,64,033 by 2022, which had gone up again to 1,70,924. And in 2023, it hit 1,71,418 – a figure that, according to the NCRB report released in September 2025, represents the highest suicide rate the country has seen in 56 years.
Men accounted for roughly 73 per cent of these deaths each year. What stands out in the data is who is dying. Married men took their lives at nearly double the rate of married women – in 2023 alone, 4,836 men died over marriage-related issues compared to 4,180 women. Daily wage workers topped every occupational list, year after year, which tells you something about how tightly these deaths are tied to financial pressure.
Students and farmers show up in these numbers too, and not in small ways. Student suicides crossed 13,000 in 2021 and never really came back down. Farmers – despite years of government schemes and relief packages – were still dying at a rate above 10,000 a year in 2023. In 2024 and 2025, there is simply nothing to report yet. NCRB takes about two years to publish this data, so the 2024 figures will most likely not be out until late 2026.
Dowry Deaths: A Rare Drop, But The Toll Remains Heavy
Dowry deaths followed a different path. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, 35,493 women died in dowry-related deaths between 2017 and 2022 – an average of nearly 20 deaths every day, as reported by The Week (August 27, 2025). Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh consistently accounted for more than half of all cases. Conviction rates in dowry cases have hovered around 11–17 per cent for years, according to NCRB’s Crime in India 2022 report, as analysed by ThePrint (September 9, 2025).
The 2024 NCRB report did bring one small piece of relief – dowry deaths fell to 5,737, the lowest in recent years. But sit with that number for a moment. It still means 16 women die every day. Delhi was the worst among metro cities for the fifth year running, recording 109 cases and 111 deaths. No full NCRB count exists for 2025 or 2026 yet. But the cases that made headlines tell their own story.
In August 2025, Nikki Bhati, 26, was allegedly set on fire by her husband in Sirsa village, Greater Noida. The videos that surfaced shook people across the country. Then, in May 2026, two more names entered the conversation – Twisha Sharma in Bhopal and Deepika Nagar in Greater Noida, both dying in circumstances their families linked to dowry harassment, as reported by NewsX on May 19, 2026.
Road Accidents: Still A Mass Killer, 2025 Data Already Alarming
Look at the numbers year on year, and there is no good news. 1,53,972 people died on Indian roads in 2021. In 2023, it was 1.73 lakh, spread across 4.80 lakh accidents. The 2024 provisional data – covering 35 states – puts it at 1.70 lakh dead, 4.73 lakh accidents. Speeding alone was responsible for more than two out of every three deaths, every year, without exception. And national highways – which cover just 2 per cent of India’s total road network – kept producing a wildly outsized share of the casualties.
The 2025 numbers are not complete yet, but what is already out is not reassuring. Nitin Gadkari told Parliament on July 23, 2025, that 26,770 people had already died on national highways in just the first six months of the year. The data came from states and union territories via the eDAR Portal, as of July 17, 2025. He also put the full-year 2024 NH death toll at 52,609, as reported by Business Standard.
Potholes added a smaller but fast-rising toll. Government data tabled in Parliament showed 9,438 pothole-related deaths across India between 2020 and 2024 – a 53 per cent jump over the period. Uttar Pradesh alone accounted for over 5,100 of these deaths, more than half the national total.
Note: No verified full-year 2026 road accident data exists as of now.
Also Read: India Ranked Second Among the Loneliest Countries in the World – And the Internet Is Reacting
NCRB Data Comparison: 2020–2024
| Year | Total Suicides | Dowry Deaths | Road Accident Deaths | Pothole Deaths |
| 2020 | 1,53,052 | Not available | Not available | 1,555 |
| 2021 | 1,64,033 | Not available | 1,53,972 | Not available |
| 2022 | 1,70,924 | ~6,400 | Not available | Not available |
| 2023 | 1,71,418 | 6,100+ | ~1.73 lakh | Not available |
| 2024 | Not yet released | 5,737 | ~1.70 lakh (provisional) | 2,385 |
What The Numbers Say Overall
Suicide and road accident deaths kept climbing through 2023 and stayed high into 2024. Dowry deaths eased slightly in 2024 for the first time in years, though the underlying conviction rate remains dismally low. Partial 2025 road accident data from Parliament already points to no meaningful improvement on national highways. Whether any of these trends shift will only become clear once NCRB releases its next full report.
Also Read: 21 Dead in Delhi Hotel Fire, Many of Them Foreign Visitors
Sources & References
- NCRB – Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India (ADSI) Reports 2020–2023
- NCRB – Crime in India Report 2022
- Ministry of Road Transport and Highways – Road Accidents in India Reports
- Business Standard – NH Road Deaths H1 2025 (Gadkari Parliament Statement, July 23, 2025)
- The Week – Dowry Deaths NCRB Data 2017–2022 (August 27, 2025)
- ThePrint – Dowry Conviction Rates Analysis (September 9, 2025)
- CMHLP – NCRB 2023 Suicide Data Analysis (December 2025)
