Accidental deaths in India in the last decade

Abstract

The objective of the present secondary study was to ascertain the incidence and rates of accidental deaths in India in terms of natural and un-natural causes, gender and age groups. The reported data shows a mixed trend regarding the incidents of accidental deaths during the decade 1997–2007 with an increase of 45.7% in the year 2007 compared to 1997. A total of 3 40 794 accidental deaths were reported in the country during 2007 showing an increase of 8.3% compared to previous year. The percentage of accidental deaths due to causes attributable to nature and those due to un-natural causes were 7.4% and 92.6% respectively. The share of accidental deaths due to causes attributable to nature has increased from 6.8% in 2006 to 7.4% in 2007. The proportion of deaths due to un-natural causes has decreased from 93.2% in 2006 to 92.6% in 2007. Deaths due to causes attributable to nature included avalanche, earthquake, heat stroke and flood. The accidental deaths due to un-natural causes were mainly on account of road accidents (36.3%), railway accidents and rail road accidents (8.3%), drowning (8.6%), poisoning (8.1%), sudden deaths (6.8%) and fire accidents (6.6%). Nearly, 76.7% of the victims of causes attributable to nature were males. Age-wise nearly 6.6% of such victims were up to 14 years of age while 54.4% were in the age group of 15–44 years. Senior citizens (60 years and above) constituted 14.7% of the total victims. The findings suggest a number of measures for prevention of accidental deaths.