Violent Deaths among adults in India: An analysis of age and sex differentials

In the world, death by road traffic accident (RTA), self-inflicted injuries and interpersonal violence are among the first four leading causes of death. Most cross national research has relied upon data from countries with complete vital registration systems. Consequently, little is known about the age and sex patterns of violence related mortality in developing countries, including India. The paper intends to highlight patterns of violence related adult mortality in India for different age-group and sex. The data related to total violent deaths considering homicides, suicides and (RTA) are taken from the National Crime Records Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. The Census data (2001) has been taken as the base year, and has been projected for each consecutive year from 2002 to 2011 using SPECTRUM software package. There is continuous increase in the total homicides, suicides and RTA deaths till 2011, except in the year 2009. There are sex differentials in the adult mortality in homicide, suicide and RTA deaths, that is, these death rates are more for males than females in all age groups. Unlike the homicide and suicide cases, the RTA cases are increasing in all age groups irrespective of sexes.