Is suicide a disease? One of the findings in the five studies on the statewise analysis of non-communicable diseases based on data from India as part of the Global Burden of Disease report between 1990 and 2016 shows that 37 per cent of the total number of suicides among women all over the world occurs in India. While it is shockingly clear that suicide is one of the biggest killers of young people globally, irrespective of gender, the disproportionate despair of Indian women demands a categorically different kind of attention. It exposes a black flaw in India's values that has little to do with health. Or maybe once in a while. Yet, once again, as always, the 'women's issue' runs the usual risk of being shoved under the thick carpet of alarming data about India's rising share in global NCDs, and the unfolding significance of their statewise breakup.

From the point of view of policy and strategies, or rigour in environmental laws, or health education, medical administration, implementation of common drug relief procedures, availability of basic nutrition or lifestyle awareness - even for the most vulnerable - the findings show that nothing could be more urgent. With 18 per cent of the population in the world, India has 32 per cent of its respiratory diseases, with ambient air pollution as the chief culprit. Alongside these results, emerging mainly from northern India, are the alarming increases in the 26 years of diabetes and ischaemic heart disease in the less developed states. Since such states already have high rates of infectious diseases as well as respiratory ones, the outlook is doubly grave. Cancers are expected to be dangerous worldwide in spite of better prevention, management and, in some cases, cure, and India is, predictably, again in the line of fire. A beginning must be made by confronting the question posed by the findings. Can the multi-faceted problem India faces in terms of its diseases be solved by policy, administration, medical knowledge and technical skill? Or, paradoxically put, is health purely a 'health' issue? Since the answer is self-evident, perhaps it is time to put some genuine thought and political will into the mission of addressing illness. Imaginative, comprehensive, determined public health projects, with proper funding and manpower, alongside poverty amelioration and educational initiatives, might just mark a beginning.