Calcutta, June 10: Bengal has become India’s suicide capital largely because of family problems — a collective phrase suspected to be masking deeper socio-economic malaise.

Data compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau, which put Bengal at the top of the national suicide chart in 2005, suggest that as high as 40 per cent of the 15,015 such deaths were caused by family-related disputes and humiliation, jealousy and extra-marital affairs.

But sociologists cautioned that suicides triggered by family problems should not be treated in isolation. They should be viewed in the context a larger socio-economic milieu.

The Telegraph reported on Thursday the dubious distinction Bengal had earned.

“In rural Bengal (this segment accounted for nearly 99 per cent of the suicides in the state), family problems are mostly inextricably connected to the economic status of a family. It is largely in deprived homes that such family problems arise,” said Bula Bhadra, a professor of sociology at Calcutta University.

“It is almost certain that a bulk of the cases listed under family problems may have been due to economic reasons,” Bhadra added.

Ruchira Goswami, a soci-ologist attached to the National University of Juridical Science, echoed Bhadra, saying financial crisis would “surely” lie at the root of most such cases.

Goswami pointed to another substantial category on the bureau’s list — 18 per cent of the suicides in 2005 were blamed on “causes not known”.

“The percentage of suicides listed under causes not known and other causes is pretty substantial and this may hold the secret to the reasons behind the large number of suicides in rural Bengal,” she said.

“My experience in rural Bengal has shown that sexual exploitation is a major cause of suicide among women. I am tempted to believe that a significant number of the suicides listed under causes not known was because of sexual harassment, of women taking their lives fearing social stigma,” Goswami added.

A National Crime Records Bureau official said from Delhi that cases have been listed under causes not known because the Bengal government has not been able to furnish information. He added that the bureau does not have the break-up of deaths in each district, which would have helped establish whether the number of suicides is high in areas where crops have failed or tea gardens have closed down.

Many of the top five suicide states, such as Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, had faced agriculture crises that drove farmers to death.