Bankruptcy, indebtedness No.1 farmer-killer in Maharashtra-TIMES OF INDIA
Nagpur: National crime records bureau (NCRB), for the first time in its 29-year history, has collected and released a data on farmers’ suicide in India citing its ‘paramount importance’. The data places Maharashtra on top for the highest numbers of farmers’ suicides in 2014, followed by Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka.
It might be intriguing that the desert state of Rajasthan, in a stark contrast to the more fertile central India, had zero farmer suicides last year. The north-eastern states, except Assam (21) and Sikkim (35), too did not record suicides. States like West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand have nil records.
Of 5,650 farmers in India, Maharashtra lost the maximum 2,568 ryots to the tragic trend which constitutes almost 45.5% of the nation’s data, surpassing its neighbors like Telangana (898), Madhya Pradesh (826), Chhattisgarh (443) and Karnataka (321). Telangana recorded highest suicide of woman farmers (147), followed by Madhya Pradesh (138), Maharashtra (70) and Chhattisgarh (52). In the country, 472 woman farmers have ended life vis-a-vis 5,178 men, which comprised 44.5% small and 27.9% marginal farmers.
In Maharashtra, 1,135 of the farmers who ended life were smaller ones. The data mostly deflates government claims of relief packages for farmers managing to tackle the trend.
Last year in Maharashtra, 765 farmers ended life due to bankruptcy and indebtedness caused by crop loan, which is highest in the country as reasons behind suicide, followed by 146 similar cases in Telangana. Nationwide, crop loans led to suicides of 965 farmers in 2014. Loan related to farming equipment led to suicide of another 22.
Activist Kishor Tiwari of VJAS said Central India’s dry land farmers were mostly victims of crop failures triggered by factors like natural calamities. “It is the economic hardship that brings the farmers on the brink of suicide along with other contributory factors. The government needs to formulate an integrated approach and not just restrict their efforts to announce relief packages without proper analytical studies,” said Tiwari. He added farmers’ suicide needs to be deeply studied to reach its root cause.
Reflecting the opinion voiced by Tiwari, the national data showed that ‘bankruptcy and indebtedness’ acted as triggers in maximum numbers of farmers’ suicides across the nation, claiming 1,163 lives followed by 1,135 for ‘family related problems’.
Tiwari said the government should study in details the credit layout to push in the relieves accordingly for the farmers to get help from financial institutions. “Efforts should be made to unearth various secondary factors that add to the distress leading to suicide,” said the activist. “We need intervention on a war-footing,” he added. There were 59 farmers below the age of 18 who too were among the ones to end life.
NCRB data held farming-related issues to have claimed 969 farmers, failure of crops 952 lives while 491 lives were lost due to natural calamities. Unresolved health issues was another big reason leading to suicides of 745 farmers. Tiwari said the government had now woken up to the need of health-related packages for the farmers which could have come earlier.
