India is a country of nearly 1.4 billion people, where almost 60% of the population depends on agriculture for its livelihood, but they are still compelled to kill themselves. Every year, farmers take loans to irrigate the barren land and get trapped in the cycle of debt and they end up taking their lives.
Over 600 farmers died by suicide in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra between January 1, 2022, and mid-August, as per the official figures of the divisional commissionerĄ¯s office, Aurangabad.?
The data revealed that over 547 farmers died by suicide from January 1 through July and 37 deaths were registered in August alone.?
According to the down-to-earth report, excessive rains (July 11 and 12) affected the agricultural land and over 1 lakh farmers in the month of July across 24 districts of Marathwada. Crops including tur (pigeon pea), corn, soybean, paddy, cotton and banana were severely damaged.
Most of the farmers had taken loans for farming but the above situation caused huge losses to them. Further, the government policies are also blamed for the death, claimed activists.?
Kailash Tawar, Marathwada district president of the Shetkari Sanghatana, a Maharashtra-based farmersĄ¯ union told down-to-earth the government failed to provide the Minimum Support Price (MSP) to the farmers and also delayed payments procedure by banks led them to lend money from local money lenders at high-interest rates.
Tanwar said, Ą°the interest rates charged on these private loans are extremely high. Lenders charge up to 60 per cent interest over the loan amount. The instances of farmers seeking loans have almost doubled in recent years.Ąą
In February 2022, the Lok Sabha informed that over 17,000 farmers between 2018 and 2020 committed suicide in different parts of the India.?
Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Kumar Mishra said the Ą°National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) compiles statistics on accidental deaths and suicides from states and Union Territories and publishes the same annually as ĄŽAccidental Deaths and Suicides in IndiaĄ¯ (ADSI) report.Ąą
As per the ADSI report, 5,763 farmers or cultivators killed themselves in 2018, while 5,957 committed suicide in 2019. It further stated that 5,579 farmers or cultivators died of suicide in 2020.
In 2020, Maharashtra tops the list with 4,006 suicides in the farm sector followed by Karnataka (2,016), Andhra Pradesh (889), Madhya Pradesh (735) and Chhattisgarh (537).?
According to the CNN report, the plight of more than 260 million agricultural workers is alarming in India. Nearly 30 people in the farming sector commit suicide every day.?
In India, the major causes of the farmersĄ¯ suicides are unable to pay heavy loans, the inflated prices of agricultural inputs and an overall increase in the cost of cultivation.
The cost of chemicals, fertilisers, seeds and agricultural equipment and machinery like tractors, and submersible pumps have increased and become less affordable for small and marginal farmers.
NCRB data showed that out of the studied 3000 farmer suicides in 2015,? of which 2474 committed suicide due to unpaid loans from local banks.?
The digital divide and literacy gap have also made the marginal and small farmers vulnerable as they are not able to utilise the government policies of benefits. For example, unsustainable cropping practices include the cultivation of sugarcane in water-deficit regions.
In the absence of institutionalized finance, the farmers generally borrow money from local money lenders, while institutionalized finance is majorly availed by the medium or large land owners. The small farmers have sometimes no idea about the existence of such facilities.?
In 2017, the Supreme court stressed that it is the governmentĄ¯s responsibility to ensure that farmers, in distress due to crop loss, did not commit suicide. The bench stated that Ą°It is the duty of executive governments to ensure that such incidents must not happen. The policy for the welfare of farmers must be implemented at the ground level. The approach of the governments should be preventive rather than compensatory.Ąą?
Ą°That has to stop. No coercive step should be taken in violation of the procedure. They are poor and illiterate people and they must be protected,Ąą the bench said.
It was stated when the court was hearing a PIL on farmers suicide in Tamil Nadu facing a crop failure due to drought.
The union government launched various schemes including the PM Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), PM Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY), electronic National Agricultural market (e-NAM), Soil health card, Neem-coated urea etc.
Some States have launched schemes supporting farms such as Rythu Bandhu Scheme in Telangana and the Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) scheme in Odisha.
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