FARMSUICIDES CROSS A QUARTER MILLION

                             FARMSUICIDES
                CROSS A QUARTER MILLION

    17,368 farm suicides in 2009 Census findings point to decade of rural   distress Decadal journeys debt and despair spur urban growth Maharashtra leads in statistic of shame Farm suicides a 12 year saga How to be an eligible suicides Of luxury cars and lowly tractors

It's official. The country has seen over a quarter of a million farmers’ suicides between 1995 and 2010. The National Crime Records Bureau’s latest report on ‘Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India’ places the number for 2010 at 15,964. That brings the cumulative 16-year total from 1995 — when the NCRB started recording farm suicide data — to 2,56,913, the worst-ever recorded wave of suicides of this kind in human history.

Maharashtra posts a dismal picture with over 50,000 farmers killing themselves in the country's richest State in that period. It also remains the worst State for such deaths for a decade now. Close to two-thirds of all farm suicides have occurred in five States: Maharashtra, Karnataka, A.P., Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

The data show clearly that the last eight years were much worse than the preceding eight. As many as 1,35,756 farmers killed themselves in the 2003-10 period. For 1995-2002, the total was 1,21,157. On average, this means the number of farmers killing themselves each year between 2003 and 2010 is 1,825 higher than the numbers that took their lives in the earlier period. Which is alarming since the total number of farmers is declining significantly. Compared to the 1991 Census, the 2001 Census saw a drop of over seven million in the population of cultivators (main workers). The corresponding census data for 2011 are yet to come in, but their population has surely dipped further. In other words, farm suicides are rising through the period of India's agrarian crisis, even as the number of farmers is shrinking.

While the 2010 numbers show a dip of 1,404 from the 2009 figure of 17,368, there is little to cheer about. “There was a similar dip in 2008, only to be followed by the worst numbers in six years in 2009,” points out Professor K. Nagaraj, an economist at the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai, who did the largest ever study of the farm suicides covering a decade (The Hindu, November 12-15, 2007). “This one-year decline does not in any way indicate we have turned the corner. This dip happened mostly because of one-off falls in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. In fact, a look at the ‘Big 5' who drive the numbers shows the fallout of the agrarian crisis to be as grim as ever. They have actually increased their share of the farm suicides.”

At least 17,368 Indian farmers killed themselves in 2009, the worst figure for farm suicides in six years, according to data of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). This is an increase of 1,172 over the 2008 count of 16,196. It brings the total farm suicides since 1997 to 2,16,500. The share of the Big 5 States, or ‘suicide belt' — Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh — in 2009 remained very high at 10,765, or around 62 per cent of the total, though falling nearly five percentage points from 2008. Maharashtra remained the worst State for farm suicides for the tenth successive year, reporting 2,872. Though that is a fall of 930, it is still 590 more than in Karnataka, second worst, which logged 2,282 farm suicides.

Economist K. Nagaraj, author of the biggest study on Indian farm suicides, says, “That these numbers are rising even as the farmer population shrinks, confirms the agrarian crisis is still burning.”

Maharashtra has logged 44,276 farm suicides since 1997, over a fifth of the total 2,16,500. Within the Big 5, Karnataka saw the highest increase of 545 in 2009. Andhra Pradesh recorded 2,414 farm suicides — 309 more than in 2008. Madhya Pradesh (1,395) and Chhattisgarh (1,802) saw smaller increases of 16 and 29. Outside the Big 5, Tamil Nadu doubled its tally with 1,060, against 512 in 2008. In all, 18 of 28 States reported higher farm suicide numbers in 2009. Some, like Jammu and Kashmir or Uttarakhand, saw a negligible rise. Rajasthan, Kerala and Jharkhand saw increases of 55, 76 and 93. Assam and West Bengal saw higher rises of 144 and 295. NCRB farm data now exist for 13 years. In the first seven, 1997-2003, there were 1,13,872 farm suicides, an average of 16,267 a year.  In the next six years 1, 02,628 farmers took their lives at an average of 17,105 a year. This means, on average, around 47 farmers — or almost one every 30 minutes — killed themselves each day between 2004 and 2009.

Among the major States, only a few including Karnataka, Kerala and West Bengal avoided the sharp rise these six years and lowered their average by over 350 compared to the 1997-2003 period. In the same period, the annual average of farm suicides in the Big 5 States as a whole was more than 1,650 higher than it was in 1997-2003. It is very pathetic scenario and it will bring the havoc in 'food security' in future. How can a developing nation like India can think of food security to all without securing the life and livelihood of the farmers? It is obvious that the total area of farm-land is in decreasing trend, so as the number of total dependents on Agriculture. Nevertheless, the demand for food is increasing and so does the pricing. From the constitutional point of view it is very easy to segregate issues of 'Agriculture and allied responsibility' as union subject or state subject; but the reality is that today agricultural policy is in a state of malady. Prime Minister, as a constitutional executive-head should do the needful to formulate long term sustainable and progressive policy to secure the lives and livelihood of the all farmers community including small and marginal producers.

No one looks after betterment of farmers in this independent India. Seen different party govt in these states as well in center, they are not concerned. Because these farmers are mostly illiterate and they don't have organization to fight for their cause. I was shocked when i see the figure of farmer suicides in Tamilnadu. This is the state where farmers enjoys more facilities including free power. The DMK led state government is known for free schemes- one kilo rice for one rupee, free TV, free gas connection, 6000/- rupees for pregnant woman, 25000/- rupees for marriage, health insurance upto one lakh per person, no fees for first generation graduates joining technical education like engineering and medicine and above all 21 lakh free concrete houses for those living in huts. The state government have already scrapped 7000 crore worth of co -operative loans borrowed by farmers. Then what are the reasons for their suicides? still I cant believe this. Suicide of farmers is the indicator of distress especially in Microcredit and it is shameful for all of us that, on one side we are pretending to be a Superpower but we are not able to stop our farmer brothers from taking this extreme step. 

                                                                              Prof. John Kurakar