Broken backbone... One suicide every eight hours

July 2006 --> 99

Aug 2006 --> 111

Sept 2006 --> 132

Oct 2006--> 128

Nov 2006--> 114

Dec 2006 --> 107

Jan 2007--> 82

Feb 2007--> 87

Mar 2007--> 83

Apr 2007--> 79 ( first 20 days)

(all above relates to number of farmer suicides in 6 districts of Vidarbha)

1,11,000 farmer suicides in India during 1993-2006...(admitted by Hon. Union minister of Agriculture in parliament)

Eliminate poverty not the poor...

On March 9th India celebrated the fact that, according to the latest figures released by Forbes magazine, more billionaires call it home than any other Asian nation, an honour held by Japan for the last two decades.

Being Indian that made me happy, but only so much. March also saw a spate of farmer suicides across the country, something that has been going on for a while in the nation’s rural villages, some worse affected than the others. In India, unfortunately, one becomes immune to the harsh disparities between the rich and the poor, but this contrast was a little too stark for me. The rich had just got richer and more numerous while desperate debt-ridden farmers were killing themselves by drinking the pesticides meant for their crops.

The official figure for the number of suicides in the past five years is about eleven thousand, and alarming as that is, the real figure, it seems, is much higher, closer to twenty thousand(in Vidarbha alone!). Last July the Prime Minister toured the worst hit regions and announced a relief package of 3750 crores. Out of this, about 2200 crores was to be spent on existing irrigation projects, but nine months later that has yet to happen. So the money meant for the farmers has yet to reach them and they continue to kill themselves in droves.

The two important factors that decide the fate of a farmer are

• Getting remunerative price for his/her produce
• Availability of timely and adequate credit at reasonable rates of interest

These two factors are very important and essential for his living and to invest on his crops in the right farming season. If we try to list out the problems generally faced by Indian farmers:

1. Overdependence on monsoons
2. Landlords and land tenure rules
3. Money lenders
4. Price of produce is always less than remunerative price
5. Other problems

Today we all should be proud of the fact that Indian economy grew at an average rate of 7.8 in the 10^th plan. Last three financial years it’s as high as 9%. But agriculture sector grew at a rate of 2.5% which is much less than the target of 4% [ofcourse farmer suicides increasing at a rate of 3.9% every year ! Govt'(s') achievement!]

When we think Indian agriculture is a risky area to invest (considering its climatic conditions and average rainfall) we may tend to think that Agriculture has to be ignored… Its true.. An its happening all time. For an example (not personally blaming anyone but tried to show how a responsible minister is behaving when vidarbha’s farmer farmer death toll is increasing). Mr. Sharad Pawar did not dare to go to Vidarbha and address cotton farmers ever since he took over as the agriculture minister of the country, even though he did go to Nagpur before the BCCI elections (ostensibly to draft his strategy for the elections of the richest cricket body).

If we look at the kind of comments our young friends (fellow citzens) make:

• Macha.. these give up farmers are useless... they never change.. old methods.. poor skills.. waste of time talking about them!
• Hey... nobody can save them.. corrupted politics.. corrupted bureaucracy.. we should privatise everything... allow private large farm holdings like US..
• Kill them da.. let them die.. they really suck our economy and because of them our economy couldnt beat China.. we should import all food grains from other countries at cheaper prices than spending on these sucking Indian farmers...
  
• Mama... who bothers.. lets talk of Cricket or movies...

Iam sorry to say that I have come across comments worse than these. Few people shed their useless tears and give immediate statements that they will change everything (how can they change people when they dont understand their position and the reasons for their problems?)

Suicides are just an underlining aspect of the Vidarbha's agriculture crisis, and not the only. The farm crisis is about much more than that. It's about an inequality that breeds exploitation and legitimises oppression. It's about the state slowly withdrawing itself from its bounden responsibility for the welfare of all people, lower castes, tribes, and poor. And it's about the state's withdrawal from essential sectors – water, power and a fostering a climate for sustained employment -- to name a few. It is not just the number of farm-related suicides that is mind-boggling. And the way the governments have reacted – or not reacted – to the situation is equally baffling.

But ignoring agriculture and agrarian crisis may have a very bad impact on the social system. To name a few:

• Expansion of threats to Internal security (Naxalite movement)
• Enlarging rural-urban divide
• If we over depend on import of food grains... then our enemies need not throw nuclear bombs to kill us but freezing our food imports will kill millions of us.. thats why term it as "Food security"
  
• Jobless and Joyless economic growth to 50% population
• Food scarcity a threat to Sovereignty of the nation and its Foreign policy will be directed by the countries from where we import food grains!

Coming to the issue regarding the deaths of farmers in Vidarbha region (Ref: Hindu and other national dailies) the main cause is “Inability of the farmer to bear the heavy burden of debt due to declining prices of cotton” Rs. 2500 per quintal is the cost of production but price is Rs. 1700 per quintal! And the monthly death tolls reached staggering 3 digit numbers… This made the Prime Minister visit the region on July 2007.

PM Visit July 2006: big comedy !

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced several incentives for the six worst drought-hit districts of Maharashtra including waiver of Rs 712 crore overdue interests and rescheduling of Rs 1,300 crore agricultural credit over 3-5 years with one year moratorium. The government would also set up an expert group in the next few days to look into the problem of rural indebtedness in its totality, he told reporters after visiting the drought hit areas of Vidharbha. The group is expected to submit its report with three months, he said, adding that based on the recommendations, the government will take effective measures to deal with problems of farming community. The six districts are Amaravati, Akola, Washim, Buldhana, Yavatmal and Wardha. Prime Minister also announced an additional flow of Rs 1,275 crore agriculture credit for 2006-07 for the six affected areas and special teams would be deputed from NABARD for the purpose.

"We are also allocating Rs 2,177 crore from the Centre for the completion of major, medium and minor irrigation projects in the six districts over the next three years," Singh said. He said waiver of the interest overdue till June 30 this year will provide immediate relief to the farmers who would be able to take fresh loans. Replying to questions, he said there are problems of low productivity, of unremunerative prices. "We will look at it if there is a need to change the policy...we will modify them," he said.

The Prime Minister also announced a Rs 180 crore programme for providing new cotton seeds to the farmers. He also decided to provide a package of Rs 240 crore for water harvesting and construction of check dams in these districts. The package is estimated at around Rs 3,750 crore including payment of Rs 50 lakh each of the six districts under the district collectors for providing immediate assistance for the affected families.

Prime Minister also announced a sum of Rs 240 crore for water harvesting and construction of check dams in the affected districts.

If we look at the death tolls in 2006 they are like: July- 99, August- 111, Sept- 132, Oct- 128 and after PM’s package announcement: Nov- 114, Dec- 107, Jan- 82. This made the government happy and the officials claim that the numbers are decreasing.. But in Feb- 87, Mar- 83 (Hindustan times) farmers committed suicide which clearly shows that the PM package gave a temporary relief but not the much needed permanent one. Also many journalists criticize the Government for ‘falsifying’ the definition of suicide as only the death of a male landowner is considered suicide whereas that of a female landowner and noticeably that of a land laborer is not a suicide!!

The reasons for the failure of PM package (Failure in providing permanent relief)

• Concentration on peripheral measures but not on core issues

( E.g.: 2200 Crore for irrigation projects in PM relief )

• Credit flow is very much constrained and administrative barriers

What can be done??? Is there any solution???

If you were made PM {!} WHAT WILL YOU DO?

RAJ's fire fighting measures ( my suggestions ) to address the grievances of suffering farmers:

1. Waiveoff all farm loans across the country (Burden is estimated 40000 Crores as mentioned by renowned columnists, which is far less than the burden due to 6th Pay revision commission !)
2. If waiving off all loans is not possible then at least loans below a certain amount can be waived off.
3. Adequate short and long term credit available within a week of applying for loan
4. Role of individual and institutional middlemen should be ruthlessly curbed
5. Government should not bend to the impositions of WTO and should continue giving subsidies to our farmers to protect them from falling international prices for agricultural commodities.

Measures of this kind are much needed in this situation as the unrest is turning into violent agitation which is of course threat for the integrity of our nation. Some examples for my argument are:

• Increasing death toll in Vidarbha, AP, MP and everywhere
• Jarkhand MP shot dead in March.. tomorrow it may be our CM or CoM !
  
• 54 people (including 22 policemen) shot dead by a Naxal group in Chattisgarh!
• Suicide deaths are now spreading to other crops paddy, onion etc
• Suicide mortality rate indicators are threatening the observers! Especially Maharashtra (which of course is the state that has the financial capital of India)
• May lead to political instability and people may lose their faith on democratic ideals of this great nation.
• Beware.... Maoists took (indirect) control in Nepal.. Parliamentary panel headed by Smt. Sushma swaraj said that there are 8000 well trained and armed maoists are living in our country....

Farmer is described as the backbone of our country. But today we no longer have a strong backbone but a broken one... This dying farmer needs a major surgery. Its already late...

( I thank Dr. Malathy (economics) and Dr. Subramanyam (German studies and Political philosophy) of Department of Humanities, IIT Madras for their constant encouragement and criticism on my articles, especially those on Indian agriculture. Please leave your comments and suggestions... )