This article has been written by Ms. Nandhini Sasikumar, a 3rd year of BA LLB Student from The Central Law College, Salem.
INTRODUCTION:
India is an agrarian country with around 70% of its people depending directly or indirectly upon agriculture. As per the Central Government despite a multi-pronged approach to improving income and social security of farmers, over 12,000 suicides were reported in the agricultural sector every year since 2013. Farmer suicides account for approximately 10% of all suicides in India. There is no denying that the menace of farmers’ suicides exists and runs counter to the aspirations of reaping benefit of our demographic dividend. In this article, we are analyzing the farmers’ suicides in India and its related data, the reasons and the way for it.
MAIN CONTENT:
The list includes farmers-cultivators and agricultural laborers. Seven states account for 87.5% of total suicides in the farming sector in the country. The states are Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Both marginal farmers and small farmers are committing suicides. Maharashtra is the major affected state in India. Ironically, Punjab which benefited most from the Green Revolution, also presents a depressing picture of farmers’ suicides in India. Between the years of 1995-2015, nearly 4687 farmers’ suicides have been reported from the state of Punjab of which nearly 1334 from one Mansa district alone.
REASONS FOR FARMERS’ SUICIDES:
Scholars have given various reasons for farmers’ suicides such as monsoon failure, climatic changes, high debt burdens, government policies, mental health, personal issues and family problems among the reasons for farmers’ suicides in India. As,
THE SURGE IN INPUT COSTS: A major cause of the farmers’ suicides in India has been the increasing burden on the farmers due to inflated prices of agricultural inputs. The culmination of these factors is seen in the overall increase in the cost of cultivation, Example: for wheat, the cost at present is three times that it was in 2005.
Cost of chemicals and seeds- Be it the fertilizers, crop protection chemicals or even the seeds for cultivation, farming has become expensive for the already indebted farmers. Costs of Agricultural Equipment- The inputs costs, moreover, aren’t limited to the basic raw materials. Using agricultural equipment and machinery like tractors, submersible pumps etc. adds to the already surging costs. Besides, these secondary inputs have themselves become less affordable for the small and marginal farmers. Labor Costs- Likewise, hiring laborers and animals is getting costlier too. While this may reflect an improvement in the socio-economic status of the laborers, driven primarily by MGNNERGA and hike in minimum basic income, this has not gone too well with boosting the agriculture sector.
DISTRESSED DUE TO LOANS: NCRB data points out that in 2474 suicides out of the studies 3000 farmers’ suicides in 2015 the victims had unpaid loans from local banks. This is clear enough an indication for drawing correlations between the two. Whether or not the banks had been harassing them, however, is a long-drawn debate and needs more specific empirical evidence. Moreover, a shift away from the usual trend also revealed that of the loans taken by these farmers, only 9.8% were loaned from money-lenders. Thus the pressure of muscle-power of money-lenders could be far from being a major driving force, as is otherwise perceived. Another source of strong linkages between farmer suicides and indebtedness is reflected from the spread of the two. While Maharashtra had 1293 suicides for indebtedness, Karnataka had 946. Note that both these states saw one of the highest incidences of farmer suicides as well as indebtedness.
LACK OF DIREC T INTEGRATION WITH THE MARKET: Although initiatives like the National Agricultural Market and contract farming are helping integrate the farmers’ produce directly with the market, cutting the role of intermediaries, the reality is still lagging behind.
LACK OF AWARENESS: The digital divide, as well as the literacy gap, has made the marginal and small farmers particularly vulnerable due to their inability to utilize the positives of government policies. This is reflected in the continued unsustainable cropping practices like cultivating sugarcane in water-deficit regions.
WATER CRISIS: The concentration of these suicides in the water-deficit regions of states like Maharashtra, Karnataka is a manifestation of how the water crisis and thereby failure to meet production demands have intensified the menace. This is a particularly true in the backdrop of continued failed monsoons.
INTERSTATE WATER DISPUTES: What has added to the already prevalent crisis to each other’s water needs amongst the states. A case in point is the recently resurfaced Kaveri dispute that saw Karnataka and Tamil Nadu battle out water shortage both in and outside the tribunal even to the extent of non-compliance with the tribunal award.
CLIMATE CHANGES: has acted as the last nail in the coffin by resulting in furthering of the uncertainty associated with the already uncertain monsoon system and hence agricultural production. While incidents like flash floods have led to crop losses, deferred monsoons have seen production shortfall year-in and year-out.
INDIA’S URBAN CONSUMER-DRIVEN ECONOMIC POLICIES: The political economy of India is driven more by urban consumers than rural producers. This is reflected in the urgency of impose price controls in case of price rise and a lackluster withdrawal once the price is under control. Contrast this with how we have been imposing a minimum import price to secure our steel sector. This differential treatment to primary sector also limits profit margin and thereby hinders farmers’ chances of breaking free from the cycle of indebtedness.
LOAN WAIVERS INSTEAD OF RESTRUCTURING, RE-INVESTMENT MEAURES: Our approach of handling farmer indebtedness and hence farmer suicides have been appeasement politics like the recent move by the UP government to waive off Rs.36000 crores worth of loans. Surprisingly this comes at a time when the agricultural yield is expected to be better in the wake of a good monsoon. In essence, the factors sum up to crop failure, unsustainable production and subsequent farmer indebtedness leading to failure of strengthening the economic state of the farmer as the driving force behind these suicides.
IS SUICIDE A MATTER OF ECONOMICS?
The National Mental Health Association of the USA states that “No matter the race or age of the person; how rich or poor they are, it is true that most people who commit suicide have a mental or emotional disorder”. Suicide is not a matter of economics. This is well supported by the data released by World Health Organization in 2011: while the suicide rate in India, an agrarian economy, was 13 per 1,00,000; that of industrialized, rich countries were often higher or comparable- South Korea- 28.5, Japan- 20.1, Russia- 18.2, USA- 12.6, Australia- 12.5, and UK- 11.8.
MAJOR RELIEF PACKAGES AND DEBT WAIVER SCHEMES ANNOUNCED BY THE GOVERNMENT TO PREVENT FARMERS’ SUICIDES:
2006 RELIEF PACKAGE: primarily aimed at 31 districts in the four states of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala with a high relative incidence of farmers suicides.
AGRICULTURAL DEBT WAIVER AND DEBT RELIEF SCHEME, 2008: Agricultural Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme in 2008 benefited over 36 million farmers at a cost of 65,000 crore rupees (US$ 10 billion). This spending was aimed at the writing of part of loan principal as well as the interest owed by the farmers.
2013 DIVERSIFY INCOME SOURCES PACKAGE: In 2013, the Government of India launched a Special Livestock Sector and Fisheries Package for farmer suicide-prone regions of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala. The package was aimed to diversify income sources of farmers.
Apart from these Central Government initiatives, there are many efforts from the state governments side like Maharashtra Bill to regulate farmer loan terms, 2008 and Kerala Farmers’ Debt Relief Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2012.
CONCLUSION:
A Village makes no progress of its farmers are not modern. If the way of farming remains what it always was, nobody earns much money. The young people won’t stay in the village, because they want to earn more money to satisfy all their new needs. If there is no life in the village, if there are no groups for work, no associations for leisure, the young people become bored, they are attracted by the life and amusements of town. If the people leave, there is no future for the village, little by little, it will die. The farmers, the grown-up men, will become disheartened, they won’t want to work for a dying village, and they won’t make an effort any more for a village whose children have gone away. To get the young people interested in agriculture, to encourage them to stay in the village, farmers must modernize agriculture. They must build up modern farm business that will ensure a better future for the young.
REFERENCES:
Study Analysis related to the suicides of farmers in India (for study rate)
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