Farmers Suicides In India - Indian Streams Research Journal

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Farmers Suicides In India forest) Unfavorable international policies. Lack of increasing in the prices of agricultural products compare to agricultural inputs. Indian farmers are facing is the dramatic fall in prices of farm produce as a result of the WTO's free trade policies. Monocultures and uniformity increase the risk of crop failure , as diverse seeds adapted to diverse to eco-system are replaced by the rushed introduction of uniformity and often untested seeds into the market. When Monsanto first introduced Bt Cotton in 2002, the farmers lost 1 billion rupees due to crop failure. The drinking habit which atrophies the productivity of the farmer. Extravagant expenditure on marriages. Bad health and illness and inability to meet the necessary expenditure on medicine and health services. Government has destroyed Important public institutions. Rehabilitation packages e.g. Package of Central Government, Package of State Government, Lone Waiver Proposal, etc are not implementing in proper way to relief needy farmers. Public expenditure on rural development fell during this period from 14.5 percent to G.D.P. in 1991 to 5.9 percent I 2004 (P. Sainath, The Hindu -2/2/2010 Intensity of the problem : There were lot of studies have been done by various social workers N.G.Os, Economist, Institutions, journalist ( P.Sainath) ,etc. But there are different approaches to understand the nature ,causes and rehabilitation packages which are announced by governments .The states Maharashtra , Andhra Pradesh ,Karnataka Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are suffering from this problem especially. According to P.Sainath , the number of farmers who have committed suicide since 1997 to 2008 in these five state was 122823 and all India level was 199132. Prof . Nagraj proved that the farmers suicide rate was 12.9 between the period 1997 to 2005 and one farmer committed suicide every 53 minutes in India. On the basis National Crime Records Bureau , it is possible that at least two lakh farmers committed suicide in the last 12 years . Most of experts are agree with the seriousness of concern problem .I had tried to focus on farmer's suicides in India with some statistics which are published by various expert committees and thinkers . Trends of farmers suicides : Vol. 1, Issue . 1 / February 2011 T.1: Farmers suicides : Big five states and India Year Maharashtra Andhra Karnataka Madhya Total of All India Pradesh Pradesh & 5 states Chhattisgarh 1997 1917 1097 1832 2390 7236 13622 1998 2409 1813 1883 2278 8333 16015 1999 2423 1974 2379 2654 9430 16082 2000 3022 1525 2630 2660 9837 16603 2001 3536 1509 2505 2824 10374 16415 2002 3695 1896 2340 2578 10509 17971 2003 3836 1800 2678 2511 10825 17164 2004 4147 2666 1963 3033 11809 18241 2005 3926 2490 1883 2660 10959 17131 2006 4453 2607 1720 2858 11638 17060 2007 4238 1797 2135 2856 11026 16632 2008 3802 2105 1737 3152 10797 16196 Total 41404 23279 25685 32454 122823 199132 Aver age 3450.33 1940 2140 2704.5 10235.3 16594.3 Source:www.inditogether.org- Date: 3/11/2010 P. Sainath has focused with above statistics on farmers suicide in the five big states. In the Indian Streams Research Journal / 114
Farmers Suicides In India Vol. 1, Issue . 1 / February 2011 period from 1997 to 2008 average of farmers suicide in these five state is 10235.3 per year and all India level the average suicides of farmers suicide is 16594.3. Maharashtra is known by progressive and developed state but in other side number of farmers suicide is maximum in India because the average of farmers suicides in Maharashtra is 3450.33 which is more than other four states due to failure of cotton crops and increasing debt during the period 1997-2008. State-wise distribution of farm suicides : All states of India are facing the problem of farm suicides. We can get idea of state-wise number of farmers committing suicides with the 2001 Census. T2 : State-wise number and rate of farmers suicides (2001) Sr. No State Number of suicides Among farmers Among all population % of farm suicide to total suicide Suicide rate (per 100000 members) Among Farmers In general population With all cultivator With only main cultivator 1 Maharashtra 3536 14618 24.2 15.1 29.9 34.7 2 Karnataka 2505 11881 21.1 22.5 36.4 40.5 3 Andhra P 1509 10522 14.3 13.8 19.2 20.4 4 Chhattisgarh 1452 4025 36.1 19.4 33.7 41.6 5 Madhya P. 1372 6860 20.0 11.4 12.4 14.4 6 West Bengal 1246 13690 9.1 17.1 22.0 27.3 7 Kerala 1035 9572 10.8 30.1 142.9 176.5 8 Tamil Nadu 985 11290 8.7 18.1 19.3 20.8 9 Uttar P. 709 3827 18.5 202 3.0 3.7 10 Gujarat 594 4791 12.4 9.5 10.2 12.6 11 Rajasthan 505 3195 15.8 5.7 3.8 5.3 12 Orissa 256 4052 6.3 11.0 6.0 7.5 13 Assam 167 2647 6.3 9.9 4.5 6.2 14 Haryana 145 2007 7.2 9.5 4.8 6.5 15 Pondicherry 91 529 17.2 54.3 834.9 865.8 16 Bihar 88 853 10.3 0.8 0.7 0.9 17 Punjab 45 648 6.9 2.7 2.2 2.4 18 Tripura 41 854 4.8 26.7 13.1 16.2 19 Himachal P. 22 307 7.2 5.1 1.1 2.0 20 Goa 18 256 7.0 19.0 35.7 60.7 21 Jammu & 15 153 9.8 1.5 0.9 1.6 Kashmir All India 16415 108506 15.2 10.6 12.9 15.8 C.V.(%) 116.3 93.4 - 82.3 299.0 280.6 Maximum states are facing this problem at different level. Maharashtra is a progressive state but unfortunately Maharashtra was a leading state in farm suicides in 2001.The coefficient of variation of farms suicide was more than general suicides in India. The farmers suicide rates were very high compare to general suicide rate .It is noted that suicide rate of only main cultivator was high in all states. State-wise position of suicides in other state in critical was Andhra Pradesh ,Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. According to Prof. Nagraj on an average one farmer took his life every 53 minutes between 1997-2005. according to another study on an average there has been one farmer's suicide every 32 minutes since 2002.In India 86.5 percent of farmers who took their own lives were financially indebted during 1997 to 2002 (www.un.org- 21/11/2010). Consequences :. The government must amend laws that are governing the farmers in the Indian agricultural sector. If the government does not make any urgent recommendations or legal provisions to offer relief to the trend of farmer suicide in the affected states, the whole country will suffer the consequences. Some of these are given below: * National disaster as farmer suicides increase every day. * Food productivity will be hit badly. * Food inflation will rise at an alarming rate. * Severe food crisis. * The intensity of unemployment problem will be increase. * Family problems, Social problems, Physiological problems. Indian Streams Research Journal / 115
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