There is a shocking truth about farmers suicide in the Country that every Indian must know about. Though it is something that we hear every day, what very few know is that in 2014-15 these suicides have gone up by 42% according to the data released by National Crime Records Bureau. The figure in 2015 was 8,007 and year before that was 5,650.
But what very few know is that from the year 1995, a total of 2,70,000+ farmers have committed suicide in our Country. This means that at an average 46 farmers killed themselves every day, which in turn means one suicide for every 30 minutes. These deaths are because of various reasons, but most importantly it is due to the lack of proper rains which resulted in the untimely repayment of debts.
Indian citizens have a set mentality wherein the local moneylenders are blamed, while in most of the cases this is true, it also has been proved in the government data that 80 percent of the farmers committed suicide in recent times because of bankruptcy or debts. These were taken from banks and also some registered micro-finance institutions.
For a Country with 63% of the economy is farming, this is a situation that needs to be rectified. The Narendra Modi led government has announced programs so as to reduce the problems faced by the farmers. Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna is one such scheme. It provides a crop insurance to the farmers and was announced in January 2016. A symptomatic approach to the suicides will help in reduction of the rural distress but it will not solve the problems that drive the farmers to suicide. Better schemes like accounts agrarian reforms, rural credits, crop changes etc., are needed so as to reduce the farmers suicides in our Country and make it greener again!
A tribute paid to the farmers showing the statistics by Shanta Devi:
