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Shattering saga of farmer suicides
Highlights
In the last 11 months, in Telangana alone more than 900 farmers committed suicide. The farmers in the State are groaning under travails due to delayed monsoon and drought, depleted water resources, failed sowings and crops, mounting debts, pressure of usurious money lenders etc.
In the last 11 months, in Telangana alone more than 900 farmers committed suicide. The farmers in the State are groaning under travails due to delayed monsoon and drought, depleted water resources, failed sowings and crops, mounting debts, pressure of usurious money lenders etc.
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Add to this lack of fresh crop loans from banks, their misery has become unbearable, forcing many to resort to the extreme act. However, the Government of Telangana feigns ignorance about the farmers’ plight and even recently submitted a false report to Centre that only 63 suicides had taken place. To understand the crux of the situation, what more would drive home the message than a depiction of the unfortunate lives themselves? Bekari Sampath from Wariguntham village in Medak district, a small-scale farmer with just two acres, had a happy home with wife Rajamani and three children Teja (9 years), Shruthika (5 years) and Srivani (2 years).
With bank credit not coming easily, he took a huge loan of nearly Rs 3 lakh from money lenders at an interest of 30% and as well as from the local agriculture credit society. Vagaries of nature, lack of agricultural extension services by the government etc did him in. He cultivated paddy and maize dug three bore wells up to a depth of 300 ft, but to no avail –all of them failed and his crops withered away. With no way-out to come out of the debt, a dejected Sampath committed suicide on 14 May, 2014, consuming pesticide in his own land.
A happy home was thus devastated and there is none to care for the family. Despite the mention in the FIR that Sampath committed suicide due to unbearable agricultural debt, the government has not considered his case fit enough to provide compensation and come to rescue of his family. Sampath’s is not an isolated case in Medak district – the saga of suicides there reflects almost similar causes that drove him to death.
30- year-old Adi Santhosh from the same village depicts same picture – recourse to money lenders, failure of borewells, mounting debt. Sadly, he ended his life on March 23, 2015. Today, his wife Amrutha is forced to become an agriculture labourer and his daughters Saipriya and Rekha have become orphans.
Repeated pleas of the government have only fallen on the deaf ears of the government. The police FIR clearly explains the death as a result of suicide due to crop losses. Chinna Ghanpur village in Medak district, a 10-year-old Srisailam relates with tears the tragic end of his father Bykeri Durgesh on April 10, 2015. His father could not cope up with pressure to clear a debt of Rs 3.3 lakh.
His mother Devamma is illiterate and doesn’t know how to make both ends meet. Srisailam is studying 5th class and has a five year old younger brother Manoj, who is yet to go to school. It is disheartening to see a sobbing Srisailam who says that he loves his father and misses him very badly. They just have 1.1 acre of dry land, failed borewells and a huge debt to clear. Yet, he nurses a dream to become a doctor.
Can the inhumane system of ours enable children like Srisailam to achieve their goal? In Adilabad district, most of the land tenant farmers have ended up in serious debts and ended their lives. In Mahaveer Thanda, a tribal agriculture labourer, Jadhav Kailash, took nearly 4 acres on tenancy at the rate of Rs 10,000 per acre.
He made a debt of Rs 2 lakh at the rate of 30% interest for cultivating cotton crop. However, due to severe drought, total crop was failed. Simplest way to escape from the debt appeared to take his life, which he did, leaving behind his children Ankush and Kajal.
There is no FIR registered and the family got no assurance of any help from the government. In most parts of Adilabad, tenant farmers have sown soya, turmeric, cotton, paddy etc, without adequate knowledge of pre-requisites for such commercial crops cultivation and failed miserably. There appears to be literally no agriculture extension education to farmers.
Begari Sadhulla, a Dalit from Khanjar village, took 4 acres on tenancy at the rate of Rs 10000 per acre and sowed cotton, paddy, and soya. He took a loan of Rs 2 lakh at the rate of 24% from private lenders. Unable to bear the shock of crop failure, he ended his life on October 29, 2014. He committed suicide in the nearby forest and the family could not even locate the body and after 15 days, a local shepherd found a skeleton hanging to a tree. What is pathetic is his only son Begari Laxman, who took charge of cultivation, also did not see any ray of hope.
Even he ended his life on April 29, 2015, by consuming pesticide. His lonely mother is devastated and left in grief. No government official offered any support or assistance to her. Another case is that of 34-yearold Bojja Bhumesh from Akkapur in Adilabad district. He took 2 acres of land on tenancy and cultivated turmeric and maize. Both crops were failed due to lack of irrigation water supply. Money lenders pressurized him to repay the loan of Rs 3 lakh that he took at the rate of 36%.
He could not face the pressure and hanged himself. 28 year old his wife Pushpa is helpless and worried about the future of her two sons Shiva and Vamshi. The State of Andhra Pradesh has already implemented a GO (MS No 421), enhancing ex-gratia to kin of farmers from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh, besides offering other social security measures including children education.
Paradoxically, the Government of Telangana is yet to make any attempt to ameliorate the condition of the farmers. In all the nine districts of Telangana, most farmers are dependent upon rain-fed agriculture. Rains failed them in 400 out of 440 mandals in Telangana – a deficit of 36 per cent. Thousands of cattle perished and equal numbers of sold away to slaughter houses as poor farmers could not feed them.
The Government of Telangana is yet to declare ‘Drought Areas’ in the State and has not taken up any measures on its own nor it moved the Centre for any aid.
The recent unseasonal rains have dealt a double whammy to farmers in Telangana; before, they could recover from the losses to their Kharif crops due to drought and power cuts. As per the initial estimate, the recent rains damaged Rabi crops in nearly 2,000 villages spread over 250 mandals in nine districts of the state. Heavy rains and hailstorms damaged standing crops in over 2 lakh acres in the nine districts. And so far, no single crop insurance claim is accepted and the worst is that the State government has not even framed any guidelines for crop insurance.
In view of the distress of the farming community in Telangana, the proposed visit of Rahul Gandhi is rekindling their hopes of drawing the attention of both governments at the Centre and in the State to their plight. Immediate relief measures that should be taken by the governments should include declaration of agriculture emergency, debt waiver, institutionalized help in form of ration cards, housing, free education to children of affected families, and, above all, affirmative assurance to the farmers that help is at hand.
(The writer is the Chief Official Spokesperson of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee. He may be reached at [email protected]) Srisailam (left) and Manoj, the children of deceased farmer Bykeri Durgesh from Chinna Ghanpur village in Medak district, seen along with their mother. They are at a loss over how to survive The family of Bekari Sampath from Wariguntham village in Medak district. His suicide has devastated the family In Mahaveer Thanda in Adilabad district,
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