Suicide epidemic in Telangana

Not a day passes in Telangana without reports of pathetic farmers taking their lives. Faced with recurring crop losses, mounting debts and tremendous pressure from usurious money lenders, they are killing themselves. The entire political and bureaucratic establishment is merely cutting a sorry face but not attempting to examine the issue in-depth and finding solution to the same. There has been no timely advisory and warning by the government about the monsoon failure and against water-intensive crops like cotton. Announcement of ex-gratia is only prodding more to take lives

Not a day passes in Telangana without reports of farmer suicides. On a single day on September 29, 13 farmers committed suicides. During the last two sessions the assembly also discussed the issue. The opposition demand is loan waiver in “one go.” But, this is not the issue in this present contest of unabated suicides.

Those who committed suicides had 3. 5 to 6 acres of land each and took another 3 to 4 acres on lease. They cultivated mostly cotton. The loans they took were from private lenders of the order of Rs 3.5 to 6 lakh. It is not from banks; any way the banks will not give huge amounts and the loans from private lenders are instant.

The government has promised to consider to waive the bank loan immediately. But the bankers are not pressuring farmers to return the loans immediately. On the other hand, the government says it promotes fisheries, dairy, sheep rearing, and those crops exclusively for seed production. When agriculture and monsoon fail, these allied sectors cannot be successful.

Thus both the opposition and the government failed to suggest correct measures to stop suicides immediately. The analysis we put forward here does not seem to be discussed in any fora, TV, press and leaders. We recall that during the last rabi season (January 2015 to April 2015), the Telangana government, due to shortage of electricity, advised farmers not to cultivate water-intensive rice crop. In fact it is a crop holiday – a wise decision. There were no suicides.

The government has been providing uninterrupted power supply for six hours during the kharif since June 2015. This prompted many farmers to go in for aggressive cultivation of cotton, mainly, to compensate the last rabi loss. The monsoon failed right from June. Though, India Meteorological Department (IMD) warned of the failure of monsoon for this year, the government did not warn the farmers not to cultivate water-intensive crops, especially cotton on the land which is not suitable.

The government as well as the farmers did not visualise that bore well water cannot be alone sufficient for cultivation. Alas! The heat aggravated the situation and the crops withered away. The farmers are now depressed by failure of crops and not knowing how to repay private loans and eke out their livelihoods. They were mesmerised by TV advertisements to buy cotton seeds, easy credit from local dealers, and 6-hour uninterrupted power supply by the government.

The government did not make them aware or warn them that the failure of monsoon would mean failure of bore wells as well. This is a clear mistake of the entire government machinery at all levels. The long-term measures elaborated at length by Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao on October 4 in The Hans India need to be examined for the next season. The suicides are still continuing unabated. On 3rd October, ten farmers committed suicide. It is clearly an agriculture emergency and should be dealt with as such immediately.

The suicidal tendencies among the depressed farmers should be stopped forthwith. For this, the government has to involve panchayats, revenue and agriculture officials and medical professionals. Storage of pesticides at homes should also be seriously studied to curtail easy access to them by the farmers in distress. Farmers need to be made aware of various government schemes – Central and State - loan waivers, crop insurance etc.

Long term projects like lift irrigation projects, Mission Kakatiya, could also be popularised among them. Political leaders should consider raising financial resources to come to rescue of the farmers, especially small-scale, who are in huge losses. As for the suggestion of one or two members in the Assembly to impose moratorium of private loans at least for a year, it appears the only best option available, but in the past too, such moratorium was imposed but to no avail.

The High Court of Hyderabad has ordered the government to find out the root cause of massive suicides. However, neither leaders nor the bureaucrats including the IAS seem to know of it. We presume they have not read Manmohan Singh report (as quoted by HANS India Editor Prof K Nageshwar), Swaminathan Committee Report, and P Sainath’s case studies of Vidarbha suicides. As lord Curzon said in 1905 that “India’s budget is monsoon-oriented,” if monsoon fails our agriculture, entire economy fails. India, 80% reside in villages.

Unfortunately, our entire programmes for progress are mostly directed towards cities. Implementing Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in villages right away, employing local people and hiring machinery like tractors from local farmers only can provide some succour. Mission Kakatiya could safely implemented since tanks are in a dry state. Supply of power for 3 hours in morning and 3 hours in night is better because the bore wells get charged during interval.

One urgent action to be taken right away is to announce that Rs 6 lakh ex-gratia will be from June 2014 till date only. This ex-gratia encourages more suicides, which is disastrous. Political leaders, highest administration and general public should come together to arrive at a comprehensive and integrated approach to the problems being faced by the Telangana farmer, so as to prevent extreme acts of desperation by the peasant community. (Dr Nagaiah is a Principal Scientist with IICT, Hyderabad, and Prof Srimannarayana is a retired Chemistry Professor of Osmania University, Hyderabad)

By Dr K Nagaiah & Prof G Srimannarayana