Farmers Deaths

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Velu Natarajan

@velun

Inactive

Posted: 19 years ago

Farmers Deaths and what is the state doing?

Every day we hear that farmers in one or the other state have died.

Is this going to continue?

Will there never be hope for these poor farmers?

Please let us come out with some solutions.

Thank you,

Velu

PS: Another favorite topic of discussion between me and my mentor

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IdeaQueen

@IdeaQueen

Dazzler

Posted: 19 years ago

😭
We discuss about several issues which are really not really important.Hope we throw somelight on this issue sincerely!!!
Nice post Velun ji!!!

I will come back add my views on this.
In my state this issue of farmer suicides is really a tragic issue!!!
regards,
Mythili

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souro

@souro

Alumni

+ 2

Posted: 19 years ago

Originally posted by: velun

Farmers Deaths and what is the state doing?

Every day we hear that farmers in one or the other state have died.

Is this going to continue?

Will there never be hope for these poor farmers?

Forgive me if I sound harsh but I don't think the farmers are helping their cause any by committing suicide. Just two days back I read two farmers in West Bengal had committed suicide because their potato crop was destroyed by Potato Blight disease. Excuse me but I don't think this is any reason at all. Fine, so your crop has been destroyed but that doesn't mean it's the end of the world, and if you make it out to be like the end then it's your own fault. Sorry, but nobody can help you. These farmers always come up with the same old excuse,'We are farmers, we don't know anything else than farming', well duhhh..... everybody's good at one thing only. We don't expect you to know different trades but you can always learn or atleast send your child to learn something different. When someone decides to commit suicide, that means he/she has already given up, so, why should other people whine after they die?? They didn't even bother to try in the first place. You can't always hope for the govt. to provide subsidy or write off your loan.

The state on its part should try to educate these farmers to create more oppurtunity for them. Another thing that the govt. should take care of is the menace of the illegal money lenders who charge as high as 10-20% interest per month.

Whether these incidents will continue or not will depend on how much these farmers are willing to change, in the process helping themselves and how much interest the govt. shows in spreading education.

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@mermaid_QT

Inactive

Posted: 19 years ago

Originally posted by: souro

Forgive me if I sound harsh but I don't think the farmers are helping their cause any by committing suicide. Just two days back I read two farmers in West Bengal had committed suicide because their potato crop was destroyed by Potato Blight disease. Excuse me but I don't think this is any reason at all. Fine, so your crop has been destroyed but that doesn't mean it's the end of the world, and if you make it out to be like the end then it's your own fault. Sorry, but nobody can help you. These farmers always come up with the same old excuse,'We are farmers, we don't know anything else than farming', well duhhh..... everybody's good at one thing only. We don't expect you to know different trades but you can always learn or atleast send your child to learn something different. When someone decides to commit suicide, that means he/she has already given up, so, why should other people whine after they die?? They didn't even bother to try in the first place. You can't always hope for the govt. to provide subsidy or write off your loan.

The state on its part should try to educate these farmers to create more oppurtunity for them. Another thing that the govt. should take care of is the menace of the illegal money lenders who charge as high as 10-20% interest per month.

Whether these incidents will continue or not will depend on how much these farmers are willing to change, in the process helping themselves and how much interest the govt. shows in spreading education.

So WOW wows me again and have nothing more to add!

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souro

@souro

Alumni

+ 2

Posted: 19 years ago

Originally posted by: mermaid_QT

So WOW wows me again and have nothing more to add!

QT you should read the ode by Tisha, it says no 'Yup' or 'I agree'. Please give your views. I'll add some more to support mine and to encourage more views:

1) After Independence many Zamindars lost everything, if they had simply committed suicide where they would be today. They moved on and today some of them are doing well while some are doing not so well but all of them have tried and lived.

2) Have the farmers ever thought about the countless youths in India who are jobless or are doing odd jobs from time to time. If all of them start to commit suicide, nobody will have time to look at what the farmers are doing.

Edited by souro - 19 years ago

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IdeaQueen

@IdeaQueen

Dazzler

Posted: 19 years ago

Originally posted by: souro

Forgive me if I sound harsh but I don't think the farmers are helping their cause any by committing suicide. Just two days back I read two farmers in West Bengal had committed suicide because their potato crop was destroyed by Potato Blight disease. Excuse me but I don't think this is any reason at all. Fine, so your crop has been destroyed but that doesn't mean it's the end of the world, and if you make it out to be like the end then it's your own fault. Sorry, but nobody can help you. These farmers always come up with the same old excuse,'We are farmers, we don't know anything else than farming', well duhhh..... everybody's good at one thing only. We don't expect you to know different trades but you can always learn or atleast send your child to learn something different. When someone decides to commit suicide, that means he/she has already given up, so, why should other people whine after they die?? They didn't even bother to try in the first place. You can't always hope for the govt. to provide subsidy or write off your loan.

The state on its part should try to educate these farmers to create more oppurtunity for them. Another thing that the govt. should take care of is the menace of the illegal money lenders who charge as high as 10-20% interest per month.

Whether these incidents will continue or not will depend on how much these farmers are willing to change, in the process helping themselves and how much interest the govt. shows in spreading education.

Souro ji! I don't agree with your views!! I will come back in 1 hour after having my break fast and edit this post!!

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souro

@souro

Alumni

+ 2

Posted: 19 years ago

Originally posted by: mythili_Kiran

Souro ji! I don't agree with your views!! I will come back in 1 hour after having my break fast and edit this post!!

Mythiliji I'm still waiting for your reply after 1 hr 5 mins. 😛

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IdeaQueen

@IdeaQueen

Dazzler

Posted: 19 years ago

Originally posted by: mythili_Kiran

Souro ji! I don't agree with your views!! I will come back in 1 hour after having my break fast and edit this post!! I'm back with my answers!!

Life is a precious thing and one does'nt try to commit suicide for silly reasons.I don't support the people who commit suicide but life is the precious thing any one does'nt try to lose very easily!!!

Farming is not just like writing software code for a program.It is the Profession which is largely dependent on external factors.Say, Fariming is not dependent only on the

Efficiency of the farmer

Fertility of the land

Techniques adopted by the farmer

Attitude of the farmer

but it is dependent on the following factors also

The climatic conditions (like rain ) ,basically farmers need ample supply of water to their crops.

Good Pesticides for the crops

good amount of money necessary for the process of agriculture.

Power Supply

So what should a government do with the above factors!!! Here are my points :

If the climatic conditions are not supportive,if there is no rain,government should use proper measures to store the water in dams which are basically meant for irrigation and supply the water to the farms in required times.

Government should supply good quality power to them atleast for 4 hours continously!! Its really horrible to imagine the condition of power supply in villages.Farmers are ready to pay the current bills but dirty governments don't supply good power atleast for 4 hours proeprly.The power whatever they get is not proepr with fluctuations and subsequently their water pumps and motors get burned and this is another misery.

Government should ensure supply good quality of seeds.Several times seeds are sown at the time reeping they don't yield any crops,these seeeeds are fake variety of seeds!!

Pesticides!!! What the hell do the research people in agricultural universities are doing!!! They should find the current trends in the diseases of crops and give proper pesticides not freely atleast for subsidy!!

Loans for the farmers!!! Government does'nt give proper loans ,even it gives they are not given for right and necessary farmers!! In india every politician claims he is farmer!!So common farmer goes to loans from other sources like mircro finance and all ,they feel they can pay the loans if they get the crops that year!!!

So if they fail to get the crops they don't have any option except for death iff the govt does'nt protect them.Farmers are not beggars ,so they have self esteem so they cannot beg or do daily wage works!!!

This is the reason farmers are dying,governement should be blamed for not considering the interst s of farmers!!!

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IdeaQueen

@IdeaQueen

Dazzler

Posted: 19 years ago

Originally posted by: souro

Mythiliji I'm still waiting for your reply after 1 hr 5 mins. 😛

Kindly read this article in your leisure,it really moving!! I'm a diehard supporter of Shri N.Chandra Babu Naidu (ex chief minister) of AP who really developed the state in IT and infr but neglected the farmers like anything!!!

We people in Hyderabad (reading the popular paper EEnadu which supports Naidu)never knew the actual condition of farmers!!!

When farmers die
Almost every sector failed the Andhra Pradesh farmer - the Government, the political class, intellectuals, planners, human rights groups, a once-activist judiciary and the media, says P Sainath.

June 2004: Andhra Pradesh is in the midst of an agrarian Emergency. The tragic farmers' suicides are, finally, an extreme symptom of a much deeper rural distress. The result of a decade-long onslaught on the livelihoods of millions. The crisis now goes way beyond the families ravaged by the suicides. And beyond the farming community itself. There is an urgent need to end the suicides. But doing so without addressing the larger distress is to try and mop the floor dry with the taps open.

Over 300 farmers have taken their lives these past six weeks. And thousands since the structured assault on agriculture in Andhra Pradesh began years ago. For every farmer who has committed suicide, countless others face morale-sapping despair. Large numbers of people are also in a zone marked by growing hunger and a fragile equilibrium. There have been hunger deaths, too, this year. One more bad season could push many over the edge.

AP farmers' suicides • When farmers die
• Sinking borewells, rising debt
• Death of a carpenter
• Anatomy of a health disaster
• Micro-credit, maxi risk
• Percentage raj
• Naidu: image and reality
• Dreaming of water, drowning in..
• Seeds of suicide - I
• Seeds of suicide - II
• Jobs drought before crisis
• How the better half dies
• How the better half dies - II
• The after-death industry
• The policy has no clothes
• Farmers lose crores in insurance
• Renew lapsed insurance policies

Much as sections of the media would like to believe, this is not a new development. Nor something that can be pinned on a month-old Government. The suicides have been occurring for over seven years now. And in some periods, with even greater intensity. So too has hunger been growing. Even last year, this publication reported that crisis in the state. (A gruel-ing season) And the callous indifference of the Chandrababu Naidu Government to what was going on. (Hi-tech, Low Nutrition). This year, the chickens have come home to roost. A survey this month, covering scores of rural households across many districts, strengthens that picture. These include dozens of families whose breadwinners have committed suicide. The issues are complex and the linkages many. And cannot be reduced to that old favourite: drought. Sure that's a big problem. But one amongst others. Farmers are taking their lives in better-irrigated regions too. The rural landscape is a shambles. Agricultural credit and finance systems have collapsed. Taking their place are new entities that can make the village moneylender seem relatively less coercive. Prices have pushed most inputs beyond the reach of the small farmer. For many, the move from food crops to cash crops proved fatal. In some cases, the shift was towards high-outlay, water-guzzling crops such as sugar cane. All this, in an era of huge power tariff hikes. A steady shrinking of local democracy further deepened the chaos. Add to this, big drops in purchasing power. And the worst performance in rural employment seen in years. Both landed farmers and agricultural workers have taken a terrible beating. The people of Andhra Pradesh are paying the price for a 'Vision' that sought to displace 40 per cent of those in agriculture from that sector. Without a clue as to where to take them next. All the households surveyed had incredible levels of debt. Many had failed to gain the credit needed at the start of this season (one reason driving the latest suicides). All have seen crop failure for two or more years. Almost every one of them had made distress sales of land or cattle or both in the past few years. Just 20 of them combined had health expenditure running into a few lakhs of rupees. Most had changed crops in recent years. All of them had spent unbelievable sums in their search for water. Mainly sinking borrowed money in borewells. All were selling their produce to creditors of some sort at well below market price. This is the canvas that Prof. K. Nagaraj of the Madras Institute of Development Studies calls "a predatory commercialisation of the countryside." The farmers have been its prey. The new awareness of the media is welcome, if ironic. Journals that never once said a word on the suicides when they were most intense now do body counts. Maybe the media are trying to make up for their silence but cannot admit it. The suicides, though, have been going on for years. Some journalists in the Telugu press did a magnificent job of keeping the issue alive. It was the 'national' media that treated it with scorn, even disbelief. To lay the deaths at the door of the new Government, as some have sought to do, is to ignore the fundamental evidence: That the victims gave up after years of trying to cope with a situation made impossible by others beyond their control. After seven or more years of being crushed, defeated and ruined. People did not wake up one morning and say: "Hey, the government has changed. I think I'll take my life today." Theirs was a heart-breaking, ultimate protest against a society that showed no concern for them. It would be right to haul up the new Government if it fails to give the state a fundamental directional change. But the latest suicides have roots that lie in years of past failure. About the most cruel thing being said, though, is that people are taking their lives to 'gain' from the compensation. What a contradiction in terms. Lose your life and gain from it. Suppose for one moment this crazy thought is true. That people are taking their lives because a government has announced compensation for their families. What does it say of the society that we've built this past decade? That a farmer would rather take his or her life and get Rs. 1 lakh for the children rather than go on living amongst us? It speaks far less about them, far more about us. It also ignores the fact that there were a huge number of suicides in 2000-01 when the 'compensation' had long been stopped. This notion measures not the 'gain' of the farmers but the loss of our own humanity. The profound indifference to the suffering of others that the 'me-first decade' has legitimised. The idea that a mother and father both end their lives leaving behind aged parents and tiny infants to 'gain' is a heartless one. Or, as in one case, a father and son commit suicide within a year of each other. To make money out of it? Why has this happened more in Andhra Pradesh than anywhere else? After all, the basic economic model we see here did and does exist across the country. For one thing, Andhra Pradesh under Mr. Naidu was far more aggressive than any other state in pushing that model. With the national - and global - elite backing him, he acted without compunction. Most of the support systems the poor in the state had (some put in place by N.T. Rama Rao) were ruthlessly dismantled. Also, no other state and leader were so totally exempt from critical scrutiny. The media didn't just hail the Emperor's New Clothes. It was so busy weaving them, it failed to see Andhra Pradesh's fabric being torn apart. The Emperor could do no wrong. So why look? The farmers' suicides never made the cover of a national magazine in the years they were most intense. For another, the decline of democracy in the state. The 'Janmabhoomi' model of development sidelined the panchayats, robbed them of resources and demoralised local democracy. This meant a collapse of collective action at the village level. The panchayats have played little or no role in dealing with the crisis. The dying of local democracy had a clear corollary. Extreme external interference. Andhra Pradesh was not run by or for its people, or on their wishes. It was run on the blueprints of McKinsey, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the DFID and others of that fraternity. By thousands of expensive 'consultants.' All, unelected and extra-constitutional centres of power. There have been farmers' suicides in other states too. Karnataka saw a large number last year. They have also occurred in Maharashtra, Punjab and Rajasthan. Even Kerala. Maybe with a change in media attitudes now, we could learn more about what's happening elsewhere. The new Government has at least acknowledged that the deaths continue. You can dispute its numbers but it has not tried to deny the suicides. Its short-term measures include several that are a must. Like help for the affected families. And the proposed six-month moratorium on debt. But the problem won't end there. Even in the short term, there's an urgent need for food-for-work programmes. And the Government must use the six-month period to work out more lasting moves on debt relief. It has to plan on raising incomes and purchasing power amongst the poor. On restoring support systems. On building rural employment as never before. The new Government at the Centre must surely also have a sense of how deep voter anger ran in this election. But does it know just how intense the crisis is? Seems doubtful. Parliament met on June 2. The first day of the new session, eight farmers took their lives in Andhra Pradesh. By the time the session ended on June 10, 69 had died the same way. It was a new Lok Sabha meeting after a historic election. Yet the Finance Minister was absent from the House on the very first day. He was busy drying the tears of the distraught millionaires of Dalal Street. Not the happiest signal of this Government's priorities. Almost every sector of Indian democracy failed the Andhra Pradesh farmer; the Government and the political class; the tame intellectuals and planners. The human rights groups and a once-activist judiciary. And a media that failed in their simplest, yet vital duty in a democracy: to signal the weaknesses in society. (Courtesy: The Hindu) ?

P Sainath
June 2004

P Sainath is one of the two recipients of the A.H. Boerma Award, 2001, granted for his contributions in changing the nature of the development debate on food, hunger and rural development in the Indian media. He is the Rural Affairs Editor at The Hindu.

https://www.indiatogether.org/2004/jun/psa-farmdie.htm

Edited by mythili_Kiran - 19 years ago

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souro

@souro

Alumni

+ 2

Posted: 19 years ago

#10

Originally posted by: mythili_Kiran

Souro ji! I don't agree with your views!! I will come back in 1 hour after having my break fast and edit this post!! I'm back with my answers!!

Ok Mythiliji, I've read your post and the article and now I'll present my arguments.

Life is a precious thing and one does'nt try to commit suicide for silly reasons.I don't support the people who commit suicide but life is the precious thing any one does'nt try to lose very easily!!!

I've never said they commit suicide for silly reasons, for me no reason is a good reason to commit suicide.

Farming is not just like writing software code for a program.It is the Profession which is largely dependent on external factors.Say, Fariming is not dependent only on the

Efficiency of the farmer Fertility of the land Techniques adopted by the farmer
Attitude of the farmer

but it is dependent on the following factors also

The climatic conditions (like rain ) ,basically farmers need ample supply of water to their crops. Good Pesticides for the crops good amount of money necessary for the process of agriculture.
Power Supply

So what should a government do with the above factors!!! Here are my points :

If the climatic conditions are not supportive,if there is no rain,government should use proper measures to store the water in dams which are basically meant for irrigation and supply the water to the farms in required times. There are dams but if a certain place doesn't have it, will committing suicide get a dam erected?? The farmers of Punjab and Rajasthan took the initiative on themselve to bring water through canals, why can't others do the same thing. If they show some initiative someone or the other will come forward to help them with funds. Government should supply good quality power to them atleast for 4 hours continously!! Its really horrible to imagine the condition of power supply in villages.Farmers are ready to pay the current bills but dirty governments don't supply good power atleast for 4 hours proeprly.The power whatever they get is not proepr with fluctuations and subsequently their water pumps and motors get burned and this is another misery. Do you know that in most villages govt. supply power for 12 hrs/day for a nominal charge of Rs.5/mth. But do the farmer tell us how they misuse that power. They sublet it to other people and try to make a profit. Who bear the losses for all that and will be interested in supplying power to a region which generates no profit. Government should ensure supply good quality of seeds.Several times seeds are sown at the time reeping they don't yield any crops,these seeeeds are fake variety of seeds!! Sometimes the distribution of seeds is askewed because the panchayat distributing it gives preference to farmers of their political affiliation. No seeds are not fake though sometimes they are of lower quality. But that is mostly due to the panchayat which is made of people from the same village as the farmers. The farmers should protest and put an end to these corrupt panchayats. For the govt. part I'll say they should've supported the farmers in recovering damage pay from Monsanto when their Bt Cotton seeds failed miserably. Pesticides!!! What the hell do the research people in agricultural universities are doing!!! They should find the current trends in the diseases of crops and give proper pesticides not freely atleast for subsidy!! Along with pesticides I'll also add fertilisers, both of which are provided at subsidised rate by the govt. to the farmers. Every fertiliser and pesticide manufacturing plant has to produce a certain amount for the govt. which then gets channelised to the farmers on subsidy. But why do the farmers always want subsidy, why not do something on their own.
Loans for the farmers!!! Government does'nt give proper loans ,even it gives they are not given for right and necessary farmers!! In india every politician claims he is farmer!!So common farmer goes to loans from other sources like mircro finance and all ,they feel they can pay the loans if they get the crops that year!!! Every national and private bank has a certain percentage of their branches in the rural regions which is mandatory for the govt. to allow them to conduct business. There are corrupt bank officials but there are also corrupt farmers. Loan officers demand a cut for themselves to sanction a loan. The farmer on their part resort to fraud. They take loans from the bank to buy cattle and then declare that all the cattle have died so they wouldn't have to repay the loans. Faced with such cases the banks also try to refuse loans. Govt. also provides loans at subsidised interest rates for the farmer to buy farming equipments like tractors, but because of their refusal to collective farming the farmers cannot use it effectively.

So if they fail to get the crops they don't have any option except for death iff the govt does'nt protect them.Farmers are not beggars ,so they have self esteem so they cannot beg or do daily wage works!!!

I call that an escapist attitude.

This is the reason farmers are dying,governement should be blamed for not considering the interst s of farmers!!!

Govt. should be blamed for letting corruption continue, nothing more nothing less.

Apart from the above points there is something else I'd like to share with you. You must have heard about all the protests that are going on in WB right now over farm land aquisition by the govt.

A committee of three officers went to a village to review the process of land aquisition. Several villagers had gathered there to protest. When the officers arrived and took their seat, one young farmer went ahead and took the file lying in front of one of the officers. The officer obviously shouted 'That's mine, give it back'. The young farmer replied to him, 'See that's how we feel when the govt. grabs our land.' To me Mythili this makes a bigger impact than committing suicide.

Edited by souro - 19 years ago

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