There perhaps could be no better way to divert Government’s attention to ‘their’ plight than suicide, well so they thought. We have grown up with stories of farmers committing suicides that are in abject poverty and are not able to pay debts (The much celebrated, glossy celluloid imagery of “Mother India” rubbed in the fact of feudal lords and debt-ridden farmer suicides with commercial brush strokes). The fact that a record 120 farmers killed themselves in Maharasthra alone in November is a stark reminder of the sorry state of affairs of a country whose backbone still remains in the agrarian sector.(According to a study, around 3 lakh farmers have committed suicides reeling under the mounting pressures of loan and ‘soodh’ in the past 17 years.) One could easily say that little is done to provide relief to the already deplorable conditions which the marginalised farmers are living in.
The need of the hour is to adopt a proper protocol/workshop which should be implemented in order to educate the farmers to not resort to such ‘desperate measure’ which more than often ends up with the whole family being consumed in its vicious circle. For instance, if there could be a ‘Anganwaadi program’ that looks to promote women’s health especially during pregnancy, informing them about the benefits of a rural health centre or hospital delivery then why can’t we have such workshops looking into their mental aspects of farming and family as well how to add more value to their incomes…projects like micro-financing only help to facilitate easy loans to the poor but what about the mere fact that if we help them with self sustainability which not only leads to profit maximisation but makes them content with their working conditions vis a vis with their lives.
Talking about the measures of the Government, in the past they also tried to raise its stake in the eyes of the farmers with many such policies of Minimum Support Price, subsidies and the APMC Act where in, though the Government incurred the burden of heavy Fiscal deficit, it only favoured the affluent farmers amassing more out of the subsidies. Something more constructive needs to be done in this regard rather making it all pervasive to ‘all’ the farmers.
The APMC Act, allows for trade through Mandis and the right to set up purchasing centres (amidst many other provisions) to the farmers which again was initially abused by the rich farmers of setting their monopolies. Similarly under the Essential Commodities Act, which has recently included onions was due to the distress call of the market, owing to the increased hoarding practices( leading to inflation) followed by the ‘richer cult’.
The argument which I am making is for the need to realise the plight of the marginalised farmers who are facing the flak because of the ‘other’ farmers as in the wake of the recent decisions made by the Government to waive off the subsidies, it’s going to further hit these farmers (urea is the most recent to be deregulated from the list of subsidies). What the Government needs to understand is to rethink about the agrarian belt and judiciously distribute the waivers and subsidies to balance rural economic health, without which the rural sector will diminish. With many still raising questions about the Government’s decision to discontinue MGNREGA (diluting its many benefits which the farmers were initially reaping), it would be noteworthy to see whether the Government. would be able to help curb farmer suicides.
It’s worth pondering over that when amidst so many waivers, subsidies and easy finances and, economic planning; the then Governments were not able to successfully combat farmer suicides, then what one could only imagine will happen now!
