Farmer suicides: Societal pressures compound the agrarian crisis
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Gadchiroli farmer Shankar Sonule, who committed suicide in July 2004, had an outstanding agricultural loan of Rs 15,000, and a loan of Rs 75,000 for his daughter's wedding. The agricultural crisis in Vidarbha is compounded by debts to finance lavish weddings, dowries and other social obligations
Gaurav Sonule is hoping he won't get into a desperate financial situation like his father, Shankar Sonule. So, unlike the father, the son is not depending completely on the few acres of family land in Mudza village, Gadchiroli district. He has gone in for what's known in the Vidarbha region as khande palat (switching the burden from one shoulder to another) by opening up a grocery shop in the village square. "If farming fails, the grocery shop should ensure my survival," says Gaurav.
Twenty-two-year-old Gaurav mentioned the word 'survival' at least a dozen times during the 10-minute conversation focused around his father's suicide on July 20, 2004. Shankar Sonule is just one of the many indebted Vidarbha farmers who have killed themselves in the last two years. The distress-driven deaths have touched 520 since June last year, with the ongoing agrarian crisis in the region continuing unabated, according to a survey by the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti.
On May 10, Chandu Digambar Bhoge left his home in the evening to take one final look at his failed crop in Dhamangaon, a taluka in Amravati district. He returned home at around 8 pm and consumed poison.
Officials confirmed that a bad crop and mounting debt were the reasons behind the 38-year-old farmer's decision to end his life. Bhoge had a debt burden of Rs 35,000, which will now pass on to his survivors -- mother Vanmala, wife Alka, nine-year-old daughter Arti and seven-year-old son Aakash -- unless the government steps in.
State chief secretary Dr D K Shankaran expresses concern at the continuing suicides, despite the Rs 1,075 crore package being offered to farmers by the state government. Speaking at a review meeting at the Amravati divisional commissionerate, on May 11, he said that although assistance worth Rs 450 crore had been provided to rehabilitate the distressed farmers, the number of suicides had doubled. Shankaran has directed officials to fan out across villages and ensure that not a single farmer commits suicide hereafter in Vidarbha.
"Farmer suicides cannot be stopped with mere financial assistance," says Manohar Hepat, a social activist and member of the district collector-appointed committee to look into farmer suicides in Gadchiroli. "The distress experienced by the farmer here is a combination of indebtedness, water woes, labour shortages and social evils."
While Sonule's agriculture loan from the State Bank of India amounted to Rs 15,000, the loan he took for his daughter's wedding in May 2004 was around Rs 75,000. "He was hoping for a good crop so that he could pay back the bank. When there were no rains and the prospect of a bad crop loomed large, he simply buckled under the pressure," says his widow Uttarabai.
Uttarabai has started selling vegetables in the weekly village market to supplement her son's income from agriculture and the grocery shop. They have managed to repay Rs 25,000 by selling three out of the five acres of agricultural land left behind by Shankar. The district collector cleared their case for financial assistance to the tune of Rs 1 lakh, to be paid partly by cheque and partly in savings certificates. "This will at best be a one-time balm. But how do we improve our agriculture so it can provide us enough for survival in the coming years," asks Gaurav. The mother-son duo say practising agriculture has become impossible, as it is a vicious cycle of unreliable monsoons, soaring labour and implement costs, fake seed and fertiliser inputs, and crashing prices.
Shankar witnessed three failed seasons before his suicide in 2004, recall his widow and son. Since his suicide they have seen only one good season last year, when their two acres yielded 2,800 kg of rice. Most of it went into repaying the debts of previous seasons.
According to Gaurav, lack of water to irrigate the land is the major problem in Mudza, situated on the banks of the Venganga river. "Its presence is of no use to us in the absence of irrigation facilities," he says.
Hepat explains that marginal farmers like the Sonules, who resorted to suicide, were experiencing a major social crisis due to crop failure. "You have to understand that these families, before their land got divided among brothers, enjoyed a certain social status wherein a number of landless families depended on them for their survival." However, having fallen on bad times due to a combination of factors including land division and monsoon failures, they were finding it difficult to retain even their traditional labour force. Hepat highlighted the involvement of these once-prosperous village families in the traditional pats (bullock races) and jatras (village fairs). "For the sake of social status they continue to raise loans and blow up money on village entertainment programmes, knowing full well that agriculture has been bad in recent times."
Dowry is another reason for widespread debt and distress among Gadchiroli's farming community, says Deepak Bhade, a social activist who was involved in a detailed survey of the families of farmers who have recently committed suicide.
But there's no denying the fact that the main issue across farming communities in Vidarbha is the falling prices of cotton and other agricultural output. The number of suicides has almost doubled every year since 1998, with the 500-plus suicides recorded since last June being the highest number ever.
Gaurav and his mother Uttarabai consider themselves lucky to have been able to open up a grocery shop and sell vegetables as an alternative to falling agricultural output. The family of Sadashiv Awale, another farmer who committed suicide in the same village, was left with no option but to seek work under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in order to survive. "It is tough to survive when the family head commits suicide. All of us, me, my mother and sister, are living under tremendous stress," says Gaurav.
(Anosh Malekar is a Pune-based journalist)
InfoChange News & Features, May 2006