FARMERS SUICIDES IN INDIA India is an Agrarian Country with around 60% of its people directly or indirectly depends upon

agriculture. Agriculture in India is often attributed as gambling with monsoon because of its almost exclusive dependency of monsoons leading to: Series of droughts Lack of better prices Exploitations by middlemen Have been leading to series of suicides committed by farmers across India. Farmers in India became the center of considerable concerns in the 1990s, when the journalist Mr. P. Sainath highlighted the large number of suicides among them. The reports initially denied the farmers suicides as more and more information came to light the government began to accept that the farmer in India were under considerable stress. The government were not giving any support to the farmers because of that farmers have to commit suicide. Intellectual supporters of the farmers preferred to inflate them. In a year more than 17,500 farmers killed themselves. There was one interview of Mr. P. Sainath which was for 3 hours in that he stated that these 3 hours are so important for him because in these 3 hours nearly 6 farmers will commit suicide and among this 6 farmers half of them will be from Andhra Pradesh. And also in this 3 hours nearly 6090 farmers will commit attempt suicide, 12-15% of them are successful. In these 3 hours nearly 250 farmers quit agriculture forever and this figures are all National figures. According to 1991 and 2001, everyday 2000 farmers are quitting agriculture. The agrarian crisis aggravated but all the state govt they dont believe in these number they are denying to all this figures, nearly 16 state government had written to union agriculture that there are no farmers suicide in their states. NCRB figures are a result of data collected from their police station only.

Mr. P. Sainath says that the highest number of farmers suicides are from cotton farmers. The Vidarbha region the eastern part of Maharashtra comprises of of 11 districts, agriculture is the main stay of life, there are over 3.5 million cotton farmers in vidarbha most of them grapple with an unsustainable agriculture are unpaid loans every summer the farmer sources hope in his field, every time he harvest loss, sometimes death

So to tackle these problems, we have to first recognize the major issues like: 1. Public investment in agriculture has decreased and currently the situation is negative (our economy is growing but the investment in agriculture is growing down). 2. Collapse of credit, this basically says that the government are providing loans to farmers to buy crops which does not fulfill the needs of farmers because of high price in the market. Vidarbha was in media for a spate of farmers suicide because of falling minimum support of cotton price. In farmers language they have said something which is very important for the government to understand their feelings, their struggle towards food, clothing and shelter.

Mute claves from warhad are we Mute claves from warhad are we watching the plunder of mothers milk Drenching earth drop by drop with our sweat. Yielding pearls yet our babies in hunger fret. Cotton crop watered by our sweat Knotting 17 tears on our clothes We farm with our sweat On the pyre our bodies will half burn No money to buy the wood. Reins of our lives always in the hands of others While grinding flour, the floor will stain with our blood --- Late Shri Krishna kalamb

The Indian government had promised to increase minimum rate for cotton but reneged on its promise by rendering the minimum support price, which resulted in more suicide as farmers were ashamed to default on dept payment to loan. The state and the central government had started relief package in vidarbha. Farmers demands were not taken into account while preparing the relif package. The farmers helpline did not give any substantial help to farmers except in Karnataka. Awareness regarding the package was fairly low The scheme were also not well defined. Vidarbha has faced many draughts in last few decades that is high inspect cost and comparatively low support cost. Agrarian crisis like farmers are facing; Poor literacy Limited access to information Poor knowledge of techniques Limited skills. Certain measures to be taken to improve agriculture and reduce suicide of farmers in India.