The Tribune – Suicides by debt-trapped Farmers; Human rights panel seeks report from government

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 29. Taking cognisance of the news report, “In Punjab, three farmers kill selves every two days,” published in The Tribune on May 27, the Punjab State Human Rights Commission (PSHRC) today registered a complaint and sought a report from the state government.

The report had said that an estimated 5,000 farmers and farm labourers had committed suicide in Punjab between 2000 to 2010 because of financial reasons.

“The news item has been considered by the Full Commission. Let it be registered as a complaint. A report under Section 17(i) of the Protection of Human Rights Act be called for from the Principal Secretary to the Government of Punjab, Department of Home, well before July 23, 2012, on which date the case shall come up before the Commission for further consideration,” the PSHRC directed.

The report was based on the findings of a government commissioned survey conducted by three universities – Punjabi University, Patiala; Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, and Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar.

The commission has also taken cognisance of another news report, “Punjab’s aided schools face staff shortage,” published in The Tribune last week. While registering it as a complaint, it called for a report on the issue from the Principal Secretary, Department of Education.

The report had said that the studies of more than five lakh students was being hit with aided schools were being run with less than half the sanctioned staff strength.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120530/punjab.htm#6

The Tribune – Book on farmers’ suicide released

Sarbjit Dhaliwal, Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 8. Gurnam Kaur of Sangrur district lost her three sons to financial distress with each committing suicide for inability to

repay farm loans. She now suffers the trauma alone. There are many more like her undergoing the same suffering. Inderjit Singh Jaijee, who has co-authored a book titled “Debt and Death in Rural India, the Punjab Story”, says that 40,000 to 60,000 farmers and landless labourers have committed suicide in the state during the past two decades. The book is based on the doctoral research of his daughter Aman Sidhu who died in an accident a few years ago. Aman had worked on farmers’ suicide after doing her post-graduation in International Business from South Bank University, London.

“Various farmer organisations claim that 90,000 farmers have committed suicide since 1990. The Punjab Police puts the number at seven (from 2001 to 2008) and the Revenue Department at 232,” says Jaijee.

“If we go by the data collected by Punjab Agricultural University in two districts, the total number of suicides in the state will be 28,000”, he says, adding that the state had been concealing the data. “In fact, it did not admit for years that farmers under debt were committing suicide,” he said.

Commenting on the book, Dr Sucha Singh Gill and Dr Ranjit Singh Ghuman, eminent economists said: “The authors deserve appreciation for documenting the issue in a scientific manner. There can be difference of opinion on the number of suicides but the way they have projected the crisis in agriculture is commendable”. The book was released by SS Boparai, former Vice Chancellor.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20111109/punjab.htm#15

The Hindu – In 16 years, farm suicides cross a quarter million

Past eight years show rising trend

P. Sainath

Mumbai, 29 October 2011. It’s official. The country has seen over a quarter of a million farmers’ suicides between 1995 and 2010. The National Crime Records Bureau’s latest report on ‘Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India’ places the number for 2010 at 15,964.

That brings the cumulative 16-year total from 1995 — when the NCRB started recording farm suicide data — to 2,56,913, the worst-ever recorded wave of suicides of this kind in human history.

Maharashtra posts a dismal picture with over 50,000 farmers killing themselves in the country’s richest State in that period. It also remains the worst State for such deaths for a decade now. Close to two-thirds of all farm suicides have occurred in five States: Maharashtra, Karnataka, A.P., Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

The data show clearly that the last eight years were much worse than the preceding eight. As many as 1,35,756 farmers killed themselves in the 2003-10 period. For 1995-2002, the total was 1,21,157. On average, this means the number of farmers killing themselves each year between 2003 and 2010 is 1,825 higher than the numbers that took their lives in the earlier period. Which is alarming since the total number of farmers is declining significantly.

Compared to the 1991 Census, the 2001 Census saw a drop of over seven million in the population of cultivators (main workers). The corresponding census data for 2011 are yet to come in, but their population has surely dipped further. In other words, farm suicides are rising through the period of India’s agrarian crisis, even as the number of farmers is shrinking.

While the 2010 numbers show a dip of 1,404 from the 2009 figure of 17,368, there is little to cheer about. “There was a similar dip in 2008, only to be followed by the worst numbers in six years in 2009,” points out Professor K. Nagaraj, an economist at the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai, who did the largest ever study of the farm suicides covering a decade (The Hindu, November 12-15, 2007). “This one-year decline does not in any way indicate we have turned the corner. This dip happened mostly because of one-off falls in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. In fact, a look at the ‘Big 5′ who drive the numbers shows the fallout of the agrarian crisis to be as grim as ever. They have actually increased their share of the farm suicides.”

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/sainath/article2577635.ece

Keywords: farmer suicides, NCRB report, National Crime Records Bureau, India agriculture, agrarian crisis