Supreme Court Bats for Distressed Farmers

Distress Farmer in Maharashtra

The Supreme Court of India has questioned the efficacy of the government’s policy and programmes regarding farmers suicides in India

 “It is a sensitive matter of larger public interest and human rights which covers the entire country," a bench comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice N V Ramana. They said they favoured a comprehensive national policy to protect farmers, many of whom have committed suicide due to rising debt and crop failures caused by natural calamities.“In this matter, we are of the view that all states should assist”

“This issue is of extreme importance. Tentatively, we feel that you are going in a wrong direction. Farmers take loan from banks and when they are unable to repay, they commit suicide. The remedy to the problem is not to pay money to farmers after the suicide, but you should have schemes to prevent this. Farmers’ suicides have been happening for so many decades and it is surprising that no action has been taken to address the causes behind suicides,” chief justice Khehar said.

Successive governments in the effected states have shown scant conern about the plight of the farmers who have been committing suicide in increasing numbers over the past decade and more. The insensitivity was most shocking when a Minister in one of the states claimed that the farmers who had committed suicide did so because they were possessed by ghosts.

Despite denials the plague of farmers suicides has hit several states hard. Five states, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, account for two-thirds of farmers’ suicides. These states, together, account for one-third of the total population of the country.

According to Professor K Nagaraj of the Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS), the number of farmers taking their own lives each year shot up dramatically from under 14,000 in 1997 to over 17,000 in 2005. While the rise in farm suicides has been on for over a decade, there have been sharp spurts in some years. For instance, 2004 saw well over 18,200 farm suicides across India. Almost two-thirds of these were in the Big Four or ‘Suicide SEZ’ States. The year 1998, too, saw a huge increase over the previous year. Farm suicides crossed the 16,000 mark, beating the preceding year by nearly 2,400 such deaths.

According to P. Sainath, who specializes on rural reporting, of the 1.5 lakh Indian farmers who committed suicide between 1997 and 2005, nearly two-thirds did so in the States of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Madhya Pradesh (including Chhattisgarh). Nagaraj says “the trend for this group of States looks quite dismal. All four have, over the nine-year period, shown an ascending trend in farmers’ suicides.

Farmers’ suicides in India, 1997–2012 in numbers

	Year	Farmer Suicides	Percent age of Total Suicides
1	1997	13,622	14.2
2	1998	16,015	15.3
3	1999	16,082	14.5
4	2000	16,603	15.3
5	2001	16,415	15.1
6	2002	17,971	16.3
7	2003	17,164	15.5
8	2004	18,241	16.0
9	2005	17,131	15.0
10	2006	17,060	14.4
11	2007	16,632	13.6
12	2008	16,196	13.00
13	2009	17,368	13.7
14	2010	15,964	11.9
15	2011	15,652	11.9
16	2012	16,272	11.9
Total	1997-2012	2,64,388	14.2

Notes: 1. Chhattisgarh and Puducherry reported zero farmers’

suicides in 2011. In 2012, Puducherry reported zero farmers’

 suicides, Chhattisgarh reported four farmers’ suicides and

West Bengal had “not reported” farmers’ suicides.

Source: NCRB, Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India,

Farmer suicides have become a regularly feature in newspaper headlines. Those who preside over the destiny of the country, seem unconcerned about this frightening trend. They are focused on Make In India in the hope that we will soon outstrip China as the manufacturing hub of the world.

While several thousand crores are being sacrificed at the altar of industrialization, by way of concessions and subsidies, the farmers, the backbone of any nation, are being starved of finance essential to improve the yields from his land. My own brief research in Yavatmal, the suicide district of India, has revealed that the main cause of suicide was the failure of crops resulting in the inability to repay loans to financial institutions and local money lenders.

Blinded by the promise of higher yields with the use of hybrid seeds the farmer invest heavily in procuring seeds and fertilizers, mostly on credit from the local trader/money lender. While the costs were many times higher than the local seeds the farmers were not informed about the planting techniques. The traders, in their selfish interests, recommended higher doses which instead of bringing in joy and happiness with increased yields brought in misery, suffering and suicide with failure.

The irony is that a majority of the farmers, who committed suicide, had outstanding loans amounting to just Rs 10,000. The farmers, it would seem, have a better sense of morality than the likes of the King of Good Times Vijay Mallya, who has fled the country owing the banks over Rs 5,000 crores. According to reports there are several other well known industrialists who owe banks several crores.

While the government pampers the wealthy businessmen with all manner of goodies, financial and otherwise, it starves the farmer of funds necessary to enhance the produce from his land and thereby improve the living standard of his family. To hoodwink the famers it makes hollow promises like the one the Finance Minister presented in his recent Budget. In what can be dubbed as a cruel joke on the peasant the Budget was present as a pro-farmer, pro rural budget which it said would take steps to ensure that the incomes of farmers would double by 2022.

In a recent article P.Sainath has said “Someone’s income will surely double by 2022. But, contrary to the crazy claim, it won’t be the farmer but India’s new dollar billionaires. ‘Pro-farmer’ budget should ring a warning bell. It is usually followed by further handing over of agriculture to agri-business. And terrible times for farmers.”

The farmers, who were promised increased MSP by the BJP in its 2014 poll campaign have been betrayed, are unlikely to find their incomes doubled. India’s 111 dollar billionaires listed in the latest Hurun report  are mostly likely to be the ones who will corner the benefits. Their wealth grew by 25 per cent in a single year.

Writing in Yojana, the government publication, C.S.C Sekhar, Associate Professor, Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi University has pointed out “there has been a distinct slowdown in investment in agriculture in recent years. Some of the deceleration in growth can be attributed to a slowdown in investment. The Budget (this year) is lacking in effective proposals/incentives to states to do more in agriculture.”

Investment in agriculture has slowed down because the government in its wrapped wisdom feels that industrialization at the cost of agriculture development would make the country a number one developed country. What has in actual fact happened is that the government has diverted massive investments for industrialiastion. Funds which have been carved away from investments meant for agriculture and social services.

According to Sainath every year the government has been offering crores upon crores to industries in the shape of concessions and subsidies. He has pointed out that since 2004-05 well over Rs 42 trillion, by way of tax concessions, subsidies etc, have been written off. “In the total amount foregone to the better-off under corporate income tax, excise and customs duty since 2005-06, you could run the NREGA for about 109 years on present levels. You could transform tens of millions of lives for the better.” This kind of money if available for investment of agriculture would have brought India into a level of economic development which would have outstripped the developed countries of the world.

Farmers, and agriculture, have always been at the wrong end of the stick. Schemes created for farmers are implemented mindlessly as a result of which the benefits flow not to the farmers but middlemen and money lenders. Government efforts to help the farmers have been niggardly and ineffective because of mismanagement and improper implementation.

A case in point is the Rs.5075-crore special relief packages announced a few years back for beleaguered Vidarbha farmers which failed to provide any relief. CAG's performance audit of farmers' packages finds that not only were these packages mindless in conceptualization and "inconsistent with local needs they were tardy in implementation" Result: The money did not help mitigate the gargantuan agrarian crisis or even reduce farmers' suicides.”

Surender Sud, who writes on issues relating to agriculture, says that the government response and relief packages are ineffective, misdirected and flawed. Sud says that these packages concern themselves to credit/loan rather than income, productivity and farmer prosperity designed to pay off outstanding principles and interest which helps the money lender.

According to Sud an effective package would be one that will help create reliable and good source of income for the farmers. Debt relief, he says, just postpones the problem. An effective answer for a reliable income would be high yield per acre, irrigation and other infrastructure security.

While funds for agricultural development have been curtailed substantially agricultural extension activities have almost been suspended. Agricultural extension officer are selective in their programmes helping the bigger farmers while ignoring farmers with small and marginal holdings. The small and marginal farmers who went in for hybrid seeds and fertilizers were left to fend for themselves. With little information on the modern agricultural practices required these farmers were doomed to failure increasing their indebtedness and ending up in suicides.