Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Code Context


        trigger_error($message, E_USER_DEPRECATED);

    }
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 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php.'
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deprecationWarning - CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311
Cake\Http\ServerRequest::offsetGet() - CORE/src/Http/ServerRequest.php, line 2421
App\Controller\ArtileDetailController::printArticle() - APP/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line 73
Cake\Controller\Controller::invokeAction() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 610
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 120
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51
Cake\Http\Server::run() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 98

Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Code Context


        trigger_error($message, E_USER_DEPRECATED);

    }
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 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php.'
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deprecationWarning - CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311
Cake\Http\ServerRequest::offsetGet() - CORE/src/Http/ServerRequest.php, line 2421
App\Controller\ArtileDetailController::printArticle() - APP/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line 74
Cake\Controller\Controller::invokeAction() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 610
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 120
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51
Cake\Http\Server::run() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 98

Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Code Context
            if (Configure::read('debug')) {

                trigger_error($message, E_USER_WARNING);

            } else {
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		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Farm Suicides&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;KEY TRENDS&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Suicide&amp;nbsp;by&amp;nbsp;self-employed&amp;nbsp;persons&amp;nbsp;in&amp;nbsp;agriculture as a&amp;nbsp;percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6 percent in 1996, 16.3 percent in 2002, 14.4 percent in 2006, 13.7 percent in 2009, 11.9 percent in 2010, 10.3 percent in 2011, 11.4 percent in 2012 and 8.73 percent in 2013. Suicides committed in the farming sector (by farmers plus agricultural labourers) as a proportion of total suicides in India was 9.4 percent in 2014, 9.43 percent in 2015, 8.7 percent in 2016, 8.2 percent in 2017, 7.69 percent in 2018,&amp;nbsp;7.4 percent in 2019, 7.0 percent in 2020, and 6.63 percent in 2021&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The total number of suicides committed by self-employed persons in agriculture in India was 13729 in 1996, 17971 in 2002, 17060 in 2006, 17368 in 2009, 15964 in 2010, 14027 in 2011, 13754 in 2012 and 11772 in 2013. The total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers/ cultivators plus agricultural labourers) was 12,360 in 2014, 12,602 in 2015, 11,379 in 2016, 10,655 in 2017, 10,349 in 2018, 10,281 in 2019, 10,677 in 2020, and 10,881 in 2021&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Due to drop in world market prices for cash-crops (such as coffee, pepper, vanilla) during late 1990s, failure of ginger cultivation in neighbouring Kodagu (formerly Coorg) district and ecological crisis owing to overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides so as to combat productivity failure, many farmers and neo-farmers were left with heavy debts. When, eventually the recovery notices of the banks arrived, hundreds of farmers, especially marginal landholders with up to two acres of land, drank pesticides and killed themselves &lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; In Wayanad, since suicide statistics are directly linked to the payment of compensation through the Revenue Department, the number of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides stagnated during the years 2006 to 2008. &amp;lsquo;Safe Farmers Campaign&amp;rsquo; (SFC), a consortium of eight, mostly Catholic, NGOs (including Shreyas), in 2007 began a large-scale investigation into farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides that ran parallel to the state&amp;rsquo;s efforts of enumeration and classification. Taking police reports of suicides as a starting point and following up all cases from 2000 to March 2008 they have come up with a total number of 1,690 farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (Kerala Social Service Forum 2009). That is nearly four times the figure of 435 officially recognised farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides. The latter number is also the number of beneficiaries of the Chief Minister&amp;rsquo;s (CM) relief fund &lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; During the ten-year period spanning 1997 to 2006 as many as 1,66,304 farmers committed suicide in India&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Farm suicides have increased at annual compound growth rate of around 2.5 per cent per annum over the period 1997-2006&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Farmers, who committed suicides, were growing cash crops in dry regions such as: cotton (particularly in Maharashtra), sunflower, groundnut, and sugarcane (especially in Karnataka) &lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Farm suicides took place in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh including Chhattisgarh&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Poor health conditions, family disputes over property, domestic problems, and heavy social burden of marrying daughters coupled with alcoholism have pushed farmers towards committing suicides&lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt; National Crime Records Bureau,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt; Farmers&amp;#39; suicides&amp;nbsp; and the state in India: Conceptual and ethnographic notes from Wayanad, Kerala by Daniel M&amp;uuml;nster, Contributions to Indian Sociology 2012 46: 181, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&quot;&gt;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt; Nagaraj, K (2008): Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India, Magnitudes, Trends and Spatial Patterns, Macroscan,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf&quot;&gt;http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt; Hebber, Dr. Ritambhara (2007): &amp;lsquo;Human Security and the Case of Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India: An Exploration&amp;rsquo;, Centre for Development Studies, School of Social Sciences, TISS, Paper presented in a panel on Rethinking Development in a Conference on &amp;lsquo;Mainstreaming Human Security- an Asian Perspective&amp;rsquo; (October 3-4, 2007) organised by Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&quot;&gt;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2021 (released in August, 2022)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Chapter%202%20Suicides%20in%20India.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; An increase of nearly 7.2 percent was noticed in suicides during 2021 (1,64,033 suicides) as compared to 2020 (1,53,052 suicides). The rate of suicides has risen by 0.7 points during 2021 (i.e. 12.0 per lakh population) over 2020 (i.e. 11.3 per lakh population). Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Chapter%202%20Suicides%20in%20India.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,318 farmers/cultivators committed suicides during 2021, accounting for 3.24 percent of total suicide victims in India. However, 5,563 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2021, which is nearly 3.39 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,881 in 2021, accounting for roughly 6.63 percent of total suicide victims in the country. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,107 male farmers/ cultivators and 211 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 96.03 percent and 3.97 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,318) in 2021, respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 4,806 in 2021. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&amp;#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 512. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,121 male agricultural labourers and 442 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 92.05 percent and 7.95 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,563) in 2021, respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Manipur, Odisha, Tripura, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Chandigarh, Lakshadweep, and Puducherry reported zero number of suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers in 2021. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2021 were recorded in Maharashtra (4,064, which is around 37.35 percent of total farm suicides i.e. 10,881), followed by Karnataka (2,169), Andhra Pradesh (1,065), Madhya Pradesh (671), Tamil Nadu (599), and Telangana (359). Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2021 were reported from Maharashtra (2,640, which is around 49.64 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,170), Andhra Pradesh (481) and Telangana (352). Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2021 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,424), followed by Karnataka (999), Andhra Pradesh (584), Madhya Pradesh (554), and Tamil Nadu (538). Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The ADSI 2021 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides committed by daily wage earners in 2021 was 42,004. Most suicides by daily wage earners in 2021 were recorded in Tamil Nadu (7,673), followed by Maharashtra (5,270), Madhya Pradesh (4,657), and Telangana (4,223). Figures of daily wage earner excludes agricultural labourer. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;---&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/News%20alerts%20on%20Rural%20Distress%20in%20India%281%29.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access the news alerts on India&amp;rsquo;s agrarian crisis and rural distress by Inclusive Media for Change.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2020 (released in October, 2021)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/adsi2020_Chapter-2-Suicides-1.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; An increase of about 10.01 percent was observed in suicides during 2020 (1,53,052 suicides) as compared to 2019 (1,39,123 suicides). The rate of suicides has increased by 0.9 points during 2020 (viz. 11.3 per lakh population) over 2019 (viz. 10.4 per lakh population). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/adsi2020_Chapter-2-Suicides-1.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,579 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2020, accounting for 3.65 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 5,098 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2020, which is nearly 3.33 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,677 in 2020, accounting for nearly 7.0 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/adsi2020_Chapter-2-Suicides-1.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,335 male farmers/ cultivators and 244 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 95.63 percent and 4.37 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,579) in 2020, respectively. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 4,940 in 2020. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&amp;#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 639. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 4,621 male agricultural labourers and 477 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 90.64 percent and 9.36 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,098) in 2020, respectively. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, Bihar, Nagaland, Tripura, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Chandigarh, Delhi (UT), Ladakh, Lakshadweeep and Puducherry reported zero number of suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers in 2020. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2020 were recorded in Maharashtra (4,006, which is around 37.52 percent of total farm suicides viz. 10,677), followed by Karnataka (2,016), Andhra Pradesh (889), Madhya Pradesh (735) and Chhattisgarh (537). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2020 were reported from Maharashtra (2,567, which is around 46.01 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,072), Andhra Pradesh (564) and Telangana (466). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2020 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,439), followed by Karnataka (944), Tamil Nadu (398), Kerala (341) and Andhra Pradesh (325). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The ADSI 2020 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2019 (released in September, 2020)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Table-2.6_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Table-2.7_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A rise of almost 3.4 percent was observed in suicides during 2019 (1,39,123 suicides) as compared to 2018 (1,34,516 suicides). The rate of suicides has increased by 0.2 points during 2019 (viz. 10.4 per lakh population) over 2018 (viz. 10.2 per lakh population). Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,957 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2019, accounting for 4.3 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 4,324 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2019, which is nearly 3.1 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,281 in 2019, accounting for nearly 7.4 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.6_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,563 male farmers/ cultivators and 394 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 93.4 percent and 6.6 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,957) in 2019, respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 5,129. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.6_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&amp;#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 828. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.6_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 3,749 male agricultural labourers and 575 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 86.7 percent and 13.3 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 4,324) in 2019, respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Chandigarh, Daman &amp;amp; Diu, Delhi UT, Lakshadweep and Puducherry reported zero suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2019 were recorded in Maharashtra (3,927, which is around 38.2 percent of total farm suicides viz. 10,281), followed by Karnataka (1,992), Andhra Pradesh (1,029), Madhya Pradesh (541) and Telangana and Chhattisgarh (each 499). Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.7_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2019 were reported from Maharashtra (2,680, which is around 45 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,331), Andhra Pradesh (628) and Telangana (491). Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.7_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2019 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,247), followed by Karnataka (661), Tamil Nadu (421), Andhra Pradesh (401) and Madhya Pradesh (399). Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.7_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The ADSI 2019 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2018 (released in January, 2020)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A rise of almost 3.6 percent was observed in suicides during 2018 (1,34,516 suicides) as compared to 2017 (1,29,887 suicides). The rate of suicides has increased by 0.3 points during 2018 (viz. 10.2 per lakh population) over 2017 (viz. 9.9 per lakh population). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,763 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2018, accounting for 4.28 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 4,586 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2018, which is nearly 3.41 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,349 in 2018, accounting for nearly 7.69 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,457 male farmers/ cultivators and 306 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 94.69 percent and 5.31 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,763), respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 5,088. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&amp;#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 675. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 4,071 male agricultural labourers and 515 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 88.77 percent and 11.23 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 4,586), respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Goa, Chandigarh, Daman &amp;amp; Diu, Delhi UT, Lakshadweep and Puducherry reported zero suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2018 were recorded in Maharashtra (3,594, which is around 34.73 percent of total farm suicides viz. 10,349), followed by Karnataka (2,405), Telangana (908), Andhra Pradesh (664) and Madhya Pradesh (655). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2018 were reported from Maharashtra (2,239, which is around 38.85 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,365), Telangana (900), Andhra Pradesh (365) and Madhya Pradesh (303). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2018 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,355), followed by Karnataka (1,040), Tamil Nadu (395), Madhya Pradesh (352) and Andhra Pradesh (299). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The ADSI 2018 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2017 (released in January, 2020)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2017&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2017&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A decline of almost -0.9 percent was observed in suicides during 2017 (1,29,887 suicides) as compared to 2016 (1,31,008 suicides). The rate of suicides has decreased by -0.4 points during 2017 (viz. 9.9 per lakh population) over 2016 (viz. 10.3 per lakh population). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,955 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2017, accounting for 4.58 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 4,700 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2017, which is nearly 3.62 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,655 in 2017, accounting for almost 8.2 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2017&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,633 male farmers/ cultivators and 322 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 94.59 percent and 5.41 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,955), respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 5,203.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&amp;#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 752.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 4,219 male agricultural labourers and 480 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 89.77 percent and 10.21 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 4,700), respectively. One agricultural labourer was transgender.&amp;nbsp; Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Certain States/UTs namely, West Bengal, Odisha, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Uttarakhand, Chandigarh UT, Dadra &amp;amp; Nagar Haveli, Daman &amp;amp; Diu, Delhi UT, Lakshadweep and Puducherry reported zero suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2017 were recorded in Maharashtra (3,701, which is around 34.73 percent of total farm suicides viz. 10,655), followed by Karnataka (2,160), Madhya Pradesh (955), Telangana (851) and Andhra Pradesh (816). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2017&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2017 were reported from Maharashtra (2,426, which is around 40.74 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,157), Telangana (846), Madhya Pradesh (429) and Andhra Pradesh (375). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2017&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2017 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,275), followed by Karnataka (1,003), Madhya Pradesh (526), Andhra Pradesh (441) and Tamil Nadu (369). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2017&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The ADSI 2017 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2016 (released in November, 2019)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/NCRB%20snapshots.pdf&quot; title=&quot;NCRB snapshots&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.6%20farm%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.6 farm suicides&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.7%20farm%20suicide.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.7 farm suicide&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A decline of almost -2.0 percent was observed in suicides during 2016 (1,31,008 suicides) as compared to 2015 (1,33,623 suicides). The rate of suicides has decreased by -0.3 points during 2016 (viz. 10.3 per lakh population) over 2015 (viz. 10.6 per lakh population). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/NCRB%20snapshots.pdf&quot; title=&quot;NCRB snapshots&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 6,270 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2016, accounting for 4.79 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 5,109 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2016, which is nearly 3.9 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 11,379 in 2016, accounting for roughly 8.7 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.6%20farm%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.6 farm suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,995 male farmers/ cultivators and 275 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 95.61 percent and 4.39 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 6,270), respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides_1.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 4,476 male agricultural labourers and 633 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 87.61 percent and 12.39 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,109), respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides_1.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, West Bengal, Bihar, Nagaland, Chandigarh, Dadar &amp;amp; Nagar Haveli, Daman &amp;amp; Diu, Delhi UT and Lakshadweep reported zero suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides_1.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2016 were recorded in Maharashtra (3,661), followed by Karnataka (2,079), Madhya Pradesh (1,321), Andhra Pradesh (804) and Chhattisgarh (682). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.7%20farm%20suicide.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.7 farm suicide&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2016 were reported from Maharashtra (2,550, which is around 40.7 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,212), Telangana (632), Madhya Pradesh (599) and Chhattisgarh (585). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.7%20farm%20suicide.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.7 farm suicide&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2016 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,111), followed by Karnataka (867), Madhya Pradesh (722), Andhra Pradesh (565) and Gujarat (378). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.7%20farm%20suicide.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.7 farm suicide&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The ADSI 2016 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2015 (released in 2016)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Suicides%20in%20farming%20sector.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Suicides in farming sector&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Altogether 1,33,623 persons in India committed suicide in 2015 (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Suicides%20in%20India.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Suicides in India 2015&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 8,007 farmers/ cultivators have committed suicides during 2015, accounting for 5.99 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 4,595 agricultural labourers have committed suicides during 2015, which is 3.44 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 12,602 in 2015, accounting for 9.43 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Suicides%20in%20farming%20sector.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Suicides in farming sector&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 7,566 male farmers/ cultivators and 441 female farmers/ cultivators have committed suicides, accounting for 94.49 percent and 5.51 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides, respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Suicides%20in%20farming%20sector.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Suicides in farming sector&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Land holding status of farmers who committed suicide reveals that 27.41 percent and 45.19 percent of victims were marginal farmers and small farmers respectively. They together accounted for 72.59 percent (5,813 out of 8,007) of total farmer suicides (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Land%20Holding%20Status%20of%20Farmers%20committing%20Suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Land Holding Status of Farmers committing Suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Majority of suicides committed by farmers/ cultivators were reported in Maharashtra (3,030) followed by 1,358 such suicides in Telangana and 1,197 suicides in Karnataka, accounting for 37.8 percent, 17.0 percent and 14.9 percent of total such suicides (8,007) respectively during 2015. Chhattisgarh (854 suicides), Madhya Pradesh (581 suicides) and Andhra Pradesh (516 suicides) accounted for 10.7 percent, 7.3 percent and 6.4 percent of the total farmer/ cultivators suicides reported in the country respectively. These 6 states together reported 94.1 percent of the total farmer/ cultivators suicides (7,536 out of 8,007 suicides) in the country during 2015.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; &amp;#39;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;#39; and &amp;#39;Farming Related Issues&amp;#39; are reported as major causes of suicides among farmers/ cultivators, accounting for 38.7 percent (3,097 out of 8,007 suicides) and 19.5 percent (1,562 out of 8,007 suicides) of total such suicides respectively during 2015. The other prominent causes of farmer/ cultivators suicides were &amp;#39;Family Problems&amp;#39; (933 suicides), &amp;#39;Illness&amp;#39; (842 suicides) and &amp;#39;Drug Abuse/Alcoholic Addiction&amp;#39; (330 suicides), accounting for 11.7 percent, 10.5 percent and 4.1 percent of total farmers/cultivators` suicides respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; During 2015, major causes of suicides among male farmers/ cultivators were reported as &amp;#39;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;#39; (2,978 suicides) and &amp;#39;Farming Related Issues&amp;#39; (1,494 suicides), which accounted for 39.4 percent and 19.7 percent of total male farmers/ cultivators suicides respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Among female farmers/ cultivators suicides, &amp;#39;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;#39; followed by &amp;#39;Family Problems&amp;#39;, were major causes of suicides, accounting for 27.0 percent (119 out of 441 suicides) and 18.1 percent (80 suicides) of total suicides by female farmers/ cultivators respectively during 2015. &amp;#39;Farming Related Issues&amp;#39; and &amp;#39;Illness&amp;#39; both accounted for 15.4 percent (68 suicides each) during 2015.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; &amp;#39;Family Problems&amp;#39; and &amp;#39;Illness&amp;#39; were major causes of suicides among agricultural labourers accounting for 40.1 percent (1,843 out of 4,595 suicides) and 19.0 percent (872 out of 4,595 suicides) respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; 79.0 percent of farmer/ cultivator suicides in Karnataka and 42.7 percent of farmer/ cultivator suicides in Maharashtra were due to &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;rsquo;. 26.2 percent of farmer/ cultivator suicides in Maharashtra were also due to &amp;#39;Farming Related Issues (Related to Failure of Crop)&amp;#39;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Farmers/ cultivators belonging to 30 years - below 60 years of age group have accounted for 71.6 percent of total farmers/ cultivators&amp;rsquo; suicides during 2015.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; 9.0 percent of farmers/ cultivators who have committed suicides were in age group of 60 years &amp;amp; above.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The states of Bihar, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu &amp;amp; Kashmir, Jharkhand, Mizoram, Nagaland, Uttarakhand and West Bengal have reported no farmers&amp;#39; suicide during 2015. All the 7 Union Territories have reported zero number of farmers&amp;#39; suicide during 2015 (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Incidence%20and%20Percentage%20Change%20in%20Suicides%20in%20Farming%20Sector%20during%202015.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Incidence and Percentage Change in Suicides in Farming Sector in 2015&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The states of Goa, Manipur, Nagaland and West Bengal have reported no suicide by agricultural labourers during 2015. All the Union Territories except Puducherry (12) have reported zero suicide by agricultural labourers during 2015 (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Incidence%20and%20Percentage%20Change%20in%20Suicides%20in%20Farming%20Sector%20during%202015.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Incidence and Percentage Change in Suicides in Farming Sector in 2015&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Comprehensive data on &amp;lsquo;Suicides in Farming Sector&amp;rsquo; comprising of suicides committed by farmers/ cultivators and agricultural labourers in exclusive Chapter-2A have been collected and published in consultation with Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare under overall supervision of Ministry of Home Affairs, in order to present a comprehensive analysis on suicides in the farming sector. In previous edition (till ADSI 2013), this chapter contained data on suicides committed by farmers/cultivators only.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2014 (released in 2015)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2A%20farmer%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI NCRB 2014 Farmers Suicide&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Altogether 1,31,666 persons in India committed suicide in 2014.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,650 farmers have committed suicides during 2014, accounting for 4.3% of total suicide victims in the country. However, 6,710 agricultural labourers have committed suicides during 2014, which is 5.1% of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides committed by persons engaged in agriculture (farmers plus agricultural labourers) in India was 12,360 in 2014, accounting for 9.4% of total suicide victims in India (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2.7.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,178 male farmers and 472 female farmers have committed suicides, accounting for 91.6% and 8.4% of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Land holding status of farmers who committed suicide reveals that 44.5% and 27.9% of victims were small farmers and marginal farmers respectively. They together accounted for 72.4% (4,095 out of 5,650) total farmer suicides (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2A.3.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 2,568 farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides were reported in Maharashtra followed by 898 such suicides in Telangana and 826 suicides in Madhya Pradesh, accounting for 45.5%, 15.9% and 14.6% respectively of total farmer suicides during 2014. Chhattisgarh (443 suicides) and Karnataka (321 suicides) accounted for 7.8% and 5.7% respectively of the total farmer suicides reported in the country. These 5 States together accounted for 89.5% of the total farmer suicides (5,056 out of 5,650) reported in the country during 2014.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;rsquo; and &amp;lsquo;Family Problems&amp;rsquo; are major causes of suicides, accounting for 20.6% and 20.1% respectively of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides during 2014. The other prominent causes of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides were &amp;lsquo;Failure of Crop&amp;rsquo; (16.8%), &amp;lsquo;Illness&amp;rsquo; (13.2%) and &amp;lsquo;Drug Abuse/Alcoholic Addiction&amp;rsquo; (4.9%).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; During 2014, major causes of suicides among male farmers were &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;rsquo; and &amp;lsquo;Family Problems&amp;rsquo;, which accounted for 21.5% and 20.0% respectively of total male farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Whereas, in female farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides, &amp;lsquo;Farming Related Issues&amp;rsquo; followed by &amp;lsquo;Family Problems&amp;rsquo;, &amp;lsquo;Marriage Related Issues&amp;rsquo; and &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;rsquo; were major causes of suicides, accounting for 21.4% (101 out of 472 suicides), 20.6% (97 suicides), 12.3% (58 suicides) and 10.8% (51 suicides) respectively during 2014.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Nearly 33.4% suicides in Maharashtra and 23.2% in Telangana were due to &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;rsquo;. 87.5% of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides due to &amp;lsquo;Failure of Crop&amp;rsquo; were reported in Himachal Pradesh. 4.7% farmers in Himachal Pradesh, 4.1% farmers in Jharkhand and 2.7% farmers each in Bihar, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh have committed suicides due to &amp;lsquo;Suspected/ Illicit Relation&amp;rsquo;. 6.5% suicides by farmers in Sikkim followed by 2.3% in Himachal Pradesh and 2.0% in Puducherry were due to &amp;lsquo;Cancellation/ Non Settlement of Marriage&amp;rsquo;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The states of West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Tripura, Rajasthan, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Manipur, Jharkhand, Goa, Arunachal Pradesh and Bihar have reported no farmers&amp;#39; suicide during 2014. All the Union Territories except Andaman and Nicobar Islands have reported zero farmers&amp;#39; suicide during 2014 (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2.7.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The states of Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Goa, Manipur and Nagaland have reported no suicide by agricultural labourers during 2014. All the Union Territories except Puducherry have reported zero suicide by agricultural labourers during 2014 (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2.7.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The latest issue of the ADSI report is different from the earlier ones in two ways: a. Apart from the usual male and female break-up of data, one also gets data pertaining to transgenders (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2.7.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access), which was missing earlier; b. There is a separate chapter (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/chapter-2A%20farmer%20suicides.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access) and 3 tables (in the annexure, please click &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2A.1.pdf&quot;&gt;link1&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2A.2.pdf&quot;&gt;link2&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2A.3.pdf&quot;&gt;link3&lt;/a&gt;) on farmer suicides in India and at state/UT-level, which did not exist in earlier reports. In the previous ADSI reports, one had to extract data on farmers&amp;#39; suicide from the table on distribution of suicides by profession. Suicides committed by self-employed persons in agriculture gave the proxy of the figure on farmers&amp;#39; suicide.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Unlike the previous ones, in the present ADSI report suicides by self-employed persons in agriculture has been sub-divided into suicides by agricultural labourers and suicides by farmers. Suicides by farmers has been further subdivided (in the current report) into suicide by farmers having own land and suicide by farmers having land on contract or lease.&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
According to National Crime Records Bureau&amp;#39;s [inside]Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India 2013 (released in 2014)[/inside] report, &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Altogether 1,34,799 persons in India committed suicide in 2013.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Nearly, 11,772 persons self-employed in farming/agriculture (can be loosely termed as farmers) committed suicide during 2013. They constitute 8.73 percent of total number of suicides committed during the same year.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Among the 11,772 no. of persons self-employed in farming/agriculture who committed suicide, 10489 are men (89.1%) and 1283 are women (10.9%).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Rate of suicides, i.e., the number of suicides per one lakh population, has been widely accepted as a standard yardstick. The national rate of suicides was 11.0 during the year 2013. Puducherry reported the highest rate of suicide (35.6).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In 2013, the highest incidents of 16,622 suicides were reported in Maharashtra followed by 16,601 suicides in Tamil Nadu accounting for 12.3% each of total suicides. Andhra Pradesh (14,607 suicides), West Bengal (13,055 suicides) and Karnataka (11,266 suicides) accounted for 10.8%, 9.7% and 8.4% respectively of the total suicides reported in the country. These 5 States together accounted for 53.5% of the total suicides reported in India.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Delhi has reported the highest number of suicides (2,059) among UTs, followed by Puducherry (546) during 2013.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;lsquo;Family Problems&amp;rsquo; and &amp;lsquo;Illness&amp;rsquo;, accounting for 24.0% and 19.6% respectively, were the major causes of suicides among the specified causes. &amp;lsquo;Drug Abuse/Addiction&amp;rsquo; (3.4%), &amp;lsquo;Love Affairs&amp;rsquo; (3.3%), &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Sudden change in economic Status&amp;rsquo; (2.0%), &amp;#39;Failure in Examination&amp;rsquo; (1.8%), &amp;lsquo;Dowry Dispute&amp;rsquo; (1.7%) and &amp;lsquo;Unemployment&amp;rsquo; (1.6%) were the other causes of suicides. Suicides due to &amp;lsquo;Illegitimate Pregnancy (64.5%), &amp;lsquo;Fall in Social Reputation&amp;rsquo; (49.4%), &amp;lsquo;Professional/ Career Problem&amp;rsquo; (40.8%), &amp;lsquo;Divorce&amp;rsquo; (35.7%), and &amp;lsquo;Cancellation/Non-Settlement of Marriage&amp;rsquo; (33.5%) have increased in 2013 over 2012, while for poverty and property dispute have declined as compared to previous year.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; It was observed that 69.4% of the suicide victims were married while 23.6% were Never Married/Spinster. Divorcees and Separated have accounted for about 3.2% of the total suicide victims. The proportion of Widowed &amp;amp; Widower victims was around 3.7%.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
According to [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India-2012[/inside], &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/&lt;/a&gt;:&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; 15 Suicides took place in India every hour during 2012.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; It is observed that social and economic causes have led most of the males to commit suicides whereas emotional and personal causes have mainly driven females to end their lives.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Nearly 71.6% of the suicide victims were married males while 67.9% were married females. 1 suicide out of every 6 suicides was committed by a &amp;lsquo;housewife&amp;rsquo;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Tamil Nadu has reported the highest number of suicide victims in 2010 (accounting for 12.3%), third highest in 2011 (accounting for 11.8%) and highest in 2012 (accounting for 14.0%).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Southern States viz. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu including Maharashtra have together accounted for 50.6% of total suicides reported in the country.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Self employed category accounted for 38.7% of suicide victims in 2012.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
According to the article titled [inside]Farmers&amp;#39; suicides and the state in India: Conceptual and ethnographic notes from Wayanad, Kerala[/inside] by Daniel M&amp;uuml;nster, Contributions to Indian Sociology 2012 46: 181, &lt;a href=&quot;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&quot;&gt;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&lt;/a&gt;:&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides are invariably linked to and almost synonymous with the&amp;mdash;equally composite&amp;mdash;agrarian crisis in the aftermath of neoliberal &amp;lsquo;reform&amp;rsquo;. Most of the writing on the subject is based on the same set of data (statistical data of the National Crime Records Bureau) or on journalistic visits to suicide &amp;lsquo;hotspots&amp;rsquo;. So far few ethnographic accounts, committed to qualitative research in suicide prone areas, have been published.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The present study is an ethnographic report from the field in the South Indian district Wayanad, one of the officially designated suicide-prone districts. The primary aim behind the research is to analyse the state&amp;rsquo;s responses to farmer suicides: the bundle of relief packages, inquiry commissions, rural employment schemes and debt relief commissions that were set up in recent years partially as a response to reports on increasing numbers of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides. Such investigation may eventually contribute to an understanding &amp;lsquo;of precisely how neoliberal globalization is transforming the re-distributive functions of the Indian state or affecting its legitimacy and identity as an agency of social welfare&amp;rsquo;. This article makes a strong case for grounding the study of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides in ethnographies of agrarian practice and the local developmental state.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides provide rural citizens with a language to speak about politics, citizenship and development in the context of neoliberalising agriculture.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The research is intended to conceive farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides as an highly over-determined interface between &amp;lsquo;state&amp;rsquo; and rural society; an interface in two senses: first as a drastic image, repeatedly invoked to speak about rural distress and the widespread agrarian crisis in neoliberal India and to address the failure of the nation state to protect its agrarian classes; second, as a set of actually existing practices&amp;mdash; suicides&amp;mdash;which force state agencies to show presence in social settings, which they had allegedly neglected.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In Wayanad neither cotton, nor GM seeds, nor global agri-corporations play a significant role. Not all suicides in Wayanad were related to agrarian distress. For many decades Kerala has had high suicide rates, many with multiple causes: family problems, alcoholism (extremely widespread in Wayanad), health issues, &amp;lsquo;love failure&amp;rsquo;, or debt.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The 1980s and 1990s brought unprecedented wealth to Wayanad. In the late-1980s up until the late-1990s, many farmers of Wayanad especially pepper growers in the &amp;lsquo;Pepper Panchayats&amp;rsquo; of Pulpalli, Mullankolli and Poothadi, became wealthy. Wayanad became an important earner of foreign currency in Kerala. Farmers, even relatively small farmers who owned around two acres could afford constructing large houses.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The end of the 1990s hit Wayanad&amp;rsquo;s agrarian economy in a series of crises. First, the world market prices for cash-crops dropped dramatically. Local rates for pepper (ungarbled) dropped from 270 INR/Kg in 1997 to 54 INR/Kg in 2001, coffee dropped from 60 INR/Kg in 1997 to 16 INR/Kg in 2002 and vanilla, most dramatically dropped from 4300 INR/Kg in 2003 to 25 INR/Kg in 2006. Prices had fluctuated before, most cultivators remembered price crashes in the late-1970s, but this time they were accompanied by a second crisis: a dramatic drop in productivity.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Since the late-1990s Wayanad has been facing a serious ecological crisis. During the boom years cash-croppers heavily overused chemical fertilisers and pesticides in order to keep productivity high and profitable. The soil is now depleted beyond redemption and some Panchayats of Wayanad suffer from increased incidences of cancer. Furthermore new diseases started to affect plantations. &amp;lsquo;Quick wilt&amp;rsquo;, &amp;lsquo;slow wilt&amp;rsquo; and &amp;lsquo;foot rot&amp;rsquo; are their names, and all share the ability to destroy whole plantations quickly.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; When prices crashed and plantations died, many farmers and neo-farmers were left with heavy debts. When, eventually the recovery notices of the banks arrived, hundreds of farmers, especially marginal landholders with up to two acres of land, drank pesticides and killed themselves.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Another economic practice emerged since the late-1990s and has a strong correlation with suicide cases. Many suicide victims had invested in the cultivation of ginger in neighbouring Kodagu (formerly Coorg) district. The return from ginger cultivation could also be nil. There is an almost 50 per cent chance that the ginger plant is going to be affected by a fungus that would spread quickly across the fields and destroy the plantation within days.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Husbands very often did not even talk about their debt burden to wives and children: they just changed their character, became abusive and started to drink more heavily. Many widows shared later that they had no idea of their husbands&amp;rsquo; debts, and were not involved in agricultural matters at all. This made it all the more difficult for them to deal subsequently with the stigma, poverty and political instrumentalisation they were to experience.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; One of author&amp;#39;s original research questions was also to consider farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides as suicides against the state. This link was difficult to establish in Wayanad.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Farmers who killed themselves knew that they were part of a district-wide if not all-India epidemic, that their suicide would attract considerable&amp;nbsp; attention from the media, NGOs as well as state agencies and also&amp;mdash;controversially&amp;mdash;that the state might eventually take care of their families, write off their debt and pay compensation of 50,000 INR.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Most farmers the author spoke to, whether activists or not, were quite knowledgeable about the removal of quantitative restrictions on imports and the dismantling of import duties for agrarian products under the GATT regime as the main reasons for the fall in prices of agrarian cash-crops. They would speak of cheap coffee and pepper coming from Vietnam and Sri Lanka that keeps flooding the market and later to be resold as premium Wayanad pepper. Second, they articulated the retreat of the state, the cut of input subsidies and low investments in irrigation and infrastructure. They would speak of the government that always cheated, gave no security to the farmers, had no procurement policy and provided no minimum price.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The official all-India suicide-rate (suicide rate is the incidence of suicide mortality per 100,000 inhabitants) has for the last 10 years constantly been around 10.5 and hence not extraordinarily inflated. Kerala&amp;rsquo;s official suicide-rate was 26.8 which is more than twice the national average and the third highest in India (after Pondicherry and Andaman &amp;amp; Nicobar Islands) and had been so for the last years. Within Kerala there are two districts that have been given the recent status of &amp;lsquo;suicide-prone districts&amp;rsquo;: Idukki and Wayanad. Even though suicides are statistically well captured, there is a considerable fluctuation in the number of reported farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The &amp;lsquo;Accidental Deaths and Suicides (ADSI)&amp;rsquo; annual report (National Crime Records Bureau 2007) is the only official source of information. It lists the distribution of suicidal death by state, gender, marital status, causes of suicide, means adopted and profession. According to K. Nagaraj, the professional category farmer (although still unspecific) is a relatively recent category in the ADSI reports: &amp;lsquo;The category self-employed (farming/agriculture)&amp;mdash;which can be taken as representing the farmers&amp;mdash;was added for the first time in 1995 (...)&amp;rsquo; (Nagaraj 2008: 2).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The suicide rate for farmers can be calculated only for the year 2001, this being the first year that statistical data on farmers were recorded in the Census of India. On an all-India basis this does not make for highly inflated suicide rates among farmers: 15.8 among the main cultivators as compared to 10.6 of the general population. An entirely different perspective emerges, however, if one takes into account the fact that numbers of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides vary significantly across India. For Kerala, a suicide rate among main cultivators of 176.5 emerges, and the figure is still 142.9 if all cultivators are considered. Those numbers are alarming indeed.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; For all-India the official number in the ADSI reports is 190,753 farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides from 1995 to 2006. That makes an average of 16,000 suicides per year, which is still an underestimation since some major states have not reported on farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The status of farmer (cultivator) is based on the criterion of title to land. This leaves out women, tenant farmers, agricultural labourers, but also regular farmers if the land title was in the father&amp;rsquo;s or son&amp;rsquo;s name. A stringent criterion for agriculture-related suicide would be the absence of any other cause neighbours might mention (such as alcoholism or family problems).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The local practice of identifying farmers&amp;rsquo; suicide became additionally complicated after 2004 by the decision of the new LDF government to actually pay a compensation of 50,000 INR to all families with cases of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides out of the Chief Minister&amp;rsquo;s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In the beginning, as a populist measure, the criteria were handled rather loosely and compensation was paid rather freely. The first compensation cheques were handed over during public functions under great media attention. Later, both to be able to present the success of the other relief measures of the new state and union governments and to curb costs, the practice became more stringent. The debt still had to be the cause of suicide, but now it had to be an institutional credit (excluding debt with moneylenders) and the loan had to have been taken for agricultural purposes (excluding consumer loans).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In Wayanad, since suicide statistics are directly linked to the payment of compensation through the Revenue Department, the number of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides stagnated during the years 2006 to 2008. &amp;lsquo;Safe Farmers Campaign&amp;rsquo; (SFC), a consortium of eight, mostly Catholic, NGOs (including Shreyas), in 2007 began a large-scale investigation into farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides that ran parallel to the state&amp;rsquo;s efforts of enumeration and classification. Taking police reports of suicides as a starting point and following up all cases from 2000 to March 2008 they have come up with a total number of 1,690 farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (Kerala Social Service Forum 2009). That is nearly four times the figure of 435 officially recognised farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides. The latter number is also the number of beneficiaries of the Chief Minister&amp;rsquo;s (CM) relief fund.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; To avoid further committing of farmers&amp;#39; suicides and because of their political nature, the state compensates only such suicides. The CM fund is the most specific programme that targets only cases of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicide. The Indian state has launched unprecedented relief and rehabilitation measures in response to the suicide crisis.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India-2011[/inside],&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/&lt;/a&gt;:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; 16 Suicides took place in India every hour during 2011.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; It is observed that social and economic causes have led most of the males to commit suicides whereas emotional and personal causes have mainly driven females to end their lives.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Nearly 71.1% of the suicide victims were married males while 68.2% were married females.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; West Bengal has reported the highest number of suicide victims (accounting for 11.5%) in 2009, second highest in 2010 (accounting for 11.9%) and highest in 2011 (accounting for 12.2%). &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; West Bengal (12.2%), Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu (11.8% each), Andhra Pradesh (11.1%) and Karnataka (9.3%), altogether contributed 56.2% of total suicide victims.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Self employed category accounted for 38.3% of suicide victims in 2011. It comprised 10.3% engaged in Farming/ Agriculture activities, 5.3% engaged in Business and 3.1% Professionals. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the report titled [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India-2010[/inside], which is produced by the National Crime Records Bureau,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/&lt;/a&gt;: &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Every hour 15 people committed suicide in India during 2010.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; 1 in every 5 suicides is committed by a Housewife.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Total 3,84,649 accidental deaths were reported in the country during the year 2010.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; It is observed that social and economic causes have led most of the males to commit suicides whereas emotional and personal causes have mainly driven females to end their lives.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Nearly 70.5% of the suicide victims were married males while 67.0% were married females.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; 26.3% of the suicide victims were primary educated and 22.7% were middle educated while 19.8% of victims of suicide were illiterate.&amp;nbsp;Self employed category accounted for 41.1% of suicide victims in 2010. It comprised 11.9% engaged in Farming/ Agriculture activities, 5.3% engaged in Business and 3.0% Professionals.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; 41.1% of suicide victims were self employed while only 7.5% were un-employed.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Suicides because of &amp;lsquo;Family Problems&amp;rsquo; (23.7%) and &amp;rsquo;Illness&amp;rsquo; (21.0%) combined accounted for 44.7% of total Suicides.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; West Bengal has reported the highest number of suicide victims (accounting for 11.9%) in 2008 &amp;amp; 2009 and second highest in 2010 (accounting for 11.9%).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; West Bengal (11.9%), Andhra Pradesh (11.8%), Tamil Nadu (12.3%), Maharashtra (11.8%) and Karnataka (9.4%) contributed 57.2% of total suicide victims.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The highest number of Mass/Family Suicides cases were reported from Bihar (23) followed by Kerala (22) and Madhya Pradesh (21) and Andhra Pradesh (20) out of 109 cases.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to National Crime Records Bureau&amp;#39;s [inside]Accidental Death and Suicide (2009)[/inside],&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/suicides-09.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/suicides-09.pdf&lt;/a&gt;, &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/snapshots.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/snapshots.pdf&lt;/a&gt;, &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;: &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; More than one lakh persons (1,27,151) in the country lost their lives by committing suicide during the year 2009. This indicates an increase of 1.7% over the previous year&amp;#39;s figure (1,25,017).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The total number of suicides in the country during the decade (1999&amp;ndash;2009) has recorded an increase of 15.0% (from 1,10,587 in 1999 to 1,27,151 in 2009).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Self-employed category accounted for 39.8% of suicide victims in 2009. It comprised 13.7% engaged in Farming/Agriculture activities, 6.1% engaged in Business and 2.9% Professionals.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; 55.1% suicide victims in Mizoram were engaged in farming /agriculture activities in 2009. 29.6% suicide victims in Manipur were unemployed.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Despite a fall in number of suicides committed by farmers in 2009 as compared to 2008 in Maharastra (fallen by 930), the state continues to be number one in terms of farmers&amp;#39; suicides for the tenth year (2,872 suicides) as compared to the rest of the states.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The number of suicides committed by farmers in 2009 was 17,368, which was a rise by 1,172 as compared to 2008.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The growth in the number of suicides committed by the farmers has been 7 percent over the last year.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In the year 2009, 1,27,151 persons committed suicides. Within a span of one year, suicide rate in the entire country has increased by 1.7 percent. During the last year, the total number of suicides committed was 1,25,017.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In the year 2009, 348 persons committed suicides on an average every day, out of which 48 persons were farmers. In the year 2004, on an average 47 farmers committed suicides every day, which means one farmer committing suicide in every 30 minutes.&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Private and Public Sector personnel have accounted for 8.4% and 2.3% of the total suicide victims respectively, whereas students and un-employed victims accounted for 5.3% and 7.8% respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Government servants were 1.3% of the total suicide victims, whereas housewives (25,092) accounted for 54.9% of the total female victims and nearly 19.7% of total victims committing suicides.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; 40.9% of salaried and 39.0% of unemployed suicide victims were in the age&amp;ndash;group 30-44 years.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; West Bengal has reported the highest number of suicides (14,648) accounting for 11.5% of total suicides followed by Andhra Pradesh (14,500), Tamil Nadu (14,424), Maharashtra (14,300) and Karnataka (12,195) accounting for 11.4%, 11.3%, 11.2% and 9.6% respectively of the total suicides in the country.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; These 5 States together accounted for 55.1% of the total suicides reported in the country.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; 209 deaths at the national level under Mass/Family suicides consisting of 95 males and 114 females were reported as per the information available. 15 cities also did not furnish information.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The maximum number of suicide victims was educated up to Middle level (23.7%). Illiterate and primary educated persons accounted for 21.4% suicide victims and 23.4% respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Only 3.1% suicide victims were graduates and post-graduates. 51.9% suicide victims in Sikkim were illiterate. 36.5% suicide victims in Gujarat had education upto primary level. 68.1% suicide victims in Mizoram and 59.1% suicide victims in Puducherry had middle level education.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;The study titled [inside]Farmers Suicide: Facts and Possible Policy Interventions (2006) [/inside] prepared by Meeta and Rajiv Lochan, (Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration), &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.yashada.org/organisation/FarmersSuicideExcerpts.pdf&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;http://www.yashada.org/organisation/FarmersSuicideExcerpts.pdf&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:Arial; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;revisits some of the families which two earlier reports (Mishra and Dandekar et al) had also visited and criticises them for not doing a good job of compiling the victims&amp;#39; circumstances meticulously. The authors believe that many reports in the past have exaggerated the connection between debt and suicides whereas in reality a lot of other reasons, including harsh environment, a variety of other reasons and absence of basic health services, also play an equally important role. According to the same study:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The suicide epidemic is said to have its epicentre in Yavatmal district of Maharastra. According to the State Crime Records Bureau, it reported 640, 819, 832, 787 and 786 suicides respectively for the years 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Most of the victims of this epidemic were men, mostly in the age group 30 to 50, married and educated, with more social responsibilities, especially in the form of unmarried daughters and or sisters. There were two things that were common among the victims of suicide. One, a feeling of hopelessness: in being unable to resolve problems and dilemmas of personal life; and in the face of an inability to find funds for various activities or repay loans. Two, the absence of any person, group or institution to whom to turn to in order to seek reliable advice: whether for agricultural operations or for seeking funds or for handling private and personal issues. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;People complained about lack of information on various government sponsored schemes. There was little knowledge about institutional mechanisms like the minimum support price (MSP) that would affect marketing, technical knowledge was low and there were no reliable sources from where such knowledge and advice could be accessed. Most farmers were not informed about crop insurance. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Most of them who committed suicide were Hindus and not Muslims or Christians. This is because Hindu religion allowed certain circumstances for altruistic suicide, whereas the latter two religions frowned upon suicides. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Chronic alcoholism and drug abuse were found among rural population.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Loan from a rapacious relative rather than a bank or moneylender was often the cause of economic distress for the victim. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The 10 point suggestions are:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;1. Enhance the physical interaction between government functionaries and village society by insisting on more tours, night halts and gram sabhas by officers at all levels of the administration.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;2. Actively monitor local society, especially farmers, for signs of social, economic and psychological distress and if possible provide social, psychological or spiritual counseling.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;3. Implement with rigour the various provisions that already exist to safeguard the interests of the farmer and farm workers for example, the existing money lending act, minimum wage act etc. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;4. Increase the efficiency of agriculture extension activities. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;5. Increase the efficiency of various services that are delivered by the government in the name of people&amp;#39;s welfare at the moment. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;6. Make available trained and salaried individuals to serve the rural population. Immediate succour is needed. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;7. For the long-term change, it is important to improve the condition of school education and provide appropriate vocational education at the village and taluka level so as to make people understand the complexities of present day production and marketing techniques.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;8. Counsel the media to stop highlighting suicide since the fact of highlighting suicide itself adds fuel to the suicide fire as it were. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;9. Instead of ex gratia payment being made to families of those who commit suicide, provide employment to a member of the family or help in setting up a small business. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;10. Provide direct cash subsidies to actual cultivators.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;According to [inside]Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicide in India: Agrarian Crisis, Path of Development and Politics in Karnataka[/inside] by Muzaffar Assadi,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/10.1.1.544.330.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The beginning of agrarian crisis requires being located much earlier to the beginning of suicide, which goes back to the 1980s when the terms of trade were going against agriculture. To oppose State policies, farmers&amp;rsquo; movements were led by Shetkari Sangathana in Maharashtra, Vyavasayigal Sangam in Tamil Nadu, and Rajya Raitha Sangh in Karnataka. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Karnataka has no history of farmers committing suicide even during the situation of acute agrarian crisis. Even the unorganised farmers would resort to other tactics such as throwing the agricultural commodities on the roads, burning their crops, etc. Andhra became the harbinger for such a trend in Karnataka. Suicide in Karnataka was first reported in the northern parts of Karnataka or close to the border areas of Andhra Pradesh.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The beginning of the suicides can be traced back to the year 1998, when two farmers in Bidar, who were involved in cultivating Tur Dal, a market-oriented agricultural crop committed suicide. In the initial two years, farmer suicides were largely concentrated in the drought-prone districts in north Karnataka, or confined to economically backward, drought-prone regions such as Gulbarga and Bidar. However, after 2000 , the phenomenon shifted to relatively advanced agricultural regions, particularly Mandya, Hassan, Shimoga, Davanagere, Koppal and even Chickmagalur Kodagu and it also covered ground water region (Belgaum), assured rain fall region (Haveri), Sugar Cane and Cauvery Irrigation Belt (Mandya). However, in the coastal belt, the number of suicides reported was less.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;During 1999-2001, it was estimated that 110 farmers committed suicide in Karnataka. According to one estimate, 3,000 farmers committed suicide in Karnataka between 1998 and 2006. According to the report prepared by the Crime Branch of Karnataka, the number of suicide under the heading &amp;ldquo;farming and agricultural activity&amp;rdquo; comes to 15,804 between 1998 and 2002. Between 1996 and 2002, 12,889 male farmers committed suicide followed by females (2841). The total number of farmers who committed suicide from 1 April, 2003 to 1 January, 2007 comes to 1193. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Debt burden of the farmers who committed suicide was not uniform. It varied between Rs.5000 to Rs.50000. Many of them had borrowed loan on short-term basis.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The most striking aspect of the crisis, however, is the fact that large number of farmers who committed suicide largely came from the age group between 25 and 35 years.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;During the first few years of this millennium Karnataka saw a deceleration, due to the negative growth in agriculture. This is apparent from the following facts: the average real GDP rate in different sectors between the period 1995-96 and 2002-03 was 5.86; however, for agriculture it was 1.87 per cent, industry 5.93 per cent, service sector 8.18 percent.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;In Karnataka, the large number of farmers who committed suicide came from the OBCs, though there are also cases of farmers committing suicide, hailing from dominant castes such as &lt;em&gt;Lingayats &lt;/em&gt;and &lt;em&gt;Vokkaligas&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The World Bank dictated terms have gone against the interest of the farmers. This is apparent when Karnataka government for example, went for World Bank loan, which granted Economic Restructuring loan in 2001. This loan came along with a condition that government should withdraw from the power sector as regulator and distributor of power. The free power given to the agriculture was withdrawn and it increased the power tariff drastically.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Karnataka government was unable to checkmate the growth of money lenders. It failed to make the cooperative movement a success one. In Karnataka although there are 32,382 Cooperative Societies at the village level, almost 40 cent of them are running under loss, nearly twenty cent of them are either defunct or liquidated.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The Karnataka government is one of the first governments to allow the field trials of &lt;em&gt;Bt &lt;/em&gt;Cotton.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;In 2002, 143 talukas were declared drought affected. In 2003, 159 talukas out of 176 talukas in the state, were declared as drought affected. Drought brought down areas under sowing thus affecting production. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The first debate on farmers&amp;#39; suicide tries to locate the suicide as part of multiple crises. The crises are ecological, economic, and social, each inter-linked with the other. The ecological crisis is the result of intense use of hybrid seeds, chemical fertilisers and pesticides, causing the erosion of soil fertility and increasing crop-susceptibility to pests and diseases. Heavy indebtedness led to the economic crisis. The second debate attempts to locate the crisis or the suicide to the negative growth of agrarian economy in the recent past as argued by Vandana Shiva. She comes closer to the Marxist critique particularly the arguments of Utsa Patnaik wherein the latter locates the reasons in the liberalisation/ neocolonialism or imperialist globalisation. The third debate attempts to locate the reasons for the suicide in adapting the World Bank model of agriculture or what is called McKinsey Model of development that created spaces for industry-driven agriculture which ultimately translated into agri-business development including Information technology. The fourth is the discourse, which attempts to locate the suicide exclusively to one phenomenon, that is, the increasing indebtedness or the debt trap. The final discourse, which came from the state, attempts to locate the reasons in multiple issues, such as the incessant floods, manipulation of prices by traders, supply of spurious pesticides and seeds, decline in prices of agricultural produce, increase in the cost of agricultural inputs, successive drought in recent years, and of course, the neglect of farmers by the previous state government.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Farmers%20Suicides%20in%20India.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Farmers Suicides in India&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access the article entitled [inside]Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India: Magnitudes, Trends, and Spatial Patterns, 1997-2012 by K Nagaraj, P Sainath, R Rukmani and R Gopinath[/inside], Review of Agrarian Studies&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;According to Nagaraj K (2008): [inside]Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India, Magnitudes, Trends and Spatial Patterns[/inside]&lt;em&gt;, &lt;/em&gt;please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/K%20Nagaraj%20Farmers_Suicides_1.pdf&quot; title=&quot;K Nagaraj Farmers_Suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt; :&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Farm suicides happened in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh including Chattisgarh &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;During the ten-year period spanning 1997 to 2006 as many as 166,304 farmers committed suicide in India. If one considers the 12 year period from 1995 to 2006 the figure is close to 200,000.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Going by the official data, on average nearly 16,000 farmers committed suicide every year over the last decade or so.&amp;nbsp; It is also clear that every seventh suicide in the country was a farm suicide.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The year 1998 show a sharp increase in the number of farm suicides &amp;ndash; an 18 percent jump from the previous year; and the number remained more or less steady at around 16,000 suicides per year over the next three years upto 2001. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The average number of farm suicides per year in the five-year span 2002-2006, at 17,513 is substantially higher than the average (of 15,747 per year) for the previous five-year span. Farm suicides have increased at annual compound growth rate of around 2.5 per cent per annum over the period 1997-2006.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Suicides in general are also largely concentrated among males, but the degree of concentration here is significantly lower than in the case of farm suicides: male suicides in the general population account for nearly 62 percent of all suicides in the country.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;According to Hebber, Dr. Ritambhara (2007): [inside]&amp;lsquo;Human Security and the Case of Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India: An Exploration&amp;rsquo;[/inside], Centre for Development Studies, School of Social Sciences, TISS, Paper presented in a panel on Rethinking Development in a Conference on &amp;lsquo;Mainstreaming Human Security- an Asian Perspective&amp;rsquo; (October 3-4, 2007) organised by Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The problem of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides has been seen from the framework of human security. This phenomenon is related to the collapse of basic economic and social support structures in rural India. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The officials while explaining the suicidal deaths have underplayed the structural changes due to green revolution, globalisation and liberalization. The protective measures and mechanisms required to be provided to the ordinary farmers were overlooked. There has been overemphasis on psychological factors while explaining the suicides. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Farmers committed suicides mainly from Maharastra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Such regions are dry regions where agriculture is mainly rain fed. Farmers were growing cash crops in such regions such as: cotton (particularly in Maharashtra), sunflower, groundnut, and sugarcane (especially in Karnataka). &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Rising cost of production made the farmers to borrow at exorbitant rates from informal sources.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;When the All India Biodynamic and Organic Farming Association wrote to the Mumbai High Court expressing its concern over farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides in Jalna, a district in Maharashtra, the Court asked TISS to conduct a survey study. Based on the survey, the Court asked the Maharastra government to consider the issue seriously. The TISS report identified the untenable cost of agricultural production and indebtedness as the key reasons for suicides. The IGIDR report, on the other hand, did not implicate the government or its policies for the suicides; instead it sought a greater role for government intervention through rural development programmes to expand non-farm activity among farmers.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;A special relief package was announced by the Maharastra government in December, 2005 for six districts of Amravati, Akola, Buldhana, Yavatmal, Washim and Wardha. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Pesticide and fertiliser companies have been extending credit to farmers in Karnataka and in Maharashtra, which adds to their debt burden. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Poor health conditions, family disputes over property, domestic problems, and heavy social burden of marrying daughters coupled with alcoholism have pushed farmers towards committing suicides, according the committee report headed by GK Veeresh. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Farmers&amp;rsquo; movement headed by Shetkari Shangathana was quite strong during the 1980s in Maharastra. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;**page**&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;According to CP Chandrashekhar and Jayati Ghosh (2005): [inside]The Burden of Farmers&amp;rsquo; Debt[/inside], Macroscan, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.macroscan.com/the/food/sep05/fod140905Farmers_Debt.htm&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;http://www.macroscan.com/the/food/sep05/fod140905Farmers_Debt.htm &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;One of the important purpose of taking loans was for spending on &amp;#39;&amp;#39;marriages and ceremonies&amp;#39;&amp;#39;, which however accounted for a much smaller proportion of total loans, at around 11 per cent. This purpose was most important for farmer households of Bihar (22.9 per cent) followed by those in Rajasthan (17.6 per cent). &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Moneylenders have emerged as the most significant source of credit for farmers, with 29 per cent accessing this source. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The influence of moneylenders appears to be especially strong in Bihar (44 per cent) and Rajasthan (40 per cent). Traders &amp;mdash; of both inputs and outputs &amp;mdash; also have provided loans to 12 per cent of indebted farmers. However, institutional sources still remain significant, with more than half of farmers accessing government, co-operative societies and banks taken together &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Average amount of the outstanding loan increases with the size of the land holding, but what is more interesting is that the proportion of indebted farmers also increases with the size class.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Even among very small and marginal farmers, the amount of outstanding loan is substantial, given the likely low incomes from such smallholdings, which suggests some sort of cumulative process leading to a debt trap for the very resource poor cultivators.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;According to [inside]Causes of Farmer Suicides in Maharashtra: AN ENQUIRY, Final Report Submitted to the Mumbai High Court March 15, 2005[/inside], which has been prepared by Ajay Dandekar, Shahaji Narawade, Ram Rathod, Rajesh Ingle, Vijay Kulkarni, and Sateppa YD, please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/farmers_suicide_tiss_report-2005.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;This Report on the farmer suicides in the state of Maharashtra is being submitted as per the Judgment of the Court that made the TISS a consultant in the Public Interest Litigation Number 164 of 2004. The nature of this report is to primarily apprise the Court of the causes that led the farmers to take this extreme step, as per the findings of the research team. The Interim Report was submitted to the Court on February 16, 2005, and this Final Report is being submitted on its due date &amp;mdash; March 16, 2005.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The total numbers of suicides reported in Maharashtra, till December 2004, were 644, with most of the deaths occurring in the Vidharbha, Marathwada and Khandesh regions of the state. Thus, the present investigation concentrated on these regions. Out of the total 644 farmer suicides, a sample of five per cent, i.e., 36 cases were identified for the study.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The TISS team conducted detailed case studies (life history approach) of all the families of the 36 cases;&amp;nbsp;it also conducted several focus group discussions with farmers in each of the 36 villages covered.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Repeated crop failures, inability to meet the rising cost of cultivation, and indebtedness seem to create a situation that forces farmers to commit suicide. However, not all farmers facing these conditions commit suicide &amp;mdash; it is only those who seem to have felt that they have exhausted all avenues of securing support have taken their lives.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;It is not only the landed who have a crisis of indebtedness to deal with. There were a number of landless families who had leased land on a short-/long-term basis by securing loans. It was also noticed that many landless families managed to acquire money through migration to cities and purchased lands in the late eighties and early nineties. Many such families were caught up in cycles of debt and destitution, which ultimately led to the suicide of the head of the family. Thus, the survivors were reduced to landlessness due to debt. Among those committed included medium and large landowners who were also affected by a high level of un-payable debt.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;In the cotton belt, the crop seems to have failed more than once in the last four years. This crop failure has always not been associated with natural calamities, such as failure of rain or un-seasonal rains leading to destruction of crops. The causes are an increase in pest attacks in the last few years, especially from 1995 onwards. This meant that the farmers needed more money to pay for pesticides, though, in the end, a high level of pesticide use did not prevent crop failure.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Longitudinal data available with government sources indicate declining productivity of land. This meant increased use of fertilisers to enhance productivity of land. The information available indicates that farmers have been spending more on fertilisers even while crop performance has been showing a declining trend. The group discussions and case studies point to the fact that the quantity of use of fertiliser per acre rose in the midnineties and has now reached a saturation point. There appears to be a decrease in the production per acre in the same area.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The farmers are dependent on agents of fertiliser and pesticide companies for advice on seeds and crop care. The information base of the farmers is, thus, limited to the data provided by the agents and their products. A false perception of prosperity is being created in the minds of the cultivators that prompts them to take serious risks in terms of fertiliser-based cropping pattern.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Input costs have also exhibited a sharp rise. Agriculture has become more expensive post-1995. This rise in the input cost is reflected in the electricity bills, rising costs of high yielding variety (HYV) seeds, fertilisers, energy (diesel), transportation, etc. The rising input cost is not matched by the crop yield and price obtained. The minimum support price has not been available to all farmers, particularly the small and marginal farmers. Large landowners have been able to benefit from support price, when the government has occasionally provided such support. The absence of support price has had serious implications to the farmers.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Declining opportunities in non-farm employment has further aggravated the crisis. It seems that in areas where suicides have occurred, non-farm options are getting limited.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Those farmers who faced repeated crop failures accumulated loans beyond their capacity to repay. Thus, most of victims had turned defaulters over the last four years. This points to a serious crisis as reflected in the absence of the support system to bail the farmers out, in the form of relatives, neighbours, banks and even the moneylenders who had stopped giving the loans to them lately.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The investment (at 1980&amp;ndash;81 prices) stood at Rs. 1,266 crores in 1950&amp;ndash;51 and rose to Rs. 5,246 crores by 1978-79. However, it has declined since 1978&amp;ndash;79 and was only Rs. 4,692 crores in 1990&amp;ndash;91. The share of agricultural investment came down from 22% in 1950&amp;ndash;51 to 19% in 1980&amp;ndash;81 and even further to about 10% in 1990&amp;ndash;91. This has adversely affected the public sector investment in irrigation as more than 90% of the total public investment in agriculture goes for irrigation. The share of the irrigation sector (in states only) in the total public investment came down from 14.7% in 1980&amp;ndash;81 to only 5.6% in 1990&amp;ndash;91 (at 1980&amp;ndash;81 prices) of the public sector investment, whereas the total increase in investment was at the rate of 6.3% per annum.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;In 1989&amp;ndash;90, the total subsidies to agriculture amounted to Rs. 1,3500 crores &amp;mdash; these were mainly given on fertilisers, irrigation and electricity. These subsidies have gone towards the development of the wealthier farmers in regions where investments have already poured in.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The opening up of Indian agriculture to multinational corporations and the withdrawal of the GoI from this system of production has occurred simultaneously. Moreover, the internal markets have become unstable due to the lowering of tariff barriers. Unfair terms of trade towards agriculture of developing countries have made matters worse for those who are engaged in and/or are dependent on this system of agriculture.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Bio-diversity is under threat due to TRIPS and the WTO. Environmental degradation resulting in deforestation and depletion of water availability (drinking and agriculture), both in quantity and quality, has made the situation more serious. Untenable cost of production in modern agriculture techniques, institutional and low interest credit and the absence of a credible security net (i.e., crop insurance) are not making things easy for the cultivators in the country.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Favourable / Unfavourable agro climatic situation among the State leading to variation in per hectare yield: The agro climatic situation varies from State to State. This leads to variation in per hectare yield. The per hectare yield in Maharashtra State is less in comparison with the yield of other States due to inadequate irrigation facilities and unfavourable agro climatic situations. This leads to more cost of production. However, due to favourable agro climatic situation and sufficient irrigation facilities, the per hectare yield in Haryana and Punjab is more. Therefore, the cost of production of these States is conducive for the States where a particular crop is grown on a large scale. This adversely affects States like Maharashtra who have unfavourable agro climatic situation and higher cost of production. The Minimum Support Prices declared by Government of India does not cover the cost of production of the agriculture producer to the full extent. Therefore, the Minimum Support Prices do not give full justice to the farmers of the State having high cost of production. Therefore, instead of declaring one Minimum Support Price at the National Level, separate support prices may be declared for groups of States according to the cost of cultivation.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;In connection with the price environment for the farmers, it needs to be pointed out that there has been considerable increase in the price of important farm inputs during the last five years. Between 1990&amp;ndash;91and 95&amp;ndash;96 while the prices of wheat as measured by the average of wholesale price indices increased by 58%, that of fertilizer increased by 113%, that of irrigation by 62% and insecticides by 90 percent. While the recent revision in the administered prices of petroleum products, the price of diesel would be higher by 75% than their level during 1990-91. The report further points out that the small and marginal farmers do not get ever get the administered price declared by the state&lt;/p&gt;
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&amp;nbsp;

&amp;bull; Suicide&amp;nbsp;by&amp;nbsp;self-employed&amp;nbsp;persons&amp;nbsp;in&amp;nbsp;agriculture as a&amp;nbsp;percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6 percent in 1996, 16.3 percent in 2002, 14.4 percent in 2006, 13.7 percent in 2009, 11.9 percent in 2010, 10.3 percent in 2011, 11.4 percent...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;KEY TRENDS&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Suicide&amp;nbsp;by&amp;nbsp;self-employed&amp;nbsp;persons&amp;nbsp;in&amp;nbsp;agriculture as a&amp;nbsp;percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6 percent in 1996, 16.3 percent in 2002, 14.4 percent in 2006, 13.7 percent in 2009, 11.9 percent in 2010, 10.3 percent in 2011, 11.4 percent in 2012 and 8.73 percent in 2013. Suicides committed in the farming sector (by farmers plus agricultural labourers) as a proportion of total suicides in India was 9.4 percent in 2014, 9.43 percent in 2015, 8.7 percent in 2016, 8.2 percent in 2017, 7.69 percent in 2018,&amp;nbsp;7.4 percent in 2019, 7.0 percent in 2020, and 6.63 percent in 2021&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides committed by self-employed persons in agriculture in India was 13729 in 1996, 17971 in 2002, 17060 in 2006, 17368 in 2009, 15964 in 2010, 14027 in 2011, 13754 in 2012 and 11772 in 2013. The total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers/ cultivators plus agricultural labourers) was 12,360 in 2014, 12,602 in 2015, 11,379 in 2016, 10,655 in 2017, 10,349 in 2018, 10,281 in 2019, 10,677 in 2020, and 10,881 in 2021&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; Due to drop in world market prices for cash-crops (such as coffee, pepper, vanilla) during late 1990s, failure of ginger cultivation in neighbouring Kodagu (formerly Coorg) district and ecological crisis owing to overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides so as to combat productivity failure, many farmers and neo-farmers were left with heavy debts. When, eventually the recovery notices of the banks arrived, hundreds of farmers, especially marginal landholders with up to two acres of land, drank pesticides and killed themselves &lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; In Wayanad, since suicide statistics are directly linked to the payment of compensation through the Revenue Department, the number of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides stagnated during the years 2006 to 2008. &amp;lsquo;Safe Farmers Campaign&amp;rsquo; (SFC), a consortium of eight, mostly Catholic, NGOs (including Shreyas), in 2007 began a large-scale investigation into farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides that ran parallel to the state&amp;rsquo;s efforts of enumeration and classification. Taking police reports of suicides as a starting point and following up all cases from 2000 to March 2008 they have come up with a total number of 1,690 farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (Kerala Social Service Forum 2009). That is nearly four times the figure of 435 officially recognised farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides. The latter number is also the number of beneficiaries of the Chief Minister&amp;rsquo;s (CM) relief fund &lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; During the ten-year period spanning 1997 to 2006 as many as 1,66,304 farmers committed suicide in India&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; Farm suicides have increased at annual compound growth rate of around 2.5 per cent per annum over the period 1997-2006&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; Farmers, who committed suicides, were growing cash crops in dry regions such as: cotton (particularly in Maharashtra), sunflower, groundnut, and sugarcane (especially in Karnataka) &lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; Farm suicides took place in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh including Chhattisgarh&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; Poor health conditions, family disputes over property, domestic problems, and heavy social burden of marrying daughters coupled with alcoholism have pushed farmers towards committing suicides&lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt; National Crime Records Bureau,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt; Farmers&amp;#39; suicides&amp;nbsp; and the state in India: Conceptual and ethnographic notes from Wayanad, Kerala by Daniel M&amp;uuml;nster, Contributions to Indian Sociology 2012 46: 181, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&quot; title=&quot;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&quot;&gt;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt; Nagaraj, K (2008): Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India, Magnitudes, Trends and Spatial Patterns, Macroscan,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf&quot;&gt;http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt; Hebber, Dr. Ritambhara (2007): &amp;lsquo;Human Security and the Case of Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India: An Exploration&amp;rsquo;, Centre for Development Studies, School of Social Sciences, TISS, Paper presented in a panel on Rethinking Development in a Conference on &amp;lsquo;Mainstreaming Human Security- an Asian Perspective&amp;rsquo; (October 3-4, 2007) organised by Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&quot;&gt;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Pres&lt;br /&gt;entations/Ritambhara.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; 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	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Farm Suicides&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;KEY TRENDS&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Suicide&amp;nbsp;by&amp;nbsp;self-employed&amp;nbsp;persons&amp;nbsp;in&amp;nbsp;agriculture as a&amp;nbsp;percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6 percent in 1996, 16.3 percent in 2002, 14.4 percent in 2006, 13.7 percent in 2009, 11.9 percent in 2010, 10.3 percent in 2011, 11.4 percent in 2012 and 8.73 percent in 2013. Suicides committed in the farming sector (by farmers plus agricultural labourers) as a proportion of total suicides in India was 9.4 percent in 2014, 9.43 percent in 2015, 8.7 percent in 2016, 8.2 percent in 2017, 7.69 percent in 2018,&amp;nbsp;7.4 percent in 2019, 7.0 percent in 2020, and 6.63 percent in 2021&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The total number of suicides committed by self-employed persons in agriculture in India was 13729 in 1996, 17971 in 2002, 17060 in 2006, 17368 in 2009, 15964 in 2010, 14027 in 2011, 13754 in 2012 and 11772 in 2013. The total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers/ cultivators plus agricultural labourers) was 12,360 in 2014, 12,602 in 2015, 11,379 in 2016, 10,655 in 2017, 10,349 in 2018, 10,281 in 2019, 10,677 in 2020, and 10,881 in 2021&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Due to drop in world market prices for cash-crops (such as coffee, pepper, vanilla) during late 1990s, failure of ginger cultivation in neighbouring Kodagu (formerly Coorg) district and ecological crisis owing to overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides so as to combat productivity failure, many farmers and neo-farmers were left with heavy debts. When, eventually the recovery notices of the banks arrived, hundreds of farmers, especially marginal landholders with up to two acres of land, drank pesticides and killed themselves &lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; In Wayanad, since suicide statistics are directly linked to the payment of compensation through the Revenue Department, the number of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides stagnated during the years 2006 to 2008. &amp;lsquo;Safe Farmers Campaign&amp;rsquo; (SFC), a consortium of eight, mostly Catholic, NGOs (including Shreyas), in 2007 began a large-scale investigation into farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides that ran parallel to the state&amp;rsquo;s efforts of enumeration and classification. Taking police reports of suicides as a starting point and following up all cases from 2000 to March 2008 they have come up with a total number of 1,690 farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (Kerala Social Service Forum 2009). That is nearly four times the figure of 435 officially recognised farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides. The latter number is also the number of beneficiaries of the Chief Minister&amp;rsquo;s (CM) relief fund &lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; During the ten-year period spanning 1997 to 2006 as many as 1,66,304 farmers committed suicide in India&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Farm suicides have increased at annual compound growth rate of around 2.5 per cent per annum over the period 1997-2006&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Farmers, who committed suicides, were growing cash crops in dry regions such as: cotton (particularly in Maharashtra), sunflower, groundnut, and sugarcane (especially in Karnataka) &lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Farm suicides took place in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh including Chhattisgarh&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Poor health conditions, family disputes over property, domestic problems, and heavy social burden of marrying daughters coupled with alcoholism have pushed farmers towards committing suicides&lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt; National Crime Records Bureau,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt; Farmers&amp;#39; suicides&amp;nbsp; and the state in India: Conceptual and ethnographic notes from Wayanad, Kerala by Daniel M&amp;uuml;nster, Contributions to Indian Sociology 2012 46: 181, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&quot;&gt;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt; Nagaraj, K (2008): Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India, Magnitudes, Trends and Spatial Patterns, Macroscan,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf&quot;&gt;http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt; Hebber, Dr. Ritambhara (2007): &amp;lsquo;Human Security and the Case of Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India: An Exploration&amp;rsquo;, Centre for Development Studies, School of Social Sciences, TISS, Paper presented in a panel on Rethinking Development in a Conference on &amp;lsquo;Mainstreaming Human Security- an Asian Perspective&amp;rsquo; (October 3-4, 2007) organised by Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&quot;&gt;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2021 (released in August, 2022)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Chapter%202%20Suicides%20in%20India.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; An increase of nearly 7.2 percent was noticed in suicides during 2021 (1,64,033 suicides) as compared to 2020 (1,53,052 suicides). The rate of suicides has risen by 0.7 points during 2021 (i.e. 12.0 per lakh population) over 2020 (i.e. 11.3 per lakh population). Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Chapter%202%20Suicides%20in%20India.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,318 farmers/cultivators committed suicides during 2021, accounting for 3.24 percent of total suicide victims in India. However, 5,563 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2021, which is nearly 3.39 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,881 in 2021, accounting for roughly 6.63 percent of total suicide victims in the country. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,107 male farmers/ cultivators and 211 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 96.03 percent and 3.97 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,318) in 2021, respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 4,806 in 2021. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&amp;#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 512. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,121 male agricultural labourers and 442 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 92.05 percent and 7.95 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,563) in 2021, respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Manipur, Odisha, Tripura, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Chandigarh, Lakshadweep, and Puducherry reported zero number of suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers in 2021. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2021 were recorded in Maharashtra (4,064, which is around 37.35 percent of total farm suicides i.e. 10,881), followed by Karnataka (2,169), Andhra Pradesh (1,065), Madhya Pradesh (671), Tamil Nadu (599), and Telangana (359). Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2021 were reported from Maharashtra (2,640, which is around 49.64 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,170), Andhra Pradesh (481) and Telangana (352). Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2021 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,424), followed by Karnataka (999), Andhra Pradesh (584), Madhya Pradesh (554), and Tamil Nadu (538). Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The ADSI 2021 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides committed by daily wage earners in 2021 was 42,004. Most suicides by daily wage earners in 2021 were recorded in Tamil Nadu (7,673), followed by Maharashtra (5,270), Madhya Pradesh (4,657), and Telangana (4,223). Figures of daily wage earner excludes agricultural labourer. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;---&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/News%20alerts%20on%20Rural%20Distress%20in%20India%281%29.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access the news alerts on India&amp;rsquo;s agrarian crisis and rural distress by Inclusive Media for Change.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2020 (released in October, 2021)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/adsi2020_Chapter-2-Suicides-1.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; An increase of about 10.01 percent was observed in suicides during 2020 (1,53,052 suicides) as compared to 2019 (1,39,123 suicides). The rate of suicides has increased by 0.9 points during 2020 (viz. 11.3 per lakh population) over 2019 (viz. 10.4 per lakh population). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/adsi2020_Chapter-2-Suicides-1.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,579 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2020, accounting for 3.65 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 5,098 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2020, which is nearly 3.33 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,677 in 2020, accounting for nearly 7.0 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/adsi2020_Chapter-2-Suicides-1.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,335 male farmers/ cultivators and 244 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 95.63 percent and 4.37 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,579) in 2020, respectively. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 4,940 in 2020. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&amp;#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 639. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 4,621 male agricultural labourers and 477 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 90.64 percent and 9.36 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,098) in 2020, respectively. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, Bihar, Nagaland, Tripura, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Chandigarh, Delhi (UT), Ladakh, Lakshadweeep and Puducherry reported zero number of suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers in 2020. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2020 were recorded in Maharashtra (4,006, which is around 37.52 percent of total farm suicides viz. 10,677), followed by Karnataka (2,016), Andhra Pradesh (889), Madhya Pradesh (735) and Chhattisgarh (537). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2020 were reported from Maharashtra (2,567, which is around 46.01 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,072), Andhra Pradesh (564) and Telangana (466). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2020 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,439), followed by Karnataka (944), Tamil Nadu (398), Kerala (341) and Andhra Pradesh (325). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The ADSI 2020 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2019 (released in September, 2020)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Table-2.6_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Table-2.7_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A rise of almost 3.4 percent was observed in suicides during 2019 (1,39,123 suicides) as compared to 2018 (1,34,516 suicides). The rate of suicides has increased by 0.2 points during 2019 (viz. 10.4 per lakh population) over 2018 (viz. 10.2 per lakh population). Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,957 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2019, accounting for 4.3 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 4,324 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2019, which is nearly 3.1 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,281 in 2019, accounting for nearly 7.4 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.6_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,563 male farmers/ cultivators and 394 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 93.4 percent and 6.6 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,957) in 2019, respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 5,129. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.6_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&amp;#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 828. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.6_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 3,749 male agricultural labourers and 575 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 86.7 percent and 13.3 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 4,324) in 2019, respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Chandigarh, Daman &amp;amp; Diu, Delhi UT, Lakshadweep and Puducherry reported zero suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2019 were recorded in Maharashtra (3,927, which is around 38.2 percent of total farm suicides viz. 10,281), followed by Karnataka (1,992), Andhra Pradesh (1,029), Madhya Pradesh (541) and Telangana and Chhattisgarh (each 499). Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.7_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2019 were reported from Maharashtra (2,680, which is around 45 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,331), Andhra Pradesh (628) and Telangana (491). Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.7_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2019 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,247), followed by Karnataka (661), Tamil Nadu (421), Andhra Pradesh (401) and Madhya Pradesh (399). Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.7_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The ADSI 2019 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2018 (released in January, 2020)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A rise of almost 3.6 percent was observed in suicides during 2018 (1,34,516 suicides) as compared to 2017 (1,29,887 suicides). The rate of suicides has increased by 0.3 points during 2018 (viz. 10.2 per lakh population) over 2017 (viz. 9.9 per lakh population). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,763 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2018, accounting for 4.28 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 4,586 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2018, which is nearly 3.41 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,349 in 2018, accounting for nearly 7.69 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,457 male farmers/ cultivators and 306 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 94.69 percent and 5.31 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,763), respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 5,088. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&amp;#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 675. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 4,071 male agricultural labourers and 515 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 88.77 percent and 11.23 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 4,586), respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Goa, Chandigarh, Daman &amp;amp; Diu, Delhi UT, Lakshadweep and Puducherry reported zero suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2018 were recorded in Maharashtra (3,594, which is around 34.73 percent of total farm suicides viz. 10,349), followed by Karnataka (2,405), Telangana (908), Andhra Pradesh (664) and Madhya Pradesh (655). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2018 were reported from Maharashtra (2,239, which is around 38.85 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,365), Telangana (900), Andhra Pradesh (365) and Madhya Pradesh (303). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2018 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,355), followed by Karnataka (1,040), Tamil Nadu (395), Madhya Pradesh (352) and Andhra Pradesh (299). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The ADSI 2018 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2017 (released in January, 2020)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2017&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2017&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A decline of almost -0.9 percent was observed in suicides during 2017 (1,29,887 suicides) as compared to 2016 (1,31,008 suicides). The rate of suicides has decreased by -0.4 points during 2017 (viz. 9.9 per lakh population) over 2016 (viz. 10.3 per lakh population). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,955 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2017, accounting for 4.58 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 4,700 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2017, which is nearly 3.62 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,655 in 2017, accounting for almost 8.2 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2017&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,633 male farmers/ cultivators and 322 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 94.59 percent and 5.41 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,955), respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 5,203.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&amp;#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 752.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 4,219 male agricultural labourers and 480 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 89.77 percent and 10.21 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 4,700), respectively. One agricultural labourer was transgender.&amp;nbsp; Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Certain States/UTs namely, West Bengal, Odisha, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Uttarakhand, Chandigarh UT, Dadra &amp;amp; Nagar Haveli, Daman &amp;amp; Diu, Delhi UT, Lakshadweep and Puducherry reported zero suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2017 were recorded in Maharashtra (3,701, which is around 34.73 percent of total farm suicides viz. 10,655), followed by Karnataka (2,160), Madhya Pradesh (955), Telangana (851) and Andhra Pradesh (816). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2017&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2017 were reported from Maharashtra (2,426, which is around 40.74 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,157), Telangana (846), Madhya Pradesh (429) and Andhra Pradesh (375). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2017&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2017 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,275), followed by Karnataka (1,003), Madhya Pradesh (526), Andhra Pradesh (441) and Tamil Nadu (369). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2017&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The ADSI 2017 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2016 (released in November, 2019)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/NCRB%20snapshots.pdf&quot; title=&quot;NCRB snapshots&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.6%20farm%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.6 farm suicides&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.7%20farm%20suicide.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.7 farm suicide&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A decline of almost -2.0 percent was observed in suicides during 2016 (1,31,008 suicides) as compared to 2015 (1,33,623 suicides). The rate of suicides has decreased by -0.3 points during 2016 (viz. 10.3 per lakh population) over 2015 (viz. 10.6 per lakh population). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/NCRB%20snapshots.pdf&quot; title=&quot;NCRB snapshots&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 6,270 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2016, accounting for 4.79 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 5,109 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2016, which is nearly 3.9 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 11,379 in 2016, accounting for roughly 8.7 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.6%20farm%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.6 farm suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,995 male farmers/ cultivators and 275 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 95.61 percent and 4.39 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 6,270), respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides_1.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 4,476 male agricultural labourers and 633 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 87.61 percent and 12.39 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,109), respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides_1.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, West Bengal, Bihar, Nagaland, Chandigarh, Dadar &amp;amp; Nagar Haveli, Daman &amp;amp; Diu, Delhi UT and Lakshadweep reported zero suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides_1.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2016 were recorded in Maharashtra (3,661), followed by Karnataka (2,079), Madhya Pradesh (1,321), Andhra Pradesh (804) and Chhattisgarh (682). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.7%20farm%20suicide.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.7 farm suicide&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2016 were reported from Maharashtra (2,550, which is around 40.7 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,212), Telangana (632), Madhya Pradesh (599) and Chhattisgarh (585). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.7%20farm%20suicide.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.7 farm suicide&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2016 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,111), followed by Karnataka (867), Madhya Pradesh (722), Andhra Pradesh (565) and Gujarat (378). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.7%20farm%20suicide.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.7 farm suicide&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The ADSI 2016 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2015 (released in 2016)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Suicides%20in%20farming%20sector.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Suicides in farming sector&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Altogether 1,33,623 persons in India committed suicide in 2015 (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Suicides%20in%20India.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Suicides in India 2015&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 8,007 farmers/ cultivators have committed suicides during 2015, accounting for 5.99 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 4,595 agricultural labourers have committed suicides during 2015, which is 3.44 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 12,602 in 2015, accounting for 9.43 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Suicides%20in%20farming%20sector.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Suicides in farming sector&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 7,566 male farmers/ cultivators and 441 female farmers/ cultivators have committed suicides, accounting for 94.49 percent and 5.51 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides, respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Suicides%20in%20farming%20sector.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Suicides in farming sector&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Land holding status of farmers who committed suicide reveals that 27.41 percent and 45.19 percent of victims were marginal farmers and small farmers respectively. They together accounted for 72.59 percent (5,813 out of 8,007) of total farmer suicides (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Land%20Holding%20Status%20of%20Farmers%20committing%20Suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Land Holding Status of Farmers committing Suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Majority of suicides committed by farmers/ cultivators were reported in Maharashtra (3,030) followed by 1,358 such suicides in Telangana and 1,197 suicides in Karnataka, accounting for 37.8 percent, 17.0 percent and 14.9 percent of total such suicides (8,007) respectively during 2015. Chhattisgarh (854 suicides), Madhya Pradesh (581 suicides) and Andhra Pradesh (516 suicides) accounted for 10.7 percent, 7.3 percent and 6.4 percent of the total farmer/ cultivators suicides reported in the country respectively. These 6 states together reported 94.1 percent of the total farmer/ cultivators suicides (7,536 out of 8,007 suicides) in the country during 2015.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; &amp;#39;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;#39; and &amp;#39;Farming Related Issues&amp;#39; are reported as major causes of suicides among farmers/ cultivators, accounting for 38.7 percent (3,097 out of 8,007 suicides) and 19.5 percent (1,562 out of 8,007 suicides) of total such suicides respectively during 2015. The other prominent causes of farmer/ cultivators suicides were &amp;#39;Family Problems&amp;#39; (933 suicides), &amp;#39;Illness&amp;#39; (842 suicides) and &amp;#39;Drug Abuse/Alcoholic Addiction&amp;#39; (330 suicides), accounting for 11.7 percent, 10.5 percent and 4.1 percent of total farmers/cultivators` suicides respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; During 2015, major causes of suicides among male farmers/ cultivators were reported as &amp;#39;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;#39; (2,978 suicides) and &amp;#39;Farming Related Issues&amp;#39; (1,494 suicides), which accounted for 39.4 percent and 19.7 percent of total male farmers/ cultivators suicides respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Among female farmers/ cultivators suicides, &amp;#39;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;#39; followed by &amp;#39;Family Problems&amp;#39;, were major causes of suicides, accounting for 27.0 percent (119 out of 441 suicides) and 18.1 percent (80 suicides) of total suicides by female farmers/ cultivators respectively during 2015. &amp;#39;Farming Related Issues&amp;#39; and &amp;#39;Illness&amp;#39; both accounted for 15.4 percent (68 suicides each) during 2015.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; &amp;#39;Family Problems&amp;#39; and &amp;#39;Illness&amp;#39; were major causes of suicides among agricultural labourers accounting for 40.1 percent (1,843 out of 4,595 suicides) and 19.0 percent (872 out of 4,595 suicides) respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; 79.0 percent of farmer/ cultivator suicides in Karnataka and 42.7 percent of farmer/ cultivator suicides in Maharashtra were due to &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;rsquo;. 26.2 percent of farmer/ cultivator suicides in Maharashtra were also due to &amp;#39;Farming Related Issues (Related to Failure of Crop)&amp;#39;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Farmers/ cultivators belonging to 30 years - below 60 years of age group have accounted for 71.6 percent of total farmers/ cultivators&amp;rsquo; suicides during 2015.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; 9.0 percent of farmers/ cultivators who have committed suicides were in age group of 60 years &amp;amp; above.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The states of Bihar, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu &amp;amp; Kashmir, Jharkhand, Mizoram, Nagaland, Uttarakhand and West Bengal have reported no farmers&amp;#39; suicide during 2015. All the 7 Union Territories have reported zero number of farmers&amp;#39; suicide during 2015 (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Incidence%20and%20Percentage%20Change%20in%20Suicides%20in%20Farming%20Sector%20during%202015.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Incidence and Percentage Change in Suicides in Farming Sector in 2015&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The states of Goa, Manipur, Nagaland and West Bengal have reported no suicide by agricultural labourers during 2015. All the Union Territories except Puducherry (12) have reported zero suicide by agricultural labourers during 2015 (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Incidence%20and%20Percentage%20Change%20in%20Suicides%20in%20Farming%20Sector%20during%202015.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Incidence and Percentage Change in Suicides in Farming Sector in 2015&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Comprehensive data on &amp;lsquo;Suicides in Farming Sector&amp;rsquo; comprising of suicides committed by farmers/ cultivators and agricultural labourers in exclusive Chapter-2A have been collected and published in consultation with Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare under overall supervision of Ministry of Home Affairs, in order to present a comprehensive analysis on suicides in the farming sector. In previous edition (till ADSI 2013), this chapter contained data on suicides committed by farmers/cultivators only.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2014 (released in 2015)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2A%20farmer%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI NCRB 2014 Farmers Suicide&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Altogether 1,31,666 persons in India committed suicide in 2014.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,650 farmers have committed suicides during 2014, accounting for 4.3% of total suicide victims in the country. However, 6,710 agricultural labourers have committed suicides during 2014, which is 5.1% of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides committed by persons engaged in agriculture (farmers plus agricultural labourers) in India was 12,360 in 2014, accounting for 9.4% of total suicide victims in India (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2.7.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,178 male farmers and 472 female farmers have committed suicides, accounting for 91.6% and 8.4% of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Land holding status of farmers who committed suicide reveals that 44.5% and 27.9% of victims were small farmers and marginal farmers respectively. They together accounted for 72.4% (4,095 out of 5,650) total farmer suicides (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2A.3.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 2,568 farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides were reported in Maharashtra followed by 898 such suicides in Telangana and 826 suicides in Madhya Pradesh, accounting for 45.5%, 15.9% and 14.6% respectively of total farmer suicides during 2014. Chhattisgarh (443 suicides) and Karnataka (321 suicides) accounted for 7.8% and 5.7% respectively of the total farmer suicides reported in the country. These 5 States together accounted for 89.5% of the total farmer suicides (5,056 out of 5,650) reported in the country during 2014.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;rsquo; and &amp;lsquo;Family Problems&amp;rsquo; are major causes of suicides, accounting for 20.6% and 20.1% respectively of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides during 2014. The other prominent causes of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides were &amp;lsquo;Failure of Crop&amp;rsquo; (16.8%), &amp;lsquo;Illness&amp;rsquo; (13.2%) and &amp;lsquo;Drug Abuse/Alcoholic Addiction&amp;rsquo; (4.9%).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; During 2014, major causes of suicides among male farmers were &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;rsquo; and &amp;lsquo;Family Problems&amp;rsquo;, which accounted for 21.5% and 20.0% respectively of total male farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Whereas, in female farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides, &amp;lsquo;Farming Related Issues&amp;rsquo; followed by &amp;lsquo;Family Problems&amp;rsquo;, &amp;lsquo;Marriage Related Issues&amp;rsquo; and &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;rsquo; were major causes of suicides, accounting for 21.4% (101 out of 472 suicides), 20.6% (97 suicides), 12.3% (58 suicides) and 10.8% (51 suicides) respectively during 2014.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Nearly 33.4% suicides in Maharashtra and 23.2% in Telangana were due to &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;rsquo;. 87.5% of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides due to &amp;lsquo;Failure of Crop&amp;rsquo; were reported in Himachal Pradesh. 4.7% farmers in Himachal Pradesh, 4.1% farmers in Jharkhand and 2.7% farmers each in Bihar, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh have committed suicides due to &amp;lsquo;Suspected/ Illicit Relation&amp;rsquo;. 6.5% suicides by farmers in Sikkim followed by 2.3% in Himachal Pradesh and 2.0% in Puducherry were due to &amp;lsquo;Cancellation/ Non Settlement of Marriage&amp;rsquo;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The states of West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Tripura, Rajasthan, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Manipur, Jharkhand, Goa, Arunachal Pradesh and Bihar have reported no farmers&amp;#39; suicide during 2014. All the Union Territories except Andaman and Nicobar Islands have reported zero farmers&amp;#39; suicide during 2014 (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2.7.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The states of Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Goa, Manipur and Nagaland have reported no suicide by agricultural labourers during 2014. All the Union Territories except Puducherry have reported zero suicide by agricultural labourers during 2014 (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2.7.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The latest issue of the ADSI report is different from the earlier ones in two ways: a. Apart from the usual male and female break-up of data, one also gets data pertaining to transgenders (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2.7.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access), which was missing earlier; b. There is a separate chapter (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/chapter-2A%20farmer%20suicides.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access) and 3 tables (in the annexure, please click &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2A.1.pdf&quot;&gt;link1&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2A.2.pdf&quot;&gt;link2&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2A.3.pdf&quot;&gt;link3&lt;/a&gt;) on farmer suicides in India and at state/UT-level, which did not exist in earlier reports. In the previous ADSI reports, one had to extract data on farmers&amp;#39; suicide from the table on distribution of suicides by profession. Suicides committed by self-employed persons in agriculture gave the proxy of the figure on farmers&amp;#39; suicide.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Unlike the previous ones, in the present ADSI report suicides by self-employed persons in agriculture has been sub-divided into suicides by agricultural labourers and suicides by farmers. Suicides by farmers has been further subdivided (in the current report) into suicide by farmers having own land and suicide by farmers having land on contract or lease.&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
According to National Crime Records Bureau&amp;#39;s [inside]Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India 2013 (released in 2014)[/inside] report, &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Altogether 1,34,799 persons in India committed suicide in 2013.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Nearly, 11,772 persons self-employed in farming/agriculture (can be loosely termed as farmers) committed suicide during 2013. They constitute 8.73 percent of total number of suicides committed during the same year.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Among the 11,772 no. of persons self-employed in farming/agriculture who committed suicide, 10489 are men (89.1%) and 1283 are women (10.9%).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Rate of suicides, i.e., the number of suicides per one lakh population, has been widely accepted as a standard yardstick. The national rate of suicides was 11.0 during the year 2013. Puducherry reported the highest rate of suicide (35.6).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In 2013, the highest incidents of 16,622 suicides were reported in Maharashtra followed by 16,601 suicides in Tamil Nadu accounting for 12.3% each of total suicides. Andhra Pradesh (14,607 suicides), West Bengal (13,055 suicides) and Karnataka (11,266 suicides) accounted for 10.8%, 9.7% and 8.4% respectively of the total suicides reported in the country. These 5 States together accounted for 53.5% of the total suicides reported in India.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Delhi has reported the highest number of suicides (2,059) among UTs, followed by Puducherry (546) during 2013.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;lsquo;Family Problems&amp;rsquo; and &amp;lsquo;Illness&amp;rsquo;, accounting for 24.0% and 19.6% respectively, were the major causes of suicides among the specified causes. &amp;lsquo;Drug Abuse/Addiction&amp;rsquo; (3.4%), &amp;lsquo;Love Affairs&amp;rsquo; (3.3%), &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Sudden change in economic Status&amp;rsquo; (2.0%), &amp;#39;Failure in Examination&amp;rsquo; (1.8%), &amp;lsquo;Dowry Dispute&amp;rsquo; (1.7%) and &amp;lsquo;Unemployment&amp;rsquo; (1.6%) were the other causes of suicides. Suicides due to &amp;lsquo;Illegitimate Pregnancy (64.5%), &amp;lsquo;Fall in Social Reputation&amp;rsquo; (49.4%), &amp;lsquo;Professional/ Career Problem&amp;rsquo; (40.8%), &amp;lsquo;Divorce&amp;rsquo; (35.7%), and &amp;lsquo;Cancellation/Non-Settlement of Marriage&amp;rsquo; (33.5%) have increased in 2013 over 2012, while for poverty and property dispute have declined as compared to previous year.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; It was observed that 69.4% of the suicide victims were married while 23.6% were Never Married/Spinster. Divorcees and Separated have accounted for about 3.2% of the total suicide victims. The proportion of Widowed &amp;amp; Widower victims was around 3.7%.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
According to [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India-2012[/inside], &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/&lt;/a&gt;:&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; 15 Suicides took place in India every hour during 2012.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; It is observed that social and economic causes have led most of the males to commit suicides whereas emotional and personal causes have mainly driven females to end their lives.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Nearly 71.6% of the suicide victims were married males while 67.9% were married females. 1 suicide out of every 6 suicides was committed by a &amp;lsquo;housewife&amp;rsquo;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Tamil Nadu has reported the highest number of suicide victims in 2010 (accounting for 12.3%), third highest in 2011 (accounting for 11.8%) and highest in 2012 (accounting for 14.0%).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Southern States viz. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu including Maharashtra have together accounted for 50.6% of total suicides reported in the country.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Self employed category accounted for 38.7% of suicide victims in 2012.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
According to the article titled [inside]Farmers&amp;#39; suicides and the state in India: Conceptual and ethnographic notes from Wayanad, Kerala[/inside] by Daniel M&amp;uuml;nster, Contributions to Indian Sociology 2012 46: 181, &lt;a href=&quot;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&quot;&gt;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&lt;/a&gt;:&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides are invariably linked to and almost synonymous with the&amp;mdash;equally composite&amp;mdash;agrarian crisis in the aftermath of neoliberal &amp;lsquo;reform&amp;rsquo;. Most of the writing on the subject is based on the same set of data (statistical data of the National Crime Records Bureau) or on journalistic visits to suicide &amp;lsquo;hotspots&amp;rsquo;. So far few ethnographic accounts, committed to qualitative research in suicide prone areas, have been published.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The present study is an ethnographic report from the field in the South Indian district Wayanad, one of the officially designated suicide-prone districts. The primary aim behind the research is to analyse the state&amp;rsquo;s responses to farmer suicides: the bundle of relief packages, inquiry commissions, rural employment schemes and debt relief commissions that were set up in recent years partially as a response to reports on increasing numbers of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides. Such investigation may eventually contribute to an understanding &amp;lsquo;of precisely how neoliberal globalization is transforming the re-distributive functions of the Indian state or affecting its legitimacy and identity as an agency of social welfare&amp;rsquo;. This article makes a strong case for grounding the study of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides in ethnographies of agrarian practice and the local developmental state.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides provide rural citizens with a language to speak about politics, citizenship and development in the context of neoliberalising agriculture.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The research is intended to conceive farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides as an highly over-determined interface between &amp;lsquo;state&amp;rsquo; and rural society; an interface in two senses: first as a drastic image, repeatedly invoked to speak about rural distress and the widespread agrarian crisis in neoliberal India and to address the failure of the nation state to protect its agrarian classes; second, as a set of actually existing practices&amp;mdash; suicides&amp;mdash;which force state agencies to show presence in social settings, which they had allegedly neglected.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In Wayanad neither cotton, nor GM seeds, nor global agri-corporations play a significant role. Not all suicides in Wayanad were related to agrarian distress. For many decades Kerala has had high suicide rates, many with multiple causes: family problems, alcoholism (extremely widespread in Wayanad), health issues, &amp;lsquo;love failure&amp;rsquo;, or debt.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The 1980s and 1990s brought unprecedented wealth to Wayanad. In the late-1980s up until the late-1990s, many farmers of Wayanad especially pepper growers in the &amp;lsquo;Pepper Panchayats&amp;rsquo; of Pulpalli, Mullankolli and Poothadi, became wealthy. Wayanad became an important earner of foreign currency in Kerala. Farmers, even relatively small farmers who owned around two acres could afford constructing large houses.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The end of the 1990s hit Wayanad&amp;rsquo;s agrarian economy in a series of crises. First, the world market prices for cash-crops dropped dramatically. Local rates for pepper (ungarbled) dropped from 270 INR/Kg in 1997 to 54 INR/Kg in 2001, coffee dropped from 60 INR/Kg in 1997 to 16 INR/Kg in 2002 and vanilla, most dramatically dropped from 4300 INR/Kg in 2003 to 25 INR/Kg in 2006. Prices had fluctuated before, most cultivators remembered price crashes in the late-1970s, but this time they were accompanied by a second crisis: a dramatic drop in productivity.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Since the late-1990s Wayanad has been facing a serious ecological crisis. During the boom years cash-croppers heavily overused chemical fertilisers and pesticides in order to keep productivity high and profitable. The soil is now depleted beyond redemption and some Panchayats of Wayanad suffer from increased incidences of cancer. Furthermore new diseases started to affect plantations. &amp;lsquo;Quick wilt&amp;rsquo;, &amp;lsquo;slow wilt&amp;rsquo; and &amp;lsquo;foot rot&amp;rsquo; are their names, and all share the ability to destroy whole plantations quickly.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; When prices crashed and plantations died, many farmers and neo-farmers were left with heavy debts. When, eventually the recovery notices of the banks arrived, hundreds of farmers, especially marginal landholders with up to two acres of land, drank pesticides and killed themselves.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Another economic practice emerged since the late-1990s and has a strong correlation with suicide cases. Many suicide victims had invested in the cultivation of ginger in neighbouring Kodagu (formerly Coorg) district. The return from ginger cultivation could also be nil. There is an almost 50 per cent chance that the ginger plant is going to be affected by a fungus that would spread quickly across the fields and destroy the plantation within days.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Husbands very often did not even talk about their debt burden to wives and children: they just changed their character, became abusive and started to drink more heavily. Many widows shared later that they had no idea of their husbands&amp;rsquo; debts, and were not involved in agricultural matters at all. This made it all the more difficult for them to deal subsequently with the stigma, poverty and political instrumentalisation they were to experience.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; One of author&amp;#39;s original research questions was also to consider farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides as suicides against the state. This link was difficult to establish in Wayanad.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Farmers who killed themselves knew that they were part of a district-wide if not all-India epidemic, that their suicide would attract considerable&amp;nbsp; attention from the media, NGOs as well as state agencies and also&amp;mdash;controversially&amp;mdash;that the state might eventually take care of their families, write off their debt and pay compensation of 50,000 INR.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Most farmers the author spoke to, whether activists or not, were quite knowledgeable about the removal of quantitative restrictions on imports and the dismantling of import duties for agrarian products under the GATT regime as the main reasons for the fall in prices of agrarian cash-crops. They would speak of cheap coffee and pepper coming from Vietnam and Sri Lanka that keeps flooding the market and later to be resold as premium Wayanad pepper. Second, they articulated the retreat of the state, the cut of input subsidies and low investments in irrigation and infrastructure. They would speak of the government that always cheated, gave no security to the farmers, had no procurement policy and provided no minimum price.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The official all-India suicide-rate (suicide rate is the incidence of suicide mortality per 100,000 inhabitants) has for the last 10 years constantly been around 10.5 and hence not extraordinarily inflated. Kerala&amp;rsquo;s official suicide-rate was 26.8 which is more than twice the national average and the third highest in India (after Pondicherry and Andaman &amp;amp; Nicobar Islands) and had been so for the last years. Within Kerala there are two districts that have been given the recent status of &amp;lsquo;suicide-prone districts&amp;rsquo;: Idukki and Wayanad. Even though suicides are statistically well captured, there is a considerable fluctuation in the number of reported farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The &amp;lsquo;Accidental Deaths and Suicides (ADSI)&amp;rsquo; annual report (National Crime Records Bureau 2007) is the only official source of information. It lists the distribution of suicidal death by state, gender, marital status, causes of suicide, means adopted and profession. According to K. Nagaraj, the professional category farmer (although still unspecific) is a relatively recent category in the ADSI reports: &amp;lsquo;The category self-employed (farming/agriculture)&amp;mdash;which can be taken as representing the farmers&amp;mdash;was added for the first time in 1995 (...)&amp;rsquo; (Nagaraj 2008: 2).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The suicide rate for farmers can be calculated only for the year 2001, this being the first year that statistical data on farmers were recorded in the Census of India. On an all-India basis this does not make for highly inflated suicide rates among farmers: 15.8 among the main cultivators as compared to 10.6 of the general population. An entirely different perspective emerges, however, if one takes into account the fact that numbers of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides vary significantly across India. For Kerala, a suicide rate among main cultivators of 176.5 emerges, and the figure is still 142.9 if all cultivators are considered. Those numbers are alarming indeed.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; For all-India the official number in the ADSI reports is 190,753 farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides from 1995 to 2006. That makes an average of 16,000 suicides per year, which is still an underestimation since some major states have not reported on farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The status of farmer (cultivator) is based on the criterion of title to land. This leaves out women, tenant farmers, agricultural labourers, but also regular farmers if the land title was in the father&amp;rsquo;s or son&amp;rsquo;s name. A stringent criterion for agriculture-related suicide would be the absence of any other cause neighbours might mention (such as alcoholism or family problems).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The local practice of identifying farmers&amp;rsquo; suicide became additionally complicated after 2004 by the decision of the new LDF government to actually pay a compensation of 50,000 INR to all families with cases of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides out of the Chief Minister&amp;rsquo;s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In the beginning, as a populist measure, the criteria were handled rather loosely and compensation was paid rather freely. The first compensation cheques were handed over during public functions under great media attention. Later, both to be able to present the success of the other relief measures of the new state and union governments and to curb costs, the practice became more stringent. The debt still had to be the cause of suicide, but now it had to be an institutional credit (excluding debt with moneylenders) and the loan had to have been taken for agricultural purposes (excluding consumer loans).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In Wayanad, since suicide statistics are directly linked to the payment of compensation through the Revenue Department, the number of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides stagnated during the years 2006 to 2008. &amp;lsquo;Safe Farmers Campaign&amp;rsquo; (SFC), a consortium of eight, mostly Catholic, NGOs (including Shreyas), in 2007 began a large-scale investigation into farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides that ran parallel to the state&amp;rsquo;s efforts of enumeration and classification. Taking police reports of suicides as a starting point and following up all cases from 2000 to March 2008 they have come up with a total number of 1,690 farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (Kerala Social Service Forum 2009). That is nearly four times the figure of 435 officially recognised farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides. The latter number is also the number of beneficiaries of the Chief Minister&amp;rsquo;s (CM) relief fund.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; To avoid further committing of farmers&amp;#39; suicides and because of their political nature, the state compensates only such suicides. The CM fund is the most specific programme that targets only cases of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicide. The Indian state has launched unprecedented relief and rehabilitation measures in response to the suicide crisis.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India-2011[/inside],&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/&lt;/a&gt;:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; 16 Suicides took place in India every hour during 2011.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; It is observed that social and economic causes have led most of the males to commit suicides whereas emotional and personal causes have mainly driven females to end their lives.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Nearly 71.1% of the suicide victims were married males while 68.2% were married females.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; West Bengal has reported the highest number of suicide victims (accounting for 11.5%) in 2009, second highest in 2010 (accounting for 11.9%) and highest in 2011 (accounting for 12.2%). &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; West Bengal (12.2%), Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu (11.8% each), Andhra Pradesh (11.1%) and Karnataka (9.3%), altogether contributed 56.2% of total suicide victims.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Self employed category accounted for 38.3% of suicide victims in 2011. It comprised 10.3% engaged in Farming/ Agriculture activities, 5.3% engaged in Business and 3.1% Professionals. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the report titled [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India-2010[/inside], which is produced by the National Crime Records Bureau,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/&lt;/a&gt;: &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Every hour 15 people committed suicide in India during 2010.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; 1 in every 5 suicides is committed by a Housewife.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Total 3,84,649 accidental deaths were reported in the country during the year 2010.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; It is observed that social and economic causes have led most of the males to commit suicides whereas emotional and personal causes have mainly driven females to end their lives.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Nearly 70.5% of the suicide victims were married males while 67.0% were married females.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; 26.3% of the suicide victims were primary educated and 22.7% were middle educated while 19.8% of victims of suicide were illiterate.&amp;nbsp;Self employed category accounted for 41.1% of suicide victims in 2010. It comprised 11.9% engaged in Farming/ Agriculture activities, 5.3% engaged in Business and 3.0% Professionals.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; 41.1% of suicide victims were self employed while only 7.5% were un-employed.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Suicides because of &amp;lsquo;Family Problems&amp;rsquo; (23.7%) and &amp;rsquo;Illness&amp;rsquo; (21.0%) combined accounted for 44.7% of total Suicides.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; West Bengal has reported the highest number of suicide victims (accounting for 11.9%) in 2008 &amp;amp; 2009 and second highest in 2010 (accounting for 11.9%).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; West Bengal (11.9%), Andhra Pradesh (11.8%), Tamil Nadu (12.3%), Maharashtra (11.8%) and Karnataka (9.4%) contributed 57.2% of total suicide victims.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The highest number of Mass/Family Suicides cases were reported from Bihar (23) followed by Kerala (22) and Madhya Pradesh (21) and Andhra Pradesh (20) out of 109 cases.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to National Crime Records Bureau&amp;#39;s [inside]Accidental Death and Suicide (2009)[/inside],&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/suicides-09.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/suicides-09.pdf&lt;/a&gt;, &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/snapshots.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/snapshots.pdf&lt;/a&gt;, &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;: &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; More than one lakh persons (1,27,151) in the country lost their lives by committing suicide during the year 2009. This indicates an increase of 1.7% over the previous year&amp;#39;s figure (1,25,017).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The total number of suicides in the country during the decade (1999&amp;ndash;2009) has recorded an increase of 15.0% (from 1,10,587 in 1999 to 1,27,151 in 2009).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Self-employed category accounted for 39.8% of suicide victims in 2009. It comprised 13.7% engaged in Farming/Agriculture activities, 6.1% engaged in Business and 2.9% Professionals.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; 55.1% suicide victims in Mizoram were engaged in farming /agriculture activities in 2009. 29.6% suicide victims in Manipur were unemployed.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Despite a fall in number of suicides committed by farmers in 2009 as compared to 2008 in Maharastra (fallen by 930), the state continues to be number one in terms of farmers&amp;#39; suicides for the tenth year (2,872 suicides) as compared to the rest of the states.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The number of suicides committed by farmers in 2009 was 17,368, which was a rise by 1,172 as compared to 2008.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The growth in the number of suicides committed by the farmers has been 7 percent over the last year.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In the year 2009, 1,27,151 persons committed suicides. Within a span of one year, suicide rate in the entire country has increased by 1.7 percent. During the last year, the total number of suicides committed was 1,25,017.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In the year 2009, 348 persons committed suicides on an average every day, out of which 48 persons were farmers. In the year 2004, on an average 47 farmers committed suicides every day, which means one farmer committing suicide in every 30 minutes.&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Private and Public Sector personnel have accounted for 8.4% and 2.3% of the total suicide victims respectively, whereas students and un-employed victims accounted for 5.3% and 7.8% respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Government servants were 1.3% of the total suicide victims, whereas housewives (25,092) accounted for 54.9% of the total female victims and nearly 19.7% of total victims committing suicides.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; 40.9% of salaried and 39.0% of unemployed suicide victims were in the age&amp;ndash;group 30-44 years.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; West Bengal has reported the highest number of suicides (14,648) accounting for 11.5% of total suicides followed by Andhra Pradesh (14,500), Tamil Nadu (14,424), Maharashtra (14,300) and Karnataka (12,195) accounting for 11.4%, 11.3%, 11.2% and 9.6% respectively of the total suicides in the country.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; These 5 States together accounted for 55.1% of the total suicides reported in the country.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; 209 deaths at the national level under Mass/Family suicides consisting of 95 males and 114 females were reported as per the information available. 15 cities also did not furnish information.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The maximum number of suicide victims was educated up to Middle level (23.7%). Illiterate and primary educated persons accounted for 21.4% suicide victims and 23.4% respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Only 3.1% suicide victims were graduates and post-graduates. 51.9% suicide victims in Sikkim were illiterate. 36.5% suicide victims in Gujarat had education upto primary level. 68.1% suicide victims in Mizoram and 59.1% suicide victims in Puducherry had middle level education.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;The study titled [inside]Farmers Suicide: Facts and Possible Policy Interventions (2006) [/inside] prepared by Meeta and Rajiv Lochan, (Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration), &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.yashada.org/organisation/FarmersSuicideExcerpts.pdf&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;http://www.yashada.org/organisation/FarmersSuicideExcerpts.pdf&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:Arial; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;revisits some of the families which two earlier reports (Mishra and Dandekar et al) had also visited and criticises them for not doing a good job of compiling the victims&amp;#39; circumstances meticulously. The authors believe that many reports in the past have exaggerated the connection between debt and suicides whereas in reality a lot of other reasons, including harsh environment, a variety of other reasons and absence of basic health services, also play an equally important role. According to the same study:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The suicide epidemic is said to have its epicentre in Yavatmal district of Maharastra. According to the State Crime Records Bureau, it reported 640, 819, 832, 787 and 786 suicides respectively for the years 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Most of the victims of this epidemic were men, mostly in the age group 30 to 50, married and educated, with more social responsibilities, especially in the form of unmarried daughters and or sisters. There were two things that were common among the victims of suicide. One, a feeling of hopelessness: in being unable to resolve problems and dilemmas of personal life; and in the face of an inability to find funds for various activities or repay loans. Two, the absence of any person, group or institution to whom to turn to in order to seek reliable advice: whether for agricultural operations or for seeking funds or for handling private and personal issues. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;People complained about lack of information on various government sponsored schemes. There was little knowledge about institutional mechanisms like the minimum support price (MSP) that would affect marketing, technical knowledge was low and there were no reliable sources from where such knowledge and advice could be accessed. Most farmers were not informed about crop insurance. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Most of them who committed suicide were Hindus and not Muslims or Christians. This is because Hindu religion allowed certain circumstances for altruistic suicide, whereas the latter two religions frowned upon suicides. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Chronic alcoholism and drug abuse were found among rural population.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Loan from a rapacious relative rather than a bank or moneylender was often the cause of economic distress for the victim. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The 10 point suggestions are:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;1. Enhance the physical interaction between government functionaries and village society by insisting on more tours, night halts and gram sabhas by officers at all levels of the administration.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;2. Actively monitor local society, especially farmers, for signs of social, economic and psychological distress and if possible provide social, psychological or spiritual counseling.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;3. Implement with rigour the various provisions that already exist to safeguard the interests of the farmer and farm workers for example, the existing money lending act, minimum wage act etc. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;4. Increase the efficiency of agriculture extension activities. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;5. Increase the efficiency of various services that are delivered by the government in the name of people&amp;#39;s welfare at the moment. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;6. Make available trained and salaried individuals to serve the rural population. Immediate succour is needed. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;7. For the long-term change, it is important to improve the condition of school education and provide appropriate vocational education at the village and taluka level so as to make people understand the complexities of present day production and marketing techniques.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;8. Counsel the media to stop highlighting suicide since the fact of highlighting suicide itself adds fuel to the suicide fire as it were. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;9. Instead of ex gratia payment being made to families of those who commit suicide, provide employment to a member of the family or help in setting up a small business. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;10. Provide direct cash subsidies to actual cultivators.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;According to [inside]Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicide in India: Agrarian Crisis, Path of Development and Politics in Karnataka[/inside] by Muzaffar Assadi,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/10.1.1.544.330.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The beginning of agrarian crisis requires being located much earlier to the beginning of suicide, which goes back to the 1980s when the terms of trade were going against agriculture. To oppose State policies, farmers&amp;rsquo; movements were led by Shetkari Sangathana in Maharashtra, Vyavasayigal Sangam in Tamil Nadu, and Rajya Raitha Sangh in Karnataka. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Karnataka has no history of farmers committing suicide even during the situation of acute agrarian crisis. Even the unorganised farmers would resort to other tactics such as throwing the agricultural commodities on the roads, burning their crops, etc. Andhra became the harbinger for such a trend in Karnataka. Suicide in Karnataka was first reported in the northern parts of Karnataka or close to the border areas of Andhra Pradesh.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The beginning of the suicides can be traced back to the year 1998, when two farmers in Bidar, who were involved in cultivating Tur Dal, a market-oriented agricultural crop committed suicide. In the initial two years, farmer suicides were largely concentrated in the drought-prone districts in north Karnataka, or confined to economically backward, drought-prone regions such as Gulbarga and Bidar. However, after 2000 , the phenomenon shifted to relatively advanced agricultural regions, particularly Mandya, Hassan, Shimoga, Davanagere, Koppal and even Chickmagalur Kodagu and it also covered ground water region (Belgaum), assured rain fall region (Haveri), Sugar Cane and Cauvery Irrigation Belt (Mandya). However, in the coastal belt, the number of suicides reported was less.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;During 1999-2001, it was estimated that 110 farmers committed suicide in Karnataka. According to one estimate, 3,000 farmers committed suicide in Karnataka between 1998 and 2006. According to the report prepared by the Crime Branch of Karnataka, the number of suicide under the heading &amp;ldquo;farming and agricultural activity&amp;rdquo; comes to 15,804 between 1998 and 2002. Between 1996 and 2002, 12,889 male farmers committed suicide followed by females (2841). The total number of farmers who committed suicide from 1 April, 2003 to 1 January, 2007 comes to 1193. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Debt burden of the farmers who committed suicide was not uniform. It varied between Rs.5000 to Rs.50000. Many of them had borrowed loan on short-term basis.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The most striking aspect of the crisis, however, is the fact that large number of farmers who committed suicide largely came from the age group between 25 and 35 years.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;During the first few years of this millennium Karnataka saw a deceleration, due to the negative growth in agriculture. This is apparent from the following facts: the average real GDP rate in different sectors between the period 1995-96 and 2002-03 was 5.86; however, for agriculture it was 1.87 per cent, industry 5.93 per cent, service sector 8.18 percent.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;In Karnataka, the large number of farmers who committed suicide came from the OBCs, though there are also cases of farmers committing suicide, hailing from dominant castes such as &lt;em&gt;Lingayats &lt;/em&gt;and &lt;em&gt;Vokkaligas&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The World Bank dictated terms have gone against the interest of the farmers. This is apparent when Karnataka government for example, went for World Bank loan, which granted Economic Restructuring loan in 2001. This loan came along with a condition that government should withdraw from the power sector as regulator and distributor of power. The free power given to the agriculture was withdrawn and it increased the power tariff drastically.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Karnataka government was unable to checkmate the growth of money lenders. It failed to make the cooperative movement a success one. In Karnataka although there are 32,382 Cooperative Societies at the village level, almost 40 cent of them are running under loss, nearly twenty cent of them are either defunct or liquidated.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The Karnataka government is one of the first governments to allow the field trials of &lt;em&gt;Bt &lt;/em&gt;Cotton.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;In 2002, 143 talukas were declared drought affected. In 2003, 159 talukas out of 176 talukas in the state, were declared as drought affected. Drought brought down areas under sowing thus affecting production. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The first debate on farmers&amp;#39; suicide tries to locate the suicide as part of multiple crises. The crises are ecological, economic, and social, each inter-linked with the other. The ecological crisis is the result of intense use of hybrid seeds, chemical fertilisers and pesticides, causing the erosion of soil fertility and increasing crop-susceptibility to pests and diseases. Heavy indebtedness led to the economic crisis. The second debate attempts to locate the crisis or the suicide to the negative growth of agrarian economy in the recent past as argued by Vandana Shiva. She comes closer to the Marxist critique particularly the arguments of Utsa Patnaik wherein the latter locates the reasons in the liberalisation/ neocolonialism or imperialist globalisation. The third debate attempts to locate the reasons for the suicide in adapting the World Bank model of agriculture or what is called McKinsey Model of development that created spaces for industry-driven agriculture which ultimately translated into agri-business development including Information technology. The fourth is the discourse, which attempts to locate the suicide exclusively to one phenomenon, that is, the increasing indebtedness or the debt trap. The final discourse, which came from the state, attempts to locate the reasons in multiple issues, such as the incessant floods, manipulation of prices by traders, supply of spurious pesticides and seeds, decline in prices of agricultural produce, increase in the cost of agricultural inputs, successive drought in recent years, and of course, the neglect of farmers by the previous state government.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Farmers%20Suicides%20in%20India.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Farmers Suicides in India&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access the article entitled [inside]Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India: Magnitudes, Trends, and Spatial Patterns, 1997-2012 by K Nagaraj, P Sainath, R Rukmani and R Gopinath[/inside], Review of Agrarian Studies&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;According to Nagaraj K (2008): [inside]Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India, Magnitudes, Trends and Spatial Patterns[/inside]&lt;em&gt;, &lt;/em&gt;please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/K%20Nagaraj%20Farmers_Suicides_1.pdf&quot; title=&quot;K Nagaraj Farmers_Suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt; :&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Farm suicides happened in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh including Chattisgarh &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;During the ten-year period spanning 1997 to 2006 as many as 166,304 farmers committed suicide in India. If one considers the 12 year period from 1995 to 2006 the figure is close to 200,000.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Going by the official data, on average nearly 16,000 farmers committed suicide every year over the last decade or so.&amp;nbsp; It is also clear that every seventh suicide in the country was a farm suicide.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The year 1998 show a sharp increase in the number of farm suicides &amp;ndash; an 18 percent jump from the previous year; and the number remained more or less steady at around 16,000 suicides per year over the next three years upto 2001. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The average number of farm suicides per year in the five-year span 2002-2006, at 17,513 is substantially higher than the average (of 15,747 per year) for the previous five-year span. Farm suicides have increased at annual compound growth rate of around 2.5 per cent per annum over the period 1997-2006.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Suicides in general are also largely concentrated among males, but the degree of concentration here is significantly lower than in the case of farm suicides: male suicides in the general population account for nearly 62 percent of all suicides in the country.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;According to Hebber, Dr. Ritambhara (2007): [inside]&amp;lsquo;Human Security and the Case of Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India: An Exploration&amp;rsquo;[/inside], Centre for Development Studies, School of Social Sciences, TISS, Paper presented in a panel on Rethinking Development in a Conference on &amp;lsquo;Mainstreaming Human Security- an Asian Perspective&amp;rsquo; (October 3-4, 2007) organised by Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The problem of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides has been seen from the framework of human security. This phenomenon is related to the collapse of basic economic and social support structures in rural India. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The officials while explaining the suicidal deaths have underplayed the structural changes due to green revolution, globalisation and liberalization. The protective measures and mechanisms required to be provided to the ordinary farmers were overlooked. There has been overemphasis on psychological factors while explaining the suicides. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Farmers committed suicides mainly from Maharastra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Such regions are dry regions where agriculture is mainly rain fed. Farmers were growing cash crops in such regions such as: cotton (particularly in Maharashtra), sunflower, groundnut, and sugarcane (especially in Karnataka). &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Rising cost of production made the farmers to borrow at exorbitant rates from informal sources.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;When the All India Biodynamic and Organic Farming Association wrote to the Mumbai High Court expressing its concern over farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides in Jalna, a district in Maharashtra, the Court asked TISS to conduct a survey study. Based on the survey, the Court asked the Maharastra government to consider the issue seriously. The TISS report identified the untenable cost of agricultural production and indebtedness as the key reasons for suicides. The IGIDR report, on the other hand, did not implicate the government or its policies for the suicides; instead it sought a greater role for government intervention through rural development programmes to expand non-farm activity among farmers.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;A special relief package was announced by the Maharastra government in December, 2005 for six districts of Amravati, Akola, Buldhana, Yavatmal, Washim and Wardha. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Pesticide and fertiliser companies have been extending credit to farmers in Karnataka and in Maharashtra, which adds to their debt burden. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Poor health conditions, family disputes over property, domestic problems, and heavy social burden of marrying daughters coupled with alcoholism have pushed farmers towards committing suicides, according the committee report headed by GK Veeresh. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Farmers&amp;rsquo; movement headed by Shetkari Shangathana was quite strong during the 1980s in Maharastra. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;**page**&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;According to CP Chandrashekhar and Jayati Ghosh (2005): [inside]The Burden of Farmers&amp;rsquo; Debt[/inside], Macroscan, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.macroscan.com/the/food/sep05/fod140905Farmers_Debt.htm&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;http://www.macroscan.com/the/food/sep05/fod140905Farmers_Debt.htm &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;One of the important purpose of taking loans was for spending on &amp;#39;&amp;#39;marriages and ceremonies&amp;#39;&amp;#39;, which however accounted for a much smaller proportion of total loans, at around 11 per cent. This purpose was most important for farmer households of Bihar (22.9 per cent) followed by those in Rajasthan (17.6 per cent). &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Moneylenders have emerged as the most significant source of credit for farmers, with 29 per cent accessing this source. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The influence of moneylenders appears to be especially strong in Bihar (44 per cent) and Rajasthan (40 per cent). Traders &amp;mdash; of both inputs and outputs &amp;mdash; also have provided loans to 12 per cent of indebted farmers. However, institutional sources still remain significant, with more than half of farmers accessing government, co-operative societies and banks taken together &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Average amount of the outstanding loan increases with the size of the land holding, but what is more interesting is that the proportion of indebted farmers also increases with the size class.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Even among very small and marginal farmers, the amount of outstanding loan is substantial, given the likely low incomes from such smallholdings, which suggests some sort of cumulative process leading to a debt trap for the very resource poor cultivators.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;According to [inside]Causes of Farmer Suicides in Maharashtra: AN ENQUIRY, Final Report Submitted to the Mumbai High Court March 15, 2005[/inside], which has been prepared by Ajay Dandekar, Shahaji Narawade, Ram Rathod, Rajesh Ingle, Vijay Kulkarni, and Sateppa YD, please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/farmers_suicide_tiss_report-2005.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;This Report on the farmer suicides in the state of Maharashtra is being submitted as per the Judgment of the Court that made the TISS a consultant in the Public Interest Litigation Number 164 of 2004. The nature of this report is to primarily apprise the Court of the causes that led the farmers to take this extreme step, as per the findings of the research team. The Interim Report was submitted to the Court on February 16, 2005, and this Final Report is being submitted on its due date &amp;mdash; March 16, 2005.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The total numbers of suicides reported in Maharashtra, till December 2004, were 644, with most of the deaths occurring in the Vidharbha, Marathwada and Khandesh regions of the state. Thus, the present investigation concentrated on these regions. Out of the total 644 farmer suicides, a sample of five per cent, i.e., 36 cases were identified for the study.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The TISS team conducted detailed case studies (life history approach) of all the families of the 36 cases;&amp;nbsp;it also conducted several focus group discussions with farmers in each of the 36 villages covered.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Repeated crop failures, inability to meet the rising cost of cultivation, and indebtedness seem to create a situation that forces farmers to commit suicide. However, not all farmers facing these conditions commit suicide &amp;mdash; it is only those who seem to have felt that they have exhausted all avenues of securing support have taken their lives.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;It is not only the landed who have a crisis of indebtedness to deal with. There were a number of landless families who had leased land on a short-/long-term basis by securing loans. It was also noticed that many landless families managed to acquire money through migration to cities and purchased lands in the late eighties and early nineties. Many such families were caught up in cycles of debt and destitution, which ultimately led to the suicide of the head of the family. Thus, the survivors were reduced to landlessness due to debt. Among those committed included medium and large landowners who were also affected by a high level of un-payable debt.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;In the cotton belt, the crop seems to have failed more than once in the last four years. This crop failure has always not been associated with natural calamities, such as failure of rain or un-seasonal rains leading to destruction of crops. The causes are an increase in pest attacks in the last few years, especially from 1995 onwards. This meant that the farmers needed more money to pay for pesticides, though, in the end, a high level of pesticide use did not prevent crop failure.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Longitudinal data available with government sources indicate declining productivity of land. This meant increased use of fertilisers to enhance productivity of land. The information available indicates that farmers have been spending more on fertilisers even while crop performance has been showing a declining trend. The group discussions and case studies point to the fact that the quantity of use of fertiliser per acre rose in the midnineties and has now reached a saturation point. There appears to be a decrease in the production per acre in the same area.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The farmers are dependent on agents of fertiliser and pesticide companies for advice on seeds and crop care. The information base of the farmers is, thus, limited to the data provided by the agents and their products. A false perception of prosperity is being created in the minds of the cultivators that prompts them to take serious risks in terms of fertiliser-based cropping pattern.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Input costs have also exhibited a sharp rise. Agriculture has become more expensive post-1995. This rise in the input cost is reflected in the electricity bills, rising costs of high yielding variety (HYV) seeds, fertilisers, energy (diesel), transportation, etc. The rising input cost is not matched by the crop yield and price obtained. The minimum support price has not been available to all farmers, particularly the small and marginal farmers. Large landowners have been able to benefit from support price, when the government has occasionally provided such support. The absence of support price has had serious implications to the farmers.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Declining opportunities in non-farm employment has further aggravated the crisis. It seems that in areas where suicides have occurred, non-farm options are getting limited.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Those farmers who faced repeated crop failures accumulated loans beyond their capacity to repay. Thus, most of victims had turned defaulters over the last four years. This points to a serious crisis as reflected in the absence of the support system to bail the farmers out, in the form of relatives, neighbours, banks and even the moneylenders who had stopped giving the loans to them lately.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The investment (at 1980&amp;ndash;81 prices) stood at Rs. 1,266 crores in 1950&amp;ndash;51 and rose to Rs. 5,246 crores by 1978-79. However, it has declined since 1978&amp;ndash;79 and was only Rs. 4,692 crores in 1990&amp;ndash;91. The share of agricultural investment came down from 22% in 1950&amp;ndash;51 to 19% in 1980&amp;ndash;81 and even further to about 10% in 1990&amp;ndash;91. This has adversely affected the public sector investment in irrigation as more than 90% of the total public investment in agriculture goes for irrigation. The share of the irrigation sector (in states only) in the total public investment came down from 14.7% in 1980&amp;ndash;81 to only 5.6% in 1990&amp;ndash;91 (at 1980&amp;ndash;81 prices) of the public sector investment, whereas the total increase in investment was at the rate of 6.3% per annum.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;In 1989&amp;ndash;90, the total subsidies to agriculture amounted to Rs. 1,3500 crores &amp;mdash; these were mainly given on fertilisers, irrigation and electricity. These subsidies have gone towards the development of the wealthier farmers in regions where investments have already poured in.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The opening up of Indian agriculture to multinational corporations and the withdrawal of the GoI from this system of production has occurred simultaneously. Moreover, the internal markets have become unstable due to the lowering of tariff barriers. Unfair terms of trade towards agriculture of developing countries have made matters worse for those who are engaged in and/or are dependent on this system of agriculture.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Bio-diversity is under threat due to TRIPS and the WTO. Environmental degradation resulting in deforestation and depletion of water availability (drinking and agriculture), both in quantity and quality, has made the situation more serious. Untenable cost of production in modern agriculture techniques, institutional and low interest credit and the absence of a credible security net (i.e., crop insurance) are not making things easy for the cultivators in the country.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Favourable / Unfavourable agro climatic situation among the State leading to variation in per hectare yield: The agro climatic situation varies from State to State. This leads to variation in per hectare yield. The per hectare yield in Maharashtra State is less in comparison with the yield of other States due to inadequate irrigation facilities and unfavourable agro climatic situations. This leads to more cost of production. However, due to favourable agro climatic situation and sufficient irrigation facilities, the per hectare yield in Haryana and Punjab is more. Therefore, the cost of production of these States is conducive for the States where a particular crop is grown on a large scale. This adversely affects States like Maharashtra who have unfavourable agro climatic situation and higher cost of production. The Minimum Support Prices declared by Government of India does not cover the cost of production of the agriculture producer to the full extent. Therefore, the Minimum Support Prices do not give full justice to the farmers of the State having high cost of production. Therefore, instead of declaring one Minimum Support Price at the National Level, separate support prices may be declared for groups of States according to the cost of cultivation.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;In connection with the price environment for the farmers, it needs to be pointed out that there has been considerable increase in the price of important farm inputs during the last five years. Between 1990&amp;ndash;91and 95&amp;ndash;96 while the prices of wheat as measured by the average of wholesale price indices increased by 58%, that of fertilizer increased by 113%, that of irrigation by 62% and insecticides by 90 percent. While the recent revision in the administered prices of petroleum products, the price of diesel would be higher by 75% than their level during 1990-91. The report further points out that the small and marginal farmers do not get ever get the administered price declared by the state&lt;/p&gt;
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&amp;nbsp;

&amp;bull; Suicide&amp;nbsp;by&amp;nbsp;self-employed&amp;nbsp;persons&amp;nbsp;in&amp;nbsp;agriculture as a&amp;nbsp;percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6 percent in 1996, 16.3 percent in 2002, 14.4 percent in 2006, 13.7 percent in 2009, 11.9 percent in 2010, 10.3 percent in 2011, 11.4 percent...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;KEY TRENDS&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Suicide&amp;nbsp;by&amp;nbsp;self-employed&amp;nbsp;persons&amp;nbsp;in&amp;nbsp;agriculture as a&amp;nbsp;percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6 percent in 1996, 16.3 percent in 2002, 14.4 percent in 2006, 13.7 percent in 2009, 11.9 percent in 2010, 10.3 percent in 2011, 11.4 percent in 2012 and 8.73 percent in 2013. Suicides committed in the farming sector (by farmers plus agricultural labourers) as a proportion of total suicides in India was 9.4 percent in 2014, 9.43 percent in 2015, 8.7 percent in 2016, 8.2 percent in 2017, 7.69 percent in 2018,&amp;nbsp;7.4 percent in 2019, 7.0 percent in 2020, and 6.63 percent in 2021&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides committed by self-employed persons in agriculture in India was 13729 in 1996, 17971 in 2002, 17060 in 2006, 17368 in 2009, 15964 in 2010, 14027 in 2011, 13754 in 2012 and 11772 in 2013. The total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers/ cultivators plus agricultural labourers) was 12,360 in 2014, 12,602 in 2015, 11,379 in 2016, 10,655 in 2017, 10,349 in 2018, 10,281 in 2019, 10,677 in 2020, and 10,881 in 2021&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; Due to drop in world market prices for cash-crops (such as coffee, pepper, vanilla) during late 1990s, failure of ginger cultivation in neighbouring Kodagu (formerly Coorg) district and ecological crisis owing to overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides so as to combat productivity failure, many farmers and neo-farmers were left with heavy debts. When, eventually the recovery notices of the banks arrived, hundreds of farmers, especially marginal landholders with up to two acres of land, drank pesticides and killed themselves &lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; In Wayanad, since suicide statistics are directly linked to the payment of compensation through the Revenue Department, the number of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides stagnated during the years 2006 to 2008. &amp;lsquo;Safe Farmers Campaign&amp;rsquo; (SFC), a consortium of eight, mostly Catholic, NGOs (including Shreyas), in 2007 began a large-scale investigation into farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides that ran parallel to the state&amp;rsquo;s efforts of enumeration and classification. Taking police reports of suicides as a starting point and following up all cases from 2000 to March 2008 they have come up with a total number of 1,690 farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (Kerala Social Service Forum 2009). That is nearly four times the figure of 435 officially recognised farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides. The latter number is also the number of beneficiaries of the Chief Minister&amp;rsquo;s (CM) relief fund &lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; During the ten-year period spanning 1997 to 2006 as many as 1,66,304 farmers committed suicide in India&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; Farm suicides have increased at annual compound growth rate of around 2.5 per cent per annum over the period 1997-2006&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; Farmers, who committed suicides, were growing cash crops in dry regions such as: cotton (particularly in Maharashtra), sunflower, groundnut, and sugarcane (especially in Karnataka) &lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; Farm suicides took place in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh including Chhattisgarh&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; Poor health conditions, family disputes over property, domestic problems, and heavy social burden of marrying daughters coupled with alcoholism have pushed farmers towards committing suicides&lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt; National Crime Records Bureau,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt; Farmers&amp;#39; suicides&amp;nbsp; and the state in India: Conceptual and ethnographic notes from Wayanad, Kerala by Daniel M&amp;uuml;nster, Contributions to Indian Sociology 2012 46: 181, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&quot; title=&quot;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&quot;&gt;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt; Nagaraj, K (2008): Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India, Magnitudes, Trends and Spatial Patterns, Macroscan,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf&quot;&gt;http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt; Hebber, Dr. Ritambhara (2007): &amp;lsquo;Human Security and the Case of Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India: An Exploration&amp;rsquo;, Centre for Development Studies, School of Social Sciences, TISS, Paper presented in a panel on Rethinking Development in a Conference on &amp;lsquo;Mainstreaming Human Security- an Asian Perspective&amp;rsquo; (October 3-4, 2007) organised by Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&quot;&gt;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Pres&lt;br /&gt;entations/Ritambhara.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; 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&bull; Suicide&nbsp;by&nbsp;self-employed&nbsp;persons&nbsp;in&nbsp;agriculture as a&nbsp;percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6 percent in 1996, 16.3 percent in 2002, 14.4 percent in 2006, 13.7 percent in 2009, 11.9 percent in 2010, 10.3 percent in 2011, 11.4 percent..."/>
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                <strong>Farm Suicides</strong></h1>
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                <p style="text-align:justify">KEY TRENDS</p><div style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align:justify">&bull; Suicide&nbsp;by&nbsp;self-employed&nbsp;persons&nbsp;in&nbsp;agriculture as a&nbsp;percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6 percent in 1996, 16.3 percent in 2002, 14.4 percent in 2006, 13.7 percent in 2009, 11.9 percent in 2010, 10.3 percent in 2011, 11.4 percent in 2012 and 8.73 percent in 2013. Suicides committed in the farming sector (by farmers plus agricultural labourers) as a proportion of total suicides in India was 9.4 percent in 2014, 9.43 percent in 2015, 8.7 percent in 2016, 8.2 percent in 2017, 7.69 percent in 2018,&nbsp;7.4 percent in 2019, 7.0 percent in 2020, and 6.63 percent in 2021&nbsp;<strong>#</strong><br /><br />&bull; The total number of suicides committed by self-employed persons in agriculture in India was 13729 in 1996, 17971 in 2002, 17060 in 2006, 17368 in 2009, 15964 in 2010, 14027 in 2011, 13754 in 2012 and 11772 in 2013. The total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers/ cultivators plus agricultural labourers) was 12,360 in 2014, 12,602 in 2015, 11,379 in 2016, 10,655 in 2017, 10,349 in 2018, 10,281 in 2019, 10,677 in 2020, and 10,881 in 2021&nbsp;<strong>#</strong>&nbsp;<br /><br />&bull; Due to drop in world market prices for cash-crops (such as coffee, pepper, vanilla) during late 1990s, failure of ginger cultivation in neighbouring Kodagu (formerly Coorg) district and ecological crisis owing to overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides so as to combat productivity failure, many farmers and neo-farmers were left with heavy debts. When, eventually the recovery notices of the banks arrived, hundreds of farmers, especially marginal landholders with up to two acres of land, drank pesticides and killed themselves <strong>@</strong><br /><br />&bull; In Wayanad, since suicide statistics are directly linked to the payment of compensation through the Revenue Department, the number of farmers&rsquo; suicides stagnated during the years 2006 to 2008. &lsquo;Safe Farmers Campaign&rsquo; (SFC), a consortium of eight, mostly Catholic, NGOs (including Shreyas), in 2007 began a large-scale investigation into farmers&rsquo; suicides that ran parallel to the state&rsquo;s efforts of enumeration and classification. Taking police reports of suicides as a starting point and following up all cases from 2000 to March 2008 they have come up with a total number of 1,690 farmers&rsquo; suicides (Kerala Social Service Forum 2009). That is nearly four times the figure of 435 officially recognised farmers&rsquo; suicides. The latter number is also the number of beneficiaries of the Chief Minister&rsquo;s (CM) relief fund <strong>@</strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /><br />&bull; During the ten-year period spanning 1997 to 2006 as many as 1,66,304 farmers committed suicide in India<strong>*</strong><br /><br />&bull; Farm suicides have increased at annual compound growth rate of around 2.5 per cent per annum over the period 1997-2006<strong>*</strong><br /><br />&bull; Farmers, who committed suicides, were growing cash crops in dry regions such as: cotton (particularly in Maharashtra), sunflower, groundnut, and sugarcane (especially in Karnataka) <strong>**</strong><br /><br />&bull; Farm suicides took place in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh including Chhattisgarh<strong>*</strong><br /><br />&bull; Poor health conditions, family disputes over property, domestic problems, and heavy social burden of marrying daughters coupled with alcoholism have pushed farmers towards committing suicides<strong>**</strong></div><p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:justify"><strong>#</strong> National Crime Records Bureau,&nbsp;<a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/">http://ncrb.nic.in/</a></p><p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html" title="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html">http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html</a></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html" title="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html">http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html</a><br /><br /><a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html" title="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html">http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html</a><br /><br /><a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp" title="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp">http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp</a></p><p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm">http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm</a></p><p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium"><a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm" title="http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm">http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm</a> </span></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf</a></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf</a><em>&nbsp;</em></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf</a><em>&nbsp;</em></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf</a></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf</a></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf</a><em>&nbsp;</em></p><p style="text-align:justify"><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium"><strong>@</strong> Farmers&#39; suicides&nbsp; and the state in India: Conceptual and ethnographic notes from Wayanad, Kerala by Daniel M&uuml;nster, Contributions to Indian Sociology 2012 46: 181, </span><a href="http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181" title="http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181">http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181</a></p><p style="text-align:justify"><strong>*</strong> Nagaraj, K (2008): Farmers&rsquo; Suicides in India, Magnitudes, Trends and Spatial Patterns, Macroscan,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf" title="http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf">http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf</a>&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:justify"><strong>**</strong> Hebber, Dr. Ritambhara (2007): &lsquo;Human Security and the Case of Farmers&rsquo; Suicides in India: An Exploration&rsquo;, Centre for Development Studies, School of Social Sciences, TISS, Paper presented in a panel on Rethinking Development in a Conference on &lsquo;Mainstreaming Human Security- an Asian Perspective&rsquo; (October 3-4, 2007) organised by Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok</p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf" title="http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf">http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Pres<br />entations/Ritambhara.pdf</a></p><div style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">               </font>
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		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Farm Suicides&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;KEY TRENDS&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Suicide&amp;nbsp;by&amp;nbsp;self-employed&amp;nbsp;persons&amp;nbsp;in&amp;nbsp;agriculture as a&amp;nbsp;percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6 percent in 1996, 16.3 percent in 2002, 14.4 percent in 2006, 13.7 percent in 2009, 11.9 percent in 2010, 10.3 percent in 2011, 11.4 percent in 2012 and 8.73 percent in 2013. Suicides committed in the farming sector (by farmers plus agricultural labourers) as a proportion of total suicides in India was 9.4 percent in 2014, 9.43 percent in 2015, 8.7 percent in 2016, 8.2 percent in 2017, 7.69 percent in 2018,&amp;nbsp;7.4 percent in 2019, 7.0 percent in 2020, and 6.63 percent in 2021&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The total number of suicides committed by self-employed persons in agriculture in India was 13729 in 1996, 17971 in 2002, 17060 in 2006, 17368 in 2009, 15964 in 2010, 14027 in 2011, 13754 in 2012 and 11772 in 2013. The total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers/ cultivators plus agricultural labourers) was 12,360 in 2014, 12,602 in 2015, 11,379 in 2016, 10,655 in 2017, 10,349 in 2018, 10,281 in 2019, 10,677 in 2020, and 10,881 in 2021&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Due to drop in world market prices for cash-crops (such as coffee, pepper, vanilla) during late 1990s, failure of ginger cultivation in neighbouring Kodagu (formerly Coorg) district and ecological crisis owing to overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides so as to combat productivity failure, many farmers and neo-farmers were left with heavy debts. When, eventually the recovery notices of the banks arrived, hundreds of farmers, especially marginal landholders with up to two acres of land, drank pesticides and killed themselves &lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; In Wayanad, since suicide statistics are directly linked to the payment of compensation through the Revenue Department, the number of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides stagnated during the years 2006 to 2008. &amp;lsquo;Safe Farmers Campaign&amp;rsquo; (SFC), a consortium of eight, mostly Catholic, NGOs (including Shreyas), in 2007 began a large-scale investigation into farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides that ran parallel to the state&amp;rsquo;s efforts of enumeration and classification. Taking police reports of suicides as a starting point and following up all cases from 2000 to March 2008 they have come up with a total number of 1,690 farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (Kerala Social Service Forum 2009). That is nearly four times the figure of 435 officially recognised farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides. The latter number is also the number of beneficiaries of the Chief Minister&amp;rsquo;s (CM) relief fund &lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; During the ten-year period spanning 1997 to 2006 as many as 1,66,304 farmers committed suicide in India&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Farm suicides have increased at annual compound growth rate of around 2.5 per cent per annum over the period 1997-2006&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Farmers, who committed suicides, were growing cash crops in dry regions such as: cotton (particularly in Maharashtra), sunflower, groundnut, and sugarcane (especially in Karnataka) &lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Farm suicides took place in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh including Chhattisgarh&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Poor health conditions, family disputes over property, domestic problems, and heavy social burden of marrying daughters coupled with alcoholism have pushed farmers towards committing suicides&lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt; National Crime Records Bureau,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt; Farmers&amp;#39; suicides&amp;nbsp; and the state in India: Conceptual and ethnographic notes from Wayanad, Kerala by Daniel M&amp;uuml;nster, Contributions to Indian Sociology 2012 46: 181, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&quot;&gt;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt; Nagaraj, K (2008): Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India, Magnitudes, Trends and Spatial Patterns, Macroscan,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf&quot;&gt;http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt; Hebber, Dr. Ritambhara (2007): &amp;lsquo;Human Security and the Case of Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India: An Exploration&amp;rsquo;, Centre for Development Studies, School of Social Sciences, TISS, Paper presented in a panel on Rethinking Development in a Conference on &amp;lsquo;Mainstreaming Human Security- an Asian Perspective&amp;rsquo; (October 3-4, 2007) organised by Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&quot;&gt;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2021 (released in August, 2022)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Chapter%202%20Suicides%20in%20India.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; An increase of nearly 7.2 percent was noticed in suicides during 2021 (1,64,033 suicides) as compared to 2020 (1,53,052 suicides). The rate of suicides has risen by 0.7 points during 2021 (i.e. 12.0 per lakh population) over 2020 (i.e. 11.3 per lakh population). Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Chapter%202%20Suicides%20in%20India.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,318 farmers/cultivators committed suicides during 2021, accounting for 3.24 percent of total suicide victims in India. However, 5,563 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2021, which is nearly 3.39 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,881 in 2021, accounting for roughly 6.63 percent of total suicide victims in the country. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,107 male farmers/ cultivators and 211 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 96.03 percent and 3.97 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,318) in 2021, respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 4,806 in 2021. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&amp;#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 512. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,121 male agricultural labourers and 442 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 92.05 percent and 7.95 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,563) in 2021, respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Manipur, Odisha, Tripura, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Chandigarh, Lakshadweep, and Puducherry reported zero number of suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers in 2021. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2021 were recorded in Maharashtra (4,064, which is around 37.35 percent of total farm suicides i.e. 10,881), followed by Karnataka (2,169), Andhra Pradesh (1,065), Madhya Pradesh (671), Tamil Nadu (599), and Telangana (359). Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2021 were reported from Maharashtra (2,640, which is around 49.64 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,170), Andhra Pradesh (481) and Telangana (352). Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2021 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,424), followed by Karnataka (999), Andhra Pradesh (584), Madhya Pradesh (554), and Tamil Nadu (538). Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The ADSI 2021 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides committed by daily wage earners in 2021 was 42,004. Most suicides by daily wage earners in 2021 were recorded in Tamil Nadu (7,673), followed by Maharashtra (5,270), Madhya Pradesh (4,657), and Telangana (4,223). Figures of daily wage earner excludes agricultural labourer. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;---&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/News%20alerts%20on%20Rural%20Distress%20in%20India%281%29.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access the news alerts on India&amp;rsquo;s agrarian crisis and rural distress by Inclusive Media for Change.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2020 (released in October, 2021)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/adsi2020_Chapter-2-Suicides-1.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; An increase of about 10.01 percent was observed in suicides during 2020 (1,53,052 suicides) as compared to 2019 (1,39,123 suicides). The rate of suicides has increased by 0.9 points during 2020 (viz. 11.3 per lakh population) over 2019 (viz. 10.4 per lakh population). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/adsi2020_Chapter-2-Suicides-1.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,579 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2020, accounting for 3.65 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 5,098 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2020, which is nearly 3.33 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,677 in 2020, accounting for nearly 7.0 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/adsi2020_Chapter-2-Suicides-1.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,335 male farmers/ cultivators and 244 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 95.63 percent and 4.37 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,579) in 2020, respectively. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 4,940 in 2020. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&amp;#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 639. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 4,621 male agricultural labourers and 477 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 90.64 percent and 9.36 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,098) in 2020, respectively. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, Bihar, Nagaland, Tripura, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Chandigarh, Delhi (UT), Ladakh, Lakshadweeep and Puducherry reported zero number of suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers in 2020. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2020 were recorded in Maharashtra (4,006, which is around 37.52 percent of total farm suicides viz. 10,677), followed by Karnataka (2,016), Andhra Pradesh (889), Madhya Pradesh (735) and Chhattisgarh (537). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2020 were reported from Maharashtra (2,567, which is around 46.01 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,072), Andhra Pradesh (564) and Telangana (466). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2020 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,439), followed by Karnataka (944), Tamil Nadu (398), Kerala (341) and Andhra Pradesh (325). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The ADSI 2020 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2019 (released in September, 2020)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Table-2.6_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Table-2.7_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A rise of almost 3.4 percent was observed in suicides during 2019 (1,39,123 suicides) as compared to 2018 (1,34,516 suicides). The rate of suicides has increased by 0.2 points during 2019 (viz. 10.4 per lakh population) over 2018 (viz. 10.2 per lakh population). Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,957 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2019, accounting for 4.3 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 4,324 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2019, which is nearly 3.1 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,281 in 2019, accounting for nearly 7.4 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.6_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,563 male farmers/ cultivators and 394 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 93.4 percent and 6.6 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,957) in 2019, respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 5,129. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.6_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&amp;#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 828. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.6_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 3,749 male agricultural labourers and 575 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 86.7 percent and 13.3 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 4,324) in 2019, respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Chandigarh, Daman &amp;amp; Diu, Delhi UT, Lakshadweep and Puducherry reported zero suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2019 were recorded in Maharashtra (3,927, which is around 38.2 percent of total farm suicides viz. 10,281), followed by Karnataka (1,992), Andhra Pradesh (1,029), Madhya Pradesh (541) and Telangana and Chhattisgarh (each 499). Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.7_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2019 were reported from Maharashtra (2,680, which is around 45 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,331), Andhra Pradesh (628) and Telangana (491). Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.7_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2019 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,247), followed by Karnataka (661), Tamil Nadu (421), Andhra Pradesh (401) and Madhya Pradesh (399). Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.7_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The ADSI 2019 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2018 (released in January, 2020)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A rise of almost 3.6 percent was observed in suicides during 2018 (1,34,516 suicides) as compared to 2017 (1,29,887 suicides). The rate of suicides has increased by 0.3 points during 2018 (viz. 10.2 per lakh population) over 2017 (viz. 9.9 per lakh population). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,763 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2018, accounting for 4.28 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 4,586 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2018, which is nearly 3.41 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,349 in 2018, accounting for nearly 7.69 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,457 male farmers/ cultivators and 306 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 94.69 percent and 5.31 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,763), respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 5,088. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&amp;#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 675. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 4,071 male agricultural labourers and 515 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 88.77 percent and 11.23 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 4,586), respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Goa, Chandigarh, Daman &amp;amp; Diu, Delhi UT, Lakshadweep and Puducherry reported zero suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2018 were recorded in Maharashtra (3,594, which is around 34.73 percent of total farm suicides viz. 10,349), followed by Karnataka (2,405), Telangana (908), Andhra Pradesh (664) and Madhya Pradesh (655). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2018 were reported from Maharashtra (2,239, which is around 38.85 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,365), Telangana (900), Andhra Pradesh (365) and Madhya Pradesh (303). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2018 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,355), followed by Karnataka (1,040), Tamil Nadu (395), Madhya Pradesh (352) and Andhra Pradesh (299). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The ADSI 2018 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2017 (released in January, 2020)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2017&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2017&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A decline of almost -0.9 percent was observed in suicides during 2017 (1,29,887 suicides) as compared to 2016 (1,31,008 suicides). The rate of suicides has decreased by -0.4 points during 2017 (viz. 9.9 per lakh population) over 2016 (viz. 10.3 per lakh population). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,955 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2017, accounting for 4.58 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 4,700 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2017, which is nearly 3.62 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,655 in 2017, accounting for almost 8.2 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2017&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,633 male farmers/ cultivators and 322 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 94.59 percent and 5.41 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,955), respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 5,203.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&amp;#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 752.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 4,219 male agricultural labourers and 480 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 89.77 percent and 10.21 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 4,700), respectively. One agricultural labourer was transgender.&amp;nbsp; Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Certain States/UTs namely, West Bengal, Odisha, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Uttarakhand, Chandigarh UT, Dadra &amp;amp; Nagar Haveli, Daman &amp;amp; Diu, Delhi UT, Lakshadweep and Puducherry reported zero suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2017 were recorded in Maharashtra (3,701, which is around 34.73 percent of total farm suicides viz. 10,655), followed by Karnataka (2,160), Madhya Pradesh (955), Telangana (851) and Andhra Pradesh (816). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2017&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2017 were reported from Maharashtra (2,426, which is around 40.74 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,157), Telangana (846), Madhya Pradesh (429) and Andhra Pradesh (375). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2017&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2017 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,275), followed by Karnataka (1,003), Madhya Pradesh (526), Andhra Pradesh (441) and Tamil Nadu (369). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2017&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The ADSI 2017 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2016 (released in November, 2019)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/NCRB%20snapshots.pdf&quot; title=&quot;NCRB snapshots&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.6%20farm%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.6 farm suicides&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.7%20farm%20suicide.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.7 farm suicide&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A decline of almost -2.0 percent was observed in suicides during 2016 (1,31,008 suicides) as compared to 2015 (1,33,623 suicides). The rate of suicides has decreased by -0.3 points during 2016 (viz. 10.3 per lakh population) over 2015 (viz. 10.6 per lakh population). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/NCRB%20snapshots.pdf&quot; title=&quot;NCRB snapshots&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 6,270 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2016, accounting for 4.79 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 5,109 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2016, which is nearly 3.9 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 11,379 in 2016, accounting for roughly 8.7 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.6%20farm%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.6 farm suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,995 male farmers/ cultivators and 275 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 95.61 percent and 4.39 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 6,270), respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides_1.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 4,476 male agricultural labourers and 633 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 87.61 percent and 12.39 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,109), respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides_1.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, West Bengal, Bihar, Nagaland, Chandigarh, Dadar &amp;amp; Nagar Haveli, Daman &amp;amp; Diu, Delhi UT and Lakshadweep reported zero suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides_1.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2016 were recorded in Maharashtra (3,661), followed by Karnataka (2,079), Madhya Pradesh (1,321), Andhra Pradesh (804) and Chhattisgarh (682). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.7%20farm%20suicide.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.7 farm suicide&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2016 were reported from Maharashtra (2,550, which is around 40.7 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,212), Telangana (632), Madhya Pradesh (599) and Chhattisgarh (585). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.7%20farm%20suicide.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.7 farm suicide&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2016 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,111), followed by Karnataka (867), Madhya Pradesh (722), Andhra Pradesh (565) and Gujarat (378). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.7%20farm%20suicide.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.7 farm suicide&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The ADSI 2016 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2015 (released in 2016)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Suicides%20in%20farming%20sector.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Suicides in farming sector&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Altogether 1,33,623 persons in India committed suicide in 2015 (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Suicides%20in%20India.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Suicides in India 2015&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 8,007 farmers/ cultivators have committed suicides during 2015, accounting for 5.99 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 4,595 agricultural labourers have committed suicides during 2015, which is 3.44 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 12,602 in 2015, accounting for 9.43 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Suicides%20in%20farming%20sector.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Suicides in farming sector&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 7,566 male farmers/ cultivators and 441 female farmers/ cultivators have committed suicides, accounting for 94.49 percent and 5.51 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides, respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Suicides%20in%20farming%20sector.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Suicides in farming sector&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Land holding status of farmers who committed suicide reveals that 27.41 percent and 45.19 percent of victims were marginal farmers and small farmers respectively. They together accounted for 72.59 percent (5,813 out of 8,007) of total farmer suicides (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Land%20Holding%20Status%20of%20Farmers%20committing%20Suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Land Holding Status of Farmers committing Suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Majority of suicides committed by farmers/ cultivators were reported in Maharashtra (3,030) followed by 1,358 such suicides in Telangana and 1,197 suicides in Karnataka, accounting for 37.8 percent, 17.0 percent and 14.9 percent of total such suicides (8,007) respectively during 2015. Chhattisgarh (854 suicides), Madhya Pradesh (581 suicides) and Andhra Pradesh (516 suicides) accounted for 10.7 percent, 7.3 percent and 6.4 percent of the total farmer/ cultivators suicides reported in the country respectively. These 6 states together reported 94.1 percent of the total farmer/ cultivators suicides (7,536 out of 8,007 suicides) in the country during 2015.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; &amp;#39;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;#39; and &amp;#39;Farming Related Issues&amp;#39; are reported as major causes of suicides among farmers/ cultivators, accounting for 38.7 percent (3,097 out of 8,007 suicides) and 19.5 percent (1,562 out of 8,007 suicides) of total such suicides respectively during 2015. The other prominent causes of farmer/ cultivators suicides were &amp;#39;Family Problems&amp;#39; (933 suicides), &amp;#39;Illness&amp;#39; (842 suicides) and &amp;#39;Drug Abuse/Alcoholic Addiction&amp;#39; (330 suicides), accounting for 11.7 percent, 10.5 percent and 4.1 percent of total farmers/cultivators` suicides respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; During 2015, major causes of suicides among male farmers/ cultivators were reported as &amp;#39;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;#39; (2,978 suicides) and &amp;#39;Farming Related Issues&amp;#39; (1,494 suicides), which accounted for 39.4 percent and 19.7 percent of total male farmers/ cultivators suicides respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Among female farmers/ cultivators suicides, &amp;#39;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;#39; followed by &amp;#39;Family Problems&amp;#39;, were major causes of suicides, accounting for 27.0 percent (119 out of 441 suicides) and 18.1 percent (80 suicides) of total suicides by female farmers/ cultivators respectively during 2015. &amp;#39;Farming Related Issues&amp;#39; and &amp;#39;Illness&amp;#39; both accounted for 15.4 percent (68 suicides each) during 2015.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; &amp;#39;Family Problems&amp;#39; and &amp;#39;Illness&amp;#39; were major causes of suicides among agricultural labourers accounting for 40.1 percent (1,843 out of 4,595 suicides) and 19.0 percent (872 out of 4,595 suicides) respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; 79.0 percent of farmer/ cultivator suicides in Karnataka and 42.7 percent of farmer/ cultivator suicides in Maharashtra were due to &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;rsquo;. 26.2 percent of farmer/ cultivator suicides in Maharashtra were also due to &amp;#39;Farming Related Issues (Related to Failure of Crop)&amp;#39;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Farmers/ cultivators belonging to 30 years - below 60 years of age group have accounted for 71.6 percent of total farmers/ cultivators&amp;rsquo; suicides during 2015.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; 9.0 percent of farmers/ cultivators who have committed suicides were in age group of 60 years &amp;amp; above.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The states of Bihar, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu &amp;amp; Kashmir, Jharkhand, Mizoram, Nagaland, Uttarakhand and West Bengal have reported no farmers&amp;#39; suicide during 2015. All the 7 Union Territories have reported zero number of farmers&amp;#39; suicide during 2015 (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Incidence%20and%20Percentage%20Change%20in%20Suicides%20in%20Farming%20Sector%20during%202015.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Incidence and Percentage Change in Suicides in Farming Sector in 2015&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The states of Goa, Manipur, Nagaland and West Bengal have reported no suicide by agricultural labourers during 2015. All the Union Territories except Puducherry (12) have reported zero suicide by agricultural labourers during 2015 (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Incidence%20and%20Percentage%20Change%20in%20Suicides%20in%20Farming%20Sector%20during%202015.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Incidence and Percentage Change in Suicides in Farming Sector in 2015&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Comprehensive data on &amp;lsquo;Suicides in Farming Sector&amp;rsquo; comprising of suicides committed by farmers/ cultivators and agricultural labourers in exclusive Chapter-2A have been collected and published in consultation with Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare under overall supervision of Ministry of Home Affairs, in order to present a comprehensive analysis on suicides in the farming sector. In previous edition (till ADSI 2013), this chapter contained data on suicides committed by farmers/cultivators only.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2014 (released in 2015)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2A%20farmer%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI NCRB 2014 Farmers Suicide&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Altogether 1,31,666 persons in India committed suicide in 2014.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,650 farmers have committed suicides during 2014, accounting for 4.3% of total suicide victims in the country. However, 6,710 agricultural labourers have committed suicides during 2014, which is 5.1% of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides committed by persons engaged in agriculture (farmers plus agricultural labourers) in India was 12,360 in 2014, accounting for 9.4% of total suicide victims in India (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2.7.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,178 male farmers and 472 female farmers have committed suicides, accounting for 91.6% and 8.4% of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Land holding status of farmers who committed suicide reveals that 44.5% and 27.9% of victims were small farmers and marginal farmers respectively. They together accounted for 72.4% (4,095 out of 5,650) total farmer suicides (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2A.3.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 2,568 farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides were reported in Maharashtra followed by 898 such suicides in Telangana and 826 suicides in Madhya Pradesh, accounting for 45.5%, 15.9% and 14.6% respectively of total farmer suicides during 2014. Chhattisgarh (443 suicides) and Karnataka (321 suicides) accounted for 7.8% and 5.7% respectively of the total farmer suicides reported in the country. These 5 States together accounted for 89.5% of the total farmer suicides (5,056 out of 5,650) reported in the country during 2014.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;rsquo; and &amp;lsquo;Family Problems&amp;rsquo; are major causes of suicides, accounting for 20.6% and 20.1% respectively of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides during 2014. The other prominent causes of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides were &amp;lsquo;Failure of Crop&amp;rsquo; (16.8%), &amp;lsquo;Illness&amp;rsquo; (13.2%) and &amp;lsquo;Drug Abuse/Alcoholic Addiction&amp;rsquo; (4.9%).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; During 2014, major causes of suicides among male farmers were &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;rsquo; and &amp;lsquo;Family Problems&amp;rsquo;, which accounted for 21.5% and 20.0% respectively of total male farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Whereas, in female farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides, &amp;lsquo;Farming Related Issues&amp;rsquo; followed by &amp;lsquo;Family Problems&amp;rsquo;, &amp;lsquo;Marriage Related Issues&amp;rsquo; and &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;rsquo; were major causes of suicides, accounting for 21.4% (101 out of 472 suicides), 20.6% (97 suicides), 12.3% (58 suicides) and 10.8% (51 suicides) respectively during 2014.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Nearly 33.4% suicides in Maharashtra and 23.2% in Telangana were due to &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;rsquo;. 87.5% of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides due to &amp;lsquo;Failure of Crop&amp;rsquo; were reported in Himachal Pradesh. 4.7% farmers in Himachal Pradesh, 4.1% farmers in Jharkhand and 2.7% farmers each in Bihar, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh have committed suicides due to &amp;lsquo;Suspected/ Illicit Relation&amp;rsquo;. 6.5% suicides by farmers in Sikkim followed by 2.3% in Himachal Pradesh and 2.0% in Puducherry were due to &amp;lsquo;Cancellation/ Non Settlement of Marriage&amp;rsquo;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The states of West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Tripura, Rajasthan, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Manipur, Jharkhand, Goa, Arunachal Pradesh and Bihar have reported no farmers&amp;#39; suicide during 2014. All the Union Territories except Andaman and Nicobar Islands have reported zero farmers&amp;#39; suicide during 2014 (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2.7.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The states of Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Goa, Manipur and Nagaland have reported no suicide by agricultural labourers during 2014. All the Union Territories except Puducherry have reported zero suicide by agricultural labourers during 2014 (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2.7.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The latest issue of the ADSI report is different from the earlier ones in two ways: a. Apart from the usual male and female break-up of data, one also gets data pertaining to transgenders (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2.7.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access), which was missing earlier; b. There is a separate chapter (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/chapter-2A%20farmer%20suicides.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access) and 3 tables (in the annexure, please click &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2A.1.pdf&quot;&gt;link1&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2A.2.pdf&quot;&gt;link2&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2A.3.pdf&quot;&gt;link3&lt;/a&gt;) on farmer suicides in India and at state/UT-level, which did not exist in earlier reports. In the previous ADSI reports, one had to extract data on farmers&amp;#39; suicide from the table on distribution of suicides by profession. Suicides committed by self-employed persons in agriculture gave the proxy of the figure on farmers&amp;#39; suicide.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Unlike the previous ones, in the present ADSI report suicides by self-employed persons in agriculture has been sub-divided into suicides by agricultural labourers and suicides by farmers. Suicides by farmers has been further subdivided (in the current report) into suicide by farmers having own land and suicide by farmers having land on contract or lease.&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
According to National Crime Records Bureau&amp;#39;s [inside]Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India 2013 (released in 2014)[/inside] report, &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Altogether 1,34,799 persons in India committed suicide in 2013.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Nearly, 11,772 persons self-employed in farming/agriculture (can be loosely termed as farmers) committed suicide during 2013. They constitute 8.73 percent of total number of suicides committed during the same year.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Among the 11,772 no. of persons self-employed in farming/agriculture who committed suicide, 10489 are men (89.1%) and 1283 are women (10.9%).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Rate of suicides, i.e., the number of suicides per one lakh population, has been widely accepted as a standard yardstick. The national rate of suicides was 11.0 during the year 2013. Puducherry reported the highest rate of suicide (35.6).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In 2013, the highest incidents of 16,622 suicides were reported in Maharashtra followed by 16,601 suicides in Tamil Nadu accounting for 12.3% each of total suicides. Andhra Pradesh (14,607 suicides), West Bengal (13,055 suicides) and Karnataka (11,266 suicides) accounted for 10.8%, 9.7% and 8.4% respectively of the total suicides reported in the country. These 5 States together accounted for 53.5% of the total suicides reported in India.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Delhi has reported the highest number of suicides (2,059) among UTs, followed by Puducherry (546) during 2013.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;lsquo;Family Problems&amp;rsquo; and &amp;lsquo;Illness&amp;rsquo;, accounting for 24.0% and 19.6% respectively, were the major causes of suicides among the specified causes. &amp;lsquo;Drug Abuse/Addiction&amp;rsquo; (3.4%), &amp;lsquo;Love Affairs&amp;rsquo; (3.3%), &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Sudden change in economic Status&amp;rsquo; (2.0%), &amp;#39;Failure in Examination&amp;rsquo; (1.8%), &amp;lsquo;Dowry Dispute&amp;rsquo; (1.7%) and &amp;lsquo;Unemployment&amp;rsquo; (1.6%) were the other causes of suicides. Suicides due to &amp;lsquo;Illegitimate Pregnancy (64.5%), &amp;lsquo;Fall in Social Reputation&amp;rsquo; (49.4%), &amp;lsquo;Professional/ Career Problem&amp;rsquo; (40.8%), &amp;lsquo;Divorce&amp;rsquo; (35.7%), and &amp;lsquo;Cancellation/Non-Settlement of Marriage&amp;rsquo; (33.5%) have increased in 2013 over 2012, while for poverty and property dispute have declined as compared to previous year.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; It was observed that 69.4% of the suicide victims were married while 23.6% were Never Married/Spinster. Divorcees and Separated have accounted for about 3.2% of the total suicide victims. The proportion of Widowed &amp;amp; Widower victims was around 3.7%.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
According to [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India-2012[/inside], &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/&lt;/a&gt;:&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; 15 Suicides took place in India every hour during 2012.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; It is observed that social and economic causes have led most of the males to commit suicides whereas emotional and personal causes have mainly driven females to end their lives.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Nearly 71.6% of the suicide victims were married males while 67.9% were married females. 1 suicide out of every 6 suicides was committed by a &amp;lsquo;housewife&amp;rsquo;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Tamil Nadu has reported the highest number of suicide victims in 2010 (accounting for 12.3%), third highest in 2011 (accounting for 11.8%) and highest in 2012 (accounting for 14.0%).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Southern States viz. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu including Maharashtra have together accounted for 50.6% of total suicides reported in the country.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Self employed category accounted for 38.7% of suicide victims in 2012.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
According to the article titled [inside]Farmers&amp;#39; suicides and the state in India: Conceptual and ethnographic notes from Wayanad, Kerala[/inside] by Daniel M&amp;uuml;nster, Contributions to Indian Sociology 2012 46: 181, &lt;a href=&quot;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&quot;&gt;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&lt;/a&gt;:&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides are invariably linked to and almost synonymous with the&amp;mdash;equally composite&amp;mdash;agrarian crisis in the aftermath of neoliberal &amp;lsquo;reform&amp;rsquo;. Most of the writing on the subject is based on the same set of data (statistical data of the National Crime Records Bureau) or on journalistic visits to suicide &amp;lsquo;hotspots&amp;rsquo;. So far few ethnographic accounts, committed to qualitative research in suicide prone areas, have been published.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The present study is an ethnographic report from the field in the South Indian district Wayanad, one of the officially designated suicide-prone districts. The primary aim behind the research is to analyse the state&amp;rsquo;s responses to farmer suicides: the bundle of relief packages, inquiry commissions, rural employment schemes and debt relief commissions that were set up in recent years partially as a response to reports on increasing numbers of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides. Such investigation may eventually contribute to an understanding &amp;lsquo;of precisely how neoliberal globalization is transforming the re-distributive functions of the Indian state or affecting its legitimacy and identity as an agency of social welfare&amp;rsquo;. This article makes a strong case for grounding the study of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides in ethnographies of agrarian practice and the local developmental state.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides provide rural citizens with a language to speak about politics, citizenship and development in the context of neoliberalising agriculture.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The research is intended to conceive farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides as an highly over-determined interface between &amp;lsquo;state&amp;rsquo; and rural society; an interface in two senses: first as a drastic image, repeatedly invoked to speak about rural distress and the widespread agrarian crisis in neoliberal India and to address the failure of the nation state to protect its agrarian classes; second, as a set of actually existing practices&amp;mdash; suicides&amp;mdash;which force state agencies to show presence in social settings, which they had allegedly neglected.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In Wayanad neither cotton, nor GM seeds, nor global agri-corporations play a significant role. Not all suicides in Wayanad were related to agrarian distress. For many decades Kerala has had high suicide rates, many with multiple causes: family problems, alcoholism (extremely widespread in Wayanad), health issues, &amp;lsquo;love failure&amp;rsquo;, or debt.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The 1980s and 1990s brought unprecedented wealth to Wayanad. In the late-1980s up until the late-1990s, many farmers of Wayanad especially pepper growers in the &amp;lsquo;Pepper Panchayats&amp;rsquo; of Pulpalli, Mullankolli and Poothadi, became wealthy. Wayanad became an important earner of foreign currency in Kerala. Farmers, even relatively small farmers who owned around two acres could afford constructing large houses.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The end of the 1990s hit Wayanad&amp;rsquo;s agrarian economy in a series of crises. First, the world market prices for cash-crops dropped dramatically. Local rates for pepper (ungarbled) dropped from 270 INR/Kg in 1997 to 54 INR/Kg in 2001, coffee dropped from 60 INR/Kg in 1997 to 16 INR/Kg in 2002 and vanilla, most dramatically dropped from 4300 INR/Kg in 2003 to 25 INR/Kg in 2006. Prices had fluctuated before, most cultivators remembered price crashes in the late-1970s, but this time they were accompanied by a second crisis: a dramatic drop in productivity.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Since the late-1990s Wayanad has been facing a serious ecological crisis. During the boom years cash-croppers heavily overused chemical fertilisers and pesticides in order to keep productivity high and profitable. The soil is now depleted beyond redemption and some Panchayats of Wayanad suffer from increased incidences of cancer. Furthermore new diseases started to affect plantations. &amp;lsquo;Quick wilt&amp;rsquo;, &amp;lsquo;slow wilt&amp;rsquo; and &amp;lsquo;foot rot&amp;rsquo; are their names, and all share the ability to destroy whole plantations quickly.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; When prices crashed and plantations died, many farmers and neo-farmers were left with heavy debts. When, eventually the recovery notices of the banks arrived, hundreds of farmers, especially marginal landholders with up to two acres of land, drank pesticides and killed themselves.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Another economic practice emerged since the late-1990s and has a strong correlation with suicide cases. Many suicide victims had invested in the cultivation of ginger in neighbouring Kodagu (formerly Coorg) district. The return from ginger cultivation could also be nil. There is an almost 50 per cent chance that the ginger plant is going to be affected by a fungus that would spread quickly across the fields and destroy the plantation within days.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Husbands very often did not even talk about their debt burden to wives and children: they just changed their character, became abusive and started to drink more heavily. Many widows shared later that they had no idea of their husbands&amp;rsquo; debts, and were not involved in agricultural matters at all. This made it all the more difficult for them to deal subsequently with the stigma, poverty and political instrumentalisation they were to experience.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; One of author&amp;#39;s original research questions was also to consider farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides as suicides against the state. This link was difficult to establish in Wayanad.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Farmers who killed themselves knew that they were part of a district-wide if not all-India epidemic, that their suicide would attract considerable&amp;nbsp; attention from the media, NGOs as well as state agencies and also&amp;mdash;controversially&amp;mdash;that the state might eventually take care of their families, write off their debt and pay compensation of 50,000 INR.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Most farmers the author spoke to, whether activists or not, were quite knowledgeable about the removal of quantitative restrictions on imports and the dismantling of import duties for agrarian products under the GATT regime as the main reasons for the fall in prices of agrarian cash-crops. They would speak of cheap coffee and pepper coming from Vietnam and Sri Lanka that keeps flooding the market and later to be resold as premium Wayanad pepper. Second, they articulated the retreat of the state, the cut of input subsidies and low investments in irrigation and infrastructure. They would speak of the government that always cheated, gave no security to the farmers, had no procurement policy and provided no minimum price.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The official all-India suicide-rate (suicide rate is the incidence of suicide mortality per 100,000 inhabitants) has for the last 10 years constantly been around 10.5 and hence not extraordinarily inflated. Kerala&amp;rsquo;s official suicide-rate was 26.8 which is more than twice the national average and the third highest in India (after Pondicherry and Andaman &amp;amp; Nicobar Islands) and had been so for the last years. Within Kerala there are two districts that have been given the recent status of &amp;lsquo;suicide-prone districts&amp;rsquo;: Idukki and Wayanad. Even though suicides are statistically well captured, there is a considerable fluctuation in the number of reported farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The &amp;lsquo;Accidental Deaths and Suicides (ADSI)&amp;rsquo; annual report (National Crime Records Bureau 2007) is the only official source of information. It lists the distribution of suicidal death by state, gender, marital status, causes of suicide, means adopted and profession. According to K. Nagaraj, the professional category farmer (although still unspecific) is a relatively recent category in the ADSI reports: &amp;lsquo;The category self-employed (farming/agriculture)&amp;mdash;which can be taken as representing the farmers&amp;mdash;was added for the first time in 1995 (...)&amp;rsquo; (Nagaraj 2008: 2).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The suicide rate for farmers can be calculated only for the year 2001, this being the first year that statistical data on farmers were recorded in the Census of India. On an all-India basis this does not make for highly inflated suicide rates among farmers: 15.8 among the main cultivators as compared to 10.6 of the general population. An entirely different perspective emerges, however, if one takes into account the fact that numbers of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides vary significantly across India. For Kerala, a suicide rate among main cultivators of 176.5 emerges, and the figure is still 142.9 if all cultivators are considered. Those numbers are alarming indeed.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; For all-India the official number in the ADSI reports is 190,753 farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides from 1995 to 2006. That makes an average of 16,000 suicides per year, which is still an underestimation since some major states have not reported on farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The status of farmer (cultivator) is based on the criterion of title to land. This leaves out women, tenant farmers, agricultural labourers, but also regular farmers if the land title was in the father&amp;rsquo;s or son&amp;rsquo;s name. A stringent criterion for agriculture-related suicide would be the absence of any other cause neighbours might mention (such as alcoholism or family problems).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The local practice of identifying farmers&amp;rsquo; suicide became additionally complicated after 2004 by the decision of the new LDF government to actually pay a compensation of 50,000 INR to all families with cases of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides out of the Chief Minister&amp;rsquo;s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In the beginning, as a populist measure, the criteria were handled rather loosely and compensation was paid rather freely. The first compensation cheques were handed over during public functions under great media attention. Later, both to be able to present the success of the other relief measures of the new state and union governments and to curb costs, the practice became more stringent. The debt still had to be the cause of suicide, but now it had to be an institutional credit (excluding debt with moneylenders) and the loan had to have been taken for agricultural purposes (excluding consumer loans).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In Wayanad, since suicide statistics are directly linked to the payment of compensation through the Revenue Department, the number of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides stagnated during the years 2006 to 2008. &amp;lsquo;Safe Farmers Campaign&amp;rsquo; (SFC), a consortium of eight, mostly Catholic, NGOs (including Shreyas), in 2007 began a large-scale investigation into farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides that ran parallel to the state&amp;rsquo;s efforts of enumeration and classification. Taking police reports of suicides as a starting point and following up all cases from 2000 to March 2008 they have come up with a total number of 1,690 farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (Kerala Social Service Forum 2009). That is nearly four times the figure of 435 officially recognised farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides. The latter number is also the number of beneficiaries of the Chief Minister&amp;rsquo;s (CM) relief fund.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; To avoid further committing of farmers&amp;#39; suicides and because of their political nature, the state compensates only such suicides. The CM fund is the most specific programme that targets only cases of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicide. The Indian state has launched unprecedented relief and rehabilitation measures in response to the suicide crisis.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India-2011[/inside],&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/&lt;/a&gt;:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; 16 Suicides took place in India every hour during 2011.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; It is observed that social and economic causes have led most of the males to commit suicides whereas emotional and personal causes have mainly driven females to end their lives.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Nearly 71.1% of the suicide victims were married males while 68.2% were married females.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; West Bengal has reported the highest number of suicide victims (accounting for 11.5%) in 2009, second highest in 2010 (accounting for 11.9%) and highest in 2011 (accounting for 12.2%). &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; West Bengal (12.2%), Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu (11.8% each), Andhra Pradesh (11.1%) and Karnataka (9.3%), altogether contributed 56.2% of total suicide victims.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Self employed category accounted for 38.3% of suicide victims in 2011. It comprised 10.3% engaged in Farming/ Agriculture activities, 5.3% engaged in Business and 3.1% Professionals. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the report titled [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India-2010[/inside], which is produced by the National Crime Records Bureau,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/&lt;/a&gt;: &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Every hour 15 people committed suicide in India during 2010.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; 1 in every 5 suicides is committed by a Housewife.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Total 3,84,649 accidental deaths were reported in the country during the year 2010.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; It is observed that social and economic causes have led most of the males to commit suicides whereas emotional and personal causes have mainly driven females to end their lives.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Nearly 70.5% of the suicide victims were married males while 67.0% were married females.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; 26.3% of the suicide victims were primary educated and 22.7% were middle educated while 19.8% of victims of suicide were illiterate.&amp;nbsp;Self employed category accounted for 41.1% of suicide victims in 2010. It comprised 11.9% engaged in Farming/ Agriculture activities, 5.3% engaged in Business and 3.0% Professionals.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; 41.1% of suicide victims were self employed while only 7.5% were un-employed.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Suicides because of &amp;lsquo;Family Problems&amp;rsquo; (23.7%) and &amp;rsquo;Illness&amp;rsquo; (21.0%) combined accounted for 44.7% of total Suicides.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; West Bengal has reported the highest number of suicide victims (accounting for 11.9%) in 2008 &amp;amp; 2009 and second highest in 2010 (accounting for 11.9%).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; West Bengal (11.9%), Andhra Pradesh (11.8%), Tamil Nadu (12.3%), Maharashtra (11.8%) and Karnataka (9.4%) contributed 57.2% of total suicide victims.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The highest number of Mass/Family Suicides cases were reported from Bihar (23) followed by Kerala (22) and Madhya Pradesh (21) and Andhra Pradesh (20) out of 109 cases.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to National Crime Records Bureau&amp;#39;s [inside]Accidental Death and Suicide (2009)[/inside],&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/suicides-09.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/suicides-09.pdf&lt;/a&gt;, &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/snapshots.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/snapshots.pdf&lt;/a&gt;, &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;: &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; More than one lakh persons (1,27,151) in the country lost their lives by committing suicide during the year 2009. This indicates an increase of 1.7% over the previous year&amp;#39;s figure (1,25,017).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The total number of suicides in the country during the decade (1999&amp;ndash;2009) has recorded an increase of 15.0% (from 1,10,587 in 1999 to 1,27,151 in 2009).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Self-employed category accounted for 39.8% of suicide victims in 2009. It comprised 13.7% engaged in Farming/Agriculture activities, 6.1% engaged in Business and 2.9% Professionals.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; 55.1% suicide victims in Mizoram were engaged in farming /agriculture activities in 2009. 29.6% suicide victims in Manipur were unemployed.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Despite a fall in number of suicides committed by farmers in 2009 as compared to 2008 in Maharastra (fallen by 930), the state continues to be number one in terms of farmers&amp;#39; suicides for the tenth year (2,872 suicides) as compared to the rest of the states.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The number of suicides committed by farmers in 2009 was 17,368, which was a rise by 1,172 as compared to 2008.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The growth in the number of suicides committed by the farmers has been 7 percent over the last year.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In the year 2009, 1,27,151 persons committed suicides. Within a span of one year, suicide rate in the entire country has increased by 1.7 percent. During the last year, the total number of suicides committed was 1,25,017.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In the year 2009, 348 persons committed suicides on an average every day, out of which 48 persons were farmers. In the year 2004, on an average 47 farmers committed suicides every day, which means one farmer committing suicide in every 30 minutes.&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Private and Public Sector personnel have accounted for 8.4% and 2.3% of the total suicide victims respectively, whereas students and un-employed victims accounted for 5.3% and 7.8% respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Government servants were 1.3% of the total suicide victims, whereas housewives (25,092) accounted for 54.9% of the total female victims and nearly 19.7% of total victims committing suicides.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; 40.9% of salaried and 39.0% of unemployed suicide victims were in the age&amp;ndash;group 30-44 years.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; West Bengal has reported the highest number of suicides (14,648) accounting for 11.5% of total suicides followed by Andhra Pradesh (14,500), Tamil Nadu (14,424), Maharashtra (14,300) and Karnataka (12,195) accounting for 11.4%, 11.3%, 11.2% and 9.6% respectively of the total suicides in the country.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; These 5 States together accounted for 55.1% of the total suicides reported in the country.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; 209 deaths at the national level under Mass/Family suicides consisting of 95 males and 114 females were reported as per the information available. 15 cities also did not furnish information.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The maximum number of suicide victims was educated up to Middle level (23.7%). Illiterate and primary educated persons accounted for 21.4% suicide victims and 23.4% respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Only 3.1% suicide victims were graduates and post-graduates. 51.9% suicide victims in Sikkim were illiterate. 36.5% suicide victims in Gujarat had education upto primary level. 68.1% suicide victims in Mizoram and 59.1% suicide victims in Puducherry had middle level education.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;The study titled [inside]Farmers Suicide: Facts and Possible Policy Interventions (2006) [/inside] prepared by Meeta and Rajiv Lochan, (Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration), &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.yashada.org/organisation/FarmersSuicideExcerpts.pdf&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;http://www.yashada.org/organisation/FarmersSuicideExcerpts.pdf&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:Arial; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;revisits some of the families which two earlier reports (Mishra and Dandekar et al) had also visited and criticises them for not doing a good job of compiling the victims&amp;#39; circumstances meticulously. The authors believe that many reports in the past have exaggerated the connection between debt and suicides whereas in reality a lot of other reasons, including harsh environment, a variety of other reasons and absence of basic health services, also play an equally important role. According to the same study:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The suicide epidemic is said to have its epicentre in Yavatmal district of Maharastra. According to the State Crime Records Bureau, it reported 640, 819, 832, 787 and 786 suicides respectively for the years 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Most of the victims of this epidemic were men, mostly in the age group 30 to 50, married and educated, with more social responsibilities, especially in the form of unmarried daughters and or sisters. There were two things that were common among the victims of suicide. One, a feeling of hopelessness: in being unable to resolve problems and dilemmas of personal life; and in the face of an inability to find funds for various activities or repay loans. Two, the absence of any person, group or institution to whom to turn to in order to seek reliable advice: whether for agricultural operations or for seeking funds or for handling private and personal issues. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;People complained about lack of information on various government sponsored schemes. There was little knowledge about institutional mechanisms like the minimum support price (MSP) that would affect marketing, technical knowledge was low and there were no reliable sources from where such knowledge and advice could be accessed. Most farmers were not informed about crop insurance. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Most of them who committed suicide were Hindus and not Muslims or Christians. This is because Hindu religion allowed certain circumstances for altruistic suicide, whereas the latter two religions frowned upon suicides. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Chronic alcoholism and drug abuse were found among rural population.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Loan from a rapacious relative rather than a bank or moneylender was often the cause of economic distress for the victim. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The 10 point suggestions are:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;1. Enhance the physical interaction between government functionaries and village society by insisting on more tours, night halts and gram sabhas by officers at all levels of the administration.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;2. Actively monitor local society, especially farmers, for signs of social, economic and psychological distress and if possible provide social, psychological or spiritual counseling.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;3. Implement with rigour the various provisions that already exist to safeguard the interests of the farmer and farm workers for example, the existing money lending act, minimum wage act etc. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;4. Increase the efficiency of agriculture extension activities. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;5. Increase the efficiency of various services that are delivered by the government in the name of people&amp;#39;s welfare at the moment. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;6. Make available trained and salaried individuals to serve the rural population. Immediate succour is needed. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;7. For the long-term change, it is important to improve the condition of school education and provide appropriate vocational education at the village and taluka level so as to make people understand the complexities of present day production and marketing techniques.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;8. Counsel the media to stop highlighting suicide since the fact of highlighting suicide itself adds fuel to the suicide fire as it were. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;9. Instead of ex gratia payment being made to families of those who commit suicide, provide employment to a member of the family or help in setting up a small business. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;10. Provide direct cash subsidies to actual cultivators.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;According to [inside]Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicide in India: Agrarian Crisis, Path of Development and Politics in Karnataka[/inside] by Muzaffar Assadi,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/10.1.1.544.330.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The beginning of agrarian crisis requires being located much earlier to the beginning of suicide, which goes back to the 1980s when the terms of trade were going against agriculture. To oppose State policies, farmers&amp;rsquo; movements were led by Shetkari Sangathana in Maharashtra, Vyavasayigal Sangam in Tamil Nadu, and Rajya Raitha Sangh in Karnataka. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Karnataka has no history of farmers committing suicide even during the situation of acute agrarian crisis. Even the unorganised farmers would resort to other tactics such as throwing the agricultural commodities on the roads, burning their crops, etc. Andhra became the harbinger for such a trend in Karnataka. Suicide in Karnataka was first reported in the northern parts of Karnataka or close to the border areas of Andhra Pradesh.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The beginning of the suicides can be traced back to the year 1998, when two farmers in Bidar, who were involved in cultivating Tur Dal, a market-oriented agricultural crop committed suicide. In the initial two years, farmer suicides were largely concentrated in the drought-prone districts in north Karnataka, or confined to economically backward, drought-prone regions such as Gulbarga and Bidar. However, after 2000 , the phenomenon shifted to relatively advanced agricultural regions, particularly Mandya, Hassan, Shimoga, Davanagere, Koppal and even Chickmagalur Kodagu and it also covered ground water region (Belgaum), assured rain fall region (Haveri), Sugar Cane and Cauvery Irrigation Belt (Mandya). However, in the coastal belt, the number of suicides reported was less.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;During 1999-2001, it was estimated that 110 farmers committed suicide in Karnataka. According to one estimate, 3,000 farmers committed suicide in Karnataka between 1998 and 2006. According to the report prepared by the Crime Branch of Karnataka, the number of suicide under the heading &amp;ldquo;farming and agricultural activity&amp;rdquo; comes to 15,804 between 1998 and 2002. Between 1996 and 2002, 12,889 male farmers committed suicide followed by females (2841). The total number of farmers who committed suicide from 1 April, 2003 to 1 January, 2007 comes to 1193. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Debt burden of the farmers who committed suicide was not uniform. It varied between Rs.5000 to Rs.50000. Many of them had borrowed loan on short-term basis.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The most striking aspect of the crisis, however, is the fact that large number of farmers who committed suicide largely came from the age group between 25 and 35 years.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;During the first few years of this millennium Karnataka saw a deceleration, due to the negative growth in agriculture. This is apparent from the following facts: the average real GDP rate in different sectors between the period 1995-96 and 2002-03 was 5.86; however, for agriculture it was 1.87 per cent, industry 5.93 per cent, service sector 8.18 percent.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;In Karnataka, the large number of farmers who committed suicide came from the OBCs, though there are also cases of farmers committing suicide, hailing from dominant castes such as &lt;em&gt;Lingayats &lt;/em&gt;and &lt;em&gt;Vokkaligas&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The World Bank dictated terms have gone against the interest of the farmers. This is apparent when Karnataka government for example, went for World Bank loan, which granted Economic Restructuring loan in 2001. This loan came along with a condition that government should withdraw from the power sector as regulator and distributor of power. The free power given to the agriculture was withdrawn and it increased the power tariff drastically.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Karnataka government was unable to checkmate the growth of money lenders. It failed to make the cooperative movement a success one. In Karnataka although there are 32,382 Cooperative Societies at the village level, almost 40 cent of them are running under loss, nearly twenty cent of them are either defunct or liquidated.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The Karnataka government is one of the first governments to allow the field trials of &lt;em&gt;Bt &lt;/em&gt;Cotton.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;In 2002, 143 talukas were declared drought affected. In 2003, 159 talukas out of 176 talukas in the state, were declared as drought affected. Drought brought down areas under sowing thus affecting production. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The first debate on farmers&amp;#39; suicide tries to locate the suicide as part of multiple crises. The crises are ecological, economic, and social, each inter-linked with the other. The ecological crisis is the result of intense use of hybrid seeds, chemical fertilisers and pesticides, causing the erosion of soil fertility and increasing crop-susceptibility to pests and diseases. Heavy indebtedness led to the economic crisis. The second debate attempts to locate the crisis or the suicide to the negative growth of agrarian economy in the recent past as argued by Vandana Shiva. She comes closer to the Marxist critique particularly the arguments of Utsa Patnaik wherein the latter locates the reasons in the liberalisation/ neocolonialism or imperialist globalisation. The third debate attempts to locate the reasons for the suicide in adapting the World Bank model of agriculture or what is called McKinsey Model of development that created spaces for industry-driven agriculture which ultimately translated into agri-business development including Information technology. The fourth is the discourse, which attempts to locate the suicide exclusively to one phenomenon, that is, the increasing indebtedness or the debt trap. The final discourse, which came from the state, attempts to locate the reasons in multiple issues, such as the incessant floods, manipulation of prices by traders, supply of spurious pesticides and seeds, decline in prices of agricultural produce, increase in the cost of agricultural inputs, successive drought in recent years, and of course, the neglect of farmers by the previous state government.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Farmers%20Suicides%20in%20India.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Farmers Suicides in India&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access the article entitled [inside]Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India: Magnitudes, Trends, and Spatial Patterns, 1997-2012 by K Nagaraj, P Sainath, R Rukmani and R Gopinath[/inside], Review of Agrarian Studies&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;According to Nagaraj K (2008): [inside]Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India, Magnitudes, Trends and Spatial Patterns[/inside]&lt;em&gt;, &lt;/em&gt;please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/K%20Nagaraj%20Farmers_Suicides_1.pdf&quot; title=&quot;K Nagaraj Farmers_Suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt; :&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Farm suicides happened in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh including Chattisgarh &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;During the ten-year period spanning 1997 to 2006 as many as 166,304 farmers committed suicide in India. If one considers the 12 year period from 1995 to 2006 the figure is close to 200,000.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Going by the official data, on average nearly 16,000 farmers committed suicide every year over the last decade or so.&amp;nbsp; It is also clear that every seventh suicide in the country was a farm suicide.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The year 1998 show a sharp increase in the number of farm suicides &amp;ndash; an 18 percent jump from the previous year; and the number remained more or less steady at around 16,000 suicides per year over the next three years upto 2001. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The average number of farm suicides per year in the five-year span 2002-2006, at 17,513 is substantially higher than the average (of 15,747 per year) for the previous five-year span. Farm suicides have increased at annual compound growth rate of around 2.5 per cent per annum over the period 1997-2006.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Suicides in general are also largely concentrated among males, but the degree of concentration here is significantly lower than in the case of farm suicides: male suicides in the general population account for nearly 62 percent of all suicides in the country.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;According to Hebber, Dr. Ritambhara (2007): [inside]&amp;lsquo;Human Security and the Case of Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India: An Exploration&amp;rsquo;[/inside], Centre for Development Studies, School of Social Sciences, TISS, Paper presented in a panel on Rethinking Development in a Conference on &amp;lsquo;Mainstreaming Human Security- an Asian Perspective&amp;rsquo; (October 3-4, 2007) organised by Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The problem of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides has been seen from the framework of human security. This phenomenon is related to the collapse of basic economic and social support structures in rural India. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The officials while explaining the suicidal deaths have underplayed the structural changes due to green revolution, globalisation and liberalization. The protective measures and mechanisms required to be provided to the ordinary farmers were overlooked. There has been overemphasis on psychological factors while explaining the suicides. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Farmers committed suicides mainly from Maharastra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Such regions are dry regions where agriculture is mainly rain fed. Farmers were growing cash crops in such regions such as: cotton (particularly in Maharashtra), sunflower, groundnut, and sugarcane (especially in Karnataka). &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Rising cost of production made the farmers to borrow at exorbitant rates from informal sources.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;When the All India Biodynamic and Organic Farming Association wrote to the Mumbai High Court expressing its concern over farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides in Jalna, a district in Maharashtra, the Court asked TISS to conduct a survey study. Based on the survey, the Court asked the Maharastra government to consider the issue seriously. The TISS report identified the untenable cost of agricultural production and indebtedness as the key reasons for suicides. The IGIDR report, on the other hand, did not implicate the government or its policies for the suicides; instead it sought a greater role for government intervention through rural development programmes to expand non-farm activity among farmers.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;A special relief package was announced by the Maharastra government in December, 2005 for six districts of Amravati, Akola, Buldhana, Yavatmal, Washim and Wardha. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Pesticide and fertiliser companies have been extending credit to farmers in Karnataka and in Maharashtra, which adds to their debt burden. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Poor health conditions, family disputes over property, domestic problems, and heavy social burden of marrying daughters coupled with alcoholism have pushed farmers towards committing suicides, according the committee report headed by GK Veeresh. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Farmers&amp;rsquo; movement headed by Shetkari Shangathana was quite strong during the 1980s in Maharastra. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;**page**&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;According to CP Chandrashekhar and Jayati Ghosh (2005): [inside]The Burden of Farmers&amp;rsquo; Debt[/inside], Macroscan, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.macroscan.com/the/food/sep05/fod140905Farmers_Debt.htm&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;http://www.macroscan.com/the/food/sep05/fod140905Farmers_Debt.htm &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;One of the important purpose of taking loans was for spending on &amp;#39;&amp;#39;marriages and ceremonies&amp;#39;&amp;#39;, which however accounted for a much smaller proportion of total loans, at around 11 per cent. This purpose was most important for farmer households of Bihar (22.9 per cent) followed by those in Rajasthan (17.6 per cent). &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Moneylenders have emerged as the most significant source of credit for farmers, with 29 per cent accessing this source. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The influence of moneylenders appears to be especially strong in Bihar (44 per cent) and Rajasthan (40 per cent). Traders &amp;mdash; of both inputs and outputs &amp;mdash; also have provided loans to 12 per cent of indebted farmers. However, institutional sources still remain significant, with more than half of farmers accessing government, co-operative societies and banks taken together &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Average amount of the outstanding loan increases with the size of the land holding, but what is more interesting is that the proportion of indebted farmers also increases with the size class.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Even among very small and marginal farmers, the amount of outstanding loan is substantial, given the likely low incomes from such smallholdings, which suggests some sort of cumulative process leading to a debt trap for the very resource poor cultivators.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;According to [inside]Causes of Farmer Suicides in Maharashtra: AN ENQUIRY, Final Report Submitted to the Mumbai High Court March 15, 2005[/inside], which has been prepared by Ajay Dandekar, Shahaji Narawade, Ram Rathod, Rajesh Ingle, Vijay Kulkarni, and Sateppa YD, please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/farmers_suicide_tiss_report-2005.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;This Report on the farmer suicides in the state of Maharashtra is being submitted as per the Judgment of the Court that made the TISS a consultant in the Public Interest Litigation Number 164 of 2004. The nature of this report is to primarily apprise the Court of the causes that led the farmers to take this extreme step, as per the findings of the research team. The Interim Report was submitted to the Court on February 16, 2005, and this Final Report is being submitted on its due date &amp;mdash; March 16, 2005.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The total numbers of suicides reported in Maharashtra, till December 2004, were 644, with most of the deaths occurring in the Vidharbha, Marathwada and Khandesh regions of the state. Thus, the present investigation concentrated on these regions. Out of the total 644 farmer suicides, a sample of five per cent, i.e., 36 cases were identified for the study.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The TISS team conducted detailed case studies (life history approach) of all the families of the 36 cases;&amp;nbsp;it also conducted several focus group discussions with farmers in each of the 36 villages covered.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Repeated crop failures, inability to meet the rising cost of cultivation, and indebtedness seem to create a situation that forces farmers to commit suicide. However, not all farmers facing these conditions commit suicide &amp;mdash; it is only those who seem to have felt that they have exhausted all avenues of securing support have taken their lives.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;It is not only the landed who have a crisis of indebtedness to deal with. There were a number of landless families who had leased land on a short-/long-term basis by securing loans. It was also noticed that many landless families managed to acquire money through migration to cities and purchased lands in the late eighties and early nineties. Many such families were caught up in cycles of debt and destitution, which ultimately led to the suicide of the head of the family. Thus, the survivors were reduced to landlessness due to debt. Among those committed included medium and large landowners who were also affected by a high level of un-payable debt.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;In the cotton belt, the crop seems to have failed more than once in the last four years. This crop failure has always not been associated with natural calamities, such as failure of rain or un-seasonal rains leading to destruction of crops. The causes are an increase in pest attacks in the last few years, especially from 1995 onwards. This meant that the farmers needed more money to pay for pesticides, though, in the end, a high level of pesticide use did not prevent crop failure.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Longitudinal data available with government sources indicate declining productivity of land. This meant increased use of fertilisers to enhance productivity of land. The information available indicates that farmers have been spending more on fertilisers even while crop performance has been showing a declining trend. The group discussions and case studies point to the fact that the quantity of use of fertiliser per acre rose in the midnineties and has now reached a saturation point. There appears to be a decrease in the production per acre in the same area.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The farmers are dependent on agents of fertiliser and pesticide companies for advice on seeds and crop care. The information base of the farmers is, thus, limited to the data provided by the agents and their products. A false perception of prosperity is being created in the minds of the cultivators that prompts them to take serious risks in terms of fertiliser-based cropping pattern.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Input costs have also exhibited a sharp rise. Agriculture has become more expensive post-1995. This rise in the input cost is reflected in the electricity bills, rising costs of high yielding variety (HYV) seeds, fertilisers, energy (diesel), transportation, etc. The rising input cost is not matched by the crop yield and price obtained. The minimum support price has not been available to all farmers, particularly the small and marginal farmers. Large landowners have been able to benefit from support price, when the government has occasionally provided such support. The absence of support price has had serious implications to the farmers.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Declining opportunities in non-farm employment has further aggravated the crisis. It seems that in areas where suicides have occurred, non-farm options are getting limited.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Those farmers who faced repeated crop failures accumulated loans beyond their capacity to repay. Thus, most of victims had turned defaulters over the last four years. This points to a serious crisis as reflected in the absence of the support system to bail the farmers out, in the form of relatives, neighbours, banks and even the moneylenders who had stopped giving the loans to them lately.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The investment (at 1980&amp;ndash;81 prices) stood at Rs. 1,266 crores in 1950&amp;ndash;51 and rose to Rs. 5,246 crores by 1978-79. However, it has declined since 1978&amp;ndash;79 and was only Rs. 4,692 crores in 1990&amp;ndash;91. The share of agricultural investment came down from 22% in 1950&amp;ndash;51 to 19% in 1980&amp;ndash;81 and even further to about 10% in 1990&amp;ndash;91. This has adversely affected the public sector investment in irrigation as more than 90% of the total public investment in agriculture goes for irrigation. The share of the irrigation sector (in states only) in the total public investment came down from 14.7% in 1980&amp;ndash;81 to only 5.6% in 1990&amp;ndash;91 (at 1980&amp;ndash;81 prices) of the public sector investment, whereas the total increase in investment was at the rate of 6.3% per annum.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;In 1989&amp;ndash;90, the total subsidies to agriculture amounted to Rs. 1,3500 crores &amp;mdash; these were mainly given on fertilisers, irrigation and electricity. These subsidies have gone towards the development of the wealthier farmers in regions where investments have already poured in.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The opening up of Indian agriculture to multinational corporations and the withdrawal of the GoI from this system of production has occurred simultaneously. Moreover, the internal markets have become unstable due to the lowering of tariff barriers. Unfair terms of trade towards agriculture of developing countries have made matters worse for those who are engaged in and/or are dependent on this system of agriculture.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Bio-diversity is under threat due to TRIPS and the WTO. Environmental degradation resulting in deforestation and depletion of water availability (drinking and agriculture), both in quantity and quality, has made the situation more serious. Untenable cost of production in modern agriculture techniques, institutional and low interest credit and the absence of a credible security net (i.e., crop insurance) are not making things easy for the cultivators in the country.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Favourable / Unfavourable agro climatic situation among the State leading to variation in per hectare yield: The agro climatic situation varies from State to State. This leads to variation in per hectare yield. The per hectare yield in Maharashtra State is less in comparison with the yield of other States due to inadequate irrigation facilities and unfavourable agro climatic situations. This leads to more cost of production. However, due to favourable agro climatic situation and sufficient irrigation facilities, the per hectare yield in Haryana and Punjab is more. Therefore, the cost of production of these States is conducive for the States where a particular crop is grown on a large scale. This adversely affects States like Maharashtra who have unfavourable agro climatic situation and higher cost of production. The Minimum Support Prices declared by Government of India does not cover the cost of production of the agriculture producer to the full extent. Therefore, the Minimum Support Prices do not give full justice to the farmers of the State having high cost of production. Therefore, instead of declaring one Minimum Support Price at the National Level, separate support prices may be declared for groups of States according to the cost of cultivation.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;In connection with the price environment for the farmers, it needs to be pointed out that there has been considerable increase in the price of important farm inputs during the last five years. Between 1990&amp;ndash;91and 95&amp;ndash;96 while the prices of wheat as measured by the average of wholesale price indices increased by 58%, that of fertilizer increased by 113%, that of irrigation by 62% and insecticides by 90 percent. While the recent revision in the administered prices of petroleum products, the price of diesel would be higher by 75% than their level during 1990-91. The report further points out that the small and marginal farmers do not get ever get the administered price declared by the state&lt;/p&gt;
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&amp;nbsp;

&amp;bull; Suicide&amp;nbsp;by&amp;nbsp;self-employed&amp;nbsp;persons&amp;nbsp;in&amp;nbsp;agriculture as a&amp;nbsp;percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6 percent in 1996, 16.3 percent in 2002, 14.4 percent in 2006, 13.7 percent in 2009, 11.9 percent in 2010, 10.3 percent in 2011, 11.4 percent...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;KEY TRENDS&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Suicide&amp;nbsp;by&amp;nbsp;self-employed&amp;nbsp;persons&amp;nbsp;in&amp;nbsp;agriculture as a&amp;nbsp;percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6 percent in 1996, 16.3 percent in 2002, 14.4 percent in 2006, 13.7 percent in 2009, 11.9 percent in 2010, 10.3 percent in 2011, 11.4 percent in 2012 and 8.73 percent in 2013. Suicides committed in the farming sector (by farmers plus agricultural labourers) as a proportion of total suicides in India was 9.4 percent in 2014, 9.43 percent in 2015, 8.7 percent in 2016, 8.2 percent in 2017, 7.69 percent in 2018,&amp;nbsp;7.4 percent in 2019, 7.0 percent in 2020, and 6.63 percent in 2021&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides committed by self-employed persons in agriculture in India was 13729 in 1996, 17971 in 2002, 17060 in 2006, 17368 in 2009, 15964 in 2010, 14027 in 2011, 13754 in 2012 and 11772 in 2013. The total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers/ cultivators plus agricultural labourers) was 12,360 in 2014, 12,602 in 2015, 11,379 in 2016, 10,655 in 2017, 10,349 in 2018, 10,281 in 2019, 10,677 in 2020, and 10,881 in 2021&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; Due to drop in world market prices for cash-crops (such as coffee, pepper, vanilla) during late 1990s, failure of ginger cultivation in neighbouring Kodagu (formerly Coorg) district and ecological crisis owing to overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides so as to combat productivity failure, many farmers and neo-farmers were left with heavy debts. When, eventually the recovery notices of the banks arrived, hundreds of farmers, especially marginal landholders with up to two acres of land, drank pesticides and killed themselves &lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; In Wayanad, since suicide statistics are directly linked to the payment of compensation through the Revenue Department, the number of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides stagnated during the years 2006 to 2008. &amp;lsquo;Safe Farmers Campaign&amp;rsquo; (SFC), a consortium of eight, mostly Catholic, NGOs (including Shreyas), in 2007 began a large-scale investigation into farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides that ran parallel to the state&amp;rsquo;s efforts of enumeration and classification. Taking police reports of suicides as a starting point and following up all cases from 2000 to March 2008 they have come up with a total number of 1,690 farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (Kerala Social Service Forum 2009). That is nearly four times the figure of 435 officially recognised farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides. The latter number is also the number of beneficiaries of the Chief Minister&amp;rsquo;s (CM) relief fund &lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; During the ten-year period spanning 1997 to 2006 as many as 1,66,304 farmers committed suicide in India&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; Farm suicides have increased at annual compound growth rate of around 2.5 per cent per annum over the period 1997-2006&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; Farmers, who committed suicides, were growing cash crops in dry regions such as: cotton (particularly in Maharashtra), sunflower, groundnut, and sugarcane (especially in Karnataka) &lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; Farm suicides took place in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh including Chhattisgarh&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; Poor health conditions, family disputes over property, domestic problems, and heavy social burden of marrying daughters coupled with alcoholism have pushed farmers towards committing suicides&lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt; National Crime Records Bureau,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt; Farmers&amp;#39; suicides&amp;nbsp; and the state in India: Conceptual and ethnographic notes from Wayanad, Kerala by Daniel M&amp;uuml;nster, Contributions to Indian Sociology 2012 46: 181, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&quot; title=&quot;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&quot;&gt;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt; Nagaraj, K (2008): Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India, Magnitudes, Trends and Spatial Patterns, Macroscan,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf&quot;&gt;http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt; Hebber, Dr. Ritambhara (2007): &amp;lsquo;Human Security and the Case of Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India: An Exploration&amp;rsquo;, Centre for Development Studies, School of Social Sciences, TISS, Paper presented in a panel on Rethinking Development in a Conference on &amp;lsquo;Mainstreaming Human Security- an Asian Perspective&amp;rsquo; (October 3-4, 2007) organised by Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&quot;&gt;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Pres&lt;br /&gt;entations/Ritambhara.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; 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	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Farm Suicides&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;KEY TRENDS&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Suicide&amp;nbsp;by&amp;nbsp;self-employed&amp;nbsp;persons&amp;nbsp;in&amp;nbsp;agriculture as a&amp;nbsp;percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6 percent in 1996, 16.3 percent in 2002, 14.4 percent in 2006, 13.7 percent in 2009, 11.9 percent in 2010, 10.3 percent in 2011, 11.4 percent in 2012 and 8.73 percent in 2013. Suicides committed in the farming sector (by farmers plus agricultural labourers) as a proportion of total suicides in India was 9.4 percent in 2014, 9.43 percent in 2015, 8.7 percent in 2016, 8.2 percent in 2017, 7.69 percent in 2018,&amp;nbsp;7.4 percent in 2019, 7.0 percent in 2020, and 6.63 percent in 2021&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The total number of suicides committed by self-employed persons in agriculture in India was 13729 in 1996, 17971 in 2002, 17060 in 2006, 17368 in 2009, 15964 in 2010, 14027 in 2011, 13754 in 2012 and 11772 in 2013. The total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers/ cultivators plus agricultural labourers) was 12,360 in 2014, 12,602 in 2015, 11,379 in 2016, 10,655 in 2017, 10,349 in 2018, 10,281 in 2019, 10,677 in 2020, and 10,881 in 2021&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Due to drop in world market prices for cash-crops (such as coffee, pepper, vanilla) during late 1990s, failure of ginger cultivation in neighbouring Kodagu (formerly Coorg) district and ecological crisis owing to overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides so as to combat productivity failure, many farmers and neo-farmers were left with heavy debts. When, eventually the recovery notices of the banks arrived, hundreds of farmers, especially marginal landholders with up to two acres of land, drank pesticides and killed themselves &lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; In Wayanad, since suicide statistics are directly linked to the payment of compensation through the Revenue Department, the number of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides stagnated during the years 2006 to 2008. &amp;lsquo;Safe Farmers Campaign&amp;rsquo; (SFC), a consortium of eight, mostly Catholic, NGOs (including Shreyas), in 2007 began a large-scale investigation into farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides that ran parallel to the state&amp;rsquo;s efforts of enumeration and classification. Taking police reports of suicides as a starting point and following up all cases from 2000 to March 2008 they have come up with a total number of 1,690 farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (Kerala Social Service Forum 2009). That is nearly four times the figure of 435 officially recognised farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides. The latter number is also the number of beneficiaries of the Chief Minister&amp;rsquo;s (CM) relief fund &lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; During the ten-year period spanning 1997 to 2006 as many as 1,66,304 farmers committed suicide in India&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Farm suicides have increased at annual compound growth rate of around 2.5 per cent per annum over the period 1997-2006&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Farmers, who committed suicides, were growing cash crops in dry regions such as: cotton (particularly in Maharashtra), sunflower, groundnut, and sugarcane (especially in Karnataka) &lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Farm suicides took place in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh including Chhattisgarh&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Poor health conditions, family disputes over property, domestic problems, and heavy social burden of marrying daughters coupled with alcoholism have pushed farmers towards committing suicides&lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt; National Crime Records Bureau,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt; Farmers&amp;#39; suicides&amp;nbsp; and the state in India: Conceptual and ethnographic notes from Wayanad, Kerala by Daniel M&amp;uuml;nster, Contributions to Indian Sociology 2012 46: 181, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&quot;&gt;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt; Nagaraj, K (2008): Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India, Magnitudes, Trends and Spatial Patterns, Macroscan,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf&quot;&gt;http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt; Hebber, Dr. Ritambhara (2007): &amp;lsquo;Human Security and the Case of Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India: An Exploration&amp;rsquo;, Centre for Development Studies, School of Social Sciences, TISS, Paper presented in a panel on Rethinking Development in a Conference on &amp;lsquo;Mainstreaming Human Security- an Asian Perspective&amp;rsquo; (October 3-4, 2007) organised by Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&quot;&gt;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2021 (released in August, 2022)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Chapter%202%20Suicides%20in%20India.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; An increase of nearly 7.2 percent was noticed in suicides during 2021 (1,64,033 suicides) as compared to 2020 (1,53,052 suicides). The rate of suicides has risen by 0.7 points during 2021 (i.e. 12.0 per lakh population) over 2020 (i.e. 11.3 per lakh population). Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Chapter%202%20Suicides%20in%20India.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,318 farmers/cultivators committed suicides during 2021, accounting for 3.24 percent of total suicide victims in India. However, 5,563 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2021, which is nearly 3.39 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,881 in 2021, accounting for roughly 6.63 percent of total suicide victims in the country. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,107 male farmers/ cultivators and 211 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 96.03 percent and 3.97 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,318) in 2021, respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 4,806 in 2021. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&amp;#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 512. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,121 male agricultural labourers and 442 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 92.05 percent and 7.95 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,563) in 2021, respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Manipur, Odisha, Tripura, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Chandigarh, Lakshadweep, and Puducherry reported zero number of suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers in 2021. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2021 were recorded in Maharashtra (4,064, which is around 37.35 percent of total farm suicides i.e. 10,881), followed by Karnataka (2,169), Andhra Pradesh (1,065), Madhya Pradesh (671), Tamil Nadu (599), and Telangana (359). Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2021 were reported from Maharashtra (2,640, which is around 49.64 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,170), Andhra Pradesh (481) and Telangana (352). Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2021 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,424), followed by Karnataka (999), Andhra Pradesh (584), Madhya Pradesh (554), and Tamil Nadu (538). Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The ADSI 2021 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides committed by daily wage earners in 2021 was 42,004. Most suicides by daily wage earners in 2021 were recorded in Tamil Nadu (7,673), followed by Maharashtra (5,270), Madhya Pradesh (4,657), and Telangana (4,223). Figures of daily wage earner excludes agricultural labourer. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;---&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/News%20alerts%20on%20Rural%20Distress%20in%20India%281%29.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access the news alerts on India&amp;rsquo;s agrarian crisis and rural distress by Inclusive Media for Change.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2020 (released in October, 2021)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/adsi2020_Chapter-2-Suicides-1.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; An increase of about 10.01 percent was observed in suicides during 2020 (1,53,052 suicides) as compared to 2019 (1,39,123 suicides). The rate of suicides has increased by 0.9 points during 2020 (viz. 11.3 per lakh population) over 2019 (viz. 10.4 per lakh population). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/adsi2020_Chapter-2-Suicides-1.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,579 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2020, accounting for 3.65 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 5,098 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2020, which is nearly 3.33 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,677 in 2020, accounting for nearly 7.0 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/adsi2020_Chapter-2-Suicides-1.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,335 male farmers/ cultivators and 244 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 95.63 percent and 4.37 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,579) in 2020, respectively. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 4,940 in 2020. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&amp;#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 639. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 4,621 male agricultural labourers and 477 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 90.64 percent and 9.36 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,098) in 2020, respectively. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, Bihar, Nagaland, Tripura, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Chandigarh, Delhi (UT), Ladakh, Lakshadweeep and Puducherry reported zero number of suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers in 2020. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2020 were recorded in Maharashtra (4,006, which is around 37.52 percent of total farm suicides viz. 10,677), followed by Karnataka (2,016), Andhra Pradesh (889), Madhya Pradesh (735) and Chhattisgarh (537). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2020 were reported from Maharashtra (2,567, which is around 46.01 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,072), Andhra Pradesh (564) and Telangana (466). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2020 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,439), followed by Karnataka (944), Tamil Nadu (398), Kerala (341) and Andhra Pradesh (325). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The ADSI 2020 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2019 (released in September, 2020)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Table-2.6_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Table-2.7_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A rise of almost 3.4 percent was observed in suicides during 2019 (1,39,123 suicides) as compared to 2018 (1,34,516 suicides). The rate of suicides has increased by 0.2 points during 2019 (viz. 10.4 per lakh population) over 2018 (viz. 10.2 per lakh population). Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,957 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2019, accounting for 4.3 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 4,324 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2019, which is nearly 3.1 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,281 in 2019, accounting for nearly 7.4 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.6_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,563 male farmers/ cultivators and 394 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 93.4 percent and 6.6 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,957) in 2019, respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 5,129. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.6_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&amp;#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 828. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.6_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 3,749 male agricultural labourers and 575 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 86.7 percent and 13.3 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 4,324) in 2019, respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Chandigarh, Daman &amp;amp; Diu, Delhi UT, Lakshadweep and Puducherry reported zero suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2019 were recorded in Maharashtra (3,927, which is around 38.2 percent of total farm suicides viz. 10,281), followed by Karnataka (1,992), Andhra Pradesh (1,029), Madhya Pradesh (541) and Telangana and Chhattisgarh (each 499). Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.7_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2019 were reported from Maharashtra (2,680, which is around 45 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,331), Andhra Pradesh (628) and Telangana (491). Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.7_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2019 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,247), followed by Karnataka (661), Tamil Nadu (421), Andhra Pradesh (401) and Madhya Pradesh (399). Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.7_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The ADSI 2019 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2018 (released in January, 2020)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A rise of almost 3.6 percent was observed in suicides during 2018 (1,34,516 suicides) as compared to 2017 (1,29,887 suicides). The rate of suicides has increased by 0.3 points during 2018 (viz. 10.2 per lakh population) over 2017 (viz. 9.9 per lakh population). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,763 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2018, accounting for 4.28 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 4,586 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2018, which is nearly 3.41 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,349 in 2018, accounting for nearly 7.69 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,457 male farmers/ cultivators and 306 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 94.69 percent and 5.31 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,763), respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 5,088. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&amp;#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 675. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 4,071 male agricultural labourers and 515 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 88.77 percent and 11.23 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 4,586), respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Goa, Chandigarh, Daman &amp;amp; Diu, Delhi UT, Lakshadweep and Puducherry reported zero suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2018 were recorded in Maharashtra (3,594, which is around 34.73 percent of total farm suicides viz. 10,349), followed by Karnataka (2,405), Telangana (908), Andhra Pradesh (664) and Madhya Pradesh (655). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2018 were reported from Maharashtra (2,239, which is around 38.85 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,365), Telangana (900), Andhra Pradesh (365) and Madhya Pradesh (303). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2018 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,355), followed by Karnataka (1,040), Tamil Nadu (395), Madhya Pradesh (352) and Andhra Pradesh (299). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The ADSI 2018 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2017 (released in January, 2020)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2017&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2017&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A decline of almost -0.9 percent was observed in suicides during 2017 (1,29,887 suicides) as compared to 2016 (1,31,008 suicides). The rate of suicides has decreased by -0.4 points during 2017 (viz. 9.9 per lakh population) over 2016 (viz. 10.3 per lakh population). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,955 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2017, accounting for 4.58 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 4,700 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2017, which is nearly 3.62 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,655 in 2017, accounting for almost 8.2 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2017&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,633 male farmers/ cultivators and 322 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 94.59 percent and 5.41 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,955), respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 5,203.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&amp;#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 752.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 4,219 male agricultural labourers and 480 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 89.77 percent and 10.21 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 4,700), respectively. One agricultural labourer was transgender.&amp;nbsp; Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Certain States/UTs namely, West Bengal, Odisha, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Uttarakhand, Chandigarh UT, Dadra &amp;amp; Nagar Haveli, Daman &amp;amp; Diu, Delhi UT, Lakshadweep and Puducherry reported zero suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2017 were recorded in Maharashtra (3,701, which is around 34.73 percent of total farm suicides viz. 10,655), followed by Karnataka (2,160), Madhya Pradesh (955), Telangana (851) and Andhra Pradesh (816). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2017&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2017 were reported from Maharashtra (2,426, which is around 40.74 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,157), Telangana (846), Madhya Pradesh (429) and Andhra Pradesh (375). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2017&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2017 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,275), followed by Karnataka (1,003), Madhya Pradesh (526), Andhra Pradesh (441) and Tamil Nadu (369). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2017&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The ADSI 2017 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2016 (released in November, 2019)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/NCRB%20snapshots.pdf&quot; title=&quot;NCRB snapshots&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.6%20farm%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.6 farm suicides&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.7%20farm%20suicide.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.7 farm suicide&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A decline of almost -2.0 percent was observed in suicides during 2016 (1,31,008 suicides) as compared to 2015 (1,33,623 suicides). The rate of suicides has decreased by -0.3 points during 2016 (viz. 10.3 per lakh population) over 2015 (viz. 10.6 per lakh population). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/NCRB%20snapshots.pdf&quot; title=&quot;NCRB snapshots&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 6,270 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2016, accounting for 4.79 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 5,109 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2016, which is nearly 3.9 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 11,379 in 2016, accounting for roughly 8.7 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.6%20farm%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.6 farm suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,995 male farmers/ cultivators and 275 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 95.61 percent and 4.39 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 6,270), respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides_1.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 4,476 male agricultural labourers and 633 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 87.61 percent and 12.39 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,109), respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides_1.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, West Bengal, Bihar, Nagaland, Chandigarh, Dadar &amp;amp; Nagar Haveli, Daman &amp;amp; Diu, Delhi UT and Lakshadweep reported zero suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides_1.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2016 were recorded in Maharashtra (3,661), followed by Karnataka (2,079), Madhya Pradesh (1,321), Andhra Pradesh (804) and Chhattisgarh (682). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.7%20farm%20suicide.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.7 farm suicide&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2016 were reported from Maharashtra (2,550, which is around 40.7 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,212), Telangana (632), Madhya Pradesh (599) and Chhattisgarh (585). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.7%20farm%20suicide.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.7 farm suicide&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2016 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,111), followed by Karnataka (867), Madhya Pradesh (722), Andhra Pradesh (565) and Gujarat (378). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.7%20farm%20suicide.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.7 farm suicide&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The ADSI 2016 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2015 (released in 2016)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Suicides%20in%20farming%20sector.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Suicides in farming sector&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Altogether 1,33,623 persons in India committed suicide in 2015 (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Suicides%20in%20India.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Suicides in India 2015&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 8,007 farmers/ cultivators have committed suicides during 2015, accounting for 5.99 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 4,595 agricultural labourers have committed suicides during 2015, which is 3.44 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 12,602 in 2015, accounting for 9.43 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Suicides%20in%20farming%20sector.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Suicides in farming sector&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 7,566 male farmers/ cultivators and 441 female farmers/ cultivators have committed suicides, accounting for 94.49 percent and 5.51 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides, respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Suicides%20in%20farming%20sector.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Suicides in farming sector&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Land holding status of farmers who committed suicide reveals that 27.41 percent and 45.19 percent of victims were marginal farmers and small farmers respectively. They together accounted for 72.59 percent (5,813 out of 8,007) of total farmer suicides (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Land%20Holding%20Status%20of%20Farmers%20committing%20Suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Land Holding Status of Farmers committing Suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Majority of suicides committed by farmers/ cultivators were reported in Maharashtra (3,030) followed by 1,358 such suicides in Telangana and 1,197 suicides in Karnataka, accounting for 37.8 percent, 17.0 percent and 14.9 percent of total such suicides (8,007) respectively during 2015. Chhattisgarh (854 suicides), Madhya Pradesh (581 suicides) and Andhra Pradesh (516 suicides) accounted for 10.7 percent, 7.3 percent and 6.4 percent of the total farmer/ cultivators suicides reported in the country respectively. These 6 states together reported 94.1 percent of the total farmer/ cultivators suicides (7,536 out of 8,007 suicides) in the country during 2015.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; &amp;#39;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;#39; and &amp;#39;Farming Related Issues&amp;#39; are reported as major causes of suicides among farmers/ cultivators, accounting for 38.7 percent (3,097 out of 8,007 suicides) and 19.5 percent (1,562 out of 8,007 suicides) of total such suicides respectively during 2015. The other prominent causes of farmer/ cultivators suicides were &amp;#39;Family Problems&amp;#39; (933 suicides), &amp;#39;Illness&amp;#39; (842 suicides) and &amp;#39;Drug Abuse/Alcoholic Addiction&amp;#39; (330 suicides), accounting for 11.7 percent, 10.5 percent and 4.1 percent of total farmers/cultivators` suicides respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; During 2015, major causes of suicides among male farmers/ cultivators were reported as &amp;#39;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;#39; (2,978 suicides) and &amp;#39;Farming Related Issues&amp;#39; (1,494 suicides), which accounted for 39.4 percent and 19.7 percent of total male farmers/ cultivators suicides respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Among female farmers/ cultivators suicides, &amp;#39;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;#39; followed by &amp;#39;Family Problems&amp;#39;, were major causes of suicides, accounting for 27.0 percent (119 out of 441 suicides) and 18.1 percent (80 suicides) of total suicides by female farmers/ cultivators respectively during 2015. &amp;#39;Farming Related Issues&amp;#39; and &amp;#39;Illness&amp;#39; both accounted for 15.4 percent (68 suicides each) during 2015.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; &amp;#39;Family Problems&amp;#39; and &amp;#39;Illness&amp;#39; were major causes of suicides among agricultural labourers accounting for 40.1 percent (1,843 out of 4,595 suicides) and 19.0 percent (872 out of 4,595 suicides) respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; 79.0 percent of farmer/ cultivator suicides in Karnataka and 42.7 percent of farmer/ cultivator suicides in Maharashtra were due to &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;rsquo;. 26.2 percent of farmer/ cultivator suicides in Maharashtra were also due to &amp;#39;Farming Related Issues (Related to Failure of Crop)&amp;#39;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Farmers/ cultivators belonging to 30 years - below 60 years of age group have accounted for 71.6 percent of total farmers/ cultivators&amp;rsquo; suicides during 2015.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; 9.0 percent of farmers/ cultivators who have committed suicides were in age group of 60 years &amp;amp; above.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The states of Bihar, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu &amp;amp; Kashmir, Jharkhand, Mizoram, Nagaland, Uttarakhand and West Bengal have reported no farmers&amp;#39; suicide during 2015. All the 7 Union Territories have reported zero number of farmers&amp;#39; suicide during 2015 (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Incidence%20and%20Percentage%20Change%20in%20Suicides%20in%20Farming%20Sector%20during%202015.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Incidence and Percentage Change in Suicides in Farming Sector in 2015&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The states of Goa, Manipur, Nagaland and West Bengal have reported no suicide by agricultural labourers during 2015. All the Union Territories except Puducherry (12) have reported zero suicide by agricultural labourers during 2015 (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Incidence%20and%20Percentage%20Change%20in%20Suicides%20in%20Farming%20Sector%20during%202015.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Incidence and Percentage Change in Suicides in Farming Sector in 2015&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Comprehensive data on &amp;lsquo;Suicides in Farming Sector&amp;rsquo; comprising of suicides committed by farmers/ cultivators and agricultural labourers in exclusive Chapter-2A have been collected and published in consultation with Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare under overall supervision of Ministry of Home Affairs, in order to present a comprehensive analysis on suicides in the farming sector. In previous edition (till ADSI 2013), this chapter contained data on suicides committed by farmers/cultivators only.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2014 (released in 2015)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2A%20farmer%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI NCRB 2014 Farmers Suicide&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Altogether 1,31,666 persons in India committed suicide in 2014.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,650 farmers have committed suicides during 2014, accounting for 4.3% of total suicide victims in the country. However, 6,710 agricultural labourers have committed suicides during 2014, which is 5.1% of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides committed by persons engaged in agriculture (farmers plus agricultural labourers) in India was 12,360 in 2014, accounting for 9.4% of total suicide victims in India (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2.7.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,178 male farmers and 472 female farmers have committed suicides, accounting for 91.6% and 8.4% of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Land holding status of farmers who committed suicide reveals that 44.5% and 27.9% of victims were small farmers and marginal farmers respectively. They together accounted for 72.4% (4,095 out of 5,650) total farmer suicides (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2A.3.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 2,568 farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides were reported in Maharashtra followed by 898 such suicides in Telangana and 826 suicides in Madhya Pradesh, accounting for 45.5%, 15.9% and 14.6% respectively of total farmer suicides during 2014. Chhattisgarh (443 suicides) and Karnataka (321 suicides) accounted for 7.8% and 5.7% respectively of the total farmer suicides reported in the country. These 5 States together accounted for 89.5% of the total farmer suicides (5,056 out of 5,650) reported in the country during 2014.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;rsquo; and &amp;lsquo;Family Problems&amp;rsquo; are major causes of suicides, accounting for 20.6% and 20.1% respectively of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides during 2014. The other prominent causes of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides were &amp;lsquo;Failure of Crop&amp;rsquo; (16.8%), &amp;lsquo;Illness&amp;rsquo; (13.2%) and &amp;lsquo;Drug Abuse/Alcoholic Addiction&amp;rsquo; (4.9%).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; During 2014, major causes of suicides among male farmers were &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;rsquo; and &amp;lsquo;Family Problems&amp;rsquo;, which accounted for 21.5% and 20.0% respectively of total male farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Whereas, in female farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides, &amp;lsquo;Farming Related Issues&amp;rsquo; followed by &amp;lsquo;Family Problems&amp;rsquo;, &amp;lsquo;Marriage Related Issues&amp;rsquo; and &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;rsquo; were major causes of suicides, accounting for 21.4% (101 out of 472 suicides), 20.6% (97 suicides), 12.3% (58 suicides) and 10.8% (51 suicides) respectively during 2014.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Nearly 33.4% suicides in Maharashtra and 23.2% in Telangana were due to &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;rsquo;. 87.5% of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides due to &amp;lsquo;Failure of Crop&amp;rsquo; were reported in Himachal Pradesh. 4.7% farmers in Himachal Pradesh, 4.1% farmers in Jharkhand and 2.7% farmers each in Bihar, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh have committed suicides due to &amp;lsquo;Suspected/ Illicit Relation&amp;rsquo;. 6.5% suicides by farmers in Sikkim followed by 2.3% in Himachal Pradesh and 2.0% in Puducherry were due to &amp;lsquo;Cancellation/ Non Settlement of Marriage&amp;rsquo;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The states of West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Tripura, Rajasthan, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Manipur, Jharkhand, Goa, Arunachal Pradesh and Bihar have reported no farmers&amp;#39; suicide during 2014. All the Union Territories except Andaman and Nicobar Islands have reported zero farmers&amp;#39; suicide during 2014 (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2.7.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The states of Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Goa, Manipur and Nagaland have reported no suicide by agricultural labourers during 2014. All the Union Territories except Puducherry have reported zero suicide by agricultural labourers during 2014 (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2.7.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The latest issue of the ADSI report is different from the earlier ones in two ways: a. Apart from the usual male and female break-up of data, one also gets data pertaining to transgenders (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2.7.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access), which was missing earlier; b. There is a separate chapter (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/chapter-2A%20farmer%20suicides.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access) and 3 tables (in the annexure, please click &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2A.1.pdf&quot;&gt;link1&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2A.2.pdf&quot;&gt;link2&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2A.3.pdf&quot;&gt;link3&lt;/a&gt;) on farmer suicides in India and at state/UT-level, which did not exist in earlier reports. In the previous ADSI reports, one had to extract data on farmers&amp;#39; suicide from the table on distribution of suicides by profession. Suicides committed by self-employed persons in agriculture gave the proxy of the figure on farmers&amp;#39; suicide.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Unlike the previous ones, in the present ADSI report suicides by self-employed persons in agriculture has been sub-divided into suicides by agricultural labourers and suicides by farmers. Suicides by farmers has been further subdivided (in the current report) into suicide by farmers having own land and suicide by farmers having land on contract or lease.&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
According to National Crime Records Bureau&amp;#39;s [inside]Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India 2013 (released in 2014)[/inside] report, &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Altogether 1,34,799 persons in India committed suicide in 2013.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Nearly, 11,772 persons self-employed in farming/agriculture (can be loosely termed as farmers) committed suicide during 2013. They constitute 8.73 percent of total number of suicides committed during the same year.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Among the 11,772 no. of persons self-employed in farming/agriculture who committed suicide, 10489 are men (89.1%) and 1283 are women (10.9%).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Rate of suicides, i.e., the number of suicides per one lakh population, has been widely accepted as a standard yardstick. The national rate of suicides was 11.0 during the year 2013. Puducherry reported the highest rate of suicide (35.6).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In 2013, the highest incidents of 16,622 suicides were reported in Maharashtra followed by 16,601 suicides in Tamil Nadu accounting for 12.3% each of total suicides. Andhra Pradesh (14,607 suicides), West Bengal (13,055 suicides) and Karnataka (11,266 suicides) accounted for 10.8%, 9.7% and 8.4% respectively of the total suicides reported in the country. These 5 States together accounted for 53.5% of the total suicides reported in India.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Delhi has reported the highest number of suicides (2,059) among UTs, followed by Puducherry (546) during 2013.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;lsquo;Family Problems&amp;rsquo; and &amp;lsquo;Illness&amp;rsquo;, accounting for 24.0% and 19.6% respectively, were the major causes of suicides among the specified causes. &amp;lsquo;Drug Abuse/Addiction&amp;rsquo; (3.4%), &amp;lsquo;Love Affairs&amp;rsquo; (3.3%), &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Sudden change in economic Status&amp;rsquo; (2.0%), &amp;#39;Failure in Examination&amp;rsquo; (1.8%), &amp;lsquo;Dowry Dispute&amp;rsquo; (1.7%) and &amp;lsquo;Unemployment&amp;rsquo; (1.6%) were the other causes of suicides. Suicides due to &amp;lsquo;Illegitimate Pregnancy (64.5%), &amp;lsquo;Fall in Social Reputation&amp;rsquo; (49.4%), &amp;lsquo;Professional/ Career Problem&amp;rsquo; (40.8%), &amp;lsquo;Divorce&amp;rsquo; (35.7%), and &amp;lsquo;Cancellation/Non-Settlement of Marriage&amp;rsquo; (33.5%) have increased in 2013 over 2012, while for poverty and property dispute have declined as compared to previous year.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; It was observed that 69.4% of the suicide victims were married while 23.6% were Never Married/Spinster. Divorcees and Separated have accounted for about 3.2% of the total suicide victims. The proportion of Widowed &amp;amp; Widower victims was around 3.7%.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
According to [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India-2012[/inside], &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/&lt;/a&gt;:&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; 15 Suicides took place in India every hour during 2012.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; It is observed that social and economic causes have led most of the males to commit suicides whereas emotional and personal causes have mainly driven females to end their lives.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Nearly 71.6% of the suicide victims were married males while 67.9% were married females. 1 suicide out of every 6 suicides was committed by a &amp;lsquo;housewife&amp;rsquo;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Tamil Nadu has reported the highest number of suicide victims in 2010 (accounting for 12.3%), third highest in 2011 (accounting for 11.8%) and highest in 2012 (accounting for 14.0%).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Southern States viz. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu including Maharashtra have together accounted for 50.6% of total suicides reported in the country.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Self employed category accounted for 38.7% of suicide victims in 2012.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
According to the article titled [inside]Farmers&amp;#39; suicides and the state in India: Conceptual and ethnographic notes from Wayanad, Kerala[/inside] by Daniel M&amp;uuml;nster, Contributions to Indian Sociology 2012 46: 181, &lt;a href=&quot;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&quot;&gt;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&lt;/a&gt;:&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides are invariably linked to and almost synonymous with the&amp;mdash;equally composite&amp;mdash;agrarian crisis in the aftermath of neoliberal &amp;lsquo;reform&amp;rsquo;. Most of the writing on the subject is based on the same set of data (statistical data of the National Crime Records Bureau) or on journalistic visits to suicide &amp;lsquo;hotspots&amp;rsquo;. So far few ethnographic accounts, committed to qualitative research in suicide prone areas, have been published.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The present study is an ethnographic report from the field in the South Indian district Wayanad, one of the officially designated suicide-prone districts. The primary aim behind the research is to analyse the state&amp;rsquo;s responses to farmer suicides: the bundle of relief packages, inquiry commissions, rural employment schemes and debt relief commissions that were set up in recent years partially as a response to reports on increasing numbers of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides. Such investigation may eventually contribute to an understanding &amp;lsquo;of precisely how neoliberal globalization is transforming the re-distributive functions of the Indian state or affecting its legitimacy and identity as an agency of social welfare&amp;rsquo;. This article makes a strong case for grounding the study of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides in ethnographies of agrarian practice and the local developmental state.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides provide rural citizens with a language to speak about politics, citizenship and development in the context of neoliberalising agriculture.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The research is intended to conceive farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides as an highly over-determined interface between &amp;lsquo;state&amp;rsquo; and rural society; an interface in two senses: first as a drastic image, repeatedly invoked to speak about rural distress and the widespread agrarian crisis in neoliberal India and to address the failure of the nation state to protect its agrarian classes; second, as a set of actually existing practices&amp;mdash; suicides&amp;mdash;which force state agencies to show presence in social settings, which they had allegedly neglected.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In Wayanad neither cotton, nor GM seeds, nor global agri-corporations play a significant role. Not all suicides in Wayanad were related to agrarian distress. For many decades Kerala has had high suicide rates, many with multiple causes: family problems, alcoholism (extremely widespread in Wayanad), health issues, &amp;lsquo;love failure&amp;rsquo;, or debt.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The 1980s and 1990s brought unprecedented wealth to Wayanad. In the late-1980s up until the late-1990s, many farmers of Wayanad especially pepper growers in the &amp;lsquo;Pepper Panchayats&amp;rsquo; of Pulpalli, Mullankolli and Poothadi, became wealthy. Wayanad became an important earner of foreign currency in Kerala. Farmers, even relatively small farmers who owned around two acres could afford constructing large houses.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The end of the 1990s hit Wayanad&amp;rsquo;s agrarian economy in a series of crises. First, the world market prices for cash-crops dropped dramatically. Local rates for pepper (ungarbled) dropped from 270 INR/Kg in 1997 to 54 INR/Kg in 2001, coffee dropped from 60 INR/Kg in 1997 to 16 INR/Kg in 2002 and vanilla, most dramatically dropped from 4300 INR/Kg in 2003 to 25 INR/Kg in 2006. Prices had fluctuated before, most cultivators remembered price crashes in the late-1970s, but this time they were accompanied by a second crisis: a dramatic drop in productivity.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Since the late-1990s Wayanad has been facing a serious ecological crisis. During the boom years cash-croppers heavily overused chemical fertilisers and pesticides in order to keep productivity high and profitable. The soil is now depleted beyond redemption and some Panchayats of Wayanad suffer from increased incidences of cancer. Furthermore new diseases started to affect plantations. &amp;lsquo;Quick wilt&amp;rsquo;, &amp;lsquo;slow wilt&amp;rsquo; and &amp;lsquo;foot rot&amp;rsquo; are their names, and all share the ability to destroy whole plantations quickly.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; When prices crashed and plantations died, many farmers and neo-farmers were left with heavy debts. When, eventually the recovery notices of the banks arrived, hundreds of farmers, especially marginal landholders with up to two acres of land, drank pesticides and killed themselves.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Another economic practice emerged since the late-1990s and has a strong correlation with suicide cases. Many suicide victims had invested in the cultivation of ginger in neighbouring Kodagu (formerly Coorg) district. The return from ginger cultivation could also be nil. There is an almost 50 per cent chance that the ginger plant is going to be affected by a fungus that would spread quickly across the fields and destroy the plantation within days.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Husbands very often did not even talk about their debt burden to wives and children: they just changed their character, became abusive and started to drink more heavily. Many widows shared later that they had no idea of their husbands&amp;rsquo; debts, and were not involved in agricultural matters at all. This made it all the more difficult for them to deal subsequently with the stigma, poverty and political instrumentalisation they were to experience.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; One of author&amp;#39;s original research questions was also to consider farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides as suicides against the state. This link was difficult to establish in Wayanad.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Farmers who killed themselves knew that they were part of a district-wide if not all-India epidemic, that their suicide would attract considerable&amp;nbsp; attention from the media, NGOs as well as state agencies and also&amp;mdash;controversially&amp;mdash;that the state might eventually take care of their families, write off their debt and pay compensation of 50,000 INR.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Most farmers the author spoke to, whether activists or not, were quite knowledgeable about the removal of quantitative restrictions on imports and the dismantling of import duties for agrarian products under the GATT regime as the main reasons for the fall in prices of agrarian cash-crops. They would speak of cheap coffee and pepper coming from Vietnam and Sri Lanka that keeps flooding the market and later to be resold as premium Wayanad pepper. Second, they articulated the retreat of the state, the cut of input subsidies and low investments in irrigation and infrastructure. They would speak of the government that always cheated, gave no security to the farmers, had no procurement policy and provided no minimum price.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The official all-India suicide-rate (suicide rate is the incidence of suicide mortality per 100,000 inhabitants) has for the last 10 years constantly been around 10.5 and hence not extraordinarily inflated. Kerala&amp;rsquo;s official suicide-rate was 26.8 which is more than twice the national average and the third highest in India (after Pondicherry and Andaman &amp;amp; Nicobar Islands) and had been so for the last years. Within Kerala there are two districts that have been given the recent status of &amp;lsquo;suicide-prone districts&amp;rsquo;: Idukki and Wayanad. Even though suicides are statistically well captured, there is a considerable fluctuation in the number of reported farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The &amp;lsquo;Accidental Deaths and Suicides (ADSI)&amp;rsquo; annual report (National Crime Records Bureau 2007) is the only official source of information. It lists the distribution of suicidal death by state, gender, marital status, causes of suicide, means adopted and profession. According to K. Nagaraj, the professional category farmer (although still unspecific) is a relatively recent category in the ADSI reports: &amp;lsquo;The category self-employed (farming/agriculture)&amp;mdash;which can be taken as representing the farmers&amp;mdash;was added for the first time in 1995 (...)&amp;rsquo; (Nagaraj 2008: 2).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The suicide rate for farmers can be calculated only for the year 2001, this being the first year that statistical data on farmers were recorded in the Census of India. On an all-India basis this does not make for highly inflated suicide rates among farmers: 15.8 among the main cultivators as compared to 10.6 of the general population. An entirely different perspective emerges, however, if one takes into account the fact that numbers of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides vary significantly across India. For Kerala, a suicide rate among main cultivators of 176.5 emerges, and the figure is still 142.9 if all cultivators are considered. Those numbers are alarming indeed.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; For all-India the official number in the ADSI reports is 190,753 farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides from 1995 to 2006. That makes an average of 16,000 suicides per year, which is still an underestimation since some major states have not reported on farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The status of farmer (cultivator) is based on the criterion of title to land. This leaves out women, tenant farmers, agricultural labourers, but also regular farmers if the land title was in the father&amp;rsquo;s or son&amp;rsquo;s name. A stringent criterion for agriculture-related suicide would be the absence of any other cause neighbours might mention (such as alcoholism or family problems).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The local practice of identifying farmers&amp;rsquo; suicide became additionally complicated after 2004 by the decision of the new LDF government to actually pay a compensation of 50,000 INR to all families with cases of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides out of the Chief Minister&amp;rsquo;s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In the beginning, as a populist measure, the criteria were handled rather loosely and compensation was paid rather freely. The first compensation cheques were handed over during public functions under great media attention. Later, both to be able to present the success of the other relief measures of the new state and union governments and to curb costs, the practice became more stringent. The debt still had to be the cause of suicide, but now it had to be an institutional credit (excluding debt with moneylenders) and the loan had to have been taken for agricultural purposes (excluding consumer loans).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In Wayanad, since suicide statistics are directly linked to the payment of compensation through the Revenue Department, the number of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides stagnated during the years 2006 to 2008. &amp;lsquo;Safe Farmers Campaign&amp;rsquo; (SFC), a consortium of eight, mostly Catholic, NGOs (including Shreyas), in 2007 began a large-scale investigation into farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides that ran parallel to the state&amp;rsquo;s efforts of enumeration and classification. Taking police reports of suicides as a starting point and following up all cases from 2000 to March 2008 they have come up with a total number of 1,690 farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (Kerala Social Service Forum 2009). That is nearly four times the figure of 435 officially recognised farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides. The latter number is also the number of beneficiaries of the Chief Minister&amp;rsquo;s (CM) relief fund.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; To avoid further committing of farmers&amp;#39; suicides and because of their political nature, the state compensates only such suicides. The CM fund is the most specific programme that targets only cases of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicide. The Indian state has launched unprecedented relief and rehabilitation measures in response to the suicide crisis.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India-2011[/inside],&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/&lt;/a&gt;:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; 16 Suicides took place in India every hour during 2011.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; It is observed that social and economic causes have led most of the males to commit suicides whereas emotional and personal causes have mainly driven females to end their lives.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Nearly 71.1% of the suicide victims were married males while 68.2% were married females.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; West Bengal has reported the highest number of suicide victims (accounting for 11.5%) in 2009, second highest in 2010 (accounting for 11.9%) and highest in 2011 (accounting for 12.2%). &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; West Bengal (12.2%), Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu (11.8% each), Andhra Pradesh (11.1%) and Karnataka (9.3%), altogether contributed 56.2% of total suicide victims.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Self employed category accounted for 38.3% of suicide victims in 2011. It comprised 10.3% engaged in Farming/ Agriculture activities, 5.3% engaged in Business and 3.1% Professionals. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the report titled [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India-2010[/inside], which is produced by the National Crime Records Bureau,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/&lt;/a&gt;: &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Every hour 15 people committed suicide in India during 2010.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; 1 in every 5 suicides is committed by a Housewife.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Total 3,84,649 accidental deaths were reported in the country during the year 2010.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; It is observed that social and economic causes have led most of the males to commit suicides whereas emotional and personal causes have mainly driven females to end their lives.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Nearly 70.5% of the suicide victims were married males while 67.0% were married females.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; 26.3% of the suicide victims were primary educated and 22.7% were middle educated while 19.8% of victims of suicide were illiterate.&amp;nbsp;Self employed category accounted for 41.1% of suicide victims in 2010. It comprised 11.9% engaged in Farming/ Agriculture activities, 5.3% engaged in Business and 3.0% Professionals.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; 41.1% of suicide victims were self employed while only 7.5% were un-employed.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Suicides because of &amp;lsquo;Family Problems&amp;rsquo; (23.7%) and &amp;rsquo;Illness&amp;rsquo; (21.0%) combined accounted for 44.7% of total Suicides.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; West Bengal has reported the highest number of suicide victims (accounting for 11.9%) in 2008 &amp;amp; 2009 and second highest in 2010 (accounting for 11.9%).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; West Bengal (11.9%), Andhra Pradesh (11.8%), Tamil Nadu (12.3%), Maharashtra (11.8%) and Karnataka (9.4%) contributed 57.2% of total suicide victims.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The highest number of Mass/Family Suicides cases were reported from Bihar (23) followed by Kerala (22) and Madhya Pradesh (21) and Andhra Pradesh (20) out of 109 cases.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to National Crime Records Bureau&amp;#39;s [inside]Accidental Death and Suicide (2009)[/inside],&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/suicides-09.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/suicides-09.pdf&lt;/a&gt;, &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/snapshots.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/snapshots.pdf&lt;/a&gt;, &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;: &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; More than one lakh persons (1,27,151) in the country lost their lives by committing suicide during the year 2009. This indicates an increase of 1.7% over the previous year&amp;#39;s figure (1,25,017).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The total number of suicides in the country during the decade (1999&amp;ndash;2009) has recorded an increase of 15.0% (from 1,10,587 in 1999 to 1,27,151 in 2009).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Self-employed category accounted for 39.8% of suicide victims in 2009. It comprised 13.7% engaged in Farming/Agriculture activities, 6.1% engaged in Business and 2.9% Professionals.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; 55.1% suicide victims in Mizoram were engaged in farming /agriculture activities in 2009. 29.6% suicide victims in Manipur were unemployed.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Despite a fall in number of suicides committed by farmers in 2009 as compared to 2008 in Maharastra (fallen by 930), the state continues to be number one in terms of farmers&amp;#39; suicides for the tenth year (2,872 suicides) as compared to the rest of the states.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The number of suicides committed by farmers in 2009 was 17,368, which was a rise by 1,172 as compared to 2008.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The growth in the number of suicides committed by the farmers has been 7 percent over the last year.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In the year 2009, 1,27,151 persons committed suicides. Within a span of one year, suicide rate in the entire country has increased by 1.7 percent. During the last year, the total number of suicides committed was 1,25,017.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In the year 2009, 348 persons committed suicides on an average every day, out of which 48 persons were farmers. In the year 2004, on an average 47 farmers committed suicides every day, which means one farmer committing suicide in every 30 minutes.&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Private and Public Sector personnel have accounted for 8.4% and 2.3% of the total suicide victims respectively, whereas students and un-employed victims accounted for 5.3% and 7.8% respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Government servants were 1.3% of the total suicide victims, whereas housewives (25,092) accounted for 54.9% of the total female victims and nearly 19.7% of total victims committing suicides.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; 40.9% of salaried and 39.0% of unemployed suicide victims were in the age&amp;ndash;group 30-44 years.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; West Bengal has reported the highest number of suicides (14,648) accounting for 11.5% of total suicides followed by Andhra Pradesh (14,500), Tamil Nadu (14,424), Maharashtra (14,300) and Karnataka (12,195) accounting for 11.4%, 11.3%, 11.2% and 9.6% respectively of the total suicides in the country.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; These 5 States together accounted for 55.1% of the total suicides reported in the country.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; 209 deaths at the national level under Mass/Family suicides consisting of 95 males and 114 females were reported as per the information available. 15 cities also did not furnish information.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The maximum number of suicide victims was educated up to Middle level (23.7%). Illiterate and primary educated persons accounted for 21.4% suicide victims and 23.4% respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Only 3.1% suicide victims were graduates and post-graduates. 51.9% suicide victims in Sikkim were illiterate. 36.5% suicide victims in Gujarat had education upto primary level. 68.1% suicide victims in Mizoram and 59.1% suicide victims in Puducherry had middle level education.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;The study titled [inside]Farmers Suicide: Facts and Possible Policy Interventions (2006) [/inside] prepared by Meeta and Rajiv Lochan, (Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration), &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.yashada.org/organisation/FarmersSuicideExcerpts.pdf&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;http://www.yashada.org/organisation/FarmersSuicideExcerpts.pdf&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:Arial; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;revisits some of the families which two earlier reports (Mishra and Dandekar et al) had also visited and criticises them for not doing a good job of compiling the victims&amp;#39; circumstances meticulously. The authors believe that many reports in the past have exaggerated the connection between debt and suicides whereas in reality a lot of other reasons, including harsh environment, a variety of other reasons and absence of basic health services, also play an equally important role. According to the same study:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The suicide epidemic is said to have its epicentre in Yavatmal district of Maharastra. According to the State Crime Records Bureau, it reported 640, 819, 832, 787 and 786 suicides respectively for the years 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Most of the victims of this epidemic were men, mostly in the age group 30 to 50, married and educated, with more social responsibilities, especially in the form of unmarried daughters and or sisters. There were two things that were common among the victims of suicide. One, a feeling of hopelessness: in being unable to resolve problems and dilemmas of personal life; and in the face of an inability to find funds for various activities or repay loans. Two, the absence of any person, group or institution to whom to turn to in order to seek reliable advice: whether for agricultural operations or for seeking funds or for handling private and personal issues. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;People complained about lack of information on various government sponsored schemes. There was little knowledge about institutional mechanisms like the minimum support price (MSP) that would affect marketing, technical knowledge was low and there were no reliable sources from where such knowledge and advice could be accessed. Most farmers were not informed about crop insurance. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Most of them who committed suicide were Hindus and not Muslims or Christians. This is because Hindu religion allowed certain circumstances for altruistic suicide, whereas the latter two religions frowned upon suicides. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Chronic alcoholism and drug abuse were found among rural population.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Loan from a rapacious relative rather than a bank or moneylender was often the cause of economic distress for the victim. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The 10 point suggestions are:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;1. Enhance the physical interaction between government functionaries and village society by insisting on more tours, night halts and gram sabhas by officers at all levels of the administration.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;2. Actively monitor local society, especially farmers, for signs of social, economic and psychological distress and if possible provide social, psychological or spiritual counseling.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;3. Implement with rigour the various provisions that already exist to safeguard the interests of the farmer and farm workers for example, the existing money lending act, minimum wage act etc. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;4. Increase the efficiency of agriculture extension activities. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;5. Increase the efficiency of various services that are delivered by the government in the name of people&amp;#39;s welfare at the moment. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;6. Make available trained and salaried individuals to serve the rural population. Immediate succour is needed. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;7. For the long-term change, it is important to improve the condition of school education and provide appropriate vocational education at the village and taluka level so as to make people understand the complexities of present day production and marketing techniques.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;8. Counsel the media to stop highlighting suicide since the fact of highlighting suicide itself adds fuel to the suicide fire as it were. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;9. Instead of ex gratia payment being made to families of those who commit suicide, provide employment to a member of the family or help in setting up a small business. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;10. Provide direct cash subsidies to actual cultivators.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;According to [inside]Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicide in India: Agrarian Crisis, Path of Development and Politics in Karnataka[/inside] by Muzaffar Assadi,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/10.1.1.544.330.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The beginning of agrarian crisis requires being located much earlier to the beginning of suicide, which goes back to the 1980s when the terms of trade were going against agriculture. To oppose State policies, farmers&amp;rsquo; movements were led by Shetkari Sangathana in Maharashtra, Vyavasayigal Sangam in Tamil Nadu, and Rajya Raitha Sangh in Karnataka. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Karnataka has no history of farmers committing suicide even during the situation of acute agrarian crisis. Even the unorganised farmers would resort to other tactics such as throwing the agricultural commodities on the roads, burning their crops, etc. Andhra became the harbinger for such a trend in Karnataka. Suicide in Karnataka was first reported in the northern parts of Karnataka or close to the border areas of Andhra Pradesh.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The beginning of the suicides can be traced back to the year 1998, when two farmers in Bidar, who were involved in cultivating Tur Dal, a market-oriented agricultural crop committed suicide. In the initial two years, farmer suicides were largely concentrated in the drought-prone districts in north Karnataka, or confined to economically backward, drought-prone regions such as Gulbarga and Bidar. However, after 2000 , the phenomenon shifted to relatively advanced agricultural regions, particularly Mandya, Hassan, Shimoga, Davanagere, Koppal and even Chickmagalur Kodagu and it also covered ground water region (Belgaum), assured rain fall region (Haveri), Sugar Cane and Cauvery Irrigation Belt (Mandya). However, in the coastal belt, the number of suicides reported was less.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;During 1999-2001, it was estimated that 110 farmers committed suicide in Karnataka. According to one estimate, 3,000 farmers committed suicide in Karnataka between 1998 and 2006. According to the report prepared by the Crime Branch of Karnataka, the number of suicide under the heading &amp;ldquo;farming and agricultural activity&amp;rdquo; comes to 15,804 between 1998 and 2002. Between 1996 and 2002, 12,889 male farmers committed suicide followed by females (2841). The total number of farmers who committed suicide from 1 April, 2003 to 1 January, 2007 comes to 1193. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Debt burden of the farmers who committed suicide was not uniform. It varied between Rs.5000 to Rs.50000. Many of them had borrowed loan on short-term basis.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The most striking aspect of the crisis, however, is the fact that large number of farmers who committed suicide largely came from the age group between 25 and 35 years.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;During the first few years of this millennium Karnataka saw a deceleration, due to the negative growth in agriculture. This is apparent from the following facts: the average real GDP rate in different sectors between the period 1995-96 and 2002-03 was 5.86; however, for agriculture it was 1.87 per cent, industry 5.93 per cent, service sector 8.18 percent.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;In Karnataka, the large number of farmers who committed suicide came from the OBCs, though there are also cases of farmers committing suicide, hailing from dominant castes such as &lt;em&gt;Lingayats &lt;/em&gt;and &lt;em&gt;Vokkaligas&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The World Bank dictated terms have gone against the interest of the farmers. This is apparent when Karnataka government for example, went for World Bank loan, which granted Economic Restructuring loan in 2001. This loan came along with a condition that government should withdraw from the power sector as regulator and distributor of power. The free power given to the agriculture was withdrawn and it increased the power tariff drastically.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Karnataka government was unable to checkmate the growth of money lenders. It failed to make the cooperative movement a success one. In Karnataka although there are 32,382 Cooperative Societies at the village level, almost 40 cent of them are running under loss, nearly twenty cent of them are either defunct or liquidated.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The Karnataka government is one of the first governments to allow the field trials of &lt;em&gt;Bt &lt;/em&gt;Cotton.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;In 2002, 143 talukas were declared drought affected. In 2003, 159 talukas out of 176 talukas in the state, were declared as drought affected. Drought brought down areas under sowing thus affecting production. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The first debate on farmers&amp;#39; suicide tries to locate the suicide as part of multiple crises. The crises are ecological, economic, and social, each inter-linked with the other. The ecological crisis is the result of intense use of hybrid seeds, chemical fertilisers and pesticides, causing the erosion of soil fertility and increasing crop-susceptibility to pests and diseases. Heavy indebtedness led to the economic crisis. The second debate attempts to locate the crisis or the suicide to the negative growth of agrarian economy in the recent past as argued by Vandana Shiva. She comes closer to the Marxist critique particularly the arguments of Utsa Patnaik wherein the latter locates the reasons in the liberalisation/ neocolonialism or imperialist globalisation. The third debate attempts to locate the reasons for the suicide in adapting the World Bank model of agriculture or what is called McKinsey Model of development that created spaces for industry-driven agriculture which ultimately translated into agri-business development including Information technology. The fourth is the discourse, which attempts to locate the suicide exclusively to one phenomenon, that is, the increasing indebtedness or the debt trap. The final discourse, which came from the state, attempts to locate the reasons in multiple issues, such as the incessant floods, manipulation of prices by traders, supply of spurious pesticides and seeds, decline in prices of agricultural produce, increase in the cost of agricultural inputs, successive drought in recent years, and of course, the neglect of farmers by the previous state government.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Farmers%20Suicides%20in%20India.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Farmers Suicides in India&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access the article entitled [inside]Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India: Magnitudes, Trends, and Spatial Patterns, 1997-2012 by K Nagaraj, P Sainath, R Rukmani and R Gopinath[/inside], Review of Agrarian Studies&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;According to Nagaraj K (2008): [inside]Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India, Magnitudes, Trends and Spatial Patterns[/inside]&lt;em&gt;, &lt;/em&gt;please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/K%20Nagaraj%20Farmers_Suicides_1.pdf&quot; title=&quot;K Nagaraj Farmers_Suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt; :&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Farm suicides happened in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh including Chattisgarh &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;During the ten-year period spanning 1997 to 2006 as many as 166,304 farmers committed suicide in India. If one considers the 12 year period from 1995 to 2006 the figure is close to 200,000.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Going by the official data, on average nearly 16,000 farmers committed suicide every year over the last decade or so.&amp;nbsp; It is also clear that every seventh suicide in the country was a farm suicide.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The year 1998 show a sharp increase in the number of farm suicides &amp;ndash; an 18 percent jump from the previous year; and the number remained more or less steady at around 16,000 suicides per year over the next three years upto 2001. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The average number of farm suicides per year in the five-year span 2002-2006, at 17,513 is substantially higher than the average (of 15,747 per year) for the previous five-year span. Farm suicides have increased at annual compound growth rate of around 2.5 per cent per annum over the period 1997-2006.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Suicides in general are also largely concentrated among males, but the degree of concentration here is significantly lower than in the case of farm suicides: male suicides in the general population account for nearly 62 percent of all suicides in the country.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;According to Hebber, Dr. Ritambhara (2007): [inside]&amp;lsquo;Human Security and the Case of Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India: An Exploration&amp;rsquo;[/inside], Centre for Development Studies, School of Social Sciences, TISS, Paper presented in a panel on Rethinking Development in a Conference on &amp;lsquo;Mainstreaming Human Security- an Asian Perspective&amp;rsquo; (October 3-4, 2007) organised by Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The problem of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides has been seen from the framework of human security. This phenomenon is related to the collapse of basic economic and social support structures in rural India. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The officials while explaining the suicidal deaths have underplayed the structural changes due to green revolution, globalisation and liberalization. The protective measures and mechanisms required to be provided to the ordinary farmers were overlooked. There has been overemphasis on psychological factors while explaining the suicides. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Farmers committed suicides mainly from Maharastra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Such regions are dry regions where agriculture is mainly rain fed. Farmers were growing cash crops in such regions such as: cotton (particularly in Maharashtra), sunflower, groundnut, and sugarcane (especially in Karnataka). &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Rising cost of production made the farmers to borrow at exorbitant rates from informal sources.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;When the All India Biodynamic and Organic Farming Association wrote to the Mumbai High Court expressing its concern over farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides in Jalna, a district in Maharashtra, the Court asked TISS to conduct a survey study. Based on the survey, the Court asked the Maharastra government to consider the issue seriously. The TISS report identified the untenable cost of agricultural production and indebtedness as the key reasons for suicides. The IGIDR report, on the other hand, did not implicate the government or its policies for the suicides; instead it sought a greater role for government intervention through rural development programmes to expand non-farm activity among farmers.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;A special relief package was announced by the Maharastra government in December, 2005 for six districts of Amravati, Akola, Buldhana, Yavatmal, Washim and Wardha. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Pesticide and fertiliser companies have been extending credit to farmers in Karnataka and in Maharashtra, which adds to their debt burden. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Poor health conditions, family disputes over property, domestic problems, and heavy social burden of marrying daughters coupled with alcoholism have pushed farmers towards committing suicides, according the committee report headed by GK Veeresh. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Farmers&amp;rsquo; movement headed by Shetkari Shangathana was quite strong during the 1980s in Maharastra. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;**page**&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;According to CP Chandrashekhar and Jayati Ghosh (2005): [inside]The Burden of Farmers&amp;rsquo; Debt[/inside], Macroscan, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.macroscan.com/the/food/sep05/fod140905Farmers_Debt.htm&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;http://www.macroscan.com/the/food/sep05/fod140905Farmers_Debt.htm &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;One of the important purpose of taking loans was for spending on &amp;#39;&amp;#39;marriages and ceremonies&amp;#39;&amp;#39;, which however accounted for a much smaller proportion of total loans, at around 11 per cent. This purpose was most important for farmer households of Bihar (22.9 per cent) followed by those in Rajasthan (17.6 per cent). &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Moneylenders have emerged as the most significant source of credit for farmers, with 29 per cent accessing this source. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The influence of moneylenders appears to be especially strong in Bihar (44 per cent) and Rajasthan (40 per cent). Traders &amp;mdash; of both inputs and outputs &amp;mdash; also have provided loans to 12 per cent of indebted farmers. However, institutional sources still remain significant, with more than half of farmers accessing government, co-operative societies and banks taken together &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Average amount of the outstanding loan increases with the size of the land holding, but what is more interesting is that the proportion of indebted farmers also increases with the size class.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Even among very small and marginal farmers, the amount of outstanding loan is substantial, given the likely low incomes from such smallholdings, which suggests some sort of cumulative process leading to a debt trap for the very resource poor cultivators.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;According to [inside]Causes of Farmer Suicides in Maharashtra: AN ENQUIRY, Final Report Submitted to the Mumbai High Court March 15, 2005[/inside], which has been prepared by Ajay Dandekar, Shahaji Narawade, Ram Rathod, Rajesh Ingle, Vijay Kulkarni, and Sateppa YD, please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/farmers_suicide_tiss_report-2005.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;This Report on the farmer suicides in the state of Maharashtra is being submitted as per the Judgment of the Court that made the TISS a consultant in the Public Interest Litigation Number 164 of 2004. The nature of this report is to primarily apprise the Court of the causes that led the farmers to take this extreme step, as per the findings of the research team. The Interim Report was submitted to the Court on February 16, 2005, and this Final Report is being submitted on its due date &amp;mdash; March 16, 2005.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The total numbers of suicides reported in Maharashtra, till December 2004, were 644, with most of the deaths occurring in the Vidharbha, Marathwada and Khandesh regions of the state. Thus, the present investigation concentrated on these regions. Out of the total 644 farmer suicides, a sample of five per cent, i.e., 36 cases were identified for the study.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The TISS team conducted detailed case studies (life history approach) of all the families of the 36 cases;&amp;nbsp;it also conducted several focus group discussions with farmers in each of the 36 villages covered.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Repeated crop failures, inability to meet the rising cost of cultivation, and indebtedness seem to create a situation that forces farmers to commit suicide. However, not all farmers facing these conditions commit suicide &amp;mdash; it is only those who seem to have felt that they have exhausted all avenues of securing support have taken their lives.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;It is not only the landed who have a crisis of indebtedness to deal with. There were a number of landless families who had leased land on a short-/long-term basis by securing loans. It was also noticed that many landless families managed to acquire money through migration to cities and purchased lands in the late eighties and early nineties. Many such families were caught up in cycles of debt and destitution, which ultimately led to the suicide of the head of the family. Thus, the survivors were reduced to landlessness due to debt. Among those committed included medium and large landowners who were also affected by a high level of un-payable debt.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;In the cotton belt, the crop seems to have failed more than once in the last four years. This crop failure has always not been associated with natural calamities, such as failure of rain or un-seasonal rains leading to destruction of crops. The causes are an increase in pest attacks in the last few years, especially from 1995 onwards. This meant that the farmers needed more money to pay for pesticides, though, in the end, a high level of pesticide use did not prevent crop failure.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Longitudinal data available with government sources indicate declining productivity of land. This meant increased use of fertilisers to enhance productivity of land. The information available indicates that farmers have been spending more on fertilisers even while crop performance has been showing a declining trend. The group discussions and case studies point to the fact that the quantity of use of fertiliser per acre rose in the midnineties and has now reached a saturation point. There appears to be a decrease in the production per acre in the same area.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The farmers are dependent on agents of fertiliser and pesticide companies for advice on seeds and crop care. The information base of the farmers is, thus, limited to the data provided by the agents and their products. A false perception of prosperity is being created in the minds of the cultivators that prompts them to take serious risks in terms of fertiliser-based cropping pattern.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Input costs have also exhibited a sharp rise. Agriculture has become more expensive post-1995. This rise in the input cost is reflected in the electricity bills, rising costs of high yielding variety (HYV) seeds, fertilisers, energy (diesel), transportation, etc. The rising input cost is not matched by the crop yield and price obtained. The minimum support price has not been available to all farmers, particularly the small and marginal farmers. Large landowners have been able to benefit from support price, when the government has occasionally provided such support. The absence of support price has had serious implications to the farmers.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Declining opportunities in non-farm employment has further aggravated the crisis. It seems that in areas where suicides have occurred, non-farm options are getting limited.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Those farmers who faced repeated crop failures accumulated loans beyond their capacity to repay. Thus, most of victims had turned defaulters over the last four years. This points to a serious crisis as reflected in the absence of the support system to bail the farmers out, in the form of relatives, neighbours, banks and even the moneylenders who had stopped giving the loans to them lately.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The investment (at 1980&amp;ndash;81 prices) stood at Rs. 1,266 crores in 1950&amp;ndash;51 and rose to Rs. 5,246 crores by 1978-79. However, it has declined since 1978&amp;ndash;79 and was only Rs. 4,692 crores in 1990&amp;ndash;91. The share of agricultural investment came down from 22% in 1950&amp;ndash;51 to 19% in 1980&amp;ndash;81 and even further to about 10% in 1990&amp;ndash;91. This has adversely affected the public sector investment in irrigation as more than 90% of the total public investment in agriculture goes for irrigation. The share of the irrigation sector (in states only) in the total public investment came down from 14.7% in 1980&amp;ndash;81 to only 5.6% in 1990&amp;ndash;91 (at 1980&amp;ndash;81 prices) of the public sector investment, whereas the total increase in investment was at the rate of 6.3% per annum.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;In 1989&amp;ndash;90, the total subsidies to agriculture amounted to Rs. 1,3500 crores &amp;mdash; these were mainly given on fertilisers, irrigation and electricity. These subsidies have gone towards the development of the wealthier farmers in regions where investments have already poured in.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The opening up of Indian agriculture to multinational corporations and the withdrawal of the GoI from this system of production has occurred simultaneously. Moreover, the internal markets have become unstable due to the lowering of tariff barriers. Unfair terms of trade towards agriculture of developing countries have made matters worse for those who are engaged in and/or are dependent on this system of agriculture.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Bio-diversity is under threat due to TRIPS and the WTO. Environmental degradation resulting in deforestation and depletion of water availability (drinking and agriculture), both in quantity and quality, has made the situation more serious. Untenable cost of production in modern agriculture techniques, institutional and low interest credit and the absence of a credible security net (i.e., crop insurance) are not making things easy for the cultivators in the country.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Favourable / Unfavourable agro climatic situation among the State leading to variation in per hectare yield: The agro climatic situation varies from State to State. This leads to variation in per hectare yield. The per hectare yield in Maharashtra State is less in comparison with the yield of other States due to inadequate irrigation facilities and unfavourable agro climatic situations. This leads to more cost of production. However, due to favourable agro climatic situation and sufficient irrigation facilities, the per hectare yield in Haryana and Punjab is more. Therefore, the cost of production of these States is conducive for the States where a particular crop is grown on a large scale. This adversely affects States like Maharashtra who have unfavourable agro climatic situation and higher cost of production. The Minimum Support Prices declared by Government of India does not cover the cost of production of the agriculture producer to the full extent. Therefore, the Minimum Support Prices do not give full justice to the farmers of the State having high cost of production. Therefore, instead of declaring one Minimum Support Price at the National Level, separate support prices may be declared for groups of States according to the cost of cultivation.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;In connection with the price environment for the farmers, it needs to be pointed out that there has been considerable increase in the price of important farm inputs during the last five years. Between 1990&amp;ndash;91and 95&amp;ndash;96 while the prices of wheat as measured by the average of wholesale price indices increased by 58%, that of fertilizer increased by 113%, that of irrigation by 62% and insecticides by 90 percent. While the recent revision in the administered prices of petroleum products, the price of diesel would be higher by 75% than their level during 1990-91. The report further points out that the small and marginal farmers do not get ever get the administered price declared by the state&lt;/p&gt;
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&amp;nbsp;

&amp;bull; Suicide&amp;nbsp;by&amp;nbsp;self-employed&amp;nbsp;persons&amp;nbsp;in&amp;nbsp;agriculture as a&amp;nbsp;percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6 percent in 1996, 16.3 percent in 2002, 14.4 percent in 2006, 13.7 percent in 2009, 11.9 percent in 2010, 10.3 percent in 2011, 11.4 percent...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;KEY TRENDS&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Suicide&amp;nbsp;by&amp;nbsp;self-employed&amp;nbsp;persons&amp;nbsp;in&amp;nbsp;agriculture as a&amp;nbsp;percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6 percent in 1996, 16.3 percent in 2002, 14.4 percent in 2006, 13.7 percent in 2009, 11.9 percent in 2010, 10.3 percent in 2011, 11.4 percent in 2012 and 8.73 percent in 2013. Suicides committed in the farming sector (by farmers plus agricultural labourers) as a proportion of total suicides in India was 9.4 percent in 2014, 9.43 percent in 2015, 8.7 percent in 2016, 8.2 percent in 2017, 7.69 percent in 2018,&amp;nbsp;7.4 percent in 2019, 7.0 percent in 2020, and 6.63 percent in 2021&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides committed by self-employed persons in agriculture in India was 13729 in 1996, 17971 in 2002, 17060 in 2006, 17368 in 2009, 15964 in 2010, 14027 in 2011, 13754 in 2012 and 11772 in 2013. The total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers/ cultivators plus agricultural labourers) was 12,360 in 2014, 12,602 in 2015, 11,379 in 2016, 10,655 in 2017, 10,349 in 2018, 10,281 in 2019, 10,677 in 2020, and 10,881 in 2021&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; Due to drop in world market prices for cash-crops (such as coffee, pepper, vanilla) during late 1990s, failure of ginger cultivation in neighbouring Kodagu (formerly Coorg) district and ecological crisis owing to overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides so as to combat productivity failure, many farmers and neo-farmers were left with heavy debts. When, eventually the recovery notices of the banks arrived, hundreds of farmers, especially marginal landholders with up to two acres of land, drank pesticides and killed themselves &lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; In Wayanad, since suicide statistics are directly linked to the payment of compensation through the Revenue Department, the number of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides stagnated during the years 2006 to 2008. &amp;lsquo;Safe Farmers Campaign&amp;rsquo; (SFC), a consortium of eight, mostly Catholic, NGOs (including Shreyas), in 2007 began a large-scale investigation into farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides that ran parallel to the state&amp;rsquo;s efforts of enumeration and classification. Taking police reports of suicides as a starting point and following up all cases from 2000 to March 2008 they have come up with a total number of 1,690 farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (Kerala Social Service Forum 2009). That is nearly four times the figure of 435 officially recognised farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides. The latter number is also the number of beneficiaries of the Chief Minister&amp;rsquo;s (CM) relief fund &lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; During the ten-year period spanning 1997 to 2006 as many as 1,66,304 farmers committed suicide in India&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; Farm suicides have increased at annual compound growth rate of around 2.5 per cent per annum over the period 1997-2006&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; Farmers, who committed suicides, were growing cash crops in dry regions such as: cotton (particularly in Maharashtra), sunflower, groundnut, and sugarcane (especially in Karnataka) &lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; Farm suicides took place in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh including Chhattisgarh&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; Poor health conditions, family disputes over property, domestic problems, and heavy social burden of marrying daughters coupled with alcoholism have pushed farmers towards committing suicides&lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt; National Crime Records Bureau,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt; Farmers&amp;#39; suicides&amp;nbsp; and the state in India: Conceptual and ethnographic notes from Wayanad, Kerala by Daniel M&amp;uuml;nster, Contributions to Indian Sociology 2012 46: 181, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&quot; title=&quot;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&quot;&gt;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt; Nagaraj, K (2008): Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India, Magnitudes, Trends and Spatial Patterns, Macroscan,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf&quot;&gt;http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt; Hebber, Dr. Ritambhara (2007): &amp;lsquo;Human Security and the Case of Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India: An Exploration&amp;rsquo;, Centre for Development Studies, School of Social Sciences, TISS, Paper presented in a panel on Rethinking Development in a Conference on &amp;lsquo;Mainstreaming Human Security- an Asian Perspective&amp;rsquo; (October 3-4, 2007) organised by Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&quot;&gt;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Pres&lt;br /&gt;entations/Ritambhara.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; 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&bull; Suicide&nbsp;by&nbsp;self-employed&nbsp;persons&nbsp;in&nbsp;agriculture as a&nbsp;percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6 percent in 1996, 16.3 percent in 2002, 14.4 percent in 2006, 13.7 percent in 2009, 11.9 percent in 2010, 10.3 percent in 2011, 11.4 percent..."/>
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                <strong>Farm Suicides</strong></h1>
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                <p style="text-align:justify">KEY TRENDS</p><div style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align:justify">&bull; Suicide&nbsp;by&nbsp;self-employed&nbsp;persons&nbsp;in&nbsp;agriculture as a&nbsp;percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6 percent in 1996, 16.3 percent in 2002, 14.4 percent in 2006, 13.7 percent in 2009, 11.9 percent in 2010, 10.3 percent in 2011, 11.4 percent in 2012 and 8.73 percent in 2013. Suicides committed in the farming sector (by farmers plus agricultural labourers) as a proportion of total suicides in India was 9.4 percent in 2014, 9.43 percent in 2015, 8.7 percent in 2016, 8.2 percent in 2017, 7.69 percent in 2018,&nbsp;7.4 percent in 2019, 7.0 percent in 2020, and 6.63 percent in 2021&nbsp;<strong>#</strong><br /><br />&bull; The total number of suicides committed by self-employed persons in agriculture in India was 13729 in 1996, 17971 in 2002, 17060 in 2006, 17368 in 2009, 15964 in 2010, 14027 in 2011, 13754 in 2012 and 11772 in 2013. The total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers/ cultivators plus agricultural labourers) was 12,360 in 2014, 12,602 in 2015, 11,379 in 2016, 10,655 in 2017, 10,349 in 2018, 10,281 in 2019, 10,677 in 2020, and 10,881 in 2021&nbsp;<strong>#</strong>&nbsp;<br /><br />&bull; Due to drop in world market prices for cash-crops (such as coffee, pepper, vanilla) during late 1990s, failure of ginger cultivation in neighbouring Kodagu (formerly Coorg) district and ecological crisis owing to overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides so as to combat productivity failure, many farmers and neo-farmers were left with heavy debts. When, eventually the recovery notices of the banks arrived, hundreds of farmers, especially marginal landholders with up to two acres of land, drank pesticides and killed themselves <strong>@</strong><br /><br />&bull; In Wayanad, since suicide statistics are directly linked to the payment of compensation through the Revenue Department, the number of farmers&rsquo; suicides stagnated during the years 2006 to 2008. &lsquo;Safe Farmers Campaign&rsquo; (SFC), a consortium of eight, mostly Catholic, NGOs (including Shreyas), in 2007 began a large-scale investigation into farmers&rsquo; suicides that ran parallel to the state&rsquo;s efforts of enumeration and classification. Taking police reports of suicides as a starting point and following up all cases from 2000 to March 2008 they have come up with a total number of 1,690 farmers&rsquo; suicides (Kerala Social Service Forum 2009). That is nearly four times the figure of 435 officially recognised farmers&rsquo; suicides. The latter number is also the number of beneficiaries of the Chief Minister&rsquo;s (CM) relief fund <strong>@</strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /><br />&bull; During the ten-year period spanning 1997 to 2006 as many as 1,66,304 farmers committed suicide in India<strong>*</strong><br /><br />&bull; Farm suicides have increased at annual compound growth rate of around 2.5 per cent per annum over the period 1997-2006<strong>*</strong><br /><br />&bull; Farmers, who committed suicides, were growing cash crops in dry regions such as: cotton (particularly in Maharashtra), sunflower, groundnut, and sugarcane (especially in Karnataka) <strong>**</strong><br /><br />&bull; Farm suicides took place in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh including Chhattisgarh<strong>*</strong><br /><br />&bull; Poor health conditions, family disputes over property, domestic problems, and heavy social burden of marrying daughters coupled with alcoholism have pushed farmers towards committing suicides<strong>**</strong></div><p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:justify"><strong>#</strong> National Crime Records Bureau,&nbsp;<a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/">http://ncrb.nic.in/</a></p><p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html" title="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html">http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html</a></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html" title="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html">http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html</a><br /><br /><a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html" title="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html">http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html</a><br /><br /><a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp" title="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp">http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp</a></p><p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm">http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm</a></p><p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium"><a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm" title="http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm">http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm</a> </span></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf</a></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf</a><em>&nbsp;</em></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf</a><em>&nbsp;</em></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf</a></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf</a></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf</a><em>&nbsp;</em></p><p style="text-align:justify"><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium"><strong>@</strong> Farmers&#39; suicides&nbsp; and the state in India: Conceptual and ethnographic notes from Wayanad, Kerala by Daniel M&uuml;nster, Contributions to Indian Sociology 2012 46: 181, </span><a href="http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181" title="http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181">http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181</a></p><p style="text-align:justify"><strong>*</strong> Nagaraj, K (2008): Farmers&rsquo; Suicides in India, Magnitudes, Trends and Spatial Patterns, Macroscan,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf" title="http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf">http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf</a>&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:justify"><strong>**</strong> Hebber, Dr. Ritambhara (2007): &lsquo;Human Security and the Case of Farmers&rsquo; Suicides in India: An Exploration&rsquo;, Centre for Development Studies, School of Social Sciences, TISS, Paper presented in a panel on Rethinking Development in a Conference on &lsquo;Mainstreaming Human Security- an Asian Perspective&rsquo; (October 3-4, 2007) organised by Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok</p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf" title="http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf">http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Pres<br />entations/Ritambhara.pdf</a></p><div style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">               </font>
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		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Farm Suicides&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;KEY TRENDS&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Suicide&amp;nbsp;by&amp;nbsp;self-employed&amp;nbsp;persons&amp;nbsp;in&amp;nbsp;agriculture as a&amp;nbsp;percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6 percent in 1996, 16.3 percent in 2002, 14.4 percent in 2006, 13.7 percent in 2009, 11.9 percent in 2010, 10.3 percent in 2011, 11.4 percent in 2012 and 8.73 percent in 2013. Suicides committed in the farming sector (by farmers plus agricultural labourers) as a proportion of total suicides in India was 9.4 percent in 2014, 9.43 percent in 2015, 8.7 percent in 2016, 8.2 percent in 2017, 7.69 percent in 2018,&amp;nbsp;7.4 percent in 2019, 7.0 percent in 2020, and 6.63 percent in 2021&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The total number of suicides committed by self-employed persons in agriculture in India was 13729 in 1996, 17971 in 2002, 17060 in 2006, 17368 in 2009, 15964 in 2010, 14027 in 2011, 13754 in 2012 and 11772 in 2013. The total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers/ cultivators plus agricultural labourers) was 12,360 in 2014, 12,602 in 2015, 11,379 in 2016, 10,655 in 2017, 10,349 in 2018, 10,281 in 2019, 10,677 in 2020, and 10,881 in 2021&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Due to drop in world market prices for cash-crops (such as coffee, pepper, vanilla) during late 1990s, failure of ginger cultivation in neighbouring Kodagu (formerly Coorg) district and ecological crisis owing to overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides so as to combat productivity failure, many farmers and neo-farmers were left with heavy debts. When, eventually the recovery notices of the banks arrived, hundreds of farmers, especially marginal landholders with up to two acres of land, drank pesticides and killed themselves &lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; In Wayanad, since suicide statistics are directly linked to the payment of compensation through the Revenue Department, the number of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides stagnated during the years 2006 to 2008. &amp;lsquo;Safe Farmers Campaign&amp;rsquo; (SFC), a consortium of eight, mostly Catholic, NGOs (including Shreyas), in 2007 began a large-scale investigation into farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides that ran parallel to the state&amp;rsquo;s efforts of enumeration and classification. Taking police reports of suicides as a starting point and following up all cases from 2000 to March 2008 they have come up with a total number of 1,690 farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (Kerala Social Service Forum 2009). That is nearly four times the figure of 435 officially recognised farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides. The latter number is also the number of beneficiaries of the Chief Minister&amp;rsquo;s (CM) relief fund &lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; During the ten-year period spanning 1997 to 2006 as many as 1,66,304 farmers committed suicide in India&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Farm suicides have increased at annual compound growth rate of around 2.5 per cent per annum over the period 1997-2006&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Farmers, who committed suicides, were growing cash crops in dry regions such as: cotton (particularly in Maharashtra), sunflower, groundnut, and sugarcane (especially in Karnataka) &lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Farm suicides took place in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh including Chhattisgarh&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Poor health conditions, family disputes over property, domestic problems, and heavy social burden of marrying daughters coupled with alcoholism have pushed farmers towards committing suicides&lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt; National Crime Records Bureau,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt; Farmers&amp;#39; suicides&amp;nbsp; and the state in India: Conceptual and ethnographic notes from Wayanad, Kerala by Daniel M&amp;uuml;nster, Contributions to Indian Sociology 2012 46: 181, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&quot;&gt;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt; Nagaraj, K (2008): Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India, Magnitudes, Trends and Spatial Patterns, Macroscan,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf&quot;&gt;http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt; Hebber, Dr. Ritambhara (2007): &amp;lsquo;Human Security and the Case of Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India: An Exploration&amp;rsquo;, Centre for Development Studies, School of Social Sciences, TISS, Paper presented in a panel on Rethinking Development in a Conference on &amp;lsquo;Mainstreaming Human Security- an Asian Perspective&amp;rsquo; (October 3-4, 2007) organised by Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&quot;&gt;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2021 (released in August, 2022)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Chapter%202%20Suicides%20in%20India.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; An increase of nearly 7.2 percent was noticed in suicides during 2021 (1,64,033 suicides) as compared to 2020 (1,53,052 suicides). The rate of suicides has risen by 0.7 points during 2021 (i.e. 12.0 per lakh population) over 2020 (i.e. 11.3 per lakh population). Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Chapter%202%20Suicides%20in%20India.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,318 farmers/cultivators committed suicides during 2021, accounting for 3.24 percent of total suicide victims in India. However, 5,563 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2021, which is nearly 3.39 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,881 in 2021, accounting for roughly 6.63 percent of total suicide victims in the country. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,107 male farmers/ cultivators and 211 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 96.03 percent and 3.97 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,318) in 2021, respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 4,806 in 2021. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&amp;#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 512. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,121 male agricultural labourers and 442 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 92.05 percent and 7.95 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,563) in 2021, respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Manipur, Odisha, Tripura, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Chandigarh, Lakshadweep, and Puducherry reported zero number of suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers in 2021. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2021 were recorded in Maharashtra (4,064, which is around 37.35 percent of total farm suicides i.e. 10,881), followed by Karnataka (2,169), Andhra Pradesh (1,065), Madhya Pradesh (671), Tamil Nadu (599), and Telangana (359). Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2021 were reported from Maharashtra (2,640, which is around 49.64 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,170), Andhra Pradesh (481) and Telangana (352). Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2021 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,424), followed by Karnataka (999), Andhra Pradesh (584), Madhya Pradesh (554), and Tamil Nadu (538). Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The ADSI 2021 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides committed by daily wage earners in 2021 was 42,004. Most suicides by daily wage earners in 2021 were recorded in Tamil Nadu (7,673), followed by Maharashtra (5,270), Madhya Pradesh (4,657), and Telangana (4,223). Figures of daily wage earner excludes agricultural labourer. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;---&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/News%20alerts%20on%20Rural%20Distress%20in%20India%281%29.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access the news alerts on India&amp;rsquo;s agrarian crisis and rural distress by Inclusive Media for Change.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2020 (released in October, 2021)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/adsi2020_Chapter-2-Suicides-1.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; An increase of about 10.01 percent was observed in suicides during 2020 (1,53,052 suicides) as compared to 2019 (1,39,123 suicides). The rate of suicides has increased by 0.9 points during 2020 (viz. 11.3 per lakh population) over 2019 (viz. 10.4 per lakh population). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/adsi2020_Chapter-2-Suicides-1.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,579 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2020, accounting for 3.65 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 5,098 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2020, which is nearly 3.33 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,677 in 2020, accounting for nearly 7.0 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/adsi2020_Chapter-2-Suicides-1.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,335 male farmers/ cultivators and 244 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 95.63 percent and 4.37 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,579) in 2020, respectively. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 4,940 in 2020. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&amp;#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 639. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 4,621 male agricultural labourers and 477 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 90.64 percent and 9.36 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,098) in 2020, respectively. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, Bihar, Nagaland, Tripura, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Chandigarh, Delhi (UT), Ladakh, Lakshadweeep and Puducherry reported zero number of suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers in 2020. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2020 were recorded in Maharashtra (4,006, which is around 37.52 percent of total farm suicides viz. 10,677), followed by Karnataka (2,016), Andhra Pradesh (889), Madhya Pradesh (735) and Chhattisgarh (537). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2020 were reported from Maharashtra (2,567, which is around 46.01 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,072), Andhra Pradesh (564) and Telangana (466). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2020 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,439), followed by Karnataka (944), Tamil Nadu (398), Kerala (341) and Andhra Pradesh (325). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The ADSI 2020 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2019 (released in September, 2020)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Table-2.6_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Table-2.7_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A rise of almost 3.4 percent was observed in suicides during 2019 (1,39,123 suicides) as compared to 2018 (1,34,516 suicides). The rate of suicides has increased by 0.2 points during 2019 (viz. 10.4 per lakh population) over 2018 (viz. 10.2 per lakh population). Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,957 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2019, accounting for 4.3 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 4,324 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2019, which is nearly 3.1 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,281 in 2019, accounting for nearly 7.4 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.6_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,563 male farmers/ cultivators and 394 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 93.4 percent and 6.6 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,957) in 2019, respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 5,129. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.6_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&amp;#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 828. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.6_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 3,749 male agricultural labourers and 575 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 86.7 percent and 13.3 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 4,324) in 2019, respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Chandigarh, Daman &amp;amp; Diu, Delhi UT, Lakshadweep and Puducherry reported zero suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2019 were recorded in Maharashtra (3,927, which is around 38.2 percent of total farm suicides viz. 10,281), followed by Karnataka (1,992), Andhra Pradesh (1,029), Madhya Pradesh (541) and Telangana and Chhattisgarh (each 499). Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.7_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2019 were reported from Maharashtra (2,680, which is around 45 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,331), Andhra Pradesh (628) and Telangana (491). Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.7_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2019 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,247), followed by Karnataka (661), Tamil Nadu (421), Andhra Pradesh (401) and Madhya Pradesh (399). Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.7_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The ADSI 2019 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2018 (released in January, 2020)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A rise of almost 3.6 percent was observed in suicides during 2018 (1,34,516 suicides) as compared to 2017 (1,29,887 suicides). The rate of suicides has increased by 0.3 points during 2018 (viz. 10.2 per lakh population) over 2017 (viz. 9.9 per lakh population). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,763 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2018, accounting for 4.28 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 4,586 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2018, which is nearly 3.41 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,349 in 2018, accounting for nearly 7.69 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,457 male farmers/ cultivators and 306 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 94.69 percent and 5.31 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,763), respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 5,088. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&amp;#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 675. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 4,071 male agricultural labourers and 515 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 88.77 percent and 11.23 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 4,586), respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Goa, Chandigarh, Daman &amp;amp; Diu, Delhi UT, Lakshadweep and Puducherry reported zero suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2018 were recorded in Maharashtra (3,594, which is around 34.73 percent of total farm suicides viz. 10,349), followed by Karnataka (2,405), Telangana (908), Andhra Pradesh (664) and Madhya Pradesh (655). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2018 were reported from Maharashtra (2,239, which is around 38.85 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,365), Telangana (900), Andhra Pradesh (365) and Madhya Pradesh (303). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2018 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,355), followed by Karnataka (1,040), Tamil Nadu (395), Madhya Pradesh (352) and Andhra Pradesh (299). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The ADSI 2018 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2017 (released in January, 2020)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2017&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2017&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A decline of almost -0.9 percent was observed in suicides during 2017 (1,29,887 suicides) as compared to 2016 (1,31,008 suicides). The rate of suicides has decreased by -0.4 points during 2017 (viz. 9.9 per lakh population) over 2016 (viz. 10.3 per lakh population). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,955 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2017, accounting for 4.58 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 4,700 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2017, which is nearly 3.62 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,655 in 2017, accounting for almost 8.2 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2017&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,633 male farmers/ cultivators and 322 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 94.59 percent and 5.41 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,955), respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 5,203.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&amp;#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 752.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 4,219 male agricultural labourers and 480 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 89.77 percent and 10.21 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 4,700), respectively. One agricultural labourer was transgender.&amp;nbsp; Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Certain States/UTs namely, West Bengal, Odisha, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Uttarakhand, Chandigarh UT, Dadra &amp;amp; Nagar Haveli, Daman &amp;amp; Diu, Delhi UT, Lakshadweep and Puducherry reported zero suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2017 were recorded in Maharashtra (3,701, which is around 34.73 percent of total farm suicides viz. 10,655), followed by Karnataka (2,160), Madhya Pradesh (955), Telangana (851) and Andhra Pradesh (816). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2017&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2017 were reported from Maharashtra (2,426, which is around 40.74 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,157), Telangana (846), Madhya Pradesh (429) and Andhra Pradesh (375). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2017&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2017 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,275), followed by Karnataka (1,003), Madhya Pradesh (526), Andhra Pradesh (441) and Tamil Nadu (369). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2017&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The ADSI 2017 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2016 (released in November, 2019)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/NCRB%20snapshots.pdf&quot; title=&quot;NCRB snapshots&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.6%20farm%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.6 farm suicides&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.7%20farm%20suicide.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.7 farm suicide&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A decline of almost -2.0 percent was observed in suicides during 2016 (1,31,008 suicides) as compared to 2015 (1,33,623 suicides). The rate of suicides has decreased by -0.3 points during 2016 (viz. 10.3 per lakh population) over 2015 (viz. 10.6 per lakh population). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/NCRB%20snapshots.pdf&quot; title=&quot;NCRB snapshots&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 6,270 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2016, accounting for 4.79 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 5,109 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2016, which is nearly 3.9 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 11,379 in 2016, accounting for roughly 8.7 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.6%20farm%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.6 farm suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,995 male farmers/ cultivators and 275 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 95.61 percent and 4.39 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 6,270), respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides_1.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 4,476 male agricultural labourers and 633 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 87.61 percent and 12.39 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,109), respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides_1.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, West Bengal, Bihar, Nagaland, Chandigarh, Dadar &amp;amp; Nagar Haveli, Daman &amp;amp; Diu, Delhi UT and Lakshadweep reported zero suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides_1.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2016 were recorded in Maharashtra (3,661), followed by Karnataka (2,079), Madhya Pradesh (1,321), Andhra Pradesh (804) and Chhattisgarh (682). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.7%20farm%20suicide.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.7 farm suicide&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2016 were reported from Maharashtra (2,550, which is around 40.7 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,212), Telangana (632), Madhya Pradesh (599) and Chhattisgarh (585). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.7%20farm%20suicide.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.7 farm suicide&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2016 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,111), followed by Karnataka (867), Madhya Pradesh (722), Andhra Pradesh (565) and Gujarat (378). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.7%20farm%20suicide.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.7 farm suicide&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The ADSI 2016 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2015 (released in 2016)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Suicides%20in%20farming%20sector.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Suicides in farming sector&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Altogether 1,33,623 persons in India committed suicide in 2015 (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Suicides%20in%20India.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Suicides in India 2015&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 8,007 farmers/ cultivators have committed suicides during 2015, accounting for 5.99 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 4,595 agricultural labourers have committed suicides during 2015, which is 3.44 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 12,602 in 2015, accounting for 9.43 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Suicides%20in%20farming%20sector.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Suicides in farming sector&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 7,566 male farmers/ cultivators and 441 female farmers/ cultivators have committed suicides, accounting for 94.49 percent and 5.51 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides, respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Suicides%20in%20farming%20sector.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Suicides in farming sector&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Land holding status of farmers who committed suicide reveals that 27.41 percent and 45.19 percent of victims were marginal farmers and small farmers respectively. They together accounted for 72.59 percent (5,813 out of 8,007) of total farmer suicides (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Land%20Holding%20Status%20of%20Farmers%20committing%20Suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Land Holding Status of Farmers committing Suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Majority of suicides committed by farmers/ cultivators were reported in Maharashtra (3,030) followed by 1,358 such suicides in Telangana and 1,197 suicides in Karnataka, accounting for 37.8 percent, 17.0 percent and 14.9 percent of total such suicides (8,007) respectively during 2015. Chhattisgarh (854 suicides), Madhya Pradesh (581 suicides) and Andhra Pradesh (516 suicides) accounted for 10.7 percent, 7.3 percent and 6.4 percent of the total farmer/ cultivators suicides reported in the country respectively. These 6 states together reported 94.1 percent of the total farmer/ cultivators suicides (7,536 out of 8,007 suicides) in the country during 2015.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; &amp;#39;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;#39; and &amp;#39;Farming Related Issues&amp;#39; are reported as major causes of suicides among farmers/ cultivators, accounting for 38.7 percent (3,097 out of 8,007 suicides) and 19.5 percent (1,562 out of 8,007 suicides) of total such suicides respectively during 2015. The other prominent causes of farmer/ cultivators suicides were &amp;#39;Family Problems&amp;#39; (933 suicides), &amp;#39;Illness&amp;#39; (842 suicides) and &amp;#39;Drug Abuse/Alcoholic Addiction&amp;#39; (330 suicides), accounting for 11.7 percent, 10.5 percent and 4.1 percent of total farmers/cultivators` suicides respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; During 2015, major causes of suicides among male farmers/ cultivators were reported as &amp;#39;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;#39; (2,978 suicides) and &amp;#39;Farming Related Issues&amp;#39; (1,494 suicides), which accounted for 39.4 percent and 19.7 percent of total male farmers/ cultivators suicides respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Among female farmers/ cultivators suicides, &amp;#39;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;#39; followed by &amp;#39;Family Problems&amp;#39;, were major causes of suicides, accounting for 27.0 percent (119 out of 441 suicides) and 18.1 percent (80 suicides) of total suicides by female farmers/ cultivators respectively during 2015. &amp;#39;Farming Related Issues&amp;#39; and &amp;#39;Illness&amp;#39; both accounted for 15.4 percent (68 suicides each) during 2015.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; &amp;#39;Family Problems&amp;#39; and &amp;#39;Illness&amp;#39; were major causes of suicides among agricultural labourers accounting for 40.1 percent (1,843 out of 4,595 suicides) and 19.0 percent (872 out of 4,595 suicides) respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; 79.0 percent of farmer/ cultivator suicides in Karnataka and 42.7 percent of farmer/ cultivator suicides in Maharashtra were due to &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;rsquo;. 26.2 percent of farmer/ cultivator suicides in Maharashtra were also due to &amp;#39;Farming Related Issues (Related to Failure of Crop)&amp;#39;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Farmers/ cultivators belonging to 30 years - below 60 years of age group have accounted for 71.6 percent of total farmers/ cultivators&amp;rsquo; suicides during 2015.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; 9.0 percent of farmers/ cultivators who have committed suicides were in age group of 60 years &amp;amp; above.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The states of Bihar, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu &amp;amp; Kashmir, Jharkhand, Mizoram, Nagaland, Uttarakhand and West Bengal have reported no farmers&amp;#39; suicide during 2015. All the 7 Union Territories have reported zero number of farmers&amp;#39; suicide during 2015 (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Incidence%20and%20Percentage%20Change%20in%20Suicides%20in%20Farming%20Sector%20during%202015.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Incidence and Percentage Change in Suicides in Farming Sector in 2015&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The states of Goa, Manipur, Nagaland and West Bengal have reported no suicide by agricultural labourers during 2015. All the Union Territories except Puducherry (12) have reported zero suicide by agricultural labourers during 2015 (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Incidence%20and%20Percentage%20Change%20in%20Suicides%20in%20Farming%20Sector%20during%202015.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Incidence and Percentage Change in Suicides in Farming Sector in 2015&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Comprehensive data on &amp;lsquo;Suicides in Farming Sector&amp;rsquo; comprising of suicides committed by farmers/ cultivators and agricultural labourers in exclusive Chapter-2A have been collected and published in consultation with Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare under overall supervision of Ministry of Home Affairs, in order to present a comprehensive analysis on suicides in the farming sector. In previous edition (till ADSI 2013), this chapter contained data on suicides committed by farmers/cultivators only.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2014 (released in 2015)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2A%20farmer%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI NCRB 2014 Farmers Suicide&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Altogether 1,31,666 persons in India committed suicide in 2014.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,650 farmers have committed suicides during 2014, accounting for 4.3% of total suicide victims in the country. However, 6,710 agricultural labourers have committed suicides during 2014, which is 5.1% of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides committed by persons engaged in agriculture (farmers plus agricultural labourers) in India was 12,360 in 2014, accounting for 9.4% of total suicide victims in India (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2.7.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,178 male farmers and 472 female farmers have committed suicides, accounting for 91.6% and 8.4% of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Land holding status of farmers who committed suicide reveals that 44.5% and 27.9% of victims were small farmers and marginal farmers respectively. They together accounted for 72.4% (4,095 out of 5,650) total farmer suicides (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2A.3.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 2,568 farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides were reported in Maharashtra followed by 898 such suicides in Telangana and 826 suicides in Madhya Pradesh, accounting for 45.5%, 15.9% and 14.6% respectively of total farmer suicides during 2014. Chhattisgarh (443 suicides) and Karnataka (321 suicides) accounted for 7.8% and 5.7% respectively of the total farmer suicides reported in the country. These 5 States together accounted for 89.5% of the total farmer suicides (5,056 out of 5,650) reported in the country during 2014.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;rsquo; and &amp;lsquo;Family Problems&amp;rsquo; are major causes of suicides, accounting for 20.6% and 20.1% respectively of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides during 2014. The other prominent causes of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides were &amp;lsquo;Failure of Crop&amp;rsquo; (16.8%), &amp;lsquo;Illness&amp;rsquo; (13.2%) and &amp;lsquo;Drug Abuse/Alcoholic Addiction&amp;rsquo; (4.9%).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; During 2014, major causes of suicides among male farmers were &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;rsquo; and &amp;lsquo;Family Problems&amp;rsquo;, which accounted for 21.5% and 20.0% respectively of total male farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Whereas, in female farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides, &amp;lsquo;Farming Related Issues&amp;rsquo; followed by &amp;lsquo;Family Problems&amp;rsquo;, &amp;lsquo;Marriage Related Issues&amp;rsquo; and &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;rsquo; were major causes of suicides, accounting for 21.4% (101 out of 472 suicides), 20.6% (97 suicides), 12.3% (58 suicides) and 10.8% (51 suicides) respectively during 2014.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Nearly 33.4% suicides in Maharashtra and 23.2% in Telangana were due to &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;rsquo;. 87.5% of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides due to &amp;lsquo;Failure of Crop&amp;rsquo; were reported in Himachal Pradesh. 4.7% farmers in Himachal Pradesh, 4.1% farmers in Jharkhand and 2.7% farmers each in Bihar, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh have committed suicides due to &amp;lsquo;Suspected/ Illicit Relation&amp;rsquo;. 6.5% suicides by farmers in Sikkim followed by 2.3% in Himachal Pradesh and 2.0% in Puducherry were due to &amp;lsquo;Cancellation/ Non Settlement of Marriage&amp;rsquo;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The states of West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Tripura, Rajasthan, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Manipur, Jharkhand, Goa, Arunachal Pradesh and Bihar have reported no farmers&amp;#39; suicide during 2014. All the Union Territories except Andaman and Nicobar Islands have reported zero farmers&amp;#39; suicide during 2014 (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2.7.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The states of Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Goa, Manipur and Nagaland have reported no suicide by agricultural labourers during 2014. All the Union Territories except Puducherry have reported zero suicide by agricultural labourers during 2014 (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2.7.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The latest issue of the ADSI report is different from the earlier ones in two ways: a. Apart from the usual male and female break-up of data, one also gets data pertaining to transgenders (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2.7.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access), which was missing earlier; b. There is a separate chapter (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/chapter-2A%20farmer%20suicides.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access) and 3 tables (in the annexure, please click &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2A.1.pdf&quot;&gt;link1&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2A.2.pdf&quot;&gt;link2&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2A.3.pdf&quot;&gt;link3&lt;/a&gt;) on farmer suicides in India and at state/UT-level, which did not exist in earlier reports. In the previous ADSI reports, one had to extract data on farmers&amp;#39; suicide from the table on distribution of suicides by profession. Suicides committed by self-employed persons in agriculture gave the proxy of the figure on farmers&amp;#39; suicide.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Unlike the previous ones, in the present ADSI report suicides by self-employed persons in agriculture has been sub-divided into suicides by agricultural labourers and suicides by farmers. Suicides by farmers has been further subdivided (in the current report) into suicide by farmers having own land and suicide by farmers having land on contract or lease.&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
According to National Crime Records Bureau&amp;#39;s [inside]Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India 2013 (released in 2014)[/inside] report, &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Altogether 1,34,799 persons in India committed suicide in 2013.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Nearly, 11,772 persons self-employed in farming/agriculture (can be loosely termed as farmers) committed suicide during 2013. They constitute 8.73 percent of total number of suicides committed during the same year.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Among the 11,772 no. of persons self-employed in farming/agriculture who committed suicide, 10489 are men (89.1%) and 1283 are women (10.9%).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Rate of suicides, i.e., the number of suicides per one lakh population, has been widely accepted as a standard yardstick. The national rate of suicides was 11.0 during the year 2013. Puducherry reported the highest rate of suicide (35.6).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In 2013, the highest incidents of 16,622 suicides were reported in Maharashtra followed by 16,601 suicides in Tamil Nadu accounting for 12.3% each of total suicides. Andhra Pradesh (14,607 suicides), West Bengal (13,055 suicides) and Karnataka (11,266 suicides) accounted for 10.8%, 9.7% and 8.4% respectively of the total suicides reported in the country. These 5 States together accounted for 53.5% of the total suicides reported in India.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Delhi has reported the highest number of suicides (2,059) among UTs, followed by Puducherry (546) during 2013.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;lsquo;Family Problems&amp;rsquo; and &amp;lsquo;Illness&amp;rsquo;, accounting for 24.0% and 19.6% respectively, were the major causes of suicides among the specified causes. &amp;lsquo;Drug Abuse/Addiction&amp;rsquo; (3.4%), &amp;lsquo;Love Affairs&amp;rsquo; (3.3%), &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Sudden change in economic Status&amp;rsquo; (2.0%), &amp;#39;Failure in Examination&amp;rsquo; (1.8%), &amp;lsquo;Dowry Dispute&amp;rsquo; (1.7%) and &amp;lsquo;Unemployment&amp;rsquo; (1.6%) were the other causes of suicides. Suicides due to &amp;lsquo;Illegitimate Pregnancy (64.5%), &amp;lsquo;Fall in Social Reputation&amp;rsquo; (49.4%), &amp;lsquo;Professional/ Career Problem&amp;rsquo; (40.8%), &amp;lsquo;Divorce&amp;rsquo; (35.7%), and &amp;lsquo;Cancellation/Non-Settlement of Marriage&amp;rsquo; (33.5%) have increased in 2013 over 2012, while for poverty and property dispute have declined as compared to previous year.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; It was observed that 69.4% of the suicide victims were married while 23.6% were Never Married/Spinster. Divorcees and Separated have accounted for about 3.2% of the total suicide victims. The proportion of Widowed &amp;amp; Widower victims was around 3.7%.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
According to [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India-2012[/inside], &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/&lt;/a&gt;:&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; 15 Suicides took place in India every hour during 2012.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; It is observed that social and economic causes have led most of the males to commit suicides whereas emotional and personal causes have mainly driven females to end their lives.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Nearly 71.6% of the suicide victims were married males while 67.9% were married females. 1 suicide out of every 6 suicides was committed by a &amp;lsquo;housewife&amp;rsquo;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Tamil Nadu has reported the highest number of suicide victims in 2010 (accounting for 12.3%), third highest in 2011 (accounting for 11.8%) and highest in 2012 (accounting for 14.0%).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Southern States viz. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu including Maharashtra have together accounted for 50.6% of total suicides reported in the country.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Self employed category accounted for 38.7% of suicide victims in 2012.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
According to the article titled [inside]Farmers&amp;#39; suicides and the state in India: Conceptual and ethnographic notes from Wayanad, Kerala[/inside] by Daniel M&amp;uuml;nster, Contributions to Indian Sociology 2012 46: 181, &lt;a href=&quot;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&quot;&gt;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&lt;/a&gt;:&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides are invariably linked to and almost synonymous with the&amp;mdash;equally composite&amp;mdash;agrarian crisis in the aftermath of neoliberal &amp;lsquo;reform&amp;rsquo;. Most of the writing on the subject is based on the same set of data (statistical data of the National Crime Records Bureau) or on journalistic visits to suicide &amp;lsquo;hotspots&amp;rsquo;. So far few ethnographic accounts, committed to qualitative research in suicide prone areas, have been published.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The present study is an ethnographic report from the field in the South Indian district Wayanad, one of the officially designated suicide-prone districts. The primary aim behind the research is to analyse the state&amp;rsquo;s responses to farmer suicides: the bundle of relief packages, inquiry commissions, rural employment schemes and debt relief commissions that were set up in recent years partially as a response to reports on increasing numbers of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides. Such investigation may eventually contribute to an understanding &amp;lsquo;of precisely how neoliberal globalization is transforming the re-distributive functions of the Indian state or affecting its legitimacy and identity as an agency of social welfare&amp;rsquo;. This article makes a strong case for grounding the study of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides in ethnographies of agrarian practice and the local developmental state.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides provide rural citizens with a language to speak about politics, citizenship and development in the context of neoliberalising agriculture.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The research is intended to conceive farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides as an highly over-determined interface between &amp;lsquo;state&amp;rsquo; and rural society; an interface in two senses: first as a drastic image, repeatedly invoked to speak about rural distress and the widespread agrarian crisis in neoliberal India and to address the failure of the nation state to protect its agrarian classes; second, as a set of actually existing practices&amp;mdash; suicides&amp;mdash;which force state agencies to show presence in social settings, which they had allegedly neglected.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In Wayanad neither cotton, nor GM seeds, nor global agri-corporations play a significant role. Not all suicides in Wayanad were related to agrarian distress. For many decades Kerala has had high suicide rates, many with multiple causes: family problems, alcoholism (extremely widespread in Wayanad), health issues, &amp;lsquo;love failure&amp;rsquo;, or debt.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The 1980s and 1990s brought unprecedented wealth to Wayanad. In the late-1980s up until the late-1990s, many farmers of Wayanad especially pepper growers in the &amp;lsquo;Pepper Panchayats&amp;rsquo; of Pulpalli, Mullankolli and Poothadi, became wealthy. Wayanad became an important earner of foreign currency in Kerala. Farmers, even relatively small farmers who owned around two acres could afford constructing large houses.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The end of the 1990s hit Wayanad&amp;rsquo;s agrarian economy in a series of crises. First, the world market prices for cash-crops dropped dramatically. Local rates for pepper (ungarbled) dropped from 270 INR/Kg in 1997 to 54 INR/Kg in 2001, coffee dropped from 60 INR/Kg in 1997 to 16 INR/Kg in 2002 and vanilla, most dramatically dropped from 4300 INR/Kg in 2003 to 25 INR/Kg in 2006. Prices had fluctuated before, most cultivators remembered price crashes in the late-1970s, but this time they were accompanied by a second crisis: a dramatic drop in productivity.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Since the late-1990s Wayanad has been facing a serious ecological crisis. During the boom years cash-croppers heavily overused chemical fertilisers and pesticides in order to keep productivity high and profitable. The soil is now depleted beyond redemption and some Panchayats of Wayanad suffer from increased incidences of cancer. Furthermore new diseases started to affect plantations. &amp;lsquo;Quick wilt&amp;rsquo;, &amp;lsquo;slow wilt&amp;rsquo; and &amp;lsquo;foot rot&amp;rsquo; are their names, and all share the ability to destroy whole plantations quickly.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; When prices crashed and plantations died, many farmers and neo-farmers were left with heavy debts. When, eventually the recovery notices of the banks arrived, hundreds of farmers, especially marginal landholders with up to two acres of land, drank pesticides and killed themselves.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Another economic practice emerged since the late-1990s and has a strong correlation with suicide cases. Many suicide victims had invested in the cultivation of ginger in neighbouring Kodagu (formerly Coorg) district. The return from ginger cultivation could also be nil. There is an almost 50 per cent chance that the ginger plant is going to be affected by a fungus that would spread quickly across the fields and destroy the plantation within days.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Husbands very often did not even talk about their debt burden to wives and children: they just changed their character, became abusive and started to drink more heavily. Many widows shared later that they had no idea of their husbands&amp;rsquo; debts, and were not involved in agricultural matters at all. This made it all the more difficult for them to deal subsequently with the stigma, poverty and political instrumentalisation they were to experience.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; One of author&amp;#39;s original research questions was also to consider farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides as suicides against the state. This link was difficult to establish in Wayanad.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Farmers who killed themselves knew that they were part of a district-wide if not all-India epidemic, that their suicide would attract considerable&amp;nbsp; attention from the media, NGOs as well as state agencies and also&amp;mdash;controversially&amp;mdash;that the state might eventually take care of their families, write off their debt and pay compensation of 50,000 INR.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Most farmers the author spoke to, whether activists or not, were quite knowledgeable about the removal of quantitative restrictions on imports and the dismantling of import duties for agrarian products under the GATT regime as the main reasons for the fall in prices of agrarian cash-crops. They would speak of cheap coffee and pepper coming from Vietnam and Sri Lanka that keeps flooding the market and later to be resold as premium Wayanad pepper. Second, they articulated the retreat of the state, the cut of input subsidies and low investments in irrigation and infrastructure. They would speak of the government that always cheated, gave no security to the farmers, had no procurement policy and provided no minimum price.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The official all-India suicide-rate (suicide rate is the incidence of suicide mortality per 100,000 inhabitants) has for the last 10 years constantly been around 10.5 and hence not extraordinarily inflated. Kerala&amp;rsquo;s official suicide-rate was 26.8 which is more than twice the national average and the third highest in India (after Pondicherry and Andaman &amp;amp; Nicobar Islands) and had been so for the last years. Within Kerala there are two districts that have been given the recent status of &amp;lsquo;suicide-prone districts&amp;rsquo;: Idukki and Wayanad. Even though suicides are statistically well captured, there is a considerable fluctuation in the number of reported farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The &amp;lsquo;Accidental Deaths and Suicides (ADSI)&amp;rsquo; annual report (National Crime Records Bureau 2007) is the only official source of information. It lists the distribution of suicidal death by state, gender, marital status, causes of suicide, means adopted and profession. According to K. Nagaraj, the professional category farmer (although still unspecific) is a relatively recent category in the ADSI reports: &amp;lsquo;The category self-employed (farming/agriculture)&amp;mdash;which can be taken as representing the farmers&amp;mdash;was added for the first time in 1995 (...)&amp;rsquo; (Nagaraj 2008: 2).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The suicide rate for farmers can be calculated only for the year 2001, this being the first year that statistical data on farmers were recorded in the Census of India. On an all-India basis this does not make for highly inflated suicide rates among farmers: 15.8 among the main cultivators as compared to 10.6 of the general population. An entirely different perspective emerges, however, if one takes into account the fact that numbers of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides vary significantly across India. For Kerala, a suicide rate among main cultivators of 176.5 emerges, and the figure is still 142.9 if all cultivators are considered. Those numbers are alarming indeed.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; For all-India the official number in the ADSI reports is 190,753 farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides from 1995 to 2006. That makes an average of 16,000 suicides per year, which is still an underestimation since some major states have not reported on farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The status of farmer (cultivator) is based on the criterion of title to land. This leaves out women, tenant farmers, agricultural labourers, but also regular farmers if the land title was in the father&amp;rsquo;s or son&amp;rsquo;s name. A stringent criterion for agriculture-related suicide would be the absence of any other cause neighbours might mention (such as alcoholism or family problems).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The local practice of identifying farmers&amp;rsquo; suicide became additionally complicated after 2004 by the decision of the new LDF government to actually pay a compensation of 50,000 INR to all families with cases of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides out of the Chief Minister&amp;rsquo;s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In the beginning, as a populist measure, the criteria were handled rather loosely and compensation was paid rather freely. The first compensation cheques were handed over during public functions under great media attention. Later, both to be able to present the success of the other relief measures of the new state and union governments and to curb costs, the practice became more stringent. The debt still had to be the cause of suicide, but now it had to be an institutional credit (excluding debt with moneylenders) and the loan had to have been taken for agricultural purposes (excluding consumer loans).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In Wayanad, since suicide statistics are directly linked to the payment of compensation through the Revenue Department, the number of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides stagnated during the years 2006 to 2008. &amp;lsquo;Safe Farmers Campaign&amp;rsquo; (SFC), a consortium of eight, mostly Catholic, NGOs (including Shreyas), in 2007 began a large-scale investigation into farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides that ran parallel to the state&amp;rsquo;s efforts of enumeration and classification. Taking police reports of suicides as a starting point and following up all cases from 2000 to March 2008 they have come up with a total number of 1,690 farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (Kerala Social Service Forum 2009). That is nearly four times the figure of 435 officially recognised farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides. The latter number is also the number of beneficiaries of the Chief Minister&amp;rsquo;s (CM) relief fund.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; To avoid further committing of farmers&amp;#39; suicides and because of their political nature, the state compensates only such suicides. The CM fund is the most specific programme that targets only cases of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicide. The Indian state has launched unprecedented relief and rehabilitation measures in response to the suicide crisis.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India-2011[/inside],&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/&lt;/a&gt;:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; 16 Suicides took place in India every hour during 2011.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; It is observed that social and economic causes have led most of the males to commit suicides whereas emotional and personal causes have mainly driven females to end their lives.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Nearly 71.1% of the suicide victims were married males while 68.2% were married females.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; West Bengal has reported the highest number of suicide victims (accounting for 11.5%) in 2009, second highest in 2010 (accounting for 11.9%) and highest in 2011 (accounting for 12.2%). &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; West Bengal (12.2%), Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu (11.8% each), Andhra Pradesh (11.1%) and Karnataka (9.3%), altogether contributed 56.2% of total suicide victims.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Self employed category accounted for 38.3% of suicide victims in 2011. It comprised 10.3% engaged in Farming/ Agriculture activities, 5.3% engaged in Business and 3.1% Professionals. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the report titled [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India-2010[/inside], which is produced by the National Crime Records Bureau,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/&lt;/a&gt;: &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Every hour 15 people committed suicide in India during 2010.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; 1 in every 5 suicides is committed by a Housewife.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Total 3,84,649 accidental deaths were reported in the country during the year 2010.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; It is observed that social and economic causes have led most of the males to commit suicides whereas emotional and personal causes have mainly driven females to end their lives.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Nearly 70.5% of the suicide victims were married males while 67.0% were married females.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; 26.3% of the suicide victims were primary educated and 22.7% were middle educated while 19.8% of victims of suicide were illiterate.&amp;nbsp;Self employed category accounted for 41.1% of suicide victims in 2010. It comprised 11.9% engaged in Farming/ Agriculture activities, 5.3% engaged in Business and 3.0% Professionals.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; 41.1% of suicide victims were self employed while only 7.5% were un-employed.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Suicides because of &amp;lsquo;Family Problems&amp;rsquo; (23.7%) and &amp;rsquo;Illness&amp;rsquo; (21.0%) combined accounted for 44.7% of total Suicides.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; West Bengal has reported the highest number of suicide victims (accounting for 11.9%) in 2008 &amp;amp; 2009 and second highest in 2010 (accounting for 11.9%).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; West Bengal (11.9%), Andhra Pradesh (11.8%), Tamil Nadu (12.3%), Maharashtra (11.8%) and Karnataka (9.4%) contributed 57.2% of total suicide victims.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The highest number of Mass/Family Suicides cases were reported from Bihar (23) followed by Kerala (22) and Madhya Pradesh (21) and Andhra Pradesh (20) out of 109 cases.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to National Crime Records Bureau&amp;#39;s [inside]Accidental Death and Suicide (2009)[/inside],&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/suicides-09.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/suicides-09.pdf&lt;/a&gt;, &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/snapshots.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/snapshots.pdf&lt;/a&gt;, &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;: &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; More than one lakh persons (1,27,151) in the country lost their lives by committing suicide during the year 2009. This indicates an increase of 1.7% over the previous year&amp;#39;s figure (1,25,017).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The total number of suicides in the country during the decade (1999&amp;ndash;2009) has recorded an increase of 15.0% (from 1,10,587 in 1999 to 1,27,151 in 2009).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Self-employed category accounted for 39.8% of suicide victims in 2009. It comprised 13.7% engaged in Farming/Agriculture activities, 6.1% engaged in Business and 2.9% Professionals.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; 55.1% suicide victims in Mizoram were engaged in farming /agriculture activities in 2009. 29.6% suicide victims in Manipur were unemployed.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Despite a fall in number of suicides committed by farmers in 2009 as compared to 2008 in Maharastra (fallen by 930), the state continues to be number one in terms of farmers&amp;#39; suicides for the tenth year (2,872 suicides) as compared to the rest of the states.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The number of suicides committed by farmers in 2009 was 17,368, which was a rise by 1,172 as compared to 2008.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The growth in the number of suicides committed by the farmers has been 7 percent over the last year.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In the year 2009, 1,27,151 persons committed suicides. Within a span of one year, suicide rate in the entire country has increased by 1.7 percent. During the last year, the total number of suicides committed was 1,25,017.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In the year 2009, 348 persons committed suicides on an average every day, out of which 48 persons were farmers. In the year 2004, on an average 47 farmers committed suicides every day, which means one farmer committing suicide in every 30 minutes.&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Private and Public Sector personnel have accounted for 8.4% and 2.3% of the total suicide victims respectively, whereas students and un-employed victims accounted for 5.3% and 7.8% respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Government servants were 1.3% of the total suicide victims, whereas housewives (25,092) accounted for 54.9% of the total female victims and nearly 19.7% of total victims committing suicides.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; 40.9% of salaried and 39.0% of unemployed suicide victims were in the age&amp;ndash;group 30-44 years.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; West Bengal has reported the highest number of suicides (14,648) accounting for 11.5% of total suicides followed by Andhra Pradesh (14,500), Tamil Nadu (14,424), Maharashtra (14,300) and Karnataka (12,195) accounting for 11.4%, 11.3%, 11.2% and 9.6% respectively of the total suicides in the country.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; These 5 States together accounted for 55.1% of the total suicides reported in the country.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; 209 deaths at the national level under Mass/Family suicides consisting of 95 males and 114 females were reported as per the information available. 15 cities also did not furnish information.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The maximum number of suicide victims was educated up to Middle level (23.7%). Illiterate and primary educated persons accounted for 21.4% suicide victims and 23.4% respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Only 3.1% suicide victims were graduates and post-graduates. 51.9% suicide victims in Sikkim were illiterate. 36.5% suicide victims in Gujarat had education upto primary level. 68.1% suicide victims in Mizoram and 59.1% suicide victims in Puducherry had middle level education.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;The study titled [inside]Farmers Suicide: Facts and Possible Policy Interventions (2006) [/inside] prepared by Meeta and Rajiv Lochan, (Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration), &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.yashada.org/organisation/FarmersSuicideExcerpts.pdf&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;http://www.yashada.org/organisation/FarmersSuicideExcerpts.pdf&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:Arial; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;revisits some of the families which two earlier reports (Mishra and Dandekar et al) had also visited and criticises them for not doing a good job of compiling the victims&amp;#39; circumstances meticulously. The authors believe that many reports in the past have exaggerated the connection between debt and suicides whereas in reality a lot of other reasons, including harsh environment, a variety of other reasons and absence of basic health services, also play an equally important role. According to the same study:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The suicide epidemic is said to have its epicentre in Yavatmal district of Maharastra. According to the State Crime Records Bureau, it reported 640, 819, 832, 787 and 786 suicides respectively for the years 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Most of the victims of this epidemic were men, mostly in the age group 30 to 50, married and educated, with more social responsibilities, especially in the form of unmarried daughters and or sisters. There were two things that were common among the victims of suicide. One, a feeling of hopelessness: in being unable to resolve problems and dilemmas of personal life; and in the face of an inability to find funds for various activities or repay loans. Two, the absence of any person, group or institution to whom to turn to in order to seek reliable advice: whether for agricultural operations or for seeking funds or for handling private and personal issues. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;People complained about lack of information on various government sponsored schemes. There was little knowledge about institutional mechanisms like the minimum support price (MSP) that would affect marketing, technical knowledge was low and there were no reliable sources from where such knowledge and advice could be accessed. Most farmers were not informed about crop insurance. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Most of them who committed suicide were Hindus and not Muslims or Christians. This is because Hindu religion allowed certain circumstances for altruistic suicide, whereas the latter two religions frowned upon suicides. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Chronic alcoholism and drug abuse were found among rural population.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Loan from a rapacious relative rather than a bank or moneylender was often the cause of economic distress for the victim. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The 10 point suggestions are:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;1. Enhance the physical interaction between government functionaries and village society by insisting on more tours, night halts and gram sabhas by officers at all levels of the administration.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;2. Actively monitor local society, especially farmers, for signs of social, economic and psychological distress and if possible provide social, psychological or spiritual counseling.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;3. Implement with rigour the various provisions that already exist to safeguard the interests of the farmer and farm workers for example, the existing money lending act, minimum wage act etc. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;4. Increase the efficiency of agriculture extension activities. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;5. Increase the efficiency of various services that are delivered by the government in the name of people&amp;#39;s welfare at the moment. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;6. Make available trained and salaried individuals to serve the rural population. Immediate succour is needed. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;7. For the long-term change, it is important to improve the condition of school education and provide appropriate vocational education at the village and taluka level so as to make people understand the complexities of present day production and marketing techniques.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;8. Counsel the media to stop highlighting suicide since the fact of highlighting suicide itself adds fuel to the suicide fire as it were. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;9. Instead of ex gratia payment being made to families of those who commit suicide, provide employment to a member of the family or help in setting up a small business. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;10. Provide direct cash subsidies to actual cultivators.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;According to [inside]Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicide in India: Agrarian Crisis, Path of Development and Politics in Karnataka[/inside] by Muzaffar Assadi,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/10.1.1.544.330.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The beginning of agrarian crisis requires being located much earlier to the beginning of suicide, which goes back to the 1980s when the terms of trade were going against agriculture. To oppose State policies, farmers&amp;rsquo; movements were led by Shetkari Sangathana in Maharashtra, Vyavasayigal Sangam in Tamil Nadu, and Rajya Raitha Sangh in Karnataka. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Karnataka has no history of farmers committing suicide even during the situation of acute agrarian crisis. Even the unorganised farmers would resort to other tactics such as throwing the agricultural commodities on the roads, burning their crops, etc. Andhra became the harbinger for such a trend in Karnataka. Suicide in Karnataka was first reported in the northern parts of Karnataka or close to the border areas of Andhra Pradesh.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The beginning of the suicides can be traced back to the year 1998, when two farmers in Bidar, who were involved in cultivating Tur Dal, a market-oriented agricultural crop committed suicide. In the initial two years, farmer suicides were largely concentrated in the drought-prone districts in north Karnataka, or confined to economically backward, drought-prone regions such as Gulbarga and Bidar. However, after 2000 , the phenomenon shifted to relatively advanced agricultural regions, particularly Mandya, Hassan, Shimoga, Davanagere, Koppal and even Chickmagalur Kodagu and it also covered ground water region (Belgaum), assured rain fall region (Haveri), Sugar Cane and Cauvery Irrigation Belt (Mandya). However, in the coastal belt, the number of suicides reported was less.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;During 1999-2001, it was estimated that 110 farmers committed suicide in Karnataka. According to one estimate, 3,000 farmers committed suicide in Karnataka between 1998 and 2006. According to the report prepared by the Crime Branch of Karnataka, the number of suicide under the heading &amp;ldquo;farming and agricultural activity&amp;rdquo; comes to 15,804 between 1998 and 2002. Between 1996 and 2002, 12,889 male farmers committed suicide followed by females (2841). The total number of farmers who committed suicide from 1 April, 2003 to 1 January, 2007 comes to 1193. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Debt burden of the farmers who committed suicide was not uniform. It varied between Rs.5000 to Rs.50000. Many of them had borrowed loan on short-term basis.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The most striking aspect of the crisis, however, is the fact that large number of farmers who committed suicide largely came from the age group between 25 and 35 years.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;During the first few years of this millennium Karnataka saw a deceleration, due to the negative growth in agriculture. This is apparent from the following facts: the average real GDP rate in different sectors between the period 1995-96 and 2002-03 was 5.86; however, for agriculture it was 1.87 per cent, industry 5.93 per cent, service sector 8.18 percent.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;In Karnataka, the large number of farmers who committed suicide came from the OBCs, though there are also cases of farmers committing suicide, hailing from dominant castes such as &lt;em&gt;Lingayats &lt;/em&gt;and &lt;em&gt;Vokkaligas&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The World Bank dictated terms have gone against the interest of the farmers. This is apparent when Karnataka government for example, went for World Bank loan, which granted Economic Restructuring loan in 2001. This loan came along with a condition that government should withdraw from the power sector as regulator and distributor of power. The free power given to the agriculture was withdrawn and it increased the power tariff drastically.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Karnataka government was unable to checkmate the growth of money lenders. It failed to make the cooperative movement a success one. In Karnataka although there are 32,382 Cooperative Societies at the village level, almost 40 cent of them are running under loss, nearly twenty cent of them are either defunct or liquidated.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The Karnataka government is one of the first governments to allow the field trials of &lt;em&gt;Bt &lt;/em&gt;Cotton.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;In 2002, 143 talukas were declared drought affected. In 2003, 159 talukas out of 176 talukas in the state, were declared as drought affected. Drought brought down areas under sowing thus affecting production. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The first debate on farmers&amp;#39; suicide tries to locate the suicide as part of multiple crises. The crises are ecological, economic, and social, each inter-linked with the other. The ecological crisis is the result of intense use of hybrid seeds, chemical fertilisers and pesticides, causing the erosion of soil fertility and increasing crop-susceptibility to pests and diseases. Heavy indebtedness led to the economic crisis. The second debate attempts to locate the crisis or the suicide to the negative growth of agrarian economy in the recent past as argued by Vandana Shiva. She comes closer to the Marxist critique particularly the arguments of Utsa Patnaik wherein the latter locates the reasons in the liberalisation/ neocolonialism or imperialist globalisation. The third debate attempts to locate the reasons for the suicide in adapting the World Bank model of agriculture or what is called McKinsey Model of development that created spaces for industry-driven agriculture which ultimately translated into agri-business development including Information technology. The fourth is the discourse, which attempts to locate the suicide exclusively to one phenomenon, that is, the increasing indebtedness or the debt trap. The final discourse, which came from the state, attempts to locate the reasons in multiple issues, such as the incessant floods, manipulation of prices by traders, supply of spurious pesticides and seeds, decline in prices of agricultural produce, increase in the cost of agricultural inputs, successive drought in recent years, and of course, the neglect of farmers by the previous state government.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Farmers%20Suicides%20in%20India.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Farmers Suicides in India&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access the article entitled [inside]Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India: Magnitudes, Trends, and Spatial Patterns, 1997-2012 by K Nagaraj, P Sainath, R Rukmani and R Gopinath[/inside], Review of Agrarian Studies&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;According to Nagaraj K (2008): [inside]Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India, Magnitudes, Trends and Spatial Patterns[/inside]&lt;em&gt;, &lt;/em&gt;please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/K%20Nagaraj%20Farmers_Suicides_1.pdf&quot; title=&quot;K Nagaraj Farmers_Suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt; :&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Farm suicides happened in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh including Chattisgarh &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;During the ten-year period spanning 1997 to 2006 as many as 166,304 farmers committed suicide in India. If one considers the 12 year period from 1995 to 2006 the figure is close to 200,000.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Going by the official data, on average nearly 16,000 farmers committed suicide every year over the last decade or so.&amp;nbsp; It is also clear that every seventh suicide in the country was a farm suicide.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The year 1998 show a sharp increase in the number of farm suicides &amp;ndash; an 18 percent jump from the previous year; and the number remained more or less steady at around 16,000 suicides per year over the next three years upto 2001. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The average number of farm suicides per year in the five-year span 2002-2006, at 17,513 is substantially higher than the average (of 15,747 per year) for the previous five-year span. Farm suicides have increased at annual compound growth rate of around 2.5 per cent per annum over the period 1997-2006.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Suicides in general are also largely concentrated among males, but the degree of concentration here is significantly lower than in the case of farm suicides: male suicides in the general population account for nearly 62 percent of all suicides in the country.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;According to Hebber, Dr. Ritambhara (2007): [inside]&amp;lsquo;Human Security and the Case of Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India: An Exploration&amp;rsquo;[/inside], Centre for Development Studies, School of Social Sciences, TISS, Paper presented in a panel on Rethinking Development in a Conference on &amp;lsquo;Mainstreaming Human Security- an Asian Perspective&amp;rsquo; (October 3-4, 2007) organised by Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The problem of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides has been seen from the framework of human security. This phenomenon is related to the collapse of basic economic and social support structures in rural India. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The officials while explaining the suicidal deaths have underplayed the structural changes due to green revolution, globalisation and liberalization. The protective measures and mechanisms required to be provided to the ordinary farmers were overlooked. There has been overemphasis on psychological factors while explaining the suicides. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Farmers committed suicides mainly from Maharastra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Such regions are dry regions where agriculture is mainly rain fed. Farmers were growing cash crops in such regions such as: cotton (particularly in Maharashtra), sunflower, groundnut, and sugarcane (especially in Karnataka). &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Rising cost of production made the farmers to borrow at exorbitant rates from informal sources.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;When the All India Biodynamic and Organic Farming Association wrote to the Mumbai High Court expressing its concern over farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides in Jalna, a district in Maharashtra, the Court asked TISS to conduct a survey study. Based on the survey, the Court asked the Maharastra government to consider the issue seriously. The TISS report identified the untenable cost of agricultural production and indebtedness as the key reasons for suicides. The IGIDR report, on the other hand, did not implicate the government or its policies for the suicides; instead it sought a greater role for government intervention through rural development programmes to expand non-farm activity among farmers.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;A special relief package was announced by the Maharastra government in December, 2005 for six districts of Amravati, Akola, Buldhana, Yavatmal, Washim and Wardha. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Pesticide and fertiliser companies have been extending credit to farmers in Karnataka and in Maharashtra, which adds to their debt burden. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Poor health conditions, family disputes over property, domestic problems, and heavy social burden of marrying daughters coupled with alcoholism have pushed farmers towards committing suicides, according the committee report headed by GK Veeresh. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Farmers&amp;rsquo; movement headed by Shetkari Shangathana was quite strong during the 1980s in Maharastra. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;**page**&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;According to CP Chandrashekhar and Jayati Ghosh (2005): [inside]The Burden of Farmers&amp;rsquo; Debt[/inside], Macroscan, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.macroscan.com/the/food/sep05/fod140905Farmers_Debt.htm&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;http://www.macroscan.com/the/food/sep05/fod140905Farmers_Debt.htm &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;One of the important purpose of taking loans was for spending on &amp;#39;&amp;#39;marriages and ceremonies&amp;#39;&amp;#39;, which however accounted for a much smaller proportion of total loans, at around 11 per cent. This purpose was most important for farmer households of Bihar (22.9 per cent) followed by those in Rajasthan (17.6 per cent). &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Moneylenders have emerged as the most significant source of credit for farmers, with 29 per cent accessing this source. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The influence of moneylenders appears to be especially strong in Bihar (44 per cent) and Rajasthan (40 per cent). Traders &amp;mdash; of both inputs and outputs &amp;mdash; also have provided loans to 12 per cent of indebted farmers. However, institutional sources still remain significant, with more than half of farmers accessing government, co-operative societies and banks taken together &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Average amount of the outstanding loan increases with the size of the land holding, but what is more interesting is that the proportion of indebted farmers also increases with the size class.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Even among very small and marginal farmers, the amount of outstanding loan is substantial, given the likely low incomes from such smallholdings, which suggests some sort of cumulative process leading to a debt trap for the very resource poor cultivators.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;According to [inside]Causes of Farmer Suicides in Maharashtra: AN ENQUIRY, Final Report Submitted to the Mumbai High Court March 15, 2005[/inside], which has been prepared by Ajay Dandekar, Shahaji Narawade, Ram Rathod, Rajesh Ingle, Vijay Kulkarni, and Sateppa YD, please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/farmers_suicide_tiss_report-2005.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;This Report on the farmer suicides in the state of Maharashtra is being submitted as per the Judgment of the Court that made the TISS a consultant in the Public Interest Litigation Number 164 of 2004. The nature of this report is to primarily apprise the Court of the causes that led the farmers to take this extreme step, as per the findings of the research team. The Interim Report was submitted to the Court on February 16, 2005, and this Final Report is being submitted on its due date &amp;mdash; March 16, 2005.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The total numbers of suicides reported in Maharashtra, till December 2004, were 644, with most of the deaths occurring in the Vidharbha, Marathwada and Khandesh regions of the state. Thus, the present investigation concentrated on these regions. Out of the total 644 farmer suicides, a sample of five per cent, i.e., 36 cases were identified for the study.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The TISS team conducted detailed case studies (life history approach) of all the families of the 36 cases;&amp;nbsp;it also conducted several focus group discussions with farmers in each of the 36 villages covered.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Repeated crop failures, inability to meet the rising cost of cultivation, and indebtedness seem to create a situation that forces farmers to commit suicide. However, not all farmers facing these conditions commit suicide &amp;mdash; it is only those who seem to have felt that they have exhausted all avenues of securing support have taken their lives.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;It is not only the landed who have a crisis of indebtedness to deal with. There were a number of landless families who had leased land on a short-/long-term basis by securing loans. It was also noticed that many landless families managed to acquire money through migration to cities and purchased lands in the late eighties and early nineties. Many such families were caught up in cycles of debt and destitution, which ultimately led to the suicide of the head of the family. Thus, the survivors were reduced to landlessness due to debt. Among those committed included medium and large landowners who were also affected by a high level of un-payable debt.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;In the cotton belt, the crop seems to have failed more than once in the last four years. This crop failure has always not been associated with natural calamities, such as failure of rain or un-seasonal rains leading to destruction of crops. The causes are an increase in pest attacks in the last few years, especially from 1995 onwards. This meant that the farmers needed more money to pay for pesticides, though, in the end, a high level of pesticide use did not prevent crop failure.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Longitudinal data available with government sources indicate declining productivity of land. This meant increased use of fertilisers to enhance productivity of land. The information available indicates that farmers have been spending more on fertilisers even while crop performance has been showing a declining trend. The group discussions and case studies point to the fact that the quantity of use of fertiliser per acre rose in the midnineties and has now reached a saturation point. There appears to be a decrease in the production per acre in the same area.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The farmers are dependent on agents of fertiliser and pesticide companies for advice on seeds and crop care. The information base of the farmers is, thus, limited to the data provided by the agents and their products. A false perception of prosperity is being created in the minds of the cultivators that prompts them to take serious risks in terms of fertiliser-based cropping pattern.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Input costs have also exhibited a sharp rise. Agriculture has become more expensive post-1995. This rise in the input cost is reflected in the electricity bills, rising costs of high yielding variety (HYV) seeds, fertilisers, energy (diesel), transportation, etc. The rising input cost is not matched by the crop yield and price obtained. The minimum support price has not been available to all farmers, particularly the small and marginal farmers. Large landowners have been able to benefit from support price, when the government has occasionally provided such support. The absence of support price has had serious implications to the farmers.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Declining opportunities in non-farm employment has further aggravated the crisis. It seems that in areas where suicides have occurred, non-farm options are getting limited.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Those farmers who faced repeated crop failures accumulated loans beyond their capacity to repay. Thus, most of victims had turned defaulters over the last four years. This points to a serious crisis as reflected in the absence of the support system to bail the farmers out, in the form of relatives, neighbours, banks and even the moneylenders who had stopped giving the loans to them lately.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The investment (at 1980&amp;ndash;81 prices) stood at Rs. 1,266 crores in 1950&amp;ndash;51 and rose to Rs. 5,246 crores by 1978-79. However, it has declined since 1978&amp;ndash;79 and was only Rs. 4,692 crores in 1990&amp;ndash;91. The share of agricultural investment came down from 22% in 1950&amp;ndash;51 to 19% in 1980&amp;ndash;81 and even further to about 10% in 1990&amp;ndash;91. This has adversely affected the public sector investment in irrigation as more than 90% of the total public investment in agriculture goes for irrigation. The share of the irrigation sector (in states only) in the total public investment came down from 14.7% in 1980&amp;ndash;81 to only 5.6% in 1990&amp;ndash;91 (at 1980&amp;ndash;81 prices) of the public sector investment, whereas the total increase in investment was at the rate of 6.3% per annum.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;In 1989&amp;ndash;90, the total subsidies to agriculture amounted to Rs. 1,3500 crores &amp;mdash; these were mainly given on fertilisers, irrigation and electricity. These subsidies have gone towards the development of the wealthier farmers in regions where investments have already poured in.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The opening up of Indian agriculture to multinational corporations and the withdrawal of the GoI from this system of production has occurred simultaneously. Moreover, the internal markets have become unstable due to the lowering of tariff barriers. Unfair terms of trade towards agriculture of developing countries have made matters worse for those who are engaged in and/or are dependent on this system of agriculture.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Bio-diversity is under threat due to TRIPS and the WTO. Environmental degradation resulting in deforestation and depletion of water availability (drinking and agriculture), both in quantity and quality, has made the situation more serious. Untenable cost of production in modern agriculture techniques, institutional and low interest credit and the absence of a credible security net (i.e., crop insurance) are not making things easy for the cultivators in the country.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Favourable / Unfavourable agro climatic situation among the State leading to variation in per hectare yield: The agro climatic situation varies from State to State. This leads to variation in per hectare yield. The per hectare yield in Maharashtra State is less in comparison with the yield of other States due to inadequate irrigation facilities and unfavourable agro climatic situations. This leads to more cost of production. However, due to favourable agro climatic situation and sufficient irrigation facilities, the per hectare yield in Haryana and Punjab is more. Therefore, the cost of production of these States is conducive for the States where a particular crop is grown on a large scale. This adversely affects States like Maharashtra who have unfavourable agro climatic situation and higher cost of production. The Minimum Support Prices declared by Government of India does not cover the cost of production of the agriculture producer to the full extent. Therefore, the Minimum Support Prices do not give full justice to the farmers of the State having high cost of production. Therefore, instead of declaring one Minimum Support Price at the National Level, separate support prices may be declared for groups of States according to the cost of cultivation.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;In connection with the price environment for the farmers, it needs to be pointed out that there has been considerable increase in the price of important farm inputs during the last five years. Between 1990&amp;ndash;91and 95&amp;ndash;96 while the prices of wheat as measured by the average of wholesale price indices increased by 58%, that of fertilizer increased by 113%, that of irrigation by 62% and insecticides by 90 percent. While the recent revision in the administered prices of petroleum products, the price of diesel would be higher by 75% than their level during 1990-91. The report further points out that the small and marginal farmers do not get ever get the administered price declared by the state&lt;/p&gt;
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&amp;nbsp;

&amp;bull; Suicide&amp;nbsp;by&amp;nbsp;self-employed&amp;nbsp;persons&amp;nbsp;in&amp;nbsp;agriculture as a&amp;nbsp;percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6 percent in 1996, 16.3 percent in 2002, 14.4 percent in 2006, 13.7 percent in 2009, 11.9 percent in 2010, 10.3 percent in 2011, 11.4 percent...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;KEY TRENDS&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Suicide&amp;nbsp;by&amp;nbsp;self-employed&amp;nbsp;persons&amp;nbsp;in&amp;nbsp;agriculture as a&amp;nbsp;percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6 percent in 1996, 16.3 percent in 2002, 14.4 percent in 2006, 13.7 percent in 2009, 11.9 percent in 2010, 10.3 percent in 2011, 11.4 percent in 2012 and 8.73 percent in 2013. Suicides committed in the farming sector (by farmers plus agricultural labourers) as a proportion of total suicides in India was 9.4 percent in 2014, 9.43 percent in 2015, 8.7 percent in 2016, 8.2 percent in 2017, 7.69 percent in 2018,&amp;nbsp;7.4 percent in 2019, 7.0 percent in 2020, and 6.63 percent in 2021&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides committed by self-employed persons in agriculture in India was 13729 in 1996, 17971 in 2002, 17060 in 2006, 17368 in 2009, 15964 in 2010, 14027 in 2011, 13754 in 2012 and 11772 in 2013. The total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers/ cultivators plus agricultural labourers) was 12,360 in 2014, 12,602 in 2015, 11,379 in 2016, 10,655 in 2017, 10,349 in 2018, 10,281 in 2019, 10,677 in 2020, and 10,881 in 2021&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; Due to drop in world market prices for cash-crops (such as coffee, pepper, vanilla) during late 1990s, failure of ginger cultivation in neighbouring Kodagu (formerly Coorg) district and ecological crisis owing to overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides so as to combat productivity failure, many farmers and neo-farmers were left with heavy debts. When, eventually the recovery notices of the banks arrived, hundreds of farmers, especially marginal landholders with up to two acres of land, drank pesticides and killed themselves &lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; In Wayanad, since suicide statistics are directly linked to the payment of compensation through the Revenue Department, the number of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides stagnated during the years 2006 to 2008. &amp;lsquo;Safe Farmers Campaign&amp;rsquo; (SFC), a consortium of eight, mostly Catholic, NGOs (including Shreyas), in 2007 began a large-scale investigation into farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides that ran parallel to the state&amp;rsquo;s efforts of enumeration and classification. Taking police reports of suicides as a starting point and following up all cases from 2000 to March 2008 they have come up with a total number of 1,690 farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (Kerala Social Service Forum 2009). That is nearly four times the figure of 435 officially recognised farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides. The latter number is also the number of beneficiaries of the Chief Minister&amp;rsquo;s (CM) relief fund &lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; During the ten-year period spanning 1997 to 2006 as many as 1,66,304 farmers committed suicide in India&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; Farm suicides have increased at annual compound growth rate of around 2.5 per cent per annum over the period 1997-2006&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; Farmers, who committed suicides, were growing cash crops in dry regions such as: cotton (particularly in Maharashtra), sunflower, groundnut, and sugarcane (especially in Karnataka) &lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; Farm suicides took place in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh including Chhattisgarh&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; Poor health conditions, family disputes over property, domestic problems, and heavy social burden of marrying daughters coupled with alcoholism have pushed farmers towards committing suicides&lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt; National Crime Records Bureau,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt; Farmers&amp;#39; suicides&amp;nbsp; and the state in India: Conceptual and ethnographic notes from Wayanad, Kerala by Daniel M&amp;uuml;nster, Contributions to Indian Sociology 2012 46: 181, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&quot; title=&quot;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&quot;&gt;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt; Nagaraj, K (2008): Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India, Magnitudes, Trends and Spatial Patterns, Macroscan,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf&quot;&gt;http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt; Hebber, Dr. Ritambhara (2007): &amp;lsquo;Human Security and the Case of Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India: An Exploration&amp;rsquo;, Centre for Development Studies, School of Social Sciences, TISS, Paper presented in a panel on Rethinking Development in a Conference on &amp;lsquo;Mainstreaming Human Security- an Asian Perspective&amp;rsquo; (October 3-4, 2007) organised by Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&quot;&gt;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Pres&lt;br /&gt;entations/Ritambhara.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; 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	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Farm Suicides&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;KEY TRENDS&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Suicide&amp;nbsp;by&amp;nbsp;self-employed&amp;nbsp;persons&amp;nbsp;in&amp;nbsp;agriculture as a&amp;nbsp;percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6 percent in 1996, 16.3 percent in 2002, 14.4 percent in 2006, 13.7 percent in 2009, 11.9 percent in 2010, 10.3 percent in 2011, 11.4 percent in 2012 and 8.73 percent in 2013. Suicides committed in the farming sector (by farmers plus agricultural labourers) as a proportion of total suicides in India was 9.4 percent in 2014, 9.43 percent in 2015, 8.7 percent in 2016, 8.2 percent in 2017, 7.69 percent in 2018,&amp;nbsp;7.4 percent in 2019, 7.0 percent in 2020, and 6.63 percent in 2021&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The total number of suicides committed by self-employed persons in agriculture in India was 13729 in 1996, 17971 in 2002, 17060 in 2006, 17368 in 2009, 15964 in 2010, 14027 in 2011, 13754 in 2012 and 11772 in 2013. The total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers/ cultivators plus agricultural labourers) was 12,360 in 2014, 12,602 in 2015, 11,379 in 2016, 10,655 in 2017, 10,349 in 2018, 10,281 in 2019, 10,677 in 2020, and 10,881 in 2021&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Due to drop in world market prices for cash-crops (such as coffee, pepper, vanilla) during late 1990s, failure of ginger cultivation in neighbouring Kodagu (formerly Coorg) district and ecological crisis owing to overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides so as to combat productivity failure, many farmers and neo-farmers were left with heavy debts. When, eventually the recovery notices of the banks arrived, hundreds of farmers, especially marginal landholders with up to two acres of land, drank pesticides and killed themselves &lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; In Wayanad, since suicide statistics are directly linked to the payment of compensation through the Revenue Department, the number of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides stagnated during the years 2006 to 2008. &amp;lsquo;Safe Farmers Campaign&amp;rsquo; (SFC), a consortium of eight, mostly Catholic, NGOs (including Shreyas), in 2007 began a large-scale investigation into farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides that ran parallel to the state&amp;rsquo;s efforts of enumeration and classification. Taking police reports of suicides as a starting point and following up all cases from 2000 to March 2008 they have come up with a total number of 1,690 farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (Kerala Social Service Forum 2009). That is nearly four times the figure of 435 officially recognised farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides. The latter number is also the number of beneficiaries of the Chief Minister&amp;rsquo;s (CM) relief fund &lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; During the ten-year period spanning 1997 to 2006 as many as 1,66,304 farmers committed suicide in India&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Farm suicides have increased at annual compound growth rate of around 2.5 per cent per annum over the period 1997-2006&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Farmers, who committed suicides, were growing cash crops in dry regions such as: cotton (particularly in Maharashtra), sunflower, groundnut, and sugarcane (especially in Karnataka) &lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Farm suicides took place in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh including Chhattisgarh&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Poor health conditions, family disputes over property, domestic problems, and heavy social burden of marrying daughters coupled with alcoholism have pushed farmers towards committing suicides&lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt; National Crime Records Bureau,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt; Farmers&amp;#39; suicides&amp;nbsp; and the state in India: Conceptual and ethnographic notes from Wayanad, Kerala by Daniel M&amp;uuml;nster, Contributions to Indian Sociology 2012 46: 181, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&quot;&gt;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt; Nagaraj, K (2008): Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India, Magnitudes, Trends and Spatial Patterns, Macroscan,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf&quot;&gt;http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt; Hebber, Dr. Ritambhara (2007): &amp;lsquo;Human Security and the Case of Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India: An Exploration&amp;rsquo;, Centre for Development Studies, School of Social Sciences, TISS, Paper presented in a panel on Rethinking Development in a Conference on &amp;lsquo;Mainstreaming Human Security- an Asian Perspective&amp;rsquo; (October 3-4, 2007) organised by Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&quot;&gt;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2021 (released in August, 2022)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Chapter%202%20Suicides%20in%20India.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; An increase of nearly 7.2 percent was noticed in suicides during 2021 (1,64,033 suicides) as compared to 2020 (1,53,052 suicides). The rate of suicides has risen by 0.7 points during 2021 (i.e. 12.0 per lakh population) over 2020 (i.e. 11.3 per lakh population). Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Chapter%202%20Suicides%20in%20India.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,318 farmers/cultivators committed suicides during 2021, accounting for 3.24 percent of total suicide victims in India. However, 5,563 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2021, which is nearly 3.39 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,881 in 2021, accounting for roughly 6.63 percent of total suicide victims in the country. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,107 male farmers/ cultivators and 211 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 96.03 percent and 3.97 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,318) in 2021, respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 4,806 in 2021. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&amp;#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 512. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,121 male agricultural labourers and 442 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 92.05 percent and 7.95 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,563) in 2021, respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Manipur, Odisha, Tripura, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Chandigarh, Lakshadweep, and Puducherry reported zero number of suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers in 2021. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2021 were recorded in Maharashtra (4,064, which is around 37.35 percent of total farm suicides i.e. 10,881), followed by Karnataka (2,169), Andhra Pradesh (1,065), Madhya Pradesh (671), Tamil Nadu (599), and Telangana (359). Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2021 were reported from Maharashtra (2,640, which is around 49.64 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,170), Andhra Pradesh (481) and Telangana (352). Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2021 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,424), followed by Karnataka (999), Andhra Pradesh (584), Madhya Pradesh (554), and Tamil Nadu (538). Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The ADSI 2021 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides committed by daily wage earners in 2021 was 42,004. Most suicides by daily wage earners in 2021 were recorded in Tamil Nadu (7,673), followed by Maharashtra (5,270), Madhya Pradesh (4,657), and Telangana (4,223). Figures of daily wage earner excludes agricultural labourer. Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;---&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/News%20alerts%20on%20Rural%20Distress%20in%20India%281%29.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access the news alerts on India&amp;rsquo;s agrarian crisis and rural distress by Inclusive Media for Change.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2020 (released in October, 2021)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/adsi2020_Chapter-2-Suicides-1.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; An increase of about 10.01 percent was observed in suicides during 2020 (1,53,052 suicides) as compared to 2019 (1,39,123 suicides). The rate of suicides has increased by 0.9 points during 2020 (viz. 11.3 per lakh population) over 2019 (viz. 10.4 per lakh population). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/adsi2020_Chapter-2-Suicides-1.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,579 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2020, accounting for 3.65 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 5,098 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2020, which is nearly 3.33 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,677 in 2020, accounting for nearly 7.0 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/adsi2020_Chapter-2-Suicides-1.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,335 male farmers/ cultivators and 244 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 95.63 percent and 4.37 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,579) in 2020, respectively. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 4,940 in 2020. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&amp;#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 639. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 4,621 male agricultural labourers and 477 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 90.64 percent and 9.36 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,098) in 2020, respectively. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, Bihar, Nagaland, Tripura, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Chandigarh, Delhi (UT), Ladakh, Lakshadweeep and Puducherry reported zero number of suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers in 2020. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2020 were recorded in Maharashtra (4,006, which is around 37.52 percent of total farm suicides viz. 10,677), followed by Karnataka (2,016), Andhra Pradesh (889), Madhya Pradesh (735) and Chhattisgarh (537). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2020 were reported from Maharashtra (2,567, which is around 46.01 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,072), Andhra Pradesh (564) and Telangana (466). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2020 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,439), followed by Karnataka (944), Tamil Nadu (398), Kerala (341) and Andhra Pradesh (325). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The ADSI 2020 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2019 (released in September, 2020)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Table-2.6_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/Table-2.7_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A rise of almost 3.4 percent was observed in suicides during 2019 (1,39,123 suicides) as compared to 2018 (1,34,516 suicides). The rate of suicides has increased by 0.2 points during 2019 (viz. 10.4 per lakh population) over 2018 (viz. 10.2 per lakh population). Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,957 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2019, accounting for 4.3 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 4,324 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2019, which is nearly 3.1 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,281 in 2019, accounting for nearly 7.4 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.6_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 5,563 male farmers/ cultivators and 394 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 93.4 percent and 6.6 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,957) in 2019, respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 5,129. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.6_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&amp;#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 828. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.6_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; A total of 3,749 male agricultural labourers and 575 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 86.7 percent and 13.3 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 4,324) in 2019, respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Chandigarh, Daman &amp;amp; Diu, Delhi UT, Lakshadweep and Puducherry reported zero suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers. Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2019 were recorded in Maharashtra (3,927, which is around 38.2 percent of total farm suicides viz. 10,281), followed by Karnataka (1,992), Andhra Pradesh (1,029), Madhya Pradesh (541) and Telangana and Chhattisgarh (each 499). Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.7_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2019 were reported from Maharashtra (2,680, which is around 45 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,331), Andhra Pradesh (628) and Telangana (491). Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.7_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2019 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,247), followed by Karnataka (661), Tamil Nadu (421), Andhra Pradesh (401) and Madhya Pradesh (399). Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.7_2019_0.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The ADSI 2019 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2018 (released in January, 2020)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A rise of almost 3.6 percent was observed in suicides during 2018 (1,34,516 suicides) as compared to 2017 (1,29,887 suicides). The rate of suicides has increased by 0.3 points during 2018 (viz. 10.2 per lakh population) over 2017 (viz. 9.9 per lakh population). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,763 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2018, accounting for 4.28 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 4,586 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2018, which is nearly 3.41 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,349 in 2018, accounting for nearly 7.69 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,457 male farmers/ cultivators and 306 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 94.69 percent and 5.31 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,763), respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 5,088. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&amp;#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 675. Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 4,071 male agricultural labourers and 515 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 88.77 percent and 11.23 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 4,586), respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Goa, Chandigarh, Daman &amp;amp; Diu, Delhi UT, Lakshadweep and Puducherry reported zero suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2018 were recorded in Maharashtra (3,594, which is around 34.73 percent of total farm suicides viz. 10,349), followed by Karnataka (2,405), Telangana (908), Andhra Pradesh (664) and Madhya Pradesh (655). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2018 were reported from Maharashtra (2,239, which is around 38.85 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,365), Telangana (900), Andhra Pradesh (365) and Madhya Pradesh (303). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2018 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,355), followed by Karnataka (1,040), Tamil Nadu (395), Madhya Pradesh (352) and Andhra Pradesh (299). Please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202018.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The ADSI 2018 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2017 (released in January, 2020)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2017&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2017&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A decline of almost -0.9 percent was observed in suicides during 2017 (1,29,887 suicides) as compared to 2016 (1,31,008 suicides). The rate of suicides has decreased by -0.4 points during 2017 (viz. 9.9 per lakh population) over 2016 (viz. 10.3 per lakh population). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,955 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2017, accounting for 4.58 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 4,700 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2017, which is nearly 3.62 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,655 in 2017, accounting for almost 8.2 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2017&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,633 male farmers/ cultivators and 322 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 94.59 percent and 5.41 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,955), respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 5,203.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&amp;#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 752.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 4,219 male agricultural labourers and 480 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 89.77 percent and 10.21 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 4,700), respectively. One agricultural labourer was transgender.&amp;nbsp; Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Certain States/UTs namely, West Bengal, Odisha, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Uttarakhand, Chandigarh UT, Dadra &amp;amp; Nagar Haveli, Daman &amp;amp; Diu, Delhi UT, Lakshadweep and Puducherry reported zero suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2017 were recorded in Maharashtra (3,701, which is around 34.73 percent of total farm suicides viz. 10,655), followed by Karnataka (2,160), Madhya Pradesh (955), Telangana (851) and Andhra Pradesh (816). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2017&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2017 were reported from Maharashtra (2,426, which is around 40.74 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,157), Telangana (846), Madhya Pradesh (429) and Andhra Pradesh (375). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2017&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2017 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,275), followed by Karnataka (1,003), Madhya Pradesh (526), Andhra Pradesh (441) and Tamil Nadu (369). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202017.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table 2.7 of ADSI 2017&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The ADSI 2017 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2016 (released in November, 2019)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/NCRB%20snapshots.pdf&quot; title=&quot;NCRB snapshots&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.6%20farm%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.6 farm suicides&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.7%20farm%20suicide.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.7 farm suicide&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A decline of almost -2.0 percent was observed in suicides during 2016 (1,31,008 suicides) as compared to 2015 (1,33,623 suicides). The rate of suicides has decreased by -0.3 points during 2016 (viz. 10.3 per lakh population) over 2015 (viz. 10.6 per lakh population). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/NCRB%20snapshots.pdf&quot; title=&quot;NCRB snapshots&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 6,270 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2016, accounting for 4.79 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 5,109 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2016, which is nearly 3.9 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 11,379 in 2016, accounting for roughly 8.7 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A &amp;#39;farmer/ cultivator&amp;#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&amp;#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &amp;#39;agricultural labourer&amp;#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.6%20farm%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.6 farm suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,995 male farmers/ cultivators and 275 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 95.61 percent and 4.39 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 6,270), respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides_1.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 4,476 male agricultural labourers and 633 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 87.61 percent and 12.39 percent of total agricultural labourers&amp;rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,109), respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides_1.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, West Bengal, Bihar, Nagaland, Chandigarh, Dadar &amp;amp; Nagar Haveli, Daman &amp;amp; Diu, Delhi UT and Lakshadweep reported zero suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides_1.pdf&quot; title=&quot;chapter-2 suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2016 were recorded in Maharashtra (3,661), followed by Karnataka (2,079), Madhya Pradesh (1,321), Andhra Pradesh (804) and Chhattisgarh (682). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.7%20farm%20suicide.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.7 farm suicide&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2016 were reported from Maharashtra (2,550, which is around 40.7 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,212), Telangana (632), Madhya Pradesh (599) and Chhattisgarh (585). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.7%20farm%20suicide.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.7 farm suicide&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2016 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,111), followed by Karnataka (867), Madhya Pradesh (722), Andhra Pradesh (565) and Gujarat (378). Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/table-2.7%20farm%20suicide.pdf&quot; title=&quot;table-2.7 farm suicide&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The ADSI 2016 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2015 (released in 2016)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Suicides%20in%20farming%20sector.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Suicides in farming sector&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Altogether 1,33,623 persons in India committed suicide in 2015 (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Suicides%20in%20India.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Suicides in India 2015&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 8,007 farmers/ cultivators have committed suicides during 2015, accounting for 5.99 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 4,595 agricultural labourers have committed suicides during 2015, which is 3.44 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 12,602 in 2015, accounting for 9.43 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Suicides%20in%20farming%20sector.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Suicides in farming sector&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 7,566 male farmers/ cultivators and 441 female farmers/ cultivators have committed suicides, accounting for 94.49 percent and 5.51 percent of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides, respectively. Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Suicides%20in%20farming%20sector.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Suicides in farming sector&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Land holding status of farmers who committed suicide reveals that 27.41 percent and 45.19 percent of victims were marginal farmers and small farmers respectively. They together accounted for 72.59 percent (5,813 out of 8,007) of total farmer suicides (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Land%20Holding%20Status%20of%20Farmers%20committing%20Suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Land Holding Status of Farmers committing Suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Majority of suicides committed by farmers/ cultivators were reported in Maharashtra (3,030) followed by 1,358 such suicides in Telangana and 1,197 suicides in Karnataka, accounting for 37.8 percent, 17.0 percent and 14.9 percent of total such suicides (8,007) respectively during 2015. Chhattisgarh (854 suicides), Madhya Pradesh (581 suicides) and Andhra Pradesh (516 suicides) accounted for 10.7 percent, 7.3 percent and 6.4 percent of the total farmer/ cultivators suicides reported in the country respectively. These 6 states together reported 94.1 percent of the total farmer/ cultivators suicides (7,536 out of 8,007 suicides) in the country during 2015.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; &amp;#39;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;#39; and &amp;#39;Farming Related Issues&amp;#39; are reported as major causes of suicides among farmers/ cultivators, accounting for 38.7 percent (3,097 out of 8,007 suicides) and 19.5 percent (1,562 out of 8,007 suicides) of total such suicides respectively during 2015. The other prominent causes of farmer/ cultivators suicides were &amp;#39;Family Problems&amp;#39; (933 suicides), &amp;#39;Illness&amp;#39; (842 suicides) and &amp;#39;Drug Abuse/Alcoholic Addiction&amp;#39; (330 suicides), accounting for 11.7 percent, 10.5 percent and 4.1 percent of total farmers/cultivators` suicides respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; During 2015, major causes of suicides among male farmers/ cultivators were reported as &amp;#39;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;#39; (2,978 suicides) and &amp;#39;Farming Related Issues&amp;#39; (1,494 suicides), which accounted for 39.4 percent and 19.7 percent of total male farmers/ cultivators suicides respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Among female farmers/ cultivators suicides, &amp;#39;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;#39; followed by &amp;#39;Family Problems&amp;#39;, were major causes of suicides, accounting for 27.0 percent (119 out of 441 suicides) and 18.1 percent (80 suicides) of total suicides by female farmers/ cultivators respectively during 2015. &amp;#39;Farming Related Issues&amp;#39; and &amp;#39;Illness&amp;#39; both accounted for 15.4 percent (68 suicides each) during 2015.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; &amp;#39;Family Problems&amp;#39; and &amp;#39;Illness&amp;#39; were major causes of suicides among agricultural labourers accounting for 40.1 percent (1,843 out of 4,595 suicides) and 19.0 percent (872 out of 4,595 suicides) respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; 79.0 percent of farmer/ cultivator suicides in Karnataka and 42.7 percent of farmer/ cultivator suicides in Maharashtra were due to &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;rsquo;. 26.2 percent of farmer/ cultivator suicides in Maharashtra were also due to &amp;#39;Farming Related Issues (Related to Failure of Crop)&amp;#39;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Farmers/ cultivators belonging to 30 years - below 60 years of age group have accounted for 71.6 percent of total farmers/ cultivators&amp;rsquo; suicides during 2015.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; 9.0 percent of farmers/ cultivators who have committed suicides were in age group of 60 years &amp;amp; above.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The states of Bihar, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu &amp;amp; Kashmir, Jharkhand, Mizoram, Nagaland, Uttarakhand and West Bengal have reported no farmers&amp;#39; suicide during 2015. All the 7 Union Territories have reported zero number of farmers&amp;#39; suicide during 2015 (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Incidence%20and%20Percentage%20Change%20in%20Suicides%20in%20Farming%20Sector%20during%202015.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Incidence and Percentage Change in Suicides in Farming Sector in 2015&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The states of Goa, Manipur, Nagaland and West Bengal have reported no suicide by agricultural labourers during 2015. All the Union Territories except Puducherry (12) have reported zero suicide by agricultural labourers during 2015 (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Incidence%20and%20Percentage%20Change%20in%20Suicides%20in%20Farming%20Sector%20during%202015.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Incidence and Percentage Change in Suicides in Farming Sector in 2015&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Comprehensive data on &amp;lsquo;Suicides in Farming Sector&amp;rsquo; comprising of suicides committed by farmers/ cultivators and agricultural labourers in exclusive Chapter-2A have been collected and published in consultation with Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare under overall supervision of Ministry of Home Affairs, in order to present a comprehensive analysis on suicides in the farming sector. In previous edition (till ADSI 2013), this chapter contained data on suicides committed by farmers/cultivators only.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India 2014 (released in 2015)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2A%20farmer%20suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;ADSI NCRB 2014 Farmers Suicide&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Altogether 1,31,666 persons in India committed suicide in 2014.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,650 farmers have committed suicides during 2014, accounting for 4.3% of total suicide victims in the country. However, 6,710 agricultural labourers have committed suicides during 2014, which is 5.1% of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides committed by persons engaged in agriculture (farmers plus agricultural labourers) in India was 12,360 in 2014, accounting for 9.4% of total suicide victims in India (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2.7.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 5,178 male farmers and 472 female farmers have committed suicides, accounting for 91.6% and 8.4% of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Land holding status of farmers who committed suicide reveals that 44.5% and 27.9% of victims were small farmers and marginal farmers respectively. They together accounted for 72.4% (4,095 out of 5,650) total farmer suicides (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2A.3.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; A total of 2,568 farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides were reported in Maharashtra followed by 898 such suicides in Telangana and 826 suicides in Madhya Pradesh, accounting for 45.5%, 15.9% and 14.6% respectively of total farmer suicides during 2014. Chhattisgarh (443 suicides) and Karnataka (321 suicides) accounted for 7.8% and 5.7% respectively of the total farmer suicides reported in the country. These 5 States together accounted for 89.5% of the total farmer suicides (5,056 out of 5,650) reported in the country during 2014.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;rsquo; and &amp;lsquo;Family Problems&amp;rsquo; are major causes of suicides, accounting for 20.6% and 20.1% respectively of total farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides during 2014. The other prominent causes of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides were &amp;lsquo;Failure of Crop&amp;rsquo; (16.8%), &amp;lsquo;Illness&amp;rsquo; (13.2%) and &amp;lsquo;Drug Abuse/Alcoholic Addiction&amp;rsquo; (4.9%).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; During 2014, major causes of suicides among male farmers were &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;rsquo; and &amp;lsquo;Family Problems&amp;rsquo;, which accounted for 21.5% and 20.0% respectively of total male farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Whereas, in female farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides, &amp;lsquo;Farming Related Issues&amp;rsquo; followed by &amp;lsquo;Family Problems&amp;rsquo;, &amp;lsquo;Marriage Related Issues&amp;rsquo; and &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;rsquo; were major causes of suicides, accounting for 21.4% (101 out of 472 suicides), 20.6% (97 suicides), 12.3% (58 suicides) and 10.8% (51 suicides) respectively during 2014.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; Nearly 33.4% suicides in Maharashtra and 23.2% in Telangana were due to &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&amp;rsquo;. 87.5% of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides due to &amp;lsquo;Failure of Crop&amp;rsquo; were reported in Himachal Pradesh. 4.7% farmers in Himachal Pradesh, 4.1% farmers in Jharkhand and 2.7% farmers each in Bihar, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh have committed suicides due to &amp;lsquo;Suspected/ Illicit Relation&amp;rsquo;. 6.5% suicides by farmers in Sikkim followed by 2.3% in Himachal Pradesh and 2.0% in Puducherry were due to &amp;lsquo;Cancellation/ Non Settlement of Marriage&amp;rsquo;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The states of West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Tripura, Rajasthan, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Manipur, Jharkhand, Goa, Arunachal Pradesh and Bihar have reported no farmers&amp;#39; suicide during 2014. All the Union Territories except Andaman and Nicobar Islands have reported zero farmers&amp;#39; suicide during 2014 (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2.7.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The states of Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Goa, Manipur and Nagaland have reported no suicide by agricultural labourers during 2014. All the Union Territories except Puducherry have reported zero suicide by agricultural labourers during 2014 (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2.7.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull; The latest issue of the ADSI report is different from the earlier ones in two ways: a. Apart from the usual male and female break-up of data, one also gets data pertaining to transgenders (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2.7.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access), which was missing earlier; b. There is a separate chapter (please &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/chapter-2A%20farmer%20suicides.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access) and 3 tables (in the annexure, please click &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2A.1.pdf&quot;&gt;link1&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2A.2.pdf&quot;&gt;link2&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2A.3.pdf&quot;&gt;link3&lt;/a&gt;) on farmer suicides in India and at state/UT-level, which did not exist in earlier reports. In the previous ADSI reports, one had to extract data on farmers&amp;#39; suicide from the table on distribution of suicides by profession. Suicides committed by self-employed persons in agriculture gave the proxy of the figure on farmers&amp;#39; suicide.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Unlike the previous ones, in the present ADSI report suicides by self-employed persons in agriculture has been sub-divided into suicides by agricultural labourers and suicides by farmers. Suicides by farmers has been further subdivided (in the current report) into suicide by farmers having own land and suicide by farmers having land on contract or lease.&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
According to National Crime Records Bureau&amp;#39;s [inside]Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India 2013 (released in 2014)[/inside] report, &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Altogether 1,34,799 persons in India committed suicide in 2013.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Nearly, 11,772 persons self-employed in farming/agriculture (can be loosely termed as farmers) committed suicide during 2013. They constitute 8.73 percent of total number of suicides committed during the same year.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Among the 11,772 no. of persons self-employed in farming/agriculture who committed suicide, 10489 are men (89.1%) and 1283 are women (10.9%).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Rate of suicides, i.e., the number of suicides per one lakh population, has been widely accepted as a standard yardstick. The national rate of suicides was 11.0 during the year 2013. Puducherry reported the highest rate of suicide (35.6).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In 2013, the highest incidents of 16,622 suicides were reported in Maharashtra followed by 16,601 suicides in Tamil Nadu accounting for 12.3% each of total suicides. Andhra Pradesh (14,607 suicides), West Bengal (13,055 suicides) and Karnataka (11,266 suicides) accounted for 10.8%, 9.7% and 8.4% respectively of the total suicides reported in the country. These 5 States together accounted for 53.5% of the total suicides reported in India.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Delhi has reported the highest number of suicides (2,059) among UTs, followed by Puducherry (546) during 2013.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;lsquo;Family Problems&amp;rsquo; and &amp;lsquo;Illness&amp;rsquo;, accounting for 24.0% and 19.6% respectively, were the major causes of suicides among the specified causes. &amp;lsquo;Drug Abuse/Addiction&amp;rsquo; (3.4%), &amp;lsquo;Love Affairs&amp;rsquo; (3.3%), &amp;lsquo;Bankruptcy or Sudden change in economic Status&amp;rsquo; (2.0%), &amp;#39;Failure in Examination&amp;rsquo; (1.8%), &amp;lsquo;Dowry Dispute&amp;rsquo; (1.7%) and &amp;lsquo;Unemployment&amp;rsquo; (1.6%) were the other causes of suicides. Suicides due to &amp;lsquo;Illegitimate Pregnancy (64.5%), &amp;lsquo;Fall in Social Reputation&amp;rsquo; (49.4%), &amp;lsquo;Professional/ Career Problem&amp;rsquo; (40.8%), &amp;lsquo;Divorce&amp;rsquo; (35.7%), and &amp;lsquo;Cancellation/Non-Settlement of Marriage&amp;rsquo; (33.5%) have increased in 2013 over 2012, while for poverty and property dispute have declined as compared to previous year.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; It was observed that 69.4% of the suicide victims were married while 23.6% were Never Married/Spinster. Divorcees and Separated have accounted for about 3.2% of the total suicide victims. The proportion of Widowed &amp;amp; Widower victims was around 3.7%.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
According to [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India-2012[/inside], &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/&lt;/a&gt;:&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; 15 Suicides took place in India every hour during 2012.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; It is observed that social and economic causes have led most of the males to commit suicides whereas emotional and personal causes have mainly driven females to end their lives.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Nearly 71.6% of the suicide victims were married males while 67.9% were married females. 1 suicide out of every 6 suicides was committed by a &amp;lsquo;housewife&amp;rsquo;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Tamil Nadu has reported the highest number of suicide victims in 2010 (accounting for 12.3%), third highest in 2011 (accounting for 11.8%) and highest in 2012 (accounting for 14.0%).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Southern States viz. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu including Maharashtra have together accounted for 50.6% of total suicides reported in the country.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Self employed category accounted for 38.7% of suicide victims in 2012.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
According to the article titled [inside]Farmers&amp;#39; suicides and the state in India: Conceptual and ethnographic notes from Wayanad, Kerala[/inside] by Daniel M&amp;uuml;nster, Contributions to Indian Sociology 2012 46: 181, &lt;a href=&quot;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&quot;&gt;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&lt;/a&gt;:&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides are invariably linked to and almost synonymous with the&amp;mdash;equally composite&amp;mdash;agrarian crisis in the aftermath of neoliberal &amp;lsquo;reform&amp;rsquo;. Most of the writing on the subject is based on the same set of data (statistical data of the National Crime Records Bureau) or on journalistic visits to suicide &amp;lsquo;hotspots&amp;rsquo;. So far few ethnographic accounts, committed to qualitative research in suicide prone areas, have been published.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The present study is an ethnographic report from the field in the South Indian district Wayanad, one of the officially designated suicide-prone districts. The primary aim behind the research is to analyse the state&amp;rsquo;s responses to farmer suicides: the bundle of relief packages, inquiry commissions, rural employment schemes and debt relief commissions that were set up in recent years partially as a response to reports on increasing numbers of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides. Such investigation may eventually contribute to an understanding &amp;lsquo;of precisely how neoliberal globalization is transforming the re-distributive functions of the Indian state or affecting its legitimacy and identity as an agency of social welfare&amp;rsquo;. This article makes a strong case for grounding the study of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides in ethnographies of agrarian practice and the local developmental state.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides provide rural citizens with a language to speak about politics, citizenship and development in the context of neoliberalising agriculture.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The research is intended to conceive farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides as an highly over-determined interface between &amp;lsquo;state&amp;rsquo; and rural society; an interface in two senses: first as a drastic image, repeatedly invoked to speak about rural distress and the widespread agrarian crisis in neoliberal India and to address the failure of the nation state to protect its agrarian classes; second, as a set of actually existing practices&amp;mdash; suicides&amp;mdash;which force state agencies to show presence in social settings, which they had allegedly neglected.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In Wayanad neither cotton, nor GM seeds, nor global agri-corporations play a significant role. Not all suicides in Wayanad were related to agrarian distress. For many decades Kerala has had high suicide rates, many with multiple causes: family problems, alcoholism (extremely widespread in Wayanad), health issues, &amp;lsquo;love failure&amp;rsquo;, or debt.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The 1980s and 1990s brought unprecedented wealth to Wayanad. In the late-1980s up until the late-1990s, many farmers of Wayanad especially pepper growers in the &amp;lsquo;Pepper Panchayats&amp;rsquo; of Pulpalli, Mullankolli and Poothadi, became wealthy. Wayanad became an important earner of foreign currency in Kerala. Farmers, even relatively small farmers who owned around two acres could afford constructing large houses.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The end of the 1990s hit Wayanad&amp;rsquo;s agrarian economy in a series of crises. First, the world market prices for cash-crops dropped dramatically. Local rates for pepper (ungarbled) dropped from 270 INR/Kg in 1997 to 54 INR/Kg in 2001, coffee dropped from 60 INR/Kg in 1997 to 16 INR/Kg in 2002 and vanilla, most dramatically dropped from 4300 INR/Kg in 2003 to 25 INR/Kg in 2006. Prices had fluctuated before, most cultivators remembered price crashes in the late-1970s, but this time they were accompanied by a second crisis: a dramatic drop in productivity.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Since the late-1990s Wayanad has been facing a serious ecological crisis. During the boom years cash-croppers heavily overused chemical fertilisers and pesticides in order to keep productivity high and profitable. The soil is now depleted beyond redemption and some Panchayats of Wayanad suffer from increased incidences of cancer. Furthermore new diseases started to affect plantations. &amp;lsquo;Quick wilt&amp;rsquo;, &amp;lsquo;slow wilt&amp;rsquo; and &amp;lsquo;foot rot&amp;rsquo; are their names, and all share the ability to destroy whole plantations quickly.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; When prices crashed and plantations died, many farmers and neo-farmers were left with heavy debts. When, eventually the recovery notices of the banks arrived, hundreds of farmers, especially marginal landholders with up to two acres of land, drank pesticides and killed themselves.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Another economic practice emerged since the late-1990s and has a strong correlation with suicide cases. Many suicide victims had invested in the cultivation of ginger in neighbouring Kodagu (formerly Coorg) district. The return from ginger cultivation could also be nil. There is an almost 50 per cent chance that the ginger plant is going to be affected by a fungus that would spread quickly across the fields and destroy the plantation within days.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Husbands very often did not even talk about their debt burden to wives and children: they just changed their character, became abusive and started to drink more heavily. Many widows shared later that they had no idea of their husbands&amp;rsquo; debts, and were not involved in agricultural matters at all. This made it all the more difficult for them to deal subsequently with the stigma, poverty and political instrumentalisation they were to experience.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; One of author&amp;#39;s original research questions was also to consider farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides as suicides against the state. This link was difficult to establish in Wayanad.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Farmers who killed themselves knew that they were part of a district-wide if not all-India epidemic, that their suicide would attract considerable&amp;nbsp; attention from the media, NGOs as well as state agencies and also&amp;mdash;controversially&amp;mdash;that the state might eventually take care of their families, write off their debt and pay compensation of 50,000 INR.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Most farmers the author spoke to, whether activists or not, were quite knowledgeable about the removal of quantitative restrictions on imports and the dismantling of import duties for agrarian products under the GATT regime as the main reasons for the fall in prices of agrarian cash-crops. They would speak of cheap coffee and pepper coming from Vietnam and Sri Lanka that keeps flooding the market and later to be resold as premium Wayanad pepper. Second, they articulated the retreat of the state, the cut of input subsidies and low investments in irrigation and infrastructure. They would speak of the government that always cheated, gave no security to the farmers, had no procurement policy and provided no minimum price.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The official all-India suicide-rate (suicide rate is the incidence of suicide mortality per 100,000 inhabitants) has for the last 10 years constantly been around 10.5 and hence not extraordinarily inflated. Kerala&amp;rsquo;s official suicide-rate was 26.8 which is more than twice the national average and the third highest in India (after Pondicherry and Andaman &amp;amp; Nicobar Islands) and had been so for the last years. Within Kerala there are two districts that have been given the recent status of &amp;lsquo;suicide-prone districts&amp;rsquo;: Idukki and Wayanad. Even though suicides are statistically well captured, there is a considerable fluctuation in the number of reported farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The &amp;lsquo;Accidental Deaths and Suicides (ADSI)&amp;rsquo; annual report (National Crime Records Bureau 2007) is the only official source of information. It lists the distribution of suicidal death by state, gender, marital status, causes of suicide, means adopted and profession. According to K. Nagaraj, the professional category farmer (although still unspecific) is a relatively recent category in the ADSI reports: &amp;lsquo;The category self-employed (farming/agriculture)&amp;mdash;which can be taken as representing the farmers&amp;mdash;was added for the first time in 1995 (...)&amp;rsquo; (Nagaraj 2008: 2).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The suicide rate for farmers can be calculated only for the year 2001, this being the first year that statistical data on farmers were recorded in the Census of India. On an all-India basis this does not make for highly inflated suicide rates among farmers: 15.8 among the main cultivators as compared to 10.6 of the general population. An entirely different perspective emerges, however, if one takes into account the fact that numbers of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides vary significantly across India. For Kerala, a suicide rate among main cultivators of 176.5 emerges, and the figure is still 142.9 if all cultivators are considered. Those numbers are alarming indeed.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; For all-India the official number in the ADSI reports is 190,753 farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides from 1995 to 2006. That makes an average of 16,000 suicides per year, which is still an underestimation since some major states have not reported on farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The status of farmer (cultivator) is based on the criterion of title to land. This leaves out women, tenant farmers, agricultural labourers, but also regular farmers if the land title was in the father&amp;rsquo;s or son&amp;rsquo;s name. A stringent criterion for agriculture-related suicide would be the absence of any other cause neighbours might mention (such as alcoholism or family problems).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The local practice of identifying farmers&amp;rsquo; suicide became additionally complicated after 2004 by the decision of the new LDF government to actually pay a compensation of 50,000 INR to all families with cases of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides out of the Chief Minister&amp;rsquo;s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In the beginning, as a populist measure, the criteria were handled rather loosely and compensation was paid rather freely. The first compensation cheques were handed over during public functions under great media attention. Later, both to be able to present the success of the other relief measures of the new state and union governments and to curb costs, the practice became more stringent. The debt still had to be the cause of suicide, but now it had to be an institutional credit (excluding debt with moneylenders) and the loan had to have been taken for agricultural purposes (excluding consumer loans).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In Wayanad, since suicide statistics are directly linked to the payment of compensation through the Revenue Department, the number of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides stagnated during the years 2006 to 2008. &amp;lsquo;Safe Farmers Campaign&amp;rsquo; (SFC), a consortium of eight, mostly Catholic, NGOs (including Shreyas), in 2007 began a large-scale investigation into farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides that ran parallel to the state&amp;rsquo;s efforts of enumeration and classification. Taking police reports of suicides as a starting point and following up all cases from 2000 to March 2008 they have come up with a total number of 1,690 farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (Kerala Social Service Forum 2009). That is nearly four times the figure of 435 officially recognised farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides. The latter number is also the number of beneficiaries of the Chief Minister&amp;rsquo;s (CM) relief fund.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; To avoid further committing of farmers&amp;#39; suicides and because of their political nature, the state compensates only such suicides. The CM fund is the most specific programme that targets only cases of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicide. The Indian state has launched unprecedented relief and rehabilitation measures in response to the suicide crisis.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India-2011[/inside],&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/&lt;/a&gt;:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; 16 Suicides took place in India every hour during 2011.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; It is observed that social and economic causes have led most of the males to commit suicides whereas emotional and personal causes have mainly driven females to end their lives.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Nearly 71.1% of the suicide victims were married males while 68.2% were married females.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; West Bengal has reported the highest number of suicide victims (accounting for 11.5%) in 2009, second highest in 2010 (accounting for 11.9%) and highest in 2011 (accounting for 12.2%). &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; West Bengal (12.2%), Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu (11.8% each), Andhra Pradesh (11.1%) and Karnataka (9.3%), altogether contributed 56.2% of total suicide victims.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Self employed category accounted for 38.3% of suicide victims in 2011. It comprised 10.3% engaged in Farming/ Agriculture activities, 5.3% engaged in Business and 3.1% Professionals. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to the report titled [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp;amp; Suicides in India-2010[/inside], which is produced by the National Crime Records Bureau,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/&lt;/a&gt;: &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Every hour 15 people committed suicide in India during 2010.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; 1 in every 5 suicides is committed by a Housewife.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Total 3,84,649 accidental deaths were reported in the country during the year 2010.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; It is observed that social and economic causes have led most of the males to commit suicides whereas emotional and personal causes have mainly driven females to end their lives.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Nearly 70.5% of the suicide victims were married males while 67.0% were married females.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; 26.3% of the suicide victims were primary educated and 22.7% were middle educated while 19.8% of victims of suicide were illiterate.&amp;nbsp;Self employed category accounted for 41.1% of suicide victims in 2010. It comprised 11.9% engaged in Farming/ Agriculture activities, 5.3% engaged in Business and 3.0% Professionals.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; 41.1% of suicide victims were self employed while only 7.5% were un-employed.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Suicides because of &amp;lsquo;Family Problems&amp;rsquo; (23.7%) and &amp;rsquo;Illness&amp;rsquo; (21.0%) combined accounted for 44.7% of total Suicides.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; West Bengal has reported the highest number of suicide victims (accounting for 11.9%) in 2008 &amp;amp; 2009 and second highest in 2010 (accounting for 11.9%).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; West Bengal (11.9%), Andhra Pradesh (11.8%), Tamil Nadu (12.3%), Maharashtra (11.8%) and Karnataka (9.4%) contributed 57.2% of total suicide victims.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; The highest number of Mass/Family Suicides cases were reported from Bihar (23) followed by Kerala (22) and Madhya Pradesh (21) and Andhra Pradesh (20) out of 109 cases.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;According to National Crime Records Bureau&amp;#39;s [inside]Accidental Death and Suicide (2009)[/inside],&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/suicides-09.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/suicides-09.pdf&lt;/a&gt;, &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/snapshots.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/snapshots.pdf&lt;/a&gt;, &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;: &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; More than one lakh persons (1,27,151) in the country lost their lives by committing suicide during the year 2009. This indicates an increase of 1.7% over the previous year&amp;#39;s figure (1,25,017).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The total number of suicides in the country during the decade (1999&amp;ndash;2009) has recorded an increase of 15.0% (from 1,10,587 in 1999 to 1,27,151 in 2009).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Self-employed category accounted for 39.8% of suicide victims in 2009. It comprised 13.7% engaged in Farming/Agriculture activities, 6.1% engaged in Business and 2.9% Professionals.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; 55.1% suicide victims in Mizoram were engaged in farming /agriculture activities in 2009. 29.6% suicide victims in Manipur were unemployed.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Despite a fall in number of suicides committed by farmers in 2009 as compared to 2008 in Maharastra (fallen by 930), the state continues to be number one in terms of farmers&amp;#39; suicides for the tenth year (2,872 suicides) as compared to the rest of the states.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The number of suicides committed by farmers in 2009 was 17,368, which was a rise by 1,172 as compared to 2008.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The growth in the number of suicides committed by the farmers has been 7 percent over the last year.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In the year 2009, 1,27,151 persons committed suicides. Within a span of one year, suicide rate in the entire country has increased by 1.7 percent. During the last year, the total number of suicides committed was 1,25,017.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In the year 2009, 348 persons committed suicides on an average every day, out of which 48 persons were farmers. In the year 2004, on an average 47 farmers committed suicides every day, which means one farmer committing suicide in every 30 minutes.&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Private and Public Sector personnel have accounted for 8.4% and 2.3% of the total suicide victims respectively, whereas students and un-employed victims accounted for 5.3% and 7.8% respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Government servants were 1.3% of the total suicide victims, whereas housewives (25,092) accounted for 54.9% of the total female victims and nearly 19.7% of total victims committing suicides.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; 40.9% of salaried and 39.0% of unemployed suicide victims were in the age&amp;ndash;group 30-44 years.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; West Bengal has reported the highest number of suicides (14,648) accounting for 11.5% of total suicides followed by Andhra Pradesh (14,500), Tamil Nadu (14,424), Maharashtra (14,300) and Karnataka (12,195) accounting for 11.4%, 11.3%, 11.2% and 9.6% respectively of the total suicides in the country.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; These 5 States together accounted for 55.1% of the total suicides reported in the country.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; 209 deaths at the national level under Mass/Family suicides consisting of 95 males and 114 females were reported as per the information available. 15 cities also did not furnish information.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The maximum number of suicide victims was educated up to Middle level (23.7%). Illiterate and primary educated persons accounted for 21.4% suicide victims and 23.4% respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Only 3.1% suicide victims were graduates and post-graduates. 51.9% suicide victims in Sikkim were illiterate. 36.5% suicide victims in Gujarat had education upto primary level. 68.1% suicide victims in Mizoram and 59.1% suicide victims in Puducherry had middle level education.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;**page**&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;The study titled [inside]Farmers Suicide: Facts and Possible Policy Interventions (2006) [/inside] prepared by Meeta and Rajiv Lochan, (Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration), &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.yashada.org/organisation/FarmersSuicideExcerpts.pdf&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;http://www.yashada.org/organisation/FarmersSuicideExcerpts.pdf&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:Arial; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;revisits some of the families which two earlier reports (Mishra and Dandekar et al) had also visited and criticises them for not doing a good job of compiling the victims&amp;#39; circumstances meticulously. The authors believe that many reports in the past have exaggerated the connection between debt and suicides whereas in reality a lot of other reasons, including harsh environment, a variety of other reasons and absence of basic health services, also play an equally important role. According to the same study:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The suicide epidemic is said to have its epicentre in Yavatmal district of Maharastra. According to the State Crime Records Bureau, it reported 640, 819, 832, 787 and 786 suicides respectively for the years 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Most of the victims of this epidemic were men, mostly in the age group 30 to 50, married and educated, with more social responsibilities, especially in the form of unmarried daughters and or sisters. There were two things that were common among the victims of suicide. One, a feeling of hopelessness: in being unable to resolve problems and dilemmas of personal life; and in the face of an inability to find funds for various activities or repay loans. Two, the absence of any person, group or institution to whom to turn to in order to seek reliable advice: whether for agricultural operations or for seeking funds or for handling private and personal issues. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;People complained about lack of information on various government sponsored schemes. There was little knowledge about institutional mechanisms like the minimum support price (MSP) that would affect marketing, technical knowledge was low and there were no reliable sources from where such knowledge and advice could be accessed. Most farmers were not informed about crop insurance. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Most of them who committed suicide were Hindus and not Muslims or Christians. This is because Hindu religion allowed certain circumstances for altruistic suicide, whereas the latter two religions frowned upon suicides. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Chronic alcoholism and drug abuse were found among rural population.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Loan from a rapacious relative rather than a bank or moneylender was often the cause of economic distress for the victim. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The 10 point suggestions are:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;1. Enhance the physical interaction between government functionaries and village society by insisting on more tours, night halts and gram sabhas by officers at all levels of the administration.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;2. Actively monitor local society, especially farmers, for signs of social, economic and psychological distress and if possible provide social, psychological or spiritual counseling.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;3. Implement with rigour the various provisions that already exist to safeguard the interests of the farmer and farm workers for example, the existing money lending act, minimum wage act etc. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;4. Increase the efficiency of agriculture extension activities. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;5. Increase the efficiency of various services that are delivered by the government in the name of people&amp;#39;s welfare at the moment. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;6. Make available trained and salaried individuals to serve the rural population. Immediate succour is needed. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;7. For the long-term change, it is important to improve the condition of school education and provide appropriate vocational education at the village and taluka level so as to make people understand the complexities of present day production and marketing techniques.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;8. Counsel the media to stop highlighting suicide since the fact of highlighting suicide itself adds fuel to the suicide fire as it were. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;9. Instead of ex gratia payment being made to families of those who commit suicide, provide employment to a member of the family or help in setting up a small business. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;10. Provide direct cash subsidies to actual cultivators.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;According to [inside]Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicide in India: Agrarian Crisis, Path of Development and Politics in Karnataka[/inside] by Muzaffar Assadi,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/10.1.1.544.330.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The beginning of agrarian crisis requires being located much earlier to the beginning of suicide, which goes back to the 1980s when the terms of trade were going against agriculture. To oppose State policies, farmers&amp;rsquo; movements were led by Shetkari Sangathana in Maharashtra, Vyavasayigal Sangam in Tamil Nadu, and Rajya Raitha Sangh in Karnataka. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Karnataka has no history of farmers committing suicide even during the situation of acute agrarian crisis. Even the unorganised farmers would resort to other tactics such as throwing the agricultural commodities on the roads, burning their crops, etc. Andhra became the harbinger for such a trend in Karnataka. Suicide in Karnataka was first reported in the northern parts of Karnataka or close to the border areas of Andhra Pradesh.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The beginning of the suicides can be traced back to the year 1998, when two farmers in Bidar, who were involved in cultivating Tur Dal, a market-oriented agricultural crop committed suicide. In the initial two years, farmer suicides were largely concentrated in the drought-prone districts in north Karnataka, or confined to economically backward, drought-prone regions such as Gulbarga and Bidar. However, after 2000 , the phenomenon shifted to relatively advanced agricultural regions, particularly Mandya, Hassan, Shimoga, Davanagere, Koppal and even Chickmagalur Kodagu and it also covered ground water region (Belgaum), assured rain fall region (Haveri), Sugar Cane and Cauvery Irrigation Belt (Mandya). However, in the coastal belt, the number of suicides reported was less.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;During 1999-2001, it was estimated that 110 farmers committed suicide in Karnataka. According to one estimate, 3,000 farmers committed suicide in Karnataka between 1998 and 2006. According to the report prepared by the Crime Branch of Karnataka, the number of suicide under the heading &amp;ldquo;farming and agricultural activity&amp;rdquo; comes to 15,804 between 1998 and 2002. Between 1996 and 2002, 12,889 male farmers committed suicide followed by females (2841). The total number of farmers who committed suicide from 1 April, 2003 to 1 January, 2007 comes to 1193. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Debt burden of the farmers who committed suicide was not uniform. It varied between Rs.5000 to Rs.50000. Many of them had borrowed loan on short-term basis.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The most striking aspect of the crisis, however, is the fact that large number of farmers who committed suicide largely came from the age group between 25 and 35 years.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;During the first few years of this millennium Karnataka saw a deceleration, due to the negative growth in agriculture. This is apparent from the following facts: the average real GDP rate in different sectors between the period 1995-96 and 2002-03 was 5.86; however, for agriculture it was 1.87 per cent, industry 5.93 per cent, service sector 8.18 percent.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;In Karnataka, the large number of farmers who committed suicide came from the OBCs, though there are also cases of farmers committing suicide, hailing from dominant castes such as &lt;em&gt;Lingayats &lt;/em&gt;and &lt;em&gt;Vokkaligas&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The World Bank dictated terms have gone against the interest of the farmers. This is apparent when Karnataka government for example, went for World Bank loan, which granted Economic Restructuring loan in 2001. This loan came along with a condition that government should withdraw from the power sector as regulator and distributor of power. The free power given to the agriculture was withdrawn and it increased the power tariff drastically.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Karnataka government was unable to checkmate the growth of money lenders. It failed to make the cooperative movement a success one. In Karnataka although there are 32,382 Cooperative Societies at the village level, almost 40 cent of them are running under loss, nearly twenty cent of them are either defunct or liquidated.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The Karnataka government is one of the first governments to allow the field trials of &lt;em&gt;Bt &lt;/em&gt;Cotton.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;In 2002, 143 talukas were declared drought affected. In 2003, 159 talukas out of 176 talukas in the state, were declared as drought affected. Drought brought down areas under sowing thus affecting production. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The first debate on farmers&amp;#39; suicide tries to locate the suicide as part of multiple crises. The crises are ecological, economic, and social, each inter-linked with the other. The ecological crisis is the result of intense use of hybrid seeds, chemical fertilisers and pesticides, causing the erosion of soil fertility and increasing crop-susceptibility to pests and diseases. Heavy indebtedness led to the economic crisis. The second debate attempts to locate the crisis or the suicide to the negative growth of agrarian economy in the recent past as argued by Vandana Shiva. She comes closer to the Marxist critique particularly the arguments of Utsa Patnaik wherein the latter locates the reasons in the liberalisation/ neocolonialism or imperialist globalisation. The third debate attempts to locate the reasons for the suicide in adapting the World Bank model of agriculture or what is called McKinsey Model of development that created spaces for industry-driven agriculture which ultimately translated into agri-business development including Information technology. The fourth is the discourse, which attempts to locate the suicide exclusively to one phenomenon, that is, the increasing indebtedness or the debt trap. The final discourse, which came from the state, attempts to locate the reasons in multiple issues, such as the incessant floods, manipulation of prices by traders, supply of spurious pesticides and seeds, decline in prices of agricultural produce, increase in the cost of agricultural inputs, successive drought in recent years, and of course, the neglect of farmers by the previous state government.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/Farmers%20Suicides%20in%20India.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Farmers Suicides in India&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access the article entitled [inside]Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India: Magnitudes, Trends, and Spatial Patterns, 1997-2012 by K Nagaraj, P Sainath, R Rukmani and R Gopinath[/inside], Review of Agrarian Studies&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;According to Nagaraj K (2008): [inside]Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India, Magnitudes, Trends and Spatial Patterns[/inside]&lt;em&gt;, &lt;/em&gt;please &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/K%20Nagaraj%20Farmers_Suicides_1.pdf&quot; title=&quot;K Nagaraj Farmers_Suicides&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt; :&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Farm suicides happened in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh including Chattisgarh &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;During the ten-year period spanning 1997 to 2006 as many as 166,304 farmers committed suicide in India. If one considers the 12 year period from 1995 to 2006 the figure is close to 200,000.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Going by the official data, on average nearly 16,000 farmers committed suicide every year over the last decade or so.&amp;nbsp; It is also clear that every seventh suicide in the country was a farm suicide.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The year 1998 show a sharp increase in the number of farm suicides &amp;ndash; an 18 percent jump from the previous year; and the number remained more or less steady at around 16,000 suicides per year over the next three years upto 2001. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The average number of farm suicides per year in the five-year span 2002-2006, at 17,513 is substantially higher than the average (of 15,747 per year) for the previous five-year span. Farm suicides have increased at annual compound growth rate of around 2.5 per cent per annum over the period 1997-2006.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Suicides in general are also largely concentrated among males, but the degree of concentration here is significantly lower than in the case of farm suicides: male suicides in the general population account for nearly 62 percent of all suicides in the country.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;According to Hebber, Dr. Ritambhara (2007): [inside]&amp;lsquo;Human Security and the Case of Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India: An Exploration&amp;rsquo;[/inside], Centre for Development Studies, School of Social Sciences, TISS, Paper presented in a panel on Rethinking Development in a Conference on &amp;lsquo;Mainstreaming Human Security- an Asian Perspective&amp;rsquo; (October 3-4, 2007) organised by Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The problem of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides has been seen from the framework of human security. This phenomenon is related to the collapse of basic economic and social support structures in rural India. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The officials while explaining the suicidal deaths have underplayed the structural changes due to green revolution, globalisation and liberalization. The protective measures and mechanisms required to be provided to the ordinary farmers were overlooked. There has been overemphasis on psychological factors while explaining the suicides. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Farmers committed suicides mainly from Maharastra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Such regions are dry regions where agriculture is mainly rain fed. Farmers were growing cash crops in such regions such as: cotton (particularly in Maharashtra), sunflower, groundnut, and sugarcane (especially in Karnataka). &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Rising cost of production made the farmers to borrow at exorbitant rates from informal sources.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;When the All India Biodynamic and Organic Farming Association wrote to the Mumbai High Court expressing its concern over farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides in Jalna, a district in Maharashtra, the Court asked TISS to conduct a survey study. Based on the survey, the Court asked the Maharastra government to consider the issue seriously. The TISS report identified the untenable cost of agricultural production and indebtedness as the key reasons for suicides. The IGIDR report, on the other hand, did not implicate the government or its policies for the suicides; instead it sought a greater role for government intervention through rural development programmes to expand non-farm activity among farmers.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;A special relief package was announced by the Maharastra government in December, 2005 for six districts of Amravati, Akola, Buldhana, Yavatmal, Washim and Wardha. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Pesticide and fertiliser companies have been extending credit to farmers in Karnataka and in Maharashtra, which adds to their debt burden. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Poor health conditions, family disputes over property, domestic problems, and heavy social burden of marrying daughters coupled with alcoholism have pushed farmers towards committing suicides, according the committee report headed by GK Veeresh. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Farmers&amp;rsquo; movement headed by Shetkari Shangathana was quite strong during the 1980s in Maharastra. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;**page**&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;According to CP Chandrashekhar and Jayati Ghosh (2005): [inside]The Burden of Farmers&amp;rsquo; Debt[/inside], Macroscan, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.macroscan.com/the/food/sep05/fod140905Farmers_Debt.htm&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;http://www.macroscan.com/the/food/sep05/fod140905Farmers_Debt.htm &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;One of the important purpose of taking loans was for spending on &amp;#39;&amp;#39;marriages and ceremonies&amp;#39;&amp;#39;, which however accounted for a much smaller proportion of total loans, at around 11 per cent. This purpose was most important for farmer households of Bihar (22.9 per cent) followed by those in Rajasthan (17.6 per cent). &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Moneylenders have emerged as the most significant source of credit for farmers, with 29 per cent accessing this source. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The influence of moneylenders appears to be especially strong in Bihar (44 per cent) and Rajasthan (40 per cent). Traders &amp;mdash; of both inputs and outputs &amp;mdash; also have provided loans to 12 per cent of indebted farmers. However, institutional sources still remain significant, with more than half of farmers accessing government, co-operative societies and banks taken together &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Average amount of the outstanding loan increases with the size of the land holding, but what is more interesting is that the proportion of indebted farmers also increases with the size class.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Even among very small and marginal farmers, the amount of outstanding loan is substantial, given the likely low incomes from such smallholdings, which suggests some sort of cumulative process leading to a debt trap for the very resource poor cultivators.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;According to [inside]Causes of Farmer Suicides in Maharashtra: AN ENQUIRY, Final Report Submitted to the Mumbai High Court March 15, 2005[/inside], which has been prepared by Ajay Dandekar, Shahaji Narawade, Ram Rathod, Rajesh Ingle, Vijay Kulkarni, and Sateppa YD, please &lt;a href=&quot;/upload/files/farmers_suicide_tiss_report-2005.pdf&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;This Report on the farmer suicides in the state of Maharashtra is being submitted as per the Judgment of the Court that made the TISS a consultant in the Public Interest Litigation Number 164 of 2004. The nature of this report is to primarily apprise the Court of the causes that led the farmers to take this extreme step, as per the findings of the research team. The Interim Report was submitted to the Court on February 16, 2005, and this Final Report is being submitted on its due date &amp;mdash; March 16, 2005.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The total numbers of suicides reported in Maharashtra, till December 2004, were 644, with most of the deaths occurring in the Vidharbha, Marathwada and Khandesh regions of the state. Thus, the present investigation concentrated on these regions. Out of the total 644 farmer suicides, a sample of five per cent, i.e., 36 cases were identified for the study.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The TISS team conducted detailed case studies (life history approach) of all the families of the 36 cases;&amp;nbsp;it also conducted several focus group discussions with farmers in each of the 36 villages covered.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Repeated crop failures, inability to meet the rising cost of cultivation, and indebtedness seem to create a situation that forces farmers to commit suicide. However, not all farmers facing these conditions commit suicide &amp;mdash; it is only those who seem to have felt that they have exhausted all avenues of securing support have taken their lives.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;It is not only the landed who have a crisis of indebtedness to deal with. There were a number of landless families who had leased land on a short-/long-term basis by securing loans. It was also noticed that many landless families managed to acquire money through migration to cities and purchased lands in the late eighties and early nineties. Many such families were caught up in cycles of debt and destitution, which ultimately led to the suicide of the head of the family. Thus, the survivors were reduced to landlessness due to debt. Among those committed included medium and large landowners who were also affected by a high level of un-payable debt.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;In the cotton belt, the crop seems to have failed more than once in the last four years. This crop failure has always not been associated with natural calamities, such as failure of rain or un-seasonal rains leading to destruction of crops. The causes are an increase in pest attacks in the last few years, especially from 1995 onwards. This meant that the farmers needed more money to pay for pesticides, though, in the end, a high level of pesticide use did not prevent crop failure.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Longitudinal data available with government sources indicate declining productivity of land. This meant increased use of fertilisers to enhance productivity of land. The information available indicates that farmers have been spending more on fertilisers even while crop performance has been showing a declining trend. The group discussions and case studies point to the fact that the quantity of use of fertiliser per acre rose in the midnineties and has now reached a saturation point. There appears to be a decrease in the production per acre in the same area.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The farmers are dependent on agents of fertiliser and pesticide companies for advice on seeds and crop care. The information base of the farmers is, thus, limited to the data provided by the agents and their products. A false perception of prosperity is being created in the minds of the cultivators that prompts them to take serious risks in terms of fertiliser-based cropping pattern.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Input costs have also exhibited a sharp rise. Agriculture has become more expensive post-1995. This rise in the input cost is reflected in the electricity bills, rising costs of high yielding variety (HYV) seeds, fertilisers, energy (diesel), transportation, etc. The rising input cost is not matched by the crop yield and price obtained. The minimum support price has not been available to all farmers, particularly the small and marginal farmers. Large landowners have been able to benefit from support price, when the government has occasionally provided such support. The absence of support price has had serious implications to the farmers.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Declining opportunities in non-farm employment has further aggravated the crisis. It seems that in areas where suicides have occurred, non-farm options are getting limited.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Those farmers who faced repeated crop failures accumulated loans beyond their capacity to repay. Thus, most of victims had turned defaulters over the last four years. This points to a serious crisis as reflected in the absence of the support system to bail the farmers out, in the form of relatives, neighbours, banks and even the moneylenders who had stopped giving the loans to them lately.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The investment (at 1980&amp;ndash;81 prices) stood at Rs. 1,266 crores in 1950&amp;ndash;51 and rose to Rs. 5,246 crores by 1978-79. However, it has declined since 1978&amp;ndash;79 and was only Rs. 4,692 crores in 1990&amp;ndash;91. The share of agricultural investment came down from 22% in 1950&amp;ndash;51 to 19% in 1980&amp;ndash;81 and even further to about 10% in 1990&amp;ndash;91. This has adversely affected the public sector investment in irrigation as more than 90% of the total public investment in agriculture goes for irrigation. The share of the irrigation sector (in states only) in the total public investment came down from 14.7% in 1980&amp;ndash;81 to only 5.6% in 1990&amp;ndash;91 (at 1980&amp;ndash;81 prices) of the public sector investment, whereas the total increase in investment was at the rate of 6.3% per annum.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;In 1989&amp;ndash;90, the total subsidies to agriculture amounted to Rs. 1,3500 crores &amp;mdash; these were mainly given on fertilisers, irrigation and electricity. These subsidies have gone towards the development of the wealthier farmers in regions where investments have already poured in.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;The opening up of Indian agriculture to multinational corporations and the withdrawal of the GoI from this system of production has occurred simultaneously. Moreover, the internal markets have become unstable due to the lowering of tariff barriers. Unfair terms of trade towards agriculture of developing countries have made matters worse for those who are engaged in and/or are dependent on this system of agriculture.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Bio-diversity is under threat due to TRIPS and the WTO. Environmental degradation resulting in deforestation and depletion of water availability (drinking and agriculture), both in quantity and quality, has made the situation more serious. Untenable cost of production in modern agriculture techniques, institutional and low interest credit and the absence of a credible security net (i.e., crop insurance) are not making things easy for the cultivators in the country.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;Favourable / Unfavourable agro climatic situation among the State leading to variation in per hectare yield: The agro climatic situation varies from State to State. This leads to variation in per hectare yield. The per hectare yield in Maharashtra State is less in comparison with the yield of other States due to inadequate irrigation facilities and unfavourable agro climatic situations. This leads to more cost of production. However, due to favourable agro climatic situation and sufficient irrigation facilities, the per hectare yield in Haryana and Punjab is more. Therefore, the cost of production of these States is conducive for the States where a particular crop is grown on a large scale. This adversely affects States like Maharashtra who have unfavourable agro climatic situation and higher cost of production. The Minimum Support Prices declared by Government of India does not cover the cost of production of the agriculture producer to the full extent. Therefore, the Minimum Support Prices do not give full justice to the farmers of the State having high cost of production. Therefore, instead of declaring one Minimum Support Price at the National Level, separate support prices may be declared for groups of States according to the cost of cultivation.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull;&amp;nbsp;In connection with the price environment for the farmers, it needs to be pointed out that there has been considerable increase in the price of important farm inputs during the last five years. Between 1990&amp;ndash;91and 95&amp;ndash;96 while the prices of wheat as measured by the average of wholesale price indices increased by 58%, that of fertilizer increased by 113%, that of irrigation by 62% and insecticides by 90 percent. While the recent revision in the administered prices of petroleum products, the price of diesel would be higher by 75% than their level during 1990-91. The report further points out that the small and marginal farmers do not get ever get the administered price declared by the state&lt;/p&gt;
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&amp;nbsp;

&amp;bull; Suicide&amp;nbsp;by&amp;nbsp;self-employed&amp;nbsp;persons&amp;nbsp;in&amp;nbsp;agriculture as a&amp;nbsp;percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6 percent in 1996, 16.3 percent in 2002, 14.4 percent in 2006, 13.7 percent in 2009, 11.9 percent in 2010, 10.3 percent in 2011, 11.4 percent...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;KEY TRENDS&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;bull; Suicide&amp;nbsp;by&amp;nbsp;self-employed&amp;nbsp;persons&amp;nbsp;in&amp;nbsp;agriculture as a&amp;nbsp;percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6 percent in 1996, 16.3 percent in 2002, 14.4 percent in 2006, 13.7 percent in 2009, 11.9 percent in 2010, 10.3 percent in 2011, 11.4 percent in 2012 and 8.73 percent in 2013. Suicides committed in the farming sector (by farmers plus agricultural labourers) as a proportion of total suicides in India was 9.4 percent in 2014, 9.43 percent in 2015, 8.7 percent in 2016, 8.2 percent in 2017, 7.69 percent in 2018,&amp;nbsp;7.4 percent in 2019, 7.0 percent in 2020, and 6.63 percent in 2021&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; The total number of suicides committed by self-employed persons in agriculture in India was 13729 in 1996, 17971 in 2002, 17060 in 2006, 17368 in 2009, 15964 in 2010, 14027 in 2011, 13754 in 2012 and 11772 in 2013. The total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers/ cultivators plus agricultural labourers) was 12,360 in 2014, 12,602 in 2015, 11,379 in 2016, 10,655 in 2017, 10,349 in 2018, 10,281 in 2019, 10,677 in 2020, and 10,881 in 2021&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; Due to drop in world market prices for cash-crops (such as coffee, pepper, vanilla) during late 1990s, failure of ginger cultivation in neighbouring Kodagu (formerly Coorg) district and ecological crisis owing to overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides so as to combat productivity failure, many farmers and neo-farmers were left with heavy debts. When, eventually the recovery notices of the banks arrived, hundreds of farmers, especially marginal landholders with up to two acres of land, drank pesticides and killed themselves &lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; In Wayanad, since suicide statistics are directly linked to the payment of compensation through the Revenue Department, the number of farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides stagnated during the years 2006 to 2008. &amp;lsquo;Safe Farmers Campaign&amp;rsquo; (SFC), a consortium of eight, mostly Catholic, NGOs (including Shreyas), in 2007 began a large-scale investigation into farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides that ran parallel to the state&amp;rsquo;s efforts of enumeration and classification. Taking police reports of suicides as a starting point and following up all cases from 2000 to March 2008 they have come up with a total number of 1,690 farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides (Kerala Social Service Forum 2009). That is nearly four times the figure of 435 officially recognised farmers&amp;rsquo; suicides. The latter number is also the number of beneficiaries of the Chief Minister&amp;rsquo;s (CM) relief fund &lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; During the ten-year period spanning 1997 to 2006 as many as 1,66,304 farmers committed suicide in India&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; Farm suicides have increased at annual compound growth rate of around 2.5 per cent per annum over the period 1997-2006&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; Farmers, who committed suicides, were growing cash crops in dry regions such as: cotton (particularly in Maharashtra), sunflower, groundnut, and sugarcane (especially in Karnataka) &lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; Farm suicides took place in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh including Chhattisgarh&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;bull; Poor health conditions, family disputes over property, domestic problems, and heavy social burden of marrying daughters coupled with alcoholism have pushed farmers towards committing suicides&lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;#&lt;/strong&gt; National Crime Records Bureau,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf&quot;&gt;http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;@&lt;/strong&gt; Farmers&amp;#39; suicides&amp;nbsp; and the state in India: Conceptual and ethnographic notes from Wayanad, Kerala by Daniel M&amp;uuml;nster, Contributions to Indian Sociology 2012 46: 181, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&quot; title=&quot;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&quot;&gt;http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;*&lt;/strong&gt; Nagaraj, K (2008): Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India, Magnitudes, Trends and Spatial Patterns, Macroscan,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf&quot;&gt;http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;**&lt;/strong&gt; Hebber, Dr. Ritambhara (2007): &amp;lsquo;Human Security and the Case of Farmers&amp;rsquo; Suicides in India: An Exploration&amp;rsquo;, Centre for Development Studies, School of Social Sciences, TISS, Paper presented in a panel on Rethinking Development in a Conference on &amp;lsquo;Mainstreaming Human Security- an Asian Perspective&amp;rsquo; (October 3-4, 2007) organised by Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf&quot;&gt;http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Pres&lt;br /&gt;entations/Ritambhara.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; 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                <strong>Farm Suicides</strong></h1>
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                <p style="text-align:justify">KEY TRENDS</p><div style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align:justify">&bull; Suicide&nbsp;by&nbsp;self-employed&nbsp;persons&nbsp;in&nbsp;agriculture as a&nbsp;percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6 percent in 1996, 16.3 percent in 2002, 14.4 percent in 2006, 13.7 percent in 2009, 11.9 percent in 2010, 10.3 percent in 2011, 11.4 percent in 2012 and 8.73 percent in 2013. Suicides committed in the farming sector (by farmers plus agricultural labourers) as a proportion of total suicides in India was 9.4 percent in 2014, 9.43 percent in 2015, 8.7 percent in 2016, 8.2 percent in 2017, 7.69 percent in 2018,&nbsp;7.4 percent in 2019, 7.0 percent in 2020, and 6.63 percent in 2021&nbsp;<strong>#</strong><br /><br />&bull; The total number of suicides committed by self-employed persons in agriculture in India was 13729 in 1996, 17971 in 2002, 17060 in 2006, 17368 in 2009, 15964 in 2010, 14027 in 2011, 13754 in 2012 and 11772 in 2013. The total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers/ cultivators plus agricultural labourers) was 12,360 in 2014, 12,602 in 2015, 11,379 in 2016, 10,655 in 2017, 10,349 in 2018, 10,281 in 2019, 10,677 in 2020, and 10,881 in 2021&nbsp;<strong>#</strong>&nbsp;<br /><br />&bull; Due to drop in world market prices for cash-crops (such as coffee, pepper, vanilla) during late 1990s, failure of ginger cultivation in neighbouring Kodagu (formerly Coorg) district and ecological crisis owing to overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides so as to combat productivity failure, many farmers and neo-farmers were left with heavy debts. When, eventually the recovery notices of the banks arrived, hundreds of farmers, especially marginal landholders with up to two acres of land, drank pesticides and killed themselves <strong>@</strong><br /><br />&bull; In Wayanad, since suicide statistics are directly linked to the payment of compensation through the Revenue Department, the number of farmers&rsquo; suicides stagnated during the years 2006 to 2008. &lsquo;Safe Farmers Campaign&rsquo; (SFC), a consortium of eight, mostly Catholic, NGOs (including Shreyas), in 2007 began a large-scale investigation into farmers&rsquo; suicides that ran parallel to the state&rsquo;s efforts of enumeration and classification. Taking police reports of suicides as a starting point and following up all cases from 2000 to March 2008 they have come up with a total number of 1,690 farmers&rsquo; suicides (Kerala Social Service Forum 2009). That is nearly four times the figure of 435 officially recognised farmers&rsquo; suicides. The latter number is also the number of beneficiaries of the Chief Minister&rsquo;s (CM) relief fund <strong>@</strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /><br />&bull; During the ten-year period spanning 1997 to 2006 as many as 1,66,304 farmers committed suicide in India<strong>*</strong><br /><br />&bull; Farm suicides have increased at annual compound growth rate of around 2.5 per cent per annum over the period 1997-2006<strong>*</strong><br /><br />&bull; Farmers, who committed suicides, were growing cash crops in dry regions such as: cotton (particularly in Maharashtra), sunflower, groundnut, and sugarcane (especially in Karnataka) <strong>**</strong><br /><br />&bull; Farm suicides took place in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh including Chhattisgarh<strong>*</strong><br /><br />&bull; Poor health conditions, family disputes over property, domestic problems, and heavy social burden of marrying daughters coupled with alcoholism have pushed farmers towards committing suicides<strong>**</strong></div><p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:justify"><strong>#</strong> National Crime Records Bureau,&nbsp;<a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/">http://ncrb.nic.in/</a></p><p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html" title="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html">http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html</a></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html" title="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html">http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html</a><br /><br /><a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html" title="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html">http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html</a><br /><br /><a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp" title="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp">http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp</a></p><p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm">http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm</a></p><p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium"><a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm" title="http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm">http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm</a> </span></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf</a></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf</a><em>&nbsp;</em></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf</a><em>&nbsp;</em></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf</a></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf</a></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf</a><em>&nbsp;</em></p><p style="text-align:justify"><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium"><strong>@</strong> Farmers&#39; suicides&nbsp; and the state in India: Conceptual and ethnographic notes from Wayanad, Kerala by Daniel M&uuml;nster, Contributions to Indian Sociology 2012 46: 181, </span><a href="http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181" title="http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181">http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181</a></p><p style="text-align:justify"><strong>*</strong> Nagaraj, K (2008): Farmers&rsquo; Suicides in India, Magnitudes, Trends and Spatial Patterns, Macroscan,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf" title="http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf">http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf</a>&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:justify"><strong>**</strong> Hebber, Dr. Ritambhara (2007): &lsquo;Human Security and the Case of Farmers&rsquo; Suicides in India: An Exploration&rsquo;, Centre for Development Studies, School of Social Sciences, TISS, Paper presented in a panel on Rethinking Development in a Conference on &lsquo;Mainstreaming Human Security- an Asian Perspective&rsquo; (October 3-4, 2007) organised by Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok</p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf" title="http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf">http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Pres<br />entations/Ritambhara.pdf</a></p><div style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">               </font>
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<div style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</div>

<div style="text-align:justify">&bull; Suicide&nbsp;by&nbsp;self-employed&nbsp;persons&nbsp;in&nbsp;agriculture as a&nbsp;percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6 percent in 1996, 16.3 percent in 2002, 14.4 percent in 2006, 13.7 percent in 2009, 11.9 percent in 2010, 10.3 percent in 2011, 11.4 percent in 2012 and 8.73 percent in 2013. Suicides committed in the farming sector (by farmers plus agricultural labourers) as a proportion of total suicides in India was 9.4 percent in 2014, 9.43 percent in 2015, 8.7 percent in 2016, 8.2 percent in 2017, 7.69 percent in 2018,&nbsp;7.4 percent in 2019, 7.0 percent in 2020, and 6.63 percent in 2021&nbsp;<strong>#</strong><br />
<br />
&bull; The total number of suicides committed by self-employed persons in agriculture in India was 13729 in 1996, 17971 in 2002, 17060 in 2006, 17368 in 2009, 15964 in 2010, 14027 in 2011, 13754 in 2012 and 11772 in 2013. The total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers/ cultivators plus agricultural labourers) was 12,360 in 2014, 12,602 in 2015, 11,379 in 2016, 10,655 in 2017, 10,349 in 2018, 10,281 in 2019, 10,677 in 2020, and 10,881 in 2021&nbsp;<strong>#</strong>&nbsp;<br />
<br />
&bull; Due to drop in world market prices for cash-crops (such as coffee, pepper, vanilla) during late 1990s, failure of ginger cultivation in neighbouring Kodagu (formerly Coorg) district and ecological crisis owing to overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides so as to combat productivity failure, many farmers and neo-farmers were left with heavy debts. When, eventually the recovery notices of the banks arrived, hundreds of farmers, especially marginal landholders with up to two acres of land, drank pesticides and killed themselves <strong>@</strong><br />
<br />
&bull; In Wayanad, since suicide statistics are directly linked to the payment of compensation through the Revenue Department, the number of farmers&rsquo; suicides stagnated during the years 2006 to 2008. &lsquo;Safe Farmers Campaign&rsquo; (SFC), a consortium of eight, mostly Catholic, NGOs (including Shreyas), in 2007 began a large-scale investigation into farmers&rsquo; suicides that ran parallel to the state&rsquo;s efforts of enumeration and classification. Taking police reports of suicides as a starting point and following up all cases from 2000 to March 2008 they have come up with a total number of 1,690 farmers&rsquo; suicides (Kerala Social Service Forum 2009). That is nearly four times the figure of 435 officially recognised farmers&rsquo; suicides. The latter number is also the number of beneficiaries of the Chief Minister&rsquo;s (CM) relief fund <strong>@</strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />
<br />
&bull; During the ten-year period spanning 1997 to 2006 as many as 1,66,304 farmers committed suicide in India<strong>*</strong><br />
<br />
&bull; Farm suicides have increased at annual compound growth rate of around 2.5 per cent per annum over the period 1997-2006<strong>*</strong><br />
<br />
&bull; Farmers, who committed suicides, were growing cash crops in dry regions such as: cotton (particularly in Maharashtra), sunflower, groundnut, and sugarcane (especially in Karnataka) <strong>**</strong><br />
<br />
&bull; Farm suicides took place in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh including Chhattisgarh<strong>*</strong><br />
<br />
&bull; Poor health conditions, family disputes over property, domestic problems, and heavy social burden of marrying daughters coupled with alcoholism have pushed farmers towards committing suicides<strong>**</strong></div>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><strong>#</strong> National Crime Records Bureau,&nbsp;<a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/">http://ncrb.nic.in/</a></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html">http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html</a></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html">http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html">http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp">http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp</a></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm">http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm</a></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium"><a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm">http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm</a> </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf</a></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf</a><em>&nbsp;</em></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf</a><em>&nbsp;</em></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf</a></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf</a></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf</a><em>&nbsp;</em></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><br />
<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium"><strong>@</strong> Farmers&#39; suicides&nbsp; and the state in India: Conceptual and ethnographic notes from Wayanad, Kerala by Daniel M&uuml;nster, Contributions to Indian Sociology 2012 46: 181, </span><a href="http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181">http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181</a></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><strong>*</strong> Nagaraj, K (2008): Farmers&rsquo; Suicides in India, Magnitudes, Trends and Spatial Patterns, Macroscan,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf">http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf</a>&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><strong>**</strong> Hebber, Dr. Ritambhara (2007): &lsquo;Human Security and the Case of Farmers&rsquo; Suicides in India: An Exploration&rsquo;, Centre for Development Studies, School of Social Sciences, TISS, Paper presented in a panel on Rethinking Development in a Conference on &lsquo;Mainstreaming Human Security- an Asian Perspective&rsquo; (October 3-4, 2007) organised by Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf">http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf</a></p>

<div style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">**page**</span></div>

<p style="text-align:justify">According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp; Suicides in India 2021 (released in August, 2022)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click <a href="/upload/files/Chapter%202%20Suicides%20in%20India.pdf">here</a>, <a href="/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf">here</a> and <a href="/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf">here</a> to access):</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; An increase of nearly 7.2 percent was noticed in suicides during 2021 (1,64,033 suicides) as compared to 2020 (1,53,052 suicides). The rate of suicides has risen by 0.7 points during 2021 (i.e. 12.0 per lakh population) over 2020 (i.e. 11.3 per lakh population). Please <a href="/upload/files/Chapter%202%20Suicides%20in%20India.pdf">click here</a> to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; A total of 5,318 farmers/cultivators committed suicides during 2021, accounting for 3.24 percent of total suicide victims in India. However, 5,563 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2021, which is nearly 3.39 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,881 in 2021, accounting for roughly 6.63 percent of total suicide victims in the country. Please <a href="/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf">click here</a> to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; A &#39;farmer/ cultivator&#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &#39;agricultural labourer&#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please <a href="/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf">click here</a> to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; A total of 5,107 male farmers/ cultivators and 211 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 96.03 percent and 3.97 percent of total farmers&rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,318) in 2021, respectively. Please <a href="/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf">click here</a> to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 4,806 in 2021. Please <a href="/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf">click here</a> to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 512. Please <a href="/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf">click here</a> to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; A total of 5,121 male agricultural labourers and 442 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 92.05 percent and 7.95 percent of total agricultural labourers&rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,563) in 2021, respectively. Please <a href="/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf">click here</a> to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Manipur, Odisha, Tripura, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Chandigarh, Lakshadweep, and Puducherry reported zero number of suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers in 2021. Please <a href="/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf">click here</a> to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2021 were recorded in Maharashtra (4,064, which is around 37.35 percent of total farm suicides i.e. 10,881), followed by Karnataka (2,169), Andhra Pradesh (1,065), Madhya Pradesh (671), Tamil Nadu (599), and Telangana (359). Please <a href="/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf">click here</a> to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2021 were reported from Maharashtra (2,640, which is around 49.64 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,170), Andhra Pradesh (481) and Telangana (352). Please <a href="/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf">click here</a> to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2021 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,424), followed by Karnataka (999), Andhra Pradesh (584), Madhya Pradesh (554), and Tamil Nadu (538). Please <a href="/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf">click here</a> to access.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; The ADSI 2021 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; The total number of suicides committed by daily wage earners in 2021 was 42,004. Most suicides by daily wage earners in 2021 were recorded in Tamil Nadu (7,673), followed by Maharashtra (5,270), Madhya Pradesh (4,657), and Telangana (4,223). Figures of daily wage earner excludes agricultural labourer. Please <a href="/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf">click here</a> to access.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><strong>---</strong></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">Please <a href="/upload/files/News%20alerts%20on%20Rural%20Distress%20in%20India%281%29.pdf">click here</a> to access the news alerts on India&rsquo;s agrarian crisis and rural distress by Inclusive Media for Change.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">**page**</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp; Suicides in India 2020 (released in October, 2021)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click <a href="/upload/files/adsi2020_Chapter-2-Suicides-1.pdf">here</a>, <a href="/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf">here</a> and <a href="/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf">here</a> to access):</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; An increase of about 10.01 percent was observed in suicides during 2020 (1,53,052 suicides) as compared to 2019 (1,39,123 suicides). The rate of suicides has increased by 0.9 points during 2020 (viz. 11.3 per lakh population) over 2019 (viz. 10.4 per lakh population). Please click <a href="/upload/files/adsi2020_Chapter-2-Suicides-1.pdf">here</a> to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; A total of 5,579 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2020, accounting for 3.65 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 5,098 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2020, which is nearly 3.33 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,677 in 2020, accounting for nearly 7.0 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please click <a href="/upload/files/adsi2020_Chapter-2-Suicides-1.pdf">here</a>&nbsp;to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; A &#39;farmer/ cultivator&#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &#39;agricultural labourer&#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please click <a href="/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf">here</a>&nbsp;to access.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; A total of 5,335 male farmers/ cultivators and 244 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 95.63 percent and 4.37 percent of total farmers&rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,579) in 2020, respectively. Please click <a href="/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf">here</a>&nbsp;to access.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 4,940 in 2020. Please click <a href="/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf">here</a>&nbsp;to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 639. Please click <a href="/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf">here</a>&nbsp;to access.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; A total of 4,621 male agricultural labourers and 477 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 90.64 percent and 9.36 percent of total agricultural labourers&rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,098) in 2020, respectively. Please click <a href="/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf">here</a>&nbsp;to access.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, Bihar, Nagaland, Tripura, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Chandigarh, Delhi (UT), Ladakh, Lakshadweeep and Puducherry reported zero number of suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers in 2020. Please click <a href="/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf">here</a>&nbsp;to access.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2020 were recorded in Maharashtra (4,006, which is around 37.52 percent of total farm suicides viz. 10,677), followed by Karnataka (2,016), Andhra Pradesh (889), Madhya Pradesh (735) and Chhattisgarh (537). Please click <a href="/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf">here</a>&nbsp;to access.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2020 were reported from Maharashtra (2,567, which is around 46.01 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,072), Andhra Pradesh (564) and Telangana (466). Please click <a href="/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf">here</a>&nbsp;to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2020 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,439), followed by Karnataka (944), Tamil Nadu (398), Kerala (341) and Andhra Pradesh (325). Please click <a href="/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf">here</a>&nbsp;to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; The ADSI 2020 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">**page**</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp; Suicides in India 2019 (released in September, 2020)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click <a href="/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf">here</a>, <a href="/upload/files/Table-2.6_2019_0.pdf">here</a> and <a href="/upload/files/Table-2.7_2019_0.pdf">here</a> to access):</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; A rise of almost 3.4 percent was observed in suicides during 2019 (1,39,123 suicides) as compared to 2018 (1,34,516 suicides). The rate of suicides has increased by 0.2 points during 2019 (viz. 10.4 per lakh population) over 2018 (viz. 10.2 per lakh population). Please <a href="https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf">click here</a> to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; A total of 5,957 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2019, accounting for 4.3 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 4,324 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2019, which is nearly 3.1 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,281 in 2019, accounting for nearly 7.4 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please <a href="https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf">click here</a> to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; A &#39;farmer/ cultivator&#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &#39;agricultural labourer&#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please <a href="https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.6_2019_0.pdf">click here</a> to access.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; A total of 5,563 male farmers/ cultivators and 394 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 93.4 percent and 6.6 percent of total farmers&rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,957) in 2019, respectively. Please <a href="https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf">click here</a> to access.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 5,129. Please <a href="https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.6_2019_0.pdf">click here</a> to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 828. Please <a href="https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.6_2019_0.pdf">click here</a> to access.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; A total of 3,749 male agricultural labourers and 575 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 86.7 percent and 13.3 percent of total agricultural labourers&rsquo; suicides (viz. 4,324) in 2019, respectively. Please <a href="https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf">click here</a> to access.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Chandigarh, Daman &amp; Diu, Delhi UT, Lakshadweep and Puducherry reported zero suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers. Please <a href="https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf">click here</a> to access.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2019 were recorded in Maharashtra (3,927, which is around 38.2 percent of total farm suicides viz. 10,281), followed by Karnataka (1,992), Andhra Pradesh (1,029), Madhya Pradesh (541) and Telangana and Chhattisgarh (each 499). Please <a href="https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.7_2019_0.pdf">click here</a> to access.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2019 were reported from Maharashtra (2,680, which is around 45 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,331), Andhra Pradesh (628) and Telangana (491). Please <a href="https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.7_2019_0.pdf">click here</a> to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2019 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,247), followed by Karnataka (661), Tamil Nadu (421), Andhra Pradesh (401) and Madhya Pradesh (399). Please <a href="https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.7_2019_0.pdf">click here</a> to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; The ADSI 2019 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">**page**</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp; Suicides in India 2018 (released in January, 2020)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf" title="ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2">click here</a>, <a href="tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202018.pdf" title="Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2018">here</a> and <a href="tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202018.pdf" title="table 2.7 of ADSI 2018">here</a> to access):<br />
<br />
&bull; A rise of almost 3.6 percent was observed in suicides during 2018 (1,34,516 suicides) as compared to 2017 (1,29,887 suicides). The rate of suicides has increased by 0.3 points during 2018 (viz. 10.2 per lakh population) over 2017 (viz. 9.9 per lakh population). Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf" title="ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; A total of 5,763 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2018, accounting for 4.28 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 4,586 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2018, which is nearly 3.41 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,349 in 2018, accounting for nearly 7.69 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf" title="ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; A &#39;farmer/ cultivator&#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &#39;agricultural labourer&#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please click <a href="tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202018.pdf" title="Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2018">here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; A total of 5,457 male farmers/ cultivators and 306 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 94.69 percent and 5.31 percent of total farmers&rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,763), respectively. Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf" title="ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 5,088. Please click <a href="tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202018.pdf" title="Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2018">here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 675. Please click <a href="tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202018.pdf" title="Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2018">here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; A total of 4,071 male agricultural labourers and 515 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 88.77 percent and 11.23 percent of total agricultural labourers&rsquo; suicides (viz. 4,586), respectively. Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf" title="ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Goa, Chandigarh, Daman &amp; Diu, Delhi UT, Lakshadweep and Puducherry reported zero suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers.<br />
<br />
&bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2018 were recorded in Maharashtra (3,594, which is around 34.73 percent of total farm suicides viz. 10,349), followed by Karnataka (2,405), Telangana (908), Andhra Pradesh (664) and Madhya Pradesh (655). Please click <a href="tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202018.pdf" title="table 2.7 of ADSI 2018">here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2018 were reported from Maharashtra (2,239, which is around 38.85 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,365), Telangana (900), Andhra Pradesh (365) and Madhya Pradesh (303). Please click <a href="tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202018.pdf" title="table 2.7 of ADSI 2018">here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2018 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,355), followed by Karnataka (1,040), Tamil Nadu (395), Madhya Pradesh (352) and Andhra Pradesh (299). Please click <a href="tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202018.pdf" title="table 2.7 of ADSI 2018">here</a> access.<br />
<br />
&bull; The ADSI 2018 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">**page**</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp; Suicides in India 2017 (released in January, 2020)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click <a href="tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf" title="ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2">here</a>, <a href="tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202017.pdf" title="Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2017">here</a> and <a href="tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202017.pdf" title="table 2.7 of ADSI 2017">here</a> to access):<br />
<br />
&bull; A decline of almost -0.9 percent was observed in suicides during 2017 (1,29,887 suicides) as compared to 2016 (1,31,008 suicides). The rate of suicides has decreased by -0.4 points during 2017 (viz. 9.9 per lakh population) over 2016 (viz. 10.3 per lakh population). Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf" title="ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; A total of 5,955 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2017, accounting for 4.58 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 4,700 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2017, which is nearly 3.62 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,655 in 2017, accounting for almost 8.2 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf" title="ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; A &#39;farmer/ cultivator&#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &#39;agricultural labourer&#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202017.pdf" title="Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2017">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; A total of 5,633 male farmers/ cultivators and 322 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 94.59 percent and 5.41 percent of total farmers&rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,955), respectively. Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf" title="ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 5,203.<br />
<br />
&bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 752.<br />
<br />
&bull; A total of 4,219 male agricultural labourers and 480 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 89.77 percent and 10.21 percent of total agricultural labourers&rsquo; suicides (viz. 4,700), respectively. One agricultural labourer was transgender.&nbsp; Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf" title="ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; Certain States/UTs namely, West Bengal, Odisha, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Uttarakhand, Chandigarh UT, Dadra &amp; Nagar Haveli, Daman &amp; Diu, Delhi UT, Lakshadweep and Puducherry reported zero suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers.<br />
<br />
&bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2017 were recorded in Maharashtra (3,701, which is around 34.73 percent of total farm suicides viz. 10,655), followed by Karnataka (2,160), Madhya Pradesh (955), Telangana (851) and Andhra Pradesh (816). Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202017.pdf" title="table 2.7 of ADSI 2017">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2017 were reported from Maharashtra (2,426, which is around 40.74 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,157), Telangana (846), Madhya Pradesh (429) and Andhra Pradesh (375). Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202017.pdf" title="table 2.7 of ADSI 2017">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2017 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,275), followed by Karnataka (1,003), Madhya Pradesh (526), Andhra Pradesh (441) and Tamil Nadu (369). Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202017.pdf" title="table 2.7 of ADSI 2017">click here</a> access.<br />
<br />
&bull; The ADSI 2017 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">**page**</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp; Suicides in India 2016 (released in November, 2019)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click <a href="tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides.pdf" title="chapter-2 suicides">here</a>, <a href="tinymce/uploaded/NCRB%20snapshots.pdf" title="NCRB snapshots">here</a>, <a href="tinymce/uploaded/table-2.6%20farm%20suicides.pdf" title="table-2.6 farm suicides">here</a> and <a href="tinymce/uploaded/table-2.7%20farm%20suicide.pdf" title="table-2.7 farm suicide">here</a> to access):<br />
<br />
&bull; A decline of almost -2.0 percent was observed in suicides during 2016 (1,31,008 suicides) as compared to 2015 (1,33,623 suicides). The rate of suicides has decreased by -0.3 points during 2016 (viz. 10.3 per lakh population) over 2015 (viz. 10.6 per lakh population). Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/NCRB%20snapshots.pdf" title="NCRB snapshots">click here</a> and <a href="tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides.pdf" title="chapter-2 suicides">here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; A total of 6,270 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2016, accounting for 4.79 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 5,109 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2016, which is nearly 3.9 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 11,379 in 2016, accounting for roughly 8.7 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides.pdf" title="chapter-2 suicides">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; A &#39;farmer/ cultivator&#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &#39;agricultural labourer&#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/table-2.6%20farm%20suicides.pdf" title="table-2.6 farm suicides">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; A total of 5,995 male farmers/ cultivators and 275 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 95.61 percent and 4.39 percent of total farmers&rsquo; suicides (viz. 6,270), respectively. Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides_1.pdf" title="chapter-2 suicides">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; A total of 4,476 male agricultural labourers and 633 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 87.61 percent and 12.39 percent of total agricultural labourers&rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,109), respectively. Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides_1.pdf" title="chapter-2 suicides">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, West Bengal, Bihar, Nagaland, Chandigarh, Dadar &amp; Nagar Haveli, Daman &amp; Diu, Delhi UT and Lakshadweep reported zero suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers. Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides_1.pdf" title="chapter-2 suicides">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2016 were recorded in Maharashtra (3,661), followed by Karnataka (2,079), Madhya Pradesh (1,321), Andhra Pradesh (804) and Chhattisgarh (682). Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/table-2.7%20farm%20suicide.pdf" title="table-2.7 farm suicide">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2016 were reported from Maharashtra (2,550, which is around 40.7 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,212), Telangana (632), Madhya Pradesh (599) and Chhattisgarh (585). Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/table-2.7%20farm%20suicide.pdf" title="table-2.7 farm suicide">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2016 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,111), followed by Karnataka (867), Madhya Pradesh (722), Andhra Pradesh (565) and Gujarat (378). Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/table-2.7%20farm%20suicide.pdf" title="table-2.7 farm suicide">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; The ADSI 2016 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.<br />
&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">**page**</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp; Suicides in India 2015 (released in 2016)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/Suicides%20in%20farming%20sector.pdf" title="Suicides in farming sector">click here</a> to access):<br />
<br />
&bull; Altogether 1,33,623 persons in India committed suicide in 2015 (please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/Suicides%20in%20India.pdf" title="Suicides in India 2015">click here</a> to access).<br />
<br />
&bull; A total of 8,007 farmers/ cultivators have committed suicides during 2015, accounting for 5.99 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 4,595 agricultural labourers have committed suicides during 2015, which is 3.44 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 12,602 in 2015, accounting for 9.43 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/Suicides%20in%20farming%20sector.pdf" title="Suicides in farming sector">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; A total of 7,566 male farmers/ cultivators and 441 female farmers/ cultivators have committed suicides, accounting for 94.49 percent and 5.51 percent of total farmers&rsquo; suicides, respectively. Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/Suicides%20in%20farming%20sector.pdf" title="Suicides in farming sector">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; Land holding status of farmers who committed suicide reveals that 27.41 percent and 45.19 percent of victims were marginal farmers and small farmers respectively. They together accounted for 72.59 percent (5,813 out of 8,007) of total farmer suicides (please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/Land%20Holding%20Status%20of%20Farmers%20committing%20Suicides.pdf" title="Land Holding Status of Farmers committing Suicides">click here</a> to access).<br />
<br />
&bull; Majority of suicides committed by farmers/ cultivators were reported in Maharashtra (3,030) followed by 1,358 such suicides in Telangana and 1,197 suicides in Karnataka, accounting for 37.8 percent, 17.0 percent and 14.9 percent of total such suicides (8,007) respectively during 2015. Chhattisgarh (854 suicides), Madhya Pradesh (581 suicides) and Andhra Pradesh (516 suicides) accounted for 10.7 percent, 7.3 percent and 6.4 percent of the total farmer/ cultivators suicides reported in the country respectively. These 6 states together reported 94.1 percent of the total farmer/ cultivators suicides (7,536 out of 8,007 suicides) in the country during 2015.<br />
<br />
&bull; &#39;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&#39; and &#39;Farming Related Issues&#39; are reported as major causes of suicides among farmers/ cultivators, accounting for 38.7 percent (3,097 out of 8,007 suicides) and 19.5 percent (1,562 out of 8,007 suicides) of total such suicides respectively during 2015. The other prominent causes of farmer/ cultivators suicides were &#39;Family Problems&#39; (933 suicides), &#39;Illness&#39; (842 suicides) and &#39;Drug Abuse/Alcoholic Addiction&#39; (330 suicides), accounting for 11.7 percent, 10.5 percent and 4.1 percent of total farmers/cultivators` suicides respectively.<br />
<br />
&bull; During 2015, major causes of suicides among male farmers/ cultivators were reported as &#39;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&#39; (2,978 suicides) and &#39;Farming Related Issues&#39; (1,494 suicides), which accounted for 39.4 percent and 19.7 percent of total male farmers/ cultivators suicides respectively.<br />
<br />
&bull; Among female farmers/ cultivators suicides, &#39;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&#39; followed by &#39;Family Problems&#39;, were major causes of suicides, accounting for 27.0 percent (119 out of 441 suicides) and 18.1 percent (80 suicides) of total suicides by female farmers/ cultivators respectively during 2015. &#39;Farming Related Issues&#39; and &#39;Illness&#39; both accounted for 15.4 percent (68 suicides each) during 2015.<br />
<br />
&bull; &#39;Family Problems&#39; and &#39;Illness&#39; were major causes of suicides among agricultural labourers accounting for 40.1 percent (1,843 out of 4,595 suicides) and 19.0 percent (872 out of 4,595 suicides) respectively.<br />
<br />
&bull; 79.0 percent of farmer/ cultivator suicides in Karnataka and 42.7 percent of farmer/ cultivator suicides in Maharashtra were due to &lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&rsquo;. 26.2 percent of farmer/ cultivator suicides in Maharashtra were also due to &#39;Farming Related Issues (Related to Failure of Crop)&#39;.<br />
<br />
&bull; Farmers/ cultivators belonging to 30 years - below 60 years of age group have accounted for 71.6 percent of total farmers/ cultivators&rsquo; suicides during 2015.<br />
<br />
&bull; 9.0 percent of farmers/ cultivators who have committed suicides were in age group of 60 years &amp; above.<br />
<br />
&bull; The states of Bihar, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu &amp; Kashmir, Jharkhand, Mizoram, Nagaland, Uttarakhand and West Bengal have reported no farmers&#39; suicide during 2015. All the 7 Union Territories have reported zero number of farmers&#39; suicide during 2015 (please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/Incidence%20and%20Percentage%20Change%20in%20Suicides%20in%20Farming%20Sector%20during%202015.pdf" title="Incidence and Percentage Change in Suicides in Farming Sector in 2015">click here</a> to access).<br />
<br />
&bull; The states of Goa, Manipur, Nagaland and West Bengal have reported no suicide by agricultural labourers during 2015. All the Union Territories except Puducherry (12) have reported zero suicide by agricultural labourers during 2015 (please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/Incidence%20and%20Percentage%20Change%20in%20Suicides%20in%20Farming%20Sector%20during%202015.pdf" title="Incidence and Percentage Change in Suicides in Farming Sector in 2015">click here</a> to access).<br />
<br />
&bull; Comprehensive data on &lsquo;Suicides in Farming Sector&rsquo; comprising of suicides committed by farmers/ cultivators and agricultural labourers in exclusive Chapter-2A have been collected and published in consultation with Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare under overall supervision of Ministry of Home Affairs, in order to present a comprehensive analysis on suicides in the farming sector. In previous edition (till ADSI 2013), this chapter contained data on suicides committed by farmers/cultivators only.<br />
<br />
**page**</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><br />
According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp; Suicides in India 2014 (released in 2015)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2A%20farmer%20suicides.pdf" title="ADSI NCRB 2014 Farmers Suicide">click here</a> to access):<br />
<br />
&bull; Altogether 1,31,666 persons in India committed suicide in 2014.<br />
<br />
&bull; A total of 5,650 farmers have committed suicides during 2014, accounting for 4.3% of total suicide victims in the country. However, 6,710 agricultural labourers have committed suicides during 2014, which is 5.1% of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides committed by persons engaged in agriculture (farmers plus agricultural labourers) in India was 12,360 in 2014, accounting for 9.4% of total suicide victims in India (please <a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2.7.pdf">click here</a> to access).<br />
<br />
&bull; A total of 5,178 male farmers and 472 female farmers have committed suicides, accounting for 91.6% and 8.4% of total farmers&rsquo; suicides respectively.<br />
<br />
&bull; Land holding status of farmers who committed suicide reveals that 44.5% and 27.9% of victims were small farmers and marginal farmers respectively. They together accounted for 72.4% (4,095 out of 5,650) total farmer suicides (please <a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2A.3.pdf">click here</a> to access).<br />
<br />
&bull; A total of 2,568 farmers&rsquo; suicides were reported in Maharashtra followed by 898 such suicides in Telangana and 826 suicides in Madhya Pradesh, accounting for 45.5%, 15.9% and 14.6% respectively of total farmer suicides during 2014. Chhattisgarh (443 suicides) and Karnataka (321 suicides) accounted for 7.8% and 5.7% respectively of the total farmer suicides reported in the country. These 5 States together accounted for 89.5% of the total farmer suicides (5,056 out of 5,650) reported in the country during 2014.<br />
<br />
&bull; &lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&rsquo; and &lsquo;Family Problems&rsquo; are major causes of suicides, accounting for 20.6% and 20.1% respectively of total farmers&rsquo; suicides during 2014. The other prominent causes of farmers&rsquo; suicides were &lsquo;Failure of Crop&rsquo; (16.8%), &lsquo;Illness&rsquo; (13.2%) and &lsquo;Drug Abuse/Alcoholic Addiction&rsquo; (4.9%).<br />
<br />
&bull; During 2014, major causes of suicides among male farmers were &lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&rsquo; and &lsquo;Family Problems&rsquo;, which accounted for 21.5% and 20.0% respectively of total male farmers&rsquo; suicides.<br />
<br />
&bull; Whereas, in female farmers&rsquo; suicides, &lsquo;Farming Related Issues&rsquo; followed by &lsquo;Family Problems&rsquo;, &lsquo;Marriage Related Issues&rsquo; and &lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&rsquo; were major causes of suicides, accounting for 21.4% (101 out of 472 suicides), 20.6% (97 suicides), 12.3% (58 suicides) and 10.8% (51 suicides) respectively during 2014.<br />
<br />
&bull; Nearly 33.4% suicides in Maharashtra and 23.2% in Telangana were due to &lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&rsquo;. 87.5% of farmers&rsquo; suicides due to &lsquo;Failure of Crop&rsquo; were reported in Himachal Pradesh. 4.7% farmers in Himachal Pradesh, 4.1% farmers in Jharkhand and 2.7% farmers each in Bihar, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh have committed suicides due to &lsquo;Suspected/ Illicit Relation&rsquo;. 6.5% suicides by farmers in Sikkim followed by 2.3% in Himachal Pradesh and 2.0% in Puducherry were due to &lsquo;Cancellation/ Non Settlement of Marriage&rsquo;.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; The states of West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Tripura, Rajasthan, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Manipur, Jharkhand, Goa, Arunachal Pradesh and Bihar have reported no farmers&#39; suicide during 2014. All the Union Territories except Andaman and Nicobar Islands have reported zero farmers&#39; suicide during 2014 (please <a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2.7.pdf">click here</a> to access).</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; The states of Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Goa, Manipur and Nagaland have reported no suicide by agricultural labourers during 2014. All the Union Territories except Puducherry have reported zero suicide by agricultural labourers during 2014 (please <a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2.7.pdf">click here</a> to access).</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><br />
&bull; The latest issue of the ADSI report is different from the earlier ones in two ways: a. Apart from the usual male and female break-up of data, one also gets data pertaining to transgenders (please <a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2.7.pdf">click here</a> to access), which was missing earlier; b. There is a separate chapter (please <a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/chapter-2A%20farmer%20suicides.pdf">click here</a> to access) and 3 tables (in the annexure, please click <a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2A.1.pdf">link1</a>, <a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2A.2.pdf">link2</a> and <a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2A.3.pdf">link3</a>) on farmer suicides in India and at state/UT-level, which did not exist in earlier reports. In the previous ADSI reports, one had to extract data on farmers&#39; suicide from the table on distribution of suicides by profession. Suicides committed by self-employed persons in agriculture gave the proxy of the figure on farmers&#39; suicide.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Unlike the previous ones, in the present ADSI report suicides by self-employed persons in agriculture has been sub-divided into suicides by agricultural labourers and suicides by farmers. Suicides by farmers has been further subdivided (in the current report) into suicide by farmers having own land and suicide by farmers having land on contract or lease.&nbsp; &nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">**page**</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><br />
According to National Crime Records Bureau&#39;s [inside]Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India 2013 (released in 2014)[/inside] report, <a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm">http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm</a>:<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Altogether 1,34,799 persons in India committed suicide in 2013.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Nearly, 11,772 persons self-employed in farming/agriculture (can be loosely termed as farmers) committed suicide during 2013. They constitute 8.73 percent of total number of suicides committed during the same year.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Among the 11,772 no. of persons self-employed in farming/agriculture who committed suicide, 10489 are men (89.1%) and 1283 are women (10.9%).<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Rate of suicides, i.e., the number of suicides per one lakh population, has been widely accepted as a standard yardstick. The national rate of suicides was 11.0 during the year 2013. Puducherry reported the highest rate of suicide (35.6).<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In 2013, the highest incidents of 16,622 suicides were reported in Maharashtra followed by 16,601 suicides in Tamil Nadu accounting for 12.3% each of total suicides. Andhra Pradesh (14,607 suicides), West Bengal (13,055 suicides) and Karnataka (11,266 suicides) accounted for 10.8%, 9.7% and 8.4% respectively of the total suicides reported in the country. These 5 States together accounted for 53.5% of the total suicides reported in India.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Delhi has reported the highest number of suicides (2,059) among UTs, followed by Puducherry (546) during 2013.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &lsquo;Family Problems&rsquo; and &lsquo;Illness&rsquo;, accounting for 24.0% and 19.6% respectively, were the major causes of suicides among the specified causes. &lsquo;Drug Abuse/Addiction&rsquo; (3.4%), &lsquo;Love Affairs&rsquo; (3.3%), &lsquo;Bankruptcy or Sudden change in economic Status&rsquo; (2.0%), &#39;Failure in Examination&rsquo; (1.8%), &lsquo;Dowry Dispute&rsquo; (1.7%) and &lsquo;Unemployment&rsquo; (1.6%) were the other causes of suicides. Suicides due to &lsquo;Illegitimate Pregnancy (64.5%), &lsquo;Fall in Social Reputation&rsquo; (49.4%), &lsquo;Professional/ Career Problem&rsquo; (40.8%), &lsquo;Divorce&rsquo; (35.7%), and &lsquo;Cancellation/Non-Settlement of Marriage&rsquo; (33.5%) have increased in 2013 over 2012, while for poverty and property dispute have declined as compared to previous year.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It was observed that 69.4% of the suicide victims were married while 23.6% were Never Married/Spinster. Divorcees and Separated have accounted for about 3.2% of the total suicide victims. The proportion of Widowed &amp; Widower victims was around 3.7%.<br />
<br />
**page**</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><br />
According to [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp; Suicides in India-2012[/inside], <a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/">http://ncrb.nic.in/</a>:&nbsp;<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 15 Suicides took place in India every hour during 2012.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It is observed that social and economic causes have led most of the males to commit suicides whereas emotional and personal causes have mainly driven females to end their lives.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Nearly 71.6% of the suicide victims were married males while 67.9% were married females. 1 suicide out of every 6 suicides was committed by a &lsquo;housewife&rsquo;.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Tamil Nadu has reported the highest number of suicide victims in 2010 (accounting for 12.3%), third highest in 2011 (accounting for 11.8%) and highest in 2012 (accounting for 14.0%).<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Southern States viz. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu including Maharashtra have together accounted for 50.6% of total suicides reported in the country.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Self employed category accounted for 38.7% of suicide victims in 2012.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">**page**</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><br />
According to the article titled [inside]Farmers&#39; suicides and the state in India: Conceptual and ethnographic notes from Wayanad, Kerala[/inside] by Daniel M&uuml;nster, Contributions to Indian Sociology 2012 46: 181, <a href="http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181">http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181</a>:&nbsp;<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Farmers&rsquo; suicides are invariably linked to and almost synonymous with the&mdash;equally composite&mdash;agrarian crisis in the aftermath of neoliberal &lsquo;reform&rsquo;. Most of the writing on the subject is based on the same set of data (statistical data of the National Crime Records Bureau) or on journalistic visits to suicide &lsquo;hotspots&rsquo;. So far few ethnographic accounts, committed to qualitative research in suicide prone areas, have been published.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The present study is an ethnographic report from the field in the South Indian district Wayanad, one of the officially designated suicide-prone districts. The primary aim behind the research is to analyse the state&rsquo;s responses to farmer suicides: the bundle of relief packages, inquiry commissions, rural employment schemes and debt relief commissions that were set up in recent years partially as a response to reports on increasing numbers of farmers&rsquo; suicides. Such investigation may eventually contribute to an understanding &lsquo;of precisely how neoliberal globalization is transforming the re-distributive functions of the Indian state or affecting its legitimacy and identity as an agency of social welfare&rsquo;. This article makes a strong case for grounding the study of farmers&rsquo; suicides in ethnographies of agrarian practice and the local developmental state.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Farmers&rsquo; suicides provide rural citizens with a language to speak about politics, citizenship and development in the context of neoliberalising agriculture.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The research is intended to conceive farmers&rsquo; suicides as an highly over-determined interface between &lsquo;state&rsquo; and rural society; an interface in two senses: first as a drastic image, repeatedly invoked to speak about rural distress and the widespread agrarian crisis in neoliberal India and to address the failure of the nation state to protect its agrarian classes; second, as a set of actually existing practices&mdash; suicides&mdash;which force state agencies to show presence in social settings, which they had allegedly neglected.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In Wayanad neither cotton, nor GM seeds, nor global agri-corporations play a significant role. Not all suicides in Wayanad were related to agrarian distress. For many decades Kerala has had high suicide rates, many with multiple causes: family problems, alcoholism (extremely widespread in Wayanad), health issues, &lsquo;love failure&rsquo;, or debt.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The 1980s and 1990s brought unprecedented wealth to Wayanad. In the late-1980s up until the late-1990s, many farmers of Wayanad especially pepper growers in the &lsquo;Pepper Panchayats&rsquo; of Pulpalli, Mullankolli and Poothadi, became wealthy. Wayanad became an important earner of foreign currency in Kerala. Farmers, even relatively small farmers who owned around two acres could afford constructing large houses.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The end of the 1990s hit Wayanad&rsquo;s agrarian economy in a series of crises. First, the world market prices for cash-crops dropped dramatically. Local rates for pepper (ungarbled) dropped from 270 INR/Kg in 1997 to 54 INR/Kg in 2001, coffee dropped from 60 INR/Kg in 1997 to 16 INR/Kg in 2002 and vanilla, most dramatically dropped from 4300 INR/Kg in 2003 to 25 INR/Kg in 2006. Prices had fluctuated before, most cultivators remembered price crashes in the late-1970s, but this time they were accompanied by a second crisis: a dramatic drop in productivity.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Since the late-1990s Wayanad has been facing a serious ecological crisis. During the boom years cash-croppers heavily overused chemical fertilisers and pesticides in order to keep productivity high and profitable. The soil is now depleted beyond redemption and some Panchayats of Wayanad suffer from increased incidences of cancer. Furthermore new diseases started to affect plantations. &lsquo;Quick wilt&rsquo;, &lsquo;slow wilt&rsquo; and &lsquo;foot rot&rsquo; are their names, and all share the ability to destroy whole plantations quickly.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; When prices crashed and plantations died, many farmers and neo-farmers were left with heavy debts. When, eventually the recovery notices of the banks arrived, hundreds of farmers, especially marginal landholders with up to two acres of land, drank pesticides and killed themselves.<br />
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Another economic practice emerged since the late-1990s and has a strong correlation with suicide cases. Many suicide victims had invested in the cultivation of ginger in neighbouring Kodagu (formerly Coorg) district. The return from ginger cultivation could also be nil. There is an almost 50 per cent chance that the ginger plant is going to be affected by a fungus that would spread quickly across the fields and destroy the plantation within days.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Husbands very often did not even talk about their debt burden to wives and children: they just changed their character, became abusive and started to drink more heavily. Many widows shared later that they had no idea of their husbands&rsquo; debts, and were not involved in agricultural matters at all. This made it all the more difficult for them to deal subsequently with the stigma, poverty and political instrumentalisation they were to experience.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; One of author&#39;s original research questions was also to consider farmers&rsquo; suicides as suicides against the state. This link was difficult to establish in Wayanad.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Farmers who killed themselves knew that they were part of a district-wide if not all-India epidemic, that their suicide would attract considerable&nbsp; attention from the media, NGOs as well as state agencies and also&mdash;controversially&mdash;that the state might eventually take care of their families, write off their debt and pay compensation of 50,000 INR.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Most farmers the author spoke to, whether activists or not, were quite knowledgeable about the removal of quantitative restrictions on imports and the dismantling of import duties for agrarian products under the GATT regime as the main reasons for the fall in prices of agrarian cash-crops. They would speak of cheap coffee and pepper coming from Vietnam and Sri Lanka that keeps flooding the market and later to be resold as premium Wayanad pepper. Second, they articulated the retreat of the state, the cut of input subsidies and low investments in irrigation and infrastructure. They would speak of the government that always cheated, gave no security to the farmers, had no procurement policy and provided no minimum price.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The official all-India suicide-rate (suicide rate is the incidence of suicide mortality per 100,000 inhabitants) has for the last 10 years constantly been around 10.5 and hence not extraordinarily inflated. Kerala&rsquo;s official suicide-rate was 26.8 which is more than twice the national average and the third highest in India (after Pondicherry and Andaman &amp; Nicobar Islands) and had been so for the last years. Within Kerala there are two districts that have been given the recent status of &lsquo;suicide-prone districts&rsquo;: Idukki and Wayanad. Even though suicides are statistically well captured, there is a considerable fluctuation in the number of reported farmers&rsquo; suicides.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The &lsquo;Accidental Deaths and Suicides (ADSI)&rsquo; annual report (National Crime Records Bureau 2007) is the only official source of information. It lists the distribution of suicidal death by state, gender, marital status, causes of suicide, means adopted and profession. According to K. Nagaraj, the professional category farmer (although still unspecific) is a relatively recent category in the ADSI reports: &lsquo;The category self-employed (farming/agriculture)&mdash;which can be taken as representing the farmers&mdash;was added for the first time in 1995 (...)&rsquo; (Nagaraj 2008: 2).<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The suicide rate for farmers can be calculated only for the year 2001, this being the first year that statistical data on farmers were recorded in the Census of India. On an all-India basis this does not make for highly inflated suicide rates among farmers: 15.8 among the main cultivators as compared to 10.6 of the general population. An entirely different perspective emerges, however, if one takes into account the fact that numbers of farmers&rsquo; suicides vary significantly across India. For Kerala, a suicide rate among main cultivators of 176.5 emerges, and the figure is still 142.9 if all cultivators are considered. Those numbers are alarming indeed.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; For all-India the official number in the ADSI reports is 190,753 farmers&rsquo; suicides from 1995 to 2006. That makes an average of 16,000 suicides per year, which is still an underestimation since some major states have not reported on farmers&rsquo; suicides.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The status of farmer (cultivator) is based on the criterion of title to land. This leaves out women, tenant farmers, agricultural labourers, but also regular farmers if the land title was in the father&rsquo;s or son&rsquo;s name. A stringent criterion for agriculture-related suicide would be the absence of any other cause neighbours might mention (such as alcoholism or family problems).<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The local practice of identifying farmers&rsquo; suicide became additionally complicated after 2004 by the decision of the new LDF government to actually pay a compensation of 50,000 INR to all families with cases of farmers&rsquo; suicides out of the Chief Minister&rsquo;s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF).<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In the beginning, as a populist measure, the criteria were handled rather loosely and compensation was paid rather freely. The first compensation cheques were handed over during public functions under great media attention. Later, both to be able to present the success of the other relief measures of the new state and union governments and to curb costs, the practice became more stringent. The debt still had to be the cause of suicide, but now it had to be an institutional credit (excluding debt with moneylenders) and the loan had to have been taken for agricultural purposes (excluding consumer loans).<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In Wayanad, since suicide statistics are directly linked to the payment of compensation through the Revenue Department, the number of farmers&rsquo; suicides stagnated during the years 2006 to 2008. &lsquo;Safe Farmers Campaign&rsquo; (SFC), a consortium of eight, mostly Catholic, NGOs (including Shreyas), in 2007 began a large-scale investigation into farmers&rsquo; suicides that ran parallel to the state&rsquo;s efforts of enumeration and classification. Taking police reports of suicides as a starting point and following up all cases from 2000 to March 2008 they have come up with a total number of 1,690 farmers&rsquo; suicides (Kerala Social Service Forum 2009). That is nearly four times the figure of 435 officially recognised farmers&rsquo; suicides. The latter number is also the number of beneficiaries of the Chief Minister&rsquo;s (CM) relief fund.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; To avoid further committing of farmers&#39; suicides and because of their political nature, the state compensates only such suicides. The CM fund is the most specific programme that targets only cases of farmers&rsquo; suicide. The Indian state has launched unprecedented relief and rehabilitation measures in response to the suicide crisis.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">**page**&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">According to [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp; Suicides in India-2011[/inside],&nbsp;<a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/">http://ncrb.nic.in/</a>:&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; 16 Suicides took place in India every hour during 2011.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; It is observed that social and economic causes have led most of the males to commit suicides whereas emotional and personal causes have mainly driven females to end their lives.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Nearly 71.1% of the suicide victims were married males while 68.2% were married females.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; West Bengal has reported the highest number of suicide victims (accounting for 11.5%) in 2009, second highest in 2010 (accounting for 11.9%) and highest in 2011 (accounting for 12.2%). &nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; West Bengal (12.2%), Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu (11.8% each), Andhra Pradesh (11.1%) and Karnataka (9.3%), altogether contributed 56.2% of total suicide victims.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Self employed category accounted for 38.3% of suicide victims in 2011. It comprised 10.3% engaged in Farming/ Agriculture activities, 5.3% engaged in Business and 3.1% Professionals. &nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">According to the report titled [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp; Suicides in India-2010[/inside], which is produced by the National Crime Records Bureau,&nbsp;<a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/">http://ncrb.nic.in/</a>: &nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Every hour 15 people committed suicide in India during 2010.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; 1 in every 5 suicides is committed by a Housewife.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Total 3,84,649 accidental deaths were reported in the country during the year 2010.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; It is observed that social and economic causes have led most of the males to commit suicides whereas emotional and personal causes have mainly driven females to end their lives.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Nearly 70.5% of the suicide victims were married males while 67.0% were married females.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; 26.3% of the suicide victims were primary educated and 22.7% were middle educated while 19.8% of victims of suicide were illiterate.&nbsp;Self employed category accounted for 41.1% of suicide victims in 2010. It comprised 11.9% engaged in Farming/ Agriculture activities, 5.3% engaged in Business and 3.0% Professionals.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; 41.1% of suicide victims were self employed while only 7.5% were un-employed.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Suicides because of &lsquo;Family Problems&rsquo; (23.7%) and &rsquo;Illness&rsquo; (21.0%) combined accounted for 44.7% of total Suicides.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; West Bengal has reported the highest number of suicide victims (accounting for 11.9%) in 2008 &amp; 2009 and second highest in 2010 (accounting for 11.9%).</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; West Bengal (11.9%), Andhra Pradesh (11.8%), Tamil Nadu (12.3%), Maharashtra (11.8%) and Karnataka (9.4%) contributed 57.2% of total suicide victims.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; The highest number of Mass/Family Suicides cases were reported from Bihar (23) followed by Kerala (22) and Madhya Pradesh (21) and Andhra Pradesh (20) out of 109 cases.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">According to National Crime Records Bureau&#39;s [inside]Accidental Death and Suicide (2009)[/inside],<br />
<br />
<a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/suicides-09.pdf">http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/suicides-09.pdf</a>, &nbsp;<br />
<a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/snapshots.pdf">http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/snapshots.pdf</a>, &nbsp;<br />
<a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf">http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf</a>: &nbsp;<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; More than one lakh persons (1,27,151) in the country lost their lives by committing suicide during the year 2009. This indicates an increase of 1.7% over the previous year&#39;s figure (1,25,017).<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The total number of suicides in the country during the decade (1999&ndash;2009) has recorded an increase of 15.0% (from 1,10,587 in 1999 to 1,27,151 in 2009).<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Self-employed category accounted for 39.8% of suicide victims in 2009. It comprised 13.7% engaged in Farming/Agriculture activities, 6.1% engaged in Business and 2.9% Professionals.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 55.1% suicide victims in Mizoram were engaged in farming /agriculture activities in 2009. 29.6% suicide victims in Manipur were unemployed.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Despite a fall in number of suicides committed by farmers in 2009 as compared to 2008 in Maharastra (fallen by 930), the state continues to be number one in terms of farmers&#39; suicides for the tenth year (2,872 suicides) as compared to the rest of the states.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The number of suicides committed by farmers in 2009 was 17,368, which was a rise by 1,172 as compared to 2008.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The growth in the number of suicides committed by the farmers has been 7 percent over the last year.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In the year 2009, 1,27,151 persons committed suicides. Within a span of one year, suicide rate in the entire country has increased by 1.7 percent. During the last year, the total number of suicides committed was 1,25,017.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In the year 2009, 348 persons committed suicides on an average every day, out of which 48 persons were farmers. In the year 2004, on an average 47 farmers committed suicides every day, which means one farmer committing suicide in every 30 minutes.&nbsp;<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Private and Public Sector personnel have accounted for 8.4% and 2.3% of the total suicide victims respectively, whereas students and un-employed victims accounted for 5.3% and 7.8% respectively.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Government servants were 1.3% of the total suicide victims, whereas housewives (25,092) accounted for 54.9% of the total female victims and nearly 19.7% of total victims committing suicides.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 40.9% of salaried and 39.0% of unemployed suicide victims were in the age&ndash;group 30-44 years.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; West Bengal has reported the highest number of suicides (14,648) accounting for 11.5% of total suicides followed by Andhra Pradesh (14,500), Tamil Nadu (14,424), Maharashtra (14,300) and Karnataka (12,195) accounting for 11.4%, 11.3%, 11.2% and 9.6% respectively of the total suicides in the country.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; These 5 States together accounted for 55.1% of the total suicides reported in the country.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 209 deaths at the national level under Mass/Family suicides consisting of 95 males and 114 females were reported as per the information available. 15 cities also did not furnish information.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The maximum number of suicide victims was educated up to Middle level (23.7%). Illiterate and primary educated persons accounted for 21.4% suicide victims and 23.4% respectively.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Only 3.1% suicide victims were graduates and post-graduates. 51.9% suicide victims in Sikkim were illiterate. 36.5% suicide victims in Gujarat had education upto primary level. 68.1% suicide victims in Mizoram and 59.1% suicide victims in Puducherry had middle level education.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">**page**&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">The study titled [inside]Farmers Suicide: Facts and Possible Policy Interventions (2006) [/inside] prepared by Meeta and Rajiv Lochan, (Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration), </span><a href="http://www.yashada.org/organisation/FarmersSuicideExcerpts.pdf"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">http://www.yashada.org/organisation/FarmersSuicideExcerpts.pdf</span></a>&nbsp;<span style="font-family:Arial; font-size:medium">revisits some of the families which two earlier reports (Mishra and Dandekar et al) had also visited and criticises them for not doing a good job of compiling the victims&#39; circumstances meticulously. The authors believe that many reports in the past have exaggerated the connection between debt and suicides whereas in reality a lot of other reasons, including harsh environment, a variety of other reasons and absence of basic health services, also play an equally important role. According to the same study:</span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&nbsp; </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;The suicide epidemic is said to have its epicentre in Yavatmal district of Maharastra. According to the State Crime Records Bureau, it reported 640, 819, 832, 787 and 786 suicides respectively for the years 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004.&nbsp; </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Most of the victims of this epidemic were men, mostly in the age group 30 to 50, married and educated, with more social responsibilities, especially in the form of unmarried daughters and or sisters. There were two things that were common among the victims of suicide. One, a feeling of hopelessness: in being unable to resolve problems and dilemmas of personal life; and in the face of an inability to find funds for various activities or repay loans. Two, the absence of any person, group or institution to whom to turn to in order to seek reliable advice: whether for agricultural operations or for seeking funds or for handling private and personal issues. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;People complained about lack of information on various government sponsored schemes. There was little knowledge about institutional mechanisms like the minimum support price (MSP) that would affect marketing, technical knowledge was low and there were no reliable sources from where such knowledge and advice could be accessed. Most farmers were not informed about crop insurance. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Most of them who committed suicide were Hindus and not Muslims or Christians. This is because Hindu religion allowed certain circumstances for altruistic suicide, whereas the latter two religions frowned upon suicides. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Chronic alcoholism and drug abuse were found among rural population.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Loan from a rapacious relative rather than a bank or moneylender was often the cause of economic distress for the victim. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium"><em><strong>The 10 point suggestions are:</strong></em></span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">1. Enhance the physical interaction between government functionaries and village society by insisting on more tours, night halts and gram sabhas by officers at all levels of the administration.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">2. Actively monitor local society, especially farmers, for signs of social, economic and psychological distress and if possible provide social, psychological or spiritual counseling.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">3. Implement with rigour the various provisions that already exist to safeguard the interests of the farmer and farm workers for example, the existing money lending act, minimum wage act etc. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">4. Increase the efficiency of agriculture extension activities. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">5. Increase the efficiency of various services that are delivered by the government in the name of people&#39;s welfare at the moment. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">6. Make available trained and salaried individuals to serve the rural population. Immediate succour is needed. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">7. For the long-term change, it is important to improve the condition of school education and provide appropriate vocational education at the village and taluka level so as to make people understand the complexities of present day production and marketing techniques.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">8. Counsel the media to stop highlighting suicide since the fact of highlighting suicide itself adds fuel to the suicide fire as it were. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">9. Instead of ex gratia payment being made to families of those who commit suicide, provide employment to a member of the family or help in setting up a small business. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">10. Provide direct cash subsidies to actual cultivators.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">According to [inside]Farmers&rsquo; Suicide in India: Agrarian Crisis, Path of Development and Politics in Karnataka[/inside] by Muzaffar Assadi,</span><br />
<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">please <a href="/upload/files/10.1.1.544.330.pdf">click here</a> to access: </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;The beginning of agrarian crisis requires being located much earlier to the beginning of suicide, which goes back to the 1980s when the terms of trade were going against agriculture. To oppose State policies, farmers&rsquo; movements were led by Shetkari Sangathana in Maharashtra, Vyavasayigal Sangam in Tamil Nadu, and Rajya Raitha Sangh in Karnataka. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Karnataka has no history of farmers committing suicide even during the situation of acute agrarian crisis. Even the unorganised farmers would resort to other tactics such as throwing the agricultural commodities on the roads, burning their crops, etc. Andhra became the harbinger for such a trend in Karnataka. Suicide in Karnataka was first reported in the northern parts of Karnataka or close to the border areas of Andhra Pradesh.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;The beginning of the suicides can be traced back to the year 1998, when two farmers in Bidar, who were involved in cultivating Tur Dal, a market-oriented agricultural crop committed suicide. In the initial two years, farmer suicides were largely concentrated in the drought-prone districts in north Karnataka, or confined to economically backward, drought-prone regions such as Gulbarga and Bidar. However, after 2000 , the phenomenon shifted to relatively advanced agricultural regions, particularly Mandya, Hassan, Shimoga, Davanagere, Koppal and even Chickmagalur Kodagu and it also covered ground water region (Belgaum), assured rain fall region (Haveri), Sugar Cane and Cauvery Irrigation Belt (Mandya). However, in the coastal belt, the number of suicides reported was less.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;During 1999-2001, it was estimated that 110 farmers committed suicide in Karnataka. According to one estimate, 3,000 farmers committed suicide in Karnataka between 1998 and 2006. According to the report prepared by the Crime Branch of Karnataka, the number of suicide under the heading &ldquo;farming and agricultural activity&rdquo; comes to 15,804 between 1998 and 2002. Between 1996 and 2002, 12,889 male farmers committed suicide followed by females (2841). The total number of farmers who committed suicide from 1 April, 2003 to 1 January, 2007 comes to 1193. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Debt burden of the farmers who committed suicide was not uniform. It varied between Rs.5000 to Rs.50000. Many of them had borrowed loan on short-term basis.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;The most striking aspect of the crisis, however, is the fact that large number of farmers who committed suicide largely came from the age group between 25 and 35 years.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;During the first few years of this millennium Karnataka saw a deceleration, due to the negative growth in agriculture. This is apparent from the following facts: the average real GDP rate in different sectors between the period 1995-96 and 2002-03 was 5.86; however, for agriculture it was 1.87 per cent, industry 5.93 per cent, service sector 8.18 percent.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;In Karnataka, the large number of farmers who committed suicide came from the OBCs, though there are also cases of farmers committing suicide, hailing from dominant castes such as <em>Lingayats </em>and <em>Vokkaligas</em>. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><br />
<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;The World Bank dictated terms have gone against the interest of the farmers. This is apparent when Karnataka government for example, went for World Bank loan, which granted Economic Restructuring loan in 2001. This loan came along with a condition that government should withdraw from the power sector as regulator and distributor of power. The free power given to the agriculture was withdrawn and it increased the power tariff drastically.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Karnataka government was unable to checkmate the growth of money lenders. It failed to make the cooperative movement a success one. In Karnataka although there are 32,382 Cooperative Societies at the village level, almost 40 cent of them are running under loss, nearly twenty cent of them are either defunct or liquidated.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;The Karnataka government is one of the first governments to allow the field trials of <em>Bt </em>Cotton.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;In 2002, 143 talukas were declared drought affected. In 2003, 159 talukas out of 176 talukas in the state, were declared as drought affected. Drought brought down areas under sowing thus affecting production. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;The first debate on farmers&#39; suicide tries to locate the suicide as part of multiple crises. The crises are ecological, economic, and social, each inter-linked with the other. The ecological crisis is the result of intense use of hybrid seeds, chemical fertilisers and pesticides, causing the erosion of soil fertility and increasing crop-susceptibility to pests and diseases. Heavy indebtedness led to the economic crisis. The second debate attempts to locate the crisis or the suicide to the negative growth of agrarian economy in the recent past as argued by Vandana Shiva. She comes closer to the Marxist critique particularly the arguments of Utsa Patnaik wherein the latter locates the reasons in the liberalisation/ neocolonialism or imperialist globalisation. The third debate attempts to locate the reasons for the suicide in adapting the World Bank model of agriculture or what is called McKinsey Model of development that created spaces for industry-driven agriculture which ultimately translated into agri-business development including Information technology. The fourth is the discourse, which attempts to locate the suicide exclusively to one phenomenon, that is, the increasing indebtedness or the debt trap. The final discourse, which came from the state, attempts to locate the reasons in multiple issues, such as the incessant floods, manipulation of prices by traders, supply of spurious pesticides and seeds, decline in prices of agricultural produce, increase in the cost of agricultural inputs, successive drought in recent years, and of course, the neglect of farmers by the previous state government.</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/Farmers%20Suicides%20in%20India.pdf" title="Farmers Suicides in India">click here</a> to access the article entitled [inside]Farmers&rsquo; Suicides in India: Magnitudes, Trends, and Spatial Patterns, 1997-2012 by K Nagaraj, P Sainath, R Rukmani and R Gopinath[/inside], Review of Agrarian Studies</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">According to Nagaraj K (2008): [inside]Farmers&rsquo; Suicides in India, Magnitudes, Trends and Spatial Patterns[/inside]<em>, </em>please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/K%20Nagaraj%20Farmers_Suicides_1.pdf" title="K Nagaraj Farmers_Suicides">click here</a> to access</span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium"> :</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Farm suicides happened in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh including Chattisgarh </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;During the ten-year period spanning 1997 to 2006 as many as 166,304 farmers committed suicide in India. If one considers the 12 year period from 1995 to 2006 the figure is close to 200,000.&nbsp; </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Going by the official data, on average nearly 16,000 farmers committed suicide every year over the last decade or so.&nbsp; It is also clear that every seventh suicide in the country was a farm suicide.&nbsp; </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;The year 1998 show a sharp increase in the number of farm suicides &ndash; an 18 percent jump from the previous year; and the number remained more or less steady at around 16,000 suicides per year over the next three years upto 2001. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;The average number of farm suicides per year in the five-year span 2002-2006, at 17,513 is substantially higher than the average (of 15,747 per year) for the previous five-year span. Farm suicides have increased at annual compound growth rate of around 2.5 per cent per annum over the period 1997-2006.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Suicides in general are also largely concentrated among males, but the degree of concentration here is significantly lower than in the case of farm suicides: male suicides in the general population account for nearly 62 percent of all suicides in the country.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">According to Hebber, Dr. Ritambhara (2007): [inside]&lsquo;Human Security and the Case of Farmers&rsquo; Suicides in India: An Exploration&rsquo;[/inside], Centre for Development Studies, School of Social Sciences, TISS, Paper presented in a panel on Rethinking Development in a Conference on &lsquo;Mainstreaming Human Security- an Asian Perspective&rsquo; (October 3-4, 2007) organised by Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok</span><br />
<a href="http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf</span></a></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><br />
<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;The problem of farmers&rsquo; suicides has been seen from the framework of human security. This phenomenon is related to the collapse of basic economic and social support structures in rural India. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;The officials while explaining the suicidal deaths have underplayed the structural changes due to green revolution, globalisation and liberalization. The protective measures and mechanisms required to be provided to the ordinary farmers were overlooked. There has been overemphasis on psychological factors while explaining the suicides. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Farmers committed suicides mainly from Maharastra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Such regions are dry regions where agriculture is mainly rain fed. Farmers were growing cash crops in such regions such as: cotton (particularly in Maharashtra), sunflower, groundnut, and sugarcane (especially in Karnataka). </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Rising cost of production made the farmers to borrow at exorbitant rates from informal sources.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;When the All India Biodynamic and Organic Farming Association wrote to the Mumbai High Court expressing its concern over farmers&rsquo; suicides in Jalna, a district in Maharashtra, the Court asked TISS to conduct a survey study. Based on the survey, the Court asked the Maharastra government to consider the issue seriously. The TISS report identified the untenable cost of agricultural production and indebtedness as the key reasons for suicides. The IGIDR report, on the other hand, did not implicate the government or its policies for the suicides; instead it sought a greater role for government intervention through rural development programmes to expand non-farm activity among farmers.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;A special relief package was announced by the Maharastra government in December, 2005 for six districts of Amravati, Akola, Buldhana, Yavatmal, Washim and Wardha. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Pesticide and fertiliser companies have been extending credit to farmers in Karnataka and in Maharashtra, which adds to their debt burden. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Poor health conditions, family disputes over property, domestic problems, and heavy social burden of marrying daughters coupled with alcoholism have pushed farmers towards committing suicides, according the committee report headed by GK Veeresh. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Farmers&rsquo; movement headed by Shetkari Shangathana was quite strong during the 1980s in Maharastra. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><br />
<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&nbsp;</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">**page**&nbsp;</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">According to CP Chandrashekhar and Jayati Ghosh (2005): [inside]The Burden of Farmers&rsquo; Debt[/inside], Macroscan, </span><a href="http://www.macroscan.com/the/food/sep05/fod140905Farmers_Debt.htm"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">http://www.macroscan.com/the/food/sep05/fod140905Farmers_Debt.htm </span></a></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><br />
<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;One of the important purpose of taking loans was for spending on &#39;&#39;marriages and ceremonies&#39;&#39;, which however accounted for a much smaller proportion of total loans, at around 11 per cent. This purpose was most important for farmer households of Bihar (22.9 per cent) followed by those in Rajasthan (17.6 per cent). </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Moneylenders have emerged as the most significant source of credit for farmers, with 29 per cent accessing this source. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;The influence of moneylenders appears to be especially strong in Bihar (44 per cent) and Rajasthan (40 per cent). Traders &mdash; of both inputs and outputs &mdash; also have provided loans to 12 per cent of indebted farmers. However, institutional sources still remain significant, with more than half of farmers accessing government, co-operative societies and banks taken together </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Average amount of the outstanding loan increases with the size of the land holding, but what is more interesting is that the proportion of indebted farmers also increases with the size class.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Even among very small and marginal farmers, the amount of outstanding loan is substantial, given the likely low incomes from such smallholdings, which suggests some sort of cumulative process leading to a debt trap for the very resource poor cultivators.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><br />
<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">According to [inside]Causes of Farmer Suicides in Maharashtra: AN ENQUIRY, Final Report Submitted to the Mumbai High Court March 15, 2005[/inside], which has been prepared by Ajay Dandekar, Shahaji Narawade, Ram Rathod, Rajesh Ingle, Vijay Kulkarni, and Sateppa YD, please <a href="/upload/files/farmers_suicide_tiss_report-2005.pdf">click here</a> to access: </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull;&nbsp;This Report on the farmer suicides in the state of Maharashtra is being submitted as per the Judgment of the Court that made the TISS a consultant in the Public Interest Litigation Number 164 of 2004. The nature of this report is to primarily apprise the Court of the causes that led the farmers to take this extreme step, as per the findings of the research team. The Interim Report was submitted to the Court on February 16, 2005, and this Final Report is being submitted on its due date &mdash; March 16, 2005.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull;&nbsp;The total numbers of suicides reported in Maharashtra, till December 2004, were 644, with most of the deaths occurring in the Vidharbha, Marathwada and Khandesh regions of the state. Thus, the present investigation concentrated on these regions. Out of the total 644 farmer suicides, a sample of five per cent, i.e., 36 cases were identified for the study.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull;&nbsp;The TISS team conducted detailed case studies (life history approach) of all the families of the 36 cases;&nbsp;it also conducted several focus group discussions with farmers in each of the 36 villages covered.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull;&nbsp;Repeated crop failures, inability to meet the rising cost of cultivation, and indebtedness seem to create a situation that forces farmers to commit suicide. However, not all farmers facing these conditions commit suicide &mdash; it is only those who seem to have felt that they have exhausted all avenues of securing support have taken their lives.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull;&nbsp;It is not only the landed who have a crisis of indebtedness to deal with. There were a number of landless families who had leased land on a short-/long-term basis by securing loans. It was also noticed that many landless families managed to acquire money through migration to cities and purchased lands in the late eighties and early nineties. Many such families were caught up in cycles of debt and destitution, which ultimately led to the suicide of the head of the family. Thus, the survivors were reduced to landlessness due to debt. Among those committed included medium and large landowners who were also affected by a high level of un-payable debt.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull;&nbsp;In the cotton belt, the crop seems to have failed more than once in the last four years. This crop failure has always not been associated with natural calamities, such as failure of rain or un-seasonal rains leading to destruction of crops. The causes are an increase in pest attacks in the last few years, especially from 1995 onwards. This meant that the farmers needed more money to pay for pesticides, though, in the end, a high level of pesticide use did not prevent crop failure.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull;&nbsp;Longitudinal data available with government sources indicate declining productivity of land. This meant increased use of fertilisers to enhance productivity of land. The information available indicates that farmers have been spending more on fertilisers even while crop performance has been showing a declining trend. The group discussions and case studies point to the fact that the quantity of use of fertiliser per acre rose in the midnineties and has now reached a saturation point. There appears to be a decrease in the production per acre in the same area.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull;&nbsp;The farmers are dependent on agents of fertiliser and pesticide companies for advice on seeds and crop care. The information base of the farmers is, thus, limited to the data provided by the agents and their products. A false perception of prosperity is being created in the minds of the cultivators that prompts them to take serious risks in terms of fertiliser-based cropping pattern.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull;&nbsp;Input costs have also exhibited a sharp rise. Agriculture has become more expensive post-1995. This rise in the input cost is reflected in the electricity bills, rising costs of high yielding variety (HYV) seeds, fertilisers, energy (diesel), transportation, etc. The rising input cost is not matched by the crop yield and price obtained. The minimum support price has not been available to all farmers, particularly the small and marginal farmers. Large landowners have been able to benefit from support price, when the government has occasionally provided such support. The absence of support price has had serious implications to the farmers.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull;&nbsp;Declining opportunities in non-farm employment has further aggravated the crisis. It seems that in areas where suicides have occurred, non-farm options are getting limited.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull;&nbsp;Those farmers who faced repeated crop failures accumulated loans beyond their capacity to repay. Thus, most of victims had turned defaulters over the last four years. This points to a serious crisis as reflected in the absence of the support system to bail the farmers out, in the form of relatives, neighbours, banks and even the moneylenders who had stopped giving the loans to them lately.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull;&nbsp;The investment (at 1980&ndash;81 prices) stood at Rs. 1,266 crores in 1950&ndash;51 and rose to Rs. 5,246 crores by 1978-79. However, it has declined since 1978&ndash;79 and was only Rs. 4,692 crores in 1990&ndash;91. The share of agricultural investment came down from 22% in 1950&ndash;51 to 19% in 1980&ndash;81 and even further to about 10% in 1990&ndash;91. This has adversely affected the public sector investment in irrigation as more than 90% of the total public investment in agriculture goes for irrigation. The share of the irrigation sector (in states only) in the total public investment came down from 14.7% in 1980&ndash;81 to only 5.6% in 1990&ndash;91 (at 1980&ndash;81 prices) of the public sector investment, whereas the total increase in investment was at the rate of 6.3% per annum.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull;&nbsp;In 1989&ndash;90, the total subsidies to agriculture amounted to Rs. 1,3500 crores &mdash; these were mainly given on fertilisers, irrigation and electricity. These subsidies have gone towards the development of the wealthier farmers in regions where investments have already poured in.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull;&nbsp;The opening up of Indian agriculture to multinational corporations and the withdrawal of the GoI from this system of production has occurred simultaneously. Moreover, the internal markets have become unstable due to the lowering of tariff barriers. Unfair terms of trade towards agriculture of developing countries have made matters worse for those who are engaged in and/or are dependent on this system of agriculture.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull;&nbsp;Bio-diversity is under threat due to TRIPS and the WTO. Environmental degradation resulting in deforestation and depletion of water availability (drinking and agriculture), both in quantity and quality, has made the situation more serious. Untenable cost of production in modern agriculture techniques, institutional and low interest credit and the absence of a credible security net (i.e., crop insurance) are not making things easy for the cultivators in the country.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull;&nbsp;Favourable / Unfavourable agro climatic situation among the State leading to variation in per hectare yield: The agro climatic situation varies from State to State. This leads to variation in per hectare yield. The per hectare yield in Maharashtra State is less in comparison with the yield of other States due to inadequate irrigation facilities and unfavourable agro climatic situations. This leads to more cost of production. However, due to favourable agro climatic situation and sufficient irrigation facilities, the per hectare yield in Haryana and Punjab is more. Therefore, the cost of production of these States is conducive for the States where a particular crop is grown on a large scale. This adversely affects States like Maharashtra who have unfavourable agro climatic situation and higher cost of production. The Minimum Support Prices declared by Government of India does not cover the cost of production of the agriculture producer to the full extent. Therefore, the Minimum Support Prices do not give full justice to the farmers of the State having high cost of production. Therefore, instead of declaring one Minimum Support Price at the National Level, separate support prices may be declared for groups of States according to the cost of cultivation.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull;&nbsp;In connection with the price environment for the farmers, it needs to be pointed out that there has been considerable increase in the price of important farm inputs during the last five years. Between 1990&ndash;91and 95&ndash;96 while the prices of wheat as measured by the average of wholesale price indices increased by 58%, that of fertilizer increased by 113%, that of irrigation by 62% and insecticides by 90 percent. While the recent revision in the administered prices of petroleum products, the price of diesel would be higher by 75% than their level during 1990-91. The report further points out that the small and marginal farmers do not get ever get the administered price declared by the state</p>
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&nbsp;

&bull; Suicide&nbsp;by&nbsp;self-employed&nbsp;persons&nbsp;in&nbsp;agriculture as a&nbsp;percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6 percent in 1996, 16.3 percent in 2002, 14.4 percent in 2006, 13.7 percent in 2009, 11.9 percent in 2010, 10.3 percent in 2011, 11.4 percent...',
	'disp' => '<p style="text-align:justify">KEY TRENDS</p><div style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align:justify">&bull; Suicide&nbsp;by&nbsp;self-employed&nbsp;persons&nbsp;in&nbsp;agriculture as a&nbsp;percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6 percent in 1996, 16.3 percent in 2002, 14.4 percent in 2006, 13.7 percent in 2009, 11.9 percent in 2010, 10.3 percent in 2011, 11.4 percent in 2012 and 8.73 percent in 2013. Suicides committed in the farming sector (by farmers plus agricultural labourers) as a proportion of total suicides in India was 9.4 percent in 2014, 9.43 percent in 2015, 8.7 percent in 2016, 8.2 percent in 2017, 7.69 percent in 2018,&nbsp;7.4 percent in 2019, 7.0 percent in 2020, and 6.63 percent in 2021&nbsp;<strong>#</strong><br /><br />&bull; The total number of suicides committed by self-employed persons in agriculture in India was 13729 in 1996, 17971 in 2002, 17060 in 2006, 17368 in 2009, 15964 in 2010, 14027 in 2011, 13754 in 2012 and 11772 in 2013. The total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers/ cultivators plus agricultural labourers) was 12,360 in 2014, 12,602 in 2015, 11,379 in 2016, 10,655 in 2017, 10,349 in 2018, 10,281 in 2019, 10,677 in 2020, and 10,881 in 2021&nbsp;<strong>#</strong>&nbsp;<br /><br />&bull; Due to drop in world market prices for cash-crops (such as coffee, pepper, vanilla) during late 1990s, failure of ginger cultivation in neighbouring Kodagu (formerly Coorg) district and ecological crisis owing to overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides so as to combat productivity failure, many farmers and neo-farmers were left with heavy debts. When, eventually the recovery notices of the banks arrived, hundreds of farmers, especially marginal landholders with up to two acres of land, drank pesticides and killed themselves <strong>@</strong><br /><br />&bull; In Wayanad, since suicide statistics are directly linked to the payment of compensation through the Revenue Department, the number of farmers&rsquo; suicides stagnated during the years 2006 to 2008. &lsquo;Safe Farmers Campaign&rsquo; (SFC), a consortium of eight, mostly Catholic, NGOs (including Shreyas), in 2007 began a large-scale investigation into farmers&rsquo; suicides that ran parallel to the state&rsquo;s efforts of enumeration and classification. Taking police reports of suicides as a starting point and following up all cases from 2000 to March 2008 they have come up with a total number of 1,690 farmers&rsquo; suicides (Kerala Social Service Forum 2009). That is nearly four times the figure of 435 officially recognised farmers&rsquo; suicides. The latter number is also the number of beneficiaries of the Chief Minister&rsquo;s (CM) relief fund <strong>@</strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /><br />&bull; During the ten-year period spanning 1997 to 2006 as many as 1,66,304 farmers committed suicide in India<strong>*</strong><br /><br />&bull; Farm suicides have increased at annual compound growth rate of around 2.5 per cent per annum over the period 1997-2006<strong>*</strong><br /><br />&bull; Farmers, who committed suicides, were growing cash crops in dry regions such as: cotton (particularly in Maharashtra), sunflower, groundnut, and sugarcane (especially in Karnataka) <strong>**</strong><br /><br />&bull; Farm suicides took place in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh including Chhattisgarh<strong>*</strong><br /><br />&bull; Poor health conditions, family disputes over property, domestic problems, and heavy social burden of marrying daughters coupled with alcoholism have pushed farmers towards committing suicides<strong>**</strong></div><p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:justify"><strong>#</strong> National Crime Records Bureau,&nbsp;<a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/">http://ncrb.nic.in/</a></p><p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html" title="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html">http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html</a></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html" title="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html">http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html</a><br /><br /><a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html" title="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html">http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html</a><br /><br /><a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp" title="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp">http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp</a></p><p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm">http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm</a></p><p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium"><a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm" title="http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm">http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm</a> </span></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf</a></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf</a><em>&nbsp;</em></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf</a><em>&nbsp;</em></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf</a></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf</a></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf</a><em>&nbsp;</em></p><p style="text-align:justify"><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium"><strong>@</strong> Farmers&#39; suicides&nbsp; and the state in India: Conceptual and ethnographic notes from Wayanad, Kerala by Daniel M&uuml;nster, Contributions to Indian Sociology 2012 46: 181, </span><a href="http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181" title="http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181">http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181</a></p><p style="text-align:justify"><strong>*</strong> Nagaraj, K (2008): Farmers&rsquo; Suicides in India, Magnitudes, Trends and Spatial Patterns, Macroscan,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf" title="http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf">http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf</a>&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:justify"><strong>**</strong> Hebber, Dr. Ritambhara (2007): &lsquo;Human Security and the Case of Farmers&rsquo; Suicides in India: An Exploration&rsquo;, Centre for Development Studies, School of Social Sciences, TISS, Paper presented in a panel on Rethinking Development in a Conference on &lsquo;Mainstreaming Human Security- an Asian Perspective&rsquo; (October 3-4, 2007) organised by Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok</p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf" title="http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf">http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Pres<br />entations/Ritambhara.pdf</a></p><div style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">',
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	'title' => 'Farm Suicides',
	'subheading' => '',
	'description' => '<p style="text-align:justify">KEY TRENDS</p>

<div style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</div>

<div style="text-align:justify">&bull; Suicide&nbsp;by&nbsp;self-employed&nbsp;persons&nbsp;in&nbsp;agriculture as a&nbsp;percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6 percent in 1996, 16.3 percent in 2002, 14.4 percent in 2006, 13.7 percent in 2009, 11.9 percent in 2010, 10.3 percent in 2011, 11.4 percent in 2012 and 8.73 percent in 2013. Suicides committed in the farming sector (by farmers plus agricultural labourers) as a proportion of total suicides in India was 9.4 percent in 2014, 9.43 percent in 2015, 8.7 percent in 2016, 8.2 percent in 2017, 7.69 percent in 2018,&nbsp;7.4 percent in 2019, 7.0 percent in 2020, and 6.63 percent in 2021&nbsp;<strong>#</strong><br />
<br />
&bull; The total number of suicides committed by self-employed persons in agriculture in India was 13729 in 1996, 17971 in 2002, 17060 in 2006, 17368 in 2009, 15964 in 2010, 14027 in 2011, 13754 in 2012 and 11772 in 2013. The total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers/ cultivators plus agricultural labourers) was 12,360 in 2014, 12,602 in 2015, 11,379 in 2016, 10,655 in 2017, 10,349 in 2018, 10,281 in 2019, 10,677 in 2020, and 10,881 in 2021&nbsp;<strong>#</strong>&nbsp;<br />
<br />
&bull; Due to drop in world market prices for cash-crops (such as coffee, pepper, vanilla) during late 1990s, failure of ginger cultivation in neighbouring Kodagu (formerly Coorg) district and ecological crisis owing to overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides so as to combat productivity failure, many farmers and neo-farmers were left with heavy debts. When, eventually the recovery notices of the banks arrived, hundreds of farmers, especially marginal landholders with up to two acres of land, drank pesticides and killed themselves <strong>@</strong><br />
<br />
&bull; In Wayanad, since suicide statistics are directly linked to the payment of compensation through the Revenue Department, the number of farmers&rsquo; suicides stagnated during the years 2006 to 2008. &lsquo;Safe Farmers Campaign&rsquo; (SFC), a consortium of eight, mostly Catholic, NGOs (including Shreyas), in 2007 began a large-scale investigation into farmers&rsquo; suicides that ran parallel to the state&rsquo;s efforts of enumeration and classification. Taking police reports of suicides as a starting point and following up all cases from 2000 to March 2008 they have come up with a total number of 1,690 farmers&rsquo; suicides (Kerala Social Service Forum 2009). That is nearly four times the figure of 435 officially recognised farmers&rsquo; suicides. The latter number is also the number of beneficiaries of the Chief Minister&rsquo;s (CM) relief fund <strong>@</strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />
<br />
&bull; During the ten-year period spanning 1997 to 2006 as many as 1,66,304 farmers committed suicide in India<strong>*</strong><br />
<br />
&bull; Farm suicides have increased at annual compound growth rate of around 2.5 per cent per annum over the period 1997-2006<strong>*</strong><br />
<br />
&bull; Farmers, who committed suicides, were growing cash crops in dry regions such as: cotton (particularly in Maharashtra), sunflower, groundnut, and sugarcane (especially in Karnataka) <strong>**</strong><br />
<br />
&bull; Farm suicides took place in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh including Chhattisgarh<strong>*</strong><br />
<br />
&bull; Poor health conditions, family disputes over property, domestic problems, and heavy social burden of marrying daughters coupled with alcoholism have pushed farmers towards committing suicides<strong>**</strong></div>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><strong>#</strong> National Crime Records Bureau,&nbsp;<a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/">http://ncrb.nic.in/</a></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html">http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html</a></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html">http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html">http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp">http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp</a></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm">http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm</a></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium"><a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm">http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm</a> </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf</a></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf</a><em>&nbsp;</em></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf</a><em>&nbsp;</em></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf</a></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf</a></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf</a><em>&nbsp;</em></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><br />
<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium"><strong>@</strong> Farmers&#39; suicides&nbsp; and the state in India: Conceptual and ethnographic notes from Wayanad, Kerala by Daniel M&uuml;nster, Contributions to Indian Sociology 2012 46: 181, </span><a href="http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181">http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181</a></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><strong>*</strong> Nagaraj, K (2008): Farmers&rsquo; Suicides in India, Magnitudes, Trends and Spatial Patterns, Macroscan,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf">http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf</a>&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><strong>**</strong> Hebber, Dr. Ritambhara (2007): &lsquo;Human Security and the Case of Farmers&rsquo; Suicides in India: An Exploration&rsquo;, Centre for Development Studies, School of Social Sciences, TISS, Paper presented in a panel on Rethinking Development in a Conference on &lsquo;Mainstreaming Human Security- an Asian Perspective&rsquo; (October 3-4, 2007) organised by Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf">http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf</a></p>

<div style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">**page**</span></div>

<p style="text-align:justify">According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp; Suicides in India 2021 (released in August, 2022)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click <a href="/upload/files/Chapter%202%20Suicides%20in%20India.pdf">here</a>, <a href="/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf">here</a> and <a href="/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf">here</a> to access):</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; An increase of nearly 7.2 percent was noticed in suicides during 2021 (1,64,033 suicides) as compared to 2020 (1,53,052 suicides). The rate of suicides has risen by 0.7 points during 2021 (i.e. 12.0 per lakh population) over 2020 (i.e. 11.3 per lakh population). Please <a href="/upload/files/Chapter%202%20Suicides%20in%20India.pdf">click here</a> to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; A total of 5,318 farmers/cultivators committed suicides during 2021, accounting for 3.24 percent of total suicide victims in India. However, 5,563 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2021, which is nearly 3.39 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,881 in 2021, accounting for roughly 6.63 percent of total suicide victims in the country. Please <a href="/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf">click here</a> to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; A &#39;farmer/ cultivator&#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &#39;agricultural labourer&#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please <a href="/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf">click here</a> to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; A total of 5,107 male farmers/ cultivators and 211 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 96.03 percent and 3.97 percent of total farmers&rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,318) in 2021, respectively. Please <a href="/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf">click here</a> to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 4,806 in 2021. Please <a href="/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf">click here</a> to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 512. Please <a href="/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf">click here</a> to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; A total of 5,121 male agricultural labourers and 442 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 92.05 percent and 7.95 percent of total agricultural labourers&rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,563) in 2021, respectively. Please <a href="/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-264.pdf">click here</a> to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Manipur, Odisha, Tripura, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Chandigarh, Lakshadweep, and Puducherry reported zero number of suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers in 2021. Please <a href="/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf">click here</a> to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2021 were recorded in Maharashtra (4,064, which is around 37.35 percent of total farm suicides i.e. 10,881), followed by Karnataka (2,169), Andhra Pradesh (1,065), Madhya Pradesh (671), Tamil Nadu (599), and Telangana (359). Please <a href="/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf">click here</a> to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2021 were reported from Maharashtra (2,640, which is around 49.64 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,170), Andhra Pradesh (481) and Telangana (352). Please <a href="/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf">click here</a> to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2021 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,424), followed by Karnataka (999), Andhra Pradesh (584), Madhya Pradesh (554), and Tamil Nadu (538). Please <a href="/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf">click here</a> to access.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; The ADSI 2021 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; The total number of suicides committed by daily wage earners in 2021 was 42,004. Most suicides by daily wage earners in 2021 were recorded in Tamil Nadu (7,673), followed by Maharashtra (5,270), Madhya Pradesh (4,657), and Telangana (4,223). Figures of daily wage earner excludes agricultural labourer. Please <a href="/upload/files/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT-270-272.pdf">click here</a> to access.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><strong>---</strong></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">Please <a href="/upload/files/News%20alerts%20on%20Rural%20Distress%20in%20India%281%29.pdf">click here</a> to access the news alerts on India&rsquo;s agrarian crisis and rural distress by Inclusive Media for Change.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">**page**</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp; Suicides in India 2020 (released in October, 2021)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click <a href="/upload/files/adsi2020_Chapter-2-Suicides-1.pdf">here</a>, <a href="/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf">here</a> and <a href="/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf">here</a> to access):</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; An increase of about 10.01 percent was observed in suicides during 2020 (1,53,052 suicides) as compared to 2019 (1,39,123 suicides). The rate of suicides has increased by 0.9 points during 2020 (viz. 11.3 per lakh population) over 2019 (viz. 10.4 per lakh population). Please click <a href="/upload/files/adsi2020_Chapter-2-Suicides-1.pdf">here</a> to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; A total of 5,579 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2020, accounting for 3.65 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 5,098 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2020, which is nearly 3.33 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,677 in 2020, accounting for nearly 7.0 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please click <a href="/upload/files/adsi2020_Chapter-2-Suicides-1.pdf">here</a>&nbsp;to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; A &#39;farmer/ cultivator&#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &#39;agricultural labourer&#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please click <a href="/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf">here</a>&nbsp;to access.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; A total of 5,335 male farmers/ cultivators and 244 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 95.63 percent and 4.37 percent of total farmers&rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,579) in 2020, respectively. Please click <a href="/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf">here</a>&nbsp;to access.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 4,940 in 2020. Please click <a href="/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf">here</a>&nbsp;to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 639. Please click <a href="/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf">here</a>&nbsp;to access.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; A total of 4,621 male agricultural labourers and 477 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 90.64 percent and 9.36 percent of total agricultural labourers&rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,098) in 2020, respectively. Please click <a href="/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20in%202020.pdf">here</a>&nbsp;to access.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, Bihar, Nagaland, Tripura, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Chandigarh, Delhi (UT), Ladakh, Lakshadweeep and Puducherry reported zero number of suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers in 2020. Please click <a href="/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf">here</a>&nbsp;to access.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2020 were recorded in Maharashtra (4,006, which is around 37.52 percent of total farm suicides viz. 10,677), followed by Karnataka (2,016), Andhra Pradesh (889), Madhya Pradesh (735) and Chhattisgarh (537). Please click <a href="/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf">here</a>&nbsp;to access.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2020 were reported from Maharashtra (2,567, which is around 46.01 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,072), Andhra Pradesh (564) and Telangana (466). Please click <a href="/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf">here</a>&nbsp;to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2020 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,439), followed by Karnataka (944), Tamil Nadu (398), Kerala (341) and Andhra Pradesh (325). Please click <a href="/upload/files/Profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicides%20across%20states%20and%20UTs%20in%202020.pdf">here</a>&nbsp;to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; The ADSI 2020 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">**page**</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp; Suicides in India 2019 (released in September, 2020)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click <a href="/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf">here</a>, <a href="/upload/files/Table-2.6_2019_0.pdf">here</a> and <a href="/upload/files/Table-2.7_2019_0.pdf">here</a> to access):</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; A rise of almost 3.4 percent was observed in suicides during 2019 (1,39,123 suicides) as compared to 2018 (1,34,516 suicides). The rate of suicides has increased by 0.2 points during 2019 (viz. 10.4 per lakh population) over 2018 (viz. 10.2 per lakh population). Please <a href="https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf">click here</a> to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; A total of 5,957 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2019, accounting for 4.3 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 4,324 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2019, which is nearly 3.1 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,281 in 2019, accounting for nearly 7.4 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please <a href="https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf">click here</a> to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; A &#39;farmer/ cultivator&#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &#39;agricultural labourer&#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please <a href="https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.6_2019_0.pdf">click here</a> to access.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; A total of 5,563 male farmers/ cultivators and 394 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 93.4 percent and 6.6 percent of total farmers&rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,957) in 2019, respectively. Please <a href="https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf">click here</a> to access.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 5,129. Please <a href="https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.6_2019_0.pdf">click here</a> to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 828. Please <a href="https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.6_2019_0.pdf">click here</a> to access.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; A total of 3,749 male agricultural labourers and 575 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 86.7 percent and 13.3 percent of total agricultural labourers&rsquo; suicides (viz. 4,324) in 2019, respectively. Please <a href="https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf">click here</a> to access.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Chandigarh, Daman &amp; Diu, Delhi UT, Lakshadweep and Puducherry reported zero suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers. Please <a href="https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Chapter-2-Suicides_2019.pdf">click here</a> to access.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2019 were recorded in Maharashtra (3,927, which is around 38.2 percent of total farm suicides viz. 10,281), followed by Karnataka (1,992), Andhra Pradesh (1,029), Madhya Pradesh (541) and Telangana and Chhattisgarh (each 499). Please <a href="https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.7_2019_0.pdf">click here</a> to access.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2019 were reported from Maharashtra (2,680, which is around 45 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,331), Andhra Pradesh (628) and Telangana (491). Please <a href="https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.7_2019_0.pdf">click here</a> to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2019 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,247), followed by Karnataka (661), Tamil Nadu (421), Andhra Pradesh (401) and Madhya Pradesh (399). Please <a href="https://www.im4change.org/upload/files/Table-2.7_2019_0.pdf">click here</a> to access.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; The ADSI 2019 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">**page**</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp; Suicides in India 2018 (released in January, 2020)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf" title="ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2">click here</a>, <a href="tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202018.pdf" title="Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2018">here</a> and <a href="tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202018.pdf" title="table 2.7 of ADSI 2018">here</a> to access):<br />
<br />
&bull; A rise of almost 3.6 percent was observed in suicides during 2018 (1,34,516 suicides) as compared to 2017 (1,29,887 suicides). The rate of suicides has increased by 0.3 points during 2018 (viz. 10.2 per lakh population) over 2017 (viz. 9.9 per lakh population). Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf" title="ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; A total of 5,763 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2018, accounting for 4.28 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 4,586 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2018, which is nearly 3.41 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,349 in 2018, accounting for nearly 7.69 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf" title="ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; A &#39;farmer/ cultivator&#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &#39;agricultural labourer&#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please click <a href="tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202018.pdf" title="Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2018">here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; A total of 5,457 male farmers/ cultivators and 306 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 94.69 percent and 5.31 percent of total farmers&rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,763), respectively. Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf" title="ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 5,088. Please click <a href="tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202018.pdf" title="Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2018">here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 675. Please click <a href="tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202018.pdf" title="Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2018">here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; A total of 4,071 male agricultural labourers and 515 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 88.77 percent and 11.23 percent of total agricultural labourers&rsquo; suicides (viz. 4,586), respectively. Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202018%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf" title="ADSI 2018 Suicides in India Chapter 2">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Goa, Chandigarh, Daman &amp; Diu, Delhi UT, Lakshadweep and Puducherry reported zero suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers.<br />
<br />
&bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2018 were recorded in Maharashtra (3,594, which is around 34.73 percent of total farm suicides viz. 10,349), followed by Karnataka (2,405), Telangana (908), Andhra Pradesh (664) and Madhya Pradesh (655). Please click <a href="tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202018.pdf" title="table 2.7 of ADSI 2018">here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2018 were reported from Maharashtra (2,239, which is around 38.85 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,365), Telangana (900), Andhra Pradesh (365) and Madhya Pradesh (303). Please click <a href="tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202018.pdf" title="table 2.7 of ADSI 2018">here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2018 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,355), followed by Karnataka (1,040), Tamil Nadu (395), Madhya Pradesh (352) and Andhra Pradesh (299). Please click <a href="tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202018.pdf" title="table 2.7 of ADSI 2018">here</a> access.<br />
<br />
&bull; The ADSI 2018 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">**page**</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp; Suicides in India 2017 (released in January, 2020)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click <a href="tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf" title="ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2">here</a>, <a href="tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202017.pdf" title="Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2017">here</a> and <a href="tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202017.pdf" title="table 2.7 of ADSI 2017">here</a> to access):<br />
<br />
&bull; A decline of almost -0.9 percent was observed in suicides during 2017 (1,29,887 suicides) as compared to 2016 (1,31,008 suicides). The rate of suicides has decreased by -0.4 points during 2017 (viz. 9.9 per lakh population) over 2016 (viz. 10.3 per lakh population). Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf" title="ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; A total of 5,955 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2017, accounting for 4.58 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 4,700 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2017, which is nearly 3.62 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 10,655 in 2017, accounting for almost 8.2 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf" title="ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; A &#39;farmer/ cultivator&#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &#39;agricultural labourer&#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/Table%202.6%20profession%20wise%20distribution%20of%20suicide%20in%202017.pdf" title="Table 2.6 profession wise distribution of suicide in 2017">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; A total of 5,633 male farmers/ cultivators and 322 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 94.59 percent and 5.41 percent of total farmers&rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,955), respectively. Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf" title="ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate their own land with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 5,203.<br />
<br />
&bull; The total number of suicides among farmers/ cultivators who cultivate on leased land/ work on lease/ on other&#39;s land (known by different nomenclature) with or without assistance of agricultural labourers was 752.<br />
<br />
&bull; A total of 4,219 male agricultural labourers and 480 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 89.77 percent and 10.21 percent of total agricultural labourers&rsquo; suicides (viz. 4,700), respectively. One agricultural labourer was transgender.&nbsp; Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/ADSI%202017%20Suicides%20in%20India%20Chapter%202.pdf" title="ADSI 2017 Suicides in India Chapter 2">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; Certain States/UTs namely, West Bengal, Odisha, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Uttarakhand, Chandigarh UT, Dadra &amp; Nagar Haveli, Daman &amp; Diu, Delhi UT, Lakshadweep and Puducherry reported zero suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers.<br />
<br />
&bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2017 were recorded in Maharashtra (3,701, which is around 34.73 percent of total farm suicides viz. 10,655), followed by Karnataka (2,160), Madhya Pradesh (955), Telangana (851) and Andhra Pradesh (816). Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202017.pdf" title="table 2.7 of ADSI 2017">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2017 were reported from Maharashtra (2,426, which is around 40.74 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,157), Telangana (846), Madhya Pradesh (429) and Andhra Pradesh (375). Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202017.pdf" title="table 2.7 of ADSI 2017">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2017 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,275), followed by Karnataka (1,003), Madhya Pradesh (526), Andhra Pradesh (441) and Tamil Nadu (369). Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/table%202.7%20of%20ADSI%202017.pdf" title="table 2.7 of ADSI 2017">click here</a> access.<br />
<br />
&bull; The ADSI 2017 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">**page**</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp; Suicides in India 2016 (released in November, 2019)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please click <a href="tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides.pdf" title="chapter-2 suicides">here</a>, <a href="tinymce/uploaded/NCRB%20snapshots.pdf" title="NCRB snapshots">here</a>, <a href="tinymce/uploaded/table-2.6%20farm%20suicides.pdf" title="table-2.6 farm suicides">here</a> and <a href="tinymce/uploaded/table-2.7%20farm%20suicide.pdf" title="table-2.7 farm suicide">here</a> to access):<br />
<br />
&bull; A decline of almost -2.0 percent was observed in suicides during 2016 (1,31,008 suicides) as compared to 2015 (1,33,623 suicides). The rate of suicides has decreased by -0.3 points during 2016 (viz. 10.3 per lakh population) over 2015 (viz. 10.6 per lakh population). Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/NCRB%20snapshots.pdf" title="NCRB snapshots">click here</a> and <a href="tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides.pdf" title="chapter-2 suicides">here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; A total of 6,270 farmers/ cultivators committed suicides during 2016, accounting for 4.79 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 5,109 agricultural labourers committed suicides during 2016, which is nearly 3.9 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 11,379 in 2016, accounting for roughly 8.7 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides.pdf" title="chapter-2 suicides">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; A &#39;farmer/ cultivator&#39; is one whose profession is farming and include those who cultivate on their own land as well as those who cultivate on leased land/ other&#39;s land with or without the assistance of agricultural labourers. An &#39;agricultural labourer&#39; is a person who primarily works in the farming sector (agriculture/ horticulture) and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities. Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/table-2.6%20farm%20suicides.pdf" title="table-2.6 farm suicides">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; A total of 5,995 male farmers/ cultivators and 275 female farmers/ cultivators committed suicides, accounting for 95.61 percent and 4.39 percent of total farmers&rsquo; suicides (viz. 6,270), respectively. Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides_1.pdf" title="chapter-2 suicides">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; A total of 4,476 male agricultural labourers and 633 female agricultural labourers committed suicides, accounting for 87.61 percent and 12.39 percent of total agricultural labourers&rsquo; suicides (viz. 5,109), respectively. Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides_1.pdf" title="chapter-2 suicides">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; Certain states/ UTs namely, West Bengal, Bihar, Nagaland, Chandigarh, Dadar &amp; Nagar Haveli, Daman &amp; Diu, Delhi UT and Lakshadweep reported zero suicides of farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers. Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2%20suicides_1.pdf" title="chapter-2 suicides">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; Most farm suicides (viz. total suicides by farmers/ cultivators as well as agricultural labourers) in 2016 were recorded in Maharashtra (3,661), followed by Karnataka (2,079), Madhya Pradesh (1,321), Andhra Pradesh (804) and Chhattisgarh (682). Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/table-2.7%20farm%20suicide.pdf" title="table-2.7 farm suicide">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; Most suicides by farmers/ cultivators in 2016 were reported from Maharashtra (2,550, which is around 40.7 percent of total suicide by farmers/ cultivators), followed by Karnataka (1,212), Telangana (632), Madhya Pradesh (599) and Chhattisgarh (585). Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/table-2.7%20farm%20suicide.pdf" title="table-2.7 farm suicide">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; Most suicides by agricultural labourers in 2016 were recorded in Maharashtra (1,111), followed by Karnataka (867), Madhya Pradesh (722), Andhra Pradesh (565) and Gujarat (378). Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/table-2.7%20farm%20suicide.pdf" title="table-2.7 farm suicide">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; The ADSI 2016 report does not provide the reasons behind farm suicides.<br />
&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">**page**</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp; Suicides in India 2015 (released in 2016)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/Suicides%20in%20farming%20sector.pdf" title="Suicides in farming sector">click here</a> to access):<br />
<br />
&bull; Altogether 1,33,623 persons in India committed suicide in 2015 (please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/Suicides%20in%20India.pdf" title="Suicides in India 2015">click here</a> to access).<br />
<br />
&bull; A total of 8,007 farmers/ cultivators have committed suicides during 2015, accounting for 5.99 percent of total suicide victims in the country. However, 4,595 agricultural labourers have committed suicides during 2015, which is 3.44 percent of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers plus agricultural labourers) was 12,602 in 2015, accounting for 9.43 percent of total suicide victims in India. Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/Suicides%20in%20farming%20sector.pdf" title="Suicides in farming sector">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; A total of 7,566 male farmers/ cultivators and 441 female farmers/ cultivators have committed suicides, accounting for 94.49 percent and 5.51 percent of total farmers&rsquo; suicides, respectively. Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/Suicides%20in%20farming%20sector.pdf" title="Suicides in farming sector">click here</a> to access.<br />
<br />
&bull; Land holding status of farmers who committed suicide reveals that 27.41 percent and 45.19 percent of victims were marginal farmers and small farmers respectively. They together accounted for 72.59 percent (5,813 out of 8,007) of total farmer suicides (please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/Land%20Holding%20Status%20of%20Farmers%20committing%20Suicides.pdf" title="Land Holding Status of Farmers committing Suicides">click here</a> to access).<br />
<br />
&bull; Majority of suicides committed by farmers/ cultivators were reported in Maharashtra (3,030) followed by 1,358 such suicides in Telangana and 1,197 suicides in Karnataka, accounting for 37.8 percent, 17.0 percent and 14.9 percent of total such suicides (8,007) respectively during 2015. Chhattisgarh (854 suicides), Madhya Pradesh (581 suicides) and Andhra Pradesh (516 suicides) accounted for 10.7 percent, 7.3 percent and 6.4 percent of the total farmer/ cultivators suicides reported in the country respectively. These 6 states together reported 94.1 percent of the total farmer/ cultivators suicides (7,536 out of 8,007 suicides) in the country during 2015.<br />
<br />
&bull; &#39;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&#39; and &#39;Farming Related Issues&#39; are reported as major causes of suicides among farmers/ cultivators, accounting for 38.7 percent (3,097 out of 8,007 suicides) and 19.5 percent (1,562 out of 8,007 suicides) of total such suicides respectively during 2015. The other prominent causes of farmer/ cultivators suicides were &#39;Family Problems&#39; (933 suicides), &#39;Illness&#39; (842 suicides) and &#39;Drug Abuse/Alcoholic Addiction&#39; (330 suicides), accounting for 11.7 percent, 10.5 percent and 4.1 percent of total farmers/cultivators` suicides respectively.<br />
<br />
&bull; During 2015, major causes of suicides among male farmers/ cultivators were reported as &#39;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&#39; (2,978 suicides) and &#39;Farming Related Issues&#39; (1,494 suicides), which accounted for 39.4 percent and 19.7 percent of total male farmers/ cultivators suicides respectively.<br />
<br />
&bull; Among female farmers/ cultivators suicides, &#39;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&#39; followed by &#39;Family Problems&#39;, were major causes of suicides, accounting for 27.0 percent (119 out of 441 suicides) and 18.1 percent (80 suicides) of total suicides by female farmers/ cultivators respectively during 2015. &#39;Farming Related Issues&#39; and &#39;Illness&#39; both accounted for 15.4 percent (68 suicides each) during 2015.<br />
<br />
&bull; &#39;Family Problems&#39; and &#39;Illness&#39; were major causes of suicides among agricultural labourers accounting for 40.1 percent (1,843 out of 4,595 suicides) and 19.0 percent (872 out of 4,595 suicides) respectively.<br />
<br />
&bull; 79.0 percent of farmer/ cultivator suicides in Karnataka and 42.7 percent of farmer/ cultivator suicides in Maharashtra were due to &lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&rsquo;. 26.2 percent of farmer/ cultivator suicides in Maharashtra were also due to &#39;Farming Related Issues (Related to Failure of Crop)&#39;.<br />
<br />
&bull; Farmers/ cultivators belonging to 30 years - below 60 years of age group have accounted for 71.6 percent of total farmers/ cultivators&rsquo; suicides during 2015.<br />
<br />
&bull; 9.0 percent of farmers/ cultivators who have committed suicides were in age group of 60 years &amp; above.<br />
<br />
&bull; The states of Bihar, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu &amp; Kashmir, Jharkhand, Mizoram, Nagaland, Uttarakhand and West Bengal have reported no farmers&#39; suicide during 2015. All the 7 Union Territories have reported zero number of farmers&#39; suicide during 2015 (please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/Incidence%20and%20Percentage%20Change%20in%20Suicides%20in%20Farming%20Sector%20during%202015.pdf" title="Incidence and Percentage Change in Suicides in Farming Sector in 2015">click here</a> to access).<br />
<br />
&bull; The states of Goa, Manipur, Nagaland and West Bengal have reported no suicide by agricultural labourers during 2015. All the Union Territories except Puducherry (12) have reported zero suicide by agricultural labourers during 2015 (please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/Incidence%20and%20Percentage%20Change%20in%20Suicides%20in%20Farming%20Sector%20during%202015.pdf" title="Incidence and Percentage Change in Suicides in Farming Sector in 2015">click here</a> to access).<br />
<br />
&bull; Comprehensive data on &lsquo;Suicides in Farming Sector&rsquo; comprising of suicides committed by farmers/ cultivators and agricultural labourers in exclusive Chapter-2A have been collected and published in consultation with Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare under overall supervision of Ministry of Home Affairs, in order to present a comprehensive analysis on suicides in the farming sector. In previous edition (till ADSI 2013), this chapter contained data on suicides committed by farmers/cultivators only.<br />
<br />
**page**</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><br />
According to the [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp; Suicides in India 2014 (released in 2015)[/inside] by National Crime Records Bureau (please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/chapter-2A%20farmer%20suicides.pdf" title="ADSI NCRB 2014 Farmers Suicide">click here</a> to access):<br />
<br />
&bull; Altogether 1,31,666 persons in India committed suicide in 2014.<br />
<br />
&bull; A total of 5,650 farmers have committed suicides during 2014, accounting for 4.3% of total suicide victims in the country. However, 6,710 agricultural labourers have committed suicides during 2014, which is 5.1% of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides committed by persons engaged in agriculture (farmers plus agricultural labourers) in India was 12,360 in 2014, accounting for 9.4% of total suicide victims in India (please <a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2.7.pdf">click here</a> to access).<br />
<br />
&bull; A total of 5,178 male farmers and 472 female farmers have committed suicides, accounting for 91.6% and 8.4% of total farmers&rsquo; suicides respectively.<br />
<br />
&bull; Land holding status of farmers who committed suicide reveals that 44.5% and 27.9% of victims were small farmers and marginal farmers respectively. They together accounted for 72.4% (4,095 out of 5,650) total farmer suicides (please <a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2A.3.pdf">click here</a> to access).<br />
<br />
&bull; A total of 2,568 farmers&rsquo; suicides were reported in Maharashtra followed by 898 such suicides in Telangana and 826 suicides in Madhya Pradesh, accounting for 45.5%, 15.9% and 14.6% respectively of total farmer suicides during 2014. Chhattisgarh (443 suicides) and Karnataka (321 suicides) accounted for 7.8% and 5.7% respectively of the total farmer suicides reported in the country. These 5 States together accounted for 89.5% of the total farmer suicides (5,056 out of 5,650) reported in the country during 2014.<br />
<br />
&bull; &lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&rsquo; and &lsquo;Family Problems&rsquo; are major causes of suicides, accounting for 20.6% and 20.1% respectively of total farmers&rsquo; suicides during 2014. The other prominent causes of farmers&rsquo; suicides were &lsquo;Failure of Crop&rsquo; (16.8%), &lsquo;Illness&rsquo; (13.2%) and &lsquo;Drug Abuse/Alcoholic Addiction&rsquo; (4.9%).<br />
<br />
&bull; During 2014, major causes of suicides among male farmers were &lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&rsquo; and &lsquo;Family Problems&rsquo;, which accounted for 21.5% and 20.0% respectively of total male farmers&rsquo; suicides.<br />
<br />
&bull; Whereas, in female farmers&rsquo; suicides, &lsquo;Farming Related Issues&rsquo; followed by &lsquo;Family Problems&rsquo;, &lsquo;Marriage Related Issues&rsquo; and &lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&rsquo; were major causes of suicides, accounting for 21.4% (101 out of 472 suicides), 20.6% (97 suicides), 12.3% (58 suicides) and 10.8% (51 suicides) respectively during 2014.<br />
<br />
&bull; Nearly 33.4% suicides in Maharashtra and 23.2% in Telangana were due to &lsquo;Bankruptcy or Indebtedness&rsquo;. 87.5% of farmers&rsquo; suicides due to &lsquo;Failure of Crop&rsquo; were reported in Himachal Pradesh. 4.7% farmers in Himachal Pradesh, 4.1% farmers in Jharkhand and 2.7% farmers each in Bihar, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh have committed suicides due to &lsquo;Suspected/ Illicit Relation&rsquo;. 6.5% suicides by farmers in Sikkim followed by 2.3% in Himachal Pradesh and 2.0% in Puducherry were due to &lsquo;Cancellation/ Non Settlement of Marriage&rsquo;.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; The states of West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Tripura, Rajasthan, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Manipur, Jharkhand, Goa, Arunachal Pradesh and Bihar have reported no farmers&#39; suicide during 2014. All the Union Territories except Andaman and Nicobar Islands have reported zero farmers&#39; suicide during 2014 (please <a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2.7.pdf">click here</a> to access).</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; The states of Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Goa, Manipur and Nagaland have reported no suicide by agricultural labourers during 2014. All the Union Territories except Puducherry have reported zero suicide by agricultural labourers during 2014 (please <a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2.7.pdf">click here</a> to access).</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><br />
&bull; The latest issue of the ADSI report is different from the earlier ones in two ways: a. Apart from the usual male and female break-up of data, one also gets data pertaining to transgenders (please <a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2.7.pdf">click here</a> to access), which was missing earlier; b. There is a separate chapter (please <a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/chapter-2A%20farmer%20suicides.pdf">click here</a> to access) and 3 tables (in the annexure, please click <a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2A.1.pdf">link1</a>, <a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2A.2.pdf">link2</a> and <a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/table-2A.3.pdf">link3</a>) on farmer suicides in India and at state/UT-level, which did not exist in earlier reports. In the previous ADSI reports, one had to extract data on farmers&#39; suicide from the table on distribution of suicides by profession. Suicides committed by self-employed persons in agriculture gave the proxy of the figure on farmers&#39; suicide.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Unlike the previous ones, in the present ADSI report suicides by self-employed persons in agriculture has been sub-divided into suicides by agricultural labourers and suicides by farmers. Suicides by farmers has been further subdivided (in the current report) into suicide by farmers having own land and suicide by farmers having land on contract or lease.&nbsp; &nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">**page**</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><br />
According to National Crime Records Bureau&#39;s [inside]Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India 2013 (released in 2014)[/inside] report, <a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm">http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm</a>:<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Altogether 1,34,799 persons in India committed suicide in 2013.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Nearly, 11,772 persons self-employed in farming/agriculture (can be loosely termed as farmers) committed suicide during 2013. They constitute 8.73 percent of total number of suicides committed during the same year.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Among the 11,772 no. of persons self-employed in farming/agriculture who committed suicide, 10489 are men (89.1%) and 1283 are women (10.9%).<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Rate of suicides, i.e., the number of suicides per one lakh population, has been widely accepted as a standard yardstick. The national rate of suicides was 11.0 during the year 2013. Puducherry reported the highest rate of suicide (35.6).<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In 2013, the highest incidents of 16,622 suicides were reported in Maharashtra followed by 16,601 suicides in Tamil Nadu accounting for 12.3% each of total suicides. Andhra Pradesh (14,607 suicides), West Bengal (13,055 suicides) and Karnataka (11,266 suicides) accounted for 10.8%, 9.7% and 8.4% respectively of the total suicides reported in the country. These 5 States together accounted for 53.5% of the total suicides reported in India.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Delhi has reported the highest number of suicides (2,059) among UTs, followed by Puducherry (546) during 2013.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &lsquo;Family Problems&rsquo; and &lsquo;Illness&rsquo;, accounting for 24.0% and 19.6% respectively, were the major causes of suicides among the specified causes. &lsquo;Drug Abuse/Addiction&rsquo; (3.4%), &lsquo;Love Affairs&rsquo; (3.3%), &lsquo;Bankruptcy or Sudden change in economic Status&rsquo; (2.0%), &#39;Failure in Examination&rsquo; (1.8%), &lsquo;Dowry Dispute&rsquo; (1.7%) and &lsquo;Unemployment&rsquo; (1.6%) were the other causes of suicides. Suicides due to &lsquo;Illegitimate Pregnancy (64.5%), &lsquo;Fall in Social Reputation&rsquo; (49.4%), &lsquo;Professional/ Career Problem&rsquo; (40.8%), &lsquo;Divorce&rsquo; (35.7%), and &lsquo;Cancellation/Non-Settlement of Marriage&rsquo; (33.5%) have increased in 2013 over 2012, while for poverty and property dispute have declined as compared to previous year.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It was observed that 69.4% of the suicide victims were married while 23.6% were Never Married/Spinster. Divorcees and Separated have accounted for about 3.2% of the total suicide victims. The proportion of Widowed &amp; Widower victims was around 3.7%.<br />
<br />
**page**</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><br />
According to [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp; Suicides in India-2012[/inside], <a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/">http://ncrb.nic.in/</a>:&nbsp;<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 15 Suicides took place in India every hour during 2012.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It is observed that social and economic causes have led most of the males to commit suicides whereas emotional and personal causes have mainly driven females to end their lives.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Nearly 71.6% of the suicide victims were married males while 67.9% were married females. 1 suicide out of every 6 suicides was committed by a &lsquo;housewife&rsquo;.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Tamil Nadu has reported the highest number of suicide victims in 2010 (accounting for 12.3%), third highest in 2011 (accounting for 11.8%) and highest in 2012 (accounting for 14.0%).<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Southern States viz. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu including Maharashtra have together accounted for 50.6% of total suicides reported in the country.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Self employed category accounted for 38.7% of suicide victims in 2012.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">**page**</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><br />
According to the article titled [inside]Farmers&#39; suicides and the state in India: Conceptual and ethnographic notes from Wayanad, Kerala[/inside] by Daniel M&uuml;nster, Contributions to Indian Sociology 2012 46: 181, <a href="http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181">http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181</a>:&nbsp;<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Farmers&rsquo; suicides are invariably linked to and almost synonymous with the&mdash;equally composite&mdash;agrarian crisis in the aftermath of neoliberal &lsquo;reform&rsquo;. Most of the writing on the subject is based on the same set of data (statistical data of the National Crime Records Bureau) or on journalistic visits to suicide &lsquo;hotspots&rsquo;. So far few ethnographic accounts, committed to qualitative research in suicide prone areas, have been published.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The present study is an ethnographic report from the field in the South Indian district Wayanad, one of the officially designated suicide-prone districts. The primary aim behind the research is to analyse the state&rsquo;s responses to farmer suicides: the bundle of relief packages, inquiry commissions, rural employment schemes and debt relief commissions that were set up in recent years partially as a response to reports on increasing numbers of farmers&rsquo; suicides. Such investigation may eventually contribute to an understanding &lsquo;of precisely how neoliberal globalization is transforming the re-distributive functions of the Indian state or affecting its legitimacy and identity as an agency of social welfare&rsquo;. This article makes a strong case for grounding the study of farmers&rsquo; suicides in ethnographies of agrarian practice and the local developmental state.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Farmers&rsquo; suicides provide rural citizens with a language to speak about politics, citizenship and development in the context of neoliberalising agriculture.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The research is intended to conceive farmers&rsquo; suicides as an highly over-determined interface between &lsquo;state&rsquo; and rural society; an interface in two senses: first as a drastic image, repeatedly invoked to speak about rural distress and the widespread agrarian crisis in neoliberal India and to address the failure of the nation state to protect its agrarian classes; second, as a set of actually existing practices&mdash; suicides&mdash;which force state agencies to show presence in social settings, which they had allegedly neglected.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In Wayanad neither cotton, nor GM seeds, nor global agri-corporations play a significant role. Not all suicides in Wayanad were related to agrarian distress. For many decades Kerala has had high suicide rates, many with multiple causes: family problems, alcoholism (extremely widespread in Wayanad), health issues, &lsquo;love failure&rsquo;, or debt.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The 1980s and 1990s brought unprecedented wealth to Wayanad. In the late-1980s up until the late-1990s, many farmers of Wayanad especially pepper growers in the &lsquo;Pepper Panchayats&rsquo; of Pulpalli, Mullankolli and Poothadi, became wealthy. Wayanad became an important earner of foreign currency in Kerala. Farmers, even relatively small farmers who owned around two acres could afford constructing large houses.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The end of the 1990s hit Wayanad&rsquo;s agrarian economy in a series of crises. First, the world market prices for cash-crops dropped dramatically. Local rates for pepper (ungarbled) dropped from 270 INR/Kg in 1997 to 54 INR/Kg in 2001, coffee dropped from 60 INR/Kg in 1997 to 16 INR/Kg in 2002 and vanilla, most dramatically dropped from 4300 INR/Kg in 2003 to 25 INR/Kg in 2006. Prices had fluctuated before, most cultivators remembered price crashes in the late-1970s, but this time they were accompanied by a second crisis: a dramatic drop in productivity.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Since the late-1990s Wayanad has been facing a serious ecological crisis. During the boom years cash-croppers heavily overused chemical fertilisers and pesticides in order to keep productivity high and profitable. The soil is now depleted beyond redemption and some Panchayats of Wayanad suffer from increased incidences of cancer. Furthermore new diseases started to affect plantations. &lsquo;Quick wilt&rsquo;, &lsquo;slow wilt&rsquo; and &lsquo;foot rot&rsquo; are their names, and all share the ability to destroy whole plantations quickly.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; When prices crashed and plantations died, many farmers and neo-farmers were left with heavy debts. When, eventually the recovery notices of the banks arrived, hundreds of farmers, especially marginal landholders with up to two acres of land, drank pesticides and killed themselves.<br />
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Another economic practice emerged since the late-1990s and has a strong correlation with suicide cases. Many suicide victims had invested in the cultivation of ginger in neighbouring Kodagu (formerly Coorg) district. The return from ginger cultivation could also be nil. There is an almost 50 per cent chance that the ginger plant is going to be affected by a fungus that would spread quickly across the fields and destroy the plantation within days.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Husbands very often did not even talk about their debt burden to wives and children: they just changed their character, became abusive and started to drink more heavily. Many widows shared later that they had no idea of their husbands&rsquo; debts, and were not involved in agricultural matters at all. This made it all the more difficult for them to deal subsequently with the stigma, poverty and political instrumentalisation they were to experience.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; One of author&#39;s original research questions was also to consider farmers&rsquo; suicides as suicides against the state. This link was difficult to establish in Wayanad.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Farmers who killed themselves knew that they were part of a district-wide if not all-India epidemic, that their suicide would attract considerable&nbsp; attention from the media, NGOs as well as state agencies and also&mdash;controversially&mdash;that the state might eventually take care of their families, write off their debt and pay compensation of 50,000 INR.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Most farmers the author spoke to, whether activists or not, were quite knowledgeable about the removal of quantitative restrictions on imports and the dismantling of import duties for agrarian products under the GATT regime as the main reasons for the fall in prices of agrarian cash-crops. They would speak of cheap coffee and pepper coming from Vietnam and Sri Lanka that keeps flooding the market and later to be resold as premium Wayanad pepper. Second, they articulated the retreat of the state, the cut of input subsidies and low investments in irrigation and infrastructure. They would speak of the government that always cheated, gave no security to the farmers, had no procurement policy and provided no minimum price.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The official all-India suicide-rate (suicide rate is the incidence of suicide mortality per 100,000 inhabitants) has for the last 10 years constantly been around 10.5 and hence not extraordinarily inflated. Kerala&rsquo;s official suicide-rate was 26.8 which is more than twice the national average and the third highest in India (after Pondicherry and Andaman &amp; Nicobar Islands) and had been so for the last years. Within Kerala there are two districts that have been given the recent status of &lsquo;suicide-prone districts&rsquo;: Idukki and Wayanad. Even though suicides are statistically well captured, there is a considerable fluctuation in the number of reported farmers&rsquo; suicides.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The &lsquo;Accidental Deaths and Suicides (ADSI)&rsquo; annual report (National Crime Records Bureau 2007) is the only official source of information. It lists the distribution of suicidal death by state, gender, marital status, causes of suicide, means adopted and profession. According to K. Nagaraj, the professional category farmer (although still unspecific) is a relatively recent category in the ADSI reports: &lsquo;The category self-employed (farming/agriculture)&mdash;which can be taken as representing the farmers&mdash;was added for the first time in 1995 (...)&rsquo; (Nagaraj 2008: 2).<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The suicide rate for farmers can be calculated only for the year 2001, this being the first year that statistical data on farmers were recorded in the Census of India. On an all-India basis this does not make for highly inflated suicide rates among farmers: 15.8 among the main cultivators as compared to 10.6 of the general population. An entirely different perspective emerges, however, if one takes into account the fact that numbers of farmers&rsquo; suicides vary significantly across India. For Kerala, a suicide rate among main cultivators of 176.5 emerges, and the figure is still 142.9 if all cultivators are considered. Those numbers are alarming indeed.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; For all-India the official number in the ADSI reports is 190,753 farmers&rsquo; suicides from 1995 to 2006. That makes an average of 16,000 suicides per year, which is still an underestimation since some major states have not reported on farmers&rsquo; suicides.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The status of farmer (cultivator) is based on the criterion of title to land. This leaves out women, tenant farmers, agricultural labourers, but also regular farmers if the land title was in the father&rsquo;s or son&rsquo;s name. A stringent criterion for agriculture-related suicide would be the absence of any other cause neighbours might mention (such as alcoholism or family problems).<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The local practice of identifying farmers&rsquo; suicide became additionally complicated after 2004 by the decision of the new LDF government to actually pay a compensation of 50,000 INR to all families with cases of farmers&rsquo; suicides out of the Chief Minister&rsquo;s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF).<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In the beginning, as a populist measure, the criteria were handled rather loosely and compensation was paid rather freely. The first compensation cheques were handed over during public functions under great media attention. Later, both to be able to present the success of the other relief measures of the new state and union governments and to curb costs, the practice became more stringent. The debt still had to be the cause of suicide, but now it had to be an institutional credit (excluding debt with moneylenders) and the loan had to have been taken for agricultural purposes (excluding consumer loans).<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In Wayanad, since suicide statistics are directly linked to the payment of compensation through the Revenue Department, the number of farmers&rsquo; suicides stagnated during the years 2006 to 2008. &lsquo;Safe Farmers Campaign&rsquo; (SFC), a consortium of eight, mostly Catholic, NGOs (including Shreyas), in 2007 began a large-scale investigation into farmers&rsquo; suicides that ran parallel to the state&rsquo;s efforts of enumeration and classification. Taking police reports of suicides as a starting point and following up all cases from 2000 to March 2008 they have come up with a total number of 1,690 farmers&rsquo; suicides (Kerala Social Service Forum 2009). That is nearly four times the figure of 435 officially recognised farmers&rsquo; suicides. The latter number is also the number of beneficiaries of the Chief Minister&rsquo;s (CM) relief fund.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; To avoid further committing of farmers&#39; suicides and because of their political nature, the state compensates only such suicides. The CM fund is the most specific programme that targets only cases of farmers&rsquo; suicide. The Indian state has launched unprecedented relief and rehabilitation measures in response to the suicide crisis.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">**page**&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">According to [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp; Suicides in India-2011[/inside],&nbsp;<a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/">http://ncrb.nic.in/</a>:&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; 16 Suicides took place in India every hour during 2011.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; It is observed that social and economic causes have led most of the males to commit suicides whereas emotional and personal causes have mainly driven females to end their lives.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Nearly 71.1% of the suicide victims were married males while 68.2% were married females.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; West Bengal has reported the highest number of suicide victims (accounting for 11.5%) in 2009, second highest in 2010 (accounting for 11.9%) and highest in 2011 (accounting for 12.2%). &nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; West Bengal (12.2%), Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu (11.8% each), Andhra Pradesh (11.1%) and Karnataka (9.3%), altogether contributed 56.2% of total suicide victims.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Self employed category accounted for 38.3% of suicide victims in 2011. It comprised 10.3% engaged in Farming/ Agriculture activities, 5.3% engaged in Business and 3.1% Professionals. &nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">According to the report titled [inside]Accidental Deaths &amp; Suicides in India-2010[/inside], which is produced by the National Crime Records Bureau,&nbsp;<a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/">http://ncrb.nic.in/</a>: &nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Every hour 15 people committed suicide in India during 2010.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; 1 in every 5 suicides is committed by a Housewife.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Total 3,84,649 accidental deaths were reported in the country during the year 2010.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; It is observed that social and economic causes have led most of the males to commit suicides whereas emotional and personal causes have mainly driven females to end their lives.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Nearly 70.5% of the suicide victims were married males while 67.0% were married females.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; 26.3% of the suicide victims were primary educated and 22.7% were middle educated while 19.8% of victims of suicide were illiterate.&nbsp;Self employed category accounted for 41.1% of suicide victims in 2010. It comprised 11.9% engaged in Farming/ Agriculture activities, 5.3% engaged in Business and 3.0% Professionals.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; 41.1% of suicide victims were self employed while only 7.5% were un-employed.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; Suicides because of &lsquo;Family Problems&rsquo; (23.7%) and &rsquo;Illness&rsquo; (21.0%) combined accounted for 44.7% of total Suicides.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; West Bengal has reported the highest number of suicide victims (accounting for 11.9%) in 2008 &amp; 2009 and second highest in 2010 (accounting for 11.9%).</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; West Bengal (11.9%), Andhra Pradesh (11.8%), Tamil Nadu (12.3%), Maharashtra (11.8%) and Karnataka (9.4%) contributed 57.2% of total suicide victims.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull; The highest number of Mass/Family Suicides cases were reported from Bihar (23) followed by Kerala (22) and Madhya Pradesh (21) and Andhra Pradesh (20) out of 109 cases.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">According to National Crime Records Bureau&#39;s [inside]Accidental Death and Suicide (2009)[/inside],<br />
<br />
<a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/suicides-09.pdf">http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/suicides-09.pdf</a>, &nbsp;<br />
<a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/snapshots.pdf">http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/snapshots.pdf</a>, &nbsp;<br />
<a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf">http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf</a>: &nbsp;<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; More than one lakh persons (1,27,151) in the country lost their lives by committing suicide during the year 2009. This indicates an increase of 1.7% over the previous year&#39;s figure (1,25,017).<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The total number of suicides in the country during the decade (1999&ndash;2009) has recorded an increase of 15.0% (from 1,10,587 in 1999 to 1,27,151 in 2009).<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Self-employed category accounted for 39.8% of suicide victims in 2009. It comprised 13.7% engaged in Farming/Agriculture activities, 6.1% engaged in Business and 2.9% Professionals.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 55.1% suicide victims in Mizoram were engaged in farming /agriculture activities in 2009. 29.6% suicide victims in Manipur were unemployed.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Despite a fall in number of suicides committed by farmers in 2009 as compared to 2008 in Maharastra (fallen by 930), the state continues to be number one in terms of farmers&#39; suicides for the tenth year (2,872 suicides) as compared to the rest of the states.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The number of suicides committed by farmers in 2009 was 17,368, which was a rise by 1,172 as compared to 2008.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The growth in the number of suicides committed by the farmers has been 7 percent over the last year.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In the year 2009, 1,27,151 persons committed suicides. Within a span of one year, suicide rate in the entire country has increased by 1.7 percent. During the last year, the total number of suicides committed was 1,25,017.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In the year 2009, 348 persons committed suicides on an average every day, out of which 48 persons were farmers. In the year 2004, on an average 47 farmers committed suicides every day, which means one farmer committing suicide in every 30 minutes.&nbsp;<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Private and Public Sector personnel have accounted for 8.4% and 2.3% of the total suicide victims respectively, whereas students and un-employed victims accounted for 5.3% and 7.8% respectively.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Government servants were 1.3% of the total suicide victims, whereas housewives (25,092) accounted for 54.9% of the total female victims and nearly 19.7% of total victims committing suicides.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 40.9% of salaried and 39.0% of unemployed suicide victims were in the age&ndash;group 30-44 years.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; West Bengal has reported the highest number of suicides (14,648) accounting for 11.5% of total suicides followed by Andhra Pradesh (14,500), Tamil Nadu (14,424), Maharashtra (14,300) and Karnataka (12,195) accounting for 11.4%, 11.3%, 11.2% and 9.6% respectively of the total suicides in the country.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; These 5 States together accounted for 55.1% of the total suicides reported in the country.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 209 deaths at the national level under Mass/Family suicides consisting of 95 males and 114 females were reported as per the information available. 15 cities also did not furnish information.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The maximum number of suicide victims was educated up to Middle level (23.7%). Illiterate and primary educated persons accounted for 21.4% suicide victims and 23.4% respectively.<br />
<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Only 3.1% suicide victims were graduates and post-graduates. 51.9% suicide victims in Sikkim were illiterate. 36.5% suicide victims in Gujarat had education upto primary level. 68.1% suicide victims in Mizoram and 59.1% suicide victims in Puducherry had middle level education.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">**page**&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">The study titled [inside]Farmers Suicide: Facts and Possible Policy Interventions (2006) [/inside] prepared by Meeta and Rajiv Lochan, (Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration), </span><a href="http://www.yashada.org/organisation/FarmersSuicideExcerpts.pdf"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">http://www.yashada.org/organisation/FarmersSuicideExcerpts.pdf</span></a>&nbsp;<span style="font-family:Arial; font-size:medium">revisits some of the families which two earlier reports (Mishra and Dandekar et al) had also visited and criticises them for not doing a good job of compiling the victims&#39; circumstances meticulously. The authors believe that many reports in the past have exaggerated the connection between debt and suicides whereas in reality a lot of other reasons, including harsh environment, a variety of other reasons and absence of basic health services, also play an equally important role. According to the same study:</span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&nbsp; </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;The suicide epidemic is said to have its epicentre in Yavatmal district of Maharastra. According to the State Crime Records Bureau, it reported 640, 819, 832, 787 and 786 suicides respectively for the years 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004.&nbsp; </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Most of the victims of this epidemic were men, mostly in the age group 30 to 50, married and educated, with more social responsibilities, especially in the form of unmarried daughters and or sisters. There were two things that were common among the victims of suicide. One, a feeling of hopelessness: in being unable to resolve problems and dilemmas of personal life; and in the face of an inability to find funds for various activities or repay loans. Two, the absence of any person, group or institution to whom to turn to in order to seek reliable advice: whether for agricultural operations or for seeking funds or for handling private and personal issues. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;People complained about lack of information on various government sponsored schemes. There was little knowledge about institutional mechanisms like the minimum support price (MSP) that would affect marketing, technical knowledge was low and there were no reliable sources from where such knowledge and advice could be accessed. Most farmers were not informed about crop insurance. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Most of them who committed suicide were Hindus and not Muslims or Christians. This is because Hindu religion allowed certain circumstances for altruistic suicide, whereas the latter two religions frowned upon suicides. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Chronic alcoholism and drug abuse were found among rural population.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Loan from a rapacious relative rather than a bank or moneylender was often the cause of economic distress for the victim. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium"><em><strong>The 10 point suggestions are:</strong></em></span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">1. Enhance the physical interaction between government functionaries and village society by insisting on more tours, night halts and gram sabhas by officers at all levels of the administration.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">2. Actively monitor local society, especially farmers, for signs of social, economic and psychological distress and if possible provide social, psychological or spiritual counseling.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">3. Implement with rigour the various provisions that already exist to safeguard the interests of the farmer and farm workers for example, the existing money lending act, minimum wage act etc. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">4. Increase the efficiency of agriculture extension activities. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">5. Increase the efficiency of various services that are delivered by the government in the name of people&#39;s welfare at the moment. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">6. Make available trained and salaried individuals to serve the rural population. Immediate succour is needed. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">7. For the long-term change, it is important to improve the condition of school education and provide appropriate vocational education at the village and taluka level so as to make people understand the complexities of present day production and marketing techniques.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">8. Counsel the media to stop highlighting suicide since the fact of highlighting suicide itself adds fuel to the suicide fire as it were. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">9. Instead of ex gratia payment being made to families of those who commit suicide, provide employment to a member of the family or help in setting up a small business. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">10. Provide direct cash subsidies to actual cultivators.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">According to [inside]Farmers&rsquo; Suicide in India: Agrarian Crisis, Path of Development and Politics in Karnataka[/inside] by Muzaffar Assadi,</span><br />
<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">please <a href="/upload/files/10.1.1.544.330.pdf">click here</a> to access: </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;The beginning of agrarian crisis requires being located much earlier to the beginning of suicide, which goes back to the 1980s when the terms of trade were going against agriculture. To oppose State policies, farmers&rsquo; movements were led by Shetkari Sangathana in Maharashtra, Vyavasayigal Sangam in Tamil Nadu, and Rajya Raitha Sangh in Karnataka. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Karnataka has no history of farmers committing suicide even during the situation of acute agrarian crisis. Even the unorganised farmers would resort to other tactics such as throwing the agricultural commodities on the roads, burning their crops, etc. Andhra became the harbinger for such a trend in Karnataka. Suicide in Karnataka was first reported in the northern parts of Karnataka or close to the border areas of Andhra Pradesh.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;The beginning of the suicides can be traced back to the year 1998, when two farmers in Bidar, who were involved in cultivating Tur Dal, a market-oriented agricultural crop committed suicide. In the initial two years, farmer suicides were largely concentrated in the drought-prone districts in north Karnataka, or confined to economically backward, drought-prone regions such as Gulbarga and Bidar. However, after 2000 , the phenomenon shifted to relatively advanced agricultural regions, particularly Mandya, Hassan, Shimoga, Davanagere, Koppal and even Chickmagalur Kodagu and it also covered ground water region (Belgaum), assured rain fall region (Haveri), Sugar Cane and Cauvery Irrigation Belt (Mandya). However, in the coastal belt, the number of suicides reported was less.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;During 1999-2001, it was estimated that 110 farmers committed suicide in Karnataka. According to one estimate, 3,000 farmers committed suicide in Karnataka between 1998 and 2006. According to the report prepared by the Crime Branch of Karnataka, the number of suicide under the heading &ldquo;farming and agricultural activity&rdquo; comes to 15,804 between 1998 and 2002. Between 1996 and 2002, 12,889 male farmers committed suicide followed by females (2841). The total number of farmers who committed suicide from 1 April, 2003 to 1 January, 2007 comes to 1193. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Debt burden of the farmers who committed suicide was not uniform. It varied between Rs.5000 to Rs.50000. Many of them had borrowed loan on short-term basis.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;The most striking aspect of the crisis, however, is the fact that large number of farmers who committed suicide largely came from the age group between 25 and 35 years.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;During the first few years of this millennium Karnataka saw a deceleration, due to the negative growth in agriculture. This is apparent from the following facts: the average real GDP rate in different sectors between the period 1995-96 and 2002-03 was 5.86; however, for agriculture it was 1.87 per cent, industry 5.93 per cent, service sector 8.18 percent.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;In Karnataka, the large number of farmers who committed suicide came from the OBCs, though there are also cases of farmers committing suicide, hailing from dominant castes such as <em>Lingayats </em>and <em>Vokkaligas</em>. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><br />
<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;The World Bank dictated terms have gone against the interest of the farmers. This is apparent when Karnataka government for example, went for World Bank loan, which granted Economic Restructuring loan in 2001. This loan came along with a condition that government should withdraw from the power sector as regulator and distributor of power. The free power given to the agriculture was withdrawn and it increased the power tariff drastically.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Karnataka government was unable to checkmate the growth of money lenders. It failed to make the cooperative movement a success one. In Karnataka although there are 32,382 Cooperative Societies at the village level, almost 40 cent of them are running under loss, nearly twenty cent of them are either defunct or liquidated.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;The Karnataka government is one of the first governments to allow the field trials of <em>Bt </em>Cotton.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;In 2002, 143 talukas were declared drought affected. In 2003, 159 talukas out of 176 talukas in the state, were declared as drought affected. Drought brought down areas under sowing thus affecting production. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;The first debate on farmers&#39; suicide tries to locate the suicide as part of multiple crises. The crises are ecological, economic, and social, each inter-linked with the other. The ecological crisis is the result of intense use of hybrid seeds, chemical fertilisers and pesticides, causing the erosion of soil fertility and increasing crop-susceptibility to pests and diseases. Heavy indebtedness led to the economic crisis. The second debate attempts to locate the crisis or the suicide to the negative growth of agrarian economy in the recent past as argued by Vandana Shiva. She comes closer to the Marxist critique particularly the arguments of Utsa Patnaik wherein the latter locates the reasons in the liberalisation/ neocolonialism or imperialist globalisation. The third debate attempts to locate the reasons for the suicide in adapting the World Bank model of agriculture or what is called McKinsey Model of development that created spaces for industry-driven agriculture which ultimately translated into agri-business development including Information technology. The fourth is the discourse, which attempts to locate the suicide exclusively to one phenomenon, that is, the increasing indebtedness or the debt trap. The final discourse, which came from the state, attempts to locate the reasons in multiple issues, such as the incessant floods, manipulation of prices by traders, supply of spurious pesticides and seeds, decline in prices of agricultural produce, increase in the cost of agricultural inputs, successive drought in recent years, and of course, the neglect of farmers by the previous state government.</span><br />
&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">Please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/Farmers%20Suicides%20in%20India.pdf" title="Farmers Suicides in India">click here</a> to access the article entitled [inside]Farmers&rsquo; Suicides in India: Magnitudes, Trends, and Spatial Patterns, 1997-2012 by K Nagaraj, P Sainath, R Rukmani and R Gopinath[/inside], Review of Agrarian Studies</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">According to Nagaraj K (2008): [inside]Farmers&rsquo; Suicides in India, Magnitudes, Trends and Spatial Patterns[/inside]<em>, </em>please <a href="tinymce/uploaded/K%20Nagaraj%20Farmers_Suicides_1.pdf" title="K Nagaraj Farmers_Suicides">click here</a> to access</span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium"> :</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Farm suicides happened in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh including Chattisgarh </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;During the ten-year period spanning 1997 to 2006 as many as 166,304 farmers committed suicide in India. If one considers the 12 year period from 1995 to 2006 the figure is close to 200,000.&nbsp; </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Going by the official data, on average nearly 16,000 farmers committed suicide every year over the last decade or so.&nbsp; It is also clear that every seventh suicide in the country was a farm suicide.&nbsp; </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;The year 1998 show a sharp increase in the number of farm suicides &ndash; an 18 percent jump from the previous year; and the number remained more or less steady at around 16,000 suicides per year over the next three years upto 2001. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;The average number of farm suicides per year in the five-year span 2002-2006, at 17,513 is substantially higher than the average (of 15,747 per year) for the previous five-year span. Farm suicides have increased at annual compound growth rate of around 2.5 per cent per annum over the period 1997-2006.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Suicides in general are also largely concentrated among males, but the degree of concentration here is significantly lower than in the case of farm suicides: male suicides in the general population account for nearly 62 percent of all suicides in the country.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">According to Hebber, Dr. Ritambhara (2007): [inside]&lsquo;Human Security and the Case of Farmers&rsquo; Suicides in India: An Exploration&rsquo;[/inside], Centre for Development Studies, School of Social Sciences, TISS, Paper presented in a panel on Rethinking Development in a Conference on &lsquo;Mainstreaming Human Security- an Asian Perspective&rsquo; (October 3-4, 2007) organised by Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok</span><br />
<a href="http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf</span></a></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><br />
<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;The problem of farmers&rsquo; suicides has been seen from the framework of human security. This phenomenon is related to the collapse of basic economic and social support structures in rural India. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;The officials while explaining the suicidal deaths have underplayed the structural changes due to green revolution, globalisation and liberalization. The protective measures and mechanisms required to be provided to the ordinary farmers were overlooked. There has been overemphasis on psychological factors while explaining the suicides. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Farmers committed suicides mainly from Maharastra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Such regions are dry regions where agriculture is mainly rain fed. Farmers were growing cash crops in such regions such as: cotton (particularly in Maharashtra), sunflower, groundnut, and sugarcane (especially in Karnataka). </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Rising cost of production made the farmers to borrow at exorbitant rates from informal sources.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;When the All India Biodynamic and Organic Farming Association wrote to the Mumbai High Court expressing its concern over farmers&rsquo; suicides in Jalna, a district in Maharashtra, the Court asked TISS to conduct a survey study. Based on the survey, the Court asked the Maharastra government to consider the issue seriously. The TISS report identified the untenable cost of agricultural production and indebtedness as the key reasons for suicides. The IGIDR report, on the other hand, did not implicate the government or its policies for the suicides; instead it sought a greater role for government intervention through rural development programmes to expand non-farm activity among farmers.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;A special relief package was announced by the Maharastra government in December, 2005 for six districts of Amravati, Akola, Buldhana, Yavatmal, Washim and Wardha. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Pesticide and fertiliser companies have been extending credit to farmers in Karnataka and in Maharashtra, which adds to their debt burden. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Poor health conditions, family disputes over property, domestic problems, and heavy social burden of marrying daughters coupled with alcoholism have pushed farmers towards committing suicides, according the committee report headed by GK Veeresh. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Farmers&rsquo; movement headed by Shetkari Shangathana was quite strong during the 1980s in Maharastra. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><br />
<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&nbsp;</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">**page**&nbsp;</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">According to CP Chandrashekhar and Jayati Ghosh (2005): [inside]The Burden of Farmers&rsquo; Debt[/inside], Macroscan, </span><a href="http://www.macroscan.com/the/food/sep05/fod140905Farmers_Debt.htm"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">http://www.macroscan.com/the/food/sep05/fod140905Farmers_Debt.htm </span></a></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><br />
<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;One of the important purpose of taking loans was for spending on &#39;&#39;marriages and ceremonies&#39;&#39;, which however accounted for a much smaller proportion of total loans, at around 11 per cent. This purpose was most important for farmer households of Bihar (22.9 per cent) followed by those in Rajasthan (17.6 per cent). </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Moneylenders have emerged as the most significant source of credit for farmers, with 29 per cent accessing this source. </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;The influence of moneylenders appears to be especially strong in Bihar (44 per cent) and Rajasthan (40 per cent). Traders &mdash; of both inputs and outputs &mdash; also have provided loans to 12 per cent of indebted farmers. However, institutional sources still remain significant, with more than half of farmers accessing government, co-operative societies and banks taken together </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Average amount of the outstanding loan increases with the size of the land holding, but what is more interesting is that the proportion of indebted farmers also increases with the size class.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">&bull;&nbsp;Even among very small and marginal farmers, the amount of outstanding loan is substantial, given the likely low incomes from such smallholdings, which suggests some sort of cumulative process leading to a debt trap for the very resource poor cultivators.</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><br />
<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">According to [inside]Causes of Farmer Suicides in Maharashtra: AN ENQUIRY, Final Report Submitted to the Mumbai High Court March 15, 2005[/inside], which has been prepared by Ajay Dandekar, Shahaji Narawade, Ram Rathod, Rajesh Ingle, Vijay Kulkarni, and Sateppa YD, please <a href="/upload/files/farmers_suicide_tiss_report-2005.pdf">click here</a> to access: </span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull;&nbsp;This Report on the farmer suicides in the state of Maharashtra is being submitted as per the Judgment of the Court that made the TISS a consultant in the Public Interest Litigation Number 164 of 2004. The nature of this report is to primarily apprise the Court of the causes that led the farmers to take this extreme step, as per the findings of the research team. The Interim Report was submitted to the Court on February 16, 2005, and this Final Report is being submitted on its due date &mdash; March 16, 2005.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull;&nbsp;The total numbers of suicides reported in Maharashtra, till December 2004, were 644, with most of the deaths occurring in the Vidharbha, Marathwada and Khandesh regions of the state. Thus, the present investigation concentrated on these regions. Out of the total 644 farmer suicides, a sample of five per cent, i.e., 36 cases were identified for the study.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull;&nbsp;The TISS team conducted detailed case studies (life history approach) of all the families of the 36 cases;&nbsp;it also conducted several focus group discussions with farmers in each of the 36 villages covered.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull;&nbsp;Repeated crop failures, inability to meet the rising cost of cultivation, and indebtedness seem to create a situation that forces farmers to commit suicide. However, not all farmers facing these conditions commit suicide &mdash; it is only those who seem to have felt that they have exhausted all avenues of securing support have taken their lives.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull;&nbsp;It is not only the landed who have a crisis of indebtedness to deal with. There were a number of landless families who had leased land on a short-/long-term basis by securing loans. It was also noticed that many landless families managed to acquire money through migration to cities and purchased lands in the late eighties and early nineties. Many such families were caught up in cycles of debt and destitution, which ultimately led to the suicide of the head of the family. Thus, the survivors were reduced to landlessness due to debt. Among those committed included medium and large landowners who were also affected by a high level of un-payable debt.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull;&nbsp;In the cotton belt, the crop seems to have failed more than once in the last four years. This crop failure has always not been associated with natural calamities, such as failure of rain or un-seasonal rains leading to destruction of crops. The causes are an increase in pest attacks in the last few years, especially from 1995 onwards. This meant that the farmers needed more money to pay for pesticides, though, in the end, a high level of pesticide use did not prevent crop failure.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull;&nbsp;Longitudinal data available with government sources indicate declining productivity of land. This meant increased use of fertilisers to enhance productivity of land. The information available indicates that farmers have been spending more on fertilisers even while crop performance has been showing a declining trend. The group discussions and case studies point to the fact that the quantity of use of fertiliser per acre rose in the midnineties and has now reached a saturation point. There appears to be a decrease in the production per acre in the same area.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull;&nbsp;The farmers are dependent on agents of fertiliser and pesticide companies for advice on seeds and crop care. The information base of the farmers is, thus, limited to the data provided by the agents and their products. A false perception of prosperity is being created in the minds of the cultivators that prompts them to take serious risks in terms of fertiliser-based cropping pattern.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull;&nbsp;Input costs have also exhibited a sharp rise. Agriculture has become more expensive post-1995. This rise in the input cost is reflected in the electricity bills, rising costs of high yielding variety (HYV) seeds, fertilisers, energy (diesel), transportation, etc. The rising input cost is not matched by the crop yield and price obtained. The minimum support price has not been available to all farmers, particularly the small and marginal farmers. Large landowners have been able to benefit from support price, when the government has occasionally provided such support. The absence of support price has had serious implications to the farmers.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull;&nbsp;Declining opportunities in non-farm employment has further aggravated the crisis. It seems that in areas where suicides have occurred, non-farm options are getting limited.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull;&nbsp;Those farmers who faced repeated crop failures accumulated loans beyond their capacity to repay. Thus, most of victims had turned defaulters over the last four years. This points to a serious crisis as reflected in the absence of the support system to bail the farmers out, in the form of relatives, neighbours, banks and even the moneylenders who had stopped giving the loans to them lately.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull;&nbsp;The investment (at 1980&ndash;81 prices) stood at Rs. 1,266 crores in 1950&ndash;51 and rose to Rs. 5,246 crores by 1978-79. However, it has declined since 1978&ndash;79 and was only Rs. 4,692 crores in 1990&ndash;91. The share of agricultural investment came down from 22% in 1950&ndash;51 to 19% in 1980&ndash;81 and even further to about 10% in 1990&ndash;91. This has adversely affected the public sector investment in irrigation as more than 90% of the total public investment in agriculture goes for irrigation. The share of the irrigation sector (in states only) in the total public investment came down from 14.7% in 1980&ndash;81 to only 5.6% in 1990&ndash;91 (at 1980&ndash;81 prices) of the public sector investment, whereas the total increase in investment was at the rate of 6.3% per annum.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull;&nbsp;In 1989&ndash;90, the total subsidies to agriculture amounted to Rs. 1,3500 crores &mdash; these were mainly given on fertilisers, irrigation and electricity. These subsidies have gone towards the development of the wealthier farmers in regions where investments have already poured in.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull;&nbsp;The opening up of Indian agriculture to multinational corporations and the withdrawal of the GoI from this system of production has occurred simultaneously. Moreover, the internal markets have become unstable due to the lowering of tariff barriers. Unfair terms of trade towards agriculture of developing countries have made matters worse for those who are engaged in and/or are dependent on this system of agriculture.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull;&nbsp;Bio-diversity is under threat due to TRIPS and the WTO. Environmental degradation resulting in deforestation and depletion of water availability (drinking and agriculture), both in quantity and quality, has made the situation more serious. Untenable cost of production in modern agriculture techniques, institutional and low interest credit and the absence of a credible security net (i.e., crop insurance) are not making things easy for the cultivators in the country.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull;&nbsp;Favourable / Unfavourable agro climatic situation among the State leading to variation in per hectare yield: The agro climatic situation varies from State to State. This leads to variation in per hectare yield. The per hectare yield in Maharashtra State is less in comparison with the yield of other States due to inadequate irrigation facilities and unfavourable agro climatic situations. This leads to more cost of production. However, due to favourable agro climatic situation and sufficient irrigation facilities, the per hectare yield in Haryana and Punjab is more. Therefore, the cost of production of these States is conducive for the States where a particular crop is grown on a large scale. This adversely affects States like Maharashtra who have unfavourable agro climatic situation and higher cost of production. The Minimum Support Prices declared by Government of India does not cover the cost of production of the agriculture producer to the full extent. Therefore, the Minimum Support Prices do not give full justice to the farmers of the State having high cost of production. Therefore, instead of declaring one Minimum Support Price at the National Level, separate support prices may be declared for groups of States according to the cost of cultivation.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&bull;&nbsp;In connection with the price environment for the farmers, it needs to be pointed out that there has been considerable increase in the price of important farm inputs during the last five years. Between 1990&ndash;91and 95&ndash;96 while the prices of wheat as measured by the average of wholesale price indices increased by 58%, that of fertilizer increased by 113%, that of irrigation by 62% and insecticides by 90 percent. While the recent revision in the administered prices of petroleum products, the price of diesel would be higher by 75% than their level during 1990-91. The report further points out that the small and marginal farmers do not get ever get the administered price declared by the state</p>
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&bull; Suicide&nbsp;by&nbsp;self-employed&nbsp;persons&nbsp;in&nbsp;agriculture as a&nbsp;percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6 percent in 1996, 16.3 percent in 2002, 14.4 percent in 2006, 13.7 percent in 2009, 11.9 percent in 2010, 10.3 percent in 2011, 11.4 percent...'
$disp = '<p style="text-align:justify">KEY TRENDS</p><div style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align:justify">&bull; Suicide&nbsp;by&nbsp;self-employed&nbsp;persons&nbsp;in&nbsp;agriculture as a&nbsp;percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6 percent in 1996, 16.3 percent in 2002, 14.4 percent in 2006, 13.7 percent in 2009, 11.9 percent in 2010, 10.3 percent in 2011, 11.4 percent in 2012 and 8.73 percent in 2013. Suicides committed in the farming sector (by farmers plus agricultural labourers) as a proportion of total suicides in India was 9.4 percent in 2014, 9.43 percent in 2015, 8.7 percent in 2016, 8.2 percent in 2017, 7.69 percent in 2018,&nbsp;7.4 percent in 2019, 7.0 percent in 2020, and 6.63 percent in 2021&nbsp;<strong>#</strong><br /><br />&bull; The total number of suicides committed by self-employed persons in agriculture in India was 13729 in 1996, 17971 in 2002, 17060 in 2006, 17368 in 2009, 15964 in 2010, 14027 in 2011, 13754 in 2012 and 11772 in 2013. The total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers/ cultivators plus agricultural labourers) was 12,360 in 2014, 12,602 in 2015, 11,379 in 2016, 10,655 in 2017, 10,349 in 2018, 10,281 in 2019, 10,677 in 2020, and 10,881 in 2021&nbsp;<strong>#</strong>&nbsp;<br /><br />&bull; Due to drop in world market prices for cash-crops (such as coffee, pepper, vanilla) during late 1990s, failure of ginger cultivation in neighbouring Kodagu (formerly Coorg) district and ecological crisis owing to overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides so as to combat productivity failure, many farmers and neo-farmers were left with heavy debts. When, eventually the recovery notices of the banks arrived, hundreds of farmers, especially marginal landholders with up to two acres of land, drank pesticides and killed themselves <strong>@</strong><br /><br />&bull; In Wayanad, since suicide statistics are directly linked to the payment of compensation through the Revenue Department, the number of farmers&rsquo; suicides stagnated during the years 2006 to 2008. &lsquo;Safe Farmers Campaign&rsquo; (SFC), a consortium of eight, mostly Catholic, NGOs (including Shreyas), in 2007 began a large-scale investigation into farmers&rsquo; suicides that ran parallel to the state&rsquo;s efforts of enumeration and classification. Taking police reports of suicides as a starting point and following up all cases from 2000 to March 2008 they have come up with a total number of 1,690 farmers&rsquo; suicides (Kerala Social Service Forum 2009). That is nearly four times the figure of 435 officially recognised farmers&rsquo; suicides. The latter number is also the number of beneficiaries of the Chief Minister&rsquo;s (CM) relief fund <strong>@</strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /><br />&bull; During the ten-year period spanning 1997 to 2006 as many as 1,66,304 farmers committed suicide in India<strong>*</strong><br /><br />&bull; Farm suicides have increased at annual compound growth rate of around 2.5 per cent per annum over the period 1997-2006<strong>*</strong><br /><br />&bull; Farmers, who committed suicides, were growing cash crops in dry regions such as: cotton (particularly in Maharashtra), sunflower, groundnut, and sugarcane (especially in Karnataka) <strong>**</strong><br /><br />&bull; Farm suicides took place in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh including Chhattisgarh<strong>*</strong><br /><br />&bull; Poor health conditions, family disputes over property, domestic problems, and heavy social burden of marrying daughters coupled with alcoholism have pushed farmers towards committing suicides<strong>**</strong></div><p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:justify"><strong>#</strong> National Crime Records Bureau,&nbsp;<a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/">http://ncrb.nic.in/</a></p><p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html" title="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html">http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html</a></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html" title="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html">http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html</a><br /><br /><a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html" title="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html">http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html</a><br /><br /><a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp" title="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp">http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp</a></p><p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm">http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm</a></p><p style="text-align:justify">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium"><a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm" title="http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm">http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm</a> </span></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf</a></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf</a><em>&nbsp;</em></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf</a><em>&nbsp;</em></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf</a></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf</a></p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf" title="http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf">http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf</a><em>&nbsp;</em></p><p style="text-align:justify"><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium"><strong>@</strong> Farmers&#39; suicides&nbsp; and the state in India: Conceptual and ethnographic notes from Wayanad, Kerala by Daniel M&uuml;nster, Contributions to Indian Sociology 2012 46: 181, </span><a href="http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181" title="http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181">http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181</a></p><p style="text-align:justify"><strong>*</strong> Nagaraj, K (2008): Farmers&rsquo; Suicides in India, Magnitudes, Trends and Spatial Patterns, Macroscan,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf" title="http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf">http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf</a>&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:justify"><strong>**</strong> Hebber, Dr. Ritambhara (2007): &lsquo;Human Security and the Case of Farmers&rsquo; Suicides in India: An Exploration&rsquo;, Centre for Development Studies, School of Social Sciences, TISS, Paper presented in a panel on Rethinking Development in a Conference on &lsquo;Mainstreaming Human Security- an Asian Perspective&rsquo; (October 3-4, 2007) organised by Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok</p><p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf" title="http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf">http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Pres<br />entations/Ritambhara.pdf</a></p><div style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:medium">'
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Farm Suicides

KEY TRENDS   • Suicide by self-employed persons in agriculture as a percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6 percent in 1996, 16.3 percent in 2002, 14.4 percent in 2006, 13.7 percent in 2009, 11.9 percent in 2010, 10.3 percent in 2011, 11.4 percent in 2012 and 8.73 percent in 2013. Suicides committed in the farming sector (by farmers plus agricultural labourers) as a proportion of total suicides in India was 9.4 percent in 2014, 9.43 percent in 2015, 8.7 percent in 2016, 8.2 percent in 2017, 7.69 percent in 2018, 7.4 percent in 2019, 7.0 percent in 2020, and 6.63 percent in 2021 # • The total number of suicides committed by self-employed persons in agriculture in India was 13729 in 1996, 17971 in 2002, 17060 in 2006, 17368 in 2009, 15964 in 2010, 14027 in 2011, 13754 in 2012 and 11772 in 2013. The total number of suicides in the farming sector (committed by farmers/ cultivators plus agricultural labourers) was 12,360 in 2014, 12,602 in 2015, 11,379 in 2016, 10,655 in 2017, 10,349 in 2018, 10,281 in 2019, 10,677 in 2020, and 10,881 in 2021 #  • Due to drop in world market prices for cash-crops (such as coffee, pepper, vanilla) during late 1990s, failure of ginger cultivation in neighbouring Kodagu (formerly Coorg) district and ecological crisis owing to overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides so as to combat productivity failure, many farmers and neo-farmers were left with heavy debts. When, eventually the recovery notices of the banks arrived, hundreds of farmers, especially marginal landholders with up to two acres of land, drank pesticides and killed themselves @ • In Wayanad, since suicide statistics are directly linked to the payment of compensation through the Revenue Department, the number of farmers’ suicides stagnated during the years 2006 to 2008. ‘Safe Farmers Campaign’ (SFC), a consortium of eight, mostly Catholic, NGOs (including Shreyas), in 2007 began a large-scale investigation into farmers’ suicides that ran parallel to the state’s efforts of enumeration and classification. Taking police reports of suicides as a starting point and following up all cases from 2000 to March 2008 they have come up with a total number of 1,690 farmers’ suicides (Kerala Social Service Forum 2009). That is nearly four times the figure of 435 officially recognised farmers’ suicides. The latter number is also the number of beneficiaries of the Chief Minister’s (CM) relief fund @    • During the ten-year period spanning 1997 to 2006 as many as 1,66,304 farmers committed suicide in India* • Farm suicides have increased at annual compound growth rate of around 2.5 per cent per annum over the period 1997-2006* • Farmers, who committed suicides, were growing cash crops in dry regions such as: cotton (particularly in Maharashtra), sunflower, groundnut, and sugarcane (especially in Karnataka) ** • Farm suicides took place in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh including Chhattisgarh* • Poor health conditions, family disputes over property, domestic problems, and heavy social burden of marrying daughters coupled with alcoholism have pushed farmers towards committing suicides**   # National Crime Records Bureau, http://ncrb.nic.in/   http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2018/ADSI2018.html http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2017/ADSI2017.html http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2016/ADSI2016.html http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/ADSI2015.asp   http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2014/ADSI2014.htm   http://ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/adsi2013.htm http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2011/table-2.11.pdf http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf  http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf  http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf  @ Farmers' suicides  and the state in India: Conceptual and ethnographic notes from Wayanad, Kerala by Daniel Münster, Contributions to Indian Sociology 2012 46: 181, http://cis.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/181 * Nagaraj, K (2008): Farmers’ Suicides in India, Magnitudes, Trends and Spatial Patterns, Macroscan, http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf  ** Hebber, Dr. Ritambhara (2007): ‘Human Security and the Case of Farmers’ Suicides in India: An Exploration’, Centre for Development Studies, School of Social Sciences, TISS, Paper presented in a panel on Rethinking Development in a Conference on ‘Mainstreaming Human Security- an Asian Perspective’ (October 3-4, 2007) organised by Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Pres entations/Ritambhara.pdf