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Notice (8): Undefined variable: urlPrefix [APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8]news-clippings/3-000-farmer-suicides-in-8-years-by-priya-yadav-1130.html"/> न्यूज क्लिपिंग्स् | '3,000 farmer suicides in 8 years' by Priya Yadav | Im4change.org
Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

'3,000 farmer suicides in 8 years' by Priya Yadav

While Punjab remains, in popular perception, the land of plenty, a group of economists at Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) has revealed that the picture isn't rosy at all — in fact it's grim.

Rural indebtedness has touched Rs 35,000 crore and, worse, 3,000 debt-ridden farmers have committed suicide in the last eight years. Economists are also relating the suicides with high illiteracy among the poor farmers and say Punjab needs to increase expenditure on education.

"Rural debts are mounting rapidly and have touched Rs 35,000 crore in the year 2009-2010 as against Rs 21,640 crore in 2007," said Sukhpal Singh, senior PAU economist in Ludhiana. In the first such survey commissioned by the Punjab government, door-to-door survey of two districts indicated that nearly 3,000 farmers had killed themselves in the last eight years. "About 38% of these were 20 to 30 years old and 60% had unpaid debts. Significantly, 47% suicides were by illiterate," said Sukhpal Singh.

It's the farm holdings, of two acres or less, which have made farming economically unviable and driven farmers who took debts to keep their crop alive to kill themselves. "A follow up at the homes of suicides have shown that nearly 25% of such families sold off their land after the death," said Sukhpal.

Inderjit Singh Jaijee, who launched Movement Against State Repression, blamed the government for keeping farmers' suicides under wraps. "Most of these suicides are unreported because suicide is a criminal offence and families avoid going to the police. This helps the state to go into denial about these tragic deaths at the grassroots," Jaijee said.

Linking the suicides to not just farm indebtedness but also to lack of education, R S Ghuman, professor and head of Economics, Punjabi University, said, "The state budget on education and its infrastructure is mere 11% and just 3.7% of children in Punjab are getting into professional education." Emphasising on the need for better education infrastructure, Ghuman said, "The drop out rate in schools is unacceptably high at 60% until class X. This is making the farmers, especially those holding farms, completely dependent on farming as a source of raising money to support their families.