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]
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]
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]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
Notice (8): Undefined variable: urlPrefix [APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8]latest-news-updates/battleground-punjab-the-story-of-the-missing-farmers-subodh-varma-4681110.html"/> LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Battleground Punjab: The story of the missing farmers -Subodh Varma | Im4change.org
Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Battleground Punjab: The story of the missing farmers -Subodh Varma

-The Economic Times

A small village called Khanauri in Punjab's Sangrur district has become a macabre hotspot. People come here to peer down at the Bhakra Main Line canal hoping to catch sight of dead bodies that get held up on the sluice gates. They are not ghouls ­ they are looking for kin or friends who have disappeared.

The canal runs unhindered like an arrow for 159 km through Punjab's eastern districts and Khanauri barrage is the first point where the flowing water is slowed down. In the past few years, most of the bodies that turned up at Khanauri were of farmers who had committed suicide, mainly because of debt and economic crisis.

In Punjab as a whole, estimates of farmers' suicides range from a few thousand to tens of thousands. A study by three universities estimated that between 2000 and 2011, nearly 7,000 farmers committed suicide, most of them because of debt.

A new study for 2011-15 by the same three universities, is in the final stages of data processing. Balwinder Singh Tiwana, professor of economics at Punjabi University , Patiala and one of those involved in the survey told TOI that 3,000 to 4,000 farmers committed suicide in this most recent period.

Farmers' suicides are but one chilling symptom of the crisis gripping Punjab's agriculture, once thought of as a shining path for the rest of India. Its sweep is so wide and the effects so pervasive that every political formation in Punjab's ongoing election campaign is battling to assure farmers that it has the best solutions.

Please click here to read more.