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: 150
 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: 151
 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]
LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Farm suicide drop claim by KM Rakesh

Farm suicide drop claim by KM Rakesh

Share this article Share this article
published Published on Mar 9, 2011   modified Modified on Mar 9, 2011
Governments rarely shy away from showering farm sops but Karnataka’s BJP government hopes to reap gains with a debatable claim: that its policies have helped reduce farmer suicides.

State agriculture minister Umesh Katti recently reeled off in the Assembly suicide figures (see chart) that show a declining trend since 2008-09, when the B.S. Yeddyurappa cabinet took power. The assertion that the slide is because of the government’s efforts follows an agriculture budget — touted as a first in India — that Katti presented last month.

Karnataka, though, has traditionally seen fewer distressed farmers end their lives than in neighbouring Andhra and Maharashtra.

Ever since former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) leader H.D. Deve Gowda went about trumpeting his “son of the soil” slogan to highlight his agrarian background and rural upbringing, parties have joined the race.

Yeddyurappa, too, insists farmers come “first”. He has announced loans for them at 1 per cent — down from 3 per cent earlier — and other goodies, with even IT hub Bangalore seemingly taking a back seat in the focus on agriculture.

But experts believe the state has a long way to go before it can calm farmers who choose to end their lives for reasons ranging from crop losses, loan burden and even gluts that lead to dwindling prices for their produce.

R.S. Deshpande, the director of Bangalore’s Institute for Social and Economic Change, told The Telegraph that there were core and peripheral reasons for farmers taking the extreme step, though indebtedness was the key.

Also, since most farmers are semi-literate at best, any shock is hard to absorb. Then, there are sociological reasons. “Most of those who commit suicides are individual farmers,” he said. With families going nuclear even in villages, Deshpande felt farmers faced the problem of lack of emotional support like urban residents.

He called for a social security net, like those hat workers in the organised sector have. “Price inflation is a major issue facing urban consumers. Farmers should also gain something (from higher prices). But that doesn’t usually happen,” he said, listing middlemen and lack of marketing facilities as the main problems.

But some farmers also take a cue from what their counterparts do elsewhere. Muzzaffar Assadi, professor of political science at Mysore University, has pointed out in a study that while Karnataka never had a history of farmers’ suicides, not even during acute agrarian crises, it suddenly began witnessing the trend when farmers started killing themselves in Andhra in the 1990s.

The first recorded suicides in Karnataka were in Bidar in 1998, by when the trend had already caught on in Andhra.

The Telegraph, 9 March, 2011, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110309/jsp/nation/story_13688785.jsp


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close