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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Starvation and suicide by PC Alexander

Starvation and suicide by PC Alexander

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published Published on Jan 15, 2010   modified Modified on Jan 15, 2010

During the last three years, two subjects have been consuming the attention of the world community almost to the exclusion of other equally important subjects. One is the financial crisis, which had threatened to lead to a meltdown of the global economy, and the other is the threat to orderly climate changes in the world. As we step into the second decade of the 21st century, the global financial crisis seems to have crossed the stage of "crisis" and some of the gloomy predictions about the collapse of the global economic system now appear to have been an over-reaction to the early symptoms of crisis.

The threat to the regular cycle of climate change had caused great concern about healthy living in the near future and people had become convinced about the urgency of corrective action on a global basis. However, the manner in which the conference on climate change in Copenhagen concluded its deliberations with a "non-agreement", shows that some of the grave apprehensions which dominated the international thought process prior to the conference were not equally shared by all those who attended the conference.

The point to be noted is that the entire world was riveted by financial crisis and climate change for over a couple of years now, almost sidelining some very vital issues which are of great concern to the overwhelming majority of the developing countries including India. One such issue is the fight against hunger. Now that both the financial crisis and climate change have begun to be seen in their proper perspectives, it is important that the issue of fight against hunger should move to the center of attention of the world community.

As early as 1974, Henry Kissinger, the then secretary of state for the United States, while addressing the first World Food Conference in Rome, had declared that no child would go to bed hungry within 10 years. However, such bold promises about removal of hunger still remain paper projects as is evident from the fact that in an industrially advanced country like India, 42 per cent of the population lives below the international poverty line of $1.25 a day. Even though the Planning Commission may have a more liberal criterion for drawing the poverty line, which may bring down the percentage of people below the poverty line, the fact remains that India has the largest number of people among the developing countries of the world who go to bed every day without food.

The irony of the situation is that the majority of people who are suffering from inadequate intake of food belong to the class of farmers engaged in producing food. A brief column like this cannot attempt to even refer to all the important problems faced by the small farmers in India and the grave iniquity involved in the continuance of the problem, in spite of credible progress in other sectors. My intention is only to bring to the notice of our policy-makers, both in the government and in the Opposition, the urgency for giving top priority to one important dimension of the problem, which has emerged in recent years, much to our shame — suicide by farmers. The number of farmers who committed suicide in the decade between 1997 and 2007 has been estimated as 1,82,936! About two-thirds of these suicides were in five big states of India — Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh — which together account for a third of India’s population.

The government had taken several steps to mitigate the misery of poor farmers, the most important of which was the bailout of about 36 million farmers who had borrowed money from various public sector organisations. There has no doubt been a decrease in suicide deaths in the country because of the various measures taken by the government in 2008, though several experts have warned against the expectation that the problem would disappear very soon. In fact, the problem may assume an aggravated form if there is a recurrence of severe drought or failure of monsoons. What the country requires at this stage are policy initiatives which will ensure that even if more adverse conditions set in, the small farmer will not be driven to killing himself.

Certain disturbing aspects of farmers’ suicides deserve special notice. One is that the majority of the farmers who had committed suicide were relatively young — below the age of 45 — and left behind young wives and children to cope with the tragedy. This is not to say that suicide by elderly persons would have been more tolerable but just to highlight hopelessness at a relatively young age.

The second is that while the number of farmers’ suicides would have shown a decline in absolute terms, its seriousness should be assessed in the context that the total number of rural farmers has also been declining. It has been estimated that between 1991 and 2001, as many as eight million people left farming. Thirdly, while the government has promised enormous sums of money in tackling the problem of hunger in the last few months, the pace and procedures of delivery of such measures have not changed. No attention has been paid at all to the task of improving the delivery system along with financial support. Suicide by a debt-ridden farmer takes place only when he finds that there is no alternative left. Further, the scheme of debt relief announced by the government is about the debts that farmers owe to the public sector organisations. However, mere sermons by the politicians about moneylenders adopting fair rates of interest, repayment periods etc. will be of little help to poor farmers steeped in debt.

Several other well-conceived programmes of the government are not yielding the desired results because of its failure to gear up the delivery mechanism to be prompt and efficient. Digging new wells, employment-generation linked to National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), improving rural roads, better access to markets etc, require altogether new procedures on the part of those responsible for delivery of government assistance to the rural population. Otherwise, most of the well-intentioned relief and rehabilitation programmes may sink into the traditional pattern of government schemes marked by red tape, lethargy and corruption.

P.C. Alexander is a former governor of Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra

The Asian Age, 14 January, 2010, http://www.asianage.com/presentation/leftnavigation/opinion/opinion/starvation-and-suicide.aspx
 

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