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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Suicide rate of Indian farmers rise as country faces urgent water crisis -Nanda Lakhwani

Suicide rate of Indian farmers rise as country faces urgent water crisis -Nanda Lakhwani

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published Published on Mar 30, 2016   modified Modified on Mar 30, 2016
-International Business Times

Bone-dry India’s water crisis seems to bringing the 2015 blockbuster film “Mad Max” to life. Apart from a deteriorating quality of life, countless diseases and loss of economic opportunities, India’s lack of water is also causing a plethora of social ills.

Two successive years of droughts have resulted in India’s water crisis worsening by the minute, with a whopping 75.8 million Indians -- five percent of the country’s population -- currently lacking access to clean water.

Here’s another horrifying fact -- almost all of India’s water is contaminated by sewage, which means those cut off from clean water have two options: purchase water at the high price of 72 cents for 50 litres; or use supplies contaminated with sewage and chemicals.

A lack of water results in withering crops, which means already-poor rural farmers are not getting a decent income. Based on a new report from the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University Law School, insurmountable debt has driven many farmers to suicide. Of course other factors also contribute to farmer suicides, such as bank reforms, genetically modified crops, mental health, family problems and government policies.

But India’s water shortage seems to have been the tip of the iceberg. The past two years have seen suicide rates among Indian farmers skyrocketing as the country’s groundwater depletes. Over the past twenty years over 300,000 farmer suicides were reported, but in 2015 the state of Maharashtra alone had 3,228 farmer suicides, its highest in 14 years.

Maharashtra state authorities claim to be trying to help farmers and their families, through concessions on electricity bills and covering interest payments on loans. Government hospitals have also opened special cells in various district and sub-district hospitals to provide counselling to farmers. This measure was considered absolutely necessary after more than 200 farmers and their families were diagnosed with clinical depression in Maharashtra alone.

Latur is a popular tourist hub in Maharashtra, but with dams going dry and quotas imposed on water supply, drought-hit Latur’s authorities have needed to take legal action to prevent possible violence over an acute water shortage. Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which prohibits the assembly of over five people in an area around wells and water filling points, had to be imposed until May 31 in an effort to prevent water riots.

This is an unprecedented step, but a necessary one because of the people’s desperation for water, especially since water tankers arrive merely once a week, and water through the taps just once a month. According to New Dehli Television, the water is brought from 35km away and local politicians frequently divert water tankers to their own areas, by coercion.

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International Business Times, 29 March, 2016, http://www.ibtimes.com.au/suicide-rate-indian-farmers-rise-country-faces-urgent-water-crisis-1510457


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