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NEWS ALERTS | Petty cultivators & agricultural labourers worst victims of farm suicide
Petty cultivators & agricultural labourers worst victims of farm suicide

Petty cultivators & agricultural labourers worst victims of farm suicide

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published Published on Jul 20, 2015   modified Modified on Jul 25, 2015

There is a class angle to farmers' suicide in India. Close to three-quarter of farmers who committed suicide in 2014 were small and marginal farmers. ‘Bankruptcy or indebtedness’ accounted for one-fifth of total farmers’ suicide during 2014.

The report entitled Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India 2014 by the National Crime Records Bureau of Ministry of Home Affairs clarifies the doubt that indebtedness and bankruptcy were major causes of farmers' suicide, and most victims among farmers were relatively land poor.
 
Apart from farmers, roughly 6,710 agricultural labourers committed suicides during last year, constituting 5.1 percent of total suicide victims. It is well-established that when economic, social and environmental compulsions push farmers into the ranks of landless labourers, a process called depeasantization, it leads to further economic hardships and eventually migration, and in some extreme cases cause suicides.  
 
As per the latest ADSI report, a total of 5,650 farmers committed suicides during 2014, accounting for 4.3 percent of total suicide victims in India. Apart from 'bankruptcy or indebtedness', the other prominent causes of farmers’ suicide were 'family problems' (20.1%),  ‘crop failure’ (16.8%), ‘illness’ (13.2%) and ‘drug abuse/ alcoholic addiction’ (4.9%).

It is worth noting that the National Sample Survey 59th Round (January-December 2003) had found that 48.6 percent farmer households were indebted while the NSS 70th Round (January-December 2013) observed that 52 percent of India's agricultural households were indebted in July, 2012-June, 2013. A similar survey on rural indebtedness by the NSSO in 1991 found indebtedness among only 26 percent of farmers.

On an average, the amount of debt per farmer household was Rs. 12,585/- during the NSS 59th Round, which increased by nearly fourfold to reach Rs. 47000/- per agricultural household during the NSS 70th Round.

The majority of agricultural households, which possessed more than 0.40 hectare land, reported cultivation as their principal source of income. The NSS 70th Round report had found that the average monthly income per agricultural household in India during the agricultural year July 2012- June 2013 was Rs. 6426/-, whereas the average monthly consumption expenditure per agricultural household was Rs. 6223/- during the same time.

As per the recent NCRB report, most number of farmers' suicide were committed in Maharashtra (2,568), followed by Telengana (898), Madhya Pradesh (826), Chhattisgarh (443) and Karnataka (321.) These 5 states together constituted 89.5 percent of the total farmer suicides (5,056 out of 5,650) reported in the country during 2014.

The NSS 70th Round report had found that 57.3 percent agricultural households were indebted in Maharashtra, 89.1 percent in Telengana, 45.7 percent in Madhya Pradesh, 37.2 percent in Chhattisgarh and 77.3 percent in Karnataka in 2012-13.

While going through the ADSI 2014 report, the following points could be noticed:

• A total of 5,650 farmers have committed suicides during 2014, accounting for 4.3% of total suicide victims in the country. However, 6,710 agricultural labourers have committed suicides during 2014, which is 5.1% of total suicide victims. Therefore, the total number of suicides committed by self-employed persons in agriculture (farmers plus agricultural labourers) in India was 12,360 in 2014, accounting for 9.4% of total suicide victims in India (please click here to access).

• The states of West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Tripura, Rajasthan, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Manipur, Jharkhand, Goa, Arunachal Pradesh and Bihar have reported no farmers' suicide during 2014. All the Union Territories except Andaman and Nicobar Islands have reported zero farmers' suicide during 2014 (please click here to access).

• The states of Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Goa, Manipur and Nagaland have reported no suicide by agricultural labourers during 2014. All the Union Territories except Puducherry have reported zero suicide by agricultural labourers during 2014 (please click here to access).

• The latest issue of the ADSI report is different from the earlier ones in two ways: a. Apart from the usual male and female break-up of data, one also gets data pertaining to transgenders (please click here to access), which was missing earlier; b. There is a separate chapter (please click here to access) and 3 tables (in the annexure, please click link1, link2 and link3) on farmer suicides in India and at state/UT-level, which did not exist in earlier reports. In the previous ADSI reports, one had to extract data on farmers' suicide from the table on distribution of suicides by profession. Suicides committed by self-employed persons in agriculture gave the proxy on number of farmers' suicide at the national/state/UT-level.
 
• As per the ADSI 2014, the term 'farmer' includes those who works on field as well as those who employ/ hire workers for field work/ farming. As per the ADSI 2013, the suicides committed by 'persons self employed in agricultural activities' do not necessarily mean suicides committed by farmers only. However, in the ADSI 2012, we did not find any such definition of 'persons self employed in agricultural activities' as was mentioned in ADSI 2013. 
 
• Unlike the previous ones, in the present ADSI report suicides by self-employed persons in agriculture has been sub-divided into suicides by agricultural labourers and suicides by farmers. Suicides by farmers has been further subdivided (in the current report) into suicide by farmers having own land and suicide by farmers having land on contract or lease.   

• Suicide by self-employed persons in agriculture (farmers plus agricultural labourers) as a percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6% in 1996, 16.3% in 2002, 14.4% in 2006, 13.7% in 2009, 11.9% in 2010, 10.3% in 2011, 11.4% in 2012, 8.73% in 2013 and 9.4% in 2014.

• The total number of suicides committed by self-employed persons in agriculture (farmers plus agricultural labourers) in India was 13729 in 1996, 17971 in 2002, 17060 in 2006, 17368 in 2009, 15964 in 2010, 14027 in 2011, 13754 in 2012, 11772 in 2013 and 12360 in 2014.


References

Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India 2014 (released in 2015) by National Crime Records Bureau, please click here to access

ADSI Reports of Previous years (1967-2013)

Farm Debt Curse Continues: NSSO

Maharashtra tops 2014 suicide chart, The Indian Express, 20 July, 2015

16 farmer suicides in 1 month in Karnataka’s ‘sugar bowl’ -Johnson TA, The Indian Express, 20 July, 2015

Maharashtra sees 1,300 suicides by farmers in only 6 months this year -Priyanka Kakodkar, The Times of India, 20 July, 2015

Uttar Pradesh, T.N. roads the most unsafe, show NCRB data -Rukmini S, The Hindu, 18 July, 2015
 
 
Image Courtesy: Shambhu Ghatak


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