-TheWire.in The Panjab Agriculture University study examined deaths by suicide among farmers between 2000 and 2018 in six districts of the state. Chandigarh: As many as 9,291 farmers died by suicide between 2000 and 2018 in six districts of Punjab, a Panjab Agriculture University (PAU) study published in the latest edition of Economic and Political Weekly has revealed. The districts surveyed were Sangrur, Bathinda, Ludhiana, Mansa, Moga and Barnala. Heavy debt – most incurred...

The increase in the total number of suicides committed in India during 2020 in comparison to the previous years has hit the headlines recently. While some media commentators have stated that the economic distress (caused by job loss, income loss, failure of business, and growing hunger, among other things) in 2020 could have led to more suicides being committed, others have said that home isolation and deteriorating mental health (associated...

-The Tribune ‘High indebtedness, inability to repay loan led to extreme step’ Over 7,300 farm labourers in Punjab have died by suicide between 2000 and 2018. As many as 5,765 of these (79 per cent of total suicides by farm labourers) were because of high indebtedness and inability to repay the loan. An average agricultural labour family in the state has a debt of Rs 76,017 while the agricultural labourer suicide victim family...

-Down to Earth Creation of unregulated private points of sale will only ensure that the produce continues to be sold as before — at below MSP and without any government support More than 86 per cent farmers in India own or cultivate on less than two acres of land and have little surplus to sell. They are the victims of middlemen (arthiya) at the mandis (local exchange markets) and are forced, by...

-PTI Statistics for female farmer suicides are "complete rubbish" as the discussion on women victims of agrarian crisis often becomes a discussion of their role as widows of male farmers, he said. New Delhi: Tens of thousands of women get excluded from the farmer suicides data in the country just because they are never considered as farmers, senior journalist-cum-agriculture expert P Sainath said on Friday. Delivering his valedictorian address at the XVI National...