Why do governments ignore the farm suicide numbers of the National Crime Records Bureau, when it is the only authentic source on the subject? Kafka might have envied the script. In Delhi, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar informed the Rajya Sabha on May 7 that there had been just six farmers' suicides in Vidarbha since January. The same day, same time in Maharashtra, Chief Minister Ashok Chavan said that figure...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Total Matching Records found : 318
Men of letters, unmoved readers by P Sainath
Suicide notes in Vidarbha are at times addressed to the Prime Minister, the desperate last cries of voices that went unheeded when alive. Seeking authenticity for his letter to the Prime Minister and the President, Ramachandra Raut composed it with care on Rs.100 non-judicial stamp paper. Then he added a few more addressees, including his village sarpanch and the police, in the hope that it got home someplace. Then he...
More »Farm suicides: a 12-year saga by P Sainath
In 2006-08, Maharashtra saw 12, 493 farm suicides. That is 85 per cent higher than the 6,745 suicides it recorded during 1997-1999. And the worst three-year period for any State, any time. The loan waiver year of 2008 saw 16,196 farm suicides in the country, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. Compared to 2007, that’s a fall of just 436. As economist Professor K. Nagaraj who has worked in-depth on...
More »Nearly 2 lakh farm suicides since 1997 by P Sainath
Over two-thirds in ‘suicide belt’ of five States, more than one-fifth in Maharashtra There were at least 16,196 farmers’ suicides in India in 2008, bringing the total since 1997 to 199,132, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). The share of the Big 5 States or ‘suicide belt’ in 2008 — Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh — remained very high at 10,797, or 66.6 per cent...
More »A lot of Ruchikas out there by Atul Thakur
Ruchika Girhotra's may be a particularly outrageous example, but things have been getting progressively worse for women in India. Official data shows that crimes against women are rising faster than any other crime. What is worse, investigation of anti-women offences is more tardy than most others. In 2007, the year for which latest data is available from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), seven of the 10 fastest rising crimes...
More »
