Farmer’s suicide- Measures by Dilasa
A study was conducted on understanding and documenting impact of agrarian crisis on children learning’s involving seven organizations in Yavatmal, Wardha & Amravati districts. The study was conducted under NEGFIRE in 76 villages of three districts with following objectives.
- To generate data on life and education of children affected by agrarian crises
- To enable undertaking appropriate intervention strategies and policy recommendations
- To enable developing research and documentation capacities of the grassroots staff
Outcome of the study
- Most of the affected families are from regions with rain-fed cultivation & recurring drought
- Mostly affected farmers are having an average land holding of 4.1 acres (ranging from 2 to 8 acres)
- Significant investments in bore-wells that often did not yield any water or dried up after some time
- Crop failures due to several factors have pushed farmers into indebtedness
- Continuing crop failures for two or more years and low returns deprived any hopes of escape from the growing burden of loans, many farmers sold assets before ending their lives
- Burden of loans ranged from barely Rs 10,000 to Rs 400000 and one third of the affected farmers had loans up to Rs 50,000
- Farmers committing suicide are generally males and females constitute 7.51 %
- A small section of the families (4.54 %) had two to three suicides in the family
- Most of the farmers (67.41 %) who have committed suicide are in the age group of 30 to 40 years
- Most of the affected families are nuclear families and joint families constitute 8.46 % of the total
- Most of the affected families have two to four children below 18 years
- Some had catastrophic medical expenses and debts that could not be repaid with failing farm incomes
- Women headed families in some cases have left the village of their late husband and relocated in parent’s village as they did not have any security, land titles or security and support for the children
- Compensation package has been received by some of the affected farmers while a larger section is deprived of any assistance
- Compensation is inadequate, linked with assistance for farming, and there are complaints of corruption by local authorities