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Punjab -- the land of one farm
suicide a day
WSN Network
 BATHINDA: Punjab's
revenue records show that some 130 farmers committed suicide between
2000 to 2007. Grassroot organisations put the number at 20,000 plus.
Now, after the Punjab Government commissioned a survey cum study by
the PAU,
Ludhiana,
it has come to light that some 2,890 farmers and farm labourers in
just Bathinda and Sangrur killed themselves in the last nine years
in distress because of farming crisis of indebtedness.
That is
approximately one suicide every day. About 87 per cent of them were
small farmers and agricultural labourers.
The study was done
door-to-door study and the report is now with the
Punjab government.
The PAU report says
that of the total number of suicides, 1,757 were by farmers and
1,133 by agricultural labourers.
According to the
study, in Bathinda, 773 farmers and 483 labourers, and in Sangrur,
984 farmers and 650 labourers ended their lives. About 65 per cent
of the suicides were due to indebtedness. The remaining 35 per cent
were due to “other reasons”.
However, farmers’
organisations are not ready to buy the argument of “other reasons”.
The phenomenon of
suicides by agricultural labourers has surprised intellectuals,
economists and farmers’ organisations. Of the total suicides, 37.89
per cent were by agriculture labourers.
“Suicides by
labourers have been happening for a long time, but the debate has
focused on farmers only . Nobody paid any heed to their misery since
they were among the poorest of the poor,” said Lachchman Singh
Sevewala, general secretary, Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union.
Agriculture
labourers’ organisations say the main reason behind these suicides
may not be indebtedness but the hopeless life labourers are forced
to lead due to the agrarian crisis. The collapse of traditional
farming and the public distribution system had made the labourers
completely dependent on market whims.
The study also says
that as per the rural population proportion, more suicides have
taken place in Bathinda than in Sangrur. This puts a question mark
on the argument put forward by some scholars that the suicides were
due to economic distress.
They said Sangrur
was not the most backward district of the state as far as
agriculture was concerned. However, this new study says that the
maximum number of suicides took place in the cotton belt.
29
April 2009
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