Farmer Suicide Problem Of India

Farmer suicide has been a concern for India, since decades till date. Recently, this has led to a shrill media outcry and much politicking. The government has played a role of only the sympathy provider for them.

The main issue with offering 'special packages' to deal with such a problem is that it is reactionary rather than a long term solution policy.

Suicides are characterized by a prior history of difficulties and, in most cases, mental illness that renders the person vulnerable to suicidal behavior, for which we need to have a deeper understanding of factors that trigger and contribute to suicides among different demographic catagories.

Data

The state of Maharashtra have had the largest number offarmer suicides for decades.
76% of all suicides are concentrated within 6 districts and nearly 60% of farmers who committed suicide own more than four acres of land.

Reason for farmer suicides in India

Indebtness has been highlighted as one of the most basic factors of farmer suicides, which the prime intellectuals call as "Debt Deaths". The banking reach has still not gone till the grassroot level due to which these farmers are bound to take loans from zamindar and moneylenders who charge hefty rates of interest.

Various reports and data prove that although a lot has been done towards the development of banking systems in India still there are a lot of villages and rural areas where the banks are far off from the reach of people (farmers) or nonfunctional even if present.

Here it becomes important to understand the difference between loan borrowings from banks and those from moneylenders and how the banks can play a vital role in decreasing the suicide rates of farmers.

If a farmer borrows an amount from a zamindar or moneylender, he has to keep a high amount of collateral as security. Since these moneylenders use their own money for lending purposes, they charge high interest rates and leniency isn't accepted.

Now if due to some natural calamity or unexpected reasons the crops and profits are not earned as per desired these poor farmers do not have enough to payoff their loans. With every passing day and month this amount keeps accommodating and a day comes when there builds so much stress and pressure on his mind that he finally surrenders in form of suicide.

On the other hand, if the same amount is borrowed from a bank like a RRB or PACS the rate of interest is quite low and the collateral to be kept is negligible There are also a lot of plans and policies for the support of farmers. Hence the farmers can survive the natural calamity and the case if they are not able to repay the amount on time.

A suggestion

One more point needs to be raised when talking about the suicides of farmers, the inappropriate policy system on the part of government.

Every government that comes to power thinks only of 5 years of its term, thinks of showcasing its good efforts by waiving off loans for farmers.

It's important that the government works for the betterment of land, teach and provide farmers with good farming faculties, work or irrigation which is a problem of every year and provide high variety seeds so that they become so capable that waiving off of loans and such parallel acts are no more needed.

For better understanding you can check out here:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmers%2527_suicides_in_India&ved=2ahUKEwjH5bOmjuHiAhUr7nMBHeD3DkwQFjALegQIAxAB&usg=AOvVaw3_0-dcnTfMjmXqB03qu741