Farmer suicides: Pre-2000 cases unjustly ignored

Monday, 12/08/2013

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Though the Punjab government, citing lack of funds, has temporarily stopped payments for the rehabilitation of family members of farmers who committed suicide because of economic distress, the move to compensate only post-2000 cases has left many families in the lurch.

South-west Punjab (Malwa’s cotton belt) witnessed a major agrarian crisis from 1997 to 1999, when for consecutive three years, the cotton crop failed in the region because of the American bollworm attack and farmers failed to repay hefty loans taken from banks and arhtiyas.

PEAK PERIOD
A number of studies carried out by state universities and international agencies in the region have found that farm suicides were at their peak in Punjab around 1997, when the central government froze the minimum support price (MSP) for paddy and wheat on the recommendations of the Abhijeet Sen Committee.

“Various studies have shown that the phenomenon of farm suicides, which started in Punjab in 1989, reached its peak between 1997 and 2005, before the introduction of Bt cotton in the state. Nationwide, too, the phenomenon peaked between 1997 and 2003,” said Prof Sucha Singh Gill, director of the Chandigarh-based Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID).

A research conducted by a team of experts led by Prof Gill, after analysing the National Crime Bureau (NCB) data on suicides, had found that from 1997-2000, the rate of suicides by farmers in Bathinda and Mansa was around 87 per year.

A study conducted by Harvard University (US) in Moonak subdivision of Sangrur in 2009 found that around 60 farmers alone committed suicide in one village, Chotiyan, before 2000. An IIT-Kanpur study also found that more than 60 farmers ended their life in this village from 1990-99.

“However, the survey conducted in 2008 by Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, to ascertain the number of suicides, found that only one farmer committed suicide in Chotiyan,” said Inderjit Singh Jeji, a writer and social activist, who is the leader in raking up the issue of suicide by farmers of Punjab in 90s and also fought legal battles against the government. Jeji stated that as per various surveys, more than 5,000 farmers committed suicide in south-west Punjab before 2000.

BKU’S TAKE
Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ugrahan) general secretary Sukhdev Singh Kokri said it was a grave injustice to leave out families of victims who had committed suicide before 2000.

“The move to leave out pre2000 cases and the discrepancies found in surveys by Punjabi University are enough to gauge the government’s seriousness on farmer issues,” he said. According to BKU records, there are around 2,000 cases of farm suicides in Punjab from 1997 to 2000.