Farmers Suicides in Vidarbha

Every day farmers of Vidarbha are committing suicides & more or less same trend is seen in entire India. As per one survey, more than 40000 farmers have committed suicides in entire India in the past one & half decade. The figure has become alarming. It seems nobody bothers since farmers suicides have become daily affair.

Few years back farmers were happy community. They were earning sufficient & were leaving dignified life as they did not have to face inflation. Farmers by nature are simple & straight people. Now they cannot cope up with rising inflation & they prefer to die instead of facing society as a dejected person. They feel ashamed in the society if they are not able to repay the loans which forces them to take the root of suicides. The reasons of suicides are purely economical policies of the govt. The policy of LPG i.e. Liberalization, Privatization & Globalization have hit the poor sections of society bitterly. It gave the farmers suicides in legacy. Maharashtra govt has set up a committee to find out the reasons of suicide. A fat report was submitted blaming on failures of monsoon, uncontrollable pests, reduction in sizes of land holdings due to population increase, increase in the cost of seeds, fertilizers, pesticides etc. etc.

Real reason of suicides is rising cost of living which is a byproduct of LPG. No doubt , there is economic progress of India but it has benefited Industrialists & urban higher middle class. The ill effects of LPG have hit the poor sections of society. Profit margins of Industrialists have multiplied but the incomes of farmers gone downwards. It has become difficult for farmers to cope up with the inflation & they get trapped in the vicious circle of debt. Govt has not come with any concrete policy to counter the affected sections of the society suffered by LPG policy. Another example is privatization has fully stopped the recruitment of SC/STs. .No govt has bothered about ill effects of LPG.

Farmers are dying but no politicians are bothering. In fact the top politicians & Industrialists are multiplying their wealth & farmers are becoming poorer & poorer day by day. They have become insensitive towards the sorrows & pains of the poor. I recall the sensitivity of Freedom fighter Sane Guruji . This great man has written mind boggling books like Shyamchi Aai & also gone in jail while fighting for freedom movement of India. But independence has not brought any relief to the lives of the poors. It was unbearable for him to see the poverty of the people & he preferred to die by consuming a poison. No one is asking today’s politician to die but at least become fractionally sensitivs towards the lives of the poor.


Bodhisattwa Shendre