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

Reservation in Private is a Dire Necessity

Only handful of Dalits & Tribals could do little economic progress due to Job reservation policy in govt. But hue & cry is made by higher echelons of a society against job reservation . Educated parents spread ante reservation venom among their children. Dalit & Tribal students are taunted & humiliated in the schools & colleges. Now full stop has been put to the reservation policy because of the privatization policy of the govt.

British realized the pathetic situations of the downtrodden of the society whose status was lesser than animals. Morley-Minto commission had given some benefits to the oppressed classes. Then due to efforts of Dr. Ambedkar, reservation in jobs were given to the SC/STs constitutionally. The policy of reservation was implemented half heartedly till 1990. Only handful of SC/STs could get benefits due to reservation till this time. Then came the Privatization policy during the time of Narsingh Rao & Manmohan Singh, the doors of recruitment were totally shut for Dalits. Earlier public sectors were recruiting about 10000 SC/ST engineering graduates every year. Now there is almost nil recruitment. Many of these engineering graduates practically came on the roads as they do not have any sources in private companies, their only source of reservation system was snatched from them. This has happened in all kinds of Jobs. The doors of economic progress of SCs/STs are totally shut due to privatization policy after 1990. They are being forced to old slavery system.

It is well known fact that jobs in the private sectors can be obtained through the insiders. Dalits & Tribals do not have access to this kind of system. Higher caste people get preferences in this system which is in existence since generations. Is this not a reservation system? Why no one speaks about this system? Only questions are raised about reservation of SC/STs. The proponents of merit do not understand that the reservation for Dalits helps them to compensate discriminations which they are facing in every walk of life. It is not wise to ask Dalits & Tribals to compete in the unfair competition. The present society full of discriminations cannot offer level playing field to dalits & tribals. They are the victims of exclusions.

The private sector is fully engrossed in profit earnings. On their own they will not come forward for affirmative action which is in existence in USA. Govt has to make law for job reservation in private in order bring economic upliftment of weaker sections. Already considerable delay has taken place since 1990, govt must wake up & act for job reservation weaker sections in private.

- Bodhisattwa Shendre