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1,500 farmers commit mass suicide in India
Wednesday, 15 April 2009
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Over 1,500 farmers in an Indian state committed suicide after being driven to debt by crop failure, it was reported today.
The agricultural state of Chattisgarh was hit by falling water levels.
"The water level has gone down below 250 feet here. It used to be at 40 feet a few years ago," Shatrughan Sahu, a villager in one of the districts, told Down To Earth magazine
"Most of the farmers here are indebted and only God can save the ones who do not have a bore well."
Mr Sahu lives in a district that recorded 206 farmer suicides last year. Police records for the district add that many deaths occur due to debt and economic distress.
In another village nearby, Beturam Sahu, who owned two acres of land was among those who committed suicide. His crop is yet to be harvested, but his son Lakhnu left to take up a job as a manual labourer.
His family must repay a debt of £400 and the crop this year is poor.
"The crop is so bad this year that we will not even be able to save any seeds," said Lakhnu's friend Santosh. "There were no rains at all."
"That's why Lakhnu left even before harvesting the crop. There is nothing left to harvest in his land this time. He is worried how he will repay these loans."
Bharatendu Prakash, from the Organic Farming Association of India, told the Press Association: "Farmers' suicides are increasing due to a vicious circle created by money lenders. They lure farmers to take money but when the crops fail, they are left with no option other than death."
Mr Prakash added that the government ought to take up the cause of the poor farmers just as they fight for a strong economy.
"Development should be for all. The government blames us for being against development. Forest area is depleting and dams are constructed without proper planning.
All this contributes to dipping water levels. Farmers should be taken into consideration when planning policies," he said.
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Actually here's a better headline for a potential related story: "6,900,000 humans commit mass suicide through biospheric annihilation while idiots squabble over farmer suicide headline."
Posted by David J. Myers | 24.04.09, 17:19 GMT
Pathetic journalism to assume such a misleading title.
Posted by Mark | 18.04.09, 00:08 GMT
I am not in complete agreement with those who suggest they were misled by the headline.
The headline is factual, and draws attention to a big problem in rural India that probably would not have got the attention that "Suicide statistics in India are on the rise" would have.
I followed this link from several sites to get to the root of what this article was about. I would not have spent the time if the headline was different. The reporters are doing their job: get your attention and reporting news. Kudos with caveat:
One question I have is if "1,500 farmers commit suicide in India" would not have met the same end goal without the inference that they all did it at the same time... that is the only question that gives me pause about the headline.
Posted by Adrian | 16.04.09, 20:46 GMT
Chakrabarti,did you hear that?
Posted by Daniel | 16.04.09, 20:42 GMT
Thanks Monsanto and all the other government puppets who blindly endorse GMOs while they cost hundreds of times more than conventional seeds and are the underlying cause of this problem.
Posted by Greg | 16.04.09, 08:50 GMT
This is madness, I being an Indian reading this news from a UK page. None of the mainstream media in India shows the reality to us here. They all (media) are busy campaigning for general election. What the hell....Is this the land of farmers, where our economy is supposed to be driven by agriculture.
I can not think of any word to abuse the resposible govt for this incident. And what is the free press doing???? Atleast let people know what is happening in the country. We all are detachted from our land, We all are developed now, forgetting the ppl who suffer.
I feel broken..
Posted by Sachin | 16.04.09, 08:02 GMT
"mass suicide" is definitely misleading. It is true that there is a serious agrarian and agricultural crisis in India and farmers' suicides have been reported from badly hit pockets, but what remains to be investigated is the 'causality' in a subgroup of the population having high suicide mortality rates.mortaliMultiple risk factors co-exist and an apparently innocuous factor like family feud, big hosptial bill, humiliation by the lender, sudden loss of networth due to social events like marriage or death ceremonies do end up triggering a suicide.It is a complex interaction of social,biological and pyschological response to shocks and events in life. Indebtedness be it formal or informal is just one correlated. While thousands end their lives abruptly, millions who face similar or even worse situations cope with it, adapt and live on. A massive counselling drive, educational initiatives and responsive public policy and civil society action could go a long way in changing the statistics
Posted by sarthak | 16.04.09, 05:40 GMT
BT you make it sound like 1500 farmers all committed suicide at the same time. Would you PLEASE stop coming up with ridiculous tabloid headlines and try and get back the high standard of reporting that you use to have.
Posted by Jen | 15.04.09, 14:57 GMT
And on the other side of the coin, BT publishes stories which promote selfish wealth generation, flash lifestyles of the rich and famous, promotes unrealistic debt burdens through your 'buy now or forever regret it' housing advertorials, meanwhile this article should shame all city owners of 4x4s, all you money-grabbing multi home-owners and the grab as much cash as you can as quick as you can generation who all partially share some responsibility.
Posted by perspective | 15.04.09, 11:08 GMT