FARMERS' SUICIDES IN MAHARASHTRA

FARMERS’ SUICIDES IN MAHARASHTRA It is the review of article of “Farmers’ Suicides in Maharashtra” By B.B Mohanty and Sangeeta Shroff stressing the three district of Maharashtra (Amravati, Yavatmal and Wardha) explaining different hardship the farmers undergo due to crop losses, indebtedness and market imperfections and other social factors which are at work in their suicides. AMRIT BARLA, DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY, PONDICHERRY UNIVERSITY According to National Crime Report Bureau the total number of suicide committed by farmers since 1995 in India is 2, 96,438; and a Rural Reporter P.Sainath reported in Frontline is crossing 3, 00,000 marking in 2014 farmers’ suicides in India. The huge numbers of people do agriculture in India directly or indirectly almost 48.9% as NCRB have been stated. The farmers’ suicide happening every day at least ten who killed themselves; and a total of 5,650 farmers have committed suicide during 2014, accounting 4.3% of total suicides victims in the country. And major states in which the suicide is more like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh so on. A suicide among the farming communities according state government it is the deaths to crop failures due to bad weather; the media interpret suicide as the rising cost of cultivation. It varies in their styles and temper as well as in their major findings. Some group attributes suicide as agro-economic problems like crop failure, indebtedness; other highlight as politico-economic issues- blaming the state for the tragedies. Some others suggest that it is the outcome of historical factor associated with cotton cultivation. As (2001) study according to Mohanty of Amravati and Yavatmal districts reveals it is the result of complex process of interaction of both historical and contemporary socio-economic forces. According to NCRB farmers are those who own and work on filed (cultivators) as well as those who employ/hire workers for field work/farming activities. It excludes agricultural labours. 2003 study of Mohanty and Shroff explains the suicides of the farmers in Maharashtra with reference to three districts of Amravati, Yavatmal and Wardha. These three districts were formed a part of Vidarbha region of Maharashtra which were a part of Madhya Pradesh. This region changed from 19th century due to cotton cultivation and systematic changes in agriculture took place in the post-independence period under the impact of land reform, new production technology and accompanying in infrastructural arrangement. The government of India launched land reform under the country’s five year plan which brought positive impact on redistribution of land; and Vidarbha region benefited mostly district of Amravati and Yavatmal. This land reform several consequences- there was increase of operational holdings, gross cropped area by the rise in cropping intensity. Looking at the cropping pattern- there was change, earlier cotton was the predominant crop, but now it oilseeds replacing food grain and cotton. There was the demand of farmers; so credit network too expanded in which two ways formal agencies (i.e Banks, those agencies lend money to farmers through proper written rules and regulation) and informal agencies (i.e village moneylender, those who don’t have any proper documentation on money lending to farmers, just in oral way as the moneylender wish). In these moneylending process there was several irregularities and malpractices observed in the marketing of agricultural produce; there was an act called Maharashtra agricultural produce market act 1963, and the principal objectives of this act were- to bring equity in bargaining power among agriculturalist and traders, to promote mutual confidence between the two parties, to prevent malpractices in trading, to give a fair deal to the peasants. By the end there was a market committee which comprised of elected representative of agriculturalist and traders, as well as nominated numbers from the government and local bodies. The official of this committee supervise the marketing operations. Agricultural revolution was initiation to prosperity for the farmers of Maharashtra which latter push the farmers into distress; because it was the HYV varieties which required heavy does of fertilizers, pesticides and other complementary inputs; basically it increases the cost of cultivation substantially. The credit facilities extended by cooperatives societies are too inadequate. Only those large and medium farmers benefit through credit facilities which is provided by regulated market operation and small farmers hardly benefit out of that. The licensed of moneylenders are too ceased to play any role; so farmers have no choice left, only the private moneylender and shopkeeper who usually charge exorbitant interest on lending. The traditional farming has replaced by new methods of farming which make farmers most difficult and huge investment on agricultural inputs. The regulated marketing arrangement seemed to be inadequate- because the market which are regulated by agriculture produce market act is quite far from the farmers; mostly the small farmer benefit less compared to large and medium farmer. On account of small farmer have less surplus crop, transportation problem, distance matters, weighing and grading takes lot of time, and they can’t wait for payment longer, on the other large famers have large volumes of transaction, they can wait for payments in instalment ways periodically and they benefit because market offered them higher price rather than local traders. Over the burden of small farmers they don’t have any way to sell their crop- so they sell their produce in local market which give then instant payment compare to regulated market. In this article farmers are taken as deceased (are those who victimized of) and control (those who are not victimized); and it further divide into three- large farmers (those who own land more than 4 hectares), medium farmers (those who own land less than 4 hectares and more than 2.01 hectares), small farmers (those who own land up to 2 hectares). The farmers’ plan of expenditure for the given year varies because it is largely influenced by the quality of land, amount of investment, quality and quantity of agricultural inputs, market condition, experience, socio-economic background etc. And the loan from the informal sources, the number of indebted farmers was much less when compared to that of the formal agencies. The agricultural income loss of farmers of both categories was same with some variation; it couldn’t have been the only factor that made the farmers takes the extreme step of committing suicides. The causes of these suicides may also lie in the social experiences of the farmers. Emile Durkheim rightly puts it as sociological model for understanding suicides, believes to be as individual phenomena and so their causes are essentially social in nature. And according to study it is found that suicides has the major reason like family problems, old age, illness, drinking and gambling etc; other reasons include social causes like love affairs, death of close relation; to loss of agricultural incomes and indebtedness; addicted to alcoholism, and all other known and unknown social issues. Many times it is the unmarried, divorced and separated farmers who do suicide as comparison of social characteristics of the deceased and control farmers. It is also the immunity to suicide among the individual who are unmarried members of the family and those who face widowhood, separation and childlessness as Durkheim rightly put it as individual phenomena. It is larger the family size, the greater is the protection against suicide become it represents higher degree of social cohesion due to stronger sentiments and historical memories. As we see the human desire for income and wealth always increases (social wants); in due course individual loose its limits and suffer from the disproportion between his aspirations and achievements. This situation according to Durkheim, it generates disappointment and feelings of failure, which latter leads to growth of “Suicidogenic impulse” and people do suicide. According to Durkheim theory it is always the social factor which always triggers the people in social relationship that’s integration and regulation which operate in society. To recap of suicide of farmers; it is the both macro and micro level analysis which indicates the loss of agricultural income due to failure of crop, or adverse bad weather, market imperfections and consequent indebtedness which has pushed the farmers to distress. And other social factors are also in work when it comes to their suicides. References B B Mohanty, Sangeeta Shroff (2004): “Farmers’ Suicides in Maharashtra”, Economic and Political Weekly, Dec 25 http://www.firstpost.com/tag/national-crime-records-bureau https://psainath.org/category/the-agrarian-crisis/farmer-suicides/