Farm suicides on the rise in northern Maharashtra
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August 30, 2006: Besides Vidarbha, the current year has seen a marked increase in the number of farmer suicides in northern Maharashtra too, with the number of deaths in 2006 inching close to the cumulative figure for the past four years
Like ‘suicide country’ Vidarbha, five districts in northern Maharashtra have also witnessed a spurt in the number of farmer suicides in 2006. While in the years 2001-2005, 79 farmers in Nashik, Aurangabad, Jalgaon, Dhule and Nandurbar ended their lives, this year already 102 farmers have committed suicide. The deepening crisis, spurred by years of high input costs and failed crops, began with onion prices crashing during the early part of the year, and ended with floods washing away most of the standing crop across northern Maharashtra in the first week of August. For indebted farmers in Nashik, the recent floods were the final nail in the coffin. Tired of shouldering the burden of unpayable loans, and battling natural disasters, 18 farmers from the district have already killed themselves in 2006, more than twice the number (8) for the four previous years. In Jalgaon, which has reported several suicides by cotton farmers in recent years, the number of suicides between 2001 and 2005 was 57; so far in 2006, 37 farmers have killed themselves. On August 20, in despair over his debts, 22-year-old Mahadev Nimbaji Dhani took his own life and the lives of his family members. His body and the bodies of his 22-year-old wife and 18-month-old son were discovered in a well in Parambi village in Muktainagar. Dhani became the 38th farmer to commit suicide in Jalgaon this year. The cause of Dhani’s death, according to sources, was a Rs 5,000 loan that he was unable to pay back to various credit societies, which, together with the interest, finally ballooned into a sum of Rs 15,000. The recent heavy rains that washed away his crop took with them any hopes he might have had of clearing his debt. “It appears to be the accumulated effect of many years of failed crops and mounting loans,” says Giridhar Patil, secretary of the Shetkari Sanghtana in Nashik. Patil adds that this year the very small margin that sustains farmers in this region every year seems to have been wiped out too. It’s a manifestation of price rises in the past 15 years, crop fluctuations and accumulated debts, says former Nashik mayor and grape cultivator Dashrath Patil. “The Nashik-Dindori grape belt used to be called India’s California. Now, the farmer is investing more in his field and reaping much less.” “The gap between input costs and output is far too much today,” agrees Avinash Patil of the Khandesh Jagran Yatra that toured the districts of Jalgaon and Dhule to collect data on farm debts. “Government policies have also been anti-farmer and driven many to suicide.” Source: The Indian Express, August 23, 2006 |
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