Decoding reality of farmer suicides

GRIM REALITY Crime records bureau’s new report to go into details of reasons behind extreme step

NEW DELHI: Debt is the principal cause of farmer suicides in India. But is it only private moneylenders who drive thousands to kill themselves or institutional lenders too? We will soon know. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has decided to expand the scope of its report on suicides and go into the details of reasons behind farmer suicides.

Between 1995 and 2014, over 3,00,000 farmers — cultivators and agricultural labourers — killed themselves.

This number increased from 11,700 in 2013 to 12,600 in 2014.

But little was known about the reasons behind them.

The NCRB took the first step last year when it overhauled the format in which this information was collected.

For the first time, it started collecting data separately about land-owning farmers and farmhands, and the reasons behind land-owners’ suicides.

This time, it will go a step further.

The next report will not only list the number of farmer suicides due to debt, but also if the debt was to a moneylender, a bank or both.

It is estimated that 52% of the 90 million rural agricultural households are under debt.

The report will also indicate why agricultural labourers, who eke out a living on someone else’s land, commit suicide in such large numbers.

The findings will help the government analyse the gaps in its efforts to disburse agricultural credit to its target audience — small and marginal farmers.

But this has been a big challenge.

Overall, agricultural credit flow rose over six times from `1.25 lakh crore to `8.41 lakh crore between 2004-05 and 2014–15.

But most of it does not reach the intended beneficiary — small and marginal holdings that constitute 85% of farmland holdings and 44% of the cultivated land.

A government estimate suggests that only 6% reaches small and marginal farmers and aims to raise their share of credit to 8% in two years.

But a dataset that breaks down the root cause of farmer suicides will do more than just improve policy formulation.

It could also be the BJP government’s shield against attacks from the opposition over farmer suicides.

Since disaggregated data was not available earlier, the BJP in opposition blamed the previous UPA government for all farmer suicides.

But once the report comes out with a break-up of causes, a government source said, it would be difficult to overlook facts.