Apathetic government and greedy banks make problem worse

Poverty is not new to India, neither are farmers in debts. So why is there a sudden spike in farmer suicide rates? What are the strong driving forces that make a human being take his own life? Taking one’s own life is actually about the loss of hope — hope that things can ever improve, hope that things will be fine later, hope that I can fight through this. India’s policy decisions are totally driven towards creating inequality and driving our farmers to the coffin. The farmers’ suicides were totally unnecessary and were, in most cases, the result of man-made policies, not natural calamities. It’s not droughts and floods that forced farmers to take their lives as much as the government’s intervention or the lack of it. If you try and get a car in India, even the most expensive one, and assuming you can buy a car, the interest rate at which you get a loan is 7 per cent from a public sector bank. Though, if you try and get a tractor using a loan from the very same bank, the interest rate charged is nearly double. Worse is the way our banks behave. Many of them refuse to give loans to farmers, unless say the Panchayat (local governing body) intervenes. Other glaring problems include globalisation and extreme privatisation, difficulty in getting loans, high rates of interest, high intensity of cash crop plantation leading to severe stress on the water table and other kinds of dubious policy decisions. All these decisions have made the farmers believe that the government is not going to solve their problems, adding much fuel to the already existing fire. From Ms Jerin Jacob Business development manager based in Ajman