9 farmers commit suicide every day in Maharashtra

vidarbha — A staggering 3,228 farmers committed suicide in Maharashtra in 2015, the highest since 2001, according to data tabled in the Rajya Sabha on March 4, 2016 – that is almost nine farmers every day.

The number of suicides almost equal the number of people killed (3,477) by the Taleban in 2014, IndiaSpend had reported earlier.

Vidarbha and Marathwada, with 5.7 million farmers, accounted for 83 per cent of all farmer suicides in Maharashtra in 2015.

Maharashtra is divided into five geographical regions, comprising six administrative divisions — Konkan, Pune, Nashik, Marathwada (Aurangabad) and Vidarbha (Amravati and Nagpur).

The Vidarbha region reported the most farmer suicides, 1,541, in 2015. Nagpur (362) and Amravati (1,179) witnessed the maximum farmer suicides in the Vidarbha region.

Vidarbha was followed by Aurangabad (1,130) that forms the Marathwada region. As many as 89 farmers ended their lives in Marathwada in January this year. The Farmers Distress Management Task Force, appointed by the state government, blamed the deaths on the “collective failure of government officials”.

As many as 5,650 farmers committed suicide in 2014, or 15 farmers a day, according to data from the National Crime Records Bureau.

The top five major causes of farmer suicides in 2014 were bankruptcy or indebtedness (1,163), family problems (1,135), farmingrelated issues (969) – such as failure farmers ended their lives in drought-hit

Maharashtra

The top five major causes of suicides

of crops, distress due to natural calamities, inability to sell produce, illness (745) and drug abuse and/ alcoholic addiction (250).

Bankruptcy or indebtedness was also a major cause for farmer suicides (857) in Maharashtra in 2014. Bankruptcy or indebtedness from crop loans accounted for 765 deaths, followed by nonagricultural loans (76) and equipment loans (16).

Maharashtra reported the most (2,568) farmer suicides, in 2014, followed by Telangana (898), Madhya Pradesh (826), Chhattisgarh (443) and Karnataka (321). These top five states account for 89 per cent of all farmer suicides in the country in 2014. —

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