In the last three days, nine more farmers have committed suicide in Vidarbha. This brings the number of suicides in six districts of Vidarbha to 1000 – after the visit by the PM and an announcement of a special package of Rs 3750 Crores on July 1^st, 2006.

The nine included Santosh Khope (Akola), Kishan Jadhav (Yavatmal), Shirirang Dolarkar (Washim), Viod Vaghare (Amravati), Nanji Wadhari and Ravindra Bahake (Chandrapur), Eknath Shinganapure, Vishwanath Suradkar and Supada Tongalkar (Buldhana).

Even official data shows that the state of cotton growers in west Vidarbha has worsened with the wrong policies of the state, and free trade policies tied to economic liberalization. BT cotton seeds promoted by the government have increased the economic pressure on farmers instead of resulting in higher yields of disease free crops. Already a low return and high risk livelihood, these policies that claim to reduce the risk have only increased the cost of farming. As a result, the cotton economy of the region has collapsed, resulting in mass suicides since June 2005.

Year 2006 reported the highest number of suicides in Vidarbha – 1452 farmers. It is unlikely that the situation will change in 2007 – Local NGOs and grass-roots organizations estimate that about Rs. 505 crores have already been siphoned by rampant corruption. Already in 2007, 70 farmers have committed suicide.

The local and state administration now claim that most of the suicides are owing to non-agrarian reasons such as alcoholism, social tensions and family problems. Of the 1452 cases officially registered, the state administration has considered only 542 of the above cases eligible for compensation of Rs 1 lakh based on the above claim. With a somewhat better harvest of the crop of pulses, the state administration is claiming that things have turned around. The callousness of the administration is unfortunate. Only 3% of the nearly 2 million farmers from Vidarbha considered eligible for waiver in interests – the package seems to have only helped the banks that have received central funds for this interest waiver.

Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (a local grassroots organization) points out that the local governments have tended to negate and trivialize farmer suicides since it shows that inadequacy of their policies. They have done this by attacking the credibility of those presenting these stories or by claiming other reasons for these numerous deaths. Police has often refused to file these deaths as suicides. Bureaucrats have found various excuses to suggest that the thousands of deaths are owing to other non-agrarian reasons. In addition, stories of improvements are being constantly presented.

The organization suggests that the central government rethink its agricultural policies and presents certain recommendations:

1. Ask experts to develop a farming model which makes farming a viable means of livelihood for small abd marginal farmers – and if these experts cannot come up with such a model, find other experts.
2. Revise credit policies for farmers such that they also cover the consumption needs of framers.
3. Control and limit private money lending from input suppliers.
4. Strict regulation and control on quality of control.  
5. Initiatives for “Supplement Income Generation”
6. Educate farmers, help them better understand policies and how it is really good for them.
7. Make accountable various local and state government and other agencies working on farmer relief. They are often misguiding farmers for the fulfillment of their personal motives.

- Kishore Tiwari for Vidarbha Janandolan Samiti (09422108846), http://andolan.blogspot.com/