[Reader-list] 17,060 farm suicides in one year

[radhikarajen at vsnl.net]

True, and unfortunate, as the Prime minister of the nation announces the packages for the farmers, that too, 3000 crores, to be siphoned off by sycophants with the supplies of farm equipments of under quality material what else can be expected. ? With trip to Arunachal after visit to China, this lame duck PM has neither the guts nor the authority or the political will to be of any good governing figure for India, talking of 9 or 10 prcent growth in terms of kickbacks.
 Regards.

----- Original Message -----
From: Yousuf <ysaeed7 at yahoo.com>
Date: Friday, February 1, 2008 4:30 pm
Subject: [Reader-list] 17,060 farm suicides in one year
To: sarai sarai <reader-list at mail.sarai.net>

> 17,060 farm suicides in one year 
> 
> P. Sainath 
> 
> Uptrends in major States unchanged
> 
> Mumbai: Farm suicides in Maharashtra rose dramatically
> in 2006, more than in any other part of the country.
> The State saw 4,453 farmers’ suicides that year, over
> a quarter of the all-India total of 17,060, according
> to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) in its
> report Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India, 2006.
> That is the worst figure recorded ‘in any year for any
> State’ since the NCRB first began logging farm
> suicides.
> 
> The previous worst — 4,147 in 2004 — was also in
> Maharashtra. It has seen ‘36,428 farmers’ suicides’
> since 1995, ‘in official count.’ ‘2006 is the latest
> year for which data are available.’
> 
> The suicides in Maharashtra mark an increase of 527
> over the 2005 figure. This was four and a half times
> bigger than that in Andhra Pradesh, the next worst-hit
> State, which saw a rise of 117 farm suicides over
> 2005. 
> 
> It was also more than twice the increase of 198 in
> Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh taken together. 
> 
> Worse, it means farmers accounted for half ‘the
> increase’ in all suicides in Maharashtra in 2006.
> 
> Significantly, Maharashtra’s upward spike occurred in
> the year when the relief packages of both the Prime
> Minister and Chief Minister — worth Rs. 4,825 crore in
> all — were being implemented in the Vidharbha region,
> where suicides have been most intense. 
> 
> The NCRB figures show an unrelenting uptrend in what
> can be termed the ‘SEZ’ or (Farmers) ‘Special
> Elimination Zone’ States. These States, which account
> for nearly two-thirds of all farm suicides in the
> country, include Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh,
> Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh (including Chhattisgarh).
> 
> 
> As a group, the ‘SEZ’ States saw an increase of 6.2
> per cent in such deaths.
> 
> Among them, Maharashtra (4,453), Andhra Pradesh
> (2,607) and Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh (2,858) show a
> sharp upward spike. 
> 
> Karnataka (1,720) reports a decline. So though the
> all-India numbers for 2006 reflect a very small
> decline of 61 over the 2005 figure of 17,131, the
> broad trends of the last decade continue. And the
> trend of rapidly rising farm suicides, particularly
> post-2001 in the ‘SEZ’ States, remains unchanged. 
> 
> So the minuscule decline in the figure for the country
> as a whole marks no break from the dismal decade-long
> trend.
> 
> NCRB data record 1,66,304 farmers’ suicides in a
> decade since 1997. 
> 
> Of these, 78,737 occurred between 1997 and 2001. The
> next five years — from 2002 to 2006 — proved worse,
> seeing 87,567 farmers take their own lives. 
> 
> This means that on average, there has been one
> farmer’s suicide every 30 minutes since 2002. 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>      
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