"Farmers are the backbone of the country"- Mahatma Gandhi
"More than 2,40,000 farmers committed suicide from 1995 to 2009" - Government of India's own National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)
Its really heart breaking to see the above statistics of number of farmers suicide happened recently which clearly conveys that India is losing its major backbone at an alarmingly increasing rate. At least 17,368 Indian farmers killed themselves in 2009, the worst figure for farm suicides in six years according to the data of NCRB. This data covers almost entire nation from nouth to south. Please note that this figure is given by the government itself (actual figure may be even higher). Its really shameful to see that the same government claims and self-praises that India is fast developing in an international medium. How can a country be considered in the "developing side" when the major source of income for majority of the people (villagers) is getting worsen day by day. Is this the real development of a nation? There is no doubt that technological and industrial developments are most happening in India. But the pitty truth is that at many of the places, these developments takes place purely at the cost of farmers and agriculture.
What is the cause for this increasing rate of farmers suicides? The major reason behind this is undoubtedly the inaction of government in terms of effective agricultural policies and plans. Everything has changed now right from the climate to the method of agriculturing. But there is no new realistic actions (announced only in words) in view to cope up with this changing trend. Since villages form the majority of India and agriculture and farmers form the main part of villages, its the moral responsibility of a government to introduce new projects and policies to improve the agriculture and the farmers life conditions. No need to say that in India, the first and foremost aim of the government must be centered on uplifting the overall agriculture. But our government seem to think the other way. They are very much interested in establishing and strengthening industrial and technological revolution. They are very keen to bring globalization in our country and not much cared about the destruction of our very own strength "agriculture & farmers". Politicians only visit the villages during the elections and after that villages and farmers falls under their "selective amnesia" regime. Government and politicians joins hand with industrialists to steal the maximum out from the ignorance of the poor people at the cost of their own living.
May be politicians want the poor people to remain poor for their political advantage. May be due to that, agriculture and farmers are not given the much needed attention. To the disgrace, dirty politicians have started to give open comments that "as long as poor are there, freebies will be there". Shame on them. Its the threshold time that government needs to act immediately and effectively to stop farmers suicides. Surely government can help farmers to regain their golden time by means of introduction of many new policies, dedicated five year plans and projects aimed at increasing the agriculture growth. This can be done with the advice of agricultural experts and researchers. Many good hearts are even voluntarily ready to help the government in this regard. Govt should stop encouraging the import of food and agricultural items that can be grown and cultivated in our own country. The present regulations adopted for the buying and selling of agricultural products between farmers, government and distributors has to be finely revised in accordance with the maximum advantage for farmers. When farmers economy level is improved and if they regain their lost glory, then change will happen and every farmers will be happy to encourage their childrens towards agriculture (something rare at present) so that the next level generation will follow the footsteps of harvesting, which will further ensure the indian green era in coming days.
As a fellow citizens, we need to give importance to this issue of farmers suicides as our eatables comes only because of those great labours. As our part, we can take this issue to the government and everyone's attention as much as we can. It will be of much effect to talk about this matter to our fellow citizens, circulate this issue through mails and social networking sites which can reach the broader section of people. It will be a great boost if media of all kinds... magazines, television, cinema and also popular celebrities give wide exposure to this issue so that the reach is more deeper and stronger.
Like in the case of #tnfishermen compaign for taking action against killing of tamilnadu fishermen by lankan army, we can also initiate a new compaign to bring maximum and immediate attention to the indian farmers suicide. The compaign mantra can be #stopindianfarmerssuicide and this can be used in net columns like facebook, orkut and twitter to gather the attention of the indian government and urban people.
Let us work at our level best to bring smiles on faces of people who feed us daily.
Long live farmers! Long live agriculture!!!
A very good initiative Dr.philip. Hats off man.
ReplyDeletelet me come out with some more points
the farmers should be given that liberty to fix on his own, the price for his grown crops. of course with some regulations.
The importance given to intellectuals in the country (viz professors,doctors, cricketers and so on )must be shed to farmers also. a farmer must be proud to say that he is a farmer. if the confidence level in him rises, then our economy will also surely rise.
@Philp... Once again a great job. Thanks for sharing this most important article...
ReplyDeleteThough the farmer's suicide is a known thing for many of the people, but the numbers which u have mentioned here are really shocking. I was not aware of this at all. Good to know this as an information but very bad to know this is happening in our own country.
The governments dont have time to think of these poor people as they r busy in globalization projects. Globalization is most important for them to sell all our natural resources and manpower at a deadly price and invest the brokerage in foreign banks (which wont return to India at any cause).
The answer from our politicians for the farmer's suicide is the 'statistics'. Either they compare with the previous years record or they compare with the neighbouring states which ever has less no.of suicides. They have fixed in their mind that it is a tough task to promote the life of farmers and so they dont want to make any efforts further. But u have given some simple steps to promote the life of farmers, and for the government there is no risk in implementing the steps suggested by you. But they need some good will if they want to execute these things.
@Srini... In our country, people gain importance based on their income. Thatsy IT professionals are given due respect that any one else in our society. A diploma holder in an IT industry is most valued than a Professor or a high school teacher or bank officer or any other government official (lesser than IAS). So, it is the income that brings value in our society and i feel that the importance for the farmer's will automatically raise if their income could be raised....
@ srini anna, thanks for ur comments. surely if farmers life condition and economy level is improved, we can be assured of balanced development of our nation which is missing at present. rich getting richer and poor getting poor.. idhan nadakkudhu ippo.
ReplyDelete@ senthil anna, thanks for ur comments. as u said, this centra government is only very much keen on globalization naa. they are not concerned about the poor indian farmers.
ReplyDeleteFarming or Agriculture in India is not only a profession or a source for income. Its part of our culture. As other cultural entities in India change due to globalization, so as the agriculture. In fact our agricultural productivity is much more higher than previous years even though, the cultivable lands are shrinking. By all means I would say that the government has to look after people not the Industrialists or enterpreuners. During last six months, the only sector that contributed maximum GDP is still agriculture. I very well personally experience the profitness of agriculture even as a busniess. Soon u will see CORPORATE FARMING. Reliance is already in this business in Andhra and southern Tamil nadu. many issues are there. But everything need to be looked after by government. But at present situation no government would do this as all the parties are having hand and glove relationship with money makers. All we need is a new format of government that looks the concerns for the people.
ReplyDelete