Farmers dying a silent death in Uttar Pradesh

When Kushwaha, a 56-year-old farmer of a village in the virtually God-forsaken Bundelkhand region of southern UP, failed to repay a four-year debt of more than Rs41,000 he chose the only remedy left open to him – suicide. Local administration officials blamed it on drinking and disease.

Farmer Tilak Chand of Jalaun district in Bundelkhand was found hanging in his room on March 18 after a hailstorm destroyed his wheat crop. He had borrowed Rs35,000 from a local moneylender at a high interest rate.

For the record, however, the 42-year-old farmer was an alcoholic and ended his life as he was fed up of family fights. "All farmer suicides should not be linked to poverty or natural calamity. There are many other reasons," Jalaun DM Ram Ganesh Yadav told the media.

Akram, a farmer in Moradabad, recently ended his life as he was unable to repay the loan he had taken from a ruthless usurer.

These are not isolated cases but indicators of a dangerous trend. Dozens of farmers have been committing suicides lately. While the government figure stands at 35, the actual suicidal toll is over 150 based on media reports.

The reasons for taking the extreme step vary from huge debts, the mafia-like strangle-hold of powerful landlords, severe pressure from recovery officials (banking and administrative), natural calamities and so on. But the fact is that unhappy farmers are dying everyday, and no one seems to care, not the government machinery at least.

As many as 24 deaths were reported from just one district (Jalaun) in March, a particularly bad month for farmers. All were officially labelled either natural deaths or suicides over family problems. None of the suicides were attributed to crop damage or "rural distress."

In 2013, 750 farmers in Uttar Pradesh killed themselves, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), which is more than double the number of suicides by unemployed persons. NCRB figures show farmers are most likely to commit suicide after housewives.

What is surprising is that the incidence of suicides in prosperous west UP is almost equal to that in backward Purvanchal (east UP) or pathetically poor Bundelkhand.

UP Chief Secretary Alok Ranjan admits "some laxity" on the part of the officials. After doing a video conferencing with all DMs and Commissioners of UP on the grave situation, he told DNA; "The situation is really very serious, and we are trying to provide maximum relief to the farmers. But we are helpless against the forces of nature."

Crops in huge swathes of land across the state have been damaged due to unseasonal rains and hailstorm over the past couple of months.

"This situation is as alarming as it is intolerable because India is a surplus producer of grain," says Bharatiya Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan leader VM Singh who has been fighting for farmers' rights in the courts and on the streets. "Government schemes like the mid-day meal scheme, the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme, pension scheme and a free grain supply scheme for destitute persons above 65 years, which were expected to redeem the situation, have failed abysmally," he adds.

Uttar Pradesh does not have a clear compensation and rehabilitation policy for families of farmers who commit suicide, but amid nationwide concerns over extensive crop loss in parts of India due to unseasonal rain, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has announced a relief package of Rs 300 crore for the affected families.