Today, whenever a high profile politician arrives in the district, he ensures that Bothbodan is included in his itinerary.
Till three years ago, hardly any politician or social worker had heard of Bothbodan, a tiny village in Vidarbha’s Yavatmal district. Today, whenever a high profile politician arrives in the district, he ensures that Bothbodan is included in his itinerary. Reason: The village has become the ‘poster boy’ of the agrarian crisis in the region.
Bothbodan is known as the ‘suicide village’ of Vidarbha. The village has around 300 households, mostly of the Banjara community. Of these, 18 have seen suicides over the last three years — a record for any Vidarbha village. The villagers killed themselves due to mounting debt. Their farm land had not produced enough grain, and they did not have money to spend on food.
Their tragedy has ‘attracted’ many high profile personalities, including Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, Maharashtra governor SC Zamir, Sri Sri Ravishankar, Amrutmai Maa, representatives of World Churches Organisation, a fact-finding committee of the Planning Commission, a team from the National Commission of Farmers, and Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar.
Bothbodan is so much in limelight that the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS) kicked off the election campaign for its candidate, Babtitai Bais, from the village on Saturday, October 3.
“Our objective is to bring Vidarbha’s farmer suicides onto the national radar, as the agrarian crisis is getting worse. Every day three to four farmers are taking their lives. The politicians are not paying any attention to the crisis. We want to highlight to the world the apathy of the state administration to the problems of 7,000 farm widows. These widows have a right to a life of dignity and respect,” VJAS president Kishor Tiwari told DNA.
A milk scheme started by the state government in 2006 is slowly bearing fruit. As a result of the scheme, the village is producing 700 litres of milk daily. The villagers take the milk to Yavatmal. “Earlier, the banks had blacklisted us. But after a lot of negotiation, Canara Bank agreed to help us. We are trying to find a new way to live,” said Balu Chavan, sarpanch of Bothbodan.
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