At least 16,196 farmers committed suicide in India in 2008, with Maharashtra topping the states for the fourth year in succession with 3,802 farm suicides, according to the NCRB annual report.
At least 16,196 farmers committed suicide in India in 2008, with Maharashtra topping the states for the fourth year in succession with 3,802 farm suicides, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) annual report, 2008, on accidental deaths and suicides.
The NCRB report made public on Wednesday brings the all-India total of farm suicides in the country since 1997 to a staggering 1,99,132, but represents a marginal fall of 436 from the previous year when 16,632 farmers had committed suicide. Overall suicides in the country in 2008 stood at 1,25,017, the report shows.
The share of five states (Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh) in total farm suicides remained high at 10,797, or 66.6% of the total farm suicides — a marginally higher than it was 2007 (66.2%). Maharashtra remained the worst state in the nation for farm suicides with a total of 3,802. It was a drop of 436 compared to 2007 when the state had logged 4,238 farm suicides.
This was the year when the centre doled a massive loan waiver to farmers. Besides, the central special packages were at work in 33 most suicide-prone districts including six in Vidarbha, among the worst-affected areas in the state.
The NCRB has been collating the data since 1999 for all states. Maharashtra has seen 41,404 farm suicides from 1997, more than a fifth of the national total, and 44,468 from 1995, the year when the state began recording the data.
During 1997-2002, Maharashtra saw, on average, eight farmers kill themselves daily. The corresponding figure rose to 11 during 2003-2008. The rise was from an average of 2,833 farm suicides a year in the first period to an average of 4,067 in the next period.
The increase of 604 in Andhra Pradesh (2,105), Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh (3,152) offset the dip in Maharashtra (436) and Karnataka (398).
While the figures show a marginal decline over the two previous years, the decadal trend is unchanged. In the first six years (1997-2002), the league of big five league saw 55,769 farmers’ suicides. From 2003 to 2008, the figure rose to 67,054, or annual rise of 1,900.
There are no separate figures for Vidarbha, but the Vasantrao Naik Sheti Swavalamban Mission that oversaw the implementation of the CM and PM packages amounting to over Rs5,700 crore pegs the farm suicide figure for six worst-affected western Vidarbha districts in 2008 at 1,147 — or over a fourth of the total farm suicides in Maharashtra.
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