SPATIO-TEMPORAL ANALYSIS OF FARMER S SUICIDE IN INDIA

Transcription

1 SPATIO-TEMPORAL ANALYSIS OF FARMER S SUICIDE IN INDIA Dr. Naeem Uhan Khan, Dr. Gomatee Aociate Profeor, Department of Geography, Gandhi Faizan-e-aam Degree. College, Shahjahanpur, U.P Senior Reearcher, Department of Geography, Gandhi Faizan-e-aam Degree. College, Shahjahanpur, U.P Abtract:Intead, of being agricultural ector a pecial ignificance for low income, poor and vulnerable ection of rural ocietie, India ha been widepread occurrence of farmer uicide in different part of the country including not only the drought prone area of Andhra Pradeh, Karnataka and Maharahtra but alo a State of heavy rainfall like Kerala, and Punjab which have large area under irrigation. With the preoccupation of the Government, with the rate of economic growth and promotion of the private ector in the econdary and tertiary ector, that i, indutrial and ervice ector, the agricultural ector and the ector of rural development were neglected. The tudy i baed on a wealth of tatitic and cae tudie, how that farmer commit uicide becaue they are driven to do o by the deperate condition in which they find themelve. Thee farmer belong to different cate group, epecially from mall and marginal farmer group. The preent tudy found that indebtedne i one of the mot noticeable reaon for farmer uicide in India. According to the tate government' own tatitic, a many a 5 farmer had killed themelve between 6 and December. Majority of them wa becaue of compound interet i.e. Interet that accrue on the initial principal and the accumulated interet of a principal depoit, loan or debt. Compounding of interet allow a principal amount to grow at a fater rate than imple interet, which i calculated a a percentage of only the principal amount. Mot of the uicidal farmer have wallowed peticide, the eaiet killer at hand. Burdened by compound interet, they compound tragedy, leaving familie their debt, and depriving them of father, huband and breadwinner. The reearch focue on major caue of farmer uicide, what hould be the policie to top it, how the farmer can get economically elf utainability. Key Word Farmer uicide, compound interet, extravagant expenditure, bank loan, mony lander. I. INTRODUCTION For a country which ha the capacity to produce three crop in a year, the ceaele cae of farmer uicide are an ignominiou fact. The tatic of the death are o high that there i nothing peronal or moving left in them. Farmer' uicide are the mot tragic and dramatic ymptom of the crii of urvival faced by Indian peaant. GDP of agriculture and allied ector in India wa recorded at US$ 5. billion in FY5. According to the advanced etimate of Central Statitical Organiation, agriculture and allied ector recorded a growth of. per cent in FY5. Agriculture provide the principal mean of livelihood for over 5 percent of India' population. Rapid increae in indebtedne i at the root of farmer' taking their live. Debt i a reflection of a negative economy. Two factor have tranformed agriculture from a poitive economy into a negative economy for peaant: the riing of cot of production and the falling price of farm commoditie. Both thee factor are rooted in the policie of trade liberalization and corporate globalization. Mihra and Dandekar et el tried to locate the individual farmer in the broad context of an ailing agrarian economy. They pointed out the exploitation of farmer at the hand of upplier of farm input. They focued on the ocial and economic bae of the farmer uicide. DOI:./IJRTER...EWCQ

2 Volume, Iue 5; May - [ISSN: 55-5] In the dicuion of the iue of rural indebtedne, no doubt the farmer cla aume coniderable importance. Thi i mainly becaue amongt the 5% of population who depend on cultivation in India, a large percentage belong to the marginal and mall farmer category. Thee cultivator houehold need credit on a continuou bai for meeting their working capital need. Food ecurity of the country to a large extent alo depend on the output generated by thee farmer. Therefore it i neceary to enure timely and affordable credit to the cultivator houehold. In reality however, we oberve that mot of the poor and marginal farmer do not get acce to the formal credit network. In thi context it i important to note that the farmer cla i not a homogeneou group. They belong to different economic and ocial group and for policy purpoe it i eential to undertand acce to credit by thee different group of farmer houehold in India. Regional variation in thi context alo aume importance a in certain tate of India we oberve burden of indebtedne leading ome to take extreme tep uch a uicide. Thi call for identifying pecific tate level meaure neceary to combat credit related problem. When we conider farmer houehold, land holding ize provide a better indicator of their economic tatu than the houehold income or expenditure. Keeping thi apect in mind we examine indebtedne cenario with repect to certain indicator by claifying farmer houehold according to their landholding ize. Analyi i alo carried out by conidering the ocial cla to which the houehold belong, uch a chedule cate or chedule tribe (SC or ST) or, weaker ection uch a houehold headed by woman. A number of tudie examine trend in formal ector lending for different economic activitie or different ector in India economy uing the bank level data from the Reerve Bank of India. Studie on the rural credit market oberve that there wa an increae in upply of credit to rural area during the period after nationalization of commercial bank (in 6). However, after liberalization () there ha been a decreae in rural banking net work a reflected through indicator uch a number of rural branch office of commercial bank (Rajeev, ). The problem of non acceibility of formal ector credit to the poor and needy ha been often highlighted in the literature. Even though the tate made endeavour to addre thi problem by tipulating norm for compulory lending to the agriculture ector, the formal lending agencie have not been ucceful in reaching out to the poor. National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO, - ) data reveal that while about % of the poor borrower get credit from the formal ector bank, thi percentage increae to 6 for the richer farmer.the problem of acce may be due to the lack of collateral, inability to comply with bureaucratic procedure; illiteracy, etc. II. OBJECTIVES. To tudy the farmer uicide in India.. To tudy the reaon behind famer uicide in India.. To ugget the remedial meaure to mitigate the number of farmer uicide in India. III. DATA BASE AND METHODOLOGY The data ha been collected from the econdary ource i.e. ADSI (Accidental Death and Suicide rate in India), and variou New Paper. Simple percentage method ha been applied to calculate the data. IV. DISCUSSION Farmer include thoe who own and work on field (viz. cultivator) a well a thoe who employ/hire worker for field work/farming activitie. Farmer uicide in India have led to public policy and academic dicoure. There have been ome recent attempt at evaluating uicide incidence and etimating uicide rate for farmer by normalizing it with farm population or operational holding. The preent purpoe of the tudy i to critically examine and ugget an appropriate alternative and etimate uicide rate for farmer acro the tate of India over All Right Reerved

3 Volume, Iue 5; May - [ISSN: 55-5] If we put a glance on the temporal change of farmer uicide, it i clear from the table that in the uicide rate of farmer i at the bottom of record of nineteenth year. In, the National Crime Record Bureau of India reported 5,65 farmer uicide. The highet number of farmer uicide were recorded in when, farmer committed uicide. The farmer uicide rate in India ha ranged between. and. per, total population, over a -year period through 5. India i an agrarian country with around 5% of it people depending directly or indirectly upon agriculture. Farmer uicide account for.% of all uicide in India. Activit and cholar have offered a number of conflicting reaon for farmer uicide, uch a monoon failure, high debt burden, government policie, public mental health, peronal iue and family problem. There are alo accuation of tate fudging the data on farmer uicide. Source- ADSI of variou year Table. Farmer Suicide In India From 5 To YEAR FAMERS SUICIDES MALE FEMALE PERSONS A tudy conducted in, found that there are three pecific characteritic aociated with high rik farmer: "thoe that grow cah crop uch a coffee and cotton; thoe with 'marginal' farm of le than one hectare; and thoe with debt of Rupee or more." The tudy alo found that the Indian tate in which thee three characteritic are mot common had the highet uicide rate and alo accounted for "almot 5% of the variability in tate-level All Right Reerved 5

4 Volume, Iue 5; May - [ISSN: 55-5] Male farmer' uicide Female Farmer' Suicide A total of 5, male farmer and female farmer have committed uicide, accounting for.6% and.% of total farmer uicide..%,.%.% and.% of female farmer uicide, were reported in Telangana ( out of uicide), Madhya Pradeh ( uicide), Maharahtra ( uicide) and Chhattigarh (5 uicide) repectively. The State wie information on the incident of farmer uicide during the year are preented in Table. A total of,56 farmer uicide were reported in Maharahtra followed by uch uicide in Telangana and 6 uicide in Madhya Pradeh, accounting for 5.5%, 5.% and.6% repectively of total farmer uicide during. Chhattigarh ( uicide) and Karnataka ( uicide) accounted for.% and 5.% repectively of the total farmer uicide reported in the country. Thee 5 State together accounted for.5% of the total farmer uicide (5,56 out of 5,65) reported in the country during. Caue of Farmer Suicide Bankruptcy or Indebtedne and Family Problem are major caue of uicide, accounting for.6% and.% repectively of total farmer uicide during. The other prominent caue of farmer uicide were Failure of Crop (6.%), Illne (.%) and Drug Abue/Alcoholic Addiction (.%) [Table] During, major caue of uicide among male farmer were Bankruptcy or Indebtedne and Family Problem, which accounted for.5% and.% repectively of total male farmer uicide. Wherea, in female farmer uicide, Farming Related Iue followed by Family Problem, Marriage Related Iue and Bankruptcy or Indebtedne were major caue of uicide, accounting for.% ( out of uicide),.6% ( uicide),.% (5 uicide) and.% (5 uicide) repectively during. Table. DISTRIBUTION OF FARMER S SUICIDES BY CAUSES IN SELECTED STATES IN INDIA All Right Reerved 6

5 Volume, Iue 5; May - [ISSN: 55-5] Nam e of the State Andh ra prade h Aa m Pove rty Prop erty Dip ute Marr iage Relat ed Iue Fami ly Probl em CAUSES OF THE SUICIDE Failure of Crop( Total) Farm ing Relat ed Iue Crop Failu re due to natur al cala mitie Crop Fail ure due to othe r rea on Illne Drug/Al coholic addictio n Bankruptcy/ Indebtedne M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F Bihar 5 Chatt igar h Guja rat Hary ana Hima chal Prad eh Karn ataka Keral a Mad hya Prad eh Mah arah 6 tra 5 Odi a Punj 5 a Tami lnadu Tela 5 All Right Reerved

6 Volume, Iue 5; May - [ISSN: 55-5] ngan 6 a Uttar Prad eh Wet Beng al Total Source- All Right Reerved

7 Volume, Iue 5; May - [ISSN: 55-5] Table. DISTRIBUTION OD FARMER S SUICIDE IN INDIA ACCORDING TO SIZE OF LAND HOLDERS IN STATES Marginal Farmer Small Farmer Medium Farmer Large Farmer Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Andhra 6 6 Pradeh Arunachal P Aam Bihar Chattigarh 6 Goa Gujarat Harayana Himachal P Jammu 6 5 Kahmir Jharkhand Karnataka 5 5 Karala Madhya P 5 6 Maharahtra Manipur Meghalaya Mizoram Nagaland Odia 5 Punjab Rajathan Sikkim Tamilnadu 6 Telangana 6 6 Tripura Uttar 5 Pradeh Uttarakhand Wet Bengal Total Source- ADSI State, wie detail on variou caue of farmer uicide i preented in Table..% uicide in Maharahtra and.% in Telangana were due to Bankruptcy or Indebtedne..5% of farmer uicide due to Failure of Crop were reported in Himachal Pradeh..% farmer in Himachal Pradeh,.% farmer in Jharkhand and.% farmer each in Bihar, Odiha and Uttar Pradeh have committed uicide due to Supected/Illicit Relation. A total of 65 and 6 farmer in Maharahtra and Telangana have committed uicide due to Bankruptcy or Indebtedne caued by Crop Loan during..%(5 out of,6) and 5.%(6 out of,5) farmer uicide due to Bankruptcy or Indebtedne and Family Problem repectively were reported in Maharahtra alone All Right Reerved

8 Volume, Iue 5; May - [ISSN: 55-5] Land Holding Statu of Farmer who have committed Suicide A per land holding tatu, farmer have been claified in four categorie namely Marginal Farmer (having le than hectare of land), Small Farmer (having hectare to below hectare of land), Medium Farmer (having hectare to below hectare of land) and Large Farmer (having more than hectare of land). Thi claification i meant for tatitical purpoe only. The land holding tatu of farmer who have committed uicide i preented in Table. Land holding tatu of farmer who committed uicide revealed that.5% and.% of victim were mall farmer and marginal farmer repectively, they together accounted for.% (,5 out of 5,65) total farmer uicide. 5.% and.5% of mall farmer who committed uicide were reported in Maharahtra (,5 out of,56) and Telangana (66 out of,56) repectively during. Among marginal farmer,.% and 5.5% repectively of farmer uicide were reported in Maharahtra (6 out of,5) and Madhya Pradeh ( out of,5). However,.% of well off farmer (large farmer) who have committed uicide were alo reported in Maharahtra during. V. CONCLUSION The uicide epidemic that ha hit farmer of India in the early twenty firt century i not confined to jut one ditrict, one tate or one particular crop. Mot of the victim of thi epidemic were men. Two thing were common in the uicide victim, one a feeling of hopelene i.e they are unable to reolve dilemma and problem of peronal life and econd i they face inability to find fund for variou activitie and unable to return it. However, it the abence of proper policie which hit farmer in ome cae, there wa currently no mechanim to compenate farmer hit by drought. The dometic price ytem did not take farmer into conideration and non-intitutional agencie didn t cover tenant farmer. High cot of cultivation and price collape trigger uicide a well. Eleven farmer committed uicide in Kerala in the lat 5 day alone due to the collape in price of ginger and banana. (Indian Agrarian Crii 6 th Nov ). It i clear that only to raie the agricultural expenditure and to declare economic Package to top the farmer uicide i not enough. For that there i need to do fundamental reform. Remedie: Farmer need protection through protective legilation a nothing i typically done to help them ettle their debt or tackle the unprecedented price rie that lead them to commit uicide. Mere ympathy by political partie and government official i not enough to bridge the widening demand-upply gap in the agricultural ector.. Minimum Support Price mechanim for agricultural produce hould appropriate with conideration increae in agricultural input.. Increae import duty on cotton: Tariff barrier hould ued to dicourage import. To integrate urface and groundwater irrigation cheme and integrate the line department in order that the cheme are implemented efficiently.. Enure that the formal banking ytem in the rural area cover all the credit requirement of farmer and other, and that the coverage of the formal financial ytem i extended to all rural houehold. 5. Set up a Ditre Fund that will provide upport to bank in chronically drought prone area, and permit ome debt relief to cultivator in extreme ditre. 6. Focu on increaing agricultural productivity with utained growth and lower cot of production.. Develop a land ue trategy with particular reference to drought-prone area.. Promote and provide incentive for utainable agriculture.. Identify input need and monitor the proviion of input to farmer.. Promote relevant public reearch in agriculture, particularly dry land agriculture, for the development of drought and dieae reitant eed of cereal and All Right Reerved

9 Volume, Iue 5; May - [ISSN: 55-5]. Analyze the relationhip between input cot and market price, and ugget appropriate and timely intervention by the tate/central government agencie, in order to enure remunerative price to the farmer. Monitor the advere effect of drought and pet on agriculture and bring in the required initiative by the appropriate agencie to mitigate ditre on account of thee calamitie.. Overee the ettlement of land record, regitration of all tenancie, and iue of pabook to all cultivator including tenant.. Improve infratructure for crop market and the pot-harvet management of the produce 5. Identify proper opportunitie to promote rural employment, including nonfarm employment, encourage diverification within and out of agriculture; develop value addition activitie uch a agroproceing in rural area in a way that benefit farmer. 6. Crop failure are a diater for farmer and their familie. Therefore government hould make legal proviion about crop inurance becaue they needy farmer take money from private lender or bank or other finical intitution but when the crop fail, they are left with no option other than death.. Set up a commiion with tatuary power that take deciion on the iue uch a genetic modification technology and it impact on Indian agriculture, agriculture pricing policy and cropping pattern.. Government hould increae public expenditure on rural development. REFERENCES. Aian Age, 6//5. Bhanutej, N., Too Little Too Late, The Week, September.. Choudhry, Krihan Bir, Editorial, Farmer Forum, vol., no., October.. Dutta, Ambarih, Suffering of the Farmer, New Time(Hyderabad), December. 5. Government of India. Report of the Expert Group on Agricultural Indebtedne. (Chair: R Radhakrihna). New Delhi: Minitry of Finance.. 6. Mihra S. Suicide mortality rate acro tate of India, 5-: a tatitical note. Economic and Political Weekly 6; (6): Nagaraj K. Farmer Suicide in India: Magnitude, Trend and Spatial Pattern. Chennai: Bharathi Puthakalayam... NCRB. Accidental Death and Suicide in India. New Delhi: Minitry of Home Affair. Variou Year.. Patel V, Ramaundarahettige C, Vijayakumar L, et al. Suicide mortality in India: a nationally repreentative urvey. Lancet ; : 5.. The Hindu, //5. Time of India All Right Reerved