1. FARMERS’ SUICIDES IN
INDIA
March 14, 2014

2. GROUP MEMBERS
• Harsh Abhishek 120123017 h.abhishek
• Abhinav Anand 120104001 abhinav2012
• Amit Kumar Meena 120104006 amit.meena
• Ankit Kumar 120104008 ankit.kumar2012
• Rishabh Daga 120104058 d.rishabh
• Sandeep 120104062 sandeep2012
• Kumar Deepak 120103093 deepak12
• Harish Choudhary 120103091 c.harish
• K A Aneez 120103035 ka.aneez

3. WHO IS A FARMER ?
• A farmer (also called an agriculturer) is a
person engaged in agriculture, raising living
organisms for food or raw materials (doing
some combination of raising
field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or
other livestock).
• A farmer might own the farmed land or
might work as a labourer on land owned by
others.
• In advanced economies, a farmer is usually
a farm owner, while employees of the farm
are known as farm workers, or farmhands.

4. WHAT IS SUICIDE ?
• The word Suicide originates from
Latin word ‘suicidium’, which
originates from ’sui caedere’,
which means ‘to kill oneself’.
• Suicide is the act of intentionally
causing one's own death.
• Common methods
include: hanging, pesticide
poisoning, and firearms.

5. REASONS FOR SUICIDE
• Suicide is often committed out of
despair, the cause of which is frequently
attributed to a mental disorder such
as depression, alcoholism, rape or drug
abuse.
• Stress factors such as financial
difficulties or troubles with interpersonal
relationships often play a role.
• Views on suicide have been influenced
by broad existential themes such as
religion, honor, and the meaning of life.

6. WHY SHOULD WE TALK ABOUT FARMERS’
SUICIDES
• Agriculture sector has a pivotal role in Indian economy.
• The share of agriculture sector in G.D.P. of India was 44.0% during
1973-74 .
• Agriculture provides the principal means of livelihood for over 60
percent of India's population.
• In Indian planning agriculture sector ignored except in a few five years
plan.

7. HISTORY
• In the 1990s the Govt. officials denied a
large number of suicides, but as more and
more information came to light the
government began to accept that
farmers in India were under considerable
stress 15% farmers killed themselves and
more than 25000 farmers consumed
pesticides and killed themselves because
of a combination of high farming costs
(exorbitantly priced hybrid (so-called high
yielding) seeds and pesticides sold by
multinationals and a lack of a good price
for their produce, partly due to imports.

8. FARMERS’ SUICIDE STATISTICS
• On an average 38 farmers commit suicide everyday in India, one
Indian farmer commits suicide every 32 minutes between 1997 and
2005 and since 2012, this has become one suicide every 30 minutes.
• 1803 women farmers committed suicide in 2012.
• 13754 farmers committed suicide in the country in 2012.
• Almost 75 per cent of farmer suicides have occurred amongst the
small and medium farmers.
• Indebtedness was the reason behind the suicide of 93% farmers.

9. COMMON FEATURES IN MAJORITY OF SUICIDES
• 91-94 % of suicides are by family
heads.
• 91-97 % of those who committed
suicide are males.
• 84 to 89 percent are married.
• 86.5 percent of farmers who took
their own lives were financially
indebted.

10. REASONS FOR FARMERS’
SUICIDE IN INDIA

11. GENERAL VIEW
indebtedness, 93%,
24%
economic downfall,
74%, 19%
conflict in family,
55%, 14%
crop failure, 41%,
11%
dent in social status,
36%, 10%
daughter/sister's
marriage, 34%, 9%
addiction, 28%, 7%
health promblems,
21%, 6%

12. DROUGHT
• The most immediate consequence
of drought is a fall in crop
production, due to inadequate and
poorly distributed rainfall. Farmers
are faced with harvests that are too
small to both feed their families,
fodder supplies from crop residues to
feed their livestock and fulfill their
other commitments forcing them to
drastic measures. The drastic
measures can include changing
jobs or suicides.

13. MONSOONS
• Farmers in India over dependence on the
monsoons.
• There is regular break down in the
meteorological cycle of rainfall,.
• In India, 93% of area fall under dry land
farming, which means totally dependent
on the rainfall as irrigation systems are
scarce, not equally spread and are not
efficient
• Sometimes more than normal rains causes
flood which also destroys the crop.

14. LACK OF PROPER IRRIGATION
• Indian farmers are heavily
dependent on monsoons,. They
don’t have any source for proper
irrigation farming. Irrigation farming
is when crops are grown with the
help of irrigation systems by
supplying water to land through
rivers, reservoirs, tanks, and wells.
• 58% of farmers having committed
suicides had absolutely no
irrigation facilities.

15. GROUNDWATER
• Due to overdependence
on groundwater for all
purposes domestic or
industrial and with no law
against it in India, ground
water table is decreasing
at an alarming rate. Many
farmers due to lack of
proper irrigation systems,
use tube wells and are
now facing problems due
to it.

16. LACK OF POWER SUPPLY
• Many tasks related to
agriculture are power/electric
dependent.
• Costly or no electricity supply
proves to a significant
problem.

17. EXPENSIVE TECHNOLOGIES
• New technologies are better but they come with
a big price tags, which are either too costly to be
bought or they get their money through loans
which again push them into debt.

18. MISGUIDED POLICIES
• Government only help a fraction of farmers.
• The waiver given by government helps only if
the loan has been taken from a government-
backed institution, but most farmers in India
borrow from moneylenders at the start of the
sowing season to buy seeds and other
ingredients.
• Farmers' demands were not taken into count while
preparing the relief package. Neither were civil
society organizations, local government bodies,
panchayats etc consulted.

19. GIRL CHILD
• Dowry is still present in many
parts of India.
• Dowry creates financial
pressure on the family head.

20. GREEN REVOLUTION

21. INDEBTEDNESS
• Indebtedness was the reason behind the suicide of 93% farmers.
• Out of 17.64 Lakh farmers only (25.3%) farmers could avail institutional
finance in 2005-06.
• Private money lenders charge high interest rates between 48-60% p.a.
• Higher rate of interest in the cooperative credit system e.g. up to 12.5% to
14% till last year.
• cooperative sector brought down their interest rates to 7%, even then the
farmers are taking loans from the private individuals.

22. REASONS FOR INDEBTEDNESS
Indebtedness
Increasing cost of
agriculture inputs
Repeated crop loss
Increasing
dependence on
money lenders at
high rates of interest.
Withdrawal of
government support
Reduced price of
agriculture produces

23. CROP FAILURE
• There are many different reasons for
crop failure
Late Monsoon
Heavy Monsoon
Pests, Insects
Natural Calamity
Personal Enmity
Climate Change
Drought

24. OTHERS
• Social Status
• Loan Waiver Policy
• Neutral seeds
• Rising Costs of Cultivation
• Uncertainty of agricultural enterprise in India
• Media’s Move

25. IMPACT OF SUICIDES
• Suicides leads to loss of sole bread winner in the family.
• Widows burdened with the new responsibility as the sole breadwinner.
• It causes a lot of psychological distress to family.
• There is increased social stigma.
• Impact on children’s education.
• Other family members attempting suicides.
• Children sometimes lose both parents to suicide, forcing their education to a halt,
especially if they have to work in order to provide for their needs.
• Farms are confiscated due to inability to pay back high interest loans. There is also loss
of assets i.e. domestic animals and agriculture implements.
• The families moves from farm labor to permanent labor.
• This also leads to child labor and detoriation of physical health

26. PREVENTIVE MEASURES
1. Agriculture extension services .
2. PROVIDE FINANCIAL LITERACY ( HOW TO USE CREDIT, WORK OUT ON COST-BENEFIT
ANALYSIS OF INVESTMENT, RISK COPING MECHANISM I.E., INSURANCE – CROP &
LIFE, INCREASING SAVINGS).
3. BUILDING SOCIAL SYSTEMS & STRENGTHENING THEM ( FARMER’S GROUPS EXPOSURE
TO DIFFERENT COPING MECHANISMS, BEST AGRICULTURE PRACTICES).
4. FOCUS ON CREATING ALTERNATE LIVELIHOODS.
5. ENCOURAGE MULTIPLE CROPPING.
6. GENERATE AWARENESS ON PESTICIDE USAGE.
7. PROVIDE TIMELY GOVERNMENT INPUT SUBSIDY TO THE FARMERS.
8. PROVIDE QUALITY OF SEEDS.
9. GOVERNMENT IN ADVANCE SHOULD STATE THE PREMIUM PRICE FOR THE CROPS.

27. REHABILITATIVE MEASURES
• Counselling can be provided to the farmer’s family
• The families can be helped to gain benefits of various government schemes.
• Dependent family members can be provided with guidance to other
livelihood alternatives(non farm employment) and
• Seed support, manure, tank silt (red soils) or cost of cultivation can be
provided.
• Interest free loan and free health insurance services are also required.

28. WHAT GOVERNMENT CAN DO?
Immediate Measures
• Immediate compensation for crop failure
• Remunerative prices, direct procurement
from farmers
• Modify export/import policies and tariffs in
favour of Indian farmers
• Provide ex-gratia and loan repayment
support for all families of farmer suicides in
time-bound manner

29. WHAT GOVERNMENT CAN DO?
Addressing Root Causes
• Price Compensation system for all food
crops: when MSPs or market prices are less
than Target Price (Cost of Cultivation + 50%),
the difference should be paid directly to
farmers
• Guarantee minimum living incomes to all
farmers
• Promote sustainable agriculture which
reduces cost of cultivation and crop risk
• Comprehensive rainfed agriculture mission
based on diverse cropping systems,
protective irrigation and livestock systems

30. WHAT GOVERNMENT CAN DO?
Addressing Root Causes (contd)
• Bank credit to all farmers with adequate
scale of finance
• Effective crop insurance to cover all crops
and all farmers
• Inclusion of tenant farmers in all support
systems

31. WHAT GOVERNMENT CAN DO?
Parliamentarians should demonstrate their
serious intent of addressing agrarian crisis
• Day-long joint session of Assembly/Parliament
to discuss farmer suicides and agrarian crisis
• Constitute a Parliamentarians’/MLAs’ Forum
on Agrarian Distress to address the causes of
the crisis