The Rs 72,000 farm loan waiver announced by the UPA government in 2008 appears to have missed the targeted beneficiaries as suicides among small and marginal farmers are on the rise.
According to Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Yudhvir Singh, 2.16 lakh farmers committed suicide during the period 1997-2009.
“These are statistics of male farmers. We do not have data of women suicides. Large number of women work as farm labourers in which case their figures would be much higher,” said Yudhvir Singh.
“Debt continues to be the main culprit in these regions. Most of the small farmers are still in the clutches of private money lenders,” said Planning Commission member Prof Abhijit Sen.
“The farm loan waiver and credit flow to the agriculture sector doesn’t seem to have had the desired impact. Farmer suicides continue and are a matter of concern,” said a senior government official.
Indicating that the problem seems to be growing, government sources added that besides traditional cotton-growing areas of Rayalaseema in Andhra Pradesh, parts of Tamil Nadu and Vidarbha in Maharashtra had seen a spurt in suicides.