17,060 farm suicides in one year

[reorg]

Source: The Hindu

17,060 farm suicides in one year
P. Sainath

Mumbai: Farm suicides in Maharashtra rose dramatically in 2006, more than in any other part of the country. The State saw 4,453 farmers’ suicides that year, over a quarter of the all-India total of 17,060, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) in its report Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India, 2006. That is the worst figure recorded ‘in any year for any State’ since the NCRB first began logging farm suicides.

The previous worst — 4,147 in 2004 — was also in Maharashtra. It has seen ‘36,428 farmers’ suicides’ since 1995, ‘in official count.’ ‘2006 is the latest year for which data are available.’

(...)

The NCRB figures show an unrelenting uptrend in what can be termed the ‘SEZ’ or (Farmers) ‘Special Elimination Zone’ States. These States, which account for nearly two-thirds of all farm suicides in the country, include Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh (including Chhattisgarh).

(...)

NCRB data record 1,66,304 farmers’ suicides in a decade since 1997. Of these, 78,737 occurred between 1997 and 2001. The next five years — from 2002 to 2006 — proved worse, seeing 87,567 farmers take their own lives.

Read more: http://www.hindu.com/2008/01/31/stories/2008013160930100.htm

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Interesting article from ZNET on this problem: The Suicide Economy Of Corporate Globalisation

[flashl]

1. They are displaced, so 'we' can have bottled water. nt

[catrose]

2. I heard Ghandi's grandson speak on this topic

Farmers have traditionally saved a part of their crops for next year's seed. But with the new, specially engineered Monsanto crops, you can't do that. You have to buy more seed from Monsanto. To do that, you have to borrow. And borrow. And borrow.

And farms are traditionally split among the children, so that each generation has a smaller and smaller area to farm.

And finally it's just not worth it any more. You'll never bail out, and so you bail out.

I'll try to find Ghandi's site that sells products to help them--cotton products that they grow and manufacture the old-fashioned way.

[reorg]

3. It is often referred to as the "suicide epidemic"

- you characterized very well how it goes, the reasons why it started and never stopped seem to be complex, though. P. Sainath, editor with The Hindu, has written a number of articles about it.

I found a comprehensive list with links to articles from many sources here:

http://o3.indiatimes.com/farmersuicide/

[NashVegas]

5. Enter the Tata

As more farmers & farming families leave the land, there will be the Tata and others to help move India into more of an industrial society with mobility. The labor industry needs laborers. Who better than uneducated ex-farming families?

[MikeNearMcChord]

6. And make sure they stay uneducated!

The elites of India doesn't want any of those outside agitators talking unions or equal rights or any of that guff! Jesus it makes you want to turn into Lenin!

[krkaufman]

8. I'm talking from (perhaps flawed) memory here, but I recall that ...

... they were trying to make it illegal to save seeds in India.

[AlertLurker]

4. Welcone to the "New Global Economy!"

GM Foods are FUCKING the whole world.

[grahamhgreen]

7. Billion dollar house

"Mukesh Ambani is one of two sons of Dhirubhai Ambani, founder of Reliance Group in India. Conde Naste’s Portfolio magazine reports this month that Mukesh has been busily building a personal residence for himself worth one billion dollars. Yes, $1 BN."

http://techlahore.wordpress.com/2007/11/07/a-billion-dollar-house-with-a-view-of-poverty-shame-on-you-mukesh-ambani/