In an indication of the grave situation of farmers in Uttar Pradesh, Ashok Kumar, a farmer in Shahpur Dhamedi village in Bijnore district committed suicide early this week as he was unable to pay back a loan of Rs. 1.8 lakh.
According to local police, Kumar, who was under pressure from money lenders, hanged himself from a tree on his farm on Tuesday.
S.K. Singh, the Station House Officer of the Shivala Kalan police station, told The Hindu on phone that preliminary investigation suggests that Kumar was under pressure to pay back the loan and had got several notices from the money lenders.
The administrative officials are trying to find out if the local sugar mills were yet to transfer the sugarcane arrears.
Eighth case
According to unofficial estimates, Kumar’s suicide would be eighth case of such extreme step being taken by the farmers in Western UP, highlighting the economic distress they face.
The family members of the deceased farmer, who owned six beegha of farm land, said that about seven years back, he had taken a loan of Rs. 50,000 loan from a national bank under its Kisan Credit Card scheme. But the bank debt had increased to Rs. 95000 because he could not pay back even a single installment of the loan. He had also taken Rs. 45000 from the local farmer co-operative and Rs. 10000 from the sugarcane farmer co-operative. Besides, he had taken a loan of Rs. 30,000 from the local money lenders.
“He was seen by his family members till Tuesday afternoon. He had told the family that he was going to his farm to get grass for the cattle. But about 5 p.m., his body was seen hanging from a tree on his farm,” said the SHO.
'Flash point of impending crisis'
Sudhir Panwar, president of the Kisan Jagriti Manch and a professor at Lucknow university, was of the view that the comparatively new trend of farmers’ suicides in western UP is a flash point of the impending crisis facing the farmers in the region. He said that the "terms of trade" for farmers are increasingly becoming unfavourable which drives them to take the extreme step.
"In last 3 years the input cost of farming has gone up but the price of teh product a farmer grows has remained stagnant. For instance sugarcane price has remained stagnant though input cost is on the constant rise and so are the price of essential commodities," he added.
