Even as the media celebrate the Mercedes Benz deal in the Marathwada region as a sign of “rural resurgence,” the latest data show that 17,368 farmers killed themselves in the year of the “resurgence.”
When businessmen from Aurangabad in the backward Marathwada region bought 150 Mercedes Benz luxury cars worth Rs. 65 crore at one go in October, it grabbed media attention. The top public sector bank, State Bank of India, offered the buyers loans of over Rs. 40 crore. “This,” says Devidas Tulzapurkar, president of the Aurangabad district bank employees association, “at an interest rate of 7 per cent.” A top SBI official said the bank was “proud to be part of this deal,” and would “continue to scout for similar deals in the future.”
The value of the Mercedes deal equals the annual income of tens of thousands of rural Marathwada households. And countless farmers in Maharashtra struggle to get any loans from formal sources of credit. It took roughly a decade and tens of thousands of suicides before Indian farmers got loans at 7 per cent interest — many, in theory only. Prior to 2005, those who got any bank loans at all shelled out between 9 and 12 per cent. Several were forced to take non-agricultural loans at even higher rates of interest. Buy a Mercedes, pay 7 per cent interest. Buy a tractor, pay 12 per cent. The hallowed micro-finance institutions (MFIs) do worse. There, it's smaller sums at interest rates of between 24 and 36 per cent or higher.
Starved of credit, peasants turned to moneylenders and other informal sources. Within 10 years from 1991, the number of Indian farm households in debt almost doubled from 26 per cent to 48.6 per cent. A crazy underestimate but an official number. Many policy-driven disasters hit farmers at the same time. Exploding input costs in the name of ‘market-based prices.' Crashing prices for their commercial crops, often rigged by powerful traders and corporations. Slashing of investment in agriculture. A credit squeeze as banks moved away from farm loans to fuelling upper middle class lifestyles. Within the many factors driving over two lakh farmers to suicide in 13 years, indebtedness and the credit squeeze rank high. (And MFIs are now among the squeezers).
What remained of farm credit was hijacked. A devastating piece in The Hindu (Aug. 13) showed us how. Almost half the total “agricultural credit” in the State of Maharashtra in 2008 was disbursed not by rural banks but by urban and metro branches. Over 42 per cent of it in just Mumbai — stomping ground of large corporations rather than of small farmers.
Even as the media celebrate our greatest car deal ever as a sign of “rural resurgence,” the subject of many media stories, comes the latest data of the National Crime Records Bureau. These show a sharp increase in farm suicides in 2009 with at least 17,368 farmers killing themselves in the year of “rural resurgence.” That's over 7 per cent higher than in 2008 and the worst numbers since 2004. This brings the total farm suicides since 1997 to 216,500. While all suicides have multiple causes, their strong concentration within regions and among cash crop farmers is an alarming and dismal trend.
The NCRB, a wing of the Union Home Ministry, has been tracking farm suicide data since 1995. However, researchers mostly use their data from 1997 onwards. This is because the 1995 and 1996 data are incomplete. The system was new in 1995 and some big States such as Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan sent in no numbers at all that year. (In 2009, the two together saw over 1,900 farm suicides). By 1997, all States were reporting and the data are more complete.
The NCRB data end at 2009 for now. But we can assume that 2010 has seen at least 16,000 farmers' suicides. (After all, the yearly average for the last six years is 17,104). Add this 16,000 to the total 2,16,500. Also add the incomplete 1995 and 1996 numbers — that is 24,449 suicides. This brings the 1995-2010 total to 2,56,949. Reflect on this figure a moment.
It means over a quarter of a million Indian farmers have committed suicide since 1995. It means the largest wave of recorded suicides in human history has occurred in this country in the past 16 years. It means one-and-a-half million human beings, family members of those killing themselves, have been tormented by the tragedy. While millions more face the very problems that drove so many to suicide. It means farmers in thousands of villages have seen their neighbours take this incredibly sad way out. A way out that more and more will consider as despair grows and policies don't change. It means the heartlessness of the Indian elite is impossible to imagine, leave alone measure.
Note that these numbers are gross underestimates to begin with. Several large groups of farmers are mostly excluded from local counts. Women, for instance. Social and other prejudice means that, most times, a woman farmer killing herself is counted as suicide — not as a farmer's suicide. Because the land is rarely in a woman's name.
Then there is the plain fraud that some governments resort to. Maharashtra being the classic example. The government here has lied so many times that it contradicts itself thrice within a week. In May this year, for instance, three ‘official' estimates of farm suicides in the worst-hit Vidarbha region varied by 5,500 per cent. The lowest count being just six in four months (See “How to be an eligible suicide,” The Hindu, May 13, 2010).
The NCRB figure for Maharashtra as a whole in 2009 is 2,872 farmers' suicides. So it remains the worst State for farm suicides for the tenth year running. The ‘decline' of 930 that this figure represents would be joyous if true. But no State has worked harder to falsify reality. For 13 years, the State has seen a nearly unrelenting rise. Suddenly, there's a drop of 436 and 930 in 2008 and 2009. How? For almost four years now, committees have functioned in Vidarbha's crisis districts to dismiss most suicides as ‘non-genuine.' What is truly frightening is the Maharashtra government's notion that fixing the numbers fixes the problem.
Yet that problem is mounting. Perhaps the State most comparable to Maharashtra in terms of population is West Bengal. Though its population is less by a few million, it has more farmers. Both States have data for 15 years since 1995. Their farm suicide annual averages in three-five year periods starting then are revealing. Maharashtra's annual average goes up in each period. From 1,963 in the five years ending with 1999 to 3,647 by 2004. And scaling 3,858 by 2009. West Bengal's yearly average registers a gradual drop in each five-year period. From 1,454 in 1999 to 1,200 in 2004 to 1,014 by 2009. While it has more farmers, its farm suicide average for the past five years is less than a third of Maharashtra's. The latter's yearly average has almost doubled since 1999.
The share of the Big 5 ‘suicide belt' States — Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh — remains close to two-thirds of all farm suicides. Sadly 18 of 28 States reported higher farm suicide numbers in 2009. In some the rise was negligible. In others, not. Tamil Nadu showed the biggest increase of all States, going from 512 in 2008 to 1060 in 2009. Karnataka clocked in second with a rise of 545. And Andhra Pradesh saw the third biggest rise — 309 more than in 2008. A few though did see a decline of some consequence in their farm suicide annual average figures for the last six years. Three — Karnataka, Kerala and West Bengal — saw their yearly average fall by over 350 in 2004-09 compared to the earlier seven years.
Things will get worse if existing policies on agriculture don't change. Even States that have managed some decline across 13 years will be battered. Kerala, for instance, saw an annual average of 1,371 farm suicides between 1997 and 2003. From 2004-09, its annual average was 1016 — a drop of 355. Yet Kerala will suffer greatly in the near future. Its economy is the most globalised of any State. Most crops are cash crops. Any volatility in the global prices of coffee, pepper, tea, vanilla, cardamom or rubber will affect the State. Those prices are also hugely controlled at the global level by a few corporations.
Already bludgeoned by the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), Kerala now has to contend with the one we've gotten into with ASEAN. And an FTA with the European Union is also in the offing. Kerala will pay the price. Even prior to 2004, the dumping of the so-called “Sri Lankan pepper” (mostly pepper from other countries brought in through Sri Lanka) ravaged the State. Now, we've created institutional frameworks for such dumping. Economist Professor K. Nagaraj, author of the biggest study of farm suicides in India, says: “The latest data show us that the agrarian crisis has not relented, not gone away.” The policies driving it have also not gone away.
Keywords: P. Sainath, farmers suicide
Comments:
Banks are not charities, they are not obliged to lend money. They lend only when they expect to get the money back. Where the risk of default is high, there the interest rate is high as well. Also, giving numbers of suicides without any mention of the suicide rates, and also rates vis-a-vis other professions, is simply misleading. Absolute numbers of suicides mean nothing. Really, who in the world talks about suicides without mentioning suicide rates? While it is obvious that farmers are in a sorry state, these figures and opinions really don't provide anything meaningful for the reader. Bashing banks and corporations is par for the course for Sainath surely, but a little more insight would have been nice. We readers expect a better standard of journalism from the Hindu.
A well-analysed article showing the agony of the millions of farmers who have committed suicide and millions who are being slowly killed by this corporate and corrupt driven Government. It seems the Govt is more worried about rich-upper class not having Mercedes Benz than poor farmer's meal for a day. This is high time India has to take stringent revolutionary efforts to change this situation, with prices of food items steeply increasing every day, we might have committee in near future to follow-up middle class committing suicides too. I wish this article should be translated in all languages of India and should be read in every nook and corner of the country.
We, as a nation aspire for a membership of the United Nations Security Council. We claim that we are a superpower, we claim in our arsenal thousands of sophisticated missiles, we lay claim to have the most educated workforce, we dream of landing on the moon - of what use are these when we are unable to protect,look after and care for our own people?
The much hyped governments Farmer Loan Waivers a few years ago turned out in the end to be either empty rhetoric or may be these funds evaporated in unknown scams before they reached the real benefactors. Farmers are our real hearoes who feed this massive country, instead of helping them in the hour of need we have neglected their plight. In the end the government is to be blamed, 'Aam Admi' it turns out is a Kalmadi, a Raja or a Chavan.
Gut-wrenching, guaranteed. Mr Sainath's simply-explained contrasting pictures gets to the reader. Why isn't agriculture and this related issue of loss of hard-working hands not yet the center of attention nation-wide?
These are alarming and appalling stats. Probably instead of farmers suicide we should probably term this as farmers genocide. The crisis seems to grow despite every effort to obfuscate or censor the numbers. 'Sanctioned ignorance' on the part of urban elite is no longer acceptable. A black bleak day for our country.
Are any one of the goverment officials listening to the cry of our farmers?? Our country is still primarly an agrarian economy but the Governments have disowned the people who feed the country through their hard work and toil.
It is nothing but a paradox that in India the rich gets loan from Bank at 7% interest, whereas the poor farmers and SHG members get less amount of loan at much higher interest say about 12% or above. Even the students who go for higher education loans are charged 10.5%. It is unfortunate that Banks do not even follow the established credit policy, wherein they are expected to provide one percent of their advance to the poor at a Different Rate of Interest of 4%. Had the Banks implemented this simple dictum since 1972, the Government of India formulated the scheme, much of rural poverty would have been wiped out from the face of India. There is no point in talking about inclusive growth while in reality all policies favor the "haves" to become wealthier. There is a problem of accountability and governance in managing public finance in our country.
Agriculture sector is one of the main contributors of the Indian economy and accounts for 14.6 per cent of the country's gross domestic product in 2009-10. Furthermore, the sector provided employment to 55 per cent of the work force. But it is doubtful that our law makers are giving that much importance to our farming sectors. In this market economy their interests are in IT, entertainment and in sports sector. Our union agriculture minister engaged as the president of International Cricket Council one of the richest sports foundation in the world, even though it is a personal matter to him, he wouldn't forget about the quarter million suicide farmers and their families. It is high time to think about the basic policy changes in the farming sector, the recent prize hike for the Onion forced the government to import Onion. If government continues the same policy to the agriculture sector within near future we are going to import almost all the food items. It is the duty of the government to keep the prize of the food items affordable to the common man, a failure in that make anarchy in the society .Showing a deaf ears to the issue of farmers government leading there way out of power . Once if we neglect the faming sector, the agriculture based industry and export will decline and ultimately it will affect our growth rate . Over seven percent rise in suicide rate of farmers in the year 2009 shows a little bit doubts bout real beneficiaries of 60,000 crore loan waiver announced by the government for farmers in 2008.
Amazing piece of truth in Maharashtra and in many other parts of India. Soon India will become land of zero agricultural activities, thanks to the policies of the Government. Sad to see even the MFI getting into commercial gear and getting into trouble. Whereas our Honorable Agriculture minister is bothered about BCCI and to talk for Corporate Heads who got involved in the Radia Tape issue. Does he know how many lives has been lost in his tenure as Agri minister and that too in his own state? Only way to resolve this issue is to bring these issues to the attention of youth & involve them. This is going to be a huge challenge as they are busy with twitter, FB etc...Really sad to see the state of affairs of agriculture in our country.
It pains to see that Maharashtra government treats suicide numbers as any other statistical figure. That 'fixing the number fixes the problem' attitude that writer mentions here is gross. If our governments bears that kind of attitude than our nation is in deep trouble. It is shameful that agriculture, that contribites immensely to our GDP is in a state of gross negligence on our government's part.
An excellent, revealing article indeed. In my perspective, the cause and the effect (policies and farm suicides) are unlikely to go away in any near future as our politicians are more interested in sucking-up to the business houses and are confident to buy the farmer's votes by money, liquor and a days meal. The election commission is also blind to the acts of the politicians using money, liquor, muscle, etc to buy votes. The farmers are both illiterate and have not risen up from their pre-independence phobia to question the representative, which in turn gives confidence to these politicians for more detrimental policies. The so called NGOs are more interested in making religious conversions rather than educate and support these farmers. It is really appalling why no media has never questioned the current government how their policies are 'aami aadmi' policies? Which in turn gives the politicians confidence.So in my perspective, everyone, the politicians, the business houses that influence these policy-makers, the formal and informal financing institutions, the blind media, etc all need to hold responsibility for this mess. I believe, like in France if everyone has a bank account and subsidies are granted depending upon their monthly income, the problem will be reduced to a great extent. But, how to estimate the monthly income of the farmers? By some off-handed statistics, as such a move will one benefit the big-players, who can manipulate. My suggestion would be to abolish paper currency and make all transactions via banks through credit/debit cards or wire-transfer. This will enable the authorities to monitor the sources of income and the income and expense of a family on a day by day basis in an automated fashion. This will reduce corruption, funding to illegal activities and also can establish the people who are in need for subsidies for that month and make credit to them automatically. I'm sure the opponents of this idea would hold that it would be difficult for an illiterate farmer to operate credit or debit cards. However, when they can be educated to use fertilizers and tractors, I don't understand why they cannot be educated to use the credit and debit cards? Even security can be beefed up by providing an biometric security.
P Sainath raises serious questions and intentions of the role of the India as social welfare state.It is slowly but surely turning out to be a capitalistic hegemonic state where the bread earners are forced to starve and die . We are thankful for his attempt to paint the real picture of the India which has been reeling in utmost poverty,mass suicides and utter ignorance far away from the market driven growth as portrayed by the Elite.
Never had happened this type of shameful act by any bank in India that SBI had shown with Indian farmers. At least, SBI should not treat Indian farmers in such a rude manner. Everyone knows that India is an agricultural country. And most of the citizens are dependent on agriculture. Then why did they made such a inhuman policy for farmers to pay more interests for agricultural loans? This is beyond the understanding of common human. Instead they should have helped farmers in taking loans. And in these sinful activities, why government did not interfered? This is also a very big question. And let alone reducing the interest rates, the government is trying to hide the number of farmers who had committed suicide. I think that there is a big game being played behind these activities. CBI should check it out.
Our top planners and esteemed PM are not bothered about farmers suicide because they say 'Agriculture sector is over crowded'. So what more to expect from these people?
Its really sad and irritating to see banks on their part in giving loans for fulfilling the luxuries of have's at a lesser interest rates than to the have nots need for existence. The article clearly shows that nothing has been done to reduce the number of farmer suicides which is at average of 16000 .What ever agricultural policies the government has released are not addressing the real problems of the farmers and there are simply being used in campaigning at the time of elections. Government has fixed its focus only on GDP number which I think is not the correct measure to indicate the health of the nation. Rather it should concentrate on 16000 average farmers’ suicides per year which is alarming. May be now the government will shift it eyes from 8.84% to 16000.
These are not farm suicides but are mass genocide by the state. Please look at the apex court order in Maharshtra ex-chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh case. Now it's clear that the prevailing distress in the agrarian community is a state gifted one and will not go away till state policies are not changed.
Can we, the youth of India reach out to the government for farmers' rights and interests. Our government has forgotten to nurture those who nurture and feed us. Negligence is what the Indian farmers recieve after toiling hard for the country.Its high time we congregate at a forum and fight for farmers' rights.It needs the youth to compromise on their preoccupations.
This is the one article which attracts our attention simultaneously to two subjects, corporate apathy as well as government negligence. Corporates seems to have only one motive 'Maximize the Profits' for that they give a damn to the society as a whole, but source of obfuscation is that government is also behaving like head buried ostrich to all this. Government if it tries to improve the situation can surely do so, by refining and defining the farmers friendly policies such as ensuring the correct prices for the produced goods and issue of loan at low interest rates, at least similar to what offered for "Mercedes Purchase" and similar others. We must not forget that farmers and agriculture is still the backbone and base of our economy and if properly nurtured it could lead to significant improvement for the country performance.
Thanks to P.Sainath from bringing out the other side of india ... corporate media like TOI will never do this...pls keep up ur good work
I wonder if Mohit below, sitting comfortably in his office/home and pouring vitriol on the journalist ever realises that the Banks are governed by economic policies of the country and should be indebted to caring for the majority populace and not just the minority - after all, if the banks do fail, will it not be the Govt that will bail them out? So, having settled that, the worth of life cannot be idiomized or quantified by suicide absolutes or rates - it is a life and the soul is priceless and revered, not to be butchered with words, as much as it shouldnt be with ROI's or default rates; Mohit - making a statement isnt the same as provoking a reaction - so shut up and understand the context of this article and open up your soul to the worth of life, if you have one!!
Sainath again exposes the hollowness and shamelessness of India's polity. Even the society in general now seems to have become insensitive to the woes of the lesser privileged. Also what is alarming is the lack of foresight of our policy makers that has almost destroyed the agricultural sector. We have a Food and Agriculture minister who still blames nature for all his problems from Skyrocketing inflation to farmer suicides. India's agricultural productivity is one of the lowest in the world. We have not even implemented the basic tasks of providing for irrigation,good seeds, fertilizers and pesticides at reasonable rates but are always jumping for far risky options like Genetically Modified crops and corporate farming. Our Agricultural and Veterinary institutes only serve the purpose of providing for a life-long means of employment to most of their incompetent and corrupt professors and employees who at no time are concerned about giving back to the society even a fraction of benefit for the privileges bestowed upon them.
As with all things there is a high time to do something and there is a point of no return and I think Indian agriculture is presently between the two options. It will require a giant effort to bring agriculture back on track but there is hope. If Bihar can change in 5 years so can Indian agriculture, its just waiting for its Nitish.
@Mohit
Of course banks are not obliged to lend money to anyone, but that is like saying 'blame the game not the player!' You are missing the point of the whole argument, if not the whole situation.
Moreover the article talks about a 'public' sector bank, whose priority should be the 'public', and in India the general public happen to be the more or less 60-70% of the population which lives well below the poverty line, not the 1-5% which lives well above. If not on a critical level this article should at least strike a chord on a humanitarian level for any rational thinker. This is policy based genocide in the happening and our PM thinks 'Maoists' are the biggest threat to India right now! Appalling!
In a agriculture country like India the fact that so many farmers are committing suicide is appalling. If the farmers were getting their fair share, they wouldn't have to depend on the credit institutions and subsidies. There certainly is a need for reforms related to procurement and distribution of farm products which eats up the farmer's margins. I am sure the surge in the onion prices isn't going to the farmers pocket.
Though a thought provoking article, to blame banks is not correct; they have to follow the principle of "higher the risk, higher the interest rate" or else they will close down. Ideal will be for the government to pay the agricultural insurance premium on behalf of small farmers; then the same banks will give loans at most preferred rates.
This is 'development' for un-initiated. Another excellent article by P.Sainath.
People who place 'industrialization' and 'globalization' before looking into the needs of the farmers would need to really read this piece.
And we talk about 'Congress ke haath aam aadmi ke saath' and sing paenas to the chief !!
As usual, great article from Sainath. It would be interesting to know what West Bengal is doing right to reduce farm suicides. Their policies can be a learning experience for other states.
The fact that our system only supports the rich is well known.The problem lies with the electorate which keeps reelecting these buffoons again and again .India is not fit to be a democracy. Churchill warned us about this six decades ago. We need either a benign dictatorship or communism to take care of the 'aam admi'.The present system ill make our country totally poor and increase the misery of the 'aam admi'.
Mohit in his comments of 28 Dec contends that Banks are not charities and their interest rates are regulated with reference to possibilities of the return of the loans. Is that so? An analysis the huge bad debts of banks, which they euphemistically term nonproductive assets, may show that a high percentage of the bad debts are loans and interest defaulted by the rich.
Apart from everything else , it seems to be the policy of the governments and financial institutions in India that cars have priority over food. Even the "progressive Marxist Government" of a state acquired agricultural land for car production.
KR Menon
If it happens it will be great. In Tamil Nadu, as government is interested to pass a regime of accession of all the private wine (liquor) shops under government control, instead if there was a profound thinking and if the government would have done an accession of all kernel field, the irrigation lands in Tamil Nadu along with the legitimated selling dealership manifesto, must be owned by government. This would certainly help people and the government to hold a control on price hike on basic needs for a human being to live, as food and vegetables.
Vandemataram
Without food and farmers there is no life on this earth.They shall be given the highest help(material/financial),guidance(knowledge).The farmers sustain the life of many on this planet.We can not afford to make them take this extreme step as WE ALL shall show our gratitude to them.The ONLY way is to help them to come out of this problem at this juncture.Let the government act immediately with a sense of urgency.
Personally, I am normally not one to agree blindly with the opinions of a columnist but I do have to here. India is supposedly a economic superpower and harbours aspirations to be a permanent member of the UNSC, but the fact remains that India is a top heavy country and financial power lies with a small minority and 60% of the population lies below and just above the poverty line, similarly, the same is the case with policies.
Superficial things like 1 man in a million buying a bucket load of mercedes will make news but more substantial news of farmer suicides don't get reported. The problem is not just in rural news reports, it is that we don't respect the not so well to do people,everyday in India many workers die while working on duty, whereas, in New Zealand the death of 29 miners was mourned nationally.
As for SBI's loan rates in this article, what a total farce it is and the less said about it the better. It would be better to give exclusive farmers' loans rather than nano loans with Tata.
Even the best of public sector banks don't seem to be keen enough to expand the credit to the marginal farmers, who form the majority of our farming community. It's really good that we have some regulator like RBI in place to oversee lending to these farmers and even the MFIs need to be brought under their fold. If the govt agencies fail to discharge their duties, it's ridiculous to think that pvt players would take their place. It's not only about the farmers who commit suicide but also the mental trauma which the farmers in those regions undergo along with their whole family. Even though, we know such suicide prone regions very well be it vidharbha or marathwada, our political apathy and unwillingness is quite visible. We have agency to to count the number of suicides but not to save them from commiting so--what an irony?
I shudder to think what will happen if we can't force a change in the Government's support of GM crops, the Seed Bill and other connected Bills which are being formulated with the intent to support a wholesale conversion of India's agriculture to GM crops and IPRs.
The Bt brinjal dossier for example demonstrates that no account has been taken by the apex Regulator the GEAC or by Monsanto in their safety dossier, of pest'resistance', which must be addressed. It can only really be managed and that too, with planting'refuges', an un-doable' proposition because of our small farm sizes. Our small and marginal farmers who for example, grow 95 % of brinjla in the country will have crops failures in 4 to 12 years, because of this phenomenon (Andow report). There is much else but this should be enough to seriously alert us to the devastating impact that GM crops will have on our farming environmment and our farmers -- many more suicides and droves of farmers being forced out of farming (a collapse of farming) and food security.
I have been reading p. Sainath's articles since long.Many in our country wield their sharp pen backed by the corporate lobbies. Contrary to that Sainath's pen is equally sharp rather as a missionary for the cause of impoverished. His articles are often with a peculiar admixture, blended with the scathing criticism of the system and emotional feeling for the exploited. For So many years reading his thought provoking articles i feel, the policies of the government cannot be made pro poor by providing just statistics, for they are too insensitive for that. They have to be forced to take pro people measure only through a powerful mass movement.
Its very shocking article and alarming one. The value of one's life is increasingly not realised by policy makers. The issue should be debated widely to support the families in distress with special schemes. Also further suicides need to be stopped by effective planning.
As usual we only seek to cure the symptoms and not the root cause of the ailment. What are the farmers taking increasing loans for. Shouldnt that problem be addressed before giving them the loan.
Most farmers do not address the issue of depleated soil health causing increasing investment in farm inputs and reduced produce and out put.
This becomes a visious circle. When will the govt step in and insisit on farmers adopting organic and sustainable farming to cut their input costs and improve their outputs.
Has government lost its head on the issue? Is public in general, corporates, urbanites, employees and better-off in specific dumb and blind about it? Pretending of ours that we are away from the fire would cost very very high to the future generations. Best is to get involved in whatever little way into addressing the issue of sustaining the food, water and the farmers...get out of the well man, see farther and in future...
I agree with another poster's comment that Banks are not charities and they should not be. However, how does the bank decide that one person gets a 65 crore loan @ 7% another doesnt? As a public institution, the bank needs to have clear public guidelines on lending amounts, credit risk etc. The goverment should be playing a role in regulating these guidelines to ensure that the vast majority of the country that is still desperately poor gets a level playing field. I believe everyone should get an equal opportunity and no one should get any special breaks. Not the 65-crore wallahs, not the poor farmers.
That said, look at what 30 years of deregulation in the financial industry has done in the west. The financial mess that the world is in is due to the so called 'free' market rules. Not so 'free' when you see that there is an estimated $600 trillion in inter-agency lending out there somewhere. This calls 'free' into question since there is no regulation, nobody knows what the true amount is.
Yes agreed that banks are not charity and they are not obliged to give loans. They give loans when they expect return. Yes these Mercedes people can pay back loan easily so banks have little risk and so lower rate of interest. Okay, is it the justification you are giving to this scenario Mr Mohit? Then look at this: a government official who is unlikely to default in any circumstances, even he cannot get a housing loan at this rates. Why?? is there any risk involved for bank? Check your facts. RBI recently came up with the PLR instead of base rate. Why? Because these banks wanted to lure customer from corporate world by giving them loans at the cost of general people. After this PLR they will not be able to lend lower than PLR. Its a proven fact that banks are lending to big corporates at the cost of general public. Even you are paying this cost Mr. Mohit.
A very sad picture excellently captured by Sainath. My only concern is how many of our politicians (policy makers) are even aware of this. Or is this a conscious effort, by our politicians and banks, to dismantle our existing agriculture industry structure and finally push towards corporate owned agriculture lands (when individuals can no longer sucessfully own land and profit from agriculture)...Either case this is really disturbing.
It is really sad to see that Indian farmers are ending up their lives just because they are not getting proper support from the Government and its policies. This country is not serious about the lives of its citizens specially farmers who feed the nation selflessly. It is high time politicians and financial institutions realised this.
Thanks to Sainath who writes for oppressed people,small farmers and the other 5% of socity's lowest level. But our media reflects th elife of elite people.s life.
It is unwise to judge the average Indian farmer as a poor peasant. Some models of farming are just not sustainable any more, but many of our farmers continue to blindly do what they have done for ages. Their soil is no longer productive, but they still turn to chemicals instead of letting the land heal using organic methods. Sure their knowledgebase has been hijacked by carefully planned onslaught, but look at the other side of the coin like in Tamil Nadu - farmers get free electricity, and even those that make crores of rupees during a bumper cash crop price hike like this years turmeric, they don't pay one paisa of tax. You cannot keep one part of the country competitive and subsidize the other all the time. We're all seeing which side has come out on top.
While the white collared I.T professional earns two lacs a month, travelling in an imported car, the farmer toiling twelve hours or more in the hot sun in the field is starving and unable to feed his kids, what can the Chidambarams do to control the Maoists? There will be million more Maoists in the next decade rising to bring the corrupt politicians and the bureaucrat businessmen to stand on their knees. The solution is to control the population explosion with an iron hand and regulate the distribution of wealth in a better way, the results of which can be seen probably after two decades.
K.R.Menon's and Manas' reply should be enough for Mohit. As Menon indicated and is the truth, high defaulters are not farmers, but big corporations and institutions whose bad debts are ruining our public and private banks. Now, about Mohit's asking for suicide rates, he could have read carefully what Sainath wrote about the unaccounted suicide rates, for eg. among women. This clearly shows that suicide rates which are mostly fabricated cannot be taken into account or relied upon. Those rates are prone to fabrication either under some technical pretext or (again as Sainath proved) on the pretext of fixing the numbers, which Maharashtra has cleverly done. And Mohit wants to have suicide rates-vs-other professions. Does Mohit think that suicide rates in other professions would exceed that of farmers. Or does he want to compare farmer suicide rates with general suicide rates, so that he can claim that suicides on personal level would be more than the other?
Mr. Sainath - Farming sounds like a bad business to be in in India. Otherwise banks should be happy to lend, no?. My question is why are these people not able to find any alternate way of living ? You let govt set minimum support price for agri commodities, levy heavy import duty on agri products, waive off loans, etc all in the name of helping poor farmers! Govt in India is choking free enterprise. The day you people realise this , it may be too late.
Some comments above shows that few peoples are still worried about the standard of journalism in India rather than the living standard of the majority of the people here.So make the purpose of these journals fulfilled by getting aware and contribute to nation's progress the way you can.
I currently work in the Middle East in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The amount of importance that is given to agriculturists here for local production is immense. Why so much support? Because 100% of the food grains are imported into this country. Food security in this part of the world comes a hefty price if imports stop. This place being a desert currently has developed so much in agriculture that now only 70% of the vegetables are being imported. True the population is only a million. But this country is not blessed with any kind of favorable climate, water or even the sand. But still they manage to reduce imports and keep the prices affordable. Our country has everything and I mean everything. Then why are we like this. When will the so called rulers of India realize that a country only becomes a super-power in the world when its citizens are respected around the world and not treated like 3 world out-castes. US and the European countries are known to be super-powers because they are from inside. Only when you are a super power inside you become a super-power outside. Else all this bragging about India being noticed are all short lived. I really hope they realize this.
@Mohit: What rates do you expect? What is the acceptable suicide rate above which you would be concerned? Do you even think before you type here? The guy is talking about suicides by farmers. 1 suicide or 10000 suicides do not matter. What have we become if we cannot acknowledge the fact that we have a problem? Today, people sit at coffee day and sip cold coffee but when we were begging the World Bank for credit who do you think gave this country subsidized rice and wheat for it to grow into what it is today? It is the person that commited suicide that is mentioned in this article. It is people like you who have made life into a number game. Do you even see what is happening? This country is pursuing economic growth over the dead bodies of its citizens. And people like you are fine with it as long as the numbers are satisfying.
Include women and landless farmers, they are not counted as farmer suicides, and see how the number goes higher and higher.
The loan policies of all banks are lopsided indeed. But the real issue here is not whether a farmer gets bank loan at 7% or 12%. Even if banks lend to farmers at 4% or 7%, the basic issue is not resolved, which is the economic price for farm products. In 1990, the salary of a junior engineer (or similar employee)in government was about Rs.4000/- . In 2000, the salary of a junior engineer (or similar employee)in government was about Rs.12000/-. In 2010, the salary of a junior engineer(or similar employee) in government was about 30000/-.In 1990, the price of one kilo of Rice was Rs.8/-.In 2000, the price of one kilo of Rice was Rs.15/-.In 1990, the price of one kilo of Rice was Rs.22/-. Why should not the price of Rice today be about Rs.50/- per kilo, to match with the purchasing power of these junior engineers (or similar employees)? Only if farm products, particularly the food crops, are appreciated at the same rate as GDP growth rate (say 8 to 10% per annum, will farming becomes really viable and farmers get their due ( without depending on government largesse). Let us face the issue in reality mode.