It is not loans secured from banks just for agriculture that are driving farmers to suicides. Loans taken from private money lenders for personal needs - like building a roof over their heads - or medical treatment - at exorbitant interest rates, are pushing them into swirls of debts, ultimately forcing them to end their lives.
A classic case is that of L. Ashaiah. Cultivating the ancestral land of less than three acres was the only income source for the 48-year-old Dalit farmer from Salbathapur of Bantwaram in Ranga Reddy, 110 km from Hyderabad.
Like most of the farmers in the district, his cultivation was completely depended on rainfall. They had no money to drill a borewell. By sweating it out from dawn to dusk in the field, he and his wife L. Savithramma had managed to make ends meet for several years.
With much difficulty they married off their two daughters. The youngest daughter, who is visually challenged in one eye, - failed in Class X exam and is at home.
Poverty forced them to take their son out of school and send him to work in a hotel in Hyderabad.
As the small mud house Ashaiah inherited from his forefathers in the village was dilapidated, he visited Panchayat office several times, requesting for sanctioning of a house under government scheme. They demolished the old one, filled the basement with rocks hoping to get first instalment of money from the government. “We borrowed Rs. 50,000 from a private financier but had to spend part of that for cultivating the land as the crops had failed continuously,” Savithramma said. Since money was required for other expenses, Ashaiah approached banks to renew his earlier loan.
Hoping that the bank loan would be renewed, he secured documents online through a known person by spending Rs. 1,000.
Poverty forced Ashaiah and his wife to drop their son from school and send him to work in a hotel
in Hyderabad
