July 28, 2016
Special Mention | Vivek Gupta | Demand for adopting West Bengal model to reduce number of suicides by farmers in country
Sir, the latest National Crime Records Bureau data showed that farmer suicides in the country have reduced from 11,772 farmers in the year 2013, to 5,650 farmers in the year 2014. This implies a reduction of more than 50 per cent in the number of suicides.
For the year 2014, there has been a change in the definition of a farmer while computing such suicides. It includes only those farmers who own and work on the field and who employ workers for farming activities. It does not include the agricultural labourers in this definition. Hence, I would like to draw the attention of the House towards the fact that this farmers’ suicides data for the year 2014 does not really show the complete picture of farmer suicides in the country.
The total number of farm labourers who committed suicide in the year 2014 was 6,710 farmers. If this number is added to the farmer suicides reported in 2014, it adds up to 12,360 suicides. This number is, in fact, higher than the total number of suicides for the year 2013, which was 11,772 suicides. The change in methodology seems to present a skewed picture of the real situation of farmer suicides in the country. I would like to draw the attention of the House on this issue.
In Bengal, not a single farmer suicide has taken place. The Central Government would do well to learn the Bengal model and use it in rest of the country to save lives.
