Rising suicide cases cause of worry, need solution
The Supreme Court's advise to the Union Government to strike at the root cause of farmers' suicides rather than just be content with giving compensation to the victims’ families, deserves attention. While the compensation is a humane gesture and cannot be faulted per se, it indeed does not tackle the core issue. Now that the apex court has asked the Centre to get back to it within a month with a roadmap to handle the problem, one should expect a meaningful response to the crisis. There cannot be any dispute with the fact that a long-term policy and action-oriented plan is needed. A three-judge Bench gently chided the Government for “going in the wrong direction”. The Modi regime ought to take this advice in the right spirit. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), more than 5,500 farmer suicides were recorded in 2014 alone across the country. In 2015, the figure jumped by more than 40 per cent, with Maharashtra contributing the most. While it is true that not all of these cases may have been related to agricultural issues — there are instances of farmers having taken the drastic step due to other personal issues — it's also a fact that many of them were due to the abject failure of the victims to clear loans taken for farming needs. This happened due to crop failures as a result of intense flooding or drought.
The fact also is that most lending agencies have been less than sensitive to the plight of the small and marginal farmers who have had genuine grievances. Besides, private money-lenders, to whom farmers turn to for quick loans, often behave in Shylock-like fashion. If more and more private lenders and unscrupulous micro-lending firms have had a field day, it's because of the failure of institutional lenders to reach out to the farming community in times of need. These are just some of the issues that the Centre needs to tackle. A holistic approach alone can serve the purpose.
It's not that the Modi Government hasn't been concerned with the issue. It has taken a host of measures to tackle the crisis, with the enhanced crop insurance scheme being one of them. Now even if the crop damage is up to 30 per cent, farmers' can avail of the insured amount; earlier the sum could be claimed only if the damage had been to the extent of 50 per cent or more. Besides, the scheme now also covers losses post-harvesting. In addition, the Government has sought to maximise returns for the farmers through a unified national agriculture market. Moves are also afoot to revamp the infrastructure and functioning of the procurement and storage systems. Minimum support prices have been raised for various crops. And yet, despite these well-intentioned measures, the small and marginal farmer continues to be in distress. The Union Government's focus in the last two Budgets has rightly been on the agricultural and the rural sectors, but the schemes need to be implemented more effectively.