Suicides

From past some years we regularly getting some frequent reports of farmers committing suicide in Hamirpur and its surroundings. But no systematic efforts were done either by the government or by non-government organizations to find out the root cause and abolish  it. What we have are only press reports of specific cases when a person dies. 

Some of the suicide cases from the district, reported in newspapers and magazines, were as follows:

Case 1- Chandu alias Tulsidas, 55, of Kasba Sarila, Hamirpur district, had around 12 acres of land, which supported a family of 17 members, including three married sons and their wives and children. However, illness, and the drought, led to diminishing earnings from the land, forcing Chandu to taken loans from moneylenders. Some tractor dealer agents approached him and sold him the idea of taking a bank loan for a tractor, to increase income. As an incentive, the agents offered some cash upfront, whereby Chandu could pay some instalments of old debts. Chandu fell for the offer, but in the drought situation, the tractor brought in no income, and Chandu's total debt burden stood at Rs 8 lakhs.

As he was unable to repay any of this money, some moneylenders took possession of part of his land. Chandu approached his relatives for help, but nobody could help him. On May 8, 2007, after meeting some relatives in a nearby village, he killed himself by jumping into a well. 

Case 2- Kumhau pur village in Lalpura Zone, A farmer named Rajaram Nishad, 55, S/o Badanga has died by hang on a babool tree.His son named Anoop said that his father had two acre of cultivated land in which he cultivated Grass which was completly ruin due to untimely rain.

Both of the examples shows hunger or poverty-related deaths. Rather, they indicate gullibility. They also indicate high degree of desperation in a land where there appears little opportunity for quickly increasing one's income through legal means.

The figure of Banda district is highly abnormal.Banda district's Census 2001 population figure of 15.37 lakhs, one can expect around 30 to 40 suicides a year in the district. The figure quoted by Dainik Jagran implied that in 2004, the number of suicides in Banda was over ten times the 'norm'.

Agriculture in Hamirpur | Suicides | Survival Practices by marginalized groups | Hamirpur Agricultural Profits | Agricultural Production of Hamirpur

Categories: Agriculture