On the day after Gandhi’s death anniversary, P. Sainath writes on the front page of the Hindu that farmer suicides show no abatement in almost all states except Karnataka.
There were 17,060 farm suicides in 2006, the latest year for which numbers are available, of which Maharashtra accounts for over a quarter. The SEZ states (as Sainath terms them) Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh account for over two-thirds of all suicides in the country and show a sharp upward trend.
In the case of Maharashtra, 2006 was the year which saw the implementation of relief packages worth a total of Rs. 4,825 crores in the Vidarbha region. It is tempting to conclude that these numbers imply the failure of debt relief packages to be effective. However, I would argue that it may be more pertinent to look at 2007 numbers before making any conclusions. Of course, there are other, important critiques to be made of the policy to hand out debt relief on such a large scale.
Most disturbingly, the article ends with this statistic: The number of farmer suicides between 2002 and 2006 would imply that, on average, there has been one farmer’s suicide every half an hour since 2002.
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