Vidarbha suicides continue-DNA

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Vidarbha suicides continue
By - Jaideep Hardikar

Farmer hangs himself from tree after crop failure

Full Story can be found at http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1209455


YAVATMAL: Jaideep Parashram Rathod, 40, did not wait for the state government's new sop: a possible loan waiver scheme for farmers who repay their crop loan regularly.

Shattered by a complete failure of crop this year, the three-acre farmer in Tiwsala village, in Yavatmal's Ghatanji tehsil, followed what tens of other farmers have done in Vidarbha in the past. He killed himself by hanging from a tree.

Barely ten days after his death, Rathod's younger brother Nandu went to SBI's Ghatanji branch to find out how much money he owed. "I was shocked. I told the manager, it couldn't be his loan. Rs 192,198! How could banks lend a farmer with 3-acre un-irrigated land Rs 96,935 for crop loan? There's something fishy."

Till 2007, Rathod could barely get a credit of Rs20,000 for a kharif crop. This year though, he dared to dig a well and applied for a loan. The SBI approved him Rs95,263 for digging a well and installing a motor-pump. "He was a regular payee, so the bank must have given him a preference, but the crop loan amount is beyond my comprehension," said Nandu.

While Nandu is pursuing the case with SBI, Rathod's total credit this year stands at close to Rs2 lakh. His income is nil, with the failure of Bt cotton and Jowar crops due to scanty rains. His frail widow Sunita, who never went to a school, knows nothing about bank transactions. She's still to come to terms with her husband's untimely death. Her two daughters and two sons may drop out.

Vidarbha is sitting on an agrarian volcano that threatens to explode any moment. Crops have come a cropper. Prices of soybean and cotton have crashed, bringing to naught for farmers any chance of recovering losses, and then there's hunger.

Sunita's kitchen utensils are empty. Rathod knew he couldn't see his kids starving. There was no chance of paying back the dues to banks. Sadly, the Banjara farmer, who, villagers say, took initiative in settling quarrels and domestic problems in Tiwsala with his erudite reasoning and friendly behaviour, had no solution to his own economic despair.

Fears Kishore Tiwari, of the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS): "Suicides will rise after December." Last five days have been an example, after a comparative lull, with 15 farmers committing suicide in the period, and 36 so far this month.

From January to October 31 (2008), 533 farmers had ended their lives in 11 districts of Vidarbha, according to the VJAS, which gathers information from newspapers. The Vasantrao Naik Shetkar Swavlamban Mission at Amravati, which monitors implementation of special relief packages, estimates that 750 farmers committed suicide in six districts this year till August 2008.= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
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