Debt burden, scanty rainfall and power woes force farmers to end their lives in the new state.
Wednesday, July 2 was the last day of
Peraboyina Sampath’s life. That day, in the evening, he walked into his dusty
field, gulped down some pesticide and waited for all his miseries to get over.
The 32-year-old farmer worked in the near-barren farm at Seetharamapuram
village under Parakala Mandal in Warangal district of the new state of
Telangana. He was under a lot of pressure to pay back the debt of more than Rs2
lakh he owed to banks and money lenders. He had told his wife he would kill
himself if the crop failed this time too. Next day, his wife found his body.
Now she has to take care of their son and daughter – with no means of income.
Her only hope is some ex-gratia relief from the state government. Months later,
on November 10, a high-voltage drama was on in the state assembly. The
opposition was armed with accusations and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS)
government was dodging the bullets of words.
But 170 km away from the state capital
Hyderabad, in a village panchayat of Cheriyal under Warangal district, Kanduri
Illama could not stop her tears, watching on television the assembly discussion
on farmer suicides. On August 11, this year, her husband hanged himself to
death near an open well in their farm. Narrating how her husband Mallaiah, 45,
committed suicide, a wailing Illama said her world came crashing down that day,
and she did not know how she would raise her three daughters. Mallaiah had
grown cotton and maize on four acres, but half the land failed to yield
anything. He had been borrowing money from local money lenders over the past
few years. This year they all had great hopes of good rains and good harvest.
But all their hopes and efforts went in vain, Illama said. Their eldest
daughter, Rajitha, was married early this year but was sent back after her
in-laws’ dowry demands could not be met. Bhavani, 18, is a BCom student, and
the youngest daughter is in Class 9. Bhavani said two acres of the land
belonged to her father as a joint property and it was not registered in his
name. So he could not avail loan against it from a bank. He was forced to turn
to small-time money lenders for help. His total debt was '4 lakh, and interest
on it was piling up. Now, Illama and her daughters are forced to do petty work
in the neighbourhood to survive. Two of the daughters have to earn their daily
bread instead of going to college or school. The same story of a failed crop,
huge debt, and the ending of one’s life is replicated across the state. In
Angadipeta village of Chandur Mandal in Nalagonda district – 160 km from
Illama’s village, moneylenders’ threats pushed Maragoni Venkataiah, 45, to take
his life by hanging himself from a tree on his farm. He left behind his wife,
two teenage daughters and a son without any livelihood. In Damara Cherla
mandal, Malothu Ravi consumed pesticide when his wife was away to bring their
two school-going sons home. Ravi had invested Rs 2.50 lakh but the crop failed.
On the same
day, Vangari Anjaiah of Maripadi village in Gundala mandal was also found
hanging from the ceiling at his home. In Chadari village of Raupet mandal,
Rajaiah, a 42-year-old maize farmer, ended his life by consuming pesticide. B
Narasimha Rao, joint director, agriculture, said the farmers of Rajupet and
Alair mandals had taken up maize cultivation in about 2,000 hectares, but most
of the crop had withered away due to scanty rainfall. Despite the recent rains,
the district recorded 50 percent deficient rainfall during the southwest
monsoon, leaving the farming community in the lurch. The two most affected
districts of Telangana – Warangal and Nalgonda – witnessed an alarmingly high
number of suicides during this Kharif season.
The primary reason for their plight is crop
failure due to poor rains coupled with a nonexistent irrigation system and debt
burden. Farmers take loans to meet healthcare, education and marriage expenses
at high interest from private lenders, hoping to pay it all back after one
bumper crop. But monsoon failures and the absence of any crop insurance scheme
make suicide the only exit route. Another factor in this unfolding tragedy is
the system of tenant farming, which is widespread in Telangana. Farmers
typically own one or two acres of land, but take more land on rent from
landlords. Krishnaiah, a tenant farmer in Karimnagar, had no agriculture land.
He used to lease farmland in his native village. This time too he took four
acres of land on lease but his crop failed because adequate power was not
available. In the process, he incurred debt to the tune of '2.5 lakh. Unable to
pay back after the crop failure, he consumed pesticide and committed suicide on
September 23. “A majority of the victims are tenant farmers who pay very high
interest rates to lease land, often paying up to '10,000 per acre per season.
When their crop fails, they are left in debt. With private financiers hounding
them, they take their own lives,” said RTI activist B Kondala Reddy who is
associated with Rythu Swarjya Vedika, and Caring Citizens Collective, an NGO.
Agriculture department officials said cotton and chilli farmers have been hit
hard, because of unseasonal showers and lack of sufficient rainfall. They said
the rainfall in Warangal was 31 percent below normal this year. As a result,
the groundwater levels in the district went down to 8.06 metres this September,
compared to 5.07 metres last September. The situation is the same in Adilabad
with 29 percent rainfall deficit and Nalgonda with 38 percent less rainfall. In
Medak district, there was only 44 percent rainfall, putting thousands of paddy,
cotton and sugarcane farmers in distress. Officials said since agriculture in
Telangana is predominantly dependent on bore-wells, depleted groundwater levels
coupled with power cuts have hit farmers hard. Death by numbers While the
government pegs the total number of farmer suicides at 79, the grassroots
organisation Rythu Swarajya Vedika and the opposition Congress’s farmer wing
Kisan Congress put the figure at 350. M Kodanda Reddy, chairman of Telangana
Kisan Congress, called the government estimates “bogus”. Telangana Pradesh
Congress Committee president Ponnala Lakshmaiah said, “Police records say 318
farmers committed suicide in Telangana in the past four months. On the day of
Diwali alone, 14 farmers ended their lives but the CM is feigning ignorance
about it.” Agriculture minister P Srinivas Reddy blamed the previous Congress
government for the plight of farmers. “The previous government did not create
proper irrigation facilities nor has it bothered about the welfare of farmers.
The farm loan waiver of the TRS government will aid the farmers immensely,” he
said, when asked about the alleged suicides. P Srihari Rao, a social activist
who has filed a public interest litigation in the Hyderabad high court seeking
help for the distressed families of farmers who have committed suicide, says,
“The government should treat this as more than a national disaster. It should
declare an agricultural emergency in Telangana. Unless public and private loans
are waived and some confidence-building measures are taken, suicides will
continue.” Soon after assuming charge the TRS government under chief minister K
Chandrasekhar Rao announced a scheme to waive crop loans and gold loans up to
'1 lakh for farmers. The government said waiving the loans of 3.9 million
farmers would put a burden of '17,000 crore on the state coffers but it was
ready to take it on, as it was an election promise. However, this applies only
to bank loans, and brings no relief to the farmers facing heat from private
money lenders. Also, farmers continue to suffer from power crisis, which needs
to be resolved to let them breathe easy.
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