With 6 more farmer suicides, toll in 4 last months rises to 336

By Pervez Bari

 

Bhopal: In the last days of April six more farmers have committed suicides in the central Indian region of Vidarbha which lies in Maharashtra state. With this the reported toll of suicides has risen to 336 in the current year 2007 while taking the total number to 79 in April.

    Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, (VJAS), President Kishor Tiwari has demanded that Government of India should ban Bollgard II Bt. Cotton in Vidarbha to stop the ongoing farmers' suicides.

 

    Tiwari in the VJAS Press release has mentioned the names of those who have committed suicides in the last two days as:.Narayan Champatrao Junjunkar of Ralegaon in Yavatmal, Mahadev Ramchandra Pophale of Dhoterdi in Akola, Pandurang Bhikaji Devkar of Mazalgaon in Buldhana, Satish Govind Raghuwanshi of Hirulpurna in Amravati, Rajesh Bhagwan Wankhede in Kalara in Akola and Laxman Ramaji Sahare in Chandola in Amravati
   

 The Press release said that in the last 118 days of this year a record 336 Vidarbha farmers' suicides have been reported (Jan-70, Feb-88, Mar-97 and Apr till today 79) which has exposed the local administration that package implementation has dropped down the farm suicides in Vidarbha by 50 per cent.

    The Press release pointed out that the farmers' suicide figure of this year since January to 20 April is all most double and it is daily increasing in Vidarbha . However, the local administration is using the official media to mislead the world that Vidarbha farm suicides are on the decline but the Maharashtra Government on it's own website http://www.vnss-mission.gov.in/docs/suicide.pdf has put the information which exposes this claim as wrong one. The Vidarbha farm suicides in the last three years are on record high and VJAS has quoted the reference of the Maharashtra Government's own website official data, which is like this
   

 The official figures of farmers' suicides in six districts of West Vidarbha as stated in the Press release are as under:

       

FARM SUICIDE AND YEAR	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007 TILL 26TH APRIL
SUICIDE IN YEAR	49	105	143	441	560	1427	336 TILL 26th April

 

·  THIS FIGURE OF SUICIDE ARE FROM SIX DISTRICTS VIZ. YAVATMAL, AMARAVATI, AKOLA, WARDHA, WASHIM, BULDHANA  OF VIDARBHA AND ARE FROM GOVT. WEBSITE – http://www.vnss-mission.gov.in/docs/suicide.pdf 

 

    However, it may be pointed out here that there are some minor discreapncies in the figures when these are compared with the official data put on the website. 

    It may be recalled here that the Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh during his Vidarbha visit on 1st July 2006 had announced Rs.37500 million package to the cotton farmers of six districts. But the official record says that there is record increase in cotton farmers' suicides after this package announcement as Govt. of Maharashtra has officially admitted 1534 farmers' suicidal death after 1st July 2006 as this figure is almost equal to suicide figure of last one decade. 

 

   Kishor Tiwari said it is a matter of shame as the above fact is known to government officials very well but they are still saying that suicides are on the decline after package and suicide rate has come down to 50 per cent.

    Tiwari stated in the release that Government of Maharashtra has selected Relief Commissioner Dr.Sudhir Goyal to clarify this misleading suicide data. He is the same relief commissioner who got conducted has put government official survey which showed that 75 per cent of 1.7 million farmers were in distress of which more than 4,34000 cotton farmers are in deep distress. Their hardships are needed to be addressed but have not been taken care of in these so-called relief packages.

 

VJAS DEMANDS BAN ON Bt. COTTON BOLLGARD II IN VIDARBHA

 

    Meanwhile, Tiwari said after mass sowing permission by GEAC in June -2005 for Bt. Cotton in Vidarbha more than 2230 cotton farmers' suicides have been reported and Govt. of Maharashtra has compensated cotton growers Rs. 2190 million and Rs. 210 million in the year 2005-2006 and year 2006-2007 respectively for the failure of Bt. Cotton in rain fed-area of Vidarbha. He claimed that Maharashtra Govt. on record has admitted that Bt. Cotton has failed in rain-fed area of Vidarbha where 95 per cent area of Vidarbha is rain-fed.

 

    Now, Bt. Cotton manufacturing American company has introduced Bollgard II seed and has started it's high profile campaign that it's highly profitable and gives minimum 11 quintal yield whereas according to Govt. of Maharashtra official report the cotton average yield has dropped down from 120 kg per acre to hardly 50 kg per acre after introduction of Bt. Cotton in Vidarbha.

 

The claims made by the Monsanto company proved fraudulent as cotton growers' pesticide uses did not drop down whereas the cotton output was drastically effected resulting in mass suicides of cotton farmers in Vidarbha, Tiwari added.

    As such VJAS has demanded that Govt. of India should ban Bollgard II Bt. Cotton in Vidarbha to stop the ongoing farm suicides.

 

    Meanwhile, on October 10, Dr. Sudhir Goyal submitted critical report to Indian Prime Minister Office that said:

• SUDEEN DROP IN COTTON YIELD
• TOTAL FAILURE BT. COTTON IN RAIN FED AREA OF VIDARBHA
• WITHDRAWAL ADVANCE BONUS TO VIDARBHA COTTON FARMERS SINCE JUNE-2005 IN COTTON MONOPOLY SCHEME.
• CREDIT CRUNCH TO THE COTTON FARMERS
• US SUBSIDIES DROPPING THE COTTON PRICE INTERNATIONALLY
• HIGH COST EXCESSIVE USE OF CHEMICAL FARMING METHODS

    Tiwari has stated that total failure of rural health care, employment and social-cum-civil administration are the main reasons of farmers' suicides in west Vidarbha and Dr.Sudhir Goyal himself has asked Indian Government that low cost sustainable farming is the only solution to stop these suicides. Ban on Bt. Cotton and chemical farming is need of hour and cotton farmers should cultivate there than cotton should the programme of the state the official further demands.

    He said that restoration of secondary systems like rural employment, health is also needed to stop these ongoing suicides but nobody is acting in this direction. Moreover, misleading press releases are adding fuel to extremely critical situation in Vidarbha, Kishor Tiwari informed. ([email protected])