Day 294

Toll 599

28 Farm Suicides per Day

Two days days back I had put up earnings of farmer per day according to the Indian government survey. Sadly, data on farmer and labour suicides has not been available for a few years now. Neither in the Parliament (last question answered was in 2016), nor on the Statistics Department website.

Last we knew, 3.5 lakh farmers and labour had committed suicide in last two decades. The number quoted in some circles is 4 lakh.

While browsing for something else, here is a report I came across based on National Crime Records Bureau. It was published a few months back. It pegs the number at an average of 28 suicides per day. It says:

‘The latest data from the National Crime Records Bureau shows more than 10,000 farmers and agricultural labourers killed themselves in 2019 — that’s 7.4 per cent of India’s total suicide victims. (As a comparison, students also made up 7.4 per cent while civil servants accounted for 1.2 per cent.)’

Farmer and labour is vulnerable, students are vulnerable, there have been immense job loses, civil servants are committing suicide. As a country we are a ticking time bomb, ready to explode.

Yet, our silence. Our status quo.

See here …