Toll-free helpline number for distressed farmers to be a reality

Nagpur: Troubled farmers of Vidarbha will soon be able to seek relief for their agrarian problems as authorities attempt to initiate a special toll-free helpline number.
Taking cue from the “Kisan Mitra Helpline’ initiated in Adilabad in Telangana, Wardha’s district collector Shailesh Nawal has already called a meeting on Monday with local departments concerned and NGO Prakriti to lay the groundwork.

“We will soon open a dedicated helpline in Wardha district on a pilot basis. The information gathered during the first few months will be submitted to the office of the divisional commissioner, Nagpur, which will then take a call on starting helplines in all six districts in the Nagpur revenue division,” said Nawal.

Nawal and district collector of Adilabad, Divya Devrajan, were attending the concluding day of the two-day seminar on security of families of suicide-affected farmers organized by NGOs Prakriti and Makaam at Lonara, on Friday.

Nawal said there are two existing helplines in Wardha for public grievances which are unable to properly serve farmers’ cause. “We will essentially be revamping the existing system so that people in rural areas of the district can register their grievances. The service is expected to begin in March,” he said.

Representatives from Prakriti, Makaam and various farmers’ self-help groups will be attending the meeting with Nawal on Monday. “Finding resourced persons who are sensitive to the issue and overall publicity of the helpline will be discussed in the meeting,” the collector said.

Devrajan spearheaded the helpline initiative in 2017 first in Vikarabad district in Telangana where she was the collector before being transferred to Adilabad, where the service began on February 1.

“In 2004, the then government of Andhra Pradesh had issued an order which started prevention of farmer suicides and provided a public grievance helpline. Although the helplines currently exist in the state, there were issues with sensitivity. With the help of local self-help groups and Makaam, we rebranded the helpline exclusively for agrarian problems,” Devrajan said.

The staff answering to distressed farmers is specially trained to handle sensitive issues like a farmer about to commit suicide. “The grievance is then escalated to a mandal committee (tehsil level) or the district committee depending on the nature of the case,” she said.

“The helpline is not just for prevention of suicides, although there are trained counsellors for that, but it mostly helps farmers with issued in acquiring loans, claiming crop insurance and documentation of farmland,” she said.

Since the helpline first began in Vikarabad on April 14, 2017, the local call centre has received over 3,000 calls, she added. Of these, five were calls from farmers contemplating suicide, which were successfully averted.