Farmer suicides decline, but farm crisis not over yet

The spectre of farmers committing suicide—mostly because of their inability to service debt—can be considered one of the more blatant instances of the Indian state failing its duties, post-nineties. The phenomenon has haunted successive governments, regardless of political colours. But now, for the first time, data tabled in Parliament by Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, in response to a query, indicates a decline in the suicide rates in 2016.

The drop from 2015 to 2016 is a sharp 21 per cent. Percentages can make things look better than they are, of course. In actual numbers, the drop is from a peak of 8,007 in 2015 to 6,351 in 2016. Not exactly a call to celebrate, but significant enough to induce a sense of relief in the administration. After all, it’s the first time a decline, not an increase, has been recorded in farmer suicides. The data does elicit a measure of curiosity. The National Crime Records Bureau, in fact, has taken the last two years to collate figures—and it’s yet to put it in the public domain—in which for the first time a new methodology has been used.

While farmer suicide cases have shown a decline, farm labour suicide cases have gone up: the farm crisis isn’t yet behind us. Telangana is the only exception, where the decline is in both categories. Thanks to severe drought in its southern tracts, Karnataka’s position shows no tangible improvement in farmer suicide either—1,212 in 2016 as against 1,197 in 2015. And farm labour suicides shot up to 867 from 372. Maharashtra tops the list of both farmer and farm labour suicides, though there’s a marginal decline in both.

Relatively rich agricultural states like Haryana and Punjab have registered only cases of farmer suicides—91 and 222 respectively—no labour suicide. Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat also register a significant rise in labour suicides, so the pattern holds despite policy orientations. That this is happening in India, the fifth-largest economy or the largest growing economy in the world, should give us pause, and take us deeper to the core question of equitable growth.