‘Number of farmers down by 1.5 crore in country’

PATNA: Experts on Friday said agrarian crisis facing the country had become the crisis of larger society with telling impact on civilisation in the last 20 years.

Expert on agrarian crisis P Sainath, who is also associated with People’s Archive for Rural India (PARI), said as many as 3 lakh farmers had committed suicide in the last 20 years. “The crisis has been further compounded as the number of farmers in the country has declined by 1.5 crore as per the 2011 Census,” he added.

Sainath was addressing a lecture session on ‘Why farmers and farm workers are demanding special session of Parliament?’ at Gandhi Sangrahalaya here. The lecture was organised by various peasant and cultural organisations in the run up to the two-day march of the farmers associated with 210 organisations to Parliament on November 29 and 30, demanding special session of Parliament to discuss problems facing the country’s farming sector.

“The agrarian crisis facing the country today is no longer associated with food security. Instead, it has become the crisis of our society, humanity and civilisation,” Sainath said.

Presiding over the seminar, Navin Chandra from Kedar Das Institute for Labour and Social Studies said people from all sections should show solidarity with farmers, while All India Kisan Sabha national secretary Satya Narayan Singh demanded a 21-day special session of Parliament to discuss issues facing the farmers. Among others who spoke on the occasion were Anamika Priyadarshi, Ravindranath Roy, Gopal Krishna, Raja Ram and Manoj Srivastava.