Covid takes toll on probe into Vid farmers’ suicide

Nagpur: Covid management has pushed monitoring of farmers’ suicide in Vidarbha to the back seat. Amravati, Akola, Yavatmal, Buldhana, Washim and Wardha districts in Vidarbha have been declared as affected by farmers’ suicide.
Sources in the relief and resettlement department, which has been maintaining a data of farmers’ suicides from the six districts since 2000, said investigation of suicides has not been a priority in times of Covid.
This year, 339 farmers’ suicides have been recorded from January to June start. Out of them, only 34 cases have been officially declared as suicides due to agrarian crisis. This entitles the survivors to a compensation of Rs5 lakh. Out of the 34 deceased, the compensation has been paid to the kin of 13 so far.
Normally, around 50% cases are disposed of at any point of time. Currently, 24 cases have been rejected and investigation is pending in 280.
To declare a suicide as that due to farm crisis certain criterion are examined by district-level committees. “The committees have to meet from time-to-time. However, the regular meeting could only begin from mid-May. Meetings were held in a couple of districts this month too,” said a source.
The figures of June have not been compiled.
Officials were busy in the Covid-management and holding physical meetings was also not possible, said the source.
Out of the 339 suicides till June, 245 happened from February to May. In February, 101 suicides took place in the six districts. In the three months of lockdown, 130 suicides took place in these districts.
Kishore Tiwari, the chairman of Vasantrao Naik Shetkari Swavalamban Mission, the state government task force on farm crisis, said, “The number of farmers’ suicides has been higher than deaths due to the virus. The government should not neglect this issue.”
If gone by averages, the numbers are less this year. From 2015 to 2019, on an average 1,200 farmers’ suicides were reported annually. With 339 suicides till June 6, the numbers in 2020 are far behind the yearly average.
The toll has been highest in Yavatmal at 92 suicides. None of the cases have been cleared in the district yet. Yavatmal has earned the disrepute of being the farmers’ suicide capital of Vidarbha.
Conditions like outstanding debt, pressure for repayment, and crop failure are examined before linking a suicide with agrarian crisis.