HYDERABAD: Telangana witnessed a whopping 632 farmer suicide incidents in 2016, as per the state-wise data produced by Union Agriculture minister, Radha Mohan Singh in the Parliament. He was responding to a question on farmer suicides raised by 12 Members of Parliament on Tuesday.
Although the number of farmer suicides in Telangana decreased in 2016 when compared to previous two years, the state still recorded third highest number of farmer suicides in the country after Maharashtra (2,550) and Karnataka (1,212).
Telangana is followed by Madhya Pradesh (599) and Chhattisgarh (585). The data presented by the Agriculture minister is provisional data of Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India (ADSI) report for the year 2016 by National Crime Records Bureau(NCRB), that has not been published yet. As per the data, number of farmers who committed suicide in 2016 in Telangana decreased by almost half, from 1,358 suicides in the year 2015.
Across the country, 6,351 farmers committed suicide in 2016. However, when suicides by agricultural labourers is also added, the number of suicides by people in farming sector increases to 11,370 as 5,019 agricultural labourers also committed suicide in the same year.
B Kondal Reddy, State Secretary, Rythu Swarajya Vedika said that farmer suicides in Telangana did not go down in 2016 because of change in agricultural policies by government. “Farmers in the State were under a little less pressure due to better rains. Moreover, social welfare schemes by state government like Kalyana Lakshmi and KCR kits for pregnant mothers has helped in reducing some external financial burden.
In some cases, better availability of water due to Mission Kakatiya would have also been the reason,” said Reddy, adding that suicides in Telangana majorly occur in two communities - Mudiraj and Golla Kuruma. “Schemes like releasing fishling in water bodies and sheep distribution might have helped in reducing financial burden on these two communities,” he opined.
Drop in suicides by agricultural labourers in TS
A drastic drop in suicides by agricultural labourers can be observed in TS from 449 in 2014, 42 suicides in 2015 and 13 suicides in 2016. In case of other states, like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra, TN or Kerala the suicides by agricultural labourers continue to remain very high at 1,111; 867; 565; 345 and 298 respectively. In fact, AP and Kerala recorded much higher number of suicides by agricultural labourers than farmers.
“It is true that there has been a drop in suicides by farmers but drastic drop in suicides by agricultural labourers is partly because police has not been recording these suicides properly. In TS, unlike AP, many agricultural labourers are involved in other occupations like construction works or driving an auto rickshaw. As a result when such people commit suicide, police most of the times does not record deaths as suicides by agricultural labourers,” said Kondal Reddy.
Number of suicides dropped by almost half in 2016 in Telangana
The data presented by the Agriculture minister is provisional data of Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India (ADSI) report for the year 2016 by National Crime Records Bureau(NCRB), that has not been published yet. As per the data, number of farmers who committed suicide in 2016 in Telangana decreased by almost half, from 1,358 suicides in the year 2015