BENGALURU: Only 41% of women farmers received compensation after husband’s suicide between 2016-2018 in Karnataka, according to a study by Mahila Kisan Adhikaar Manch (MKAM) done in Kolar, Tumakuru, Dharwad, Mandya and Mysuru districts. Around 72 percent of women who now struggle to repay the debt were not even aware or consulted about the money their husbands had borrowed. Most only found out when bank officials or private moneylenders came knocking at their door.
In lieu of the upcoming budget, the collective demands that a fund be demarcated to liberate women from their husband’s debt and also benefit from existing compensation, pension and education expenses of children schemes offered by the government on paper.Neelamma is struggling to repay Rs 35 lakh that her husband — who killed himself in 2018 — borrowed. Her sericulture farm in Kolar doesn’t even recover input costs.
“We took bank loans for the house, shed and land. I was not aware of these until after he died. The land papers are stuck in the bank and I cannot avail fresh loans. There is no way we can repay the outstanding debt,” she said.Managala, a 33-year old farmer from Tumkur did not receive compensation from the government after her husband committed suicide in February 2017. Several women farmers suffer the same plight.
“Even though there are no such rules, the committee, that comprises revenue, police and agriculture department, does not give compensation to those who are landless. In 18 percent of the cases, children stopped education and young people were pulled back to villages from their jobs. We need a coordination committee between the various departments and a state-level mechanism with ID cards given to woman farmers who have suffered suicides in the family, as is done by the Maharashtra government,” said Kavitha Kuruganti, national facilitator of the collective.
Jyothi Raj of Bhoo Shakti Kendra, Tumakuru said, “They are under extreme mental pressure and don’t even have time to cry as they have to begin paying back loans. They take more loans to pay off these loans and this turns into a whole cycle.”The collective also put forth a demand to launch a Kisan Mitra helpline and debt relief commission be set up.“The loan waiver by the government has a ceiling of Rs 2 lakhs and does not account for those who took loans post 2008,” said Kavitha Srinivasan, a member of the collective.The average time taken to get compensation or pension ranged from 2.6 months in Dharwad to 11.7 months in Mysuru.
where’s the money?
762 cases rejected for compensation out of 3,560 reported suicide cases as per the Department of Agriculture, Government of Karnataka, on farmer suicides in the past three years (2016-18)
6% of the cases, the woman had to return to natal home or has been thrown out of her marital home.
71% received compensation amount of Rs. 5 lakh in 2019 in the study, 65 percent received pension support of Rs 2000 and a meagre 6 percent availed education support for their children. Caste and class affiliations of a family brought their own kinship networks based on which entitlements were accessed.