NEW DELHI: The latest central data on suicides in the farming sector, which has finally been released after a long delay, shows a marginal decline for the third consecutive year but as many as six states and five Union Territories (UTs) reporting no case of farmer suicides. Some states reporting zero cases farmers’ suicides.
According to the data compiled by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 10,349 people working in the farm sector committed suicide in 2018 as against 10,655 cases in 2017 and 11,379 cases in 2016. In 2017 too, seven states and five UTs did not report a single suicide.
The suicides in the farming sector accounted for 7.7 per cent of the total 1,34,516 of suicides committed in the country in 2018, according to the recently released Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India (ADSI) report. “West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Goa, Chandigarh, Daman & Diu, Delhi, Lakshadweep and Puducherry reported zero suicides of farmers/cultivators as well as agricultural labourers,” the report stated. Out of 10,349 victims, 5763 were cultivators and 4586 were agricultural labourers.
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5088 out of the 5763 farmers were those who cultivated their land while the rest leased land. Majority of suicides were reported in Maharashtra (17,972) followed by Tamil Nadu (13,896), West Bengal (13,255), Madhya Pradesh (11,775) and Karnataka (11,561), accounting for 13.4, 10.3, 9.9, 8.8 and 8.6 per cent respectively, it said. Together, these five states accounted for 50.9 per cent of the total suicides reported in the country. “The remaining 49.1 per cent suicides were reported in the remaining 24 states and 7 UTs,” the report said
ZERO SUICIDES