The agriculture sector may have saved the Indian economy by registering positive growth in the Corona period, but the cases of farmer suicides have seen an increase instead of a decrease. The agriculture sector has seen a higher number of suicides in 2020 as compared to 2019. As per the NCRB report, there has been an increase of 18 per cent in the cases of farmer suicides.
Overall, 10677 people committed suicide in the agriculture sector in India during 2020, which is 7% (1,53,052) of the total suicides in the country. These suicide cases include suicides of 5,579 farmers (those who own land) and 5,098 agricultural labourers. This information has been received from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data on suicide in India released on Thursday.
Maharashtra continues to top with 4006 suicides in 2020. It is followed by Karnataka (2016), Andhra Pradesh (889), Madhya Pradesh (735) and Chhattisgarh (537) suicides. Let us inform you that Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh were the top four states in the list of 2019.
It is believed that the reason for the increase in the number of suicides of agricultural labourers is that the landless farmers are not getting financial assistance under PM Kisan and they have to face the problem of running the family. Most of the landless farmers have to work as labourers due to a lack of means to opt for cultivation on leased land. In the absence of government support, they get into trouble and are left with no option but to commit suicide.
India saw a decrease in the number of suicides in the agriculture sector for three consecutive years since 2016. But there has been an increase in the number of suicide cases after last year. In 2016, 11379 suicide cases were registered, while in 2017 it came down to 10655. Similarly, 10349 suicide cases were reported in 2018 and 10281 in 2019.
Although the number of farmers suicide decreased from 5,957 in 2019 to 5,579 in 2020. However, the number of such cases among agricultural labourers increased from 4,324 in 2019 to 5,098 last year. That is, statistics show that there has been a huge increase in the cases of suicides of agricultural labourers.
On the other hand, Punjab and Haryana, which have protested against the three agriculture laws passed by the Centre, reported 257 and 280 suicides in the agriculture sector, respectively. While some states/UTs like West Bengal, Bihar, Nagaland, Tripura Uttarakhand, Chandigarh, Union Territory of Delhi, Ladakh, Lakshadweep and Puducherry did not report a single suicide of farmers and agricultural labourers.
