How can we stop farmer suicides?

India is an agricultural economy, which means, Agriculture is the pre-dominant sector of the Indian economy. True to this, even today, inspite of the Indian economy opening out to the world and globalization, close to 70% of the people still hang on on agriculture for their livelihood. We’ve witnessed the “5 years plans”, “Green Revolution”, and every budget says it focuses on Agriculture development.

Does that mean everything is looking positive for Indian agriculture? A top level view on the above points would tempt anyone to say yes, but the truth is too far away from it. Behind all the growth and development lies the reality that Indian farmers have to face - extreme poverty and financial crisis driving them to suicides.

The year 1997 saw the first few cases of farmers committing suicides, these cases steadily increased over the next decade, peaking in 2001 and reports say that as many as 6000 farmers committed suicide in the last 5 years in the state of Andhra Pradesh alone. The worst cases of farmers committing suicides come from the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra. What are the grave adversities that drive the farmers to commit suicide, at a time when Indian economy is supposed to be gearing up to take on the world?

Why farmers commit suicide?

Repeated crop failures, debt hassles, lack of alternative sources of income, absence of institutional finance have left the farmers with no other solution other than ending their lives. Another disturbing trend has been observed where farmers commit suicide in order to avail relief and benefits announced by the government to support the families of the farmers who have died. This is true in the case of several farmers in Andhra Pradesh who committed suicide so that their families could atleast benefit from the Government's relief programmes.

What then needs to be done to prevent this sad state of affairs?

There cannot be one single solution to end the woes of farmers. The solution to the farmer's plight should be directed towards enabling the farmers to help themselves and sustain on their own. Temporary measures through monetary relief would not be the solution. The efforts should be targeted at improving the entire structure of the small farmers wherein the relief is not given on a drought to drought basis, rather they are taught to overcome their difficulties through their own skills and capabilities. The Government needs to come up with pro-active solutions and the nation has to realize that farmers' suicides are not minor issues happening in remote parts of a few states, it is a reflection of the true state of the basis of our economy.

"Give a man a fish, he will eat for a day but teach him how to fish, he will eat for the rest of his life", so goes the popular saying, the case of our Indian farmers is similar to this, what they need is a means to sustain throughout their lives without having the face the desperation that adversity drives them to. If India has to shine, it is these farmers that need to be empowered.

Courtesy: Some of the statistics and above data are retrieved and reproduced from http://www.civilserviceindia.com

Why is India unhappy?

World Happiness Report 2017 ranks India at position #122. What does it mean ?

I don't really believe in these rankings (any kind of comparisons for that matter), but this one tells you a different wisdom: "Money Doesn’t Buy Happiness"

This assesses happiness in terms of healthier life,social supports; freedom to make life choices; experience less corruption, more generosity, and more equality rather than mere economic figures such as GDP.

The message for India is clear: we might've achieved greater GDP (at the cost of sharply rising inequality, entrenched social exclusion, and damage to the nature/environment);but not "happiness" 😟
When countries single-mindedly pursue individual objectives, such as economic development to the neglect of social and environmental objectives, the results can be highly adverse for human wellbeing, even dangerous for survival.

How can countries boost their happiness levels? It's big task, nearly impossible; but i just wanted inform about the countries Bhutan, Ecuador, Scotland, United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. Those five countries have appointed Ministers of Happiness charged with promoting it as a goal of public policy.

Indian Budget and Increasing Inequality

I am not qualified to review or even to fully-understand one of the biggest budgets of the world. However, as a common man with a common sense, I do have a concern and asking fellow Indians to think about it.

A recent report published by Credit Suisse says, India's rich people are getting richer every year, as the top 1% of them now own 58.4% of entire India’s wealth. For instance in the year 2000 , the share of the richest 1% was comparatively low, 36.8% of the country’s wealth. The trend of “rich getting richer” has been growing multifold for the last 16 years and the rest 99% of the people doesn’t make any significant progress. What do you think is the reason ?

This only shows that rich class do so well for themselves whichever government is in power, doesn't matter #UPA or #NDA, the rich industrialists control most of the assets of whole country and government policies are only to favour them. 

In many ways this year’s Budget may have a number of new features., but it is no different in neglecting the serious issue of economic “inequality”.

The informal sector of our economy contributes nearly half of our GDP and employs nearly 70% of our working people. This sector was worst hit by demonetization and continues to remain crippled; but there’s no mention about revival of demonetization effects in the budget. 

There is not a single word on recovering the massive NPAs (non-performing assets of banks), though the budget says, the government would act*(mean?) against those have fled abroad.

On the other hand, all the industrialists celebrate the budget; SENSEX & NIFTY surges into green. These only give an impression that this year budget is also only to woo the rich and doesn’t have any interest to address the issues of poor.

SO WHAT IS THE POINT:

Everyone of us want #GDP growth, But remember, the overt focus on GDP at the cost of compromising other social factors is dangerous. Policy making, such as budget should not get biased for the large corporates, while leaving out the primary concerns of the larger public.

When policy making gets biased for the rich, roads will be designed only for cars, not for the pedestrians. Taxation scheme will aid only the industrialists, not the salaried middle/under class of India. When primary sectors such as Health, Education, and Infrastructure are owned by private rich industrialist, these basic amenities will become accessible only for the people who can pay for it.

India of our dreams cannot be built on weak foundation of huge economic disparity. Let’s think beyond our “individual tax slab”announcements in the budget and urge the government for sincere reforms that redistribute the wealth and level the opportunities.

Let’s spread the awareness within us and impel our policy makers towards the “real” growth of country, in terms of proper health, good education, and impartial access to opportunities to everyone, this can only be the long-term solution.