MUMBAI, December 28, 2010
17,368 farm suicides in 2009
Worst figure in six yearsAt least 17,368 Indian farmers killed themselves in 2009, the worstfigure for farm suicides in six years, according to data of theNational Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). This is an increase of 1,172over the 2008 count of 16,196. It brings the total farm suicides since1997 to 2,16,500. The share of the Big 5 States, or ‘suicide belt' —Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh andChhattisgarh — in 2009 remained very high at 10,765, or around 62 percent of the total, though falling nearly five percentage points from2008. Maharashtra remained the worst State for farm suicides for thetenth successive year, reporting 2,872. Though that is a fall of 930,it is still 590 more than in Karnataka, second worst, which logged2,282 farm suicides.Economist K. Nagaraj, author of the biggest study on Indian farmsuicides, says, “That these numbers are rising even as the farmerpopulation shrinks, confirms the agrarian crisis is still burning.”Maharashtra has logged 44,276 farm suicides since 1997, over a fifthof the total 2,16,500.
Within the Big 5, Karnataka saw the highest increase of 545 in 2009.
Andhra Pradesh recorded 2,414 farm suicides —309 more than in 2008
Madhya Pradesh (1,395) and Chhattisgarh (1,802)saw smaller increases of 16 and 29.
Outside the Big 5, Tamil Nadu doubled its tally with 1,060, against 512 in 2008
In all, 18 of 28 States reported higher farm suicide numbers in 2009.
Some, like Jammu and Kashmir or Uttarakhand, saw a negligible rise.
Rajasthan, Kerala and Jharkhand saw increases of 55, 76 and 93. Assam and West Bengalsaw higher rises of 144 and 295.
NCRB farm data now exist for 13years.
In the first seven,.1997-2003, there were 1,13,872 farm suicides, an average of 16,267 a year. In the next six years 1,02,628farmers took their lives at an average of 17,105 a year.
This means,on average, around 47 farmers — or almost one every 30 minutes —killed themselves each day between 2004 and 2009.Lower their averageAmong the major States, only a few including Karnataka, Kerala andWest Bengal avoided the sharp rise these six years and lowered theiraverage by over 350 compared to the 1997-2003 period. In the sameperiod, the annual average of farm suicides in the Big 5 States as awhole was more than 1,650 higher than it was in 1997-2003.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Total number of farm suicides since 1997 is 2,16,500
The share of Big 5 States remains very high at 10,765
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