Checking the claim 4: "Gujarat's farmers are not like those in other States. Our farmers drive Maruti cars"

In the hindsight of previous election in Gujarat, there came an RTI based revelation that indicated that  he state had witnessed nearly 500 cases of farmer suicides and more than 6000
accidental deaths of farmers since 2003.



Five years later, similar news item indicates 39th farmer suicide in 2012 alone!!



As seen in my previous blog, reducing labour productivity in agriculture sector can stress, especially small farmers. Below is statistics on suicides of farmers, as per national crime bureau statistics over last 10 years.






Statistics on Farmer suicides (Source: National Crime Bureau 2001-2011 databases)

Interestingly, 2007 - the year win which previous assembly election  was held - had a dip in this statistics! Overall, there had been a trend of 500-600 farmer suicides in Gujarat over last 10 years or so.



Many a times, a suicide, especially among farmers, is not reported as suicide and tend to be reported as unnatural accidental death. In rural deaths like that of farmers, the cause of death is termed as poisoning either due to accidental consumption of insecticide or unknown substances. 






Accidental death caused by poisoning due to consumption of insecticide or other substances



Interestingly, there had been almost similar patten of such accidental deaths over last 10 years, some of which could be farmer suicides as well!!






The
impact of such suicides can have higher repercussion in terms of the increased migration and deepening
of poverty, especially among small farmers, which comprises nearly half of total lot!!!





More on performance on poverty reduction in next blog!!

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