Farmers suicide rates soar above the rest

PSainath Suicide rates among Indian farmers were a chilling 47 per cent higher than they were for the rest of the population in 2011. In some of the States worst hit by the agrarian crisis, they were well over 100 per cent higher. The new Census 2011 data reveal a shrinking farmer population. And it is on this reduced base that the farm suicides now occur.

Apply the new Census totals to the suicide data of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) and the results are grim. Sample: A farmer in Andhra Pradesh is three times more likely to commit suicide than anyone else in the country, excluding farmers. And twice as likely to do so when compared to non-farmers in his own State. The odds are not much better in Maharashtra, which remained the worst State for such suicides across a decade. The picture remains dismal, says Prof. K. Nagaraj, an economist at the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. Prof. Nagaraj's 2008 study on farm suicides in India remains the most important one on the subject. The intensity of farm suicides shows no real decline, he says. Nor do the numbers show a major fall. They remain concentrated in the farming heartlands of five key States. The crisis there continues. And the adjusted farmers suicide rate for 2011 is in fact slightly higher than it was in 2001. And thats after heavy data fudging at the State level. Five States account for two-thirds of all farm suicides in the country, as NCRB data show. These are Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The share of these Big 5 in total farm suicides was higher in 2011 than it was in 2001. At the same time, the new Census data show that four of these States have far fewer farmers than they did a decade ago. Only Maharashtra reports an increase in their numbers. Nationwide, the farmers suicide rate (FSR) was 16.3 per 100,000 farmers in 2011. Thats a lot higher than 11.1, which is the rate for the rest of the population. And slightly higher than the FSR of 15.8 in 2001. In Maharashtra, for instance, the rate is 29.1 suicides per 100,000 farmers (Main cultivators). Which is over 160 per cent higher than that for all Indians excluding farmers. Such gaps exist in other States, too. In as many as 16 of 22 major States, the farm suicide rate was higher than the rate among the rest of the population (RRP) in 2011. The data for 2011 are badly skewed, with States like Chhattisgarh declaring zero farm suicides that year. The same State reported an increase in total suicides that same year. But claimed that not one of these was a farmer. What happens if we take the average number of farm suicides reported by the State in three years before 2011? Then Chhattisgarhs FSR is more than 350 per cent higher than the rate among the rest of the countrys population. In 1995, the Big 5 accounted for over half of all farm suicides in India. In 2011, they logged over two-thirds of them. Given this concentration, even the dismal all-India figures tend to make things seem less terrible than they are.

Ten States show a higher farm suicide rate in 2011 than in 2001. That includes the major farming zones of Punjab and Haryana. The average farm suicide rate in the Big 5 is slightly up, despite a decline in Karnataka. And also a fall in Maharashtra. The latter has the worst record of any State. At least 53,818 farmers suicides since 1995. So how come it shows a lower FSR now? Well, because Census 2011 tells us the State has added 1.2 million farmers (main cultivators) since 2001. Thats against a nationwide decline of 7.7 million in the same years. So Maharashtras farm suicide rate shows a fall. Yet, its farm suicide numbers have not gone down by much. And a farmer in this State is two-and-a-half times more likely to kill himself than anyone else in the country, other than farmers. Karnataka, in 2011, saw a lot less of farm suicides than it did a decade ago. And so, despite having fewer farmers than it did in 2001, the State shows a lower FSR. Yet, even the lower farm suicide rates in both Maharashtra and Karnataka are way above the rate for the rest of the country. These figures are obtained by applying the new farm population totals of Census 2011 to farm suicide numbers of the NCRB. The Census records cultivators. The police count suicides. In listing suicides, the State governments and police tend to count only those with a title to land as farmers. Large numbers of farm suicides still occur, says Prof. Nagaraj. Only that seems not to be recognised, officially and politically. Is the conspiracy of silence back in action? A disturbing trend has gained ground with Chhattisgarhs declaration of zero farm suicides. (Thats despite having had 4,700 in 36 months before the zero declaration). Puducherry has followed suit. Others will doubtless do the same. Punjab and Haryana have in several years claimed zero women farmers suicides. (Though media and study reports in the same years suggest otherwise). This trend must at some point fatally corrupt the data. At least 270,940 Indian farmers have taken their lives since 1995, NCRB records show. This occurred at an annual average of 14,462 in six years, from 1995 to 2000. And at a yearly average of 16,743 in 11 years between 2001 and 2011. That is around 46 farmers suicides each day, on average. Or nearly one every half-hour since 2001.

Farm suicide trends in 2012 remain dismal

P. Sainath

Farm suicides rose sharply by almost 450 in Maharashtra in 2012 to touch 3,786, the latest National Crime Records Bureau data show. (The State saw 3,337 suicides in 2011). That is the worst annual increase in seven years. It also brings Maharashtras total tally since the NCRB began recording farm data in 1995 to a staggering 57,604 farmers suicides. Andhra Pradesh also saw an upward surge. It logged 2,572 farm suicides in 2012. That is 366 higher than the previous years figure of 2,206. Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh reported declines of 225 and 154 respectively. The last of the Big 5 States that account for over two-thirds of all farm suicides, Chhattisgarh, continued to declare a near zero figure. In 2012, it claimed it had just four. Chhattisgarhs threeyear average prior to its zero-declaration approach was 1,567. Indeed, the States own data, prior to that tactic, show it suffered 18,375 farm suicides between 2001-10. Other States seem inspired by Chhattisgarhs methods. West Bengal sent in no data at all on farm suicides (or some other categories, too) in 2012. But its three-year average for 2009-2011 was 951. Chhattisgarhs figure of 4 and Bengals non-filing of data stand out in the all-India total of 13,754 farm suicides in 2012. If three-year averages for both States are included, then the national total would be 16,272. That would be the highest farm suicides figure in three years. Even accepting the truncated numbers, the Big 5 accounted for over 68.4 per cent of all farm suicides in the country in 2012. That is the highest ever since the recording of such data began. Among other major States, Kerala saw 1,081 such farm deaths, a steep increase of 251 over its 2011 number of 830. Uttar Pradesh saw 745 farm suicides up by 100 over its 2011 figure. Tamil Nadu reported a decline of 124 to log 499. Thats down from 623 the previous year. The NCRB figures across 18 years for which data exist show that at least 2,84,694 Indian farmers have taken their lives since 1995. (That is, accepting the non-figures of Chhattisgarh and West Bengal). Divide that 18 years into two halves and the trend is dismal. India saw 1,38,321 farm suicides between 1995 and 2003 at an annual average of 15,369. For 2004-12, the number is 1,46,373, at a much higher annual average of 16,264. The figures in the second half occurred against a steep decline in the numbers of farmers in India and are hence even worse than they appear. (See The Hindu: Farmers suicide rates soar above the rest)

In short, there is no serious decline or reversal of the major trends in farm suicides in the country. Zero declarations, though, are likely to grow by the year as more States feel the need to massage their dismal data or simply not file it. (The copy has been corrected to show Tamil Nadu's declining figures as 124, not 123 and to correct the typo for Kerala's 2011 figure which should correctly read as 830 and not 1,830).

There are nearly 15 million farmers (Main cultivators) fewer than there were in 1991. Over 7.7 million less since 2001, as the latest Census data show. On average, thats about 2,035 farmers losing Main Cultivator status every single day for the last 20 years. And in a time of jobless growth, theyve had few places to go beyond the lowest, menial ends of the service sector. A December 2012 report of the Institute of Applied Manpower Research (IAMR) a part of the Planning Commission puts it this way: employment in total and in non-agricultural sectors has not been growing. This jobless growth in recent years has been accompanied by growth in casualization and informalization. It speaks of an an absolute shift in workers from agriculture of 15 million to services and industry. But many within the sector also likely moved from farmer to agricultural labourer status. Swelling the agrarian underclass. So how many farmers do we have? Census 2011 tells us we now have 95.8 million cultivators for whom farming is their main occupation. Thats less than 8 per cent of the population. (Down from 103 million in 2001 and 110 million in 1991). Include all marginal cultivators (22.8 million) and that is still less than 10 per cent of the population. Even if you count together all cultivators and agricultural labourers, the number would be around 263 million or 22 per cent of the population. (Interestingly, this reduced figure comes after a few big states have actually reported a rise in the total number of cultivators. Since 85 per cent of all marginal workers reported more than a 100 days work, this could possibly reflect the reverse pull of MNREGA, among other factors). Between 1981 and 1991, the number of cultivators (main workers), actually went up from 92 million to 110 million. So the huge decline comes post-1991. Hold on: arent 53 per cent of the population farmers? No. Thats a common fallacy. The over 600 million Indians dependent on agriculture are not all farmers. They are deployed in an array of related activities including fisheries. This confusion is widespread and innocent. Yet, there are also a few whose colossal ignorance leads them to dismiss the countrys massive farmers suicides as trivial. For instance: at least half of the Indian workforce is engaged in farming. This fact points to a much lower suicide rate per 100,000 individuals for farmers than in the general population. Note how easily those engaged in farming become farmers!

As a notion it borders on the whacko. It goes: After all, 53 out of every 100 Indians are farmers. So our 270,940 farm suicides since 1995 are a low number on a population base of over 600 million. So low that we should be agitated over how the suicide rate in the general population can be brought down to the levels prevailing amongst farmers. Never mind for now the appalling moral position that a quarter of a million human beings taking their lives is hardly alarming. The Bhopal gas tragedy, the worst industrial disaster in human terms, claimed over 20,000 lives. But in this perverse logic, since that was less than 0.003 per cent of the then population, it is rendered meaningless. That position says more about its authors than about the suicides. It shows they are clueless about who a farmer is and about what the data show. It shows even greater ignorance of who defines and counts a farmer suicide. The Census records cultivators. The police count suicides. The police do not read the Census. Not for definitions, anyway. The Census groups the population into workers and non-workers. The latter would be infants, children, students, housewives, unemployed, aged and retired people. Farmers, or cultivators come under Workers a huge category covering many varied groups. Now rural workers account for close to 70 per cent of all workers. And rural workers consist of farmers, agricultural labourers and non-farm workers. Cultivators (main workers) in the Census are barely eight per cent of the population as a whole. (Thats after a two-decade secular decline in this group). The ongoing farm suicides 184,169 of them since 2001 according to the National Crime Records Bureau are taking place on a smaller and shrinking base. Their intensity has hardly diminished. In most of the States accounting for two-thirds of all farm suicides, the intensity has likely risen. Of course distress affects a much wider population dependent on agriculture. (Farmer bankruptcies crush the village carpenter, and even play a role in weaver suicides). The sufferings of others are as real. It is not as if the agricultural labourer or non-farm worker is having a great time. Both sections have seen distress migrations and suicides. (For that matter the owner of a small industrial unit in an urban city could be distress-hit). Their suicides are no less tragic. But it is vital to know who officially gets counted as a farmer. And who gets listed in the farmers suicides. For that tells us more about the ongoing tragedy and gives us a sense of its awful scale. Everybody who works in the film industry is not an actor. Everyone in the educational system is not a student. And all those in the 53 per cent of the population related to the farming sector are not farmers. Even among those who are, only a limited group gets counted as such when police and governments make farmers suicide lists. Cultivators are counted by the Census. Suicides are recorded by police stations across the country. The numbers collated by State governments. Very different approaches are involved. The Census considers someone a cultivator if he or she operates a piece of land which they may or may not own; State governments and police count only those with a title to land as

farmers. The Census records two kinds of cultivators: Main workers and marginal workers. The latter are more like agricultural labourers or non-farm workers since farming is not their main activity. A Main worker in cultivation is someone for whom that is the major occupation for at least half the year. That group makes barely eight per cent of the population as a whole. Suicides among the others in the agrarian world (within that 53 per cent) wont be recorded as farmer suicides. Try getting State governments and their police to do that! Even within the recognised eight per cent, those whose title to land is not clear will not be listed as farmers suicides, should they take their own lives. For instance, women and tenant farmers are routinely excluded. Even eldest sons running the farms with the land still in the names of their aged fathers would also be omitted. Police and State governments run the suicide lists, not the Census. Nor does the NCRB, which has neither the vested interest nor the ability to fiddle that data. It merely collates what the State Crime Record Bureaus submit to it. Hence, the Chhattisgarh government could brazenly declare a zero farm suicides figure in 2011. That after the State saw over 7,500 of them (by its own admission) between 2006-10. With all the fiddles in the data, the numbers and intensity remain appalling. Maharashtra revels in such fraud. With close to 54,000 since 1995, the State has been the worst in farm suicides for over a decade. And even those numbers conceal major exclusions. Theyve invented categories like Farmers relatives suicides, or non-genuine suicides, in order to further trim the numbers. So the State governments and their police, have immense power in redefining who a farmer is. Watch out for more and more States doing a Chhattisgarh and declaring zero farm suicides in coming months and years.