On January 14, during Makar Sankranti, a major festival, when India's farming community traditionally conducts elaborate rituals to celebrate a bountiful harvest, two young farmers committed suicide in the Vidarbha region of southern Maharashtra.
Caught in the complex interplay of spiraling debt, failed crops and governmental apathy, cotton farmers Ramu Shende, 37, and Sanjay Mahurle, 36, killed themselves by drinking pesticide.
The two deaths also set in motion the farm suicide spiral with which Vidarbha grapples every year. In the first month of this year alone, for instance, mounting debt and distress due to crop losses have claimed the lives of 10 farmers, which led the region's farm widows and bereaved families to mark Republic Day (January 26) as `Black Day'.
Not for nothing is Vidarbha dubbed India's `farmer suicide capital'. However, over the past few years the area has been reeling under its worst agrarian crisis ever. leading to an escalation in the number of suicides. In 2006, 1044 farmers killed themselves in the impoverished region while last year, 1,000 suicides were recorded. Full story...
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Caught in the complex interplay of spiraling debt, failed crops and governmental apathy, cotton farmers Ramu Shende, 37, and Sanjay Mahurle, 36, killed themselves by drinking pesticide.
The two deaths also set in motion the farm suicide spiral with which Vidarbha grapples every year. In the first month of this year alone, for instance, mounting debt and distress due to crop losses have claimed the lives of 10 farmers, which led the region's farm widows and bereaved families to mark Republic Day (January 26) as `Black Day'.
Not for nothing is Vidarbha dubbed India's `farmer suicide capital'. However, over the past few years the area has been reeling under its worst agrarian crisis ever. leading to an escalation in the number of suicides. In 2006, 1044 farmers killed themselves in the impoverished region while last year, 1,000 suicides were recorded. Full story...
Related posts:
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