Telangana state is continuing to top in the country with regard to farm suicides, after Maharashtra. For the consecutive year, the number of suicides by farmers in Telangana committed during 2015 was 1,358 as against 516 in the neighbouring Telugu state of Andhra Pradesh.
It may be mentioned here that in 2014 also Telangana stood at second position with 898 suicides by farmers while AP was at sixth rank registering 160 suicide cases. However, both the government seems to be just ignoring farm suicides and hardly mentions about it.
According to the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) Maharashtra continuing top for the last several years with the highest number of 3,030 suicides in the farming sector followed by Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh which have been ranked as third, fourth and fifth reporting 1,197 cases, 854 and 581 cases of suicides receptively.
The total number of farmers who committed suicides in the country was 8,007, out of which 7,566 were male and 441 female. Dwelling upon the reasons for the suicides, the report attributed ‘bankruptcy or indebtedness’ and ‘farming related issues’ as major causes of suicides of farmers.
The report also explained that 20 suicides in Telangana and 13 in Andhra Pradesh were on account of ‘poverty’. Out of 1,358 cases, 160 farmers had committed suicides due to illness in Telangana. In a startling revelation, 79 big farmers in Telangana committed suicide.
Similarly, the report said the number of agricultural labourers who committed suicide in Telangana was 42 which was low when compared to Andhra Pradesh where 400 had committed suicide. ‘Family problems’ followed by ‘illness’ is said to be the major cause of suicides among agricultural labourers.
