Back Farmers need real `Help Lines'
Sharad Joshi
| The clustering of suicides gives a distorted picture of the consequences of affluence and development. |
There appears something endemic about suicides. They occur in clusters and have been observed recently in farming communities. What is required is an exercise that will restore their self-esteem and innate sense of honour.
The spate of farmer suicides in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra continues unabated at the rate of two per day. Neither the prospect of the Prime Minister's visit nor his declaration of a relief package has changed the situation.
Motive behind suicides
How does killing oneself manifest itself in an endemic form? The prime motive of the farmers who committed suicide was to end the humiliation and ignominy of the loan recovery procedures. But that is, perhaps, the last straw to break the camel's back.
Psychologists generally agree that humans do not end their lives for a single reason. There are always other causes that may or may not be related to the prime motive. The indebtedness is often accompanied by chronic illness, family disputes, alcoholism and addiction.
The incidence of suicides is high in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra that are relatively advanced in agriculture compared to the cow-belt regions where there is little progress — agricultural or otherwise.
Some non-governmental organisations feel that the use of Green Revolution technology inputs could be the cause of the disaster. The cow-belt States that continue with the primitive methods of farming may not be affluent, but are not driven to mass suicides either.
Statistics on suicides clearly shows that it is a feature of higher civilisations, of higher standards of living and greater development. Animals rarely commit suicides; men do.
The incidence of suicides in the richer countries is higher than that in the poorer ones. So are divorces and addictions. Statistics submitted in Parliament by the Minister for Agriculture actually showed that farmers who represent 60 per cent of the nation's population account for only 16 per cent of the suicides, while the 40 per cent non-farmers account for 84 per cent.
The salaried class is supposed to be the most privileged; the employed account for a larger number of suicides than the unemployed.
It appears that there is something endemic about suicides. They occur in clusters and have been observed recently in farming communities. Suicidesare, however, quite common among students who do not fare well in the examinations and new brides persecuted by their in-laws.
When farmers, students and brides find themselves in a predicament and start looking for a way out, the modus operandi followed by those in similar circumstances figures prominently on their list of options.
If there has been a suicide under similar circumstances in the neighbouring region, that starts looking like not only a way out, but the way out. This clustering of suicides gives a distorted picture of the consequences of affluence and development.
Psychiatrists who offer "Help Line" to those depressed and on the threshold of committing suicides agree that death wish is a highly transient phenomenon.
Those attempting suicide can be saved if they are helped to tide over the moment of crisis. It follows logically that affluence is not, by itself, the cause of fatal depression and that those societies are not uniformly miserable. They have greater freedom — options and choices — that exposes them to a self-doubt and purposelessness.
A farmer in the cow-belt area is miserable and more likely to turn to crime and violence against society. The lower incidence of suicides in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh does not indicate either a sturdier character or lesser misery.
The deprived farmer
Apart from the fact that the members of the advanced societies are exposed more frequently to critical situations, they have few friends and family members to help them tide over the crisis.
The more affluent societies also bring in nuclear families and dissolution of the joint families. In a poor society, people do not easily severe ties with relatives for fear of not being helped in difficult times.
The misery and the indebtedness of the farmer is not because of the absolute poverty but the relative degree of deprivation.
"Help Lines" are not available to people in the far-flung villages. Poverty drives them to commit suicides by insidiously breaking the family ties. The farmer, thus isolated, falls prey to depression and desperation in a situation where his self-respect is trampled upon.
Throwing crumbs of bread and minor favours cannot stave the spate of farmer suicides. What is required is an exercise that will restore their self-esteem and innate sense of honour.
(The author, Founder of Shetkari Sanghatana, is Member of Rajya Sabha. He can be reached at sharad.mah@nic.in)
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