Agrarian distress has been taking a toll on farmers’ lives for quite some time now. Every year, thousands of farmers in India commit suicides due to reasons like debt and low productivity. NCRB has released data on the number of farmer suicides for 2018 and the figures are dismal.
According to their report, at least 10,349 people working in the farm sector ended their lives in 2018. This accounted for 7.7% of the total number of suicides in the country stood at 1,34,516.
Now, while this is a slight decrease from the farmer suicides in 2016, it is still a huge number. The government hasn’t yet released the numbers for 2017.
Maharashtra topped the list of states in farmer suicides, followed by Karnataka and Telangana.
Some states like West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Goa, Chandigarh also recorded zero suicides in the farm sector.
These farmer suicides indicate towards the sorry state of Indian agriculture which is also the basis of other crucial industries. And while the government is busy wasting resources on building statues and implementing NRC and CAA, thousands of farmers continue to commit suicide every year.