Over 1,500 Farmers in India's Chattisgarh State Commit Suicide After Being Driven to Debt by Crop Failures

Photo: BBC, Jasbir discovered the body of her father, Sukhbinder Singh,
whose photo is held by her mother

I was shocked to learn that over 1,500 farmers in India committed suicide after being driven to debt by crop failure. These farmers were in the agricultural state of Chattisgarh and were hit hard by falling water levels. Nearby forest depletion and poorly planned government dam projects contributed to the falling water level. Combined with the vicious money-lending schemes that are prevalent in the region, many farmers felt that death was the only option in the face of insurmountable debt. Yeah, scumbags are always trying to get over at the expense of the poor. This is nothing new to India. Apparently last year one district recorded 206 farmer-suicides. This is very troubling indeed.

"The water level has gone down below 250 feet here. It used to be at 40 feet a few years ago," Shatrughan Sahu, a villager in one of the districts, told Down To Earth magazine.

"Most of the farmers here are indebted and only God can save the ones who do not have a bore well." Mr Sahu lives in a district that recorded 206 farmer suicides last year. Police records for the district add that many deaths occur due to debt and economic distress. Source: The Independent

Almost every village in Punjab has witnessed a suicide in their once-prosperous farming families, the BBC reported. According to the BBC, each year before the harvest, the small farmers of Punjab, who make up nearly 85% of the state's farming community, borrow from local rural moneylenders at exorbitant interest rates to meet production costs, including fertilizers and electricity for irrigation. Some rich folks will do anything to milk the last penny out of an impoverished person. So, while the Indian government is determined to add sophisticated armaments to its war chest, it has lost sight of its role in the lives of its citizens.

National Crime Records Bureau statistics say close to 200,000 farmers have committed suicide in India since 1997. The Punjab government says the state produces nearly two-thirds of the grain in India. But the state has faced many economic crises since the the mid-1990s. Source: BBC News

It is also very interesting to note, that while India has its issues with farmers committing suicides, this latest tragedy bears a grim resemblance to a similar problem in Australia's agricultural sector, where many of the country's farmers are committing suicide in response to the severe droughts, heat waves and wildlife fires that have been ravaging the country for the last several years. According to the Huffington Post, it is estimated that one Australian farmer commits suicide every four days. The severe weather changes are a direct manifestation of global warming. Australia has long been called the Lucky Country, and with good reason, at least years ago. You see, generations of castoffs tamed the world's driest inhabited continent and created an enviable and robust economy. Australia bills itself as a place of captivating landscapes, brilliant sunshine, glittering beaches and an enviable lifestyle, but at what cost? The country has been dogged by prolonged drought and deadly bush fires in the south, monsoon flooding and mosquito-borne fevers in the north, widespread wildlife decline, economic collapse in the agricultural sector and killer heat waves, all brought on, as many say, by global warming. This Australia continues to fly under the mainstream media's radar.

We cannot lose sight of the fact that our lives are so intricately woven in the fabric of global wellness. Once droughts hit, all hell will break loose eventually and the poor will always be the first victims. We have to address this love-hate relationship between nurturing the Earth and being self-destructive through a tangled web of pollution, global warming, human rights, wealth, production, among other things. Surely we can put aside our appetite for the finer things in life to help our impoverished brothers and sisters who are just trying to get by.