Over 8,000 farm suicides in 5 years: Why effected families fuel support of Maratha Resevation

Namdev left behind his wife Aarti and a daughter Sandhya who is in Class VI and a younger son Aditya who is in Class III. Sandhya, according to her uncle, is a bright child and is fluent in English.

“When my brother died, the question about her future arose as she is studying in an English medium school. Being from the open Maratha community, she was not eligible for any fee concession and it was not possible for the family to afford the fees right at that moment,” Jadhav said.

An eligible farm suicide is one where the death has been deemed by a government committee a result of agricultural distress. Data for farm suicides in Maharashtra.

“Had it not been for the financial help of a local philanthropist, Sandhya would have had to end her education. If our community was included in the OBC category, things would have been different – our family would not have to think about fees,“ said Jadhav, whose WhatsApp display picture is of Jaranage Patil.

As Maharashtra starts its preparation for the Assembly polls, one of the issues likely to dominate, especially in Marathwada, would be Jaranage Patil and his call for the Maratha community’s inclusion in the OBC category. This cause strikes a personal chord with families affected by farm suicides like that of Jadhav’s. For them, this is the only way their lot can be improved.

Between 2019 and July 31, 2024, Maharashtra reported 8,073 farm suicides, which were found eligible as per the norms of the state government.

An eligible farm suicide is one where the death has been deemed by a government committee a result of agricultural distress. If it is found that the suicide was not a result of agricutural distress then it is officially not deeemed a farm suicide.

Of these, 3,940 were from the eight districts that constitute Marathwada. In the last five years, Marathawada has edged past Vidharbha, which has traditionally been linked to farm suicides. (See graph and chart). Farm suicides had peaked in 2022 when 1,694 farmers had died by suicide.

This, Manikrao Kadam — a farm leader from the Parbhani district of the state, says commensurates with the long gaps in the monsoon farmers faced that year. “Price of farm produce was good – be it soyabean or cotton. But what killed the farmers was the extra cost of re-sowing and lesser than expected yields due to long gaps in the rainfalls,” he said. Farm suicides, Kadam says, is not just the result of consequences that span a year.

“The farmer would take the extreme step only if he is pushed to the wall, and that builds up in the form of years of losses,” he said. In the case of Namdev, it was two consecutive years of losses that pushed the young farmer to take his own life.

Records procured from the state government shows that farm suicides had dipped in 2023 (1,551). Even though the monsoon was less than normal and commodity prices, be it soyabean or cotton, had dipped that year, lesser losses were felt by farmers. “Kharif sowing was less… farmers consciously reduced their sowing to avoid losses. During September, there were good rains which allowed farmers to take in a good rabi crop,” he said.

However, farm distress has again started raising its head in 2024 with soybean and cotton prices going below their minimum support price (MSP) even before the crops hit the market.

When Manoj Jaranage Patil started his agitation in Jalna in September 2023, it was this backlog of economic distress, which is mainly rural in nature, that had fuelled the swell of support he got on ground. Beed, the district where Jarange Patil hails from, has consistently reported a high number of farm suicides and had seen violence when Maratha agitators took to the streets last year.

Rupesh Kadam has very few memories of his father Shivaji who died by suicide in 2014. Hailing from the village of Kondha in Ardhapur taluka of Nanded, Kadam’s education was sponsored by former MP and farm leader Raju Shetti.

“Others are not as lucky… once the bread earner is gone, the economics does not match. Being in the open category, our fees — be it general studies or professional courses — is extremely high but is much less for OBC students. That’s why we require that for the community,” said Kadam.

If it is found that the suicide was not a result of agricultural distress then it is officially not deemed a farm suicide. The graph shows the number of recorded in last five years in Maharashtra.

More than government jobs, it is the concession in education that attracts farmers like Yuvraj Patil to support Jaranage Patil. Yuvraj Patil, a farmer from Ardhapur taluka of Nanded district, pointed out how his son’s school fees would have been just Rs 4,000 a year if he was from the OBC community. “At present I have to pay Rs 40,000 and thanks to my business in seeds and fertilisers, I am able to afford it. But when a farmer dies by suicide, most often the children’s education is stopped as they simply cannot afford it,” he said.

MP Bajrang Sonawane calls the consistently high number of farm suicides in Marathwada a failure on part of the political establishment. “In the case of Beed, apart from agriculture, we have no other means of income. So when crops fail, which has become more often than not, the farmer takes the extreme step. Inclusion of the community in the OBC category would qualify them for concessions in educational fees. For us, this would ensure our children get educated,” said the MP. Incidentally one of the first acts that Sonawane did after winning the election for the Beed Lok Sabha seat was to visit Jaranage Patil in the early hours of the morning straight from the counting centre.

Marathwada has consistently supported Jaranage Patil with the General Elections of 2024 almost wiping out the Mahayuti from the region. Of the eight Lok Sabha seats, only Aurangabad was won by Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde), with BJP stalwarts like Pankaja Munde (who lost to NCP (SP)’s Sonawane) and former union minister Raosaheb Danve losing their seats.

With the assembly elections round the corner, the Mahayuti hopes it can break the hex with its social reach outs.