BEBT DEATH

56 farmers have committed suicide in the month since the Finance Minister announced a loan waiver for small and marginal farmers. The Sunday Express travels across rural India to meet the families of farmers who killed themselves to determine just how much the financial step will help them

Four crore. That is the number of debt-ridden small and marginal farmers that the Government has sought to provide relief to through the proposed agricultural loan waiver. But recent statistics paint a more modest picture of the actual impact of the proposed Rs 60,000 crore loan write-off.
In reality, just over a fifth of small and marginal farmers who have outstanding loans may get some respite from the scheme, having borrowed from the banking system. The rest continue to be vulnerable to indebtedness and suicides, since informal sources like moneylenders, friends and family have been their primary source of obtaining credit.
This could be one reason why in the one month since the loan waiver was announced in the Union Budget, 56 farmers still chose to end their lives. The scheme had little or no impact on them, claimed Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav recently. It is also an indication that many of the most vulnerable farmers do not qualify for any benefits under the proposed loan waiver.
This was the case of 32-year old Sukhvinder Singh, who, unable to repay the Rs 7 lakh he had borrowed from banks and moneylenders, decided to end his life. Or like 34-year old Ramchandra Wate, a farmer in Wadha, who killed himself because he owed just over Rs 20,000 to a bank. Ironically, Wate8217;s family will get no benefit from the loan waiver since they own six acres of land8212;one acre more than the land-holding norm that qualifies a farmer as small and marginal.
Figures from a survey by Dataworks, an arm of the Delhi-based Invest India Market Solutions, reinforces this ground reality. They reveal that of the total number of small farmers who borrowed over the last two years, more than three-fourths approached informal channels. The highest number 36 per cent of small farmers went to moneylenders for loans, while friends and relatives 32 per cent proved to be the second best bet.
For the families of these farmers and many others to whom the Sunday Express spoke, the impact of loan waiver has been either nil, or largely negligible. For this lot, the loan write-off is just another one of the many schemes that never benefit them.
8212; Zeenat Nazir

Baldev Singh, 44
Committed suicide on
January 29, 2008
Baldev Singh8217;s wife Harjinder Kaur with son Jaskaran Singh at Alamgir village in Ludhiana, Punjab
Place: Alamgir village, district Ludhiana.Family: Wife Harjinder Kaur, 48, daughter Manpreet Kaur,18, is pursuing a nursing course and son Jaskaran Singh, 14, a class VIII student.
Landholding: Had no land in his name. Was tilling a half- acre piece of land that is in his mother8217;s name. He grew rice and wheat in rotation and also ran a small dairy business with his four buffaloes.
Income: Rs 15,000 per month from milk but family says they got no money from agriculture as whatever they grew, they consumed.
Loan: Rs 2-Rs 2.50 lakh. The family says they took the entire amount from acquaintances.
Waiver: Not eligible.
Family8217;s future: They are living on dairy vincome. But with Jaskaran, Baldev8217;s son, still in school, the family plans to sell the buffaloes as there is no one to look after them. Some relatives have taken it upon themselves to see that Manpreet completes her nursing course and gets a job.
8212; Amrita Chaudhry

Sukhvinder Singh, 32
Committed suicide on
September 7, 2007
Family of the Sukhwinder Singh at village Mehalkalan in Barnala district of Punjab
Place: Mehal Kalan village in Punjab8217;s Barnala district
Family: Mother Hoshiar Kaur, 70, father Gurnam Singh, 60, wife Surinderpal Kaur, 30, and sons Baljinder, 12, a student of Class V, Lovepreet, 9, who studies in Class III and Jagdeep, 8, a Class II student.
Landholding: Five acres. Sukhvinder supplemented his income by driving a taxi.
Income: Rs 10,000-Rs 12,000 per month during wheat season and Rs 15,000 per month during paddy season. Sukhvinder also earned Rs 100 per day when he drove a taxi.
Loan: Rs 7 to Rs 7.5 lakhs from three local moneylenders. Rs 60,000 from village co-operative society and Rs 20,000 from a local bank.
Waiver:Waiver on Rs 80,000 borrowed from bank and co-operative society but not on the Rs 7 lakh borrowed from moneylenders
Family8217;s future: This season the village has helped the family sow its five acres. However, with their only son dead, the family plans to rent out its land, earning around Rs 20,000 per year.
8212; Amrita Chaudhry

B J Jayanna, 59
Committed suicide on
February 18, 2008 by hanging
Rajanna holds a picture of brother Jayanna at the now locked house of the dead farmer
Place: Bellara village, Chikanayakanahalli Taluk, Tumkur district, Karnataka
Family: His first wife and three children8212;a married daughter aged 26, a son aged 12 and a six-year-old daughter. Second wife died two years ago. Two children from his second wife are in hostel in nearby Sira town. First wife stays at Jayanna8217;s single-room house in the village.
Landholding: Coconut farming on nine acres in Bellara village.
Income: Rs 45,000 per annum
Loan: Rs 4.5 lakh from State Bank of India, Huliyar branch and Rs 50,000 from Co-operative Society, Bellara
Waiver: Not eligible for waiver except under existing state scheme for Rs 1 lakh.
Family8217;s future: Family now under care of Jayanna8217;s brother Rajanna, a schoolteacher. Family hoping for compensation and probable sale of land to repay debts.
8212; Johnson TA

Ramchandra J. Gohokar, 48
Committed suicide on
January 3, 2008 by
consuming insecticide
Ramkrishna Gohokar8217;s aged parents haven8217;t been able to absorb the shock of their son8217;s extreme step
Place: Lahan Pandhakawda, a remote village in the most backward Zari Jamni tehsil of Yavatmal district bordering Andhra Pradesh.
Landholding: 3.75 acres, borewell-irrigated. Grew cotton, soyabean kharif, wheat rabi
Loan: Rs 1.25 lakh bank loan accumulated over past seven years.
Family: Wife Tarabai, 40, and daughters Girija, 19, and Madhuri, 10.
Income: Tarabai works as farmhand now.
Loan waiver: Eligible for full waiver.
Family8217;s future: Ramkrishna8217;s father Jiblaji and brother Shalikrao say they will have to shoulder the responsibility of his family now. Wife Tarabai says she will work as farm labour while brother Shalikrao says, 8220;I will have to till his farm now.8221;
8212; Vivek Deshpande

Amar Chand Rajput, 50
Threw himself before a running train near his village on
January 26, 2007
Ramasre Rajpoot with his wife showing the photograph of his father at Pava Village in Uttar Pradesh
Place: Pava in Uttar Pradesh8217;s Mahoba district
Loan: Rajput borrowed Rs 15,000 from the UP Co-operative Land Development Bank and Rs 30,000 from the village moneylender.
Landholding: Four acres. Agriculture is Rajput8217;s sole occupation.
Family: Wife, two daughters and son Ram Asrey, 21.
Waiver: Waiver on the bank loan but not for the money taken from the village money-lender.
Family8217;s future: BJP leader Kalyan Singh gave the family a cash relief of Rs 1 lakh which has been deposited in the name of his two daughters and which their brother says will help pay the wedding expenses whenever the two get married.
8212; Virendranath Bhatt

Ramchandra Vithoba Wate, 34
Committed suicide on
February 24, 2008 by
consuming insecticide
Ramchandra Wate8217;s widow Manda in her one-room house in Hirdi village
Place: Hirdi village in Wardha district
Landholding: Six acres, non-irrigated. Grew cotton, soyabean kharif and grams rabi.
Loan: Rs 23,800 taken from Bank of India. Wate was also depressed over crop failure, ironically, due to good rains since the Wates8217; land gets waterlogged.
Family: Wife Manda, 30, sons Akash, 13 and Kiran, 9 and daughter Priya, 10.
Income: Wife Manda works as farmhand earning Rs 40 a day during crop season.
Waiver: The family will not benefit since they own six acres, one acre more than the norm for waiver eligibility.
Family8217;s future: Wate8217;s wife Manda says she will have to do something for her kids but says she has no option but to work as farm labour.
8212; Vivek Deshpande