'You've got to understand it is not easy to die by suicide.'
'People commit suicide only when they lose everything and find no other way to live.'
On Tuesday, July 1, the Maharashtra government informed the state assembly that 767 farmer suicides were reported across the state between January and March 2025. Most of these deaths were from the Vidarbha region.
Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Makrand Patil disclosed that in western Vidarbha -- covering Yavatmal, Amravati, Akola, Buldhana and Washim -- 257 farmers took their lives during this period. Of these, the families of 76 farmers received financial aid from the state government, while 74 applications for assistance were rejected.
In the Hingoli district in Marathwada, 24 farmer suicides were reported during the same three-month period.
The issue gained a political edge when Congress MP Rahul Gandhi referred to a news report on 767 farmers in Maharashtra dying by suicide in three months.
'Imagine, in just 3 months 767 farmers in Maharashtra have taken their own lives. In this just a statistic? No, these are 767 shattered homes. 767 families that will never recover. And the government? Watching with indifference,' Gandhi tweeted.
"The RBI states that inflation has reduced to 3.5 percent. They are stating this only because there is lower price of vegetables and farm products. As a result, farmers paid a heavy price for this low rate of inflation," Vijay Jawandhia, founder-member of the Shetkari Sanghatana, tells Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff. The first of a two-part interview:
Farmer suicides are in the news once again.
Farmer suicides will go on till the government does not take positive steps for the village economy. The situation will only worsen in the future.
What is going wrong?
I will give the example of earnings of people in the city vis a vis people in villages.
The Government of India introduced the 7th Pay Commission in July 2016 and then again in January 2025, the 8th Pay Commission was announced. The way money supply is increasing in the cities of India, it is not percolating and circulating in the same ratio in Indian villages.
This is resulting in a crisis of money supply in the villages.
Why are suicides happening now? What went wrong in the last three months that 700 farmers died by suicide in Maharashtra?
Last year no crop in Maharashtra got MSP (Minimum Support Price) from the government.
One quintal of soyaben was sold for Rs 4,000 while the MSP was Rs 4,892.
One quintal of cotton was sold for Rs 7,000 whereas the MSP was Rs 7,500.
Tur dal MSP was Rs 12,000 per quintal which fell to Rs 6,000. This means the farmers were not able to recover the cost of their farm produce after working hard for a year.
And this happened because the government imported soyabean, cotton and tur dal so there was excess of these products and farmers made huge losses.
And there has been no reduction in the education cost and health cost for farmers.
Now the Reserve Bank of India states that inflation has reduced to 3.5 percent.
They are stating this only because there is lower price of vegetables and farm products.
As a result, farmers paid a heavy price for this low rate of inflation.
There was no reduction in any other expenses like health and education which farmers had to pay for from their own pockets.
Fertiliser cost too did not decrease.
A poor man in India pays a lot of taxes in terms of GST (Goods and Service Tax) for which he does not get anything in return.
You take another example of petrol in Maharashtra.
If a worker/farmer uses 2 litres of petrol daily to commute then he will pay Rs 70 per day to the government in the form of taxes. This equals to Rs 2,100 monthly as taxes.
In a year he is paying Rs 25,200 as taxes for which he gets 5 kg of free ration.
A video showed an elderly couple in a Maharashtra village ploughing their field as they could not afford a tractor or oxen to do the work.
It takes around Rs 2,000 to hire a pair of oxen per day.
Besides this, if they want to hire labour to plough the field, they will need Rs 500 per day for an 8-hour shift. How can this couple afford that kind of money to plough their small patch of land? It is not possible.
We do hear announcements regularly from the Maharashtra government as to what they are giving farmers as sops. Do these sops reach the end beneficiary?
These all are publicity stunts. People feel that (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi is doing a lot for farmers but that is not true.
The government first said they are giving 14 crore (140 million) farmers Kisan Sanman Nidhi of Rs 500 every month. They have now reduced that to 9 crore (90 million) farmers.
If you calculate the yearly cost to farmers it turns out to be Rs 54,000 crore (Rs 540 billion).
But if you compare that to the 7th Pay Commission pay rise you will find that 1 crore (10 million) central government employees cost Rs 1 lakh crore bojha (subsidy) every year.
Just check the comparison of subsidies for 9 crore farmers vis a vis 1 crore government employees. This is not how 'Sab ka saath sab ka vikaas' will take place.
The younger generation in villages no longer wants to stay back because they are not getting married. No young girl wants to get married and move to a village.
Today, a boy with no siblings who owns 15 acres of land in a village finds it difficult to get a bride.
Why are farmer suicides happening more in Vidarbha?
Firstly, there are no large landholdings in Vidarbha.
Earlier it used to be so, but with extended families it has reduced to five acres per family.
What can you produce in five acres of land?
You've got to understand it is not easy to die by suicide. People commit suicide only when they lose everything and find no other way to live.
But suicides don't happen in other parts of Maharashtra like Konkan or Western Maharashtra.
In Konkan money order economics work. Money earned by people from Konkan in Mumbai city is sent to Konkan villages.
In Western Maharashtra and especially Baramati, there is horticulture and also agriculture which is highly subsidised by the state.
In Vidarbha, there is rain-fed agriculture which is not good for farming. They have to completely depend on rains for their farm produce.
What about the Rs 1,500 per month given to the poor women of Maharashtra under the Laadki Baahin scheme?
Take the 8th Pay Commission announced during the Delhi state elections. Now a government peon earns a minimum salary of Rs 18,000. This salary is likely to be raised to Rs 45,000 per month when the 8th Pay Commission is implemented.
Every Pay Commission sees a salary jump of two to three times in 10 years. If you compare this to the Laadki Baahin amount of Rs 1,500 per month, it is peanuts.
- Part 2 of the Interview: 'India Is Becoming Super India And Bharat Is Becoming Like Somalia'
© 2025