Every 2 hours, 1 Agricultural Labourer Is Suiciding In India, NCRB Reports

Pan India Effect

The highest numbers of agricultural labourers suicide were recorded in:
Maharashtra(1424)
Karnataka(999)
Andhra Pradesh(584).

States which reported zero suicides of farmers/cultivators as well as agricultural labourers:
Tripura, Uttarakhand, Chandigarh, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Lakshadweep, and Puducherry

In any agricultural household, there are mainly three sources of income:
1. Cultivation
2. Livestock
3. Daily wage

Decline In Household Income

The household income for a farmer from cultivation declined from 48% in 2013 to 38% in 2021.

However, the daily wage is the biggest contributor to household income. This is a fundamental change in the economy of these households. Apart from agricultural labourers, 5318 farmers also committed suicide taking the total number of people who died by suicide in the farming sector to 10,881 or 6.6% of suicide victims. The share of daily wagers among those who died by suicide in the country has shown a sharp increase in 2021.

Doubling Farmers Income

By 2023, India has promised to double its farmers' incomes from 2015-16 levels. Keeping the decline in income from cultivation is a challenge. Moreover, the economy has declined since 2016, beginning with demonetization. Then a long two-year pandemic put a pause on job opportunities for everyone.

Currently, the unemployment rate is one of the highest in decades. Agriculture is known to reduce rural poverty faster than the rate of economic growth. But as more people move to agricultural labour and income from cultivation reduces, agricultural income might not be enough for poverty reduction. Agricultural produce has already suffered in India this year because of the heat waves.

Daily wage earners accounted for 25 per cent of suicides in the country (42,004 suicides), making daily wage earners the largest profession-wise group among suicide victims in 2021. The figure of 42,004 suicides is a sharp increase from 33,164 daily wagers who died by suicide in 2020. Daily wage earners accounted for 25% of suicides in the country, making it the largest. Daily wage earners accounted for 25% of suicides in the country, making it the largest.

Pandemic effect

The report said the figures for daily wage earners excluded agricultural labourers. But many daily wage earners worked as agricultural labourers too during the last two years, when many economic activities were shut down, and cities saw a reverse migration to villages. This is because they were out of any source of income.
Daily wage earners, followed by self-employed persons, unemployed persons and people involved in the farming sector, were the top categories of people who have committed suicide in 2021, a COVID-19 pandemic year.

Sad Truth

As per the report, "Out of total 1,18,979 male suicides, maximum suicides were committed by daily wage earners (37,751) followed by self-employed persons (18,803) and unemployed persons (11,724)," the report said.
The majority of victims engaged in the farming sector were reported in Maharashtra (37.3 per cent), Karnataka (19.9 per cent), Andhra Pradesh (9.8 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (6.2 per cent) and Tamil Nadu (5.5 per cent).
Of 5,563 suicides committed by agricultural labourers in 2021, 5,121 were males, and 442 were females.

Reasons For Farmer's Suicides

1. Vagaries Of Nature
- Monsoon dependency
- Disease
- Climate change
- Global warming
2. Land fragmentation
- Due to population pressure
- Land reforms
- Less productivity
- Less reach for innovation and technology
3. Rising cost of input, Increase in Labour Prices, Costly equipment, High Transportation Costs
4. Lack of institutional credit, Informal credit, Debt trap
5. Agricultural Infrastructure
- Old storage and processing infrastructure
- Price uncertainty
- MSP failure
- APMC failure
- No freedom of price fixing
- A large number of intermediaries, etc.

Challenges ahead

1. More than 60% of our farmers are susceptible to rainfall anomalies, and irrigation reaches less than half of India's overall farmland. This picture has not changed much over the past decade.
2. However, rain-fed farming yields are usually less than half those of irrigated farmland.
3. Fertilizers are not safe for the environment. Though India has caught up with global levels of fertilizer use, this is neither efficient nor environmentally sustainable. And this adds to the cost of cultivation.
4. New technology is not cost-efficient for farmers.

Way Forward

1. For better prices, agriculture should develop a farmer's value chain consisting of farming, wholesaling, warehousing, logistics, processing and retailing.
2. Proactive policy management for maximizing benefits for all stakeholders, including those who are left out.
3. Direct Benefit Transfers: The most effective way to support farmers would be through direct benefit transfers.