1,500 Farmers in India Commit Suicide: A Wake-Up Call for Humanity

I read with horror this morning that over 1,500 farmers in India committed suicide after being driven to debt by crop failure.

Over 1,500 farmers in an Indian state committed suicide after being driven to debt by crop failure, it was reported today. The agricultural state of Chattisgarh was hit by falling water levels.

"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.

The crop failures, which took place in the agricultural state of Chattisgarh, were prompted 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.

Suicides by Indian farmers have been an ongoing reality for years -- Vandana Shiva, an Intent Voice, friend and someone I admire tremendously for her advocacy of the land and its people, wrote an article several years ago about farmers committing suicide due to debt.

But 1,500? To give a more tangible visualization of that number, that's about four full jumbo jet planes' worth of passengers suddenly committing suicide. The death toll also does not hint at the countless men, women and children who are still ensnared in these dire situations, and now must grieve the loss of their family, friends and neighbors.

Almost every village in Punjab has witnessed a suicide in their once-prosperous farming families, the BBC reported.

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.

While researching more for this article, I learned that this latest tragedy bears an uncomfortable resemblance to the 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.  It is estimated that one Australian farmer commits suicide every four days. The severe weather changes are a direct manifestation of global warming.

These stories are a reminder that our personal wellness is inextricably linked to global wellness.  We need to nurture Mother Earth, and address the tangled hierarchy of pollution, global warming, human rights, production, economies, wealth, etc.

With Earth Day approaching next week, I hope that all of us will set intentions, followed up with action, on how we can make the planet, and in turn, the lives of our fellow humans, healthier and more peaceful.

Mallika Chopra blogs regularly at Intent.com

 

 

 

Follow Mallika Chopra on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mallikachopra

Comments

[Friese]

09:21 PM on 04/23/2009

I just watched the 2008 documentary "The world according to Monsanto" (available online) which mentions the increase in suicides in India. It also features an interview with Vandana Shiva who is mentioned in the article. I don't know enough about the issue of gmo's but it seems from this and other sources that Monsanto plays an important role in the process that strips little farmers of their independence and exposes them to the risk of poverty and ruin. This is clearly the terrible side of globalization. By the way a remarkable documentary that is worth watching for a variety of reasons. Monsanto is the company that produced Agent Orange during the Vietnam War as well as in the early 90s the bovine growth hormone that is outlawed virtually everywhere in the world except the U.S....

[AmandaLS]

04:57 AM on 04/20/2009

This is apauling. Governments of the world need to do something to help slow down global warming so that things like this do not happen. There is no reason why these farmers should have to feel such dispair that ending their lives seems like the only solution for them. I feel one expensive solution that can help with the water crisis, which affects the crop output is to create massive numbers of desalinization plants. Granted that is expensive and adds strain to the fragile ocean. However it is a solution for some time and is likley a good idea. Both Idia and Australia have costal land and this solution could possibly work for them. This would not help people of inland countries that have no access to the ocean, but perhaps the water can be sold to those countries from those who have desalinization plants.

[coolplanet]

02:12 AM on 04/20/2009

Check out the Union of Concerned Scientists website (ucs.org) for more information about genetically engineered crops. They have a map of where many GM crops are planted. Of particular interest is the public comments from PepsiCo; Association of Grocers; Association of American Food Processors and many other major food related organizations in the U.S. giving public comment that GM plants containing pesticides and pharmacuetical drugs are threatening the world's food supply and the unregulated planting of GM crops in open spaces where their seeds, pollen and other elements drift into and contaminate non GM plants are posing a serious threat to our food security. I have read that Monsanto patented all the seeds in the U.S. Seedbank.

[wial]

12:11 PM on 04/19/2009

Just wait until the sulphur pollution from Chinese industrialization causes even more massive drought in India, as has been predicted for years now. I wonder what many millions of deaths will do for relations between those two nuclear powers.

[McSleepy]

10:07 AM on 04/19/2009

I just listened to a 2-part series on NPR this week about the Punjab region and the problems that have developed as a result of the collapse of the "Green Revolution" of the 60s-70s era, and this article gives an unfortunate conclusion to the fates of the farmers that were convinced to grow high-yield crops.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102893816

[Jond0]

10:30 PM on 04/18/2009

It's the ultimate resignation letter.

Stop the world, I want to get the globalization off.

[DenaSilver]

05:20 PM on 04/18/2009

It would be good to find out if there was manipulation involved--peer pressure or intimidation that pushed these farmers into committing acts of suicide. Men often do, but more often do not, take their own lives when faced with serious difficulties.

[boredwell]

02:34 PM on 04/18/2009

Global warming is not the direct cause. Deforestation and the subsequent loss of watersheds is more lilkely the primary culprit. Soil mismanagement the other: failure to rotate crops to replenish the earth's nutrients. In an agrarian-based economy like the Pujab's, poverty coupled with over population, combines to wreak havoc on environment and lives. Often with devastating consequences: floods, famine, loss of lives. As India races to become a global power, it gobbles arable land to build factories further destroying nature's reserves by callously reformatting its precarious infrastructure. TATA one of India's largest conglomerates recently abandoned plans to construct an auto plant after farmers rioted - and died - in protest. Not only were these subsistence farmers victims of police bullets and industrial greed, the powers that decide their fate do so behind closed doors. While reparations for land sold have been promised, many farmers never receive reimbursement. If and when they do, it's far below what the original agreed-upon price. Most give up because of time and money to apply to authorities for settlements. The gargantuan maw that is India will continue to grind down and devour its subsistence citizens with impunity. 1,500 suicides doesn't constitute enough to create a ripple in a country of 1 plus billion. They're expendable. Others will take their place. Such is the continuum of dharma and karma played out daily, for thousands of years on the subcontinent. Human life does not carry the same premium in India as it does in the West.

[ChelseaC]

04:03 PM on 04/18/2009

This is very sad.

[Bernique]

08:50 PM on 04/18/2009

Profoundly sad. We overpopulate the planet so that "1,500 suicides doesn't constitute enough to create a ripple in a country of 1 plus billion" ??? Have we become monsters?

[busterbrownthefirst]

12:46 PM on 04/18/2009

I am really surprised that so many people posting to this article are all hung up on whether these 1,500 farmers offed themselves at once, or did they space their suicides out??? It is absurd that these suicides are trivialized to such a stupid semantical question.

You should read down to the comments from a DeanAnna Dean and check those sources. The point is not whether "mass suicide" is "misleading." The point is that not only are these suicides a horrible tragedy, but they actually are much, much higher than the article above addresses.

[Hans1]

12:05 PM on 04/18/2009

This is very sad. The small farmers are the silent heroes of society. The “money changers” are the leeches, the parasites of hard work and hope.

[DaveVDave]

11:37 AM on 04/18/2009

How sad. I am glad I live in America! Hopefully something can be done for these people.

http://www.TheCommentDepot.com

[MGhamma]

11:20 AM on 04/18/2009

More people, more scars upon the land.

[Ergon]

11:03 AM on 04/18/2009

Sad as this is, the real story is that the Indian govt. has let the globalists take over the country, with the disparity between the rich and poor becoming even more striking, and NOTHING being done to help the small farmer.
The globalisation of food is the story, and if we don't watch out, we will be victims too.

[YankeeCanuck]

02:25 PM on 04/18/2009

We already are. It just is not as obvious yet.

[Hopeington]

07:20 PM on 04/18/2009

Yankee's right. We didn't watch out. Monsanto, which is a big part of the problem in India, has infiltrated our food systems long time ago. These farmers have been duped by them.
This story has been on my mind for days now. I think it's easy for us to feel the pain that led these family men to make this difficult decision because it's based around such a basic necessity, food and the care of your family.

[SOLERSO68]

10:55 AM on 04/18/2009

This story really shook me up because it really sounds like one of those beggining of the end narratives. Not the mythical "end time" of any religion, but the long discussed and somewhat feared malthusian population crisis. Mass suicides, wars over water, starvation, political collapse.the end

[Anthony Rebholz]

09:40 AM on 04/18/2009

I think your closing statement on how personal wellness is linked to global wellness is very insightful and there is much to be learned in paying attention to that idea.

[AshleyX]

11:07 AM on 04/18/2009

Actually, I was just thinking how that comment leads people away from the real issue. For the author to turn this into a spiel about global warming is rather detestable.

The problem is that our personal wellness is inextricably linked to money! Global warming is responsible for these suicides? No! So many people have a twisted sense of self-worth; if their security blanket of money fails, they can't see a point to life. Some cultures are particularly susceptible to believing wealth is a measure of goodness and success.

We have a lesson to learn from many tribes in Africa who suffer poverty in it's most extreme form. With apparently nothing to live for, why is there so much joy and celebration DAILY in many, many of those tiny African villages?
Because they realize that wealth would make them more comfortable, more healthy...but no more fulfilled.

Yes, things are hard when your source of income fails. But to make the selfish decision to leave your family alone, because money is your life's purpose? Let's not make these farmers victims of "climate change" (a short study in history will reveal that climate has always experienced changes...the Earth is incredibly old.) Rather than victims of climate change, they are victims of a soul-sickness that says money and accomplishments determine our worth. I feel very sad for them and their families, and pray that other farmer's will not reach the same decision about life and death.

[YankeeCanuck]

02:26 PM on 04/18/2009

You poor dear. You don't get out much in the world, do you?

[ChelseaC]

04:11 PM on 04/18/2009

If you have no food to eat, no roof over your head, debt on your back, where do you go?