INDIA: The average rate of three suicides a day among debt-ridden farmers in India's southern Andhra Pradesh state is continuing for the fifth consecutive year, despite a recent announcement of relief measures by the newly-elected Congress Party government writes Rahul Bedi in New Delhi.
Now officials in the state capital, Hyderabad, say around 100 farmers have committed suicide over the past fortnight, fuelling speculation that they are killing themselves so that their families can claim the 150,000 rupees (€2,777) compensation that has been announced by the new government.
Newly installed Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy dismissed such cynicism as "baseless" and appealed to farmers not to take such desperate measures.
"Don't panic. The government will help you," Reddy said.
Few farmers, however, seem to be listening. Overwhelmed by abject penury, official corruption, persistent drought and cyclone conditions, especially in the coastal regions, around 5,000 farmers, mostly aged between 35 adn 40, have committed suicide in Andhra since 1999.
Rising fertiliser costs, the fall in agricultural produce prices, spurious seeds and pesticides and non-payment of relief to affected farmers despite promises, are other factors responsible for continuing farmer suicides.
A few farmers have doused their clothes with kerosene and set themselves alight in village squares, hoping to draw official attention to their plight.
"Suicides are the result of the cumulative effect of the problems plaguing agriculture for the last 15 to 20 years," P Chengala Reddy of the Federation of Farmers Association in Hyderabad said, adding that farmers' problems had peaked this year.
The suicide rate was never reported, Reddy said, as the Telugu Desam Party government, voted out in last month's elections for ignoring the farmers' plight after nearly a decade in power, had refused to pay compensation to the affected families. It had asked district administrations not to maintain records of the suicides, he claimed.
Sixty per cent of Andhra's population of around 76 million is dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. The state has 12 million farmers, some 10 million of whom are small and marginal tillers, reliant entirely on elusive rain for irrigation.
Help lines set up by the government for distressed farmers in the state are jammed with calls.
"Farmers have lost confidence in institutions like the legislature and the district administration. There is need to restore this confidence by empowering them to take control of markets and irrigation projects," Chengala Reddy said.