On 21^st June 2019 Legislative assembly informed that from 2015 to 2018 in Maharashtra over 12,000 farmers committed suicide.

Approximately 6,888 cases were found to be eligible for government aid after scrutiny by district – level committees, Minister Subhash Deshmukh told in a written reply. He considered this issue as a major issue for the farmers of Maharashtra. So, far approximately family members of 6,845 farmers have been got financial support of Rs 1 lakh each, Subhash Deshmukh told, as per local report.

610 farmers committed suicide in between January 2019 to March 2019, in which 192 cases were eligible for financial assistance, 182 eligible for financial compensation and rest will be scrutinized or check for their eligibility

India is known for the agriculture and approximately 50% of population depend on it. Some farmers also don’t have their own land for agriculture and they have to work on other’s land. The financial conditions are also not good and they have to apply for loan. Even the government spent over ₹19,000 crore on farm loan exemptions.

Despite the loan exemption scheme and increasing expenditure on the agriculture sector, the farmer deaths in the state have not stopped.

In January 2019, Jeetendra Ghatge, a social activist had filed an application under the Right to Information Act (RTI) seeking details of farmers who committed suicides from year 2014 to 2018.

Priti Dayal

  farmer, Maharashtra, suicide