Vidarbha and Farmer Suicides - Facts and Fiction

an excellent article sir

i am an engineer born and brought-up in Nagpur, yes the people are really good, even poor people living in slums maintain hygiene and are pretty civilized.

after traveling through most parts of Maharashtra i find Nagpur the most cosmopolitan and peaceful place.

many of us: well educated, earning and talented people from Nagpur have now got settled in Mumbai/Pune. if one looks at the description of Pune on wikipedia it has been mentioned that ``most of the population in pune identifies its origin to Nagpur``

we need to look back, we have worked a lot for this part of Maharashtra, which has in turn provided us with a good standard of living..........but now i think, we need to go back, do the same for the place of our birth, the largest industrial area in asia.........with no industries !!!!

its a call to people.............from nagpur..............in Mumbai/Pune.............shall we look back........??????

#13 (afterthought)

However, author, you must also be commended for taking up this serious topic and trying to deal with it.

Author, I was looking for a more sober article on this very troubling topic. I agree with the interactor who chided you for your sweeping statements. Statements like those you start the article with – some bordering on foolish (e.g., “It is true that the Vidarbha farmers are apparently less hard-working than the farmers of other regions”) – are a sure turn-off!

This article should have simply focused on its title topic instead of fluffing itself up through non-related mythology and history. You need to have more supporting information to make the case that you appear to try to make – that those farmers spend too much of money they don’t have, they borrow heavily at exorbitant interest rates and they kill themselves upon being harassed for recovery.

>>>Most Indians tend to ask what the government is doing for them. Rarely does one come across a case where the people themselves take matters in their own hands and do something about a local problem. Whether it`s garbage disposal and dengue, floods and famine or the problems in Vidarbha, the people (and the television media) expect that the sarkar will wave the wand, that no effort must come from within.<<<<

People taking in their hands????? Nuts!

Have u heard of Anna Hazare, madame?

Garbage dispoal is the job of local govts, not the public. Their job is to pay taxes. Ditto farmers, to pay land cess.

We dont ask anybody to wave a magic wand but want the bureaucrats to have their mind where their money comes from.

The process and machinery of democracy is what we have i.e the setup to have policies to change with times and circumstances, not be static.

Re: # 9
``That`s convenient excuse for the government to cover it`s inactivity. By that logic if the food served in restaurant is bad we should head straight to the kitchen and cook it ourselves to our liking. Tax paying public have a right to expect good service from it`s government. ``

Yes, the government does use this as an excuse sometimes. But if people and government worked together on some issues, especially in areas of local garbage disposal or local disease (dengue, Aids etc-taking measures to prevent, spreading awareness by word of mouth) the work would progress faster for everybody`s benefit. On some issues like road repair the citizens may not be able to do their bit but at least where it directly affects their personal health or clean surroundings, ordinary citizens can do a lot. For example the positive trend to run vermiculture units in housing societies where the members regulate and manage garbage disposal does take some of the burden off the municipal authorities. Some societies don`t bother and prefer to see litter everywhere and ignore the overflowing of the garbage dump near their gates. Sometimes citizens also use the ``government-does-nothing`` excuse to sit back and not do much for themselves!

Re: # 9

#4
``Most Indians tend to ask what the government is doing for them. Rarely does one come across a case where the people themselves take matters in their own hands and do something about a local problem. Whether it`s garbage disposal and dengue....``

This seems to be in answer to my interact # 4 but It was interact #6 by somebody else that contained the above text.

#4
``Most Indians tend to ask what the government is doing for them. Rarely does one come across a case where the people themselves take matters in their own hands and do something about a local problem. Whether it`s garbage disposal and dengue....``

That`s convenient excuse for the government to cover it`s inactivity. By that logic if the food served in restaurant is bad we should head straight to the kitchen and cook it ourselves to our liking. Tax paying public have a right to expect good service from it`s government.

Most Indians tend to ask what the government is doing for them. Rarely does one come across a case where the people themselves take matters in their own hands and do something about a local problem. Whether it`s garbage disposal and dengue, floods and famine or the problems in Vidarbha, the people (and the television media) expect that the sarkar will wave the wand, that no effort must come from within.

i did a little bit of travel in vidarbha and even in (scary) gadchiroli and the area is indeed full of good quality well irrigated farmland and party kinda folks. they have a special dinner-feasting style called ``sawji`` (sahukar) food..

vidarbha agriculture also seems to have not changed much ..other parts have taken to horticulture, prduce etc and gone away from commodity ``cash`` crops like sugarcane which need extensive capital (fertilizer-water-electricity) and price-subsidies. it seems to have a lot of cotton and rice farms.

VSG,

How limited is ur grasp of the issue? I am amazed! If u had not read the full-length interview of P.Sainath in www.outlookindia.com, u`d not have come out with such slipshod analysis on the issue of farmers. Btw, ur intro on Vidarbha is good. Mr. Sainath was called by the PM for his personal audience on the issue. It was but for the singular investigation of Mr. Sainath, the isue wudnt have been got prominence.

>>>>The demonstration-effect, herd mentality and the lemming-like behaviour of men in a community, add to the number of suicide deaths.<<<<<

Wasnt this an insensitive comment of the ivory-tower bureaucrat?

I cant reproduce all the points of Mr. Sainath here.

Suicide is an ultimate sacrifice a person can do, BUT are there any other alternatives? Plain and simple! They can apply for Insolvency Petition, but they are not as knowledgeable as big industrialits therefore they do what a person can do in distress. Moreover the issue of personal incompetence as a farmer over-weighs the rational remedies available to him.

In terms of volumes the amount evaded by bada industrilists and village farmers is comparable only to a chickpea and foot-ball. Industrialists had FICCI, CII and other big-mouth pink-press to highlight thier issues but the farmers are voiceless and dont know how to lobby with the govt.

Better I stop here.

Great article VS
I had heard that many of the loans taken out by the farmers were never repaid, and the money was used for anything other than farming.
It also seems that many people who took the loans were farmers only for the purpose of getting the low interest loans. Is that true?

Re: # 2
Mr. G is entitled to his opinion just like you or anybody else, Cobra. How biased you appear to be (in my opinion!) when u say u stopped reading after that one comment!? Your loss, bcoz this is a very informative article written by an administrator (a good, uncorrupt one , mind you) who knows matters from the grass roots level due to his having worked in and with that region.
Any thinking person knows that the media does not present a balanced picture of both sides of the coin, in situations like this.
So thanks Mr.G, for a more authentic assessment of a tragedy that we constantly hear of in the media but which few people understand.

Mr. G is entitled to his opinion just like you or anybody else, Cobra. How biased you appear to be (in my opinion!) when u say u stopped reading after that one comment!? Your loss, bcoz this is a very informative article written by an administrator (a good, uncorrupt one , mind you) who knows matters from the grass roots level due to his having worked in and with that region.
Any thinking person knows that the media does not present a balanced picture of both sides of the coin, in situations like this.
So thanks Mr.G, for a more authentic assessment of a tragedy that we constantly hear of in the media but which few people understand.

I stopped reading after this comment...

(The Konkan people are notoriously unfriendly and rude as per the experiences of many administrators.)

If an article is going to start out with the generalized bias then I am not sure if the rest of the article has any merits.

V.S.,

Thanks for an informative article. It is indeed sad.
Are there any organizations or persons working on the solution?
I would certainly be willing to contribute monetarily if that helps at
least one family at a time.