Debt is the chief reason for suicides in both rural & urban areas
Apocalypse of Indian farmers’ misery notwithstanding, a shocking 1,50,000 of them were forced to kill themselves in last nine years being caught up in the debt trap. However, a close scrutiny points to the fact that two-third of all farm suicides have taken place in the four big states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. All India data shows one farmer commits suicide in every 32 minutes! Maharashtra is the worst of the lot — a ghastly figure of one suicide in every three hours- and one in 48 minutes in the four states put together. It can be ascertained quite emphatically that these Big Four are the epicenter of rural suicides — as the figure indicates clearly — 89,362 farmers have committed suicides between 1997 and 2005, and 44,102 between 2002 and 2005. If we expand this blighted league of big four to big five, then the new inclusion would be Kerala — another appalled state where suicides of its peasants is a perennial problem. In the big four, the farm suicides doubled the non-farm suicides — 23 per cent increase among non-farmers, while rural suicides went up by astonishing 52 per cent. It’s not for nothing that these four states have earned a special status called “Special Elimination Zone”, an ominous shame by itself to say the least. In 1997, the big four had a share of 53 per cent of all suicides in India, which increased in leaps and bounce to reach 64 per cent in 2005 — where as the farm suicide figures rose during the same period from under 14,000 to over 17,000. A portentous trend that started to emerge in that period — was an overwhelming increase in rural suicide rates, 2004 being the worst year with 18,200 farm suicides across the country. Annual Compound Growth Rate (ACGR) for the last nine years in India is 2.18 per cent, which is at par with the population growth rate — but ACGR among farmers is 2.91 per cent — much higher than the population increase rate. In last nine years, in contrast to the big four — the states with highest general suicide rates (i.e. Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Tripura and Pondicherry) accounted for 20.5 per cent of rural suicides in India, as they show a declining trend.
So far, rural suicides dominated the topic as it is a bigger phenomenon and threat to the nation. However, urban suicides does not lag behind either, as it is found out that financial woes are the main cause of suicides in urban India too. A research conducted by a Mumbai-based NGO, Prerana Charitable Trust, revealed that 21.2 per cent of urban suicides occurred because of illness last year, 8.9 per cent did it for monetary problems, and 5.7 per cent owing to relationship problems. It is an observable fact, that there is in general poor social security system in developing countries- where India is no exception- causing self-made deaths unable to cope up with cultures of mortgage, debt, borrowing and unemployment. Another Mumbai-based NGO, Aasra, points to the fact that there is a recorded 30 per cent increase in urban suicides in last ten years! Monetary mess is the main reason for that, even though the dynamics is vastly different from its rural counterpart. It is young, ambitious, and high spending individuals with failed careers, being cheated by others, or trying to live beyond their means that are susceptible to suicides. However, unable to pay borrowed money is the most important factor that drives suicides in cities — 35 per cent of them happen due to debt issues.
Apocalypse of Indian farmers’ misery notwithstanding, a shocking 1,50,000 of them were forced to kill themselves in last nine years being caught up in the debt trap. However, a close scrutiny points to the fact that two-third of all farm suicides have taken place in the four big states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. All India data shows one farmer commits suicide in every 32 minutes! Maharashtra is the worst of the lot — a ghastly figure of one suicide in every three hours- and one in 48 minutes in the four states put together. It can be ascertained quite emphatically that these Big Four are the epicenter of rural suicides — as the figure indicates clearly — 89,362 farmers have committed suicides between 1997 and 2005, and 44,102 between 2002 and 2005. If we expand this blighted league of big four to big five, then the new inclusion would be Kerala — another appalled state where suicides of its peasants is a perennial problem. In the big four, the farm suicides doubled the non-farm suicides — 23 per cent increase among non-farmers, while rural suicides went up by astonishing 52 per cent. It’s not for nothing that these four states have earned a special status called “Special Elimination Zone”, an ominous shame by itself to say the least. In 1997, the big four had a share of 53 per cent of all suicides in India, which increased in leaps and bounce to reach 64 per cent in 2005 — where as the farm suicide figures rose during the same period from under 14,000 to over 17,000. A portentous trend that started to emerge in that period — was an overwhelming increase in rural suicide rates, 2004 being the worst year with 18,200 farm suicides across the country. Annual Compound Growth Rate (ACGR) for the last nine years in India is 2.18 per cent, which is at par with the population growth rate — but ACGR among farmers is 2.91 per cent — much higher than the population increase rate. In last nine years, in contrast to the big four — the states with highest general suicide rates (i.e. Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Tripura and Pondicherry) accounted for 20.5 per cent of rural suicides in India, as they show a declining trend.
So far, rural suicides dominated the topic as it is a bigger phenomenon and threat to the nation. However, urban suicides does not lag behind either, as it is found out that financial woes are the main cause of suicides in urban India too. A research conducted by a Mumbai-based NGO, Prerana Charitable Trust, revealed that 21.2 per cent of urban suicides occurred because of illness last year, 8.9 per cent did it for monetary problems, and 5.7 per cent owing to relationship problems. It is an observable fact, that there is in general poor social security system in developing countries- where India is no exception- causing self-made deaths unable to cope up with cultures of mortgage, debt, borrowing and unemployment. Another Mumbai-based NGO, Aasra, points to the fact that there is a recorded 30 per cent increase in urban suicides in last ten years! Monetary mess is the main reason for that, even though the dynamics is vastly different from its rural counterpart. It is young, ambitious, and high spending individuals with failed careers, being cheated by others, or trying to live beyond their means that are susceptible to suicides. However, unable to pay borrowed money is the most important factor that drives suicides in cities — 35 per cent of them happen due to debt issues.
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