Suicide as a symbol of protest

The statistics are indeed revealing: the proportion of landless farmers has gone from 35% in 1998 to 55% in 2005, and in India overall, more than 43.4 million rural families out of approximately 89 million are affected by excessive debt.

There are several reasons for this. First and foremost, farmers are increasingly reliant on expensive genetically modified seeds, whose increased use necessitates investment in new agricultural techniques and new equipment. In addition, banks do not want to loan money the farmers, who find themselves forced to borrow from loan sharks at exorbitant rates (up to 40% per year), in order to finance raw materials, labor, and agricultural equipment. Finally, if the monsoons come late or destroy the plantations, the farmers find themselves trapped, unable to pay back their loans and hounded by creditors who threaten to expropriate their land. With a great majority of Indian farmers living in precarious situations that India has never before seen, the farmers often turn to suicide as an ultimate form of protest. In desperation, they put several milliliters of pesticide in their water bottle, and lie down in the fields to die. According to official sources in the Indian government, between 2001 and 2006, close to 6000 suicides were recorded in the state of Kamataka, 1835 in Andhra Pradesh, about 1000 in Maharashtra, and more than 200 in Kerala.

Organization allows success in the face of adversity

The high majority of Indian peasants lives in an unseen precariousness. Although the agricultural crisis and the suicide rate of small farmers are permanent national problems, they do not seem to be priorities for the government. In the meantime, many organizations, like RGAS , fight to defend the interests of the farmers, in order to ensure their rights, their dignity, and their ability to lead a decent life. In southern India, RGAS brings together about twenty organizations that make up almost 150 groups, equivalent to 150 000 people and their families. Its mission consists in: raising awareness, the goal being that these farmers can rediscover their own self-confidence; educating in order to break down the ignorance that encourages exploitation and excessive debt; helping the farmers to become better organized and to promote respect for their rights; supporting them in their work to gain recourse to justice and finally, establishing a micro-credit system, while also assisting them in creating economic activity. In 2006, more than 15 000 rural families benefited from those micro-credit loans. In Bangalore, 30 loans have been granted, equivalent to 14 000 €, to help with the construction and the repair of houses, as well as to launch small companies or else to cover health or education spending.

The agricultural crisis constitutes the dark side of a burgeoning India. However, the farmers’ organizations have never been so numerous and so united, and they now have the power to put strong pressure on the government. As an example, the Janadesh march [1] organized in October 2007 by the Ekta Parishad movement to protest against the farmers’ precarious situation.

Also read: Résonances Asia N°12 - March 2007