The Hindu : Kerala News : Need for suicide prevention strategy

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Thursday, Apr 08, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Need for suicide prevention strategy

By R. Madhavan Nair

KOZHIKODE, APRIL 7. To Kerala, suicide by farmers burdened by agricultural debt was something that happened only in the other States, that is till recently.

The present drought, which is described as one of the worst in recent times, has brought this disturbing phenomenon to Kerala also. The reports of suicide by farmers have come in from five of the 14 districts. Wayanad tops the list followed by Palakkad, which is considered one of the granaries of Kerala. Isolated cases have been reported from Kannur, Idukki and Thiruvananthapuram districts also. The toll stood at 17 at last count.

The scenario is identical in almost all these cases. The victims took loans for cultivation expecting good yield, the revenue from which was expected to help them clear that and previous loans. The crops failed because of the drought. When the financial institutions initiated steps to realise the loans, those who had nowhere to go resorted to the easiest way out.

The steps taken by the authorities, which include conversion of short-term loans into mid-term and mid-term loans into long-term are not expected to benefit the farmers much. The monsoon is expected to begin only in June and any fresh agricultural activity is possible only after that. Even paddy farmers will have to wait for six months after cultivation to get the yield. It may take two or three years for the cash crops to fully get over the harm being caused by the drought. The immediate future is therefore bleak for the agricultural community.

The spate of suicides has sounded alarm bells in the social circles of the State to the extent that social workers as well as psychiatrists have started clamouring for a suicide prevention strategy for the district.

Though there has been a strong demand for community-oriented counselling to help farmers in distress to cope with their financial and social tensions, it is drowned in the chorus for generous financial help to indigent farmers.

Psychiatrists believe that financial aid alone is not enough. According to P.N. Suresh Kumar, Director, Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, Kozhikode, "waiver of outstanding loans alone will not be enough. Counselling on financial and stress management practices is also needed to bring down the suicide rate in Wayanad.''

A large number of farmers are in need of psychological support is evident from the response to the crisis management cell opened by the Indian Farmers Movement (Infam) at its office in Mananthavady. "We received nearly 300 calls in the first two days alone,'' Robin Vadakkumchery, Infam director, told The Hindu .

Suresh Kumar, who has specialised in suicidology, points out that Wayanad, Idukki, Palakkad and Pathanamthitta districts have had high incidence of suicide in recent years. Suicide tendency is considered to be more among the migrant population which forms a major part of the farming community in Wayanad and Idukki. Psychiatrists believe that this is because, uprooted from their native land, they do not get social support so essential to fight and overcome depression induced by personal and financial crisis.

Dr. Suresh Kumar is of the view that reports that give an impression that the rate of suicides in Wayanad has been increasing rapidly are contrary to facts. Suicide rates have been increasing since 1995, according to available statistics, but there had not been any significant increase in Wayanad during the period from 1995 to 2002. In 1995, there were 315 suicides in Wayanad, but in Idukki, there were 553 suicides and in Palakkad 812. Only 295 were reported from Pathanamthitta during this period. In 2002, the number of suicides reported from Wayanad was 320, from Idukki 565, from Palakkad 871 and 427 in Pathanamthitta.

In Wayanad, suicide cases increased only by 5 per cent between 1995 and 2002. This proves that the reports on the spurt in suicides in Wayanad are highly exaggerated. "Debt is not the only factor that drives people to suicide. In Wayanad, alcoholism, which induces depression and leads to suicide, is rampant,'' he says.

Studies on suicides point out that farmers often use poison to commit suicide. This has been true in Wayanad since poisonous pesticides and insecticides are within their easy reach. The sale of pesticides and insecticides has to be restricted and the toxin in them reduced to the minimum, so that they would have the potential to kill only insects and pesticides and not human beings. Doctors serving in government primary health centres in distress-prone farming zones should also be given training in giving effective treatment to save patients who are brought in critical condition after attempting suicide by taking poison.

Bank managers who are blamed for driving indigent farmers to death by threatening to take debt recovery measures, however, allege that their attempts to give relief to the farmers are being thwarted by a few "militant organisations.''

At the end of December last year, a loan to the tune of Rs.706 crores was outstanding in the priority sector. About 90 per cent of it was farm loan. K.M. Pundarikakshan, Canara Bank's lead bank manager in Wayanad, claims that banks have been liberal in giving loans. This, he says, is evident from the credit-deposit ratio which is 188 per cent in Wayanad. The State average is just 46.5 per cent. But it is also a fact that loan recovery has been steadily declining. From 88 per cent in June 2001, it had dipped to 69 per cent in June 2003.This year it would be a surprise if the figure touched 50 per cent.

Mr. Pundarikakshan says that banks had been liberal in re-phasing loans by extending repayment period as a relief to indigent farmers. But "under pressure from a few farmers' organisations'', they have refused to sign fresh agreements with banks for the same. An impression is also gaining ground that the farmers' financial crisis is mainly because they had "borrowed beyond their ability to repay.'' A good number of them has borrowed from commercial banks, gramin banks, cooperative banks and private financial companies at the same time. In such circumstances, the heavy debt is inevitable and some are forced to suicide.

Social activists caution the media against playing up news about people committing suicide in Wayanad and attributing it to inability to clear debts since it might prompt others facing similar problems and having suicide tendency to end their lives. It is pointed out that some who have ended their lives were suffering from chronic crippling diseases, and at least one of them was believed to be in a disturbed state of mind for years.

A package made up of financial aid alone is not an effective anti-dote for Wayanad's social sickness, of which the series of suicides is just a symptom. A "psychological autopsy'', reconstructing life in the family of the suicide victim, would help identify the farmers' problems better and evolve effective suicide-prevention strategies. Farmers have to be taught how to manage money better and avoid getting into a deadly debt trap "by biting more than what they can chew'', which many believe is what has happened in Wayanad. "A multi-pronged community-oriented counselling programme that would help farmers manage their finances better and reduce alcoholism and steps to reduce availability of poison is the need of the hour," says Dr. Suresh Kumar.

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