Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Psycho-social factors played role in farmers’ suicide: study

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Beyond the crisis that had overtaken the cash crop-dominated farm sector in Kerala, several ‘psycho-social factors’ too had played a role in forcing hundreds of farmers to commit suicide in the State over the last five years or so, according to a study conducted by the Centre for Management Development (CMD).

The study was commissioned by the State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC), as part of a joint effort on the part of commercial banks in the State to assess the gravity of rural indebtedness in the State and identify its reasons.

The interim report on the study, now with the SLBC, says the suicides had much to do with the inability of the individual to adapt his lifestyle to dwindling income, lack of social support, inadequacy of institutional support, educational backwardness, health problems and even alcoholism.

For the purpose of the analysis, trained people from the CMD collected comprehensive data relating to 35 cases of farmer suicides in Wayanad district, selected at random from 179 such cases reported from the district during the five years from 2002 to 2007. Seventy-seven per cent of the farmers who had committed suicide had only small land holdings of less than two acres (0.8 hectares) cultivated mainly with pepper, coffee and areca nut, which had recorded steep fall in prices during the period.

Their dependence on agriculture was “pronounced.” Only 28.57 per cent of them had any alternative income, mainly from livestock, that too from low yielding local breeds. None of the victims had received any effective support from the Government or other institutions to turn to other activities during the period of the crisis.

The report says that farmers who had committed suicide had loans from banks, private money lenders, friends and relatives.

The debt averaged Rs. 80,559 a suicide case in the list studied. The debt appeared inversely proportional to the extent of land holding with the farmer: the lesser the land in possession, the more the debt.

The study said 65.71 per cent of the victims were alcoholics. A handy bottle of pesticide at home worked as the prompt at the height of desperation in two out of three cases of farmer suicide and, in a majority of such cases, the victim had mixed it with alcohol.

The report says contrary to popular perception, the families of the victims had no complaints about harassment or pressure from the banks.

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