Farmer Suicide In Orissa

Farmer suicide in Odisha: Government myopia With in one month 6 farmers died due to suicide, many more rescued attempting suicide bid. Political melodrama is high. The state government is under suffocation. And the reaction is 3 governmental enquiries and independent enquiries, hundreds of rallies. But yet no body and not a single agency carved a action plan to mitigate the problem. Let’s enumerate the figures of last year more than 1 lakh persons (1, 22,637) in the country lost their lives by committing suicide during the year2007. This indicates an increase of 3.8% over the previous year’s figure (1, 18,118).In Odisha, the farmer suicide has been increased to 6 percent. And even the overall rate of suicide trends is 10.9percent, which is .1 percent higher than the national average. The data shows that the among the suicide deaths, 22.3% died due to illness, 23.8 percent committed suicide due to poverty, 2.7 percent due to bankruptcy and sudden change in economic status. In Odisha the number of suicides due to family disputes is 1181 during the year 2007. But the state government did not alarmed, Even the ruling BJD has not been keen to its party manifesto. In 2009 among the 6 farmer suicide deaths, according the government report, 5 people taken such step because of bankruptcy and sudden change in economic status, due to loss in cultivation. This year the monsoon is delayed and the rain was 36 percent lower than the average. But the state government continuously evasive on this issue. In Odisha About 75 % of the total workforce depends on agriculture. The cropped area is about 87.46 lakh hectares out of which 18.79 lakh hectares are irrigated. Climate and soil play vital role in Orissa’s agricultural economy. Our Odisha has been divided into 4 major environmental zone, And the north western Odisha fall in highly moisture deficit zone. In such environment the western Odisha has 40 percent share in rice cultivation. Irrigation facilities has been developed by implementing different schemes such as AIBP, RIDE, BKVY, RR&R, Bharat Nirman, Biju Krushak Vikash Yojana, Panipanchayat ,RLTAP. The two project proposals namely Mahanadi Basin Development Plan (MBDP) for Mahanadi Basin and Orissa Integrated Irrigated Agriculture & Water Management Project (OIWMP) for Baitarani, Budhabalanga and Subernarekha basins, but the outcome of the result are still now questionable….(conted)