 FARMERS GATHER at a recent meeting in the Nagpur area to hear proposed government solutions to the country's ongoing cotton farming dilemma. Previous government assistance has fallen short of goals to alleviate the plight of farmers and surviving widows. | |||||
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Opinion - News Analysis
Vidharbha’s one-litre-per-cow package
P. Sainath
| By the Maharashtra government’s own count, the 14,221 high-breed cows it gave farmers in Vidharbha add just 1.16 litres each to the milk collection in the region. |
One year, two ‘packages,’ and many crores of rupees later, each of the 14,000 high-breed cows distributed by the Maharashtra government in Vidharbha is adding just 1.16 litres a day on average to milk collection in the region. The State government’s own monthly journal says so.
However, the State sees in this, the success of the relief packages of the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister for that region. The Maharashtra government’s journal Lokrajya views it as a vindication of ideas going back to t he days of “Mahatma Jyotiba Phule amd Sant Tukudoji Maharaj.” It goes on to say: “These great men’s ideas are being translated in the form of the farmers’ packages in Vidharbha. In fact, good results are seen.”
“Both those great souls — among the nation’s foremost reformers — would have been stunned by the claims being made in their names,” says Mohan Jadhav, secretary of the Vidharbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS). “Both packages have collapsed months ago. And the cow scheme was the worst part of those. Imagine raising collection by one litre per very costly cow.”
The government, though, believes the project has “helped bring back the reign of Bali Raja.” (A sacred king of farmers in folklore, in whose time great prosperity prevailed.) It says 14,221 cows have been given to Vidharbha farmers. (Lokrajya July 2007.) Because of this, “milk collection there has risen by 37 per cent.” Earlier, it says, “that averaged 44,600 litres daily in these six districts.” But with the success of the packages, “there has been an increase of 16,600 litres.” Or 1.16 litres a day per new cow.
As a result, says Lokrajya, “the farmers are flush with cash more regularly. Their daily financial problems could be solved. They do not need to wait for their crops to grow.”
Giving quality cows to thousands of poor farmers in the six most troubled districts of the region was a high profile element in the relief packages of both Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The first aimed to bring 40,000 new cows to the region in three years. The second, 18,000 in the same period. Close to two million people in these six districts are officially recorded as living “under maximum distress.” Another five million are “under medium distress.” And there have been — in the State’s own count — well over 2,000 farm suicides since 2001. (The real figure is much higher.)
At the time the ‘packages’ were announced, the scheme had been attacked as “insane” by Planning Commission members and farm activists alike. (The Hindu, July 14, 2006). It gave costly cows to poor farmers in drought-hit regions without water and fodder. Besides, the beneficiaries had to fork out quite a bit for cows they did not want. (The Hindu, November 23, 2006). Many complained that the animals had been forced on them and were eating more than “our entire families.” Kamlabai Gudhe’s cow in Lonsawla village of Wardha district cost Rs.17,500. Of this, she had to pay Rs.5,500 and the government the rest. Within weeks, Kamlabai tried hard to give it away to neighbours who did not want it either. “It was too costly to feed it,” she says.
The 14,221 cows have cost already indebted farmers over Rs.7.5 crore. And that does not include the cost of maintaining them. Which could range from Rs.85 to Rs.150 a day depending on who you are and what you can afford. So maintaining these cows would cost Vidharbha’s bankrupt farmers over Rs.50 crore a year. For 1.16 litres more a day, that is a lot of money. (If fully carried out, the State and Centre will together have spent Rs.165 crore on the scheme in three years.) “This must be the costliest per litre milk collection rate in the world,” says Mohan Jadhav of the VJAS.
“It takes Rs.45 a day to keep that creature alive,” says Vijay Jawandia, the region’s leading thinker on agriculture. “So on an increase of one litre, the farmer loses Rs.30 a day in the added cost this cow brings.” Senior officials in Amravati insist that total collection might be much higher. “They could be selling more to private buyers,” says one. But there are no figures to show this.
“If farmers are doing better with private buyers,” asks Mohan Jadhav, “why would they sell these 16,000 litres to government and lose lakhs of rupees each year? Or, if they are getting a better price from government, why would they sell more milk to private parties and lose a fortune?”
The State, though, is pleased with the scheme’s progress. Washim district, says Lokrajya, has seen “an increase of 328 per cent in milk collection.” Not impressive, since its earlier figure was just 700 litres a da y. (Now it is 2300 litres daily.) There are single villages in Western Maharashtra that outdo this entire district. Also the “103 per cent increase” in Yavatmal brings its daily collection to 6,100 litres. “That’s still a fifth of what it was two decades ago,” says Dada Rhode, a leading milk contractor. Also, he says, a lot of milk from Andhra Pradesh is being sold in Yavatmal. So private collection cannot be much better,
“People do not keep cows because there is no fodder and no water. Nothing in the packages has changed that,” says Mr. Jawandia. “There was no real promotion of jowar, which would have brought the fodder. In any case, the farmer gets at best Rs.9 per litre of milk on average. Which is Rs.3 less than what a bottle of Bisleri water sells at. When there is no higher income, what sense does it make?”
Minister promises more cows
The State’s Dairy Development, Fisheries and Animal Husbandry Minister, however, finds that “a transformation has begun.” The impact of these programmes, Anees Ahmed told Lokrajya, “can be seen in the fact th at in the last few days the number of suicides has reduced.” (Shortly thereafter, Vidharbha saw 28 of them in a week.)
The cow programme, though, will not suffer. The Minister promises the State will increase the money it spends per cow to Rs.20,000. “In that way, the financial burden (on the farmer) will be reduced.” What’s more, “in order to increase their [farmers’] awareness, we are going to have Chetna Dindis.” (That is, awareness or consciousness-raising rallies and campaigns.) Vidharbha’s march to progress is unstoppable.
© Copyright 2000 - 2006 The Hindu
| FARMERS GATHER at a recent meeting in the Nagpur area to hear proposed government solutions to the country's ongoing cotton farming dilemma. Previous government assistance has fallen way short of goals for alleviating the plight of farmers and surviving widows. | |||
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| Bernama.com Malaysian National News Agency Indian Cotton Meadows Turn Into Killing Fields Business July 18, 2007 15:48 PM |
| NEW DELHI, July 18 (Bernama) -- One middle-aged Indian cotton farmer kills himself every eight hours -- either unable to overcome grinding poverty or repay his debts. Over the last 48 hours at least eight farmers committed suicide in hard-pressed Vidarbha in Maharashtra, a cotton-farming village -- now turning into one of India's killing fields as more vulnerable farmers kill themselves in this remote district. Since January this year, 506 farmers had taken their own lives despite the government's multimillion relief package to help cotton farmers, simply because aid failed to reach the target group, claim relief workers. And, since June 2005, more than 5,000 farmers pathetically killed themselves all over India, leaving their wives and children in worse financial doldrums. The death tolls tell a poignant story of how Indian farmers succumb to free trade competition that has destroyed their revered economic lifeline -- cotton farming -- with cotton prices dipping in the global market while highly subsidised farmers from rich nations corner cotton trade, leaving Third World widows in grim villages. "Vidarbha was once a white gold mine. We gave the world the best soft cotton. Our cotton was liked by Europeans because it was cheap and shirts made from our cotton kept them warm," Kishore Tiwari, the president of Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (Peoples' Protest Forum), a farmers lobby group, told Bernama. With cotton prices fetching poor prices, at merely 1,700 rupees (RM154) per quintal or 100kg compared to 2,500 rupees (RM227) in 2005, farmers with paltry earnings found it impossible to cope with spiralling cost of living, even in rural areas, said Tiwari. "Cost of healthcare, education and food has gone up but farmers' earnings continue to drop. In fact, each farmer's income, according to a government survey, is negative (-400 rupees), which means economically he is not earning anything," he added. Citing a government national survey conducted last June, Tiwari said about 1.3 million farmers out of 1.72 million, from eight villages, lived in financial distress while 400,000 were in a critical stage. "It's a mass genocide here," he described, adding that some two million farmers were now in dire need of financial aid because the only cash crop they relied on had failed miserably. Since the cotton and textile quota restriction was removed in 2004, Third World cotton planters suffer to keep their livelihood fertile -- facing severe rivalry from producers like China and the highly-subsidised American farmers, who can dispose their cotton cheaply in the international market. Moreover, the majority of Indian farmers grow BT cotton (genetically- modified cotton) that requires a large amount of investment, for irrigation and fertilisers, which are not within the reach of these poor farmers. "Ninety five per cent of BT cotton are grown in non-irrigated land here, where there is no proper irrigation or water supply. So the yield is low and BT cotton farming requires a lot of money for fertilisers," said Tiwari. In booming India, the agriculture sector remains an integral part of the economy though contributing a fifth of India's economic output. Some 600 million people rely on farming for direct or indirect source of income. Yet in a largely investment-driven Indian economy, the third largest in Asia, after Japan and China, with a projected nine per cent gross domestic product growth for 2007-2008, farmers are still squeezed for a living. There is no quick-fix to revive this ailing sector and Tiwari said only a long-term, government-backed programme could remove farmers' misery in Vidarbha, located about 1,000km from the bustling financial hub of Mumbai, capital of Maharashtra. "We want protected economy for cotton and credit facilities for farmers. Government must restore healthcare, education and create employment opportunities for the masses, and promote organic or natural farming which is cheaper than growing BT cotton," he added. On the horizon, the Indian monsoon may continue to drench India for at least another month, perhaps bringing some respite for Vidarbha farmers. "But when the monsoon slips away the "mass genocide" will bound to continue," cautioned Tiwari. --BERNAMA |
| Copyright © 2007 BERNAMA. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in any form except with the prior written permission of BERNAMA. Disclaimer |
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Eight more farmers commit suicide http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Eight_farmers_commit_suicide_in_Nagpur/articleshow/2212522.cms
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Readers Opinion
Eight more farmers commit suicide 
1 Comment:I earnestly appeal to leaders of the Corporate World - Tatas, Birlas, Infosys, Reliance, Wipro and others - to jointly come out with some concrete programme (with or without government support) to prevent poor farmers from committing suicide. I am sure with their vast resources of top brains and finance they can evolve some novel scheme of action to guide and assist these farmers so that they do not go to the extreme step of committing suicide. Please help them.
Name:GD Jasuja
Location:Ahmedabad
18 Jul, 2007 1506hrs IST
VJAS writes open letter to PM
By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net
Bhopal : The Nagpur-based Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, (VJAS), in an open letter to the Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh has urged him to arrange Central Vigilance Commission probe to investigate the failure of the relief package, given by him, on all fronts in resolving the agrarian crisis pervading in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra state.
The letter suggested that as a first step this can be done by sacking of Relief Commissioner Dr. Sudhir Goyal, at present taking advance management training in the United States of America, and Dr. Harshdeep Kamble recently promoted as Deputy Secretary in Mantralaya, (secretariat of Maharashtra state).
The relief package failed on all fronts due to complete apathy of the administration, poor implementation of schemes under the package, corruption and political interference, the letter stated.
The letter emphasized to address the need to better health care and education for the farming community besides total waiver of debts of Bt. cotton growing farmers whose crops have failed.
The letter to the Prime Minister send by Kishor Tiwari, president VJAS, said: "Nowadays your media adviser Sanjay Baru is very busy in issuing press release after press release regarding one cheque retuned back by the bank due to lack of adequate balance in your relief fund account. However, this is not a single case in isolation as hundred of cheques issued to the farm widows and distressed families have been returned by banks in six districts of west Vidarbha".
The letter pointed out that "The Times of India" newspaper reported that Maharashtra Government has ordered a probe into cheque-bounce case issued to Vidarbha farmer's widow Mrs. Vandana Shende of village Bhadumri in Yavatmal but as per the information available with us that the massive corruption and misuse of funds by Dr. Harshdeep Kamble, the then collector Yavatmal District, who has literally made a mockery of complete relief operations".
As Collector Kamble has not only opened a separate account of Prime Minister Relief Fund but he used it at his sweet wish and will. This, thereby, resulted in diversion of funds to the tune of Rs. 74 lakhs out of Rs.80 Lakhs made available for clearing his personal touring bills and to release of fund to people other than widows of farmers who committed suicides and members of farmers' families who are in distress, the letter alleged.
Meanwhile, VJAS president Kishor Tiwari told this Correspondent on phone from Nagpur that Yavatmal District administration on Sunday approached Vidarbha farmer's widow Mrs. Vandana Shende, whose cheque got bounced due to lack of adequate balance in Prime Minister Relief Fund account, with Rs. 10,000/- in cash which she refused to accept. Seeing this the administration, after making special arrangements, got the money deposited in her account in a cooperative bank of the area despite the fact the banks are closed on Sundays, Tiwari informed.
This was apparently done to nullify the adverse publicity the bounced cheque had received in the national media.
Tiwari said that Mrs. Shende has vowed not to withdraw the said amount and if she withdraws it then she would send it back to Prime Minister Relief Fund. He said that Prime Minister Office had directed to disburse Rs. one lakh each to the widows of farmers who had committed suicide but Dr. Harshdeep Kamble, the then collector Yavatmal District, issued cheques of paltry sum of Rs. 10,000 only.
It may be mentioned here that VJAS under the stewardship of Kishor Tiwari is spearheading the cause of widows and farmers of Vidarbha region.
==============================
By Krittivas Mukherjee
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Hundreds of farmers unable to repay crop loans killed themselves in India's richest state in the past year, despite a multi-million dollar cash plan to improve their lot, activists said on Friday.
The spate of suicides in Maharashtra since last July touched 1,132, they said, highlighting the failure of highly publicised efforts by New Delhi to ease the financial burden of cotton farmers.
Debt-ridden farmers have been committing suicide in four Indian states and government statistics have recorded more than 4,500 deaths in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala in the past six years.
Activists and farmers' groups say the figure is at least five times more.
They say the "accumulated distress" of the cotton growers of Maharashtra was the highest because of $400 million in one-time grants, interest waivers and debt restructuring announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last year had not been properly implemented.
"Even crop seeds promised were never given," said Kishor Tiwari, head of Vidharba Jan Andolan Samiti, a farmers' lobby.
"The money lies unutilised because of a callous bureaucracy. There are at least 1.2 million farmers under distress now."
Most of India's farming community is poverty-stricken and many farmers borrow -- often amounts that would only buy a few drinks in an upmarket London or New York pub -- from the village moneylender at rates as high as 10 percent a month.
Their debts soar when crops fail due to poor rains or when prices tumble.
Those borrowing privately are not eligible for government relief. Even those who borrow from banks, including state-run rural banks, often have to pay bribes for their loans.
Agriculture supports 600 million of India's 1.1 billion people, but contributes only a fifth of gross domestic product and accounts for only 12 percent of bank credit.
A Maharashtra government Web site said 454 farmers had killed themselves between January and May this year.
Officials said the relief plan was starting to benefit farmers, but more time was needed.
"Suicides have come down by 50 percent in the last one year," said Ramesh Kumar, a top Maharashtra relief official.
But activists said the government was playing down the crisis which the special relief package had not been able to deal with.
"Just go and see if there has been any change in their lot. They are still dying," said Sharad Joshi, chief of Shetkari Sangathan, a powerful farmers' group.
Vidarbha was deprived of its funds: CAG
By - Jaideep Hardikar
Full Story can be found at
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1107932
Western Maharashtra benefited as the region's backlog piled up,
but the powers that be don't care
NAGPUR: In what could explain the developmental backwardness of Vidarbha and Marathwada, the Maharashtra government, it is learnt, diverted huge funds in the budget to the influential western and northern parts of the state, while ducking the Governor's directives for equitable provisions, thus fuelling the already irreversible regional imbalance.
Underlining the non-compliance of the Governor's directives by the government, the 2006-07 Audit Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India finds that in percentage terms Vidarbha was robbed of 70 per cent of its funds, while the neighbouring Marathwada, 55 per cent, in the last financial year.
In absolutely terms, the state government made a provision of Rs1662.58 crore for Vidarbha in the budget though the Governor's directive was for an allocation of Rs 5434 crore. Similarly, on Marathwada, the government spent Rs 1512.71 crore, when the Governor's directive was for an allocation of Rs 3469.91 crore.
For irrigation sector alone, the government allocated only Rs 1391.58 crore for Vidarbha. The Governor had directed to allocate Rs3919.79 crore.
Interestingly, the government tabled this report in the dying moments of the last day of budget session of the state legislature on April 17, apparently to skirt any discussion on the issue. The report was ready in November 2006, so it could have been tabled during the winter session of the state legislature in Nagpur as well.
What's more, the Principal Secretary to the government has not yet replied to the CAG report, sources in the regional office of the CAG revealed to DNA.
The Government of Maharashtra constituted separate development boards for Vidarbha, Marathwada and the Rest of Maharashtra under Article 371(2) of the Constitution of India on April 30, 1994. After the establishments of these boards, an Indicators and Backlog Committee was set up in November 1995 to calculate the actual backlog of development in the three regions.
The committee found the government would need to spend Rs 14,006 crore in the state, mostly in Vidarbha and Marathwada, to liquidate the developmental backlog in nine main sectors: Irrigation, Roads, General Education, Technical Education, Water Supply, Land Development, Veterinary Services, Health and Energisation of Pumps.
Following the recommendation of the boards and subject to the need of the state as a whole, the Governor directs the government to allocate funds equitably for development expenditure over the areas of development board.
The CAG report adds that the Governor had to issue fresh directives on March 2007 following the violation of his directives in 2006, to liquidate the backlog in irrigation sector by 2010 and in other sectors by 2009
---------------------------------------------------------------.
 National Special Correspondent
MUMBAI: Six more farmers have committed suicide in the cotton belt of Vidarbha in the past two days raising the total number of farmer suicides, due to debts, to 1,132 in the last one year. Kishore Tiwari of the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti has urged the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh to review the relief package of Rs. 3,750 crore for 30 lakh farmers of the region. The package, according to him, has failed on all fronts due to complete apathy of the administration, poor implementation of schemes under the package, corruption and political interference. Mr. Tiwari wanted the Prime Minister to investigate the failure of the package in resolving the agrarian crisis. He said that measures aimed at raising the farmers’ income that would provide relief in loan repayments were not sufficient. He urged for free health care and education for the farming community besides total waiver of debts. More than 5,000 farmers had committed suicides since 2002.
© Copyright 2000 - 2006 The Hindu |
VIDARBHA JAN ANDOLAN SAMITI
11,Trisaranagar,Khamala,Nagpur-440025
Mobile-09422108846, VJAS BLOG-andolan.blogspot.com,email-vidarbha@gmail.com
Ref-Vidarbha Farm Crisis PRESS-NOTE Dated-05th july/2007
SIX MORE VIDARBHA FARMERS COMMITS SUICIDES - VJAS URGED PRIME MINISTER TO REVISIT “DYING LAND”
NAGPUR-5th JULY-2007
Farm suicides are no way to stop in vidarbha cotton belt as six more farmers killed themselves in last 48 hours when Maharashtra Chief Minister, Chief Secretary along with more than 62 ministers and babus are world tour including relief commissioner Dr.Sudhir Goyal who has been sent to US for special quality improvement progrmme titled “potential leadership development workshop” in new York at the cost relief aid of dying farmers of vidarbha, VJAS has strongly objected this wastage of public money as last five years our Chief Minister along with his team are going on World tour and after return they have been making toll claim of FDI but nothing has come so far,it’s all misleading ,Kishor Tiwari of Vidarbha Jan andolan Samiti informed to day .
Six debt trapped farmers who committed suicides in last 48 hours in vidarbha are
1.PRAKASH GOVINDA DARANE,YERABALA IN YAVATMAL
2.SURESH SHANKAR GHUGE OF GONDI MAHAGAON IN
3.SHANKAR BAPU ANDHALE OF
4.GOKUL LAXMAN BOSARI OF PADHA IN YAVATMAL
5.SALOBA YASHAWANT NIKALAJE IN SHELGOAN IN BULDHANA
6.RAJU BHIKA CHAVAN IN MAGRULPIR IN WASHIM
Six farmers suicides are in line with record 1132 farmers suicides in last one year sine 1st july-2006 day on which Indian prime minister announced the special relief package to more than 3 million farmers of west vidarbha ,here is chronological account of farm suicides in vidarbha month wise and district wise
| MONTH | FARM SUICIDES | DISTRICT | FARM SUICIDES |
| JULY-2006 | 90 | YAVATMAL | 291 |
| AUGUST-2006 | 111 | AMARAVATI | 186 |
| SEPTEMBER-2006 | 124 | | 131 |
| OCTOBER-2006 | 112 | WASHIM | 151 |
| NOVEMBER-2006 | 107 | BULDHANA | 146 |
| DECEMBER-2006 | 105 | WARDHA | 104 |
| JAN-2007 | 70 | | 27 |
| FEB-2007 | 86 | BHANDARA | 32 |
| MARCH-2007 | 82 | CHANDRAPUR | 41 |
| APRIL-2007 | 90 | GADCHIROLI | 12 |
| MAY-2007 | 79 | GONDIA | 14 |
| JUNE-2007 | 68 | | |
| JULY-2007 | 08 | | |
| TOTAL | 1132 | TOTAL | 1132 |
Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS) has urged Indian prime minister Dr.Manmohan Singhji have review to failure of relief package on all front due complete apathy of administration and poor implementation of all scheme under relief package. Huge corruption and political interference has made farmer’s condition in vidarbha more hostile as all the time feed back provided by the state administration was misleading, kishor tiwari added.
Now it’s urgent need of the hour to restore rural social and civil system in vidarbha as his Rs.3750/- crore relief package has failed to stop on going farm suicides in vidarbha as more than 1132 farmers mostly debt trapped cotton farmers who are in distress due economic crisis have committed suicide since 1ST July -2007Kishor Tiwari VJAS leader informed in a press release today.
VJAS asked Indian prime minister to arrnge the detail investigation in to fact that now it’s after one year after PM visit to west vidarbha to under stand the Agrarian crisis in which more than 5000 farmers suicides reported since 2002 ,In fact before the visit of Indian prime minister , Dr.S.W.Swaminathan as Chairman of National Commission for farmers NCF visited vidarbha in the month October-2005 then in the months of march-2006 team of expert from Planning Commission visited the vidarbha ,vidarbha farm crisis is the part of Indian Agararian crisis in which farmers are killing themselves and as per official record since 1995 more than 1,00,000(one lac)farmers mostly cotton growers or coffee growers are the main victims of economical collapse of rural system after we opted open trade and free economy ,your vidarbha visit was part of relief exercise to address this national issue of farmers suicides and experts have already prepared the relief package before PM visit to vidarbha and announcement of package on 1st July 2006 ,VJAS protested the relief package as farmersr main demand of debt waiver and income base solution for the cash crop of the cotton farmers was missing resulting complete failure of package after one year.
FARMERS WANTS RURAL SYSTEM RESTORATION
VJAS has urged indian prime minister that unless income package is given to vidarbha farmer nothing will change hende relief of credit and cost front is need as drop in income and sudden increase in input cost of cultivation couple with high cost being paid to health care ,education and maintaining daily livelihood has very difficult to farming society. farmers needs restoration civil and social system in order that they need profitable farming couple with free health care and education. VJAS urged Prime Minister that to look in to these aspects and arrange to provide the relief solutions based on the policy changes to protect rural economy of west vidarbha, kishor tiwari said.
Please arrange to release this press note
Thanking you,
Yours Faith Fully
Kishor tiwari
President
Vidarbha jan andolan samiti
andolan.blogspot.com
contact-094222108846
VIDARBHA JAN ANDOLAN SAMITI
11,Trisaranagar,Khamala,Nagpur-440025
Mobile-09422108846, VJAS BLOG-andolan.blogspot.com,email-vidarbha@gmail.com
Ref-Vidarbha Farm Crisis OPEN LETTER TO PRIME MINISTER Dated-30/06/2007
VIDARBHA FARM CRISIS SCENARIO AFTER ONE YEAR PRIME MINISTER PACKAGE- DEAR PRIME MINISTERJI : PACKAGE FAILED TO ADDRESS THE AGRARIAN ISSUES
TO,
DR. MANMOHAN SINGHJI,
HON.BLE PRIME MINISTER,
PMO,NEW DELIHI-110011
REF- 1120 VIDARBHA FARMERS SUICIDES AS RELIEF PACKAGE FAILED TO ADDRESS THE AGRARIAN ISSUES.
Dear sir,
Now it’s after one year that you visited west vidarbha to under stand the Agrarian crisis in which more than 5000 farmers suicides reported since 2002 ,In fact before your visit Dr.S.W.Swaminathan as Chairman of National Commission for farmers NCF visited vidarbha in the month October-2005 then in the months of march-2006 team of expert from Planning Commission visited the vidarbha ,vidarbha farm crisis is the part of Indian Agararian crisis in which farmers are killing themselves and as per official record since 1995 more than 1,00,000(one lac)farmers mostly cotton growers or coffee growers are the main victims of economical collapse of rural system after we opted open trade and free economy ,your vidarbha visit was part of relief exercise to address this national issue of farmers suicides and experts have already prepared the relief package before your visit to vidarbha and you announced it on 1st July 2006 ,we protested the relief package as our main demand of debt waiver and income base solution for the cash crop of the cotton farmers was missing but farmers but it was shown the dustbin .
Now we are informed that you are reviewing the relief package that you announced year before on 1st july 2006 and we want update some of the facts to support our claim that relief package has been failed to address the basic issues of rural crisis in west vidarbha.
1.Record 1120 farmers suicides in last one year ,here is chronological account of farm suicides in vidarbha month wise and district wise
| MONTH | FARM SUICIDES | DISTRICT | FARM SUICIDES |
| JULY-2006 | 90 | YAVATMAL | 283 |
| AUGUST-2006 | 111 | AMARAVATI | 180 |
| SEPTEMBER-2006 | 124 | | 131 |
| OCTOBER-2006 | 112 | WASHIM | 151 |
| NOVEMBER-2006 | 107 | BULDHANA | 145 |
| DECEMBER-2006 | 105 | WARDHA | 104 |
| JAN-2007 | 70 | | 27 |
| FEB-2007 | 86 | BHANDARA | 32 |
| MARCH-2007 | 82 | CHANDRAPUR | 41 |
| APRIL-2007 | 90 | GADCHIROLI | 12 |
| MAY-2007 | 79 | GONDIA | 14 |
| JUNE-2007 | 64 | | |
| TOTAL | 1120 | TOTAL | 1120 |
Farm suicide is not the any way indicator of vidarbha agrarian crisis but we would like to draw your attention to Survey Report dated 15 th June, 2006 conducted by the Government of Maharashtra's Vasantrao Naik Sheti Swawlamban Mission at Amravati in connection with the Farmers' plight.
2.Sir, it is evident from the Survey Document that the farmers ' in extreme distress' as mentioned in the column 9 of the Survey Chart are 4,34,291 and the farmers families suffering from serious illness are 92,456.
Relief package failed to address the basic issue of vidarbha farmers that is credit and cost
RELIEF PACKAGE FAILURE DETAILS
| SR.NO. | RELIEF AMOUNT | DISBUSEMENT | RESULT |
| 1 | RS.710 CRORE TO THE BANK AS INTEREST WAIVER THAT HAS DRASTICALLY REDUCED NPA OF BANKS. | ADDITIONAL RS.840 CRORE CROP LOAN GIVEN TO THE COTTON FARMERS. | THIS YEAR DEBT AMOUNT INCREASE AS NABARD FAILED INCREASE CROP LOAN CREDIT. TILL DATE ONLY 2LACS FARMERS HAVE BEEN GIVEN FRESH CROP LOAN AS AGAINST 8 LACS LAST YEAR. |
| 2. | RS.2460 CRORE FOR MAJOR AND MICRO IRRIGATION PURPOSE | ONLY RS.231 CRORE RELEASED ON PAPER | NO SIGNIFICANT INCREASE IN AREA UNDER IRRIGATION IN FACT IT WAS ONLY 12000 ACRE AGAINST 80000 ACRE IN LAST RUBY SEASON |
| 3 | RS. 90 CRORE AID FOR OTGANAIC FARMING | NIL AMOUNT WAS GIVEN BY THE STATE | AREA UNDER B.T. COTTON DOUBLE IN THIS SEASON |
| 4. | RELIEF WIDOWS | PMO FAILED TO MONITOR THIS AID TOO | OUT OF 1200 SUICIDES 890 CASES WERE REJECTED BY ADMINISTRATION. |
The detailed survey was conducted by the said Government Controlled Mission at Amravati under the guidance of Divisional Commissioner at Amravati, in the 8351 Villages of 6 Districts of Vidarbha comprising of Yavatmal, Amravati, Akola, Buldhana, Washim & Wardha in which 17,64,438 families were surveyed by the Mission.
On the basis of the in-depth study and analysis conducted by our organization, out of such a huge numbers of families from those surveyed villages, we would like to draw your immediate attention towards the column No. 8 & 9 pertaining to the farmers in extreme distress and farmers with serious illness as stated above. Hon'ble Sir, in majority of cases of farmers suicides, we came to know that there is no food or medicine available to them and this plight has continued to result the extreme step of suicide by the said farmer and / or its family members. Now, it is imperative on the part of the Union of India and State of Maharashtra that this known factors / points are to be attended to immediately so that these two class of farmers families i.e. the Farmers in Extreme Distress and Farmers Suffering from Serious Illness need to be attended immediately to remediate the plight of such farmers on the verge of committing suicides.
Farmers in Extreme Distress –
Identified Families : 4,34,291.
CAUSES IDENTIFIED :
After visiting the families of the farmers which committed suicides, we came to know that there was no food even sufficient for 2 days in the houses of such farmers. These unfortunate facts of non-availability of Food or money to buy food grain and / or the medicine, resulted in the ultimate sad and unfortunate incident of suicide by the said farmers who were unable to face the agony and distress of such unfortunate plight of indirect hunger and ultimate starvation of the family members including small children and old parents. The Union of
As per
95 000 farmers families suffering from serious illness and when we visited families and After visiting the families of the farmers which committed suicides, we also came to know that there was no medicine in the houses of such farmers where the family members are seriously ill or suffering from such diseases. The non-availability of medicine or money to buy food grain and / or the medicine, resulted in the ultimate sad and unfortunate incident of suicide by the said farmers who were unable to face the agony and distress of such unfortunate plight of indirect sufferings due to illness, hunger and ultimate starvation of the family members including small children and old parents. The State is providing medical / health services to BPL families at the subsidized rate amongst the farm / landless laborers. In order to stop the indirect plight due to serious illness coupled with hunger and starvation of these around 95,000 Identified Farmers Families with Serious Illness, most of them are small farmers of which the economic condition is not above the landless laborers (Col No. 8 of the Survey Chart), State of Maharashtra to provide Special BPL / Health Cards to such families so that they get the subsidized health care in Government run hospitals at par with the landless laborers or BPL families. This will immediately help in providing direct health care to the 92,456 Identified Families with Serious Illness and in Extreme Distress and which can help to stop the unfortunate suicide of the farmer families with serious illness.
FARMERS WANTS RURAL SYSTEM RESTORATION
Drop in income and sudden increase in input cost of cultivation couple with high cost being paid to health care ,education and maintaining daily livelihood has very difficult to farming society. farmers needs restoration civil and social system in order that they need profitable farming couple with free health care and education.
dear prime minister you are kindly requested to look in to these aspects and arrange to provide the relief address .
Thanking you,
Yours Faith Fully
Kishor tiwari
President
Vidarbha jan andolan samiti
andolan.blogspot.com
contact-09422108846
VIDARBHA JAN ANDOLAN SAMITI
11,Trisaranagar,Khamala,Nagpur-440025
Mobile-09422108846,VJAS BLOG-andolan.blogspot.com,email-vidarbha@gmail.com
Ref-Vidarbha Farm Crisis PRESS-NOTE-VERY URGENt Dated-25/06/2007
As Bankers Stopped Giving Crop Laon- Six More Debt Trapped Vidarbha Farmers Committed Suicides In Last 48 Hours-Marashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh is visiting America for the MNC investment in “DYING LAND ”of Vidarbha
Nagpur-25th June 2007
After NABARD has reduced the credit outlay to vidarbha by 40% that is Rs.1860 Crore To Rs.1230 Crore bankers have stopped giving fresh loan to illegible farmers as result six more debt trapped farmers killed themselves in last 48 hours ,
They are
1. EKNATH JAGANATH KOHLE OF TULJAPUR IN BULDHANA
2. GANPAT SHANKAR KHAEDIKAR OF POHARA IN BHANDARA
3. KISAN GANPAT WANKHADE IN KURHAD IN YAVATMAL
4. BHIMRAO BAPURAO ZAMARE OF DHANODA IN YAVATMAL
5. PUNJAB ANANDA TAYADE OF PATHARDI IN
6. SANTOSH NAGORAO NEMADE OF RAIKHED IN
taking the toll of farmers suicide 55 in june and total 470 since jan.2007,vidarbha jan andolan samiti informed in press release today.
The decision of banker’s not to give fresh crop loan has put more then 2 million cotton farmers in fix as money lenders too exploiting the situation and more & more farmers are being forced to commit suicide as they are failed to do sowing ,kishor tiwari of VJAS added In Press Note.
Earlier NABARD announced that banker will go to door step of the every farmer to give them crop loan but in fact now they have asked bankers not to give fresh crop loan to any illegible farmer where as farmers main demand of complete loan waiver has been shown the dust bin, it’s really unfortunate kishor tiwari said.
MAHARASHTRA CHIEF MINISTER IS ON
Here in Maharashtra since June -2005 there is mass genocide of cotton farmers and more than 4000 farmers suicides have officially reported by the sate administration and it has been widely published in American media too,it is ridicules for the mahrashtra chief minister to invite American MNCS for direct investment in the dying land of vidarbha.
VJAS has urged NRIs in America to ask about Maharashtra chief minister compete failure to stop the mass genocide of vidarbha farmers ,Kishor Tiwari added.
Please arrange to release this press note
Kishor tiwari
President
Vidarbha jna andolan samiti
andolan.blogspot.com
contact-094222108846
OF VIDARBHA AGITATING FOR DEBT RELIEF
VIDARBHA JAN ANDOLAN SAMITI
11, Trisaran Society, In front of
Tel No. (0712) 2282457 Mob No. 9422108846 / 9371137653 / 9373121947
(Regd Office : At Post : Pandharkawada-445 302, Tq : Kelapur, Distt : Yavatmal)
Ref No. VJAS/PIL-HC/Kolam Deaths/175/2007,
NHRC ON STARVATION & MALNUTRITION DEATHS OF KOLAM TRIBALS :
NHRC Team to visit vidarbha on 4th june to have on the spot of fact finding report on kolam starvation death and condition regarding Drinking Water, Health Care & BPL Benefits to Kolam Tribals
Petitioner VJAS to raise all issues of plights of Tribals and lack of support from Government before NHRC
After having very difficult atsk to save the maharashtra govt. before Nagpur Bench of Mumbai High Court in PIL pertaining to most serious issues of Starvation & Malnutrition Deaths of Kolam Tribals in Yavatmal District, Now team of NHRC(Natinal huma right commission) headed Dr.L.P..mishra is visitng on 4th june to vidarbha .this NHRC team will visit all kolam pods to see in to facts raised by the kishor tiwari of vidarbha jan andolan samiti regading Government Apathy & lack of timely support from Mantralaya to address the various issues involving Right to Food, Shelter – Gharkul, Health Care, Education, Drinking Water, etc. to be made available to the distressed Tribals family in the Yavatmal District by the Ground Level Administration in solving the issues and the look in to the the Officials limitations in speedy implementing the Tribal Schemes for want of budgetary supports and approvals of the State Government.
Along with NHRC team ,it is reported Amravati Divisional Commissioner Dr. Sudhir Goyal , PIL Petitioner Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti President Sh. Kishore Tiwari and Counsels Adv. Firdos Mirza, Adv. Vinod Tiwari, Adv. Ajay Somani, Asst. Govt. Pleaders Smt. Bharti Dangre & Sh. Arvind Mujumdar and host of the Government Officials from Yavatmal District including District Collector Dr. Harshwardhan Kamble, Z.P. CEO Dr. Sikar Pardesi, Additional Tribal Commissioner Sh. Hmant Limaye, Dy. Commissioner - Civil Supply Sh. Hemant Pawar, Dy. Commissioner Sh. Jaywant Choudhari, I.D.T.P. Project Officer Sh. S.N.Saidane, Dr. Rathod (District Health Officer), Dy. Director of Health Services of Akola and other Officials of Tribals Development and District Administration will visit these kolam pods.NHRC is investigating the complaint filled by Petitioner Sh. Kishore Tiwari in the year 2003, in the wake of untimely, sudden starvation deaths of 52 Kolam Tribals which rocked entire nation in the year 2003.
It may be recalled that the report of High Power Committee appointed by the Hon'ble High Court had pointed out serious issues pertaining to Poor Health-Care, Contaminated & Poisonous Drinking Water, poor conditions of Ashram Schools run by Politicians, short coming in BPL Schemes and denial of benefits to the poor & innocent tribals families residing in 710 villages of tribals belts of Yavatmal Districts. Upon perusal of the report and on the request of PIL Petitioner, the High Court had ordered State Government to take immediate steps and submit Action Taken Report on the serious points raised by the High Power Committee headed by the Divisional Commissioner, Amravati in which Top IAS Officials where the Members of the said fact finding committee who all are the part of administration governing the control of various schemes. But in the joint meeting, officials express their limitations in solving various burning problems of the Tribals inspite of knowing fully well, as they lack in getting timely support from the State Government at Mantralaya even after their repeated efforts.
According to VJAS NHRC team will certainly be shocked to note that many of the villages are forced to drink fluoride contaminated and poisonous drinking water, non availability of Doctors in Tribals area, miserable conditions of shelter and housing, mis-managed Ashram Schools run by the Politicians, non inclusion of illegible families in BPL List due to delay in finalization of BPL list at Mantralaya level, guaranteed employment to the Tribals, etc.
NHRC has been adked for urgent needs for protection of deprived Tribal families whose fundamental Rights to Live & Liberty is infringed due to negligence of State Government as the Tribals have been denied Right to Food, Shelter, Health – Care, Drinking Water & Education inspite of the directions from the Hon'ble High Court.
limitations of timely support from Mantralaya, the results expected have not been seen effectively, even after four years of continued efforts of the District Administration. The Petitioner was very critical upon the lack of support from State Government and its apathy towards the burning issues of the Tribals in Yavatmal district for which the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti is fighting continuously since last Seven Years.
=============================================
Please arrange to release / publish the above Press Note & oblige.
Thanking you,
Yours faithfully,
Kishor tiwari
president
Vidarbha JanAndolan Samiti
Lokmat editor slams NDTV story on Vidharbha widows
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Lokmat daily, one of the country's top ten newspapers with a readership of millions, has devastatingly criticised NDTV's bogus story (in 'Witness') on the widows of Vidharbha's farmers' suicides. The mass circulation Marathi daily has come out in strong defence of the struggling widows and their reputation which was savaged by an NDTV story that maligned them as prostitutes. The scathing piece in Lokmat carries the byline of the newspaper's editor, the highly-respected journalist Vivek Girdhari. Below: his article
Who is doing the 'business?'
This profession too follows rules and ethics. Television channels may not agree. In the recently concluded DSK discussions in Pune, representatives of the TV channels strongly claimed that they are aware of social responsibilities. That is why they avoid airing programmes that would endanger law and order situation. But this is a business, not charity. Therefore they have to show what the viewers want. Amidst the competition for TRP ratings, TV channels ought to be market-driven and technology-oriented. But should we equate market-driven as market-savvy? And should the social responsibility be only restricted to law and order issues?
A serious and fairly dignified channel like NDTV recently aired a bogus story as a sensational scoop. The widows of farmers who committed suicide in Vidarbha are taking to prostitution, the story claimed. The widows are falling prey to the sex mafias. They show a so-called widow called Rekha on the screen. Actually, she isn't either a wife of a farmer, nor has her husband committed suicide. She's in fact a commercial sex worker. And the entire Amravati town knows that.
Yet, ironically, clinging on to Rekha's drooping apparel, NDTV cooked up this story of farmers' helpless widows taking to prostitution. While doing so, they tactfully tried establishing a connection between the decked up commercial sex workers in Mumbai's Kamatipura area and mourning widows of the debt-driven Vidarbha farmers, who are no more. What's the link between the two?
The story shows many prostitutes who tell you that they have come from Satara, Latur and Solapur. None of these is actually a Vidarbha town. But the market-driven journalism does not stop here. It goes beyond. Showing the inconsolable widows and the photographs of the farmers who have committed suicide, the reporter says in the narration that these widows are taking to prostitution. Even Rekha, interviewed in the beginning of the story, never claims even once that she is a farm widow. The reporter claims it for her in the narration!
We also get to see the reactions of two other women – Neerja and Sulekha. They never say in their interview that they are into prostitution. Again, the reporter says this for them. The reporter shows another woman named Reshma and says, "they are forced to sell their bodies." What follows on the screen thereafter is a collage of condoms. What sort of investigative journalism is this?
The story tells us that a prostitute named Seema is a daughter of cotton farmer. Seema herself doesn't say it anywhere. The news channel then claims that it had even unearthed her 'adda' (meeting point). The reporter converses with her near Mumbai airport on a spy camera and tells the viewers that her agent "brings the girls especially from Vidarbha and sends them to Mumbai and Vadodara."
Basically, this one's is a rabidly fake and cooked up story. But NDTV showed it as a hundred per cent true story "only on this channel." What could be the long-term social fallout of this story? By defaming the widows, who are trying to resurrect their lives, suffering unending hardships and penury, how much TRP ratings must this news channel have clocked? Vidarbha has seen thousands of farmers commit suicide in few years. Their widows and children are resolutely fighting a battle for life. What has NDTV gained by maligning them?
Television has a remote control. But there is no remote control to reign in the journalists who run such blatantly irresponsible and untrue stories. The advent of technology should actually serve to reinforce the foundations of journalism and increase its maturity. Here, journalism and business are losing their tenets.
A segment on Latur in this story is extremely serious. They show a very old CSW named Shantibai. Her grouse: "My business is being affected because young girls are coming into it." What has this got to do with the Vidarbha farm widows, who are trying to live with dignity after the death of their husbands?
Kishor Tiwari of Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti lodged a complaint with NDTV. He got an assurance for an inquiry. Nothing has been done yet. A news channel sold this blatantly false news item as its market-driven business. So tell us, who's actually in the business?
Vivek Girdhari
vivekgirdhari@hotmail.com
Date:24/05/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/05/24/stories/2007052402321100.htm
Opinion - News Analysis P. Sainath
 Kalavati with some of her daughters and grandchildren. It's a smiling if noisy household that still runs the farm even after her husband committed suicide.
KALAVATI BANDURKAR has personally conducted the delivery of five grandchildren at home. All her married daughters are as poor as she is and cannot afford hospital costs. So she's done the job herself. There are 10 persons staying at her home when we visit. Besides looking after all of them, she runs a failing nine-acre farm and also works on the land of others for Rs.30 a day. In the off-season, like now, she earns just Rs.20 from fetching and selling firewood. Her last source of income is the milk from a buffalo she owns. She's managed, she says, to get her fourth daughter married without expense. And is now trying to see if she can conduct the wedding of the fifth "without spending too much." Kalavati is the mother of seven girls and two boys in Jalka village of Yavatmal district in Vidharbha. She is also one of over a lakh of women farmers across the country who have lost their husbands to farm suicides in the past 14 years. No compensation
"I never got a paisa's compensation from government," says this ever-smiling, matter-of-fact grandmother. The reason: the land they cultivate is not their own but leased from others. So when her husband Parsuram — hit by debt and crop failure — took his life, his death was recognised as a suicide, but not as a "farmer's suicide." The official logic: if there's no land in his name, he's not a farmer. The family, though, has received some help from the Vidharbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS) Parsuram's debt of over Rs.50,000 led him to even "mortgage my mangalsutra. What could he do? This agricultural crisis raised all our costs." It didn't help, though. Their nine acres yielded just four quintals that fetched Rs.7,000. The day he sold his cotton, he redeemed his wife's mangalsutra with the money, went out to the field and killed himself. Kalavati, always a breadwinner, decided to carry on. "Farming is what we do," she says, without a trace of self-pity. "We'll keep doing it." She's worked and paid off most of his debts. She settled a loan from the local input dealer without paying interest. "Now we owe only Rs. 15,000 to relatives and there's no interest involved." "No. I'm not a member of any Self-Help group. I cannot afford the Rs.20 a month it takes." Four of her girls are married. Three before Parsuram took his life. But one is estranged from her husband and has returned home. And three others have come back to her for their deliveries. "My daughter Maltha and I," she says, "are the only earning members here." Between them, they make Rs.40 a day from the tiring task of gathering and selling firewood in this period. The buffalo's milk fetches the rest of the income. "Rs.60-80 a day. Sometimes a little more." On these earnings, some ten human beings exist. Maltha is the eldest at 25, Chaitanya the youngest at 8. Despite the hardship, it's a smiling if very noisy household ruled by lively youngsters. Most of her own children, of course, dropped out of school long ago. Kalavati does not maintain the buffalo herself. "That would cost more than we earn." Instead, she pays Rs.40 a month — or less than Rs.2 a day — to a professional herder for whom "the animal is just one of dozens he looks after daily. And I share the dung with the rakhwala." Fragile system
This is an animal the family bought on its own. It is not part of the bizarre government scheme that has bankrupted many small farmers by saddling them with costly cows they do not want and cannot feed. So far, her system works but is most fragile. Any damage to the buffalo would shatter the family's economy. Right now: "we sell all the milk." Even the kids at home don't get to consume a drop of it. And two other daughters who could work, can't do so right now because they've just borne children. "We've found a good alliance for our fifth girl, Lalita," she says. "The boy's family has kindly not asked us for money. But they want us to host a proper lunch here. Or go to their village — which is even costlier. Well, we'll have to do something." She probably will. Even when Parsuram was alive, Kalavati managed to get two daughters, Savita and Sunita, "married on the same day on the same pandal. After Maltha's wedding cost us over Rs.1 lakh, we had to save money somehow." She's annoyed at not being recognised as a farmer and thereby losing out on the compensation. "We do own 3.5 acres in Chandrapur district," she says. "But that land is still in our parents' names and has not yet been settled in our names." So technically, they are not `farmers.' Here, "we pay just Rs.10,000 a year to lease these nine acres. That tells you how poor its quality is," she laughs. It's hard work, but Kalavati wastes no time moping. What bothers her is "it's been tough finding work since the Pola festival." And also: "the costs of inputs are rising too much. No more cotton for us. We have to do something else." Kalavati is one survivor who asserts that she would like her children too, to go into agriculture. This is rare in a countryside where people desperately seek jobs outside farming for their young. But she's already planning for the next season. "We'll stay with agriculture," she says. "It's what we do."
© Copyright 2000 - 2006 The Hindu |
By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net
Bhopal, May 25: Massive celebrations are being organized today in farmers' suicide-affected Vidarbha and Marathwada regions of Maharashtra on the occasion of birthday of the state's Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh while reports of more farmers' suicides are being published in all the leading national newspapers.
Farmers in large scale in Latur, the hometown of the Maharashtra Chief Minister, along with the Vidarbha region farmers are protesting the ongoing Chief Minister birthday celebrations and police force is being used to curb these protests, a Press release of Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, (VJAS), issued from Nagpur today said.
VJAS president Kishor Tiwari has urged the All India Congress Committee president Mrs. Sonia Gandhi to sack the Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh due to his failure to solve the agrarian crisis in the state.
Tiwari, a local farm activist, informed that Vidarbha region is in the grip of agrarian crisis and more than 3500 farmers have committed suicides since 2004. But, recently sugarcane growers in the Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh's region Marathwada have committed suicides due to agrarian crisis and recession in sugar that has lowered down the demand of sugarcane and farmers are being forced to burn the standing sugarcane crops. The condition of sugarcane growers has been
too bad to explain, Tiwari stated.
He said that the farm suicides had been a serious issue and Indian Prime Minister himself visited the Vidarbha region last year in July. He had then provided Rs. 37,500 million relief package but it failed to slow down farm suicides in West Vidarbha and now farmers' suicides is spreading in other parts of Maharashtra too, Tiwari added. (pervezbari@eth.net)
VIDARBHA JAN ANDOLAN SAMITI
REGD. OFFICE: 11, TRISARAN SOCIETY, KHAMALA, NAGPUR - 440 025.
PH. 2282447/457 MOBILE-9422108846. vidarbha@gmail.com
===============================================================
REF: - FARMER'S SUICIDES URGENT-PRESS NOTE DATED-24th MAY,2007
SIX MORE VIDARBHA FARMERS SUICIDES A DAY: MAXIMUM DISTRESS AND FARM SUICIDES AT ITS PEAK BUT NO RELIEF AT SIGHT
NAGPUR-24THMAY 2007
SIX FARM SUICIDES IN DAY ON 23RD OF MAY REPORTED DAY AFTER PRIME MINISTER OFFICE HAS GIVEN CERTIFICATE TO MAHARASHTRA GOVT. THAT RELIEF PACKAGE GIVEN BY INDIAN PRIME MINISTER ARE BEING IMPLEMENTED PROPERLY AND FARMERS SUICIDES IN WEST VIDARBHA DRASTICALLY REDUCED, KISHOR TIWARI OF VIDARBHA JAN ANDOLAN SAMITI.
1.SANJAY TUKARAM KHARAT OF TISOLI IN BULDHANA DISTRICT.
2.JAGO RAMA UIAKE OF SINDHI IN WARDHA
3.RAMRAO SURYABHAN AWATHALE OF PIMPRI IN BULDHANA
4.RAMESHWAR LAXMAN MENDALE OF NAKHEGOAN IN AKOLA
5.RAVINDRA RAMDAS GAWANDE OF DHADA IN WARDHA
6.MAHADEOGHANBA GHARPURE IN MANIKWAD IN WARDHA
ARE SIX FARMERS THREE FROM WARDHA DISTRICT, TWO FROM BULDHANA AND ONE FROM AKOLA HAVE KILLED THEMSELVES DUE TO ECONOMIC CRISIS AS THEY WERE UNDER HUGE DEBT FROM DIFFERENT BANKS AND PRIVATE MONEY LENDERS. EARLIER ON 22ND AND 23RD MAY IN VIDARBHA FIVE MORE SUICIDES WERE REPORTED, THEY HAVE BEEN ALREADY REPORTED IN OUR YESTERDAYS PRESS REALEASE, KISHOR TIWARI INFORMED, THEY WERE
7.SANTOSH CHINAJI DALMAL OF VILLAGE ADEGOAN KHURD IN WASHIM
8.KISAN KHANDAR SURPAM OF SHRIRAMPUR IN YAVATMAL
9.BALIRAM MATHU GAJBHIYE OF ADAGOAN IN AMARAVATI
10.KIRAN KRISHANNA SOLAV OF RAMPUR IN AMARAVATI
11.SURESH GANPAT KHANDARE IN KOPAMADVI IN YAVATMAL
ARE THE ELEVEN FARMERS IN VIDARBHA WHO COMMITTED SUICIDES IN LAST TWO DAYS IN DIFFERENT PART OF VIDARBHA TAKING TOLL OF SUICIDE IN MAY TO 47.FARMERS WHO ARE SMALL AND MARGINAL BELONGING DALIT AND TRIBAL COMMUNITY ARE IN DEEP DISTRESS AND COMMITTING SUICIDES DUE TO FRESH CREDIT CRUNCH AS MOST OF THEM WHO BARROWED THE CROP LOAN FROM THE BANK AFTER INTEREST WAIVER AND RECONSTRUCTION OF PENDING FAILED TO REPAY DUE COTTON CROP FAILURE AND POOR PRICES FOR RAW COTTON, INFORMED KISHOR TIWARI OF VIDARBHA JAN ANDOLAN SAMITI.
IN YEAR 2007 RECORD 397 VIDARBHA FARMERS SUICIDES REPORTED (JAN-70, FEB-88, MARCH -97 APRIL 95 ,MAY-47) THAT HAS EXPOSED LOCAL ADMINISTRATION THAT PACKAGE IMPLEMENTATION HAS DROPPED DOWN THE FARM SUICIDES IN VIDARBHA BY 50% AS FARM SUICIDE FIGURE OF THIS YEAR SINCE JAN TO APRIL IS ALL MOST DOUBLE AND FARM SUICIDES IN VIDARBHA ARE DAILY INCREASING BUT ADMINISTRATION IS USING OFFICIAL MEDIA TO MISLEAD THE WORLD THAT VIDARBHA FARM SUICIDES ARE ON DECLINE .DR. MAN MOHAN SINGH INDIAN PRIME MINISTER VISITED VIDARBHA ON 1ST JULY 2006 AND ANNOUNCED RS.3750 PACKAGE TO THE COTTON FARMERS OF SIX DISTRICTS BUT OFFICIAL RECORD SAYS THAT THERE RECORD INCREASE IN COTTON FARMERS SUICIDES AFTER THIS PACKAGE ANNOUNCEMENT AS GOVT. OF MAHARASHTRA HAS OFFICIALLY ADMITTED 1564 FARMERS SUICIDES AFTER 1 ST JULY 2007 AS THIS SUICIDE FIGURE IS ALL MOST EQUAL TO SUICIDE FIGURE OF LAST DECADE AND THIS FACT IS KNOWN TO GOVT. OFFICIALS VERY WELL TILL THEY ARE SAYING THAT SUICIDE ARE DECLINE AND AFTER PACKAGE SUICIDE RATE HAS COME DOWN THIS IS MATTER OF SHAME KISHOR TIWARI ADDED. NOW PMO HAS ALSO JOINED THE WITH STATE ADMINISTRATION CLAIM THAT THERE IS REDUCTION IN SUICIDES OF FARMERS OF VIDARBHA AS PER NEWS AGENCY REPORT.
I QUOTE
REDUCTION IN INCIDENCE OF FARMERS' SUICIDES IN VIDARBHA
MUMBAI, MAY 21: THE PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE (PMO) HAS EXPRESSED SATISFACTION OVER THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SPECIAL FINANCIAL PACKAGE TO DISTRICTS IN VIDARBHA THAT ARE PRONE TO SUICIDES BY FARMERS.
THE PMO RECENTLY REVIEWED THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PACKAGE, AN OFFICIAL RELEASE ISSUED HERE TODAY SAID.
IT SAID DUE TO EFFECTIVE STEPS TAKEN BY THE STATE GOVERNMENT, THE NUMBER OF SUICIDES DUE TO AGRICULTURE-RELATED PROBLEMS, THAT WERE AROUND 60 A MONTH, HAS COME DOWN TO 20.
PMO ALSO NOTED THAT CHIEF MINISTER VILASRAO DESHMUKH WAS PERSONALLY MONITORING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PACKAGE.
OF THE TOTAL PACKAGE FO RS 3,650 CRORE, ABOUT 40 PER CENT (RS 1,526 CR) HAVE BEEN SPENT IN THE LAST NINE MONTHS. THE PMO HAS SAID THAT THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PACKAGE IN THE FIRST YEAR HAS BEEN SATISFACTORY. THE STATE GOVERNMENT HAS MADE IT CLEAR THAT IT WILL ACHIEVE THE TARGET OF 75 PER CENT IN THE NEXT TWO YEARS.
THE OBJECTIVE OF WAIVER OF INTEREST RATE ON PENDING LOANS HAS EXCEEDED RS 712 CRORE TO RS 825 CRORE. ABOUT 10 LAKH FARMERS HAVE BEEN INCLUDED IN THE AGRICULTURE CREDIT. THE LOAN DISBURSEMENT HAS DOUBLED DURING 2005-06.
AN ADDITIONAL 34,000 HECTARE IRRIGATION CAPACITY HAS BEEN CREATED DURING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PM'S PACKAGE SO FAR. AS MANY AS 11 PROJECTS HAVE BEEN SANCTIONED AND RS 615 CRORE HAVE BEEN SPENT.
DURING THE RABI SEASON OF 2005-06, 1.25 LAKH QUINTAL SEEDS WERE DISTRIBUTED. DURING THE KHARIF SEASON OF 2007, ADDITIONAL FOUR LAKH SEEDS HAVE BEEN KEPT READY, THE RELEASE ADDED.
UNQUOTE
MAHARASHTRA GOVT. CLARIFICATION IS MISLEADING AS RS.1526 CRORE OF PRIME MINISTER PACKAGE RS.712 CRORE WENT TO THE BANK AND REMAINING AMOUNT RS.800 CRORE WERE GIVEN TO IRRIGATION CONTRACTOR AFTER TAKING 20 % COMMISSION FROM THEM,KISHOR TIWARI OF VJAS INFORMED.
MAHARASHTRA GOVT. CLAIM OF CREATING ADDITIONAL CAPACITY OF 34,000 HECTOR FOR IRRIGATION IS ONLY ON PAPER AND 1.25 LACS QUINTAL SEED DISTRIBUTED IN LAST RABI SEASON HAS NOT EVEN INCREASED 1.25 LAC QUINTAL OF ADDITIONAL PRODUCTION IN RABI SEASON DUE WRONG SELECTION OF SEED AND MASSIVE CORRUPTION IN DISTRIBUTION OF SEED AND SAME WILL HAPPEN TO FOUR LAC QUINTAL SEED BEING DISTRIBUTED IN THIS YEAR AS THESE SEED ARE GIVEN ON 50% SUBSIDY NOT FREE AND COST FIX BY THE GOVT. IS 100% LOADED THAN MARKET PRICE OF THE SAME SEED MORE OVER IT IS BEING GIVEN ONE POCKET PER FARMER WHICH HARDLY COVER LESS THAN ACRE OF SOWING HENCE IT IS ONLY PAPER CLAIM NOT RELIEF, KISHOR TIWARI ADDED.
TOTAL FAILURE OF RURAL HEALTH CARE SUPPORT SYSTEM, EMPLOYMENT AND SOCIAL CUM CIVIL ADMINISTRATION ARE THE MAIN REASONS OF FARMER'S SUICIDES IN WEST VIDARBHA AND DR.SUDHIR GOYAL WHO IS RELIEF COMMISSIONER AND IMPLEMENTING PRIME MINISTER PACKAGE HIMSELF HAS ASKED INDIAN GOVT. THAT LOW COST SUSTAINABLE FARMING IS ONLY SOLUTION OF STOP THESE SUICIDES. BAN ON BT. COTTON AND CHEMICAL FARMING IS NEED OF HOUR AND COTTON FARMERS SHOULD CULTIVATE THERE THAN COTTON SHOULD THE PROGRAMME OF THE STATE THE OFFICIAL FURTHER DEMANDS. RESTORATION SECONDARY SYSTEMS LIKE RURAL EMPLOYMENT, HEALTH IS ALSO NEEDED TO STOP THESE ON GOING SUICIDES BUT NOBODY IS ACTING IN THIS DIRECTION MORE OVER MISLEADING PRESS RELEASES ARE ADDING FUEL TO EXTREMELY CRITICAL SITUATION IN VIDARBHA ,KISHOR TIWARI ADDED.
Please arrange to release this press note
Yours faithfully
Kishor Tiwari
President
Contact-09422108846;
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| BT seeds to gain half of India's cotton area - trade body Tue May 22, 2007 5:02 PM IST
By Rajendra Jadhav MUMBAI (Reuters) - The total area under cotton in India, the world's third largest producer, may see little change in 2007/08, but genetically modified varieties would account for half of it, a trade body official said on Tuesday. Kishorilal Jhunjhunwala, president of the East India Cotton Association, told Reuters the crop had covered 9.1 million hectares in 2006/07, with good yield and prices. Thus, farmers would have little incentive to shift to any other crop now. "Any kind of change in area will not be more than 5 percent down," he told Reuters over the telephone. The last year was marked by a sharp rise in productivity, with cotton yield rising to 500 kg per hectare, largely aided by adoption of BT cotton, Jhunjhunwala said. Bio-engineered cotton covered 35 percent of total area. Based on technology from seed giant Monsanto Co., BT cotton helps fight boll worms, a major worry for Indian farmers. However, it has faced stiff opposition from environmental groups who claim such products deplete bio-diversity. "Whether people like or dislike, the BT system is accepted by Indian farmers," Jhunjhunwala said predicting BT cotton could cover as much as 80 percent of area within two years. Jhunjhunwala said, "farmers are very happy with cotton prices and productivity. But I don't think farmers will shift towards cotton from other crops or towards other crops from cotton." An official with the government in Maharashtra, which accounts for the nation's largest area under the crop, concurred with that view. "Farmers are aggressively buying BT cotton seeds, certainly there will be increase in area under BT," the official, who declined to be named, said. But a farmer activist in Maharashtra, where 1,448 impoverished farmers killed themselves in 2006 to escape the burden of debt, said the growth in BT cotton area resulted from intense marketing and shortage of normal hybrid seeds. "When seed distributors say they don't have hybrid seeds, farmers have no option but to buy BT cotton," Kishore Tiwari, president of farmer group Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, said. Indian trade officials estimate the country's cotton production will go up to 27 million bales in year to September 2007, up 11 percent from year ago. Jhunjhunwala said cotton farmers would not be distracted by the high prices for oilseeds and pulses. "I don't think farmers will shift towards cotton from other crops or towards other crops from cotton." Jhunjhunwala said India's total cotton export in the cotton year ending September would cross 4 million bales but would be below earlier expectations, due to the rupee's strength against the U.S. dollar. | |
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It might have been borrowing another $100 just to keep his family going that finally convinced Pravin Bakkamwar to end his life. Or maybe it was knowing that he needed to find a husband for his 18-year-old sister Suwarana, and then pay her dowry and arrange a suitable wedding—responsibilities that would push him further into debt. What his family knows is this: on a sunny morning in central India in late November last year, Pravin, 27, rode his motorbike to a nearby town, bought a few meters of red and yellow nylon cord, returned to his gently sloping cotton farm and hanged himself from a concrete power pole. Neighbors found him within minutes, blood trickling from his mouth.
The story of India today is one of great expectations, as soaring economic growth lifts tens of millions of people out of poverty and swells the ranks of the middle class. But India's progress has also brought sorrow to many farmers and rural workers, who still make up two-thirds of the country's workforce. The income disparity in the new India is massive: there are now 36 billionaires in India—and some 800 million people living on less than $2 a day. In the most desperate pockets of rural India, a confluence of factors, from poor rainfall to the new availability of consumer goods, has driven some farmers into crushing debt. The financial hardships are so extreme that thousands, including Pravin, commit suicide every year. Far from benefiting from the country's new prosperity, whole villages of India's rural poor are being left adrift, eager to join in the boom but unable to afford it.
The crisis is worst in Vidarbha, an orange- and cotton-growing region in central India famed for its black soil and the fact that Mahatma Gandhi built an ashram and lived there for a time in the 1930s. Now Indians know it as their nation's rural suicide capital. According to Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, or Vidarbha People's Protest Forum, an activist group that keeps track of farmer suicides in the area and lobbies the government for help, more than 1,250 farmers committed suicide in Vidarbha's six central districts alone in 2006, up from 248 in 2004.
What's causing so many rural Indians to take their lives? According to a study by the government of Maharashtra, the state in which Vidarbha sits, almost six in 10 of those who kill themselves have debts of between $110 and $550. Many farmers complain that banks don't offer them credit, forcing them to turn to rapacious moneylenders, who typically charge up to 20% interest on a four-month loan. As collateral, explains one lender in the bustling town of Pandharkawada, farmers often sign away title to their land. "If they pay back the loan, we give them back their deed," says the lender, who called himself "Ratanbhai" but refused to give his full name because of a recent government crackdown on unlicensed lenders. "If they don't, we get to take their land."
Predatory lenders are only part of the problem. Health-care and education costs have risen dramatically in the past few years, while the global price of cotton has become depressed, largely because of the billions of dollars in subsidies Washington hands out to U.S. farmers. "Expenses have increased, eating habits have increased. Health, education, all increased," says Gajanan Madhavrao Akkalawar, 70, who has farmed cotton for more than half a century. "It's difficult to run the family show." And then there's the growing obsession with the luxury goods that now consume much of Indian families' incomes. Television has given even the poorest a glimpse at the world outside. India is adding more than 6 million cell-phone subscribers every month, many of them in small villages and towns; its road network is quickly expanding, bringing increased commerce, trade and ideas. "If I say to people that materialism is upsetting the equilibrium of society, they stand up and say, 'Why should we be deprived of all these things? Why should only the people in the cities get these things?'" says Kishor Tiwari, the head of Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti. "The natural tendency is to adopt all these new things, whether the pocket permits it or not."
That's how it went with Pravin, who wanted the best for his family even if he couldn't afford it. Pravin's family lives near Pandharkawada town, in Sunna, a village of dirt streets and pale blue and whitewashed brick houses. The air hangs heavy with the smell of goats, cattle and chickens, and farmers use wooden bullock carts to carry their cotton and animal feed. Doors are strung with mango leaves to bring good luck, and women stretch their washing over twig fences. Pravin took over the family farm from his father four years ago when the old man tired of the task. The son proved a natural farmer, increasing yields and, initially at least, bringing in more money. His wife Smita, a distant cousin, was studying literature at university, but says she was happy to stop once it was time for them to marry. "Pravin was in the village and I had been to the city, but he didn't let me down in any way," says Smita. "He was very much a hard worker. No one in the village will deny he was the best young man."
Pravin put enormous pressure on himself to be a success. Smita came from a middle-class family far wealthier than his own. Her father had been an operator at India's National Thermal Power Corp., a job that paid well and enabled him to give all his four daughters a good education. Pravin wanted to keep Smita the way her father had. His motorbike, a black-and-gold 97-cc Hero Honda Splendor Plus, cost him just over $1,000, a fortune considering he made just a few hundred dollars a year. "I told him it was not affordable, not needed," says his father Vijay. "He said he needed it to get to the fields. The young these days—they want more luxuries with less tension." Pravin had taken a loan from a local banking cooperative for the motorbike, and further loans from moneylenders to buy seeds, fertilizer and pesticide. But like most rural Indian men, conservative and proud, he had not discussed his worries with his wife. "He was smiling all the time," says Smita. Yet Pravin owed at least $2,800 when he hanged himself.
The government says it is taking steps to assist Vidarbha's farmers. Mindful that a backlash in the countryside led to the last national government's ouster from office, the Maharashtra state administration and the Congress Party-led coalition in New Delhi have promised to pump almost a billion dollars into Vidarbha's rural sector. Authorities have arrested dozens of unlicensed moneylenders and pushed banks to offer more farmers credit at reasonable rates. The government is also trying to encourage farmers to diversify into other crops and into dairy and poultry production. A little more than half the money in the rescue packages will go to irrigation projects that could transform the region in the long term but offer little relief in the near future—a bone of contention for many farmers who say they need government help now.
No amount of help will be enough for widows like Smita, who tried to kill herself when she learned of her husband's suicide (the villagers stopped her). "Just like impossible," says Smita's sister Durga when asked if Smita, who is 23, might ever marry again. "She wants to be independent and get her own job, but in this place it's difficult." Her grieving father-in-law says that Smita was pregnant when Pravin killed himself but lost the baby after her own suicide attempt. When asked what she and Pravin had wanted for the future, Smita's eyes well up: "We wanted what every husband and wife wants. Nothing more."
VIDARBHA JAN ANDOLAN SAMITI
REGD. OFFICE: 11, TRISARAN SOCIETY, KHAMALA, NAGPUR - 440 025.
PH. 2282447/457 MOBILE-9422108846. vidarbha@gmail.com
===============================================================
REF: - vidarbha farm widows humiliation DATED-16th MAY 2007
NDTV continues to humiliate widows of Vidharbha farmers suicides
Channel covers up bogus story
NAGPUR-16TH MAY 2007
For more than a month now, Vidharbha Jan Andolan Samiti has appealed to NDTV to retract from the fraudulent story it carried on "Witness" claiming that that the widows of those farmers committing suicide were becoming prostitutes and falling into the hands of "sex trafficking networks." In between, we even received calls from NDTV's Mumbai office which suggested they were looking into our complaint. We were told by their Western India Burau chief that he would be coming down to Nagpur to inquire into the matter. And we were happy as we felt our complaint was being taken seriously.
But finally, nothing happened, nobody came to meet us. Even if they are trying to evade or bury the issue, the problem has not gone away. In fact, the women were subjected to worse humiliation because NDTV story was used by Shiv Sena in their campaign in Nagpur rural Lok Sabha byelection.
Udhav Thackeray used a CD version of the story at a press conference in Nagpur with many journalists present. It is worth asking: who gave him the CD? He was very happy with it since the NDTV reporter had planted a sentence saying those approaching the prostitute were "Congress workers." People protested even at the press meet, but damage was done and once again the women were mercilessly identified in public. The story itself identifies them. In one case, it zooms in on the photograph of one of the dead husbands and shows his name and village "Vishwanathrao Mankar, Kharda Village," Amravati. Imagine her humiliation now. As for "Rekha" the first case study interviewed, she is neither farmer nor a widow but a professional sex worker in Amravati.
Since NDTV management remains silent, our activist are asking: is NDTV is also supporting such stories to increase its TRP. This is humiliating to us who know the dedication of Roy family in ethical values in journalism. We are also deeply disappointed, since VJAS has helped NDTV to do many of its stories fom Vidharbha, right from the first reported farm suicide of Ramdas Amberwar in 1998 when we escorted the then NDTV reporter to Amberwar's home. We do not regret that since the channel did number of good stories then and later. Therefore, we even cooperated with then any number of times later also.
We are protesting this one story which is by a reporter notorious wherever he has worked in the past. One who had to leave three earlier jobs in disgrace for very similar reasons to our protest. But this person is being protected. Is this because the channel wants to do more of these fake sensationalised stories for its TRP? Or because a few people are desperate to win awards by telling 'unique and exclusive' stories at the expense of poor widows and their reputations even if it causes them more misery and shame? We attach below a note on the 'Witness' episode. People may read it see the programme and judge for themselves.
Kishor Tiwari
"WITNESS" SHAMES AND HUMILIATES VIDHRBHA FARM WIDOWS
"Rekha" the first "farmer's widow" shown in the story is neither a farmer nor a widow but a professional sex worker in Amravati. Even in the story, she does not say she is a farmer's widow. Only the reporter does. Her real identity is well known to people in Amravati. This is a central fraud of this story.
Ø Before the start of the 'story,' itself , several different pictures are shown of both grieving widows in Vidharbha and sex workers in Kamatipura. The two are unrelated, but a connection is made by showing the latter in Kamatipura while talking of "a new widow" everyday in Vidharbha and the "chilling reality" of the "daughters of suicide country." It is as if the women shown in Mumbai are from Vidharbha though they are not.
Ø Throughout the story, several women sex workers are saying they are from Satara, Latur, Solapur. None of these places is in Vidharbha. Most basic errors exist. Solapur is shown on the map as being in "Marathwada." It is not there. It is in Western Maharashtra.
Ø Right at the beginning, even as the "horrifying journey" is being announced and grieving women are shown - -- the photograph of a man who has committed suicide is shown, thereby identifying the family and the widow. At least one or two women in that shot are identified already (and these are pictures of Vidharbha farm widows).
Ø The story is not about poor women forced into sex work. It singles out the widows of farmers who have committed suicide becoming prostitutes. Some 5,000 women are vilified without any evidence. Even if one or two instances are there, (and in this story they are untrue) how can you generalise across this group? As it is, these are women in misery and pain. The story, also shown in Hindi, has made the pain double.
Ø The first interview is with "Rekha, a prostitute." Rekha does not anywhere say she is the widow of a farmer who has committed suicide. There is no quote from her on the subject. The reporter says it for her. In the car with the reporter is "Razia, an anti-trafficking activist." By saying this person is an 'expert' there is an attempt to give credibility to the report. But nowhere this 'expert' gives even a single quote on farmers' widows, though she is described as a 'local' activist" who must therefore have a better knowledge. The one comment on prostitution attributed to her comes from the reporter, not from her. It is in his voice. Same pattern is followed right through the show. The sensational comments are always from the reporter, not from the women he speaks to.
Ø Later, another woman is interviewed. Her face is shielded, so is the face of her husband's photograph. But then the camera zooms in on the name of the man and his village very clearly on the base of the photograph. With NDTV allowing the man's name "Vishwanathrao Mankar of Kharda village" to appear on screen, the woman's disguise is destroyed. What will her life be now in the village?
Ø Even worse, the two women named "Neerja" and Sulekha, do not say that they are doing sex work. The reporter says it for them. He commends one for her courage to which she says she has little choice. Then, the reporter says: "Neerja says she will sell her body so that her daughter and Sulekha's daughter never have to." Nowhere in the interview does Neerja say this. If she did, why not use her own words. Why should these words come from the mouth of the reporter? After all, the story quotes her on other things, why not this one?
Ø Three or four times, the words "forced to sell their bodies" for survival are used by the reporter and the anchor, never by the women. When "Reshma" is described - by the reporter – as "selling her body" condoms are flashed on the screen. Is this investigation or titillation?
Ø "Rekha" is shown negotiating with clients on the highway, while a hidden camera records this. The story declares the three men on the scooter to be "Congress workers" without evidence. It also shows one of the men trying to paw her. In NDTV's online version of story this becomes they "try to tear her clothes off." Actually, she is not even afraid of them and tackles them confidently The "tearing off" of her clothes is so fake. She does not even attempt to run from them but stands her ground.
Ø Rekha is a sex worker, not a farmer and is not a widow. Another woman interviewed says she has been in the trade for just one month. Women who are so new to the profession do not tell even their families what they are doing. But "Reshma" has no hesitation at all in confiding this to the reporter. The story implies Vidharbha is emerging a hub of the flesh trade in Maharashtra. There is no shred of evidence to make this claim.
Ø In Gujarat: Seema is the "daughter of a cotton farmer from Vidharbha." But she never says so on screen. Only that her father was a farmer. The Vidharbha link is claimed by the reporter.
Ø Then the reporter claims to have tracked down "Seema's pimp" Hamid bhai Mansoori and talks to him near the Mumbai airport with "a secret camera." The "pimp" immediately "tells us" that his agents pick up girls "especially from Vidharbha and send them to Mumbai and Vadodara. " But on screen you hear nothing of this.
Ø Nowhere this man says in the story that he is Seema's pimp or that he is a pimp at all. Only the reporter says it . Secondly, if he is really her pimp, then, thanks to NDTV, he knows how he has been traced. He will brutally thrash, if not kill Seema. Again, another girl "Sonia" is shown later on as working for Hamid bhai in a "seedy Chembur Hotel." The reporter seems to be posing as a client, which means the recording might have been a sting. Again, the girls are in serious danger if they really work for Hamid Mansoori. He will brutalise them for exposing him. How could this have been allowed? It places them in great danger. But again, the claims are those of the reporter. Neither Seema nor the other girls speak of Mansoori as their pimp, nor does the story actually show him saying he is one.
Ø 'Sonia' is claimed to have an agricultural background. Once again, she does not speak of such background. The reporter does. And what is this agricultural background of this woman from Satara in Western Maharashtra? Her father was "sacked from a pesticide company." She does not say it. The reporter does, to make a connection with "agrarian crisis." With other sex workers in the show, too, words are put into their mouths that they do not say.
Ø By the time the programme looks at Mumbai and Marathwada, it does not even pretend that the sex workers shown are "widows" of farmers who have committed suicide. Even the reporter makes no claim. The story is about flesh trade and titillation. "Chaya and Mangala" are introduced as daughters of bankrupt farmers. It is the reporter who says that not them.
Ø In the last part of the Marathwada story, a quote is falsely attributed to 'Shantibai, "the oldest prostitute in Latur" in Marathwada. The reporter says she is angry that because, young women are coming into her area and her own business is suffering. Firstly, what way is this connected with the agrarian crisis Is it not just a sex and titillation story?
Ø In fact what she does say in Marathi is that the father of these girls was in debt and these poor girls are paying the price for it. It is a sympathetic statement towards the girls. But the reporter falsifies it as an abuse from a jealous rival. Conveniently, rest of what she says is inaudible. This is also a pattern throughout this 'story.' Only some statements become inaudible.
All this is done in the name of 'agrarian crisis,' and causes nothing but damage to the real issues. The story just uses that for showing sex and titillation. Huge damage has been done to the real issues, especially to the poor farmers widows struggling so bravely for their families. Will NDTV do justice to the thousands of widows who have been maligned and humiliated this way?
PLEASE ARRANGE TO GIVE JUSTICE VIDARBHA FARM WIDOWS
THANKING YOU,
YOURS TRULY,
KISHOR TIWARI
PRESIDENT
VIDARBHA JAN ANDOLAN SAMITI
CONTACT-MOBILE-09422108846
Opinion - News Analysis
Jailhouse talk: a fate worse than debt
P. Sainath
| After a lull of some years, farmers are being jailed for debt in Andhra Pradesh. Even those in drought-hit districts who cannot repay their loans. Farm unions see the banks as driving a dangerous and explosive process which lets off crorepati defaulters but jails bankrupt farmers owing a few thousand rupees. |
"THE TEA in Kadapa jail was better than the chai we get here in Garladinne mandal. But the rest of the food was awful," says M. Nallappa Reddy. His brief sojourn behind bars has made this man in his Sixties a minor celebrity in this State. Not so much because he liked the tea in Kadapa jail. But because many see his experience as the revival of an ominous trend: the jailing of bankrupt farmers for debt in Andhra Pradesh.
"It happened before during the time of Chandrababu Naidu's government, it is happening again now. More aggressively," says Malla Reddy, general secretary of the Andhra Pradesh Ryuthu Sangham (APRS). "Banks are turning the screws on hard-up farmers, sending them to jail. Mind you, these are farmers in drought-hit regions with no crop and no capacity to pay. The same banks won't touch big industrialist defaulters who owe them crores. But farmers owing a few thousand rupees go to jail." Till recently, the website of the A.P. Debt Recovery Tribunal listed some 200 names of VIPs, industrialists, contractors, and politicians owing over Rs.1,000 crore to the banks. The money was not recovered but the site seems to have vanished.
"I did try to repay," insists Mr. Nallappa Reddy. To clear the loan he took more loans at high interest rates from private lenders. "The principal sum I owed the bank was Rs.24,000. I paid Rs.10,000 in court and went back to pay another Rs.24,000. I could not manage the Rs.1 lakh the Anantha Gramina Bank was demanding. How could we, after a decade of failure in agriculture? So I hoped they would accept the Rs.34,000 under the One Time Settlement (OTS) scheme."
The bank did not accept the OTS deal. "When I went to court last October to pay the Rs.24,000, I was remanded and sent to Kadapa jail." There, he says: "I met at least six others in the same situation as I was. Two of them owed this same bank money." Many more were in line for arrest, he says, and believes the District Collector helped avert that — for now. "Jail was interesting. One woman came to have her husband released. He was there on a charge she filed against him. A little boy beside me turned out to be there on an arrack case. My neighbour was a burglar."
Common experience
In other respects, Mr. Nallappa Reddy's story is the same as that of millions of other farmers. As input costs shot up and bank credit declined in the past decade, he incurred heavy losses. As "water, electricity and other costs rose, things got worse." Then the water ran out. "I sank 32 borewells in ten acres within four or five years. All of them failed." This mandal shot to fame in 2004 when, desperate for water, farmer Chandrashekar Reddy sank four borewells in a graveyard linking it to his fields with an 8-km pipeline. (July 18, 2004.) He has since died. Ironically, a couple of those wells now yield some water, after their owner has himself gone to the grave.
Mr. Nallappa Reddy is unusual, though, in one other way. He quit the lorry business in the 1970s, betting on agriculture. "Then, the future seemed bright. I sold my lorry and was the first to start grape cultivation here in Thimmampetta village, on my family's 12 acres. Things were good till the '90s." But "the last 15 years have crushed us. All government policies work against the farmer. All farmers here are in the same condition."
"His arrest was not such a simple issue. The media have played it up without looking at the bank's problems," says an exasperated M.R. Vani, branch manager of the bank here. After two mergers, it is now called "The Andhra Pragati Gramina Bank." Mr. Nallappa Reddy, says Ms. Vani, "was a long-time defaulter. Only after ten years of waiting did we file a suit against him. Yes, he did ask for a settlement, but with a tiny amount. We asked him to improve his offer as the then head office was unable to accept it. Meanwhile court proceedings took their own course and we could not stop that."
Ms. Vani herself is otherwise quite sympathetic. "Now also, recovery is a problem. There have been no rains, no income, extended drought. And no alternative source of income is there for the farmers. Which is why our bank is encouraging them in other directions, too. We must give agricultural loans, of course. But we also give loans that seek to create other income." She knows things are hard. "We've brought down the number of defaulters like him in this branch by half. But there are still over 100 of them."
Press coverage helped
Media coverage following his arrest ensured Mr. Nallappa Reddy's early release. He was out in a week. Others were not so lucky. "I spent a full month inside," says Gengi Reddy in Kadiri mandal. He too went to Kadapa central jail. "That was in the time of Chandrababu Naidu's government. I too, tried for a settlement whereby I paid back both principal and more. I even offered them some of my six acres to sell and recover the money. But they [the Kadiri branch of the same bank] told me flatly: `we don't want your land. Only cash. You should go to jail.'" He did. And has since sold off irrigated land to clear his debts.
"This practice has now revived," says Mr. Malla Reddy. "In Mahbunagar district, just two months ago, a Dalit farmer and an OBC farmer spent two weeks in jail. This time, the State Bank of India was involved. Again, drought-hit farmers with no ability to repay."
They were only released when their families borrowed more money from usurers to pay off their bank debts. All those who have been to jail speak of meeting others in there for the same reasons.
Mr. Nallappa Reddy was more fortunate. "His neighbours love him," says one of them. "The publicity he got stopped a lot of us from also going inside." The question is: for how long? "The banks are getting more forceful now, as you can see from the Telangana cases," says Mr. Malla Reddy. "This matter can explode one day."
"The government is not interested in us," says Sainath Reddy, a nephew of the man who sank borewells in the graveyard. "They want corporate agriculture. We are a nuisance in the way. I tell you, those you wish well, ask them to stay away from agriculture. Don't even wish it on your enemies."
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| Publication: Times Of India Nagpur; | Date: May 4, 2007; | Section: Times Nagpur; | Page: 2 |  |
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| Publication:Times Of India Nagpur; | Date:Apr 26, 2007; | Section:Times Nagpur; | Page Number:2 |
