Debt-ridden farmers to protest agianst banks-freepressjournal reports

Debt-ridden farmers to protest agianst banks
Hozefa Merchant, Nagpur
http://freepressjournal.in/31052007/State5.htm
Six vidarbha farmers comitted suicide on Tuesday bringing the overall suicide toll to about 410 since January 2007. Agitated by the Government's lithargic stand to help the situation, farmers from the vidarbha region have decided to start 'Hallabol agitation' before the banks in order to get fresh crop loan. The 'dharna' would start from 18th June, Kishor Tiwari of Vidarbha Jan Andolan samiti informed on Wednesday.

The agitation has been decided due to the fact that the debt-ridden farmers have been denied additional loan because of non-payment of previous loans. There are about 2 million farmers in debt, claimed a local NGO. The Indian Government waived off Rs. 710 crore overdue interest last year and reconstructed crop loan amounting to Rs. 1860 crore bringing around one million farmers under institutional credit. But due to cotton crop failure and poor market price, more than 90% farmers failed to pay their debt.

One of the few reasons for the crop failure is due to the use of 'bollgaurd 2' a genetically improved BT cotton crop manufactured by Mosanto and which is clearly not suitable for the climatic conditions in Vidarbha. More then 3 million Vidarbha farmers are in debt and an overdue loan waiver is the only solution to reduce the suicide rates, claimed Vidarbha Jan Andolan samiti through a press release.

THE WAIT NEVER ENDS-TIME REPORT

Publication: Times Of India Nagpur;
Date: May 31, 2007;
Section: Times Nagpur;
Page: 2
THE WAIT NEVER ENDS
Will ‘defaulting’ farmers get fresh loans?
There is a fear that around five lakh farmers of Vidarbha will not be able to get institutional finance and will be left on the mercy of private moneylenders
Ramu Bhagwat TNN Nagpur:

For farmers in Vidarbha, where most agriculture is still rainfed, monsoon is a time to look forward to. But even as preparations for the kharif crop have begun, a new worry has gripped nearly 75% of farmers who have yet to repay crop loans they took last year: Will they get new credit this year? This, when suicides remain unabated in six distressed districts of the region.

Apprehending that denial of farm loans by banks and credit societies may push farmers, who have defaulted on loans, further to the brink, Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS) has already given a call for a ‘Hallabol agitation’ against banks from June 18.

“At the high-level National Development Council meeting, though the prime minister expressed concern over distress prevailing on the farm front in Vidarbha, the Centre or the state has not come out with any plans to increase farm credit in the region or helping out those farmers rendered ineligible for fresh credit,’’ pointed out VJAS convenor Kishore Tiwari.



There is a fear that around five lakh farmers will not be able to get institutional finance and will be left on the mercy of private moneylenders who charge usurious rates from the helpless farmers. After the prime minister visited the crisis-hit Vidarbha last year and announced relief of interest waiver, restructuring of loans and a year’s moratorium on repayment by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) infused a big rise in credit inflow from Rs 750 crore in 2005-06 to Rs 2,000 crore in 2006-07. A large number of farmers availed of institutional credit in the last crop season, adding to their pile of earlier unpaid dues.
Now, most of them are unable to repay loans because of poor returns from cotton growing. These farmers will find it difficult to get funds for fresh crop. What has worried even farm experts is that despite being unremunerative, farmers are continuing their preference for cotton as cash crop even in the coming season. In fact, there is a mad rush for Rashi-II brand of Bt cotton in the countryside and the seed is in short supply. “Clearly, the situation is getting worse. There is hardly any increase in procurement price of cotton. How will the farmers repay after meeting the rising input costs?’’ they asked. The government has admitted that Bt cotton is not suitable for cultivation in rain-fed areas of Vidarbha but, unmindful of the consequences, farmers are being carried away by promises of a bumper crop from Bt seeds. Bt seeds manufacturers are aggressively selling their brands.
While Amravati divisional commissioner Sudhir Goel, who also heads special mission implementing farmers’ relief packages, was not available for comment, banking sources said the fund flow would be increased to Rs 2,860 crore this year. But they were not sure if majority of farmers would be able to get it as they have yet to repay the old dues.
The distressed farmers here, who until now ended their lives due to their inability to repay debt, will now wonder whether they will get it in the first place.
===================================================================

NDTV bogus farm widows story under scanner

Suicides are about the living, not the dead -p sainath

Kamlabai Gudhe at her home in Lonsawla.
When she does get work, she only gets paid in grain.
Normally, Rs.25 worth of jowar for a day's labour.


Suicides are about the living, not the dead -p sainath
Date:21/05/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/05/21/stories/2007052103541100.htm
Opinion - News Analysis
Suicides are about the living, not the dead
P. Sainath
In society's eyes, Kamlabai is a `widow.' In her own, she's a small farmer trying to make a living and support her family. She is also one of about one lakh women across the country who've lost their husbands to farm suicides since the 1990s.
. A FARMER in her mid-60s, Kamlabai Gudhe works as a labourer whenever she can — for grain, not cash. It's all she can get. So she labours, sometimes for 12 hours, for Rs.25 worth of jowar. This is apart from slogging on her own four-and-a-half acres whenever she can. When her crop does succeed, she mostly loses it to wild animals as her farm is on the edge of the jungle. The better her cotton and soybean, the more wild boars and Nilgai it attracts. Fencing the farm would cost Rs.1 lakh. Money she can't dream of.
Kamlabai is one of over 100,000 women who have lost their husbands to farm suicides in India's agrarian crisis since the mid-1990s. She lives in the worst-hit zone: Vidharbha. Her village Lonsawla is located in Wardha, one of the six districts in the region that have together seen more than 6,000 farm suicides since 2001. Her husband Palasram, bogged down in debt, took his life a year ago. She has pulled on, trying to run their farm, living in a house with its roof half gone and two walls about to cave in again. This tiny ramshackle residence is home to five human beings. That includes her son, daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren. In society's eyes, Kamlabai is a "widow." In her own, she's a small farmer trying to make a living and support her family.
How did a landless Dalit come to own a farm at all? The same way she keeps it going. Every moment of Kamlabai's life has been a struggle. She began as an agricultural labourer on a daily wage of Rs.10-12. "That bought a lot more in those days," she says, of a time nearly four decades ago. To this, she added a little bit by collecting and selling fodder to farmers.
"I remember how my mother trudged for hours to collect chara [fodder] and sell it for next to nothing," says her son Bhaskar who is central to her plans to keep their farm afloat. "I got ten paisa per penda [fistful]," she laughs. "But I made so many trips for it, I could make up to ten rupees daily from the chara." That is, she walked more kilometres than she could count to fetch and sell one hundred pendas of fodder each day. Her 16-18 hour workdays paid off, though. From these pathetic earnings she and her husband saved and bought land no one else would at the edge of the forest. That was nearly 40 years ago. She paid Rs.12,000 for four and a half acres. The family then worked like galley slaves to cultivate a very difficult farm. "I had another son, too, but he died."
Kamlabai walks long distances even today, in her mid-60s. "What to do? The farm is six kilometres away from our village. I earn as a labourer when I find work. And then I go to the farm to help Bhaskar and Vanita." She is too old to find work on government project sites. And on those, anyway, exist huge prejudices against lone women in general and widows in particular. So she takes any work she finds.
Between them, the family have nurtured the farm. It looks good and productive. "See this well," she points to a rather large one created by mostly family labour. "If only we could get it cleaned and repaired, we'd have much more water." But that would need Rs.15,000 at least. And that's apart from the Rs.1 lakh that fencing the field would cost. They could convert one acre to a water body at the bottom of a slope on their land. That would mean even more money. Bank loans are now impossible. And proper repairs to her crumbling house would cost another Rs.25,000. "My husband killed himself because of crop loss leading to debt of Rs.1.5 lakh," she says. They've paid off bits of that and the family has run through most of the Rs.1 lakh compensation she got from the State. But creditors still trouble her. "We were doing alright. But then agriculture really failed for several years and we suffered big losses."
Like millions of others, her family was hit by the biggest agrarian crisis in decades. Rising input costs, falling output prices, lack of credit, withdrawal of State support. "It's the same with everyone else in the village, too," she says. Last year brought crop disaster as well. She lost hugely, with Bhaskar betting on Bt cotton. "All we got was two quintals," she says.
The Government then added to the damage. Late last year, it made her a "beneficiary" of a "relief package." Under this, Kamlabai was made to buy a costly "aadha Jersey" (half Jersey) cow she did not want. Though heavily subsidised, she still had to pay her share of Rs.5,500 for it. "The brute ate more than all of us put together," she told us. (The Hindu, Nov. 23, 2006). And "it yielded very little milk."
Reverse rental
Since then, "I have twice given away the cow, but they always bring it back," she says with resignation. Those she gifts it to return it saying "we cannot afford to feed it." So now "I am paying a neighbour Rs.50 a month to look after the animal." A kind of reverse rental. The deal being that if the cow starts giving milk as it should, she will get a half-share. That belongs to an optimistic future. Right now, Kamlabai is paying to take care of a cow the Government promised would take care of her.
But her spirit is as yet unbroken. She still makes that long walk to the farm every day she does not find work. Today her tiny but energetic grandchildren make a slightly comical picture alongside her on the trail. Their survival and future is her biggest motivator. As always, her head is held high, but she can't hold back the tears when she looks at them. Kamlabai has decided that suicide is not about the dead. It's about the living. And for them she soldiers on.
© Copyright 2000 - 2006 The Hindu

Farm suicides spiral in Vidarbha, 401 dead since January

Farm suicides spiral in Vidarbha, 401 dead since January

Even as the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) pats the Maharashtra government for bringing down the rate of farmer suicides to 'only 20' per month from 60 last year, the count kept by an activist group reveals a staggering 401 suicides in the first five months of this year.

Nagpur, Maharashtra, India, 2007-05-28 15:45:01 (IndiaPRwire.com)

Even as the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) pats the Maharashtra government for bringing down the rate of farmer suicides to 'only 20' per month from 60 last year, the count kept by an activist group reveals a staggering 401 suicides in the first five months of this year.
As many as 51 distressed farmers in the six cotton growing districts of western Vidarbha have ended their lives in the month of May, claims a press release by the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS). It gives the names and details of 15 farmers who have committed suicide in the last six days.
The VJAS tally shows a whopping 70 suicides in January this year followed by 88, 97 and 95 in February, March and April. Most of these suicides have occurred in the districts of Yavatmal, Buldana, Akola, Amravati, Washim and Wardha covered by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Rs.37.50 billion ($925 million) relief package of July 2006.
The activist group that has persistently highlighted farm distress in the region in the last two years, quotes figures from the government website to show that the 1,564 suicides since July 1, 2006 were more than those reported in the last decade.
Indeed, the government website, which has claimed substantial drop in suicides, does show more or less matching statistics, albeit with a rider that all suicides are not related to agrarian distress.
Refusing to grant a one-time loan waiver, a price of Rs.2,700 per quintal for cotton and restoration of advance bonus of Rs.500 on cotton purchase, the government has however claimed to have exceeded the interest waiver target. It says it has brought an additional one million farmers in the credit net after restructuring their exiting loans.
Consequently, it has claimed doubling of loan disbursement amount and coverage of an additional 34,000 hectares under irrigation with an expenditure of Rs.6.15 billion on 11 irrigation projects. Critics have ridiculed the claim saying it is only a part-fulfilment of a long overdue measure.
Highlighting the heightened distress levels, VJAS leader Kishore Tiwari pointed out that cotton production in the region this year had come down to 1.34 million quintals from 3.10 million quintals in 2002-03 and the selling price had dropped to Rs.1,890 from Rs.2,700.
'Farmers had to spend Rs.5,600 per hectare last year on cottonseeds alone compared to Rs.1,100 that they had spent four years back; and they will end up paying much more in the coming season,' Tiwari told IANS. He pointed to the wholesale promotion of the costlier Bollguard II variety by the government.
The earlier version of the BT cottonseed (marketed by the US based company Monsanto), which, by the government's own belated admission, is not suitable for rain-fed farming, inflicted a heavy loss on the farmers and forced the government to pay compensation in two consecutive seasons, Tiwari said.
Why then is the government promoting the costlier Bollguard II and why are the farmers keen to buy it?
'The government is under tremendous pressure from the US seed giant, whose selling point this year is that the new variety is suited for dry-land farming,' Tiwari explained. 'And hoping against hope for a bumper yield sans pesticide costs, the farmers are ready to wager another gamble.'
The farm leader wants the government to sincerely promote low-cost farming and bring in some kind of regulatory mechanism to ensure cultivation of a minimum proportion of food crops. 'They should also promote soybean, which is a guaranteed, low-risk crop that requires little water.'
- Indo Asian News Service
© Copyright 2006 India PRwire Pvt. Ltd. All Rights Reserved.India PRwire disclaims any content contained in press releases published on IndiaPRwire.com. Issuers of press releases are solely responsible for the accuracy of their content. For our complete disclaimer, go to http://www.indiaprwire.com/disclaimer/

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Farmers commit suicide as Indian PM asks for economic equity

By The Associated Press
Thursday, May 24, 2007 - 04:13:55 pm CDT

NEW DELHI — At least 11 farmers have committed suicide in the past few days in a western Indian state after failing to repay bank loans because of crop failures, an activist group said Thursday.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh challenged business leaders Thursday to ensure the poor benefit from India’s economic boom, and to shun the West’s “wasteful lifestyles” of greed and conspicuous consumption.

“Such vulgarity insults the poverty of the less privileged,” Singh said at the annual conference of the Confederation of Indian Industry, a leading business group.

He promised to continue fostering a business-friendly environment, but said businesses that have benefited from the boom must do more to improve conditions for ordinary people. Nearly 40 percent of the 1.1 billion people in India live on less than $1 a day.

In the cotton-growing districts of Maharashtra, three farmers hanged themselves and eight others swallowed pesticide, said Kishore Tiwari, president of the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, or People’s Movement.

Despite the government lowering interest rates on loans and helping more farmers borrow money, many farmers have been unable to meet their commitments.

“The farmers’ deaths were due to distress at crop failure and worry that there was no money for the coming sowing season,” Tiwari said. “Many have defaulted on bank payments. When they can’t pay back bank loans, farmers are killing themselves.”

The farmers have been demanding that the government write off their loans.

Mounting debt and poverty has triggered thousands of suicides by farmers in Maharashtra and the southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka in recent years.

Economic growth has surged since India changed from a closed, heavily regulated socialist economy. Its gross domestic product — the total value of goods and services products in the country — has grown by more than 8 percent annually in the past four years, fueled by an outsourcing and technology boom.

A new class of incredibly wealthy Indians can now afford luxurious foreign vacations, high-end fashions and imported cars, and spend huge amounts on weddings.

Singh — who as India’s finance minister in the early 1990s was widely credited with setting off its economic transformation — criticized “ostentatious expenditures,” and said rising unchecked inequality could lead to social, environmental and economic problems if left unchecked.

“Even profit maximization should be within the bounds of decency,” he said.

“This is not an imported Western management notion,” he said. “It is part of our cultural heritage,” referring to Mohandas Gandhi’s belief that the wealthy are obliged to provide for the poor.

---

© 2002-2006, Lincoln Journal Star and JournalStar.com.
All rights reserved.

Lokmat editor slams NDTV story on Vidharbha widows

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

Sermon in Delhi, suicides in west

zj
Sermon in Delhi, suicides in west

OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070525/asp/frontpage/index.asp

Mumbai/Nagpur, May 26: As Manmohan Singh spoke in Delhi to men in suits at a top business conclave about taking the poor along, many in Vidarbha's killing fields might have thought it was a cruel joke.

Eleven cotton farmers ended their lives, six of them on Wednesday, unable to cope with a grim harvest and piling debts. A day earlier, five perished in a similar fashion.

Last July, the Prime Minister toured the suicide-stalked region, but the special package he announced during that visit has done little to solve farmers' problems.

Wednesday's deaths occurred in Buldhana, Wardha and Akola districts. Tuesday's casualties were in Amravati (two deaths), Yavatmal (two) and Washim (one). The number of suicides this month alone stands at 47.

As the deaths rise, so does the anger. "The Prime Minister's office recently praised the Vilasrao Deshmukh government for implementing the relief package and reducing suicides. Then, why are so many farmers still dying?" asked Kishore Tiwari of the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, which keeps a "suicide register".

So far this year, 397 farmers took their lives, indicating that the package had failed to strike at the root of frustration, Tiwari said. His records show 70 deaths in January, 88 in February, 97 in March and 95 in April. The number since July last year stands at 1,500.

During his visit, the Prime Minister had met 90 families of suicide-affected farmers. His Rs 3,750-crore package was mainly aimed at solving the region's rural credit crisis.

But the Centre had not agreed to two key demands of farmers: an increase in the support (assured) price of cotton from Rs 3,000 a quintal, and a loan waiver. Only an interest waiver of Rs 712 crore was provided. Another Rs 2,255 crore was given for irrigation.

Tiwari said the rate of suicides has increased since the Centre announced its package. He blamed authorities for not doing enough to rein in private moneylenders who often charge farmers high rates of interest.

Farming — it's what they do-p.sainath

Date:24/05/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/05/24/stories/2007052402321100.htm Opinion - News Analysis Farming — it's what they do P. Sainath The agrarian crisis has seen over a lakh of women farmers lose their husbands. But survivors like Kalavati Bandurkar — with seven daughters — still run their farms. — Photo: 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

INDIAN PRIME MINISTER FAILED TO STOP VIDARBHA FARM SUICIDES

top ePaper By PressMart

Suicide-affected Vidarbha farmers protest Maharashtra CM's birthday bash

Posted May 25th, 2007 by Tarique
http://www.indianmuslims.info/news/2007/may/25/suicide_affected_vidarbha_farmers_protest_maharashtra_cms_birthday_bash.html

• India News

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)

Bt cotton one again in vidarbha

Warnings aside, more Bt cotton seeds arrive farm woes Experts warn of impending disaster if monsoons fail " We don't know yet if these varieties will suit the agro-cli- matic and soil condi- tions. Releasing the second generation Bt for commercial use is surely disastrous." -A scientist Jaideep Hardikar . Nagpur

Beleaguered cotton farmers in Vidarbha are staring at another disaster in the ensuing sowing season. Almost the entire belt would be cultivating Bt cotton, which have not yielded encouraging results in the past in the rain-fed region. While cotton prices are crashing every year, a total shift to genetic cotton will spiral production cost phenomenally, leading to heavy losses, farm activists say An . estimate suggests that over 30 lakh packets of Bt cottonseeds would be sold this season, enough to cover well over ten lakh hectare farms in the region. That's a rise of more than double in the acreage over the last year. A disaster of unforeseen and unmanageable proportions is on the cards, if there is any fluctuation in the arrival of monsoon, fears Kishor Tiwari of the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti. "The gov ernment is selling a new disaster to the struggling farmers." Interestingly, the Maharashtra Agri culture Minister, Balasaheb Thorat, recently admitted that Bt had failed in Vidarbha and cautioned farmers not to sow it. Also, the state government has paid about Rs 400 crore to farmers in the last four years as compensation due to the failure of Bt cotton. Farm activists point out the government-run Mahabeej seeds corporation is marketing Bt cottonseeds to inputs dealers, while the minister advises caution. Yet, what's concerning the activists is the permission granted to nearly 53 new genotypes of Bt cotton by the Genetic Engineer ing Approval Committee (GEAC). As many 35 of those varieties would be introduced in the central parts of India. Over 60 Bt varieties are already in the market here and more will arrive soon. And there's hardly any study on the performance of new genotypes in Vidarbha. "We don't know yet whether these varieties will suit the agro-climatic and soil conditions. Moreover, releasing the second generation Bt (Bollguard II) for a widespread commercial use is surely disastrous," admits a senior scientist. He also warns that it is only a matter of time before the widespread emergence of resistance in bollworms will cause the Bt cotton technology to collapse. Peasants' confusion would be compounded by the introduction of new varieties this season. As companies compete for a greater market share, their fierce and relentless promotional tactics will expose the farmers to far greater risks. Farmers' leader Vijay Jawandhia argues, "Bt cotton has not brought about any increase in productivity. Also, it has not reduced the use of chemicals." Various state government reports and statistics too suggest that Bt cotton has not brought about any rise in productivity or decline in the pesticide use.

TOP

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 23^RD 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 22^ND AND 23^RD 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 1^ST 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

HTTP://WWW.NEWKERALA.COM/NEWS5.PHP?ACTION=FULLNEWS&ID=31711

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

Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti

vidarbha@gmail.com

Contact-09422108846;

BT seeds to gain half of India's cotton area -REUTER

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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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SEED OF SUICIDE-TIME MAGZINE REPORTS

Thursday, May. 17, 2007

Seeds of Despair

By Simon Robinson / Sunna

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."

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Aid yet to reach Vidarbha farmers -DNA exposes maharashtra chief minister.

Aid yet to reach Vidarbha farmers

Surendra Gangan

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1097122
Ameagre number have till now received the package of Rs25,000
Though the state government has been claiming the implementation of 88 per cent of its special package for debt-ridden farmers of the Vidarbha region, the package of Rs25,000 each to thousands of farmers has not reached them yet, this apart from the government's non-compliance with its crop insurance schemes.
The state had earmarked Rs150 crores, out of the entire package of Rs1,075 crores allocated by the state, to help the debt-ridden farmers of Vidarbha. But, only Rs85 crores were allocated for the package of Rs25,000 each to nearly 60,000 farmers, out of which a meagre number of farmers have received the personal help. Expenditures have reached a mere Rs49.99 crores of the allocated amount. Even the crop insurance scheme has spent only Rs9.87 crores out of the allocated Rs19 crores.
In its presentation made to the central government last week, the state claimed Rs884.32 crores were spent of the package with a layout of Rs1,075 crores under nine different heads. The centre had also announced a special package of Rs3,750 crores to be utilised over the next three years. "We have spent Rs1, 551.66 crores in the first year, which is 102 per cent of the allotted lay out. We have been successful in bringing 17,171 hectares under irrigation," an official from the rehabilitation department said.
The state has been prompt in its compensation to cotton-growing farmers. The state had targeted Rs370 crores and allocated Rs405.15 crores for three per cent capital formation fund, out of which Rs396.59 was spent. Interest subsidy on rescheduled crop loan, had a target of Rs225 crores and allocation Rs240.98 crores, out of which Rs 239.12 crores were spent.
The report states that 2,990 cases of suicides of debt-ridden farmers were registered during January 2001 and May 5, 2007, out of which 1,333 families of the deceased farmers have received ex-gracia assistance of Rs1 lakh each.
===========================================================================================

vidarbha farm widows wants justice

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-16^th MAY 2007

NDTV continues to humiliate widows of Vidharbha farmers suicides

Channel covers up bogus story

NAGPUR-16^TH 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