Arvind Shukla & Divendra Singh

Nanded (Marathwada)

The body of Gajanan Shinde, 35, was found hanging by the same tree on November 9 beneath which he once used to rest during the day. He left behind a desolate 29-year-old wife, a 60-year-old mother, a son of 10 years and a daughter of 7 — living beneath the tin roof of a dilapidated shack — and a loan of more than Rs 2 lakh taken from banks and moneylenders.

The family lives in Khambegaon, in Marathwada’s Nanded district, around 600 kms from Mumbai, India’s financial capital.

“The rains had completely ruined our soybean crop. This time we had sown soybean twice to great expense. He (husband) was already bothered with the existing loan and used to constantly worry about its repayment and the household expenses. So, the day before yesterday, he left for the fields to never return,” said Devan Gajanan Shinde, the bereaved wife. In broken Marathi and Hindi.

They had sown soybean in their three-acres field, but the incessant rains of September-October had ruined the crops. Maharashtra’s Marathwada region suffered a loss of 70-85 per cent of soybean along with jowar, bajra, cotton and urad due to the monsoon and post-monsoon rains this year. The government has shown a preliminary estimate of 60-65 per cent.

Learning of his brother’s suicide, Santosh Basant Rao Shinde had rushed to the village. He said: “Two years ago, he had taken Rs 60,000 loan from Dena Bank which was yet to be repaid. When the bank refused a further loan, he took a loan of about a lakh rupee from the moneylenders at the rate of 3-5 per cent. With the failed crop, the loan mounted.”

He added: “In our region, the farmer is in grave distress. In the past three years, it had hardly rained so the farming didn’t yield anything. This year, it didn’t rain at all during sowing. Then later, it rained so heavily that it brought ruin to the farmers. Many farmers daily think of ending their lives like him.”

Santosh Rao had recently left farming and taken up working for wages in Mumbai.

The incessant rains of September–October have given rise to the number of farmers’suicide across several districts in Maharashtra. Nanded alone recorded nine farmer suicides within the first 10 days of November. Vijay Chaudhve, the senior clerk of Nanded collectorate, who also maintains the records pertaining to farmer’s suicide, informed Rural Connection over the phone that till November 10, nine cases, in October seven cases and in September nine cases of farmer suicides had occurred.

The possibility of receiving the government aid (Rs 1 lakh) by a farmer’s family after his suicide is dependent upon the joint report from the tehsildar, local agricultural officer and police investigation officer. Only if the cause of the suicide is established as loan and farming, the benefit is extended.

Most of the farmer suicides take place in Maharashtra. After three years, the government has released the number of farmer suicide for 2016. As per the Accidental Death and Suicide Report 2016 issued by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), in the year 2016, 11,379 farmers had committed suicide out of which 3,661 were from Maharashtra, making it the state with the highest rate of farmer suicides. Before this, 4,004 farmers in 2014 and 4,291 farmers in 2015 had committed suicide in Maharashtra.

As per the information received by Mumbai’s social worker, Shakeel Ahmed, in 2019 through an RTI (Right to Information), 12,021 farmers in Maharashtra have committed suicide. These numbers were provided by the Maharashtra government a little time ago which showed that, on average, each day, about eight farmers were putting an end to their lives. However, as per the NCRB’s report, the number of farmer suicides has shown a little drop in Maharashtra.

But the local farmers, social workers and associated people tell a different story regarding the dip in the number. In an interview with Rural Connection held a few days ago, Shakeel Ahmed had informed, “The Maharashtra government has brought about certain changes in recording suicides due to which many farmers are kept excluded from its consideration. The government had done this for the sole purpose of saving upon Rs 1 lakh that it has to pay to the deceased’s family and which is quite disturbing.”

The Maharashtra government provides aid of Rs 1 lakh after the suicide out of which Rs 30,000 is given as cash and remaining Rs 70,000 is deposited under the monthly income scheme. If the beneficiaries are minors, the amount is given only when they turn adults. In Maharashtra, only those suicides are considered as farmer suicides which involve an unpaid loan, but even after the suicide of the farmer, his loans remain unpaid.

Nanded Collectorate official Vijay Chaudhve informed, “If the joint report confirms farming as the cause of suicide and is approved in the district meeting, Rs 1 lakh is given to the family. There isn’t any provision for waiving off farmer loans. Only if the loan taken by the farmer fits into the eligibility of the loan waiving scheme (Shivaji Maharaj Shetkari Sanman Yojna), it is waived, otherwise, the deceased’s family member has to foot the loan.”

Thinking about the pending loans of Gajanan, his wife Devan finds her future bleak. Gently caressing the head of her daughter, she said: “With such a heavy loan, where do I go with these kids? How would I repay the entire loan? How would I educate my children? How much would I really be able to manage by working as a labourer?”

Gajanan’s family lives in a 33 sqft tin house built in a corner upon a field and which he had purchased a few years ago with Rs 20,000. It doesn’t even have a proper roof. The house where they lived earlier in a joint family was within the village, but was much smaller. Consistent losses in farming and property division had prompted Gajanan’s brothers and others to leave the village.

Devan’s daughter, unaware of the situation, plays intermittently with the children of the visiting people to offer condolences. In order to show something to another girl, she proceeds towards her tin room when a woman beckons her, “O girl! Do not go there; everything is wet in that room.”

The daughter didn’t enter the room, however, when the Rural Connection reporter entered the room, the marks of the previous drought and later heavy rains were visible everywhere. A small bed, a tin trunk, quilts and bedding and many such things of the room were all soaking wet. Heavy and continuous rains had flooded the house.

As per the Indian Meteorological Department, in October, Nanded had received 171 mm rain above average.

Sitting next to Devan, her mother-in-law, Subhadra Rao Shinde said: “Three years ago, their father passed away. Since then Gajanan only looked after the fields, but for the past 2-3 years, there hasn’t been any yield. We shall now work as labourers, but even that work would be difficult to find here.”

Subhadra’s fear is well-founded. As per the villagers, for the past many years, there hasn’t been any work happening under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). If there isn’t any work on the fields, where would one get the wages from? In Maharashtra, agricultural workers and other construction workers get Rs 100 in rural areas, but the women get half the average wage, which is only Rs 100-125.

As per the NCRB 2016 report, there has been a fall in the farmer suicides, but agricultural labourer’s deaths are on a rise. There has been a 10% increase in the suicide incidents of agricultural workers. Besides the report, one must pay attention to Gajanan’s distant sister-in-law, Roshana Shinde, in order to truly understand the agricultural workers’ crisis.

Pointing to an elderly woman, in an old, worn-out saree sitting beside her, Roshana said: “She is Gangabai. My family works in Mumbai so we have given our field to her for cultivation besides money, but nothing could be grown on fields for the past few years. Living in Mumbai, we worry about their survival. Her family phones us for money, but how far can we support them, we barely meet our own household expenses.”

Gangabai doesn’t know Hindi so she shares in Marathi that she does farming in her as well as others’ fields. Now that the crops are failing, she may work as a labourer or whichever job comes her way.

Another farmer of the village, Keshav Nagaraj Hila, 58, who had come over to offer his condolences, said: “Soyabean and cotton are the primary crops of our region. But this time it didn’t rain during sowing (June-July). So, the farmers, already facing a drought-like situation, had sown a small amount of soybean. But the good rains during later July prompted the farmers to do second sowing. This crop came up well, but eventually was spoiled by the incessant rains in September.”

Keshav explained the mathematics of cost and profit in an acre of soybean. A 20 kg bag of soybean costs Rs 2,000-2,200. An acre of land requires two bags. Besides this, Rs 1,400 worth of DAP and medicine (pesticide) take the cost up to Rs 20,000 with other expenses. If everything goes well, the farmer would get Rs 35,000-40,000. Taking away the expense, the farmer receives Rs 20,000 but this time, even that amount got washed off.

Due to the heavy rains in Maharashtra, the then chief minister, Devendra Fadanvis, had immediately announced relief to the farmers upon registration and had sought help from the Central government. But, so far, several thousand villages of Maharashtra are yet to be registered for the relief.

“The bank having refused to waive off the loan, he used to borrow money from the money lenders. When everyone began asking for repayment of the loan, he grew tense. The school fee for both our kids is Rs 15,000. They go a bit far to Loha taluka in order to study because there isn’t any school in the village.”

Showing one of their photos saved on her mobile, Devan said: “He was a very jovial person. He used to dote on us, his family. We both used to work hard in order to provide a good education to our children but now I hardly know what will happen to us.”

“What will happen” is the question that pervades the entire household.

A student of the fifth standard, Shreyas had, with other people, witnessed his father’s body hanging by the tree. Wiping Shreyas’ face-off with her palm, Devan said: “That day, he too had gone with others to look for his father, calling out repeatedly “papa, papa come back.”

When asked as to where his father had gone, Shreyas replies in a small voice, “Papa has gone to the God.”