According to the latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data on accidental deaths and suicides, 10,281 farmers committed suicide in 2019, slightly less than 2018 where 10,357 farmers committed suicide. The figure for daily wagers went up to 32,559 in 2019 from 30,132 in 2018.
Telangana recorded the fourth-highest number of farmer suicides in India 2019 as per the report by NCRB. Around 2,858 daily-wage workers died by suicide in Telangana in 2019.
So far, Maharashtra recorded the highest number of farmer suicide with 2,680 deaths, followed by Karnataka (1,331).
Across the country, the major causes of deaths by suicide are poverty, unemployment, lack of quality health care, family problems, and indebtedness- lack of adequate capital to take loans from money lenders in rural areas which they are unable to pay back because of high-interest rates.
1,074 farmers ended their lives in Maharashtra in last 6 months. Indian economy being primarily based on agricultural sector suffer heavy loses every year due to natural calamities like drought, flood, crop failure making famers’ lives vulnerable to suicides.
India experienced the first incident of farmers’ suicide in 1997 and according to the NCRB report since then nearly 2 lakh farmers have committed suicides. As a result Indian agricultural sector is facing new challenges every day.