Chopping The Hand That Feeds: The Tragic Truth Behind Farmer Suicides In India

From predominantly being a farming nation, India has progressed rapidly into other areas. But is it really progress?

Today, farmers are the forgotten ones.

Imagine hearing about growth happening across the country, while your own community who’ve invested in agriculture, India’s longstanding mainstay, wither away. This is the case of most farmers in India, where over 42 farmers commit suicide every day. An inconvenient truth that still hasn’t received the media attention it needs.

Fact is, Farmer’s in India face an endless list of troubles that pushes them to breaking point. For a majority of farmers who are pushed to a corner, farming is the only way to an income, failing which they lose all hope.

What they’re left with is rising debt, humiliation and a dead-end situation – forcing them to take the drastic step of ending their lives.

There’s every possibility that you know about farmers’ problems.

Many of you might have probably won debates in schools and colleges on subjects related to the misery of farmers. But trophies and accolades apart, how many of us actually know what an average farmer goes through in his life?

Let’s take the story of Popat Ghadwaje, for instance.

Ghadwaje — a farmer from Umbrale village in the western state of Maharashtra — committed suicide when he was 42. This is an age when most of us will have a secure job, a happy family and a two storey house to call “home”. But Ghadwaje wasn’t as fortunate as us. He was just a farmer.

“He was crushed under the sun” said his 16 year old son in an interview with Al Jazeera.

For Ghadwaje to feed himself and his family, harvest was his only hope. Being in India, where agriculture is still vulnerable to climatic fluctuations, Ghadwaje lost his crops to a destructive hailstorm. Seeing his crops wither and die in front of his eyes, the helpless farmer decided to end his life.

Farmers like Popat Ghadwaje are there in every part of the country. Unable to carry the weight of traumas, 42 farmers like him commit suicide every day in India. The surprising fact is that all of them share the same miseries: monsoon failures, high debt burdens, government neglect, health and family problems – and so on.

The #SaveTheFarmer campaign is an initiative by Limitless that aims to bring to light the grim situation of farmers in India. It is a campaign that aims to resonate with an urban society that has almost forgotten where the food they eat comes from.

Through this short film, Limitless hopes to encourage everyone to help #SaveTheFarmer and contribute to any Trust Fund or NGO that supports Indian Farmers.

Let’s help them spread awareness about Farmer Suicides!

Chopping The Hand That Feeds: The Tragic Truth Behind Farmer Suicides In India