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Suicides by farmers in India fell to 11,370 in 2016, the lowest in 21 years, and around 10 percent lower than the previous year's figure, according to data presented in Parliament, Mint reported.
However, although less farmers killed themselves in 2016 than in 2015, the number deaths due to suicide increased among agriculture sector workers over the same period, a report released by the Union home ministry, titled Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India, showed.
The possible reason for the decline in farmer suicides in 2016 could be the normal monsoons that year. In 2015, there had seen severe droughts across several states in the country.
Monsoons directly impact farm output and farmers' income.
Landless labourers continue to give in to the pressure of the agricultural sector, as the suicides among them increased 9.2 percent in 2016 over the previous year, the report showed.
Since 1996, 2015 saw the lowest number of farmer suicides in the country, while 2004 saw the highest. The drought year of 2004 saw as many as 18,241 farmers kill themselves.
The National Crime Records Bureau started taking farmer suicides into account in 1995 when the numbers 10,720 of them were recorded.
Maharashtra and Karnataka lead the list with the most number of farmers who took their own lives. Close to 70 percent of the farmer suicides in the country took place in four states—Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
According to the report, Bihar and West Bengal have zero cases of farmer suicides.
Many agriculture sector experts have found discrepancies in the government data. “The figures are not quite believable. For instance, in Punjab, studies by leading universities have shown that suicide rate of farm workers is higher than farmers, while these figures presented in Parliament are showing a different picture,” Kavitha Kurunganti of the New Delhi-based farm policy advocacy group Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture, said.
She added that it is questionable that West Bengal reported no suicides at all since ADSI reports have shown a significant number of suicides in previous years’ reports.
“In terms of states showing an increase in suicides in 2016 compared to 2015, you would find that there are BJP, Congress, Left, and BJD governments there. Shows that no government, state or centre is actually delivering when it comes to the agrarian crisis,” she said.
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