Besieged by debt, three young onion farmers from Daregaon have asked for voluntary death in a letter to the President. Piali Banerjee and Ram Parmar went over to the village to talk to them
When all anger is spent, all hope is lost and all fight has left you, you usually call out to your opponents to come kill you. That’s exactly the state of mind of three young onion farmers of Daregaon village.
They want to be put out of their misery, literally. Tired of appealing to the government for help, steeped in debt and besieged by daily life, they have sent a letter to the President of India on January 1, asking for ‘iccha maran’ (voluntary death).
Shinde, Devare and Gangurde are the only educated farmers in the village - all of them have passed the tenth standard. Hence the letter to Pratibha Patil. “We are educated, but we couldn’t get jobs,” said Devare. “As a last resort, we took to farming last year. We took a loan of Rs 70,000, from relatives and grew onions in a wasted plot of land. That land is in a place where people don’t go by day, but we have spent nights there. But finally we only made Rs 25,000 from it. No profit and huge losses. And there’s no way we can repay the loan. We don’t even have food at home. That’s why we have asked the government to kill us.”
Has there been any reply to the letter yet? “No,” he said.
At present, the farmers are paid about Rs 200 per quintal. That’s Rs 2 a kg - compare that with Rs 14 a kg that one finally pays in Mumbai. Rs 12 is being taken up by middlemen, leaving the farmers in complete despair. “We have asked for Rs 900 to 1000 per quintal,” said Gangurde. “Even Rs 500 would be a decent amount. But no one listens to us.”
From behind, an angry voice piped up. “Why will they? Our minister is more interested in running after cricket than listening to our problems and seeing our misery.” (Is Mr Pawar listening?)
So, what have they done to raise themselves out of the situation? “We went to the Maharashtra Bank for a loan under the Prime Minister’s Rozgar Yojana. But we were refused,” replied Gangurde. On what grounds? “They had no real reason. They just ridiculed us and said that our village will not be able to pay back and that harvests are not good enough here,” he said.
We took a loan of Rs 70,000. But finally we only made Rs 25,000... And there's no way we can repay the loan - Bhausaheb Devare, 22
Daregaon gets water for farming only four months a year, so all work has to be done then. But there is hardly any earning in those four months itself, leave alone any extra to act as a buffer for the eight dry months. “We do majoori, if and when we get odd jobs. That gives us Rs 50 a day and we can survive for a few days that way. We live on minimum food, but still need about Rs 20 a day for each person,” said Gangurde. “We never go anywhere because travelling needs money and we try to save as much as possible.”
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When all anger is spent, all hope is lost and all fight has left you, you usually call out to your opponents to come kill you. That’s exactly the state of mind of three young onion farmers of Daregaon village.
They want to be put out of their misery, literally. Tired of appealing to the government for help, steeped in debt and besieged by daily life, they have sent a letter to the President of India on January 1, asking for ‘iccha maran’ (voluntary death).
Shinde, Devare and Gangurde are the only educated farmers in the village - all of them have passed the tenth standard. Hence the letter to Pratibha Patil. “We are educated, but we couldn’t get jobs,” said Devare. “As a last resort, we took to farming last year. We took a loan of Rs 70,000, from relatives and grew onions in a wasted plot of land. That land is in a place where people don’t go by day, but we have spent nights there. But finally we only made Rs 25,000 from it. No profit and huge losses. And there’s no way we can repay the loan. We don’t even have food at home. That’s why we have asked the government to kill us.”
Has there been any reply to the letter yet? “No,” he said.
At present, the farmers are paid about Rs 200 per quintal. That’s Rs 2 a kg - compare that with Rs 14 a kg that one finally pays in Mumbai. Rs 12 is being taken up by middlemen, leaving the farmers in complete despair. “We have asked for Rs 900 to 1000 per quintal,” said Gangurde. “Even Rs 500 would be a decent amount. But no one listens to us.”
From behind, an angry voice piped up. “Why will they? Our minister is more interested in running after cricket than listening to our problems and seeing our misery.” (Is Mr Pawar listening?)
So, what have they done to raise themselves out of the situation? “We went to the Maharashtra Bank for a loan under the Prime Minister’s Rozgar Yojana. But we were refused,” replied Gangurde. On what grounds? “They had no real reason. They just ridiculed us and said that our village will not be able to pay back and that harvests are not good enough here,” he said.
We took a loan of Rs 70,000. But finally we only made Rs 25,000... And there's no way we can repay the loan - Bhausaheb Devare, 22
Daregaon gets water for farming only four months a year, so all work has to be done then. But there is hardly any earning in those four months itself, leave alone any extra to act as a buffer for the eight dry months. “We do majoori, if and when we get odd jobs. That gives us Rs 50 a day and we can survive for a few days that way. We live on minimum food, but still need about Rs 20 a day for each person,” said Gangurde. “We never go anywhere because travelling needs money and we try to save as much as possible.”
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Tell a friend
Bury
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Guys do you think Reliance fresh or more retail chains will help improve these conditions. What farmer gets paid is around 2 Rs. per KG, we don't even Raddiwala pays more then this to us for old newspapers. Difference in what we pay per kg and what farmer earns is huge. Government should take some solid steps to narrow down this gap, waving off the loans is temporary solution, in fact that is bringing down the dignity of a farmer. Don't know what modi has done in gujarat.
When reliance fresh (or other retail chains) tries to do that the small-scale retailers lobby cries foul and hold protests and vandalises the outlets saying that malls and super shops are ruining their business...
Like you, I agree that loan waiver is not the long term solution. I don't know what will work but one suggestion which the farmers themselves had given was goverment to give them transport subsidy (or free transport) to bring their produce to the big cities and sell it directly at the wholesale markets.
I also dont know about Gujarat or Modi but i have rarely heard about problems with Milk production and distribution (despite it having as short or shorter shelf-life compared to agriculture).
Maybe it is worth studing that co-operative model (for eg Amul) and looking out to develop solutions using that as an inspiration at least from the transportation and distribution prespective.
Cotton farmers first, then sugarcane farmers, then grape farmers and now onion farmers
One wonders if the desperate farmers should take up opium farming to survive..
Happy ending for these 3 farmers.. what about the lakhs of other farmers ?
http://www.mumbaimirror.com/net/mmpaper.aspx?page=article§id=15&contentid=2008011320080113050056218cd8eef86