Before another Vidharbha occurs...

While the entire country is considering Swine Flu as a great threat to their existence and peaceful living, tucked away in a corner and preserved in newspapers is a bigger panic-the farmer suicides.
Due to the prevailing drought like situations and some areas getting affected by drought, farmers are exercising their only and the most safe option-to end up their lives. Drought has been declared in the arid, rain deprived regions in states such as Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh. In the last 40 days, 21 Andhra farmers have committed suicide. Taking large loans from private moneylenders in high interest rates- the lack of proper and adequate rains resulting in the failure to grow crops, which they would have sold and earned to pay back their loans- no cannot be repaid. This, coupled with other practical reasons like being unable to procure a square meal a day, health ailments, costs associated with them, a loss of hope (even due to Governmental callousness and the shrug shoulder syndrome) have led and is leading the farmers to end their own lives. The horrors of Vidharbha get recalled once again! We cant fight against nature. Nor do we stop the voluntary causes of harming the environment through increasing pollution levels. Though the PM has assured to forgive the farmers’ debts, postpone the loan repay dates of banks and to check blackmarketeering and hoarding, the truth remains that there are many farmers who take loans from private moneylenders and also those to whom the benefits promised by the Pm do not reach-they find their way into the pockets of the middlemen and the bureaucrats and the local ministers.
Though I laud Mr. Singh’s efforts to devise new scientific techniques to increase productivity of small and marginal farmers. But I still feel that there is a long way to go till we reach that level when the farmers wont have to be totally dependent upon a good monsoon to ensure productivity and sustainability. It’s a challenge that every one of us should pay heed to. People who can, should contribute to its fulfilment. The rice that we consume, the rotis that we eat are all due to those brown skinned bony structures that toil in exasperating heat everyday to grow our staples and feed us.
Though it’s a tragedy that in doing so, they often miss out on feeding their families and themselves…Give it a thought.