Introduction:
The word Suicide was originated from ‘sui’ (of oneself) and ‘ceades’ (murder).
Suicide is defined by Beck (1976) as ‘a willful self-inflicted life threatening act which has resulted in death’. ‘Suicide is characterized as the final common pathway of diverse circumstances, of an interdependent network rather than an isolated cause, a web of circumstances tightening around a single time and space’. The term suicide is used to denote self-planed and deliberate termination of one’s life. It is distinctly a human affair. Only humans can decide to terminate themselves. The phenomenon of suicide is old as mankind, but still remains an unsolved puzzle. Considering the trauma family members face, suicide is a major public health problem and a drain on our economy with loss of useful reproductive human resources.
Medico-legally term suicide is the act of taking one’s own life voluntarily. It has been observed that among all unnatural deaths, accident tops the list followed by suicide and homicide.
Farming is one of the oldest industries in the world and often portrayed as a happy way of life. Despite this, agriculture has one of the highest rates of suicides than any industry. Studies from Canada, Australia, United Kingdom (UK), and Sri Lanka have found high levels of distress and high suicide rate among farmers. Based on proportional mortality ratios, farmers were among the top ten occupational groups with highest proportional mortality rates in the UK. In India, The farmers’ suicide rate in the country in the year 2001 was 12.9 which was about one-fifth higher than the general suicide rate, which was 10.6 in that year.
15 Suicides took place every one hour during the year 2015.
In 2014 (1,31,666) have committed suicide and in 2015 also, more than one lakh persons (1,33,623) have committed suicide.
Maximum number of suicides were reported in Maharashtra (16,970) followed by Tamil Nadu (15,777) and West Bengal (14,602), accounting for 12.7%, 11.8% and 10.9% of total suicides reported in the country respectively. Highest rate of suicides reported in Puducherry (43.2) followed by Sikkim (37.5), Andaman & Nicobar Islands (28.9) and Telangana state & Chhattisgarh (27.7 each) during 2015. The suicide rate in cities (12.2) was higher as compared to all-India suicide rate (10.6).
A total of 12,602 persons (consisting of 8,007 farmers/cultivators and 4,595 agricultural labourers) involved in farming sector have committed suicide during 2015 in which 7,566 were male and 441 were female.
Telangana followed by Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh have accounted for maximum female farmers suicides, accounting for 34.7%, 24.7% and 10.9% of total such suicides in the country respectively. Majority of farmers suicides (3,030 victims) were reported in Maharashtra, followed by 1,358 such suicides in Telangana and 1,197 such suicides in Karnataka during 2015, accounting for 37.8%, 16.9% and14.9% of total such suicides respectively.
‘Bankruptcy or Indebtedness’ and ‘Family Problems’ are major causes of farmer/cultivator suicides, accounting for 38.7% and 11.7% of total such suicides respectively during 2015. The other prominent causes of suicides Committed by farmers/cultivators were ‘Farming Related Issues’ (19.5%), ‘Failure of Crop’ (19.4%) and ‘Illness’ (10.5%).
During 2015, major cause of suicides in male farmers/cultivators were ‘Bankruptcy or Indebtedness’ and ‘Farming Related Issues’, accounting for 39.4% and 19.7% respectively of total farmer/cultivator suicides (male).
‘Bankruptcy or Indebtedness’ followed by ‘Family Problems’, ‘Illness’ and ‘Farming Related Issues’ were major causes of suicides by female farmers/cultivators, accounting for 27.0% (119 out of 441 suicides), 18.1% (80
Suicides), 15.4% (68 suicides) of total such suicides respectively during 2015.
79.0% of farmer/cultivator suicides in Karnataka and 42.7% of farmer/cultivator suicides in Maharashtra were due to ‘Bankruptcy or Indebtedness’. 26.2% of farmer/cultivator suicides in Maharashtra were also due to ‘Farming
Related Issues (Related to Failure of Crop)’.
In Maharashtra, farmers suicide is the most burning topic now a day. Maharashtra is not only one of the well-developed state in India, but also tops in suicidal death cases. Suicides in Maharashtra are attributed mostly to crushing financial pressures on farmers, environmental problems, poor prices for farm products, stress and family responsibilities, government policies, poor irrigation, increased cost of cultivation, private money lenders, use of chemical fertilizers and crop failure etc. as the most significant reasons for farmers’ suicides. From the available figures it appears that the farmer’s suicide issue is very common in rural part of central India.
Against this background and in view of the spate of suicides taking place in the State, it was felt that an in-depth study of the situation is required. The study mainly focuses on locating the remedial measures to avert future incidence of suicides. Our focus, therefore, is not on exclusively locating the causes of suicides that have taken place but more on learning lessons from them so as to derive a proper policy framework.
Considering the seriousness of the farmers suicide, and also stigma to society and country, this study was performed to evaluate the various aspects of farmers suicidal deaths in Rural area of Central India where farmer suicide rate is invariably high which may help the society to reduce the rate of suicide.