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The main cause of farmers’ suicide in the nation according to me is the selflessness of the farmers’ community, who have, since ages, thought about the nation first before self and their own families. This fine and foolish trait of the poor farmers have and always will make them to remain poor all their lives to live in miseries. ‘Fine’, because this is what humanity is all about... serve others first even if it means to stay hungry. ‘Foolish’, because in today’s modern world, they are suffering miseries and deaths because for them, growing cotton or soyabean is more important for the nation’s progress rather than growing wheat, rice, pulses and vegetables for their own families first. The day every farmer realises this aspect, even the government will be shaken by such a move to provide all the necessary subsidies, irrigation infrastructure and other benefits to the farmers’ community and not ignore them like they have been since the last six plus decades.
Yes, such a thing is surely a very-very long distant dream and hence the poor farmers of every nation are exploited to die in miseries. The poor remains poor because he is ready to share whatever he has with others, while the rich becomes richer because he knows how to grab what is others... It is shocking that the urban population of my nation is totally unaware about what all is happening in the rural India... farmers families are living their lives in less than Rs. 1000/- a month feeding four mouths, there are tribal communities and tribes, who have never seen what or how woollen clothes look or feel like, there are poor ‘moosahari’ tribe in the state of Bihar who eat rats to survive, there are village women who use sand, ash, dirty clothes, newspapers and what not during their periods (they haven’t seen or else cannot even afford a piece of clean cloth forget about buying sanitary pads), there are villages which drink water that is not even fit (by urban standard) to wash dirty utensils, there are villages which has not seen electricity and sanitation since independence... well there are children, who don’t even remember their fathers’ presence because they have committed suicide... there are children who sleep with dead bodies to escape the wrath of chilly winter... Rupee 1/- is paid to poor villagers by Government’s MGNREGS for a 10 hours’ day labour in the hot sun and high temperatures of Rajasthan...well the list is painfully endless...
It is not only shocking that most of us living in modern India are not even bothered to be aware of such gory inhuman facts of the so-called great nation, who is more pre-occupied with Common Wealth Games... crores are spent and gobbled by the system and administrators under the proper knowledge of our nation’s Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, but also it is shameful that when such facts are told to the urbanites, they don’t even shudder or react in amazement, surprise, shock, pain or else with any emotions... we, humans have become so-so emotionless that we don’t even feel anything at all when we hear or see such lives being lived in the rural India... I was appalled when our Prime Minister said the Supreme Court should not interfere in policy formulation in reference to 58,000 crores worth of rotten food grains... how callous the man can be to lead the 1.2 billion people by starving 40% of nation’s malnourished children and 40% (or even more because no agency has the proper data of poor in the country) poor, who live in less than Rs.20/- a day... The Prime Minister can safeguard his corrupt Agriculture Minister against the Supreme Court’s order to distribute free food grains to the poor rather than to allow them to rot in open air godowns.
While I was accompanying Mr. Anshu Gupta (GOONJ’s Founder), a group of young educated girls didn’t even reacted when he was sharing his life experiences about the plight of rural India... the man was sorry to know how ignorant the urban population were in today’s fast paced life. Even when I was talking to a bunch of students in one of the colleges in Vidarbha, I couldn’t really see if anyone was really bothered about farmers’ suicide in their own backyard... it is not pathetic or ironical but it is a sad state of affair because our education system is at fault. Parents, teachers and elders have forgotten their duties to teach their children the basic fundamental rule of humanity, manners and the importance of reading to expand the horizon of knowledge. Even with all the pains and miseries in life, if any urban person enters a village, irrespective of his colour, creed, religion or language... s/he will be welcomed with open arms and will be served whatever is available in the poor villagers’ homes with pure love and respect... such warmth one will never get in any urban cities of India.
They say – ‘Ignorance is bliss’ but the ignorant urbanites are living a more stressful life than the villagers and they are running to accumulate all the unwanted things in life to increase their worry even more. Honestly, I was also doing the same thing but since I have travelled widely all over India (cities & villages) and because I have had a pedigree of reading newspapers every morning, I used to keep abreast with most of the things about life, world and everything that interests me... so that I can join any discussion with anyone on any topics. Knowledge and languages are the two most important tools one must always possess in one’s life to face any kind of situation. When I was shifting from Mumbai to Wardha, I gave away most of the things to my friends and I felt so nice from within... I realised how happy my friends were to get those things. I felt relieved and light. I am happy to live in Wardha with two pair of jeans and five T-shirts... with no fridge, TV or even a cupboard... The joy to live with minimum needs and requirements is truly blissful.
While the rural India has always served the urban India, sadly, the urban India has always exploited the selfless poor rural belt to satisfy their greed and hunger to rule. All the food in cities are grown in the rural India but the sad state of affair is that farmers of our nation has to sell their wives to moneylenders so they can feed their hungry malnourished children to live another day; farmers have to commit suicide because if there is no drought, there is floods to wash away all their hard earned money and hard work to grow crops for the nation... and what does the nation gives the farmers? A compensation of Rs. 1 Lakh is given to the widow to live all her life with three or even more children to feed with no source of income whatsoever...
I still remember very distinctively (while I was walking the streets of Mumbai to raise funds to support suicide farmers’ families in Vidarbha) how a very educated traveller in Mumbai Local Train’s First Class compartment said very rudely to me (when I requested him ‘one rupee from every Indian to support farmers’ families’) – “Hah! Government has waived farmers’ loan so why are you collecting funds for them? The farmers don’t deserve any sympathy after the loan waiving.” Well, what can one say how many farmers really got the benefits of loan waiving scheme? The gentleman is not even aware about how the villagers are dying in his own state or nation and as a human being didn’t even had any emotions left for the poor suffering widows and children of suicide farmers... there was another gentleman who said farmers are enjoying the maximum benefits of government policies and when I asked him is that the reason why they are so happy that they are committing suicide? He was speechless and turned his face to talk to another friend.
Every single grain that we all are eating is tainted with farmers’ blood and sweat and everyone of us owe not only gratitude but also we should acknowledge the fact that if there will be no farmers and farmlands left in the nation... from where will the food come and how the generation today will survive with their children and grand children in the near future? Think about it because modern day developments are surely taking us to a future where there will be no food grains to eat but we will have to kill each other to eat flesh to survive just another day!
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