Examining Causal Variables Triggering Indian Farmer Suicide: Rising Rural Health Concern

By : Priyanka Murria

Page No: 255-262

Abstract
The Indian agrarian economy is facing a distress situation on account of mounting farmer suicides year after year. This is a serious socio-economic issue as it affects not only the farmers but also their families. A staggering number of farmer suicides have been reported, particularly in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and West Bengal. This has aggravated the Indian agricultural sector that is already battling problems such as under-performance, low production, and low vigour for a long time now. In October this year, India Today reported that over 15,000 farmers has committed suicide in Maharashtra in a span of 6 years from 2013 to 2018. This is the just one instance of the reporting on farmers suicide over the past few years. These suicides have posed a big question mark on the Indian economy, ranked seventh in terms of nominal GDP by the IMF Economic Forum in 2018. On the one side, the Indian economy is on its way to becoming the 5th largest economy of the world by surpassing United Kingdom and France in 2019. On the other side, its farm sector is facing distress deaths and massive despair. The present paper, therefore, makes an attempt to investigate these incidents and uncover the causal variables leading to this epidemic that is rapidly spreading to the entire country.
The paper is divided under four sections. Section I provides an introduction to farmer suicides in India. In addition, the objectives and methodology of the paper have been discussed. In Section II, an attempt has been made to highlight the gravity of this issue which is hampering the health of Rural Indian Economy. A factsheet has been prepared that enumerates the facts and figures related to this issue. Further, in Section III, an extensive review of research work on farmer suicides has been done in order to describe the critical causal variables. For this purpose, the literature and figures from 1995 to 2021 have been considered. The paper ends with Section IV where concluding remarks have been mentioned along with some suggestive measures.

Author :
Priyanka Murria
Associate Professor (Economics), Institute of Innovation in Technology and Management, G.G.S.I.P University, New Delhi.
 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.32381/PROD.2021.62.03.5