<div align="justify">Taking crop loans from private moneylenders is the most important driver behind farmers’ suicide in Karnataka that records India's second highest number of farmer suicides, a new study has found.<br /><br />As many as 85% of Karnataka households surveyed in the study identified crop loans as the most important reason behind the suicide committed by a family member of the household. Karnataka is followed by Tamil Nadu (67%) and Andhra Pradesh (63%). <br /><br />“Without exception, all the sample households mentioned non-institutional loan as one cause of farmers’ suicide. The overall indication was that the pressure exerted by non-institutional lenders was more than that by institutional ones,” says the study, conducted by the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bengaluru.<br /><br />The study was commissioned by the Agriculture Ministry, which shared the report with the Supreme Court in connection with a public interest litigation on farmer suicides that the court was hearing.<br /><br />The survey team interviewed members of 528 victim households – farming families where one member committed suicide – spread across 388 villages in 13 states, including Karnataka. Besides indebtedness, it identified several farming and social causes too behind the rising trend of suicide among farmers.<br /><br />According to the National Crime Records Bureau, 12,602 people involved in farming sector (farmers and agriculture labourers combined) committed suicide in 2015, accounting for 9.4% of total suicide victims (1,33,623). The numbers are on the rise for the last three years.<br /><br />State-wise, the maximum number of suicides was reported in Maharashtra (4,291) followed by Karnataka (1,569); Telangana (1,400), Madhya Pradesh (1,290), Chhattisgarh (954), Andhra Pradesh (916) and Tamil Nadu (606) in 2015, accounting for 87% of all farmers suicide in India.<br /><br />Inability to get farm credit and crop failure are also among the drivers pushing a hapless farmer towards suicide.<br /><br />Expectation of loan waiver as one of the causes for suicide was the maximum in Kerala (89%) followed by Karnataka (66%) and Tamil Nadu (57%). Failure of rainfall was a cause for suicide in all states except Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.<br /><br />There are also social causes like drug abuse, alcoholism, extra-marital affair and fear of declining social status. <br /><br />However, the numbers in these categories are far less than farming and indebtedness causes.<br /><br />With the apex court hearing the PIL, the agriculture ministry last month reviewed the measures that the centre and state governments have taken to prevent farmers’ suicide.<br /><br />In the review meeting, Karnataka officials pointed out that farmers’ suicide was on a high for the fourth consecutive year because of drought and failure of sugarcane crop. <br /></div>
<div align="justify">Taking crop loans from private moneylenders is the most important driver behind farmers’ suicide in Karnataka that records India's second highest number of farmer suicides, a new study has found.<br /><br />As many as 85% of Karnataka households surveyed in the study identified crop loans as the most important reason behind the suicide committed by a family member of the household. Karnataka is followed by Tamil Nadu (67%) and Andhra Pradesh (63%). <br /><br />“Without exception, all the sample households mentioned non-institutional loan as one cause of farmers’ suicide. The overall indication was that the pressure exerted by non-institutional lenders was more than that by institutional ones,” says the study, conducted by the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bengaluru.<br /><br />The study was commissioned by the Agriculture Ministry, which shared the report with the Supreme Court in connection with a public interest litigation on farmer suicides that the court was hearing.<br /><br />The survey team interviewed members of 528 victim households – farming families where one member committed suicide – spread across 388 villages in 13 states, including Karnataka. Besides indebtedness, it identified several farming and social causes too behind the rising trend of suicide among farmers.<br /><br />According to the National Crime Records Bureau, 12,602 people involved in farming sector (farmers and agriculture labourers combined) committed suicide in 2015, accounting for 9.4% of total suicide victims (1,33,623). The numbers are on the rise for the last three years.<br /><br />State-wise, the maximum number of suicides was reported in Maharashtra (4,291) followed by Karnataka (1,569); Telangana (1,400), Madhya Pradesh (1,290), Chhattisgarh (954), Andhra Pradesh (916) and Tamil Nadu (606) in 2015, accounting for 87% of all farmers suicide in India.<br /><br />Inability to get farm credit and crop failure are also among the drivers pushing a hapless farmer towards suicide.<br /><br />Expectation of loan waiver as one of the causes for suicide was the maximum in Kerala (89%) followed by Karnataka (66%) and Tamil Nadu (57%). Failure of rainfall was a cause for suicide in all states except Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.<br /><br />There are also social causes like drug abuse, alcoholism, extra-marital affair and fear of declining social status. <br /><br />However, the numbers in these categories are far less than farming and indebtedness causes.<br /><br />With the apex court hearing the PIL, the agriculture ministry last month reviewed the measures that the centre and state governments have taken to prevent farmers’ suicide.<br /><br />In the review meeting, Karnataka officials pointed out that farmers’ suicide was on a high for the fourth consecutive year because of drought and failure of sugarcane crop. <br /></div>
