Indian Farmers
An Open Letter to the Government: A Young Indian's Reaction to Farmer Suicides in India There is general saying that India’s future depends on the shoulder of youngsters. As a young and energetic citizen of India I would like to heed the attention of government of India in following areas through this letter. As we all know that India’s population is now about 1.06 billion (as per 2004 survey). Out of this 1.06 billion 65% of people solely depend on the agriculture for the livelihood & it is well known fact that irrespective of the social status (rich/poor) every human being ought to be depend on the farmers to feed his /her stomach. When farmers are doing such an incredible job of producing, feeding and serving the nation on other side there are more instances farmers killing themselves due to various reasons. Even in our Tamilnadu there were reports regarding the farmers eating rats due to starvation and failed monsoon at thanjaur district in 2003; According to a government report more than 17000 Indian farmers a suicide themselves in 2009 ,a seven percentage rise on previous year. In that context most suicide occurred in Andra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and Punjab. Andra Pradesh accounted to the tune of 1313 in between 2005 to 2007. Maharashtra accounted to the tune of4453 farmer suicide. In Karnataka number stood at 1003. since 2005 to 2009 the cases in kerala were about 905, Gujarat 387, punjob 75 and tamilnadu 26. In April 2009 the state of chattier reported 1500 farmer suicide. The national crime records bureau reports that at least 17,368 Indian formers killed themselves in 2009 it is the worst figure for farmer suicide in past 6 years. As citizen of India, it is my bounden duty to bring the attention of government of India on this alarming rate of suicide by farmers’ .Even though there were agriculture loan waivers schemes by this ruling UPA government in 2009 to the tune of Rs 75000 crore the real farmers were not at all