Modi govt has no data on farmer suicides, says agriculture minister Radhamohan Singh

In an attempt to remain in a state of denial, the Modi-led government has said it has no data on farmer suicides after 2015. Union agriculture minister, Radhamohan Singh said this in Parliament at a time when the country is going through agrarian crisis and poor crop prices have hit farmers in several states.

Radhamohan Singh informed Parliament on Tuesday that the National Crime Records Bureau which publishes such data, has not done it since 2016.

The Union minister was replying to a question by Trinamool Congress leader Dinesh Trivedi, who had asked details about the number of farmers who had committed suicide since 2016, and whether the government planned to rehabilitate their families.

"The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) under the Ministry of Home Affairs compiles and disseminates information on suicides... These reports on suicides are available up to 2015 on its website. The reports for the year 2016 onwards have not been published yet," the minister said in a written reply.

Despite ‘apparently’ having no data on this, the minister claimed that state governments provide relief to the families, who commit suicide. “State Governments provide relief to families of farmers who commit suicide. As per information available.”

According to report in the NDTV, agriculture ministry sources said data on farmer suicides is sent by state governments to the crime records bureau, which then collates the inputs and publishes it.

"Such data is published only till 2015, so the agriculture ministry can only go by this data," said sources, adding that the national crime records bureau functions under the home ministry.

According to the 2015 NCRB data, the report reveals that over 8,000 farmers committed suicide. Maharashtra tops the list with 3030 suicides, followed by Telangana with 1358 and Karnataka 1197. Over 4500 agricultural labourers have committed suicide. Most suicides were because of debts and bankruptcy, said the report.

Since then, there have been several agitations by farmers in the last one year. It should not be forgotten that five farmers were killed in the police firing during a protest in Madhya Pradesh's Mandsaur. But still the government has no data on suicides. This was recently highlighted by journalist P Sainath, who participated in a farmers' march and protest in Delhi last month.

In 2014 NCRB reported 5,650 farmer suicides. According to some news sources, National Crime Records Bureau stated that the data is under scrutiny and the report for 2016 is likely to be published later.