The announcement of the Punjab government on March 2, 2009 to pay Rs two lakh to the families of farmers who had committed suicide since last year has been greeted with indignation by a majority of people of the state. There is genuine concern as to possible impact of this measure – when peasant families are in such dire straits, will it not drive some more to commit suicide so that the family will have something to survive on? Should relief not be given on the basis of a serious assessment of the need of all peasant families in the state, without exception?

According to activists who have been working to assist the peasantry, the move to compensate a suicide’s family is neither preventive nor curative. “It may even lead to more suicides as a desperate, small farmer who survives on some Rs 50 a day and has no means to pay back a loan of say, Rs 60,000, would naturally start thinking of suicide as an option.”

The move has clearly exposed the cynicism of the rulers. The announcement was made just minutes before the model electoral code of conduct came into effect! As has been the practice, far from addressing the root cause, the governments and political parties of the ruling classes use every crisis of the people to further their own political end of grabbing votes or staying in power.

The acute crisis of mounting debts and impoverisation of the peasantry in many states across the country has not been mitigated. Farmer suicides continue to be on the rise throughout India. Only the news on this issue has disappeared from the headlines of the bourgeois media with the April 2008 announcement by the UPA government of the waiver of debts owed by a section of the peasantry. As if a mere announcement of a one-time debt waiver was expected to solve the problems of rapidly falling incomes of peasant families!

The unabated suicides committed by the peasantry till date in Punjab, like in other states, is evidence to the contrary. While the official statistics put the number of suicides in the state since 2005 at a little over 2000, other sources investigating the issue point to twenty times the number.  

The debt burden in Punjab outstrips the national average. According to the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) data, farm households in India have an average outstanding loan of Rs 1,258, but in Punjab, the average outstanding loan is Rs 41,576 (December 2003). This is true even today, as the cost of production has continued to soar and the prices of farm produce have lagged far behind.

People's Voice supports the long-standing demand of the peasantry for an immediate cancellation of all debts owed by the peasantry. The next policy step should be to guarantee procurement of all agricultural commodities at remunerative prices, to prevent peasants from being driven to distress sale, and which enable their families to live a decent life. Instead of announcing piecemeal and temporary measures to address the crisis in agriculture, the government should come up with comprehensive policies to make agriculture viable and sustainable for the peasants.