(August 28, 2009) Dozens of impoverished farmers struggling with debt and poor rainfall
have killed themselves in southern India in recent weeks, leaving behind families
plunged even further into poverty, activists and politicians said. Nearly every day,
newspapers report more farmer suicides in Andhra Pradesh, a state of 80 million people
where 70 percent of the population depends on agriculture - and which has suffered
badly this year from weak monsoon rains. Officially, the total number of suicides
stands at 25 in the past six weeks. But opposition parties and farmers' groups say
the true total is more than 160. Farmer suicides have, over the past decade, become
a grim ritual in Andhra Pradesh and other parts of the Indian agricultural heartland,
where small farmers are increasingly in debt. For families often earning less than
$2 a day, the loans, mostly made by small-town moneylenders, can be overwhelming.
More than 17,500 farmers a year killed themselves between 2002 and 2006, according
to experts who have analyzed government statistics. At least 160,000 farmers have
committed suicide since 1997, experts say.