New
Delhi, Women farmers
will decide India’s
agrarian and rural economy in the years to come and the government must have a
centrally-sponsored development fund for them, says renowned agricultural
scientist and MP M.S. Swaminathan.
Over the years a
feminisation of India’s
agriculture has taken place with men increasingly migrating to urban centres
for work. Women now constitute more than 50 percent of Indian farmers and about
60 percent of the agricultural workforce.
Women are also forced
to take to farming after their husbands, unable to cope with the debt burden,
commit suicide.India has seen 256,913 farmers’ suicides in the past 16 years
since 1995 when the National Crime Records Bureau began recording farm suicide
data. The figure could go up as reports of suicides come in from the nooks and
crannies, despite the government’s claim to the contrary.
“Suicides are
expression of despair. The money lenders create different kinds of pressure and
the troubled farmer ends his life, but the problem does not end with it,” said
Swaminathan.
“His family that is
left behind, the widow and children, face even more problems.”
And due to lack of
land rights and access to credit, the widows face a worse situation as they
cannot even cultivate the land.
“Women mostly don’t
have the land “pattas” (registrations) in their name. So they cannot get
institutional credit. The money lenders don’t give them money and moreover, as
land is not in the woman’s name, the in-laws try to snatch it away,”
Swaminathan told IANS in an interview.
The agriculture
sector employs 80 percent of all economically active women. About 18 percent of
the farm families in India
are reported to be headed by women, according to the National Sample Survey
Organisation (NSSO) data.
That is why,
Swaminathan says, safeguarding women farmers’ rights has become all the more
important.
“After visiting several
widows of farmers who committed suicide in Vidarbha (Maharashtra),
I felt safeguarding women farmers’ right needs legislative attention as the
social and traditional structure is against them.”
On his suggestion,
the government formulated a “Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana” (women
farmers’ empowerment programme). But the veteran agri-expert is not satisfied
with its progress as it has been made a part of the National Rural livelihood Mission (NRlM).
“The programme was
made a sub-component of another programme. I am not very happy with its
progress,” Swaminathan stated.
Swaminathan is
pleading for a central agriculture development fund for women farmers and has
moved a private member’s bill in the Rajya Sabha that seeks access to water,
credit and inputs for women farmers.
On the agriculture
sector as a whole, Swaminathan told IANS: “The present situation is both bright
and dark. We are doing well in producing rice and wheat. But when it comes to
other crops, even after the government fixes minimum support price, there are
no procurement agencies, and farmers are left in doldrums.”
He also said that the
gap in planning and implementation is barring farmers from reaping the benefits
of government plans.
“Farming is a
life-saving activity. If farmers are taking their lives, there is something
seriously amiss. We need to address this,” he said.
Following more
farmers’ suicides, Swaminathan has supported introduction of an interest-free
microfinance (IFMF) system in districts.
The government of India has
identified 35 districts as areas of agricultural distress (with farmers’
suicide in large numbers) and labelled these as “agrarian hotspots”.
May 21
He says there is an
urgent need to try out the IFMF model in these areas, with contextual approach
and strategies.
May 20, (IANS)
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