Daily wage labourers record highest suicide rate followed by agricultural farmers

While the Narendra Modi government has set a target of doubling the income of farmers in the next two years, 10,281 people committed suicide in the last year in the agricultural sector. This is 7.4% of suicides reported in the country in one year.

The National Crime Records Bureau released the statistics pertaining to the year 2019. It is found that Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh topped the list of agricultural farmer suicides.  In the case of West Bengal, no information has been provided. Like last time, this time too, Nabanna did not send the report to the information centre about the number of farmer suicides that have occurred.

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The total number of farmers who committed suicide is 5,957. Out of these, 5,563 are males. The total number of farm labourers who committed suicide is 4,324. Out of these, 3,749 are males. However, the number of suicides committed by daily wage laborers has surpassed the number of suicides in the agricultural sector. In the last year, 32,563 daily laborers have committed suicide in the country, recording 23.4% of the overall suicides.

Indranil Mukherjee, a professor of economics at OP Jindal University in Sonipath, thinks that mental exhaustion from the uncertainty of the profession has pushed them towards suicide. He said, "The income of both farmers and laborers in this country is largely uncertain. That uncertainty is pushing them towards suicide. The situation has worsened as the supply of cash has declined. As a result of the lockdown this year, the situation could be even worse next year.”

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Attacking the Modi government on the basis of these figures, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, "Nearly 42,000 farmers and daily wage laborers have died in the last one year due to the government's misguided economy. The government has set a target of doubling the income of farmers while the number of farmers committing suicide every year is increasing. But the Prime Minister is silent.”

Overall, however, the analysis of suicidal tendencies has shown that most people choose to commit suicide because of family problems. About 32.4% of people committed suicide due to family reasons. About 17.1% of people committed suicide because they could not bear the pain of physical illness, 2% due to unemployment, 4.5% due to heartbreak and marriage problems.

5.5% of people committed suicide due to other problems in their lives. Judging by age, people aged 30-45 have a higher risk of suicide (33,518). The majority of suicide cases were reported between 18-30 age group. In the last one year, about 30,883 people in the age group committed suicide across the country.

Chennai has the highest suicide rate among the big cities. It is followed by Delhi, Bangalore, and Mumbai. The tendency to commit suicide is much less in Kolkata. In Chennai, 2,461 people committed suicide last year, while the number is 161 in Kolkata.
 

• Daily wage laborers
• farmers
• agriculture
• suicide