Faced With Mounting Debt, Gujarat Cotton Farmer's Son Kills Himself

Dharai: 21-year-old Arvind Nagani of Dharai village in Gujarat's Saurashtra had taken some days off from his studies to help his father sell off their cotton produce at a marketing yard 15 km away from his village. Arvind's family was already under stress with barely a decent produce from their seven bighas of land this year. On Wednesday, when he was told that his produce will fetch just about Rs 820 per bale at the yard, the third year science student was aghast, as it was hardly enough to cover up for the input price spent by his father, which was almost Rs 1000 per bale. Minutes after speaking to his father from the yard, Arvind doused himself with kerosene and set himself afire.

"He called up his father and told him that the support price was very low, and that it would not cover the input cost. He sounded distraught as the losses were mounting up. And with the price that was on offer it seemed we were in for huge losses this year," lamented Arvind's elder brother Odhavbhai Nagani, a police constable. "He was a sharp student and was planning further studies. He wanted to be a teacher," said Odhav.

The Nagani family is not the only one pushed to the brink due to low cotton produce and the Minimum Support Price (MSP) announced by the government this year, which farmers feel is inadequate. They have already hit the streets in protest, not just in Saurashtra but Ahmedabad as well. Protest rallies have been taken out demanding a revision of MSP for cotton. The farmers fear that more families could meet the same fate as Naganis.

"The farmers and their children who assist them in farming are getting restless. We could have more Arvinds if the government doesn't step in," feared Dharai sarpanch Ramesh Jada.

The government maintains that it has already announced a package for the farmers. A state government spokesman said the Rs 1100 crore package is aimed at providing relief to the farmers. But the farmers allege that the compensation package too late and too little to help thousands of cotton farmers to tide over the crisis.

"They have refused to revise the MSP and despite repeated representation, the BJP government is doing little to help farmers cover their losses," said former Rajkot MP and Congress leader Kunwarji Bavaliya.