Narendra Kushwaha's family has been deemed ineligible for compensation.
Unseasonal rain and hailstorm in March have brought Uttar Pradesh to the brink of an agrarian crisis, affecting 25 of the state's 80 districts. Crop losses have dealt a particularly severe blow to landless farmers, who are emerging the invisible casualties of the agrarian crisis.
Unseasonal rain has destroyed crops on large tracts of farmland. And landless farmers, who usually till farmlands leased or rented from landowners, fall through a gap in the system. Government guidelines only provision compensation for lost crop to landowners and not tillers.
Take for instance Munni Devi, of Anjari Village in Bundelkhand region's Jalaun District, who is mourning the death of her son, Narendra Kushwaha. The 40-year-old had hung himself at his house. He owned a small plot of land, and had rented one hectare from a local landowner for Rs 35000, which he had taken on loan. He committed suicide after losing more than half his crop to the untimely rain.
The district administration has said it would pay compensation to the tiller and not the landowner this time, where necessary. But, the relief committee has not found Mr Kushwaha's case fit for compensation. District Magistrate Ram Ganesh Yadav however said the case would be reviewed, when it was pointed out that the records did not reflect that Mr Kushwaha had rented the land.
Activists say this system pushes small farmers into a vicious debt trap. Sanjay Singh, of Parmarth, an NGO, says, "Small and landless farmers remain out of the banking purview and don't get institutional credit, so end up taking loans from moneylenders at high rates in the hope of a good crop, which they are often unable to pay back."