Repeated crop loss and loans pushed farmer Kashiram Sabre to commit suicide
In Madhya Pradesh's Badi Mungaoli village, farmer Kashiram Sabre committed suicide by hanging himself in the backyard of his hut in December last year. He was weighed down by repeated crop loss over the last two years and a loan of Rs 1 lakh that he had taken for the marriage of his daughters.
The Sabre family owns a little less than three acres of land and has been facing losses in farming due to erratic weather and now drought. Kashiram's son, Vishal, has opted to work as a labourer instead of taking the risk of sowing a new crop.
"For the last two-three years we have been facing losses, we were unable to pay loan. So my husband ended his life. He was disturbed because of the loan. We have not got any crop insurance money for this year, only Rs 2000 a few years ago," Kashiram's wife Shanti Sabre told NDTV.
Just 10 kilometres away in Hasanpur village, NDTV met Gendalal Mewada who owns seven acres of land. He has sown wheat but crop on four acres has been damaged because of drought. Last year, his soya bean crop was destroyed because of erratic rainfall but he has not got any compensation for that.
"There is no water, tube wells with depth of 125 feet have dried up as well. I have not got last year's compensation. PM will address a rally here addressing us farmers today. I am hopeful that he will certainly help us," he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be addressing a farmer's convention today in nearby Sherpur village in Sehore district where he will tell farmers about the benefits of the new crop insurance policy. The PM, in the next few weeks, will be addressing three more such conventions in other parts of the country.
The state government for the last two weeks has been working round-the-clock to make the PM's farmers convention in Sehore a grand success. They are hoping some five lakh farmers will attend the convention. The administration, however, refuses to acknowledge or comment on the seven farmer suicide deaths reported in the district in the last one year.