Chronicle Editor
Amravati (India) — More female farmers are committing suicide in the western Indian state of Maharashtra where a decades-long agrarian crisis has reportedly driven more than 30 000 farmers to end their lives.
Al Jazeera managed to access government data collated by local authorities that shows that in the Amravati district alone, since 2018, 22 female farmers have ended their lives, with an average of one suicide a month.
But, experts and advocacy activists in the field believe the situation is far worse and the Indian government’s policies to withhold data about it might only be complicating the situation.
At the state level, across the other 35 districts of Maharashtra, authorities told Al Jazeera that there was no gender-segregated data available. The western state saw the number of farmers’ suicides doubled to 11 995 in the last four years, according to a government figure revealed in a Right to Information query.
Federally, the Indian government, till 2015, used to publish annual statistics of farmer suicides in the country. But, for the last four years, the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has blocked its release and publicly said that it does not maintain this data any more.
As a result, experts believe the actual number of female farmer suicides is increasing as a result of women being pushed into the agrarian distress that engulfs the region. This is driven by various reasons — from being forced to take on the mantle of a breadwinner without adequate government support to heavy farm debts incurred due to losses. — Al Jazeera
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