Starting Somewhere
I stumbled upon a website downtoearth.org.in unsure of who runs it but made me think hard about the subject they wrote about, one piece of data - In last 23 years from 1995 till 2018 total number of farmers that have taken to suicide in India are 353802 which means 1 every 34 minutes. Is this a number or it’s a life is a function of who sees this?
Got me thinking about some friends who have given up cushy corporate roles to work for organisations that are doing their bit, taking to this one step at a time trying their best to protect one village one group one community at a time
I wonder whose responsibility is this government's, NGOs, yours, mine, corporates or the poor farmer himself who sees no end to the misery in their own life.
Enough experts speak of the reason for farmer suicide being depression, how scary is it that for a nation of 1.4 Billion people of which ~16% of the GDP sits with a depressed prime mover. I wonder without a perfect answer to that and just feel ashamed of the luxuries of life that I enjoy as an individual, who has possibly forgotten their villages farms and the entire dreamlike feel of the villages.
What many of my generation remember as a beautiful dream from childhood is the worst nightmare of many.
Another statistic that makes me lose sleep is that fact that 60% chances are that the farmer who would have taken to ending their life are farmers that grow cotton; which means every 57 minutes a cotton farmer gives up and another family loses hope, support system, smile, and a chance of bare necessities being met.Something to ponder about with the consumption boom of post liberalisation in India…
what’s going on?...is the growth not enough...are there too many middle men... or there something else or maybe a combination of all of these.
I do hope to explore a little of the above points over the subsequent articles, I do hope that I present some relevant facts to all of you, and get your attention towards the prime mover of our product value chains…the first guy probably needs more than a buck
In case there is something that you feel is relevant and you would like me to add in the next article, please leave that in the comments below and I will make best efforts to work on them.