New Delhi: A Right to Information response has revealed that a district in West Bengal saw 122 deaths by suicide among farmers and those associated with agricultural work, The Hindu has reported. The figure is contrary to claims by the state government and also the most recent National Crime Records Bureau report, both of which have deaths by suicide among people associated with agricultural activities as zero.
The newspaper report notes that in response to a query filed by activist Biswanath Goswami, the State Public Information Officer and Deputy Superintendent of Police (D&T) of Paschim Medinipur district provided the details of farmer and farm-related suicides collected from 23 police stations across that district.
In addition to 122 deaths by suicide among farmers and farm labourers in 2021 in Paschim Medinipur, the response to the query also revealed that 34 farmers and farm labourers died by suicide in the district in 2022 so far.
The report notes that the West Bengal government has, for the past several years, “maintained in public forums and the state assembly that there has not been a single farmer and farm-related suicide in the state.”
The NCRB’s Accidental Deaths and Suicides 2021 report also does not record any deaths by suicide among farmers or people who earn a livelihood from agricultural activities in Bengal for 2021.
Last year, news of three farmers having been found dead in West Bengal’s rice bowl of Purba Bardhaman district within a span of two days had made waves. The dead farmers’ families had claimed that they died by suicide after Cyclone Jawad led to untimely rains which destroyed potato and paddy crops.
Down to Earth had noted from the latest NCRB findings that 5,563 agricultural labourers died by suicide in 2021 across India. The number had increased by 9% from 2020 and by around 29% from 2019.
The most deaths by suicides among agricultural workers were reported from Maharashtra (1,424), followed by Karnataka (999) and Andhra Pradesh (584).
Among states and Union Territories which had zero reported cases were West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Tripura, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Chandigarh and Lakshadweep.