Sunday, April 27, 2008

Why are farmers suiciding in India? What is the problem? Vidharbha is the example that I use in the article.

It is really sad and painfull to see farmers suiciding in many parts of India. the problem used to limited to certain pockets like Vidharba and Andhra Pradesh but today we find farmers suiciding in relatively safer places like Kerala. There are many reasons being attributed to the same. of course the rapid urbanization and the scorching pace of development is a big factor but not the only one. I think the farmers getting into a debt trap and then suicide is a slow process which has been happening for some time and squarely blame the system especially the bureaucracy for having closed its eyes for so long. The farm loan waiver scheme introduced by Mr. Chidambaram in the 2008-09 budget needs to be analysed before we can come to a conclusion that this is going to help the final farmer. My reason for criticising the bureaucracy being the typical case of red tapism being highlighted in the handling of vidharbha suicide victims. cases like not identifying women farmers or wife's of dead farmers, not recognizing the eldest son of the dead farmer, not considering the application of the farmers that have come from outside vidharbha. Has the establishment done enough like spreading awareness of the benefits of growing other crops in Vidharbha other than cotton; something like soyabean etc. The situation in Vidharbha has reached extreme proportions to the extent that girls not willing to marry farmers, wife of the dead farmer being abandoned by the family, old people in the family feeling threatened that they might be killed by their own family as they are entitled for compensation.
Thus the rural part of India which represent 65 or 70% of us is more poorer post liberalaization and the urban cousin continues its unabated growth story. This ensures we now have substanstial divide between the have's and the have not's.

These are cases which have much deeper ramifications in the long run and it is better to be taken up seriously before things become so out of hand that it cannot be managed even at the macro level.

Some Foriegn Education investment statistics on India.

Indian students on any given year currently spend about $ 5 billion on education;graduate university related, including masters and Phd especially in US. An estimated 1.4 lakh students pursue this year on year in search for brighter prospects. Although our country boasts of great education system but I feel we lack in proper regulation in ensuring that higher eductaion in India is channelised and in the right path. Hugher education in India is becoming a commodity as depicted and highlighted by all the employment surveys in India, where manpower shortage in India is not the real issue but shortage of skilled manpoower is the real problem. half of the graduates that pass out are not considered fit enough to be employed. We need tough stance and regulation and just cannot depend the toothless tiger namely the AICTE(All India Council for Technical Education).
Dear Mr. Arjun Singh, please do something on this rather than spending your old energies on Rahul Gandhi and the reservation/quota system.