Sunday 17 February 2019

Is it enough?

Farmers are rightly said to be the backbone of our nation. For us, it is almost impossible to imagine a life without them. Thus the saying: Jai Jawan Jai Kisan. They are integral to the society and are one with the nation's very soul.

 Farmers work tirelessly in order to provide us with the basic necessities of life; devoting their entire existence to that cause. There are many farmers who live below the poverty line and require money in order to support their livelihood. The climate change we've caused has messed up with the cycle of seasons, leading to the scarcity of water supply. This is because the level of rainfall in many regions are turning low, giving rise to droughts. These droughts result in the land drying and heating up, the plants planted in these regions dying or not even getting a chance to sprout.

This further leads to a massive loss for the farmers as their entire livelihood is destroyed right before their eyes. Big farmers with acres of land and crores of profits might obtain artificial water supply for their farms from places that received adequate rainfall but small farmers are the ones who are in deep trouble as they cannot afford artificial irrigation for their crops. Thus they resort to using the water from the wells and when it dries up too, they try to tend the plants with the water they use for personal hygiene as a last attempt.

 But most of the time it isn't enough, keeping in mind that the farmers also have to provide for their families. They usually sell their domestic animals at low prices in order to obtain money to survive. Till the money runs out, the farmers desperately try for another job or pray for a miracle: for the dark clouds to show up and bless them with an abundance of water when it seems like all hopes are lost.

 But the very nature of a miracle is that they are rare and hoping for it would not guarantee it. The farmers might have already taken loans that they now cannot repay. It is not because they don't want to repay, but they don't have money for themselves in the very first place. Finally they decide to mortgage their land in order to pay off their debts, but because of the relatively small land-holding, it still isn't possible for them to pay it all off.

 This leads to the farmers getting chased by the officials in order to complete repaying their loans, putting a huge financial stress on their heads, urging them to make desperate life changing, sometimes, life ending decisions. Statistics say that 6,351 farmers committed suicide in 2016 because of lack of resources.

 The government has come up with schemes for the farmers' financial relief, including the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sanman Nidhi initiative recently. It provides marginalized farmers 6000 rupees per year. But the question remains that between farm, families and debts, is it really enough?

Watch the opinion expressed down here:


(views expressed are personal) 

Use the hashtag #FarmersDeserveMore to show your support to the farmers. 






A Support Of Six Thousand


 Recently, the Government of India launched a new initiative intended to benefit the farmers of our nation. This scheme is known as Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi and is to ensure that the small Indian farmers, especially the ones in the rural areas will be provided with a certain amount of money as financial support given to them by the government every year. Indian agriculture sector makes up for 18 per cent of India's gross domestic product (GDP) and offers employment to 50% of the country's workforce. India is a largely agrarian country and even though it is developing, farmers still remain a very important part of our nation. Many of them continue to live below the poverty line, trying their best to make ends meet. With the help of this initiative, about one hundred and twenty million small and marginal Indian farmers  will be benefited. These farmers, who have less than 2 hectares, which is equal to 4.9 acres of land holding, will obtain up to six thousand rupees (which is approximately US $83) per year as minimum income support directly from the government.

 The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme was announced by the current finance minister Piyush Goyal during the 2019 Interim Union Budget of India which took place on the 1st of February 2019. The scheme, which was established during the office of prime minister Narendra Modi, will cost seventy five thousand crore (approximately US $10 billion) per annum and has come into effect from December 2018.

Six thousand rupees per year will be paid to each eligible farmer with the help of three separate instalments of two thousand rupees each. This will be transferred and deposited directly to their bank accounts from the government.

The eligibility criteria for attaining this benefit is as follows: the name and the gender of the land owner should be given in the database along with their social classification, in order to check whether they are a part of the scheduled tribes or scheduled castes. They must also give their Aadhaar number, their bank account number and mobile number as well.

The Janshan Bank Account Number, Aadhaar number and mobile number will help in identifying eligible beneficiaries and distinguishing them from all the fake claimants. The farmers having cultivated land of two hectare or less will be considered as being eligible for this scheme.

This initiative by the government was met with mixed responses and reviews from the opposition and the general public. While some people appreciated that the government was offering some sort of financial aid to the small farmers, many thought the amount provided by the government to them wasn't enough to support their livelihood. Rahul Gandhi opposed by saying that giving farmers Rs.17 per day is an insult to everything they stand and work for. Some farmers say that the aid was too little and too late, instead wanting the government to provide them with minimum support price for their crops.

Click here for the Twitter Moment I've created on this topic.