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:
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.
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