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| Bundelkhand plaguedbyfarmer suicide |
| The difference this time around is that the administration may just be forced to take note, if they want to be elected.
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| INDIA
, 28-April-2007
1:52:2 AM |
| On Saturday, over 1.5 crore voters in Uttar Pradesh will decide the fate of over 800 candidates, including three ministers in the Mulayam Singh government.
Death-trap farmers across the country are committing suicide because of their inability to pay off their debts. Bundelkhand in Uttar Pradesh is another such region.
The difference this time around is that the administration may just be forced to take note, if they want to be elected.
Farmer suicides
Kishori found a way out of the Rs 80,000 debt he could not pay back and the attacks from moneylenders. Today, the family he left behind weeps for him.
But beyond life, he can smile, as the dead pay no debts.
''We go hungry everyday,'' complained Shobha Devi, Kishori's wife.
NDTV: Has anyone from the administration come?
Shobha Devi: No one has come.
NDTV: How much was the debt?
Shobha Devi: Rs 80,000.
In Padua village in UP's Banda region, NDTV came across grandmothers, guardians to their orphaned grandchildren, as men have migrated for work.
These are the family members of hundreds of farmers who took loans dreaming of a crop in their fields and their children eating two square meals.
But Bundelkhand's 70,000 sq mile is a hostile terrain for crops and when it comes to water, both the government and the Gods fail the farmers.
This has made the margin of survival here narrow and the presence of suicides overwhelming.
''Whenever someone commits suicide or there is a big incident, only then do the administrators come. They assure us and leave,'' said Bobby, Social Activist.
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