Farmers suicides

Adopted at the 20^th Congress of the CPI(M), Kozhikode, April 4-9, 2012

 

The 20^th Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) expresses its deep anguish at the continuing phenomenon of distress-induced suicides among farmers in different parts of India. These suicides of farmers have come to be the most visible manifestation of the crisis of livelihoods that liberalisation and imperialist-led globalisation has unleashed in the Indian countryside after 1991. It is a reflection of the decline in public investment in agriculture, slow growth of agricultural output, adverse terms of trade and decline in the share of cultivators in the value addition.

 

The 20^th Congress of the CPI(M) notes with grave concern that, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), between 1995 and 2010, there were a total of 2,56,913 suicides of Indian farmers. A substantial number of these are related to the impact of the agrarian crisis.