Posted on 04/15/2009 11:37:03 AM PDT by LibWhacker
Over 1,500 farmers in an Indian state committed suicide after being driven to debt by crop failure, it was reported today.
The agricultural state of Chattisgarh was hit by falling water levels.
"The water level has gone down below 250 feet here. It used to be at 40 feet a few years ago," Shatrughan Sahu, a villager in one of the districts, told Down To Earth magazine
"Most of the farmers here are indebted and only God can save the ones who do not have a bore well."
Mr Sahu lives in a district that recorded 206 farmer suicides last year. Police records for the district add that many deaths occur due to debt and economic distress.
In another village nearby, Beturam Sahu, who owned two acres of land was among those who committed suicide. His crop is yet to be harvested, but his son Lakhnu left to take up a job as a manual labourer.
His family must repay a debt of £400 and the crop this year is poor.
"The crop is so bad this year that we will not even be able to save any seeds," said Lakhnu's friend Santosh. "There were no rains at all."
"That's why Lakhnu left even before harvesting the crop. There is nothing left to harvest in his land this time. He is worried how he will repay these loans."
Bharatendu Prakash, from the Organic Farming Association of India, told the Press Association: "Farmers' suicides are increasing due to a vicious circle created by money lenders. They lure farmers to take money but when the crops fail, they are left with no option other than death."
Mr Prakash added that the government ought to take up the cause of the poor farmers just as they fight for a strong economy.
"Development should be for all. The government blames us for being against development. Forest area is depleting and dams are constructed without proper planning.
All this contributes to dipping water levels. Farmers should be taken into consideration when planning policies," he said.
Bush’s fault
America should quick damming their rivers with our carbon footprint. < /sarc >
How long before this is cited as evidence of the ravages of global warming?
They sure aren’t acting very hopeychangey over there.
I hope God understands and if reincarcanation does occur, they’re put in a much better position in their next life.
Personally I think He forgot that we can’t always bear what He was able too.
Folks, please. I love to joke around as much as the next guy, but we’re talking about 1,500 DEAD HUMAN BEINGS. Can we please at least act like we give a damn?
um, how did they do it?! where were they?! info please!
This is incredibly sad....my heart breaks for their families.....
This is horribly sad.
People don’t give a damn, that’s why America is headed down the tube, no one cares, “The love of most will grow cold” the goodbook says about the end-times. They were just worthless hindu farmers, who cares, they were beyond the love of God I’m sure .... (oh so people think)
Fifteen hundred different ways, I think. As far as I can tell these people committed suicide over the last year or two or three. Not a mass suicide at all. Just misleading- title-of-the-year material.
That's not true, there is always the option of taking out the moneylender instead of yourself...
I read recently that an average of 17 people die on the Bangalore commuter rail system every day. Most of these involve passengers falling off trains, hanging off the side of a train and striking fixed objects in the right-of-way, or getting electrocuted by overhead wires while riding on top of rail cars.
That's five or six thousand people who die every year just traveling to work. Holy smokes.
I’m afraid you’re right.
More and more lately I see the futility of political action. We are not going to beat the Conspiracy by playing the Conspiracy’s rigged game, but by transcending it. They have tanks, guns, mass media, the education system, and drugs. Our only weapon is love. The only way we’re going to beat them is by loving our neighbors as ourselves, and God above all.
If a museum with 1,500 priceless paintings burns down, people everywhere cry for the loss to humanity, and rightly so. Yet when 1,500 innocent human beings die — each one a unique and priceless work of art — we shrug at the loss.
May God help us, and may God forgive these poor people who killed themselves.
Hooray, Portugal!
I like your term “hopeychangey “. I will use it, and the’s nothing you can do about it.
What does the the red area have in common?
Good point. thank you.
More than 40,000 Americans die on the road every year, all needlessly (we could live without cars), and no one cares. By comparison, we lost something like 50,000 during the entire Vietnam War.
I don’t get it.
Please excuse display of ignorance, but how did this all come about? Who came up with the idea? Who organized it? Chattisgarh is a fairly large state Did someone -- or some group -- travel throughout the state looking for and/or convincing participants in this? How is it that no one in any sort of authority, even a local school teacher, didn't get wind of this and report it? B/c they kept it a secret? All 1,500 + their families? All of them? It would be on the scale of someone traveling around Nebraska trying to convince 1,500 farmers to commit suicide all at once. And how did these Indian farmers do it:"All together now...One...Two..."
It's a nonsensical article, with absolutely no attempt to even pretend to validate the figure given in the first sentence.
120,000 midgets had an earache.
They didn’t do it all at once lol
Why are people in CUBA committing suicide? They have free healthcare and all.....................
Like I said, the whole article is based on journalistic word-play. They are making it sound as if it was one of those Jonestown-esque mass-suicides.
Comparative statistics:
IIRC, that photo was of a train carrying refugees from Bangladesh into India, during the Bangladesh War in 1971.
Mr Prakash added that the government ought to take up the cause of the poor farmers just as they fight for a strong economy.
Usury and bankruptcy laws sound like a good idea.
Looking at the entire map, I'd say that religious beliefs play a large role.
Alos, 1500 people out of a billion is not a very large number to be freaking out about. More people die than that in the USA from slips and falls at home. And they didn’t happen all at once, desapite how some people want to read it into the story.
I don’t hink the Japanese, Iranians and Spanish share much religious parity.
“I like your term “hopeychangey “. I will use it, and the’s nothing you can do about it.”
LOL! Not a problem, since I “borrowed” the term from another FReeper.
You’re right. Their lives were meaningless. Sorry to have interrupted your ball game.
Materialism + lack of sincere Christian belief = hopelessness —> suicide
Then why are the wearing the latest in dhoti and kurta fashions? The kid hanging from the front is wearing an ensemble from the Deepika Govind winter resort 2007 collection.
Look at the picture again, most are Muslim Bengalis wearing white scull-caps.
Don't be a dumb ass, i know you are better than that. I didn't say meaningless, I din't even imply that.
Now, if only their software houses would follow suit.
Private water, public misery Privatisation of water is taking root in India, often aided by political and bureaucratic corruption. Alongside, resistance to this is also building up.
lol actually clintons fault with his special deals with monsanto they sold them the bad seed
IMHO, the media chose its battles.
I imagine a lot of this is going on throughout India, Like a new gold rush. Putting good soil and water into..... cars: India’s Chhattisgarh state completes plantation of 100 million jatropha saplings; 1 million hectares planted by 2012
In India, the Chhattisgarh state minister for forests said that the planting of 100 million jatropha saplings on 40,000 hectares throughout the state has been completed. The state spent $15.1 million on the project, which will ultimately plant 1 million hectares of fallow land with jatropha by 2012, and create 1.43 billion in revenue from the sale of biodiesel.
http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/blog2/2009/02/12/indias-chhattisgarh-state-completes-plantation-of-100-million-jatropha-saplings-1-million-hectares-planted-by-2012/
considering the downward spiral of the economy, could this have been organized by an enterprising mortician?
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