In Silent Protest by Sweta Ramanujan-Dixit, The Hindustan Times, October 3, 2007, Mumbai
 
KAMALBAI PAWAR (50) and Chhaya Rathod (35) sat looking solemn against the dark Marine Drive sky.

The two women, widows of cotton farmers from Kolezari village in Yavatmal district, were in Mumbai on Tuesday to participate in a candlelight vigil organised by Peace Mumbai and Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti. Held on Gandhi Jayanti, it was one of the 200 silent protests organised across the world against farmers' suicides in Vidarbha. There have been 1,729 suicides since the Prime Minister visited the area in 2006.

"The government should do something to stop this," said Pawar, whose husband Gosavi Pawar committed suicide a day before their two daughters were to get married in 2006. He had taken a loan of Rs 50,000. The family lives off jowar produced on its three acre farm.

Rathod's is a similar story. Her husband, Shivlal, committed suicide in December 2006, unable to repay a debt of Rs 65,000. She works on her five-acre land to support her two children and ageing in-laws.

As cameras clicked away, evening walkers on the promenade, located in the city's prime real estate belt, gave the protestors a passing glimpse. Some stopped momentarily before walking away.

A group of Spanish tourists took time out to read the pamphlet distributed by the protestors. "This is terrible," said Sagrario Martin, a midwife from northern Spain. "My grandparents were farmers."

Carmen Martin, an agricultural engineer accompanying Sagrario, said: "In Spain, farmers are looking for other jobs because they cannot afford to buy the equipment needed."

Courtesy: The Hindustan Times, 3rd October 2007, Mumbai,

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Pamphlet distributed at the vigil on 2nd October 2007

JOIN WIDOWS OF VIDARBHA FARMERS IN SOLIDARITY
CANDLE LIGHT VIGIL TO SUPPORT DYING FARMERS
ON GANDHI JAYANTI, 2ND OCTOBER, 7 PM AT MARINE DRIVE, MUMBAI

The increasing suicides among farmers in every part of India is a manifestation of the acute distress in rural India. According to Sharad Pawar, Union Agriculture Minister, more than 100,000 farmers have committed suicide in last one decade. However, Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti figures indicate that Vidarbha farm suicides alone have crossed 865 since January 2007 and around 1729 since July 2006 when Prime Minister released the package to stop farm suicides in west Vidarbha. Around 15 farmers' suicides were reported in a matter of just three days, 27 - 29 September.

A suicide is not the death of one individual, but the trauma of a whole family: widows and orphans, scarred for rest of their lives. These suicides are a blatant and shameful violation of human rights.

Mahatma Gandhi had once said, "This world has enough to satisfy everyone's need but not everyone's greed". This is true in today's India. Though India's economy is booming and the Bombay Stock Exchange has crossed the 17000 mark, more than 65% of our population who eke out their livelihood from farms and farm related activities are not getting enough to meet their daily needs. Several of the governments reports proclaim the pathetic condition of rural India. For example, the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) said that about 836 million people (77%) live on below Rs 20 per day. Yet the UPA government policies are all geared towards benefiting the rich at the cost of the poor majority, mainly the agrarian society.

Even though agriculture share in the India's GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is decreasing, and has gone down to less than 21%, it is still the principal means of livelihood for 65% of India's population which is dependent upon agriculture and agriculture related activities. Employment opportunity in agriculture is negative and there is no scope for absorbing additional labour. The burden of increasing cost of production, drastic reduction in the availability of credit and declining state procurement at remunerative prices has played havoc with the livelihoods of small and marginal farmers. This, coupled with decline in domestic farm prices caused by liberalization of imports and removal of quantitative restrictions (QRs), opened the floodgates for the dumping of cheap subsidized food grains from outside. There is an unprecedented reduction in the per capita availability of food-grains for the rural poor, pushing as large as three quarters of the rural population below the "poverty line". According to the NSSO report, the average monthly per capita consumption expenditure of farm households across India was Rs. 503 in 2003.

The epidemic of farmers' suicide is the real barometer of the stress under which Indian agriculture and Indian farmers have been put by globalization and liberalization of agriculture. Across the country farmers are feeling the pressures building upon them as a result of globalization and corporate takeover. Indebtedness is an inevitable outcome of the capital-intensive corporate model of industrial agriculture. But the Indian government's policy response is to push for further corporatization of agriculture as the solution for agrarian distress! It is being done through facilitating the corporate ownership of land by abolishing the ceiling laws, promoting special economic zones (SEZ), contract farming, private markets (APMC), retail chains, seed monopolization, monopolization of agriculture research, promotion of GMOs, excessive import of food grains, thus depressing domestic prices and facilitating corporate procurement. All this is furthering the farmers' dependence on the corporate sector for both procurement of inputs and marketing of output. This corporate agriculture syndrome continues to govern the policy making of the government.

Gandhiji proposed self sufficiency, sustainable means of livelihood and sustainable farming. But successive Indian governments choose to ignore his vision and brought in the Green Revolution instead; which resulted in: the contamination of lands by toxic pesticides and fertilizers thereby reducing its productivity, indebtedness of farmers, water scarcity and destruction of our agro-diversity and indigenous seeds. There are several reports of failure of genetically engineered Bt. cotton and its harmful effect on animals and human health. Several European countries have banned this technology and even declared GM Free Zone to protect their farmers, their environment, human health and freedom to grow food. But the UPA government is encouraging the use of this failed technology and allowing field trials of food crops. The intensive propagation of Bt. cotton has played havoc with farmers due to its failure in the dryland areas of Vidarbha in Maharashtra and Telangana in Andhra Pradesh because it is highly chemical intensive and water intensive. Most of farm suicides in Vidarbha are by cotton farmers, the majority of whom are cultivating transgenic cotton produced and marketed by US company Monsanto. Yet the Indian government has gone ahead and signed the Knowledge Initiative in Agriculture (as part of Indo-US Nuclear Deal) with the USA which would encourage the use of biotechnology and genetic engineering in agriculture and help MNCs Monsanto, Syngenta, Buyer, Dupont to introduce their hazardous GM seeds of food crops in the Indian market.

India's indigenous agriculture was the mainstay of subsistence farming, where the farm was a balanced ecosystem. It was based on organic manure, local seed varieties and mixed cropping pattern which strengthened our food security, encouraged biodiversity and made our farmers self sufficient. But today farmers do not have food to eat because they cannot eat what they grow- i.e. cash crops, and are completely dependent on market. The time is not far when India will become completely dependent on imports for its food requirement. The UPA government's trade policies are ensuring this with autonomous trade liberalization; by reducing import duty to zero on several food items including wheat. The deliberate move to import wheat every year is a step towards pushing farmers out of farming. By offering a lower Minimum Support Price (MSP) and resorting to imports to meet the buffer stock requirements, the government aims to dismantle the price and procurement mechanisms. This is also a deliberate attempt to subvert the Food Corporation of India and the Public Distribution System, thus jeopardizing provision of subsidised foods to the poor rural community. Instead of importing wheat and other food crops at higher price to benefit multinational grain corporations like Cargill and ITC, the government should offer a higher MSP to its farmers.

Last year, farmers made four major demands to the Prime Minister during his visit to Vidarbha in June/July. These were: waiving off of farmers' debt, better price for their produce, reinstating the Maharashtra State Cotton Monopoly Procurement Scheme and increasing tariffs on cotton imports, besides writing off their loans. Though Mr. Manmohan Singh successfully provided direct incentives to industry through the seed replacement and irrigation schemes under the Rs. 3750 crore package, he deliberately sidestepped issues that went against his liberalisation agenda, i.e. increasing farm prices for cotton, reinstating cotton monopoly scheme and increasing tariffs on imports. Neither did his government waive off the Vidarbha farmers debts completely. A minimum support price of Rs. 2750 per quintal for cotton was promised by the Congress party during elections; but is still not met. Rather the Congress/NCP government in Maharashtra closed several cotton procurement centers in the state leaving farmers at the mercy of private traders.

The Association for India's Development (AID), a volunteer movement based in the US and India, have taken the initiative to organise a global action on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, where individuals and organizations from around the world have joined hands to participate in this unique global solidarity with Indian farmers. Thousands of concerned Indians and world citizens will gather in vigils in more than 50 locations in the US, India and other countries in order to bring urgency and immediate attention to the shocking crisis being faced by India's agricultural community. Even as the central and state governments continue to give them the cold shoulder, India's long-suffering farmers can find warmth and solidarity in the thousands of candles that will light up around the world today.

On the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, we would like to send a strong signal to the Government of Maharashtra and Government of India: that the farmers' crisis has knocked on the conscience of people around the world. Our immediate demands include: restoration of cotton price in Maharashtra, complete loan waiver to dying farmers in order to stop farm suicides in Vidarbha, strengthening the minimum support price system to cover the real cost of production and proactive support to low-input sustainable agriculture. Concerned citizens of Mumbai are invited to join the farmers' relatives and widows from Vidarbha in the vigil and light a candle in solidarity with them.

Peace Mumbai and Vidarbha Jan Aandolan Samiti (VJAS)

For Further Information, Please contact:
Peace Mumbai, C/o Focus on the Global South-India, Tel: 022 – 65921141, 65921151; Email: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ,
Vidharbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS); Email: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it