VIJAY Jawandhias voice cannot be ignored. He is a leading farm activist in Vidarbha, the region in Maharashtra that has Indias highest rate of farmers suicide eight every day. A founder-member of the Shetkari Sanghatana, he is also president of the Kisan Coordination Committee, a coalition of farmers organisations across the country.
He says farmers never get the price they hope to get when they sow a crop. This is because they take up a crop that commands a high price, but then increased production is used as an excuse to reduce prices. This year, when we started selling soyabean, it was Rs.1,400 a quintal. Now, after everything is sold, the price has gone up to Rs.2,000, he says. Its the same for all crops. Right now, farmers are not getting the international price of wheat, which is Rs.1,600-2,000 a quintal. The support price is still only Rs.1,050-1,150. The government would rather import at a high price than pay Indian farmers the market rate.
The entire system works against the producers of essential commodities, says Jawandhia. He explains: To keep food cheap for poor people, the government is keeping food producers poor. Instead of increasing the subsidy for food distributed under the ration system, they are transferring the burden on to farmers. That is why they are keeping support prices low. If the government were to stabilise prices at todays higher prices for three years, it would see a sea change in the rural economy.
Inflation has hit the rural economy too, he says. People cannot afford medical facilities or education. A CT [computed tomography] scan or MRI [magnetic resonance imaging] costs around Rs.4,000. How can anyone earning the average rural income of Rs.1,500 a month afford it? People in villages are living because they are not dying, he says. Jawandhia points to the widening gap between urban and rural India and says, Urban India is becoming Super India and Bharat is becoming Ethiopia.
Dionne BunshaCOMMents
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