Vidarbha farmers suicide..

Am back to discuss the state of Indian Agriculture and this time i focus on the much debated Vidarbha farmers suicide which made the Prime Minister to intervene and direct the then Maharashtra government to take up the matter on priority. The incident also forced the then Finance Minister Chidambaram to declare a loan waiver scheme for farmers.

Again i borrow extensively from the trusted words of P Sainath, a journalist of repute on this.

It dates back to 2006 were the six districts of Vidarbha, suicides were the order of the day. Between 2005 June to 2006 June there were 600 deaths.

The Prime Minister announced that he will be touring Vidarbha and then the Maharashtra government began to act. Officials were sent to all parts. A top bureaucrat from Mumbai in Nagpur ordered that suicides 'must stop' by the month-end. How simple that sounds. And if it is, why did they not turn off the tap earlier? Some officials, ordered out into the villages, have phoned journalists to ask: "Where should we go?" Ministers' are visiting places they've never heard of or seen in years. The Prime Minister announced Rs 3750 crore relief package, and since then over 90 suicides have were reported in a single month.

Mr Sharad Pawar, it seems, is the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) chief first and union agriculture minister later. In any case, cricket is more profitable than agriculture. Mr Pawar has missed cabinet meetings on agricultural issues at a time when farm sector crisis was that big but he did make the time to attend meetings on cricket at Doha and Qatar and elsewhere.

The then Chief minister Deshmukh and union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar who is from the state had not even visited a single suicide-affected family or village till they were forced to accompany the PM in June 06. That itself shows how serious the state government and state leaders perceived the situation to be, and it wasn't as if there were no reports. The media was writing about it, local politicians were bringing it up, sections of the bureaucracy knew what was happening. There was simply no response.

Take the minimum support price (MSP). This Congress-NCP came to power in October 2004 on the promise that it would restore the MSP of cotton to Rs 2700 per quintal. Then, within a year, the government drops the MSP to Rs 1700 per quintal. Just restoring it to the pre-2005 level would have saved lives this year. Then, they withdrew the advance bonus of Rs 500 per quintal which would have cost the government Rs 1100 crore a year. Its a decision which costs many a farmers lives. On top of it, the chief minister keeps saying suicides have nothing to do with prices.

Lets look at the way the government fudged suicide figures. Initially, government officials told the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) that only 141 farmers had committed suicide between 2001 and 2004, then they told the Bombay High Court that 524 had committed suicide in the four-year period, in October 2005 they told the NCF that the figure was 309 only for Yavatmal. Two months later, the government told the state assembly that 1041 farmer suicides had been recorded in the period. Then, of course, the PM was given a figure of 1600 plus in six districts, of which 574 had been recorded in the last one year, prior to his visit.

This is almost the same pattern which gets repeated in many states and Vidarbha was just the tip of the iceberg.

Every suicide has a multiplicity of causes, the farmer has been harassed for years in a row, finds himself in a debt trap where he has to take private credit to pay off earlier credit, he is not eligible for fresh bank credit because banks term him a defaulter, he owes money to the moneylender, the seed agent, the pesticide agent, a string of local sahukars from whom he has taken money for medical emergencies or weddings and so on. In such circumstances, any trigger is enough to take the extreme last step: it could a be fight with his wife, or it could be another insult from the moneylender or someone forcibly taking over his land/house for defaulting. What's completely appalling is that local officials record various silly reasons for suicides and the family doesn't become eligible for state compensation, if and when it's given. In Vidarbha, officials who had made excuses for not giving compensation last many months were running around on the eve of PM's visit to hand over the cheques, without any verification.

Many farmers who committed suicide were experienced farmers, who had been at it for years together yet saw no light at the end of the tunnel. They were not novices but had at least 15-20 years of experience of withstanding drought, inhospitable conditions. Many of them had a good elementary education, they had passed Class Xth at least.

Then, there's the new emerging sahukar in these villages. He used to be the agricultural extension officer, now he's the technical expert, he's a lender, also doubles up as agent for seed companies like Monsanto or pesticide companies. He makes money in three ways - he sells seeds and pesticides at higher rates, he charges an usurious two and a half per cent per hundred or 30 per cent per annum on credit extended to the farmer, he also claims the first right on produce and gives low prices to the farmer but sells at higher prices in the market.

Let us focus on the policies of the government. Monsanto made easy money on royalty and technology costs while the Indian farmer was killing himself over the high seed prices. The local seeds were Rs 7 a kilo in 1991, the commercial varieties cost Rs 80-100 per kilo even ten years back. Monsanto seeds cost nearly Rs 3800 a kilo, now they cost about half. Similarly, all input prices were allowed to explode…a DAP bag cost Rs 100 in 1991, it now costs between Rs 480 and Rs 500. Water and electricity costs exploded. Farmers were told that Bt seed would not attract bollworm and they would save on pesticides, but in reality they had to buy pesticides even for the Bt seed and these pesticides cost more than the usual varieties they had used. Then, governments go around depressing output prices and withdrawing advance bonus.

While the US protects its 20,000 cotton growers with subsidies of $4.7 billion in 2004-05, our governments take away support prices and bonuses. The value of crop that year in the US was $3.9 billion. The subsidies meant cheaper cotton in the international market; it destroyed cotton farmers from Vidarbha to West Africa.

Farmer suicides is a matter of shame for our country and should be a matter of top priority for our government. I fully support the loan waiver scheme for the distress farmers provided it reaches the intended beneficiaries. The FM in terms of Stimulus Package to boost sagging economy dolls out huge subsidies to corporate world and then when the same is done for farmers, many raise a great hue and cry which is deploring to say the least. If the Government doesn't pull up its socks now, from being a self sufficient country in producing food grains and cereals we will end up depending on importers for our survival.

How to expose corrupt practices of an NGO ?????

All of a sudden a need has arisen to write on something which badly needs attention. I will make a request before you read this article. Please write comments. It’s the need of the hour for this blog. And also do forward this to your friends so that something can be done.

Let me begin what I want to convey. India is home to crores of people who live below poverty line and there are lot of NGO’s working for the upliftment of them in their own way. There are lot of very good NGO’s which are professionally managed and have made a mark in their quest towards reaching the goals. Similarly there are tons of corrupt NGOs whose sole objective is to make money in the name of uplifting people.

I have come across an NGO which to the outer world is doing a great job but internally they are making crores of rupees using someone’s name. I am going to write about the corrupt practices followed in making money.

The NGO raises huge sums of money from the corporate world, especially IT companies in the name of kids and nobody gets to know how much was spent from the amount received. IT companies as part of their social commitments as well as for tax savings purpose dole out huge sums of money to them and they hardly make verification on the expenses in this regard. Let me cite a few instances of this corrupt practice.

They say that the organization has 40 employees. And they are paying an average salary of 20000 per month which amounts to Rs 8 lak per month and 96 lakhs per year. They get the money and they give 50% of it to employees and rest goes for personal expenses.

They quote a figure of Rs 24000 per year for maintenance of a boy or girl. They have around 300 kids. It amounts to 72 lakh per year. And the amount they actually spend on them is a pittance. Kids have to take bath in cold water early morning. The things (books, clothes, watches…) which are given to students by philanthropists are again sold to these kids by asking them to pay some money for the same.

These kids are talented and they regularly take part in shows organized by different groups. A sum of Rs 20000 to Rs 40000 per show is charged as fee and the kids who perform get a paltry 250Rs per head.

One of the employees of the organization who is highly talented despite having physical disabilities gets around Rs 30000 per month from a UN organization. The NGO doesn’t give the money to him and pays him a salary of Rs 6000 per month for having him employed.

One of the fund raisers for the organization approached a corporate entity. She was asked to give the accounts for last year’s contribution which they had made in lakhs. When the fund raiser asked expenditure report from the higher ups in the NGO she was forced to quit.

One of the trustees leads the life of a king. He has spent 2 lak for 2 days in a hospital for his wife for a very trivial reason. One trustee resides abroad and actively campaigns there to raise crores of rupees for the NGO. All of them own big houses at posh locations.

And these guys are all powerful. They have links with all the top politicians. If someone threatens to expose them they have solid underworld connections to ensure that the matter is dead and buried. The employees fear revolting for the same reason. The driver of a trustee was hacked to death under the guise of accident.

The NGO is neither growing nor shrinking. If it grows then it leads to public scrutiny and they fear this. If it shrinks they will not be able to get enough money. They ensure it remains afloat which suits them perfectly to make more money.
Friends I want you all to do me a favor. Suggest ways to expose this massive nature of corruption in the name of the underprivileged.

I have thought a few but want to know your opinion. Initially thought of conveying it to the print media but felt that they might capitalize on this rather than expose the corruption. But the options are open where in a credible media guy can do a good job of exposing this but how to find a credible guy.

Another option is to somehow managing to get the names of corporate world and philanthropists who have contributed handsomely to this NGO. Write a detailed letter to all asking them to ascertain whether the funds are properly utilized for what they are meant to.

I am not naming the NGO in this article as it might put the future of many genuine people working over there at stake. But certainly want to ensure that the people who are running this are held accountable.

I once again request one and all to convey their opinions to tackle this menace. Pass it on to your friends so that something can be done to make the NGO more accountable. Am just referring to one NGO but there are countless such corrupt NGOs. I do not want to generalize all of them as bad but do enquire about what they are into before you decide to contribute. I sincerely hope that through your opinions we all can do something fruitful to stop this imperil. It’s over to you all. You can place comments next to the title of the blog by clicking the numeral.

The Dog & The Donkey

Friends here's a change in my posting. More on Agriculture will follow. Today got a mail forward from my friend Sharath. Its a small story on the dog and the monkey. Read it and how you interpret it is your choice :-) :-)

There was once a washer man who had a donkey and a dog. One night when the whole world was sleeping, a thief broke into the house, the washer man was fast asleep too but the donkey and the dog were awake. The dog decided not to bark since the master did not take good care of him and wanted to teach him a lesson.

The donkey got worried and said to the dog that if he doesn't bark, the donkey will have to do something himself. The dog did not change his mind and the donkey started braying loudly.

Hearing the donkey bray, the thief ran away, the master woke up and started beating the donkey for braying in the middle of the night for no reason.

Moral of the story "One must not engage in duties other than his own"

Now take a new look at the same story...

The washer man was a well educated man from a premier management institute.
He had the fundas of looking at the bigger picture and thinking out of the box. He was convinced that there must be some reason for the donkey to bray in the night.. He walked outside a little and did some fact finding, applied a bottom up approach, figured out from the ground realities that there was a thief who broke in and the donkey only wanted to alert him about it. Looking at the donkey's extra initiative and going beyond the call of the duty, he rewarded him with lot of hay and other perks and became his favorite pet.

The dog's life didn't change much, except that now the donkey was more motivated in doing the dog's duties as well. In the annual appraisal the dog managed "ME" (Met Expectations) .

Soon the dog realized that the donkey is taking care of his duties and he can enjoy his life sleeping and lazing around.

The donkey was rated as " star performer". The donkey had to live up to his already high performance standards.

Soon he was over burdened with work and always under pressure and now is looking for a NEW JOB ...

Disclaimer: All characters in the story are not at all imaginary.
Any resemblance to person living or dying of work is purely intentional