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Farmers suicides and Mental health



In India, it is estimated that 16,000 farmers die by suicide each year.
Suicide is usually associated with mental illness, which in farming communities, appears to be particularly stigmatized and poorly understood.
"In India we haven't done good research on farmers' suicides and in terms of mental health, this has always been seen as a social issue. By far the most common mental disorder that contributes to the risk are stress and depression which can be a result of a range of social and health factors, especially in rural communities.
Depression is one of the main factors which affects farmers and their families to give up on their lives.
The five most affected states are :

  •  Maharashtra (3,141)
  • Karnataka (2,585)
  • Andhra Pradesh (2,525)
  • Madhya Pradesh (1,237)
  • Chattisgarh (1,126)
The most of the suicides happened in these states and the main reason behind this is Agrarian Crisis. 
Thirty-two years after the first farmer suicide,  where the farmerbsaid that he was ending his life because of the Agrarian Crisis,  nothing has changed.
Instead the crisis has deepened and the farmers suicides have multiplied. " said Amar Habib one of the activists.
According to The National Crime Records Bureau of India reported in its 2012 annual report, that 135,445 people committed suicide in India, of which 13,755 were farmers (11.2%)
Psychological help is a new and scattered effort through many states are witnessing distress suicides by farmers.
Society for rural Rural and Urban Joint Activities (SRUJAN), a grassroot level non profit,  is working with the farmers in Yavatmal District of Maharashtra 2005 onwards on farmers distress related issues.
They have their own psychiatrist who help farmers in dealing with the stress or depression they are going through.

In rural India, the challenges of addressing mental illness are particularly significant. The country lacks resources in the field, and most of the available resources are located in major cities or highly urbanised states. According to the 2015-16 National Mental Health Survey, the number of psychiatrists in the country varied from 0.05 for every 100,000 persons in Madhya Pradesh (central India) to 1.2 in southeastern Kerala. 

Decades after independence, farmer suicides continue be a major problem in India and are a testimony to the broken rural credit markets that need urgent reform.






References :

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0020764009103645?journalCode=ispa

https://www.ijcmph.com/index.php/ijcmph/article/view/422

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301274754_Factors_associated_with_the_farmer_suicide_crisis_in_India

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-32827047

Picture Courtesy:
https://www.newsclick.in/understanding-indias-agrarian-crisis-beyond-pink-bollworms-and-poor-monsoons

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