From a farmer's son

Leave aside politics but the recent state elections in India are a dark reminder of the discontent, grief and anger of farmers across the country, perhaps accumulated over many years but now coming to the fore more prominently. I am also not going to talk about the government initiatives of the present government or the past government for farmers because that’s a never-ending debate. Unfortunately, the farmers plight doesn’t seem to abate irrespective of which government comes to power. In fact, the problem is too magnanimous for a government to solve on its own, I think.

I want to explore if we at an individual level can take responsibility of the farmer community ourselves and align ourselves, be with them, with their feelings. It’s time that we as the better off citizens step in to do what we can do.

Let’s look at some statistics to get a glimpse of the farmer community in India.

·        70% of the population ( around 840 million ) depend directly or indirectly on agriculture

·        Small and marginal farmers account for 86% of all farmers earning Rs. 79,779 ( $1100) per year as per 2015-16 figures, roughly about Rs. 6000 ( $85) per month.

·        Farmer suicides account for 11.2% of all suicides and some of them are committed for an amount as low as Rs.10,000 ( $145). Failure of crops is the number one reason also because the farmer depends on rain for his crop which has become increasingly unpredictable. He falls into a debt trap unable repay money.

·        Total farming area is going down, from 159 million hectares in 2010-11 it came down to 157 million hectares. Various reasons but lack of attractive remuneration, urban migration, non-viability of farming are common factors.

There are various other statistics that could be presented to understand the state of affairs of farmers but I would also like to draw from my own experience due to my association with farmers since the past some time and also because I come from a farmer’s family myself.

Villages even today lack a regular supply of water and electricity, these are the basic needs for the community to move forward. I am not talking of remote villages even, some as close as 50 kilometers from a district headquarters or a metro city. 

Disparity between urban and rural is increasing. Urban aspirations are going up with our rising incomes and peer competition whereas rural aspirations are still stuck around necessities of food, clothing, shelter, water, education.

Most of my friends in cities have no clue about what a farmer’s life is, what he does and what he goes through. Believe me, I am not blaming them but they have never visited a village in their life to be able to empathize with the farmer. Few months back, I took some of my friends to a village where I do small charity and they were surprised at the lifestyle of these farmers, how they live, what they wear etc. For them, this was something they witnessed for the first time and it moved them.

Most farmers’ children are forced to leave school early and few complete their high school. The reasons are simple-they don’t see any value or application of education. They don’t know what opportunities are available. At least if they support their family tilling lands or herding cattle, they would be of use and so they leave school.

Farmers are bunch of shy folks and lack in confidence. It’s not easy to lecture them about opportunities available, they won’t get out of their shell easily. Every village must produce a role model for them to get inspired for them to try an emulate that person, its only when they see someone from their community do it, they might see a ray of hope. But for the role model to really go out and make it, he needs to be a super hero. Hard for us to imagine what it takes.  

My father came from a small village and walked around 10 kilometers every day just to go to school. He was the only one from his village, then. When he took that first step, his brothers got inspired, they followed him . Together they had an accomplished life it and retired successfully in different positions. Because of my father, his generation took a massive leap, otherwise, I could have been easily tilling farms like some of his friends’ sons. I am sure there are many examples like my father, but this is sadly just a tiny drop in the ocean, really.

So what’s the way forward? It’s a complicated and large issue and there are no easy answers or easy solutions. Again, drawing from my personal experience, I feel that every village has a star child and if that star is groomed, his family comes out of the shackles of poverty. If you visit a village, few curious kids hang around you, wanting to have a conversation, they ask interesting questions, it’s not difficult to spot them. If we, individually are able to take responsibility of this one star by providing him for his needs at least till he attains graduation, that would be a good step forward. A simple math- even if 0.1% of us are able to hand hold that one star child, together, we would be able to help 1.2 million children take a giant leap forward. And this wont cost a lot of money, really.

Imagine what it would mean to that one individual’s life, his family and his future generation.

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