Connecting the Dots..

There were innumerable dots in the canvass untidily staggered; some bright and some fading away. The more did I grope to connect those dots, the more I entwined into the maze, following the stories imprinted by those dots. On the face of it, those were the stories of poor farmers’ sheer defeatism and surrender to hopelessness by taking away their own lives. But, You just have to scratch a bit the surface of it and something very unusual comes to fore. Most of these farmers were so called progressive farmers; who were ready to ride onto the so-called second green revolution by venturing into the remunerative cash crops; availing easy “At your Doorstep” Credit from the local Cooperative societies. Then, what really went wrong in this magical formulae of people’s organization like Cooperatives reaching out to the last mile of the farmlands to guide them from subsistence farming to progressive farming. May be the very idea of being cooperative and easy credit was flawed. People never realized that they were lured into the vicious debt cycle after availing the loans from these primary societies at exorbitant rate, much more than what other financial institutions were offering at. This sheer anomaly of highly differentiated pricing for the farmers from different financial institutions (By Government’s own Farming conscious policy Decisions) brought total havoc to Agricultural Finance; which never became a Real Market Place. But, was there any way to these Nationalized Banks for these farmers? First and foremost, the farmers are still considered to be “Unbankable” and then long drawn process with minutely written documents in English and the Managers sitting in these Banks not understanding their language create mayhem with them. More so Technically, once a cooperative society gets an encumbrance over the farmers’ land, they just becomes totally “Out of Bounds” to Banks for any finance. So, big talk of doubling the agriculture credit, financial inclusion and 4 % growth of Agriculture never saw the light of the day in these vast tracts of farmlands. Alternatively, these so-called cooperative societies had mushroomed everywhere, catering to the any need of these farmers at a price that ends up being asking too much finally. What was supposed to be a voluntary membership to the Cooperatives actually became opportunism to have a share in the “Loot” of Government money which was pumped every year to revive these “Dying” Institutions. As the health of these cooperative societies debilitated and Government slowly fastened its “Everflowing” purse strings, the peer pressure of other members and office bearers turned the heat into these farmers. One Newspaper article sums up the grim picture showing one farmer’s suicide Note as saying, “ He is ending up his life because he cannot stand watching his land being auctioned to repay his old debt.” Daily harassment, abuse, fear of losing the land and intermediaries not giving enough prices, pushes them to a wall with their back. There appears no future on horizon and present totally indebted. Suddenly, he come across a news item of one farmer suiciding in the similar conditions and Government giving a big lump sum money as “Compensation” to the deceased family. He knows that this is the moment of life for him and more so for his family. So, you find another dot glaring in this canvass with another story of lost hope. Next day, CSO releases its statistics with a news of Indian Economy rebounding with impressive 9 % growth as its cover story and that cliched suicide story relegates to inside page at some distant corner. The dots are getting bigger and far too many...