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in focus SEPTEMBER 20-26, 2015
There’s Life after Death How companies, government and NGOs have come together to alleviate distress in drought-hit Karnataka where the farmer suicide rate is the highest in a decade :: Sowmya Aji | Tumakuru
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etting a model for saving the farmer, the Tumakuru district administration in Karnataka has worked out an action plan combining funds from government, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and NGOs in a desperate effort to stop suicide. In a unique attempt, they also want to crowdsource funds from individuals to specific beneficiaries in the farm sector through a private platform MicroGraam, and will put up individual stories, pictures and programmes. People can fund the farmers — in small amounts — for specific subsidiary occupations to ensure that they survive. “It is an implementation of the CSR and public funding model along with government funding that prime minister Narendra Modi was talking of for Swachh Bharat and Swachh Vidyalaya. We are applying it to prevent suicides,” Tumakuru’s district incharge principal secretary Shalini Rajneesh told ET Magazine. The situation is dire in Karnataka, which has the second-largest arid area in the country after Rajasthan. Reeling under the most severe drought in 44 years, with 135 of its 176 taluks declared drought-struck, the state is grappling with mounting crop failure and over 400 farmers committing suicide between mid-June and August, unable to repay even small loans.
Farmer Shivanna at Kotta village in Sira taluk, who has been given higher grade ground nut seedlings by the agriculture department, as a drought-proofing measure
The government has, on paper, started counselling, stopped banks from going for loan recovery and even arrested moneylenders. But, at the ground level, the farming community is still facing severe stress. A letter from the US-based Vattikuti Foundation (VF), offering funds to help the farmer, started off the action plan drawn by Rajneesh and Tumakuru district panchayat chief executive BR Mamatha. The plan begins with bringing the families of farmers who have committed suicide out of the distress situation and will end with a blueprint A Joint Effort to develop the entire disSiddeshwara, a scheduled caste farmer of Nadooru vilIn each taluk, the trict. Vattikuti Foundation offered `5.4 crore to the lage in Sira taluk, Tumakuru, administration is three taluks of Tumakuru, had an outstanding loan of planning to turn Sira and Pavagada. The dis`72,000. This is said to include even unofficial loans a village where a trict administration looked at the work VF has already from moneylenders. The farmer has funded, implemented by rains failed. His borewell dug killled himself the Bengaluru-based NGO under the state governinto a model one India Development Founment’s Ganga Kalyana dation (IDF) in Kunigal and scheme failed. His crop of Gubbi taluks. ragi, groundnut, tur, horsegram, field bean A report by the Institute for Social and and cowpea, over three acres of land, failed. Economic Change said that in taluks where Within a week of receiving a repayment noIDF has been working from 2009, housetice for `60,000 from a nationalised bank, holds dependent on moneylenders have he hanged himself to death. reduced from 45% to 8%; bank credit access to group members has gone up 100%; 90% of the members got incremental income; and 30% of extremely vulnerable households moved out of poverty. Parimala in Kallipalya of Gubbi taluk, where IDF has been working from 2011, told ET Magazine that she lost her husband about eight years ago and has three children to feed. “Under IDF’s guidance, a few women and I formed a self-help group and took bank loans. I grew a new variety of paddy that they suggested and got better returns. They also taught me tailoring, which I do in my spare time. I have enough income to manage and several other women in our village are now doing what I do,” she said. Tumakuru district incharge principal secretary Shalini The Tumakuru district administration Rajneesh (R) and district panchayat CEO BR Mamatha (L) console Meenakshi, wife of Ramakrishna, who killed himself
Villagers Parimala, Parvathi and Umalamma of Kallipalya in Gubbi taluk, who have formed a self-help group and do tailoring along with farming for a subsidiary income
Villagers of Bandakunte, who gathered at the gram panchayat office to state their wishlist for the combined government/ CSR/NGO initiative
has now entrusted the taluks of Sira, Pavagada and Tumakuru to IDF, which has drawn up household plans for each of the families of the farmers who have killed themselves here. Another NGO, BAIF Institute for Rural Development, Karnataka, has done the same for three other taluks. Suggestions include training the family members in skills like tailoring, basic computer skills, driving, carpentry, motor and simple mechanical repairs, electrical works, setting up and managing nurseries and seed banks. Corporates like Bhoruka Steel and the Manipal Group have come forward to help in these areas. While Bhoruka will set up a cattle breeding and multi-skill training centre in Tumakuru to help families learn additional skills, the Manipal Group has come forward to fund the education of all the children of farmers who committed suicide.
Seeds of Hope “Besides this, any member of the public or corporate who wants to commit smaller amounts to help farmers can give it through the crowd-funding platform. We and the NGOs will monitor and ensure transparency and use of the funds for the purpose specified,” Mamatha explained. The action plan also dovetails existing government schemes like ‘Pashu Bhagya’ to give cows as a subsidiary source of income to families, sheep and pig rearing, the ‘Krishi Bhagya’ scheme to give polythenelined farm ponds, setting up of toilets and
cattle sheds under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. These will not only go to the families of farmers who killed themselves, but to other families also, based on analyses of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of individual families. In each taluk of Tumakuru, the administration is also planning to turn a village where a farmer has killed himself into a model one, converging implementation of all government schemes including social forestry and construction of toilets. ET Magazine visited Bandakunte in Sira taluk, where farmer Ramakrishna killed himself despite owning six acres of land jointly with his brother, over a loan of about `3 lakh. Meenakshi, his 30-year-old wife, has been left to fend for herself and her five-year-old child, as Ramakrishna’s elder brother and mother are estranged from her. The agriculture department has given her free seeds, fertilisers and implemented an inter-cropping plan in her fields to ensure at least some crop succeeds. “The government also wants to teach me tailoring, but I would much rather work in an anganwadi. I hope they will take my wishes into account,” she said. “If there is correct implementation of government schemes, we will all be fine. We are happy that the government is dreaming big and we are grateful to the corporates and others who are coming forward to help us. It makes us feel less alone,” said Prakash, a Bandakunte gram panchayat member.