It’s not moneylenders, but banks and registered micro-finance institutions that have emerged as the prime reason behind India’s farmer-suicides narrative, says a government data. Nearly 80 per cent of farmers have killed themselves in 2015 after failing to pay off their debts taken from banks and other finance companies.

2,474 out of 3,000 farmers who committed suicides across the country in 2015 due to debt and bankruptcy, had taken loans from banks or micro-finance institutions, says National Crime Records Bureau’s latest farmer-suicides data. This is for the first time that NCRB has categorised farmers’ suicides due to debt or bankruptcy based on the source of loans.

Only 10 per cent farmers had committed suicide due to debts caused by loans taken from both banks and moneylenders and the share of loans from moneylenders under this section was 9.8 per cent.

As per the NCRB data, graph of farmers’ suicide splurged by 41.7 per cent in 2015 from 2014. In 2015, 8,007 suicides by farmers were recorded compared to 5,650 in 2014.

In a state wise list, the data showed – Maharashtra (3,030), Telangana (1,358), Karnataka (1,197), Chhattisgarh (854) and Madhya Pradesh (516). A three-fold rise in farmer suicides was reported in Karnataka in 2015, as compared to 2014 when around 300 farmers ended their lives.

Commenting on the same, Abhijit Sen, a former member of the erstwhile Planning Commission said the latest data is interesting because all of us thought that moneylenders were the culprits of the piece. Even today, more than half the people take loans from moneylenders.

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These moneylenders were more flexible compared to banks and micro-finance institutions, he added. “The organised sector is less flexible because rules don’t permit them flexibility. The micro-finance sector is worse. They put pressure by telling others in self-help groups that their share would be cut if one person does not pay loans in time. This creates social pressure, as well. Many also send goons to the neighbourhood to scare borrowers,” he added further.

According to the NCRB data, the graph of ‘bankruptcy and indebtedness’ saw a splurge in 2015, registering an almost three-fold increase (3,097) as compared to 2014 (1,163). Nevertheless, farm-related issues, too, have seen a sharp spike by up to 61 per cent. While 969 suicides were recorded due to crop-failure and other farm-related issues in 2014, 2015 saw 1,562 suicides in this category.

Among states, Maharashtra (1,293) reported the maximum number of suicides due to ‘indebtedness’, followed by Karnataka (946) and Telangana (632). With 131 deaths in total, Telangana reported the highest number of suicides by farmers after taking loans from moneylenders, with 131 deaths, followed by Karnataka (113).