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Special Purpose Vehicle – Community Based Project Vidarbha Region of Maharashtra under SaG HI
Introduction Vidarbha region in the eastern part of Maharashtra is made up of Nagpur Division and Amravati Division and occupies 31.6% of total area and holds 21.3% of total population of Maharashtra. It shares its borders with Madhya Pradesh on the north, Chhattisgarh in the east, Andhra Pradesh to the south and Marathwada and Khandesh regions of Maharashtra in the west.
Vidarbha holds two-thirds of Maharashtra’s mineral resources three quarters of its forest resources and is a net producer of power, electricity. There are more than 32,000 farmer’s suicides in Maharashtra in a decade, of which 70% being in the 11 districts of Vidarbha region.
Incidence of farmers ending their lives in Vidarbha region had hit epidemic proportions recently. More than 70% of the farmers suicides in Maharshtra are attributed to Vidarbha region and are allegedly due to the agrarian crisis.
According to the Report of Prof. K. Nagraj of Madras Institute of Dev. Studies, on an average one farmer took his/her life every 53 minutes
between 1997 and 2005 Presently 80% of the farmland holdings are with the small and marginal farmers owning land up to 5 acres. |
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| District |
Male |
Female |
Total |
| Akola |
841,253 |
788,986 |
1,630,239 |
| Amravati |
1,345,614 |
1,261,546 |
2,607,160 |
| Bhandara |
573,445 |
562,701 |
1,136,146 |
| Buldana |
1,147,403 |
1,085,077 |
2,232,480 |
| Chandrapur |
1,062,993 |
1,008,108 |
2,071,101 |
| Gadchiroli |
491,101 |
479,193 |
970,294 |
| Gondiya |
598,834 |
601,873 |
1,200,707 |
| Nagpur |
2,105,314 |
1,962,323 |
4,067,637 |
| Wardha |
638,990 |
597,746 |
1,236,736 |
| Washim |
526,094 |
494,122 |
1,020,216 |
| Yavatmal |
1,265,681 |
1,192,590 |
2,458,271 |
| Total |
10,596,722 |
10,034,265 |
20,630,987 |
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For these category of farmers cost of production by way of farm inputs has increased manifold over the years while the productivity of the land remained at the same level and sale price of farm produce has not increased commensurately. These factors have driven farmers to the debt trap and have caused distress leading to suicide. Experience in the field has shown that smaller the landholding higher is the cost of production. The distressed economy of small scale crop cultivation is further accentuated by lack of knowledge, scientific application of crop management, diversification practices, inappropriate system such as non availability of quality input material in time, inadequate irrigation facility, non-remunerative prices, and dominance of middlemen in Agricultural Marketing Structure.
According to the study by Prof. Radha Krishna, Agricultural indebtedness is not the main cause of farmers suicides, but stagnation in agriculture, marketing risks, collapse of extension system, growing institutional vacuum and lack of livelihood opportunities are the primary causes. According to the Report the decline in returns from agriculture has resulted in inability of farmers to repay debt and this has triggered Farmers suicide. Important measures suggested by the study group to address the issue includes following:
- Design and delivery system of credit should be strengthened.
- Rescheduling of loans and waiving of interest up to two years where farmers are affected by natural calamities in rain fed areas.
- Creation of `Moneylenders Debt Redemption Fund’.
- Timely and hassle free delivery of credit by reducing transaction costs.
- Increase in deployment of Rural Infrastructure Development Fund. (RIDF)
- Government should make efforts to facilitate the Formation of Federation of SHGs of small and marginal farmers.
- Allocation for expenditure on health of distress farmers and their family members.
- Health Insurance Scheme `for the benefit of farmer’s livelihood.
- Better monitoring and implementation of the existing package of relief.
Rationale for Intervention:
Analysis of the data generated by the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research indicates that as large a proportion of the farmers (over 55%) committing suicides arrive from the age group of 31-50. This incidentally would be the age range responsible for taking care of their parents and the elderly, our constituency.
Further, if one analysis the data it is also evident that the age group 51-60 accounts for 28% of the suicides. On deeper analysis it occurs that 70% of the suicides are in the marginalised sections of the society viz., Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Castes with 53% owning less than 4 acres of un-irrigated land.
Given this backdrop it occurs as a fit case for a two pronged intervention strategy – develop the Social Security systems for the elderly and provide for alternate / improved livelihoods.
Interventions – Proposed
The Interventions proposed are in the realm of Age Care and Social Protection, providing for organising the elderly, provision of social security support in the form of grain banks, providing of livelihood support including access to collective marketing and purchase, facilitated by a team of two young professionals – one from the Social sciences and another from agricultural extension.
These are in tune with the suggestions of Prof. Radhakrishna Committee on possible interventions, though minimalist in scale and scope. Given that a relief plan has been announced by the Prime Minister, there could also be issues of rights and entitlements under the plan which the elderly may not be able to access given the overall levels of low-literacy in the area, thereby providing a case for advocacy events.
The interventions are to be based in a limited operating area of about 10 villages with a catchment of 1500-2000 elderly of which about 750 elderly and their families would be directly impacted.
Geographical Area:
The proposed intervention can be situated at Yavatmal district, which has reported the maximum number of suicides. The actual location of the project is to be decided after a field visit and local consultations.
Time Frame:
The Project is proposed over a period of 24 months. This is 22 months for the implementation and 2 months for the preparation. The ideal period for start of the Project would be October-November.
Costing and Budget:
The proposed intervention is worth 64.039 lakhs (say 64.04 lakhs) with an average monthly investment of Rs.388 per elderly benefitting from the project. This is comparable to the investments made otherwise in providing social protection to the elderly (AAG intervention per gran is Rs.500/- per month per gran)
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