Many states, union territories reported 'nil' data on farmer suicides: Home ministry

NEW DELHI: Many states and union territories have reported "nil" data on suicides by farmers, cultivators and farm labourers, the home ministry informed the

Lok Sabha

on Tuesday.


Minister of state for home affairs G Kishan Reddy said this in response to a question by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi seeking to know if the farmer suicide data for the past four years was available.

The Wayanad MP asked whether the

National Crime Records Bureau

(NCRB) had received the data on farmer suicides from states and union territories since 2016 and if not, the reasons.

He also sought to know the reasons for not publishing reports of accidental deaths and suicides in the country by the NCRB since 2015 and whether the bureau proposes to re-start publication of the data on farmer suicide.

Responding to the parliamentarian, the minister said the data on accidental deaths and suicides, including farmer suicides, is reported by states and union territories to the NCRB which publishes it as the "Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India" (ADSI) Report.

"As informed by NCRB, many states/union territories reported 'nil' data on suicides by farmers/cultivators and agricultural labourers. After getting the data vetted from the states/union territories, NCRB has published ADSI Report till the year 2016," he said.

The minister said advisories have been issued by NCRB to all states and union territories to furnish complete data sets in a timely manner for speedy publication of ADSI report.

On a question about the manner in which the government will formulate policies to address such extreme cases of agrarian distress in the absence of the data, the minister said agriculture being a state subject, the state governments undertake development of perspective plans to ensure effective implementation of the programmes and schemes.

"Government of India supplements the efforts of the state governments through various schemes and programmes for the welfare of the farmers by increasing production and remunerative returns to the farmers," he said.

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