Andhra Pradesh has recorded the third highest number of farmer suicides in India in 2019, with a total of 1,029 farmers taking their own lives in the state, against 664 in 2018. Maharashtra and Karnataka have the highest and second highest number of farmer suicides respectively, as per the National Crime Records Bureau. While Maharashtra recorded the highest farmer suicides at 3927 and Karnataka recorded 1992 deaths.
The neighbouring state of Telangana recorded 499 farmer suicides against previous year's 908 deaths. Among the 1029 farmers from Andhra Pradesh who died by suicide, 839 of them were male and 190 were female whereas out of the 499 deaths in Telangana, 442 were male and 57 of them were female.
The data showed that 438 farmers in AP who owned farmland, 306 tenant farmers and 401 agricultural labourers had died by suicide. The study identifies an agricultural labourer as a person who primarily works in the farming sector and whose main source of income is from agriculture labour activities.
In Telangana, 373 farmers who owned farmland, 118 tenant farmers and 8 agricultural labourers killed themselves.
As per the NCRB report, a total of 10,281 persons involved in the farming sector- consisting of 5,957 farmers and 4,324 agricultural labourers- died by suicide in 2019, accounting for 7.4% of total suicides victims (1,39,123) in the country.
Interestingly as per the data, among the 29 states, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Chandigarh, and union territories Daman & Diu, Delhi, Lakshadweep and Puducherry reported zero farmer suicides.
Meanwhile, an increase in suicide was also observed in India. Last year, the country recorded 1,34,516 suicides compared to 1,39,123 suicides in 2018. The report also observed that the suicide rate in cities (13.9%) was higher as compared to all-India suicide rate (10.4%).
‘Family Problems (other than marriage related problems)’ (32.4%), ‘Marriage Related Problems’ (5.5%) and ‘Illness’ (17.1%) have together accounted for 55.0% of total suicides in the country during the year 2019.
The maximum cases of mass/family suicides were reported from Tamil Nadu (16) followed by Andhra Pradesh (14), Kerala (11) and Punjab (9) and Rajasthan (7).