After Migrant Deaths, Govt Says No Data on Farmer Suicides

The Union minister said that states and Union territories have not provided data on farmer suicides.

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(Photo: PTI)

The government on Monday, 21 September, announced that it has no data on farmer suicides, as many states do not submit figures to the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), Minister of State (Home Affairs) G Kishan Reddy told the Rajya Sabha.

The Union minister said in a written statement that states and Union territories have not provided data on farmer suicides, therefore the national data on causes of suicide in farming sector was ‘untenable and cannot be published separately,’ reported NDTV.

“As informed by NCRB many states and Union territories had reported 'Nil' data on suicides by farmers, cultivators and agricultural labourers after several validations even while reporting suicides in other professions,” Minister of State (Home Affairs) G Kishan Reddy said.

According to the latest NCRB data on accidental deaths and suicides, 10,281 farmers died by suicide in 2019 while this figure was 10,357 in 2018. The suicide rate in the farming sector accounted for 7.4 per cent of the total suicides in the country and 5,957 farmers and 4,324 agricultural labourers, NCRB report states.

Last week, the government drew immense backlash after the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment told Parliament that it has no data available on the number of migrant workers who lost their lives during the nationwide lockdown, imposed in a bid to curb the spread of COVID-19.

(With inputs from NDTV)