'No case of farmer suicide reported in Bengal in past 2 yrs'

Kolkata: State Agriculture minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, in reply to a question raised in the state Assembly on Friday, said the state had not come across any incident of farmer suicide in the last two years. The minister claimed that the same had been validated by the report published by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

The question was raised by Kharagpur BJP MLA Hiraan Chatterjee, who demanded an investigation into the discrepancy in farmers' suicide data released by the NCRB and the data shown through the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

In July this year, RTI activist Biswanath Goswami made a query through RTI Act whether there was any incident of farmer suicide. In response, the State Public Information Officer and Deputy Superintendent of Police of the Paschim Medinipur had provided the details of farmer and farmer-related suicides, which were reportedly collected from 23 police stations across the district. The police officer in response to the query reportedly stated that 122 farmers had died by suicide in West Medinipur district in the year 2021.

"We have made further investigations after receiving this information. I have come to know that the information found in the RTI is wrong," the minister said, adding that the rate at which the state pays compensation for crop damage, incidents such as suicides are unusual.

According to the minister, the then Deputy Superintendent of Police might not have understood the question and confused the information on suicide. The minister also stated that after investigation, they found out that the response to the RTI, mentioning 122 suicide incidents in 2021 and 34 in 2022, was incorrect. "Additional Deputy Police Superintendent in the district has also informed that no farmer has committed suicide in the state in the last two years," the Agriculture minister reportedly stated.

According to the NCRB data for 2021, a total of 10,881 persons involved in agriculture died by suicide, out of which 5,318 were farmers and 5,563 agricultural labourers, accounting for 6.6 per cent of total suicides victims in the country, which was 1,64,033. Out of 5,318 farmer suicides, a total of 5,107 were male and 211 were female.

The Accidental Deaths and Suicides (ADSI) in India, 2021, stated that certain states have reported zero farmers as well as agricultural labourers' suicides, which includes West Bengal.

Similarly, the NCRB data for 2020 stated that not a single case of suicide involving farmers as well as persons engaged in the farming sector took place in the state. On the other hand, the total number of farmers' suicides in India stood at 5,579 and suicide among persons engaged in the farming sector stood at 10, 677 in 2020.