Vandana Shiva asks NHRC to look into farmers’ suicide

Concerned over rise in the incidents of farmers’ suicides, activists have asked National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to examine epidemic of farmers’ suicides in India. In a petition, noted environmentalist Vandana Shiva and Bhartiya Krishak Samaj president Krishan Bir Chaudhary has urged NHRC to instruct the government to stop violation of human rights of farmers.

Blaming the unfair practice followed by seed giants behind the death of poor farmers, Shiva in her petition said, “More than 3,00,000 farmers have committed suicide in India since 1995 when globalisation and WTO forced India to allow multinational corporations to enter India’s seed sector.”

The complaint highlights various aspects of human rights violations by MNCs and how these actions have resulted in the present agrarian crisis and prepared in compliance with the standards set forth in the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, as amended in 2006, and the NHRC (Procedure) Regulations, 1994, as amended in 1997.

In the complaint before the NHRC, a list of thousands of farmers committed suicide largely due to a debt trap created by dependence on high costs seeds and chemicals has also been submitted.

Along with the complaint, Shiva submitted extensive analysis of Bt Cotton in Vidharba and Maharashtra region that highlight how Bt Cotton has not only a fraud, but Monsanto cheated Indian farmers and destroyed their lands, native seeds and directly caused indebtedness and suicides.