Mumbai: The Maharashtra government is likely to bring farmers’ suicides under insurance cover to enable higher financial compensation to the victims’ families, state Agriculture Minister Eknath Khadse has told The Indian Express.
The development comes at a time when the government is grappling with drought across 24,000 villages and an increasing number of farmer suicides is being reported from the Marathwada region. Statistics show that almost 85 to 90 cases of farmers suicides in the last three months have been reported from eight districts in Marathwada.
Khadse said the government was planning an insurance cover of "up to Rs 5 lakh", adding that there would be provisions to ensure that the system was not misused.
He added that the government could tie up with private insurance companies for the purpose.
"We agree that compensation cannot be a solution to suicides. This plan is based on humanitarian grounds," he said, adding that the government was working towards addressing the drought situation.
The decision to provide insurance to families of farmers who have committed suicide has invited flak within the cabinet, with many fearing that suicide cases would go up if such a plan was introduced.
Responding to this, Khadse said: "I can challenge anybody to offer Rs 10 lakh to a farmer and ask him to end his life. Nobody in this world would end life for money."
"Moreover, the insurance companies will not extend financial help without ascertaining credentials of the family and individual cases," Khadse added.
The state government has admitted that the situation in Marathwada and parts of Vidarbha is worrisome. Currently, drinking water is being supplied to the drought-hit region through tankers.
In a majority of suicide cases, it has been noticed that input cost has far exceeded the loan taken by farmers from private moneylenders. Crop damage due to drought and hailstorm have made matters worse.