Vidarbha, India (CNN)Yogita Kanhaiya is expecting a baby soon. She already has a two-year-old son.
Her husband, Moreshwor, a cotton farmer, won’t be around to see his children grown up. He committed suicide early in the pregnancy. Eight years back, Yogita’s father-in-law, also a cotton farmer, took his own life.
"He was in so much debt," 25-year-old Yogita said of her late husband. "He wasn’t getting any money from cotton. He chose death over distress."
It’s a familiar story in families across Western India’s cotton production belt, where, a cotton lobbyist group claims, one cotton farmer commits suicide every eight hours.
"We get reports of two to three farmer suicides every day," said Kishor Tiwari, leader of the farmers advocacy group, Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS).
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