Punjab can't stop farmers' suicides, so it offers compensation

Punjab can't stop farmers' suicides, so it offers compensation
BAJINDER PAL SINGH

CHANDIGARH, MARCH 21: Since the Punjab Government can't seem to deal with the prospect of farmers killing themselves, it has done the next best thing: offer compensation for the suicides.

In his budget speech on Tuesday, Punjab Finance Minister Capt Kanwaljit Singh announced that families of farmers who commit suicides due to debt burden would get a compensation of Rs 2.5 lakh. ``In families where an earning member commits suicide due to economic hardship (debt burden) the state would identify the case and pay compensation of Rs 2.5 lakh for rehabilitation of the family,'' the decision reads. The budget has also kept aside Rs two crore for the provision in its annual plan of 2001-02.

The provision will come into effect from April, and doesn't take into account suicides that have already taken place. But already, the brickbats have started raining on the government. ``This amounts to an encouragement of suicide,'' says Mahesh Inder Singh Grewal, MLA and a former minister in the Parkash Singh Badal cabinet. He also questions the Rs two crore bedgetary provision. ``Does this mean that the government has actually anticipated the number of suicides to be committed during the next year?''

Interestingly, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, which have also seen a rash of suicides by farmers, haven't opted for the compensation option.

``The case would move into a grey area of law where the good intention of the state would be equated with amounting to abetting suicide, which is a punishable offence,'' says Vikas Chatrath, an advocate in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

There are technical problems with identifying the motives of death, he points out. ``If a cardiac arrest is portrayed as death due to tension arising out of farm indebtedness, where does the government draw a line,'' he asks. Moreover, any death will be sought to be termed as a suicide by family members hopeful of getting compensation, he adds.

Critics says policy makers have ignored the root causes of the suicides, instead settling for populist measures. But the Finance Minister chose to play the pragmatic. The provision amounts to ``acceptance of a reality,'' he says. He has some support from rights activists, who says it's the duty of the state to compensate farmers who have died because of lopsided state policies. Baljit Kaur of the Movement Against State Repression justifies the budget announcement, though she feels that those who have already committed suicides due to debt problems should also be compensated. She also rejects the suggestion that the provision would encourage suicides. No one will take his life even if he's offered money, she says.