Pandurang’s death was adjudged a farm-related suicide by a government panel but Sumitra and her two sons haven’t got the government aid of Rs 1 lakh. Sumitra decided to give the land on rent (makta) to a fellow villager for Rs 1,000 per year and has preferred to work as farm labourer. Her daughter Renuka is married and her sons Prakash (18) and Pravin (16), too, work as farm hands.

Over 50 km away in Dahegaon, life has not changed much for Asha Lakde, another farm widow, despite the loan waiver. Her husband Ankush, 45, committed suicide by consuming insecticide on February 19, 2008. Her bank loans of about Rs 45,000 have been waived but she will have to square off the Rs 30,000 private loan her husband had taken. Or, she will have to use the Rs 30,000 cash-in-hand, part of the government aid for agrarian suicides, she is due to receive in a few days to the Krishi Kendra from where she has borrowed seeds and fertilizers worth Rs 25,000.

Asha has eight acres, and unlike Sumitra, she has decided to till it herself. She has no other option—she has three daughters and a son to look after. Jaishree and Jyoti, have cleared their Class X exams while Bhagyashri has done her HSC. Son Jitesh, the eldest, is uncertain if he can go to college.

“Who will do it (farming) then? I will have to,” she says. She has no excitement about the loan-waiver she is eligible for. “All of it will go in squaring off the other dues,” she says.

... contd.