Baldev Singh, 44
Committed suicide on
January 29, 2008
(Baldev Singh’s wife Harjinder Kaur with son Jaskaran Singh at Alamgir village in Ludhiana, Punjab)
Place: Alamgir village, district Ludhiana.Family: Wife Harjinder Kaur, 48, daughter Manpreet Kaur,18, is pursuing a nursing course and son Jaskaran Singh, 14, a class VIII student.
Landholding: Had no land in his name. Was tilling a half- acre piece of land that is in his mother’s name. He grew rice and wheat in rotation and also ran a small dairy business with his four buffaloes.
Income: Rs 15,000 per month from milk but family says they got no money from agriculture as whatever they grew, they consumed.
Loan: Rs 2-Rs 2.50 lakh. The family says they took the entire amount from acquaintances.
Waiver: Not eligible.
Family’s future: They are living on dairy vincome. But with Jaskaran, Baldev’s son, still in school, the family plans to sell the buffaloes as there is no one to look after them. Some relatives have taken it upon themselves to see that Manpreet completes her nursing course and gets a job.
— Amrita Chaudhry

Sukhvinder Singh, 32
Committed suicide on
September 7, 2007
(Family of the Sukhwinder Singh at village Mehalkalan in Barnala district of Punjab)
Place: Mehal Kalan village in Punjab’s Barnala district
Family: Mother Hoshiar Kaur, 70, father Gurnam Singh, 60, wife Surinderpal Kaur, 30, and sons Baljinder, 12, a student of Class V, Lovepreet, 9, who studies in Class III and Jagdeep, 8, a Class II student.
Landholding: Five acres. Sukhvinder supplemented his income by driving a taxi.
Income: Rs 10,000-Rs 12,000 per month during wheat season and Rs 15,000 per month during paddy season. Sukhvinder also earned Rs 100 per day when he drove a taxi.
Loan: Rs 7 to Rs 7.5 lakhs from three local moneylenders. Rs 60,000 from village co-operative society and Rs 20,000 from a local bank.
Waiver:Waiver on Rs 80,000 borrowed from bank and co-operative society but not on the Rs 7 lakh borrowed from moneylenders
Family’s future: This season the village has helped the family sow its five acres. However, with their only son dead, the family plans to rent out its land, earning around Rs 20,000 per year.
— Amrita Chaudhry

B J Jayanna, 59
Committed suicide on
February 18, 2008 by hanging
(Rajanna holds a picture of brother Jayanna at the now locked house of the dead farmer)
Place: Bellara village, Chikanayakanahalli Taluk, Tumkur district, Karnataka
Family: His first wife and three children—a married daughter aged 26, a son aged 12 and a six-year-old daughter. Second wife died two years ago. Two children (from his second wife) are in hostel in nearby Sira town. First wife stays at Jayanna’s single-room house in the village.
Landholding: Coconut farming on nine acres in Bellara village.
Income: Rs 45,000 per annum
Loan: Rs 4.5 lakh from State Bank of India, Huliyar branch and Rs 50,000 from Co-operative Society, Bellara
Waiver: Not eligible for waiver except under existing state scheme for Rs 1 lakh.
Family’s future: Family now under care of Jayanna’s brother Rajanna, a schoolteacher. Family hoping for compensation and probable sale of land to repay debts.
— Johnson TA

Ramchandra J. Gohokar, 48
Committed suicide on
January 3, 2008 by
consuming insecticide
(Ramkrishna Gohokar’s aged parents haven’t been able to absorb the shock of their son’s extreme step)
Place: Lahan Pandhakawda, a remote village in the most backward Zari (Jamni) tehsil of Yavatmal district bordering Andhra Pradesh.
Landholding: 3.75 acres, borewell-irrigated. Grew cotton, soyabean (kharif), wheat (rabi)
Loan: Rs 1.25 lakh bank loan accumulated over past seven years.
Family: Wife Tarabai, 40, and daughters Girija, 19, and Madhuri, 10.
Income: Tarabai works as farmhand now.
Loan waiver: Eligible for full waiver.
Family’s future: Ramkrishna’s father Jiblaji and brother Shalikrao say they will have to shoulder the responsibility of his family now. Wife Tarabai says she will work as farm labour while brother Shalikrao says, "I will have to till his farm now."
— Vivek Deshpande

Amar Chand Rajput, 50
Threw himself before a running train near his village on
January 26, 2007
Ramasre Rajpoot with his wife showing the photograph of his father at Pava Village in Uttar Pradesh)
Place: Pava in Uttar Pradesh’s Mahoba district
Loan: Rajput borrowed Rs 15,000 from the UP Co-operative Land Development Bank and Rs 30,000 from the village moneylender.
Landholding: Four acres. Agriculture is Rajput’s sole occupation.
Family: Wife, two daughters and son Ram Asrey, 21.
Waiver: Waiver on the bank loan but not for the money taken from the village money-lender.
Family’s future: BJP leader Kalyan Singh gave the family a cash relief of Rs 1 lakh which has been deposited in the name of his two daughters and which their brother says will help pay the wedding expenses whenever the two get married.
— Virendranath Bhatt

Ramchandra Vithoba Wate, 34
Committed suicide on
February 24, 2008 by
consuming insecticide
(Ramchandra Wate’s widow Manda in her one-room house in Hirdi village)
Place: Hirdi village in Wardha district
Landholding: Six acres, non-irrigated. Grew cotton, soyabean (kharif) and grams (rabi).
Loan: Rs 23,800 taken from Bank of India. Wate was also depressed over crop failure, ironically, due to good rains since the Wates’ land gets waterlogged.
Family: Wife Manda, 30, sons Akash, 13 and Kiran, 9 and daughter Priya, 10.
Income: Wife Manda works as farmhand earning Rs 40 a day during crop season.
Waiver: The family will not benefit since they own six acres, one acre more than the norm for waiver eligibility.
Family’s future: Wate’s wife Manda says she will have to do something for her kids but says she has no option but to work as farm labour.
— Vivek Deshpande