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

... contd.