Roman Catholic churches under the patronage of Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) and NGOs have come forward to help distressed farmers of the Vidarbha region in Maharashtra, which has been reeling under a severe agrarian crisis.

As part of the programme, the counsellors will initiate confidence building measures and adopt traditional methods such as street plays, songs, play and display of posters, besides talking to the family members of those farmers who have committed suicide, and to those who are in distress, CBCI western region president Archbishop Abraham Viruthkulangara said.

The farmers would be provided with psycho-social counselling, awareness about eco-friendly methods of farming, small-scale watershed development programme and income generation programmes and networking with government agencies to ensure resources reach the right person on time, he said.

“The unabated suicide of farmers in the region was discussed by CBCI, which has decided to engage NGOs like Caritas, a social wing of CBCI and Action For Food Programme (AFPRO) in the counselling in six affected districts of Vidarbha,” Abraham said.

A meeting of representatives of Caritas, AFPRO, CBCI social service committees and representatives from Archdiocese of Amravati and Chandrapur was held in city. It will hold its next meeting on April 18 at Yavatmal, which is the most affected district.

Counselling centres are being set up at all the places for affected persons and families. “We will assess the needs of farmers and help them in sustainable farming and organic farming to come out of the crisis,” said D Manavalan, Executive Director of AFPRO, a secular socio-technical development organisation. A self-help group of women, particularly widows of deceased farmers, will be run with the help of social service committees of CBCI . The SHG will not be restricted to women but also include farmers, said Manavalan, a retired IAS officer.

... contd.