Sons of the Soil

Excerpt from the national newspaper 'The Hindu' October 14, 2007 489 Gujarat farmers have committed suicide since 2003 Special Correspondent Social activist gets information taking recourse to the Right to Information Act “Government tried hard to suppress information” Still information on six districts not available NEW DELHI: The Gujarat government has admitted to 489 cases of farmer suicides across the State since 2003. Social activist Bharat Jhala got the information, taking recourse to the Right to Information Act. Releasing the data here under the aegis of Act Now for Harmony and Democracy, in the presence of relatives of 17 farmers who committed suicide, Mr. Jhala said the information was gathered with difficulty and only on the intervention of the Central Information Commissioner. Even now, according to him, information on six districts was not made available. “Still, the scene that has emerged from this information is very frightening. 489 suicides in four years among the farming community are indicative of an ominous trend in the agrarian sector in Gujarat,” he said at a press conference.