Report- Yavatmal Pad yatra

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CHALO GRAM ABHIYAN (YAVATMAL DISTRICT) 1
BHARAT PAD YATRA
“CHALO GRAM ABHIYAN”
(Yavatmal District)
BHARAT PAD YATRA
Yavatmal District
(15-20th
April 2015)
Ananda Hi Ananda
Plot no. 27, Block No.202, Pise Complex,
Sardar Patel Market, Gret Nag Road,
Nagpur-440003, Maharashtra, India
Cell : 8975583900, 9860979564, 8956458660
Email : aha@jutunivioe.com

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BHARAT PAD YATRA
(Yavatmal District)
Background:
The spate of farmers’ suicide in some Indian states has pointed to many problems afflicting the
economy and society in the countryside. The study looks into the causes of suicides of farmers
in Maharashtra with reference to the district of Yavatmal. Indian agriculture today is under
major crisis. Since 2001 more than 2300 farmers had been reported to commit suicides in
Yavatmal district of Maharashtra state. Incidence of farmers ending their lives in Yavatmal
region had hit epidemic proportions in recent years. For some insight into the reason why these
individuals resorted to such drastic steps we adopted the psychological autopsy approach. An
attempt has been made in this report to address the issue of farmers’ plight leading to suicide
and measures to address the issues. Suicide in farmers is not only individual but a national
problem as well and we suggested some immediate and serious interventions to prevent
suicides.
A number of suicides have been reported from Yavatmal area. Initially reports from different
sources suggested high indebtedness as the reason for suicides. Subsequently it was assumed
that the cessation of Monopoly Purchase by Maharashtra for purchase of cotton was a major
immediate trigger and had led to these suicides as farmers were not getting remunerative
returns on cotton.
This report has opined that indebtedness is one of the major causes of suicides. It also brings
out the role of input dealers in agriculture, the possibility of informal debts being much higher
than the formal debt and the feeling of helplessness that the farmer is trapped in as some of
the main causes of suicides. It has clearly brought out the reasons why cotton growing has
become less profitable. It has analyzed the role of MSP and Monopoly Procurement.

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BHARAT PAD YATRA
(Yavatmal District)
Introduction:
The large number of suicides by farmers in various parts of the country is perhaps the most
distressing phenomenon observed in India in last few decades. Agriculture is the back bone of
Indian economy as well as a way of life. Our country is going through agrarian crisis and the
farmers who have been involved in one of the most meaningful livelihoods on earth are
struggling to make ends meet. “Jai Jawan , Jai Kisan” this slogan of Lal Bahadur Shastri a
visionary prime minister, had lost its potential over the time. This over the time caused severe
distress among the farmers leading to recent dramatic rise in the number of suicides among
farmer community. The result revealed that the absence of formal rural financial market had
also led to the dependence on informal sources of credit with a greater interest burden. Heavy
indebtedness had been leading to many social, economical and psychological problems among
farmers. There are widespread increase in frustration, depression, anxiety, irritability, and
social withdrawal among farmers of this district. As years passed, by agriculture as an industry
lost its importance for policy makers of India. Every day in national newspaper invariably there
is news related to farmers' suicides.
Agriculture provides the principal means of livelihood for over 60% of India’s population.
Despite of portrayal of farming as a healthy and happy way of life, agriculture sector
experiences one of the highest numbers of suicides than any other industry. Farmers' suicide is
one of the major problems reported in Yavatmal region of Maharashtra.
In present report it was seen that those who have committed suicide in region, their social and
psychological web was not sustainable. They have many social as well as natural problems.
These problems created an adverse impact on their well being and impaired quality of life. To
identify different problems behind suicide a program “CHETNA PADYATRA” is been scheduled
and after carrying out this foot march to reach the villages of this district, responses were
collected from villagers, with detailed discussion on time line historical perspective of the
victims, neighbors by making group discussion with farmers of that village and by self
observation made by the team of Ananda hi Ananda foundation. They identified different
factors that are associated with whole village victims externally.
We have to touch, feel, experience and bring it to mainstream in front of everyone. Some of
them sitting somewhere in the other corner of world might be willing to do something for those
villages and farmers. Lot of people are unaware of this many problems Yavatmal region is going
through. This foot march was a medium and wants to act like a catalyst to make aware of these
problems to the world.

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BHARAT PAD YATRA
(Yavatmal District)
Reason behind this foot march:
Founder of Ananda hi Ananda foundation Hon’ble Vivek ji with Poets, writers and social
workers took another foot march or Padyatra to revive the consciousness of Indian villages.
Chalo Gram Abhiyan or marching to villages started with many objectives in mind but primarily
to connect with the village masses and revive their consciousness.
This report made committed by Ananda hi Ananda foundation involved identifying the farmers
suicide in Yavatmal region by reaching the villages of this district by conducting a foot march
and creating a dialog with those farmers living there in villages.
Ananda hi Ananda foundation under honorable Vivek ji started a foot march across Indian
villages named “Chalo Gram Abhiyan” to create dialog with villagers and adopted the social
autopsy approach to offer some insight into the reason why these individuals resorted to such a
drastic step.
In its first phase from 15th- 19th April 2015, this report made by Ananda hi Ananda foundation
involved identifying the farmers committed suicide in Yavatmal region by visiting and
interacting with villagers.

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BHARAT PAD YATRA
(Yavatmal District)
Objectives :
To understand the art and culture of villages:
Reviving social consciousness:
Bharat padyatra / foot march to the villages is an attempt to reach out to the remote parts of
the country with an objective to create awareness among farmers.
Social and communal harmony:
Indian villages give the finest example where people of all religion and beliefs have been living
peacefully since ages. This Padyatra will express these social and communal harmonies that
exist in villages and to make these villages emerge as a lasting identity for communal harmony
and secularism.
To understand the reason for suicide:
Every suicide has a cause but there are many premature ideas about what makes people to
commit suicide. This Padyatra in its best possible way will try to find the actual reason behind
these suicides, not as a stranger but being as one of them.
Motivating Farmers and villagers:
Indian farmers are hardly appreciated, without appreciation it’s a hard job to keep one self-
motivated for a very difficult task of farming and grain production. This Padyatra or march to
the villages is also an effort to thank the farmers for their efforts.
To create a platform of Informal education for the youth:
One of the known fundamental drawbacks has been is the lack of awareness and opportunities
in villages. If the youth of Indian villages are given a chance and exposure, they can perform
better and show their ability to participate in building the nation. Honorable Vivek ji has been
promoting Ignite fellowship or scholarship for Indian village youth to give them the much
needed exposure they require.
To Empower villages through their art, crafts and else:
Each and every village is full of art and craft which also speaks of their rich traditions. Now is
the need to empower them by providing mediums to express their art and craft to mainstream,
which will also help them economically.

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BHARAT PAD YATRA
(Yavatmal District)
Why Yavatmal farmers?
Yavatmal is home for thousands of cotton farmers and most of these are struggling with the
massive debt. Most of the villages in Yavatmal region are badly in need of basic social
infrastructure like proper irrigation resources, roads, water, regular electricity, primary health
care, basic education and most importantly the proper production cost/value for their
growing’s. Majority of suicide cases are from cotton growing areas.
The cotton farmers in Yavatmal region are paying more prices for inputs like seeds, pesticides,
fertilizers, electricity, water, and labor whereas the price of cotton goes down exactly at the
time of selling in market. The increasing cost of production and falling farm price that go hand
in hand with globalization, combined with decline in farm credit is putting an unbearable debt
burden on farmers. This is also one of the reasons that are pursuing farmers to suicide.
Government decides the rate for this good s grown by farmers with no control over the rate of
market retailers also a cause of worry for farmers. Farmers can’t decide the price of their own
products taken from farms.
In Yavatmal region farmers rely on dry farming as irrigated farming is insignificant and seen in
only few areas. With the cumulative effect of these reasons jointly with natural calamities and
exploitation of the farmers in all sectors made them pessimistic toward life resulting suicidal
tendency in them.

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BHARAT PAD YATRA
(Yavatmal District)
Report from some villages of Yavatmal district:
Interaction with villagers
Chetna Pad Yatra, “Chalo Gram Abhiyan” carried out the dialog between farmers to understand
the problems currently the villages are facing and reason behind those huge numbers of suicide
in Yavatmal region. Also to revive social consciousness of villages, to preserve the art and
culture, communicate with youths of village and
This foot march started from 15th
of April 2015 from Nagpur stated its foot march to villages of
Yavatmal. On 16th
of April from Chintamani temple, Kalamb the Yatra begins with blessing of
lord Ganesha. Foot march visited most of the villages and gathered collective information from
villagers by creating dialog with them.
16th
April 2015: On the first day foot march visited Borimahal, Katri, Tirzhada, Dhotra, Parsodi,
Raveri and Zhadgaon village of Yavatmal district. Most of the villages are facing severe
problems related to farming, lost consciousness, pride, respect, and suicides in villages of this
region.
In Borimahal village when Vivek ji discussed with farmers, they came up with an issue over the
use of old seeds. The farmers want to use old seeds instead of using hybrid seeds for farming.
Nowadays there is no availability of old seed for farming and if those will provided, then there
might be increase in production in farms. The problem of load shedding, indebtedness, rising
costs of cultivation, plummeting prices of farm commodities and no resources for watering
are some major drawbacks in the development of villages and farmers. The other villages of the
region are facing the same problem like Borimahal village.
The interesting fact about Borimahal village is that despite of so many burdens on every farmer
they refused to commit suicide. No farmer of this village had ever committed suicide, which
shows their passion and awareness towards their life. Acharya Vivek ji founder of Ananda hi
Ananda foundation declared that the whole team of the organization will honor the village for
this achievement for not committing suicide despite struggle. He promised to place a “Vivek
Kalash “in all those villages where the suicide rate completely gets vanished.
The government should also praise this kind of villages and give packages to those villages. This
will for sure be an eye opening for rest of the villages and they might stop committing suicide.

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BHARAT PAD YATRA
(Yavatmal District)
Instead of suicide if the villages will get development packages for such kind of achievement it
might go in a positive direction.
Ananda hi Ananda foundation also promises to promote few youngsters from the village to
send them to different state for exposure to new culture and way of living. This will help them
to broaden their horizon so that they can learn new things and make use of those for
development of their villages.
The Villagers of Katri are struggling because of irrigation problem since they don’t have any sort
of natural resource like pond or river for fulfilling the requirement of water. One of the major
problem these farmers of Yavatmal region are facing is that they are not getting value of their
hard work by which they mean that market price of the product should be according to the
production cost.
Tirzhada is the village with most numbers of suicides recorded; where till date 37 suicides had
been registered. “There is nothing for farmers of this nation, nation progresses because of
farmers but his individual growth stopped somewhere in the wilderness of negligence” one of
the farmer said when asked about the problems they are facing.
Today standard of living increased, technologically developed equipments are in use but in our
nation farmers are still using old method for farming. This should get solved or guidance should
be provided. The market rate for the products getting cheaper but the price of fertilizers,
pesticides are gone up by 3 times, and there should be some control on the price of these
essential sources for farmers. The village was situated on hill side so the facility for irrigation is
not there. Farmers think that the government employee lives under some kind of pressure
that’s why they never help them with their issues.
Farmers of these villages in spite of having lot of field wants to commit suicide as they think it’s
not worth living under so many burdens, disappointments. According to them when suicide
gives them satisfaction, what’s the use of living?
“Bembda” project in Parsodi village was a project took shape to help the villager and farmers
for providing water resource to villagers. But the project seems to be of no use as the water
level in those canal are way too low and to draw water with the help of pumps cost them very
high. The cost of drawing water from canal is not affordable so the project makes no sense.
Soon the problem was discussed the information about the canal was reported to government

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BHARAT PAD YATRA
(Yavatmal District)
body by Vivek ji. The government was looking for the loop hole and replied to solve the issue as
soon as possible.
As discussed above some of the important factors for farmers' suicide in this region are:
1. indebtedness of farmers,
2. rising costs of cultivation,
3. repeated crop failures,
4. no relative irrigation facilities,
5. uncertainty of agricultural enterprise in the region,
6. plummeting prices of farm commodities,
7. lack of credit availability for small farmers,
8. dependence on rainfall for farming,
9. absence of adequate infrastructure at the level of the village
10. project/prakalp made for farmers are of no use
11. easy access to poisons, and
12. Lack of political will and insight in the region.
13. Causes common across categories were:
Repeated crop failure,
Inability to meet the rising cost of production (farmers have been spending more on fertilizers
even while crop performance has been showing a declining trend), and
Indebtedness due to a host of reasons ranging from a daughter's marriage to digging a well.

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BHARAT PAD YATRA
(Yavatmal District)
Photographs of the 1st
village Borimal ( 16th
April 2015)
First village of
Yavatmal Pad
Yatra Borimal.
A farmer
informing Vivekji
about the
problems faced
by them.

______________________________________________________________________________
BHARAT PAD YATRA
(Yavatmal District)
Vivekji giving
solution to the
farmers about
the problems
informed by
them.
Vivekji moving
towards next
village.

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BHARAT PAD YATRA
(Yavatmal District)
2nd
Village Katri (16th
April 2015)
Welcome of
Vivekji by the
women of Katri
Village.
Vivekji
discussing
with the
farmers of
village.

______________________________________________________________________________
BHARAT PAD YATRA
(Yavatmal District)
Vivekji
negotiating
with the
village person
to understand
the problems
faced by them.
A vote of thanks
by villagers.

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BHARAT PAD YATRA
(Yavatmal District)
3nd
Village Tirzhada (16th
April 2015)
Vivekji at Trizhada village where most sucide case of farmers are registered.

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BHARAT PAD YATRA
(Yavatmal District)
Farmers addressing their problems infrot of Vivekji.

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BHARAT PAD YATRA
(Yavatmal District)
Vivekji with
the villager
motivating
them to live
life.
Farmer
showing his
repect toward
Vivekji

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BHARAT PAD YATRA
(Yavatmal District)
4 th
Village Dhotra (16th
April 2015)
Yuva Saint Vivekji in Dhotra village with the villagers.

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BHARAT PAD YATRA
(Yavatmal District)
5 th
Village Parsodi (16th
April 2015)
Vivek ji in the
Parsodi village
where large
numbers of
farmers came
to address
their problems.
A Farmer of
the village
informing
Vivek ji about
the problems
faced by the
villagers.

______________________________________________________________________________
BHARAT PAD YATRA
(Yavatmal District)
“Bembda” project in Parsodi ,water is the major problem Canal is present but no water……

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BHARAT PAD YATRA
(Yavatmal District)
6 th
Village Raveri (16th
April 2015)
Vivekji in Raveri village.

Report- Yavatmal Pad yatra

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