Rural debt, distress, death to be in focus as 8 states go to polls in 2018

A key manifestation of farm distress is rising rate at which farmers are committing suicides and its association with their inability to repay loans

Nearly four in ten of 8,007 Indian farmers who committed suicide in 2015 were in debt, compared to two in ten in 2014; more rural households went into debt over 11 years; and the average rural household had borrowed Rs 1.03 lakh, according to an IndiaSpend analysis of government data.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost 16 seats in rural Gujarat–winning less than 40% of such constituencies–as unrest grew in a failing farm economy. As eight states, including the BJP-run, largely agrarian states of Chhattisgarh,