The Centre today told the Supreme Court that number of suicide deaths of farmers have decreased since 2009 and there were factors other than agrarian which led them to take their lives.
It said out of a total of over one lakh suicides in the country in 2013, cases of farmer suicide were recorded at 8.7 per cent.
"Suicides are essentially a manifestation of an action taken in a specific state of mind and are not confined to any particular strata of society. Economic reasons may not be the sole or major cause leading to suicide.
"The data relating to suicide by persons self-employed in farming/agriculture from 1993-2012, as maintained by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Ministry of Home Affairs, indicates a decreasing trend from 2009 onwards. The number of suicides by persons self-employed in farming/agriculture in 2009 were 17,368 which has come down to 11,772 in 2013.
"It is further submitted that according to NCRB as against total population of 122 crore (estimated) during 2013, the total number of suicides in the country was 1,34,799, out of which suicides under the category of self-employed (farming/ agriculture) were 11,772 which is 8.73 per cent of the total suicides," the Ministry of Agriculture said in an affidavit.
The affidavit was filed in response to a PIL seeking direction to the government to take steps to prevent farmer suicides across the country.
The PIL by Punjab-based NGO, Youth Kamal Organization, through its President G S Happy Mann, had stated that there is a high distress level in the agriculture sector.
However, the government said it was not as alarming as made out in the plea and claimed that suicides in the country are not due to agrarian reasons only.
It said that as per NCRB causes of suicides include family problems, illness, drug addiction, unemployment, dowry dispute and other reasons.
