Maharashtra sees staggering increase in farmer suicides, almost half of victims' families receive no compensation, shows RTI https://www.firstpost.com/india/maharashtra-sees-staggering-increase-in-farmer-suicides-almost-half-of-victims-families-receive-no-compensation-shows-rti-6157641.html February 26, 2019 In a letter to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on 24 April, 2015, the government of Maharashtra disclosed that 6,268 farmer suicides were “noticed in the state” between 2011 and 2014, when the Congress-NCP was in power. From January 2015 to the end of 2018, 11,995 farmers committed suicide in Maharashtra, a 91 percent increase over the previous three year period.
In 2014, when the NCRB changed the way farmer suicides are counted, senior journalist P Sainath called it a "slaughter of data". To downplay the crisis, Sainath noted, farmer suicides have been counted under the category of “others”. While pointing out that the rise in suicides by "others" in Maharashtra is a staggering 94 percent, he said authorities are “hiding corpses in other columns”.
The RTI filed by Ghadge further revealed that in many cases in Maharashtra, the authorities did not approve compensation for victims' families. Between 2011 and 2014, 3,284 of 6,268 cases were found eligible: which means 48 percent of victims' families did not get compensation...In the past four years, 6,844 families received ex-gratia payment. In other words, 43 percent of victims' families did not get any compensation.