After Migrant Deaths, Centre Says ‘No Data on Farmer suicides’ and can’t be published

“Due to this limitation, national data on the causes of suicide in farming sector was untenable and not published separately,” Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy said in a written reply citing the reason that many states and UTs have reported “nil” data on suicides by farmers, cultivators and agricultural labourers after several validations, even while reporting suicides in other professions.

According to the latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data on accidental deaths and suicides, 10,281 farmers committed suicide in 2019, down from 10,357 in 2018.

The suicide rate in the farming sector accounted for 7.4 per cent of the total suicides in the country — 5,957 farmers and 4,324 agricultural labourers, the NCRB said in the report containing the latest data.

Last week, the centre faced immense backlash after the labour ministry said there is no data on migrants who lost their lives trying to reach home during the coronavirus lockdown. The ministry said the “question does not arise” of compensating the families of the labourers as there was no data.

The government then clarified after criticism that there was “no mechanism” to collect such data in districts.