Farmers’ Suicide: NHRC to send Special Rapporteur to Odisha

National Human Rights Commission has assured to send its special rapporteur to Odisha for investigating the issues of farmer suicide in the state.

Justice Ceriac Joseph, Acting Chairperson of the Commission while discussing with a delegation team of activists headed by Pradeep Pradhan, Advisor to NHRC on Right to Food said that, he will look into the proposal of sending Rapporteur to Odisha to investigate into alleged farmers’ suicide in the State.

On 14 January, Sri Pradhan on his official visit to New Delhi  met Justice  Ceriac  Joseph  and appraised  him  about  deplorable situation of  farming  community and disastrous  agriculture   in the state. He submitted a memorandum  to  Justice Joseph  and requested him  to send a special inquiry team to investigate into more than 160 cases  of famers’ suicide due to crop loss  and  loan burden and state Government’s  reluctance  to accept  the reason.

“The socio-economic condition of these families is precarious and they require urgent financial support for their survival with dignity, said Sri Pradhan.

A six-member team of  Civil Society Groups including Sudhir Mohanty, advocate, Sachikant Pradhan, Pratap sahu, Sudarshan Chhotaray, Srinibas Mohanty  led by Sri Pradhan  had filed  complaint petition to NHRC  on 4  January,  seeking immediate  intervention  and  necessary action. This case has also been registered in NHRC.

In Nov.2015,  Fact-finding Team  consisting  of 23 members  under the banner of Right to Food Campaign, Odisha  had  visited  30 farmers’ suicide families  covering 12 districts to ascertain fact  about the reasons behind  farmers’ suicide.

The team has come out with a fact-finding Report holding  state government responsible  for  its callous and indifferent attitude  towards  small and marginal farmers and implementation of various agriculture programme in lackadaisical manner and crop loss and loan burden as reason for farmers’ suicide.

This report was  also presented  in a State-level  Public hearing  held at Lower PMG, Bhubaneswar  on 13 December 2015, presided a four prominent Jury Members like Rabi Das, Senior Journalist, Prafulla Samantaray, Social Activist, Panchanan Kanungo, former Minister  and Prof. Manoranjan Mohanty.