Abstract

The National Crime Records Bureau of India reported in its 2012 annual report that 135 445 people committed suicide in India of which 13 754 were farmers 11 2 Of these 5 out of 29 states accounted for 10 486 farmer s suicides 76 Maharashtra Andhra Pradesh Karnataka Madhya Pradesh and Kerala In 2011 a total of 135 585 people committed suicide of which 14 207 were farmers In 2010 15 963 farmers in India committed suicide while total suicides were 134 599 In 2012 the state of Maharashtra with 3 786 farmers suicides accounted for about a quarter of the all India s farmer suicides total 13 754 From 1995 to 2013 a total of 296 438 Indian farmers committed suicide During the same period about 9 5 million people died per year in India from other causes including malnutrition diseases and suicides that were non-farming related or about 171 million deaths from 1995 to 2013 Farmer suicides rates in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh two large states of India by size and population have been about 10 times lower than Maharashtra Kerala and Pondicherry In 2012 there were 745 farmer suicides in Uttar Pradesh a state with an estimated population of 205 43 million