Working Paper: 488

Agrarian Distress and Farmer Suicides in Kerala

Ance Teresa Varghese

 

Abstract

Despite the introduction of various welfare schemes for the people who depend on agriculture, our country is far from providing a minimum standard of dignified life for the many who are solely dependent on it for their livelihood. There is still vulnerability, distress and dissatisfaction among the farming population of India. In this context, the aim of this paper is to understand the origin of the agrarian crisis in India and how it has manifested in different parts of the country, especially in Kerala, where the nature of the crisis shows some unique tendencies. For bringing out the uniqueness, the paper will be focusing on the Kerala model of development, placing the backwardness of the agrarian sector and the farmers’ crisis within this framework. The Kerala model, glorified by many, has not done much in order to mitigate the crisis in the agrarian sector and as a production sector it needs to be strengthened. This paper is a part of an ongoing thesis. The study is review based.

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