Report and requests of IT employees, who visited the house of farmer couple after suicide in Mandya District http://farmer-suicide-and-it.wikispaces.com/ You pirate of wealth of nations, as if it were brought and sold; The wealth of nations is men, not silk and cotton and gold. – Richard Hovey, American Poet, 1844-1900 Red, red is the colour of their silk Silk was produced at the cost of lives – the lives of silkworms. But, with the suicides of sericulture farmers Swami Gowda and his wife Vasantha, there is now a human cost to silk. Valagere Doddi is a small village, 2 kilometers as the crow flies from the nearest town Halaguru and 90 kilometers from Bengaluru. More than 150 families live here in this town of which 80% of the families are involved in sericulture farming, one of the oldest industries in India – a practice dating centuries. Silk worms are finicky creatures. Too hot they tire out and do not produce optimum amounts of silk. And if it gets too cold, they just hibernate. Again no silk. In fact, Italian women in 16th century used to carry bags of small bags in direct with their skin, sometimes between their breasts, during the incubation of the silkworm eggs to facilitate hatching. [1] In India, the sericulture the 7 lakh sericulture farmers are concentrated in the narrow tracts of villages in three states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, where the temperature and humidity is optimum for round-the-year silk worm rearing. [2] Rearing of silk worms involves entire family. The worms, once they come out of the larvae, needs a constant diet of mulberry leaves. Men work in the fields and tend to cultivate mulberry leaves. Women tend to work closer to home feeding the cocoon making worms. And it is where they toiled that Swami and Vasantha took their lives. Vasantha hanged herself at home – near the patched shed where the silk worms are bred. A distraught Swami, hours later, took his life by hanging himself from a tree in the mulberry fields. In early March 2011, the price of cocoons had crashed from Rs.300 per kg to Rs.170, when the excise duty for raw silk import was reduced from 30.66% to 5%. Swami and Vasantha leave behind them three children – Chandrika (aged 5), Kirtana (3 1/2) and Sharath (2). Cocoons, like tomatoes and milk, are a perishable commodity, Srinivasa Gowda, representative of Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS, Karnataka State Farmers Association) stated to us. If not sold within eight days, the worms will turn into moths and no silk yarn is available in the cocoon. Quality, and thus price, depends on the harvest of the cocoon at the precise time when the silk worms have moulted four times. It takes two months for each silk worm harvest. An efficient farm will have 5 such harvests each year. The profit from each harvest is 10-15000 Rupees. If all went well through the year, Swami and Vasantha would have made Rs.60,000 to run their household income. All did not go well for some years for the 1,50,000 sericulturists in Karnataka who produce more than 60% of the silk. [3] Ever since India implemented the policies of GATT and WTO in the post liberalisation era, there was a threat of cheap raw silk eroding the Indian cottage industry. This threat was realised in 1999, while Ramakrishna Hegde was the Union Minister of Commerce, [4] when India implemented the policy to remove the import tariff for raw silk. The price of cocoon hovering around Rs.260 per kg fell and even reached Rs.60 per kg in 2003. Concerted protests from the farmers resulted in imposing a 30.66% import tariff on raw silk. The demolition of this tariff as part of the 2011 Union Budget announced by Pranab Mukherjee that resulted in the fall of cocoon price. In August last year, Department of Revenue at the center decided to allow duty free import of 3A grade and above raw silk upto 2500MT (metric tonnes) through the National Handloom Development Corporation.[5] The rational for making such a move was to enable to meet the shortage of 10000 MT of raw silk that the weavers faced. A tender was floated and raw silk from China started arriving in Indian market since January this year. The result of cheap silk arriving in India and the decision to scrap any tariff on raw silk resulted in the dumping of raw silk in the market. This glut saw the reduction in raw silk price from Rs.2900 to Rs.1700. The fall in price and high availability of costly raw silk in the Indian market created a panic amongst the sericulture farmers like Swami Gowda and Vasantha. A fall of Rs.100 in the price of cocoon wipes out 20% of the annual income of farmers like Swami and Vasantha. The fall is even greater if there is even one poor harvest. These farmers had two poor harvests last year. Further lack of institutional credit for sericulturists (Swami and Vasantha had a loan of Rs. 1.2 lakhs at high interest rates) and lack of protection from market is exposing the sericulturists in Karnataka to the vagaries of global market. In fact the role of Karnataka Silk Marketing Board (KSMB) set up to prevent farmers to exposures in extreme price fluctuations has initially acted adversely against the interest of farmers. According to KRRS activist Srinivasa KSMB halted trading in all the 15 markets in Karnataka creating further panic and anxiety to the farmers who had perishing commodity in their hands. Further, according to sericulture activist Krishne Gowda, KSMB did not have adequate funds (funds transferred by the current BJP government to cover other budgetary deficits[6]) to intervene in the market and stabilize the price. Yediyurrapa governments decision announcing release of Rs. 3 crores to the KSMB is too little and too late. Krishne Gowda stated that in Ramnagara market alone Rs.9 crores worth of trade happens in a single day. An active and strong KSMB board would have prevented the deaths of Swami and Vasantha. The most intriguing aspect of the sericulture policy is the eagerness displayed by the government to cover the 10,000 MT shortage by trade and not by expanding sericulture farming in India. The Cental Silk Board claims that sericulture farming is the best way to stablise rural markets since it provides jobs to small and landless farmers. According to the Board, “57% of the gross value of silk fabrics flows back to the cocoon farmers”. [7] The government’s decision to import not only allows growth, but even kills those in the sericulture industry, leading to the death of a tradition which has been practiced for more than 1000 years. Back in Swami and Vasantha’s house a pall of gloom has set in. Bore Gowda, father of Swami Gowda, appeared hunched weighed by the twin burden on his shoulders he has inherited from his son – the debt and children. The only hope he says is that the receipt of some compensation for his grandchildren from the government. Chandrika, the eldest of the daughters, came from the nearby primary school. Even her being the eldest has not helped her comprehend the magnitude of the event. Chowdamma, mother of Vasantha and a widow, says they are at a loss as how to provide for the welfare of these children after their demise. The price of silk has climbed back since 5th March when Swami and Vasantha committed suicide. But it will not restore their lives. Various grassroots organizations are gearing up to protest. Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha (KPRS) has made the following demands: 1. Compensation of Rs.10 lakhs to the victims family 2. Government must take responsibility for providing educational and employment assistance for the children 3. Revert the status quo on the import duty for raw silk by reinstanting the 30.66% import tax 4. Strengthen KSMB and KSIC (Karnataka Silk Industries Corporation) through adequate financial support to intervene in the market at the time of such price crash 5. Minimum of Rs.400 per kg for cocoon should be ensured for sericulture farmers (It is possible & feasible because demand is growing. The domestic requirement of silk is 28,000 metric tonnes. 10,000 metric tonnes are imported from China majorly and also from other countries. In India 18,000 metric tonnes of silk are produced. So if we give Rs. 400 minimum price ensuring minimum profits for the farmer, it will lead to increase in productivity and thereby further increasing the production of silk in India to attain self-sufficiency) 6. State Govt should take representatives of all the farmer organisations in the state & the farmers involved in protests against reduction of import duty of silk to talk to Central Govt These fair demands would provide much needed respite and confidence to the sericulture farmers. Yet unless the exchange be in love and kindly justice, it will but lead some to greed and others to hunger. – The Prophet – Buying and Selling, Khalil Gibran
Contact: Software Engineers in Support http://farmer-suicide-and-it.wikispaces.com/ Naveen Mudunuru, Software Engineer, Networking Industry ( 9986403928 ) Mayank Rungta, Software Engineer, Networking Industry ( 9845155447) Senthil S , 10 years experience, in Networking Industry ( 9900262828) Pushpa Achanta, Indpendent consultant, with more than 10 years experience in Industry ( 9886685896) Gurmurthy , CEO of Mobile startup company ( 9845294184) Balaji Kutty , Chief Technology Officer , Mobile startup company ( 944587772) Vinay Sreenivasa, 9880595032 Local Activist in Mandya , who met family first, attended cremation and did protests in Mandya for compensation : Mr Krishna Gowda,KPRS, 9141663768 Other Activist and organization in support : Srinivasa Gowda ,KRRS. Family Visit and Report : Nidin – 5 years experience in Software service company ( 8762014066), Harshankar, Rahul . Pictures in Report, Hari Shankar, Pedepics. Background of Sericulture Farmers issue and the reasons for crisis : Local activist, Mr Krishna Gowda. Initial news: http://www.deccanherald.com/content/143490/farmer-couple-hang-selves.html Report in Hindu, National section : http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article1529739.ece
[1]http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/spin-cycle-sidebar.html [2]http://www.seri.ap.gov.in/download/1_History%20of%20Sericulture.pdf [3]http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article1529739.ece [4]http://www.indianexpress.com/Storyold/80168/ [5]http://www.infodriveindia.com/Export-Import-News/Duty-free-raw-silk-import-5091.aspx [6]http://www.business-standard.com/sme/storypage.php?autono=392409 [7]http://www.indiansilk.kar.nic.in/sericulture.html