India's 'Epidemic' of Farmer Suicides

Despair and poverty is driving Indian farmers to commit suicide in large numbers.

1 minute read

August 16, 2006, 11:00 AM PDT

By Abhijeet Chavan @http://twitter.com/legalaidtech

"An epidemic is sweeping through the Indian countryside, killing farmers by the hundreds in the nation's vast, sun-baked heartland. What afflicts them is not disease or famine but despair, so deep that it is driving men...to take their lives at the rate of two a day...Fueled by crushing debt, failing crops and government indifference, the suicides are a stark reminder of the desperate poverty that continues to engulf huge swaths of this nation of 1 billion, despite the enthusiastic portrayals of India at home and abroad as a software powerhouse, an outsourcing giant and an economic juggernaut with growth of 8% a year."

FULL STORY: Hope Has Withered for India's Farmers

Thursday, August 10, 2006 in The Los Angeles Times

Community / Economic Development Social / Demographics India

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