Sunam, Punjab (April 28, 2014): The ongoing parliamentary elections hold little meaning for many debt ridden farmers’ and their families. 80-year-old Jasmail Kaur of Chhajali village of Sunam is one of them. She known that these elections cannot change her fate. According to Hindustan Times (HT), Jasmail Kaur has been living alone at her small house at since her 19-year old son Jaggi committed suicide 18 years ago.
“Jaggi was two when his father Gurjant Singh died of a prolonged illness,” Jasmail Kaur reportedly told HT with tears in her eyes. “For the past 18 years, I have been living alone, there is nothing left in my life as now I live to die every day,” she added.
Though Jasmail Kaur had to sell off her half-acre land to bear the expenses on Jaggi’s treatment at the PGI, Chandigarh, yet she could not save his life when he consumed poison to get rid of his debt of Rs. 1.2 lakh, that Jasmail Kaur had taken from a commission agent for the marriage of her two daughters.
Besides getting Rs. 250 per month as pension, Jasmail Kaur started doing embroidery work for which she gets Rs. 6 per shawl, and that takes her entire day.
Jasmail Kaur
Similar is the tale of 85-year old Pritam Kaur, who lives near Jasmail’s house in the same village.
According to HT, [a]fter the death of her two sons Lakhwinder and Raj and husband Gamdoor Singh, Pritam Kaur now lives with her 12-year-old grandson.
“I have faced four jolts in my life, but the biggest was the death of my younger son, Raj, who died in a road accident three years ago.
My husband and son Lakhwinder had committed suicide as they failed to return the debt, so Raj’s death left me alone with Lakhwinder’s son,” she said.
I have one-and-a-half acre of land but am worried that the debt will increase manifold by the time my grandson will be able to earn.”
Then, there is 72-year-old Mukhtyar Singh, whose 25-year old son committed suicide in 2012 as he failed to return the debt.
According to Mukhtyar Singh, there are more than 80 suicide-hit families of farmers at Chhajali village alone, who did not get anything from the government and not a single politician has reached them till date.
However, to woo farmers ahead of the polls, the Punjab government has asked three universities of the state — Punjab Agricultural University, Punjabi University and Guru Nanak Dev University — to undertake a fresh survey of suicide-hit farm families.
The HT has stated that according to Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ugrahan faction), more than 30,000 farmers and labourers have committed suicide in the state during the past 14 years, but politicians are shying away from taking up the serious issue.
It is notable that there was no mention of the suicide-hit agriculture families in the election manifestos of all the major parties, including the Congress, Bhartiya Janta Party, Shiromani Akali Dal Badal and Aam Aadmi Party.