Articles by B B Mohanty

The changes in Odisha’s agriculture made paddy production a losing proposition, especially for the small farmers who leased in land. Substantial decline in farm income caused by exploitative land lease arrangements, denial of access to a regulated market, crop failures, increased cost of cultivation, and indebtedness pushed these farmers into severe economic hardship and an inhospitable social environment, which ultimately led to their suicides.

This article makes an attempt to examine how far Durkheim's types explain farmer suicides in India and suggests that they correspond to two of his types - egoism and anomie. Agrarian changes having considerably lowered the level of economic achievements of farmers, the disproportion between achievement and aspiration is greatly felt by those who experienced egoism. This study argues that anomie is an effect of egoism. The latter, a structural characteristic of modern agrarian economy and society, is the prerequisite for emergence of the former.

This study, based on three districts of Maharashtra, reveals that though crop losses, indebtedness and market imperfections cause economic hardship to farmers, social factors are also at work, which lead in some cases to their suicides.

In recognition of the basic proposition that scheduled castes and tribes are the most disadvantaged in respect to land, which largely accounts for their perpetual poverty and makes them vulnerable to injustice and exploitation, attempts have been made by the union and state governments to promote and protect their rights with regard to the control and use of land. Based on 13 major states, the present study shows that even after 50 years of planned initiatives and policy measures, there has not been substantial improvement in the landholding status of scheduled groups, and in some states, it has declined further.