Amma announces Rs 200 cr project to curb farmers’ suicides

Mumbai, March 15, 2007 Chief minister of Maharashtra Vilasrao Deshmukh held a high-level meeting with Mata Amritanandamayi at the Sahyadri government guest house here on Thursday on the issue of suicides by farmers of Vidarbha. After the meeting Amma announced that the Mata Amritanandamayi Math will undertake a Rs 200 crore project to tackle the problem of suicides by farmers  of Maharashtra, Kerala and other states.

Amma was deeply concerned about the large number of suicides by the cotton growers of Vidarbha. During an hour-long meeting, Chief Minister Deshmukh, chief secretary D.K. Sankaran and other senior officials briefed Amma about the extent of the problem and the steps taken by the government to tackle it. Deshmukh said as a result of a series of steps taken by the state government and the Centre the problem is now beginning to be under check. “But the problem cannot be solved through economic packages alone. What is needed is social and spiritual interventions so that the farmers realise that suicide was not the way out. In fact, they only further aggravate the problem for the families,’’ Amma observed to which the CM agreed and sought her assistance in dissuading the farmers from taking extreme steps. Amma stressed the need for personal counselling of the vulnerable persons. She recalled the experience of MAM volunteers in dealing with a similar problem in Waynad district of Kerala.

Amma appreciated the efforts made by the Maharashtra government and said it represented the best efforts taken by any state government to deal with the problem of farmers’ suicides. She said even though  in comparison to the total number of suicides taking place in the country the suicides by farmers may be less,  in absolute terms the numbers are large enough to warrant expeditious interventions at all levels. The hysteria among farmers needs to be neutralised and associated problems like alchoholism etc need to be taken care of.

Apart from the chief minister and chief secretary, others who attended the meeting included senior cabinet minister Patangrao Kadam, ministers Balasaheb Thorat, Ramraje Njmbalkar,  principal secretaries Sarogi and Pande, divisional commissioner, Amravati, Goyal, and Amma’s disciples and devotees.

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