100 farmers to auction their organs

Condemning a recent incident where a debt-ridden farmer was forced to sell his kidney, 100 farmers from Aurangabad will hold a protest on Thursday where they will auction their organs to the public to repay their debt.
“We are suffocating under the burden of debt. Every day, goons of moneylenders keep knocking at our doors. Due to this, we can’t even go outside. We have no other option but to sell our body parts,” said Jayaji Suryavanshi, a farmer and social activist.
At a time when the government is keen to counsel debt-ridden farmers to stop them from ending their lives, farmers appear dissatisfied with the

Farmer suicide in Gujarat is nil

At a time when apex court has sought response fromGujarat on farmer suicide due to agrarian reasons, an RTI shows state providedincorrect data on the same to the Centre

The Supreme Court on last Friday had issued notice to Gujarat government on a plea by an NGO seeking com pensation to families of over 600 debt-ridden farmers who had allegedly committed suicide in the state from 2003 to 2012.

However, information sought under the Right To Information Act by Mirror regarding the same from the Union Ministry of Agriculture revealed that between 2009 and 2013, no farmer had committed sui cide in Gujarat due to crop failure.

CRANTI, the NGO, in its petition had stated that since 2003 -when suicides by farmers started in Gujarat -till August 20, 2012 as many as 619 farmers committed suicide in the state. The figures, according to the petition, were based on the response of the Gujarat govern ment to two RTI applications.