Suicides among agricultural labourers in Punjab: Plight of victim households

The proportion of labourers in total suicides by farmers and labourers is quite high but it is not being widely debated and discussed as that of farmers' suicides. The agricultural labourers are not getting loan waiver like the farmers despite the fact that they are the worst sufferer of the agrarian crisis as they have nothing to fall back or besides physical labour. Moreover, the survivors of the victim households have to cope with the post- suicide trauma. Household heads have to face the harassment by the money lenders. On the other hand, they have to make financial arrangements for the education and marriages of their children. Majority of the victim households have borrowed new loans. Children of these families are worst sufferer as a large number of victim households had to withdraw their children from schools due to economic distress. This paper is based on the study of 100 suicide victim households from two districts of Punjab, namely Sangrur( 57 households) and Bathinda (43 households).For the purpose of analysis and discussion we have clubbed the data of both the districts. It has been found that higher share of non-institutional borrowing and the consequent higher debt-income ratio are main reasons for suicides among agricultural labourers. This, in turn, has serious social and economic effects on the victim households.