High time we tackled farmer suicides: Varun

Bengaluru: Lok Sabha member Varun Gandhi attacked the country’s policymakers for neglecting the rural population and remarked that it was high time policies were changed foreseeing comprehensive development for all.

Addressing students at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM-B), he said, “Rising farmer suicides in India has become a matter of deep concern. Another concern is unemployment which should be worked upon, not only through skill-based education, but also across different variants and models.”

Dwelling on the travails of marginal farmers, he stressed on the need to come up with innovative solutions that could make the rural economy robust and self-reliant.

During the public lecture titled “Role of Youth in Nation Building”, he asked the young audience, “Are we in a state where privilege perpetuates privilege?” He urged the youth to live a life of purpose encouraging them to take up issues from farmer suicides to teacher absenteeism in rural schools, hence living a life beyond trying to be rich and famous.

Making references to his book A Rural Manifesto, he said the reach of either schemes such as MNREGA or in providing quality education in government schools across the country is limited.

“We have data on billionaires, but there is no data on the poorest of the poor. These last men, be the marginal farmers of Vidarbha or the daily wage labourers in Marathwada, and their problems are what my book speaks about and we must focus on them,” he said. IIM-B Director Prof G. Raghuram received a copy of A Rural Manifesto from Mr Gandhi and felicitated him during the event organised by the Centre for Public Policy (CPP), Public Policy Club and Entrepreneurship and Innovation Cell of the Institute.

Prof Raghuram also appreciated the poet-politician's sense of geography and his ability to crunch data to engage in field research.