Tenant farmers in Telangana seek government bailout, tenancy cards

Hyderabad: With a debt of Rs 8 lakh weighing on her shoulders, 28-year-old K. Yadamma from Cheelapur in Vikarabad district, was in tears as she narrated the difficulties she faced, at a public hearing held by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha at Dharna Chowk near Indira Park here on Wednesday.

Her husband K. Mallesh had died by suicide five years back, owing to debt from farming issues. A Dalit tenant farmer, Yadamma explained their debt increased by Rs 1.5 lakh as they tried to save Mallesh’s life. Expenses on funeral rites increased the burden to Rs 2 lakh. After this, her mother-in-law also died by suicide, Yadamma said.

She herself is a suicide survivor. Yadamma told the public hearing that no government official came to her rescue. Their only piece of land, unfit for agriculture, is in her father-in-law’s name. This denied her the benefit of Rythu Bima life insurance of Rs 5 lakh to her family.

“The only words of succour I heard were from the Kisan Mitra helpline which dissuaded me from ending my life to take care of my 12-year-old son,” Yadamma said.

There are 22 lakh tenant farmers in the state, who cultivate around 40 per cent of the land, but don’t receive farm input support in the form of Rythu Bandhu or Rythu Bima.

The figures are an estimate arrived at by the likes of Rythu Swarajya Vedika (RSV) as no enumeration of tenant farmers has ever been done.

Tenant farmers thus lack recognition and are denied institutional credit and government help. Speakers at the public hearing said that there was a model law in the form of Land Licensed Cultivators Act 2011, passed by the Congress government in undivided Andhra Pradesh, to cover tenant farmers.

“Government schemes don’t benefit the tenant farmers. Of the 7,000 farmers who died by suicide after 2014, only 1,600 have been identified and given compensation of Rs 6 lakh under GO 194. Still 5,400 await payment. The BRS state government stopped enumeration of farmer suicides after it introduced Rythu Bima on August 15, 2018,” said RSV’s B. Kondal Reddy.

The trend of increasing tenancy in Telangana has been recorded by bodies like the Niti Aayog, which had pegged it at 13.56 per cent in 2015. This has been reiterated by the 77th National Sample Survey (NSSO) reports.

Farmers like Orsu Kavitha, a tenant farmer whose husband Kashayya died by suicide on July 7, 2015, didn’t get the Rs 6 lakh life insurance which came into force on August 15, 2018. “I am yet to get justice even under this government. I still have a debt of Rs 4.5 lakhs despite selling 20 guntas (0.5 acres) of land in 2018 for Rs 3.7 lakh to repay a part of my loans,” she said.

Kondal Reddy said that the system of three member-committee visits to determine the reasons for the suicide under GO 194 were not done properly under the BRS government, and had not been started under the Congress government.

After giving a patient hearing, jury member Prof. G. Haragopal said, “All the problems aired here are in the notice of no less than Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, who wrote an open letter to tenant farmers as TPCC president duly recognising that 40 per cent of land is being cultivated by 22 lakh tenant farmers on September 13, 2023. Agriculture is in crisis in the country and farmers are agitating again at Delhi borders. The government should implement the recommendations of the Swaminathan Committee.”

Jury member Dr V. Rukmini Rao, national committee member, Makaam (Mahila Kisan Adhikaar Manch), said that the women farmers widowed at young age had to bear the responsibility of the children and in-laws. “It’s disheartening to hear that tenant farmers who are not able to sell their produce in their name and have to wait for money from landowners. Why can’t the government give pensions to the women and her in-laws in such cases instead of limiting the benefit to one per family,” Dr Rukmini Rao said.

AIKS leader T. Sagar opined that giving tenancy cards as per Land Licensed Cultivators Act 2011 doesn’t entail any cost. The Congress government should change course and implement its promises otherwise it will face repercussions in the local body polls.