Love affairs, impotency, drugs also behind farmer suicides: Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh

New Delhi Dowry love affairs and impotency were among the reasons for the deaths of over 1400 farmers in 2014 union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said on FridayAccording to the National Crime Records Bureau NCRB causes of farmer suicides include family problems illness drugsdowry love affairs and impotency he said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha to a question on what had caused the death of so many farmers in the country The ministers reply however did not rule out debt as one of the reasonsThe minister also cited NCRB data to show that the total number of suicides committed by persons working in the farming or agriculture sector were 13754 11772 and 5650 in 2012 2013 and 2014 respectivelyThe number of suicides by farmers due to agrarian distress as reported by the state governments was 1066 890 and 1400 during 2012 2013 and 2014 respectivelyThe figure up to June 2015 is 263 the reply saidMeanwhile the ministers reply triggered a storm with opposition parties accusing the government of insensitivityCongress vice president Rahul Gandhi demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi ask his ministers to visit the houses of farmers to see what is going onSamajwadi Party leader Naresh Agrawal demanded an apology from the minister terming his remarks irresponsible while Communist Party of IndiaMarxist leader Sitaram Yechury dubbed as ridiculous the reasons given for the farmers suicides while the ground reality he said was differentHe said that the number of distress suicides had gone up by 26 per cent in the last one year since the NDA alliance came to power at the Centre and the reply was meant to divert attention from the actual reasons for suicidesCommunist Party of India leader D Raja said the reply showed the government callousness towards farmers suicides which occured due to unprecedented debt crisis faced by them and demanded that the central government take steps to come to their rescueJanata DalUnited leader KC Tyagi said apart from insensitivity the statement was an insult to the countrys farmers He threatened to move a privilege notice against the minister for misleading parliamentFacing a political storm Radha Mohan Singh sought to downplay the controversy saying the answer was based on a NCRB report which the government cited in the repliesOf the total 5650 farmers who committed suicide in 2014 maximum numbers were from Maharashtra Telangana and Chhattisgarh official data revealedAccording to Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India 2014 report released by the bureau of the 5650 farmers who committed suicide 5178 were men and 472 were womenThe highest 2568 suicides by farmers were in Maharashtra 455 percent followed by 898 suicides in Telangana 159 percent and 826 in Madhya Pradesh 146 percent the data revealedTelangana reported the maximum cases of female farmers suicides at 311 percent followed closely by Madhya Pradesh 292 percent and Maharashtra 141 percent it addedBankruptcy or indebtedness and family problems were the major causes behind the suicides accounting for 206 percent and 201 percent of the deaths respectively Other causes included crop failure 168 percent and illness 132 percentThe report revealed that 6575 percent of the farmers who committed suicide were in the age group of 30 to 60 In all 59 were below 18 years of ageEven though 15 people took their lives every hour in 2014 the overall suicide figures witnessed a drop from 134799 in 2013 to 131666 in 2014 the NCRB saidHere again Maharashtra reported the maximum suicides 16307 followed closely by Tamil Nadu 16122 and West Bengal 14310In addition Bhopal reported a significant increase in the number of suicides from 384 in 2013 to 1064 in 2014 an increase of 177 percent while suicides declined by 787 percent in Kanpur from 648 in 2013 to 138 in 2014