FARMER'S CAUSE

One of the most important exposes by Jeetendra Ghadge is how over 50 per cent of the families of the farmers who have committed suicide due to debt were denied the law-mandated Rs 1 lakh compensation by the state government. Even the National Human Rights Commission took a note of this and sent a notice to the Maharashtra government. While there is a law to this effect, the eligibility criteria is so strict that most of the needy families tend to miss out on the only help promised by the government.
The then Revenue Minister had also announced to increase the compensation from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh. Unfortunately it did not materialize. Although after the expose the rejection of compensation claims went down and the government also introduced insurance policies for the farmer. The continuous whistleblowing on the growing number of farmer suicide made media headlines and created a political storm in the Maharashtra. All political parties had to take serious notice of the growing crises and announced various schemes including farm loan waivers, which ultimately benefited lakhs of Farmers. Our work has definitely played a major role in extending the much-needed relief in some or the other way.