CRIMINAL OUT OF THE POLITICS CAN IT BE DONE

journalists constantly wring their hands over the growing criminalisation of politics, and call on political parties to choose better candidates. such moral lecturing is vacuous. criminals are not entering politics because of some inexplicable moral lapse by candidate selection committees, but because they have huge incentives to get in. to get them out, we must change the incentive system. many laws need changing, but one single change can have a huge impact. let the law provide that criminal cases against legislators will be heard before all others on a day-by-day basis to ensure a quick verdict. in one stroke, that will create a huge disincentive for criminals to contest elections. many will resign from the legislatures to escape the consequences. today, criminals join politics to gain influence and ensure that cases against them are dropped or not proceeded with. the law disqualifies convicted criminals from fighting elections. but this does not keep criminals out of politics because legal delays, often abetted by political pressures, make convictions of resourceful crooks rather rare. criminals threaten witnesses with death, and the feeble state cannot protect them. so we need a radical change. i wonder why public pressure for such change is not greater. our standards have dropped so far that we no longer realise how outrageous our situation is by international standards. when i tell foreigners that our legislatures are full of bandits, they smile incredulously. surely you mean, they say, that bandits assist your legislators? no, i insist, the bandits are the legislators. at which point the foreigners look appalled and foxed: they cannot understand how this can be so in what claims to be the world’s biggest democracy. a casual look at last week’s events shows how commonplace is the mixing of crime and politics. exhibit 1: the gujarat police say the man behind the godhra massacre was a local muslim politician, a feared don. exhibit 2: mansoor ahmed, samajwadi party mla, was shot at a public meeting. his family says the killing was staged by a political rival, tanveer ahmed, who was denied the samajwadi ticket and so contested, unsuccessfully, on the bsp ticket. gang killings and political killings are becoming indistinguishable. exhibit 3: ram sewak gautam, a policeman who had the temerity to raid the premises of don-cum-politician dp yadav and track down his son vikas—who is accused of murder—was transferred in the middle of the murder case. most newspapers ignored this. it is no longer news that officials seeking to catch political criminals get sidelined. look further beyond last week to the up assembly elections. according to india today, 965 of the 5,539 candidates who contested the up elections had criminal records. that is a whopping 17 per cent of all candidates. why are political parties so happy to adopt criminals as candidates? to understand the answer, recall max weber’s definition of the state as the only entity that can use force with impunity. the rule of law is supposed to ensure that anybody else who uses force is jailed. but in india, a weak police and legal system ensures that mafia dons get away with murder. they can use force with impunity. so, a la weber, the mafia have as much legitimacy, in practice if not in theory, as the state. a criminal who can collect protection money is as powerful as an official tax-collector. a don who can use force to settle disputes is actually superior to the state, which is unable to settle disputes because of legal delays. a criminal candidate who can capture and stuff ballot boxes is, in our twisted democracy, on par with a popular politician who wins every vote. normally officials will report booth capturing, but not if the capturing don can credibly threaten them with death. besides, dons have lots of money, which is very useful for fighting expensive election campaigns. india has no system of public funding to enable honest people to meet election costs. black money is needed in hoards, and here criminals have a huge comparative advantage. in the up election, mayawati auctioned several candidatures to the highest bidder. so, according to reports, did the samajwadi party. obviously, criminals will get the better of honest folk in such auctions. why do dons invest large sums in getting tickets? because a ticket to the assembly is a ticket to kickbacks and extortion using political power. since the legal system no longer penalises theft, politicians who steal have a comparative advantage over others. returns on political investments are so high that criminals are disinclined to invest in tax-free rbi bonds. politics is so much more profitable, and just as tax-free. so, our system has unwittingly created huge incentives for criminals to enter politics. in the long run, we must clean up the legal and police system. meanwhile, we need quick steps to change the incentive structure. one is to provide public funding for elections. that will reduce the comparative advantage of criminals, and increase that of honest candidates. the second is to have a blanket ban on defections, a major source of political profit. any legislator who defects or disobeys the party whip in a vote of confidence should be forced to go back to voters for election on a new election symbol. those who split a party should go back to voters too. that will restore some meaning to representative government. but the most far-reaching measure, surely, will be to give automatic seniority to cases against legislators, which should be heard on a day-by-day basis. atal behari vajpayee, you need to find a new way of reviving the sagging fortunes of your party. why not try to seize the high moral ground by introducing a bill to prosecute criminal legislators quickly? your law minister, arun jaitley, will surely comply. true, such a law will be dismaying for mafia dons in your own party. but other parties have even more of them, and will suffer even more. what are you waiting for?

At last some leading public personalities are attempting to clean up India’s crime-ridden political system. For years people have metaphorically wrung their hands in horror and frustration as criminals have tightened their grip on politics, especially in the poorest and roughest states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

These criminals enter parliament and state assemblies and work closely with other corrupt politicians, the police, judiciary and bureaucracy who all help them run their gangs and fix government decisions and contracts.

This trend is now being attacked by a campaign called the Forum for Clean Politics, which is being run by the Public Interest Foundation, which in turn is headed by Bimal Jalan, a former governor of the Reserve Bank of India and a top finance ministry bureaucrat, who is now a member of the Rajya Sabha (upper house of parliament).

Bimal Jalan

Figures on the forum’s www.nocriminals.org website show that one in five Members of Parliament elected in India’s 2004 general election had pending criminal cases against them, either awaiting trial or on appeal after conviction. About half the cases are for murder, violent robbery or rape.

Those involved include 19 (40%) of 48 Maharashtra’s MPs, 13 (35%) of Bihar’s 37, and 23 of UP’s 80. Bihar’s list includes Lalu Prasad Yadav, the railways minister, who was the state’s chief minister till he had to resign over corruption charges.

Even more surprising and shocking is that five out of nine MPs (56%) in the Maharashtra-based Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which is headed by agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and aviation minister Praful Patel, have criminal cases.

Similarly, 42% - eight out of 19 – from the UP-based Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which is run by Mayawati, UP’s chief minister, are in the list.

Mayawati and Pawar are among the country’s most important politicians and they are both possible candidates to be prime minister, if neither the Congress Party nor the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) win enough seats in the coming general election to lead a coalition.

I spoke to Jalan yesterday and he made the point that, bad though it was, a few criminals in politics did not matter so much when India’s parliament was dominated by the major parties. Now however, with the growth of coalition governments at both national and state level, small parties and their MPs exercise considerable influence.

“Governments have a lot of power over things that criminals want such as land rights and allocation of land, property rights, mining rights and environmental decision,” he says.

The figures show that MPs and candidates with criminal records are more common in regional parties like the NCP and BSP than in Congress and the BJP, where the percentages drop to around 20%. Analysts say that this is because regional party leaders and criminals are mutually useful to each other – criminals provide party finance and muscle power, and receive favourable decisions in return.

The statistics are based on returns that election candidates have to file with information of cases pending for more than two years. They are allowed to stand and be elected when they have either not been convicted, or are on appeal, because they can claim that they are innocent – though in many of the cases their guilt is beyond question. In India’s often corrupt judicial system, it is easy to delay and even fix cases so as to avoid a final decision.

Jalan is not sure how much impact the campaign will have, but he is sure that “parties will be much more reluctant to nominate people with criminal records”. Other foundation members include Naresh Chandra, former cabinet secretary and ambassador to the US, Tarun Das of the Confederation of Indian Industry, and Suresh Neotia, chairman of Ambuja Cement whose Neotia Foundation has provided the finance.

The campaign is being supported by some newspaper groups, including the Times of India, and other organisations. It is using mobile phone text messages to encourage voters to ask questions about candidates’ past histories, plus You Tube (two films click here and here), and has gathered 4,000 members on its Facebook entry for No Criminals in Politics. There is also an advertisement campaigns on tv and in newspapers encouraging people to vote with slogans like “keep religion out of politics and politics out of religion”.

Other public figures including Ratan Tata, head of the Tata group, and E, Sreedharan, who runs the highly successful Delhi Metro, last year launched the Foundation for Restoration of National Values. This is reported to be taking legal action over the vast numbers of government advertisements that appeared two weeks ago just before the general election was announced.

All this may not have much effect on the coming election, but it is a beginning. India’s greatest strength is its democracy and it is time it was wrenched free of criminals and their political friends.

INDIAN POLITICS ...........................

Politics of India takes place in a framework of a federal parliamentary multi-party representative democratic republic modeled after the British Westminster System. The Prime Minister of India is the head of government, while the President of India is the formal head of state and holds substantial reserve powers, placing him or her in approximately the same position as the British monarch. Executive power is exercised by the government. Federal legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of the Parliament of India. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.

According to its constitution, India is a "sovereign socialist secular democratic republic." India is the largest state by population with a democratically-elected government. Like the United States, India has a federal form of government, however, the central government in India has greater power in relation to its states, and its central government is patterned after the British parliamentary system. Regarding the former, "the Centre", the national government, can and has dismissed state governments if no majority party or coalition is able to form a government or under specific Constitutional clauses, and can impose direct federal rule known as President's rule. Locally, the Panchayati Raj system has several administrative functions.

For most of the years since independence, the federal government has been led by the Indian National Congress (INC),^[1] Politics in the states have been dominated by several national parties including the INC, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) and various regional parties. From 1950 to 1990, barring two brief periods, the INC enjoyed a parliamentary majority. The INC was out of power between 1977 and 1980, when the Janata Party won the election owing to public discontent with the corruption of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. In 1989, a Janata Dal-led National Front coalition in alliance with the Left Front coalition won the elections but managed to stay in power for only two years.^[2] As the 1991 elections gave no political party a majority, the INC formed a minority government under Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and was able to complete its five-year term.^[3] The years 1996–1998 were a period of turmoil in the federal government with several short-lived alliances holding sway. The BJP formed a government briefly in 1996, followed by the United Front coalition that excluded both the BJP and the INC. In 1998, the BJP formed the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) with several other parties and became the first non-Congress government to complete a full five-year term.^[4] In the 2004 Indian elections, the INC won the largest number of Lok Sabha seats and formed a government with a coalition called the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), supported by various parties.^[5]

At the federal level, India is the most populous democracy in the world.^[6][7] While many neighboring countries witness frequent coups, Indian democracy has been suspended only once.^[8] Nevertheless, Indian politics is often described as chaotic. More than a fifth of parliament members face criminal charges^[8] and is not unheard of that most state assembly seats are held by convicted criminals.^[9] Corruption in India is common.

Constitution of India

The Constitution of India lays down the basic structure of government under which the people are to be governed. It establishes the main organs of government - the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. The Constitution not only defines the powers of each organ, but also demarcates their responsibilities. It regulates the relationship between the different organs and between the government and the people. It thus forms the basis of politics in India. The Constitution is superior to all other laws of the country. Every law enacted by the government has to be in conformity with the Constitution.

The governance of India is based on a tiered system, wherein the Constitution of India appropriates the subjects on which each tier of government has executive powers. The constitution uses the Seventh Schedule to delimit the subjects under three categories namely the union list, the state list and the concurrent list. The central government has the powers to enact laws on subjects under the union list, while the state governments have the powers to enact laws on subjects under the state list. Both the central as well as the state governments can enact laws on subjects under the concurrent list. However, the laws enacted by the central government under the concurrent list overrides the laws enacted by the state government when a conflict arises between those laws.

The central government exercises its broad administrative powers in the name of the President, whose duties are largely ceremonial. The president and vice president are elected indirectly for 5-year terms by a special electoral college. The vice president assumes the office of president in case of the death or resignation of the incumbent president.

The constitution designates the governance of India under two branches namely the executive branch and Real national executive power is centered in the Council of Ministers, led by the Prime Minister of India. The President appoints the Prime Minister, who is designated by legislators of the political party or coalition commanding a parliamentary majority. The President then appoints subordinate ministers on the advice of the Prime Minister. In reality, the President has no discretion on the question of whom to appoint as Prime Minister except when no political party or coalition of parties gains a majority in the Lok Sabha. Once the Prime Minister has been appointed, the President has no discretion on any other matter whatsoever, including the appointment of ministers. But all Central Government decisions are nominally taken in his name.

The constitution designates the Parliament of India as the legislative branch to oversee the operation of the government. India's bicameral parliament consists of the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok Sabha (House of the People). The Council of Ministers is held responsible to the Lok Sabha.

The government can enact laws and ordinances as required for the governance of the country. However, laws and ordinances have to be passed by the legislative branch in order to be effected. Parliament sessions are conducted to discuss, analyze and pass the laws tabled as Acts. Any law is first proposed as a bill in the lower house. If the lower house approves the bill in current form, the bill is then proposed to be enacted in the upper house. If not, the bill is sent for amendment and then tabled again so as to be passed as an Act. Even if the bill is passed in the lower house, the upper house has the right to reject the proposed bill and send it back to the government for amending the bill. Therefore, it can be said that the governance of India takes place under two processes; the executive process and the legislative process. Ideally, the governance cannot be done through the individual processes alone. After the Acts are passed by both the houses, the President signs the Bill as an Act. Thus the legislative branch also acts under the name of the President, like the executive branch.

Ordinances are laws that are passed in lieu of Acts, when the parliament is not in session. When the parliament is in recess, the President assumes the legislative powers of both the houses temporarily, under Part V: Chapter III - Article 335 of the Constitution of India. The government has to propose a law to the President during such periods. If the President is fully satisfied with the bill, and signs the bill, it becomes an ordinance. The powers of ordinances are temporary, and each ordinance has to be tabled in the parliament when the houses reassemble. The President also has the right to withdraw an ordinance

LOCAL GOVERNENCE :===

On April 24, 1993, the Constitutional (73rd Amendment) Act, 1992 came into force to provide constitutional status to the Panchayati Raj institutions. This Act was extended to Panchayats in the tribal areas of eight States, namely Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Rajasthan from 24 December 1996.

The Act aims to provide 3-tier system of Panchayati Raj for all States having population of over 2 million, to hold Panchayat elections regularly every 5 years, to provide reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Women, to appoint State Finance Commission to make recommendations as regards the financial powers of the Panchayats and to constitute District Planning Committee to prepare draft development plan for the district.

Powers and responsibilities are delegated to Panchayats at the appropriate level:

• Preparation of plan for economic development and social justice.
• Implementation of schemes for economic development and social justice in relation to 29 subjects given in Eleventh Schedule of the Constitution.
• To levy, collect and appropriate taxes, duties, tolls and fees.

Indian Vital Statistics : Fatal Figures about our FARMERS and OUR AGRICULTURE

* Hardly 10 per cent of Indian farmers are covered by crop insurance.
* Debt drove nearly 1 lakh members of farming community to commit suicide between 1998 and 2003, says a government report.
* 17,000 farmers and their kin killed themselves each year for six years.
* 12% of all suicides in the country was in the farming community.
* 2002 worst year. 16% of suicides among farmers.
* Agriculture provides nearly 600 million direct and another 200 million indirect jobs.
* The total annual rural debt of Punjab was Rs 24,000 crore in 2003-04 -- is more than its gross annual earnings from agriculture. (Source: The Telegraph, April 24, 2006)
* There is a total of about 455 million acres of land that is cultivated in India and only about a third of it is covered by irrigation.
* The four states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Kerala have recorded over 8,900 suicides between 2001-2002 and 2005-2006. * 70% of the Andhra's 78 million people are dependent on agriculture.
* Due to the acute distress, more than 1500 farmers committed suicide, mainly in Wayanad district, which is unprecedented in the history of Kerala.
* Rural development expenditure as percentage of GDP between 1985-1990 was 14.5%, which came down to 5.9% in 2000-01. * The expenditure on agriculture research is only around 0.3 per cent of GDP.

From Seeds of Suicide to Seeds of Hope: Navdanya's Intervention to Stop Farmers' Suicides in Vidharbha

From Seeds of Suicide to Seeds of Hope: Navdanya's Intervention to Stop Farmers' Suicides in Vidharbha
From Seeds of Suicide to Seeds of Hope: Navdanya's Intervention to Stop Farmers' Suicides in Vidharbha The increasing costs of production and the falling farm prices that go hand in hand with globalisation and corporate hijack of seed supply, combined with the decline in farm credit is putting an unbearable debt burden on farmers. The lure of huge profits linked with clever advertising strategies evolved by the seeds and chemical industries are forcing farmers into a chemical treadmill and a debt trap. It has been witnessed that across the country, farmers are taking the desperate step of ending their life. The pesticides, which had created debt, also became the source of ending indebted lives. More than 150,000 farmers have committed suicide in India due to [Photo] distortions introduced in agriculture as a result of trade liberalisation. More than 20,000 farmers have committed suicide in Andhra Pradesh alone. After the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in July 2006, the suicide has increased alarmingly, reaching more than 1400 with debt trap cotton farmers putting an end to their lives in Vidharbha region alone. [Photo] Navdanya has been monitoring the impact of trade liberalisation and seed monopoly by seed giants on Indian farmers and Indian agriculture. To stop the genocide of our farmers and reclaim our seed and food sovereignty, Navdanya launched the Bija Yatra on 9th of May 2006 to mark 150 years of our struggle for freedom. The Yatra started from Sevagram, Maharashtra, the place of Gandhiji's Ashram. The Yatra was concluded on 26th May in Bangalore. The Yatra covered Amravati, Yavatmal,Nagpur in Vidharbha region of Maharashtra, Adilabad, Warangal, Karimnagar, Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh, and Bidar, Gulbarga, Raichur, Hosepet, Chitradurg and Bangalore in Karnataka. These are the regions where farmers have become locked into dependence on corporate seeds supply for growing cash crops integrated to world markets, which is leading to a collapse in farm prices due to 400 billion dollars subsidies in rich countries.Apart from providing guidance and help to the farmers for the revival of agriculture, Navdanya, under the "Asha ke Beej" (Seeds of Hope) program, distributed the indigenous variety of seeds to the farmers and encouraged them to shift to organic and sustainable agriculture. More than 6000 farmers were distributed indigenous seeds. Navdanya also realized that one of the crisis farmers were facing was a seed famine created by Monsanto. Navdanya therefore started a seed bank in Kalaspur village. And on 2nd and 3rd June seeds were distributed from the seed bank in villages in Vidharbha. Navdanya is committed to ending the vicious cycle of violence in agriculture, which is leading to farmers' suicides. We are committed to strengthening the virtuous cycles of peace based on cooperation with nature and among communities to promote a sustainable and life enhancing food system. During the yatra, Navdanya took a pledge [Photo] To protect our freedom and our lives by defending seed sovereignty through chemical free and GMO free ecological and sustainable farming. More than 10,000 farmers have taken pledge to conserve, rejuvenate and protect their biodiversity. To create GMO free, patent free, debt free and suicide free villages. As a result of Navdanya's joint initiative with Vidharbha Organic Farmers Association and Vidharbha Jan Andolan, Kolzari, Kalaspur and Goi villages have adopted to organic farming

INORA - Institute of Natural Organic Agriculture in Pune,

INORA - Institute of Natural Organic Agriculture in Pune, a leading
non-profit for organic agriculture in India, helped 400 farmers in
1996 establish wormeries and planned to help 600 more in 1997.  The
goal of the wormeries is production of vermicompost biofertilizers to
enhance soil quality and productivity.  Soils in India are
impoverished of organic matter due to neglect and dependence on
chemical fertilizers.  The climate itself is harsh on soil organic
matter, with hot dry conditions for several months each year. 
INORA views vermicompost as a low-tech soil improvement practice
that is well adapted to small farms.

They assist farmers in erecting wormeries, which are shade houses
constructed of bamboo poles and thatch roofs 80 feet long and about
30 feet wide.

For bedding they use a mixture of 50% cow dung and 50% biomass such
as grass and fodder.  The biomass comes from intentionally planted
crops in under-utilized spaces such as fence rows and bunds.  The
INORA advisors help farmers look at the non-cropland areas
around the farm as productive spaces to acquire biomass as a source
for worm bedding and bioconversion.  The farmers fill a wicker basket
with 10 kg of the 50:50 mixture, and plop down two patties side by
side.  This continues until a long row of double patties is formed.
The worms are added atop the plops, and then covered with loose
organic matter or previously made worm compost.  Thus a worm
bed is established. 

The worms they use are African red worms and common red worms.
After equilibrium is established, 95% of the population settles out
as African red worms and 5% red worms; yet they keep using the red
worms because they occupy an important ecological niche in the worm
bed.  It takes about 3 months for the worms to work over the first
bed, but only half this time in following cycles due to worm
population buildup.

A pamphlet from INORA says they use the following worms:

Eisenia foetida
Perionyx excavatus
Eudrilus euginae

[Which species is African Red Worms....  Perionyx or Eudrilus?]

One other notable practice at INORA is the inoculation of the
worm beds with 3-4 soil microbial inoculants 10-12 days
prior to harvest. These microbials include azotobacter and
azospirillum (N-fixing microorganisms) along with phosphorus
solublizing bacteria, to create a vermicompost biofertilizer.  This
end product, the vermicompost biofertilizer, is applied at a rate of
2 tons per acre. 

Two observations:
*The integration of worm compost with microbial inoculants is an
 advanced organic farming practice in India.
*It is a remarkable achievement to make and apply 2 tons/acre
 precious biofertilizer from organic wastes....   all prepared and
 spread by hand with the aid of a bullock cart.

Worm Digest ran a special issue on vermicomposting in Indi

solutions for some problems faced by the famers by buying the fertizers is increase the use of vermicompost only

Vermiculture in India

In the past ten years an organization in India has prompted over 2,000 farmers and institutions to switch from conventional chemicals to the organic fertilizer, vermicompost. Noted for its ability to increase organic matter and trace minerals in soil, vermiculture has been the primary focus at Maharashtra Agricultural Bioteks in India, an organization which has initiated both commercial and educational ventures to promote vermiculture.

In 1985, Maharashtra Agricultural Bioteks was formed and established a small plant to manufacture vermicompost from agricultural waste. Those involved believed that a successful commercial venture based on regenerative principles might convince others to adapt sustainable practices.

The organization currently produces 5,000 tons of vermicompost annually. Its real achievement, however, has been in raising awareness among farmers, researchers and policy makers in India about regenerative food production methods. The group is directly responsible for 2,000 farmers and horticulturists adopting vermicomposting. These converts have begun secondary dissemination of the principles they were taught.

In 1991-92, Maharashtra Bioteks and the India Department of Science and Technology promoted the adoption of vermicompost technology in 13 states in India. The group has also established a vermicompost unit with Chitrakoot Gramodaya University, Madhya Pradesh which produces five tons of vermicompost per month.

Education and Demonstration

Nearly 1,000 farmers have reduces their use of chemical fertilizers by 90% by using vermicompost as a soil amendment for growing grapes, pomegranates and bananas. Similar work is underway on mangoes, cashews, coconuts, oranges, limes, strawberries and various vegetable crops.

The organization has devised methods to convert biodegradable industrial waste like pulp waste from paper mills and filter cake and liquid effluent from sugar factories into vermicompost. These wastes are commonly regarded as pollutants, but three facilities are already producing thirty tons of vermicompost each month from this waste.

The organization has also created a program which trains housewives and home gardeners to produce their own vermicompost from household and garden waste. The aim of this work is to increase awareness about regenerative practices. To this end, vermicompost kits have been developed and distributed and in one year 100 housewives were trained to use the kits.

Through its programs with farmers, institutions and at the government level, Maharashtra Agricultural Bioteks is convincing people that vermicompost presents a healthy alternative to chemical fertilizers.

Debt woes drive thousands of Indian farmers to suicide……

Debt woes drive thousands of Indian farmers to suicide……

KOCHI, India (AP) — On the last night of his life, the farmer walked into his dusty fields, choked down pesticide and waited to die.

He owed more than $1,000 to banks and moneylenders and he had told his wife that if the cotton harvest was bad this year, he would kill himself.

Pandurang Chindu Surpam left the near-barren fields he worked with his sons to share a last meal with his family. Hours later, he died. He was 45.

Crushed by debts most Westerners would deem inconsequential, farmers like Surpam killed themselves at a rate of 48 a day between 2002 and 2006 — more than 17,500 a year, according to experts who have analyzed government statistics. At least 160,000 farmers have committed suicide since 1997, said K. Nagaraj of the Madras Institute of Development Studies.

The epidemic dates to the 1990s, and is generally attributed to a toxic blend of slashed subsidies, tougher global competition, drought, predatory moneylenders and expensive genetically modified seeds.

“It’s one of the largest public health disasters to hit India since independence,” said professor Charles Nuckols of Brigham Young University, an anthropologist who has studied Indian village life for decades.

In northern India, authorities have gone so far as to ban a type of cheap hair dye because it was being drunk to induce death by kidney failure.

But it is India’s cotton belt, a land of searing temperatures and backbreaking work, that has been hit hardest by the suicides.

In rural Maharashtra state, farmers say things have never been harder. Owing more than they earn, these steadiest of workers have become gamblers of the highest stakes, betting their land — and their lives — on one more good crop.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has visited some of the widows, and the 2008 budget offers some debt relief.

But the farmers say their plight is largely being ignored as the country rushes to embrace the global marketplace. Few find it reassuring that India’s agriculture minister, Sharad Pawar, doubles as the nation’s top cricket official.

A decade ago, the government began cutting farm subsidies as it liberalized the managed socialist economy. The farmers’ costs rose as the tariffs that had protected their products were lowered. It was a combination, analysts say, that made small farms even harder to sustain.

“Suicide is one of the symptoms of the larger agrarian crisis,” said Srijit Mishra of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research.

Meanwhile, banking reforms forced farmers to be more dependent on private moneylenders. These generally allow the farmers only 11 months to pay back their loans at interest rates of more than 100 percent a year, or else they seize the land at a drastically reduced rate.

“It’s not a nice business,” said one village moneylender, who agreed to be interviewed if he was not identified because he was unlicensed. “But you earn a lot of money.”

A soft-spoken man with a pencil-thin mustache, he runs a small grocery store and has made hundreds of loans to farmers. He has also seized some 125 acres in his decades-long career, which he took over from his father. He said the number of farmers unable to repay their loans has increased by roughly 30 percent in the last 10 years.

“When we loan them money, we are quite sure whether or not they can pay,” he said, his long fingers crossed in his lap. “We know it’s going to be our land eventually.”

Farmers and analysts say another blow was the introduction of genetically modified cotton seeds, notably St. Louis-based Monsanto Co.’s “Bt” seeds which are resistant to boll worms. The seeds can be more productive and have become standard in much of Maharashtra but can be three times more expensive to maintain than traditional seeds.

For the widows, left to tend the crops and raise the children, the suicides are personal calamities with roots not in macroeconomics, but in homegrown problems — impossible debts, the loss of ancestral land, rapacious money lenders.

Surpam’s widow, a stoic mother of three with a face toughened by the sun, blames her husband’s suicide on the loans he had taken over the past two years, his first taste of debt. He borrowed 25,000 rupees ($625) from a bank and 20,000 rupees ($500) from private moneylenders to invest in his fields and to pay for his daughter’s wedding, she said.

“He used to say we owe money and if anyone comes looking for us, it would be a dishonor,” said his wife, Sumitra, who learned only after his death on April 1 how much he owed.

Surpam’s three acres produced just $150 worth of cotton this year — not nearly enough to keep the moneylender at bay.

The suicide, Sumitra said, “was obviously because of the loan.”

For Surpam and most other small farmers here, borrowing money is as natural as tilling the soil.

When a group of farmers in Kochi were asked recently by The Associated Press which of them was in debt, every hand in the room shot up.

The 2008 budget made special provisions for farmers, forgiving debts to state banks. The move was widely seen as an attempt to stave off rural discontent, which played a large role in toppling the previous government.

But the waivers apply only to farmers who own less than five acres, disqualifying millions. And they don’t apply to loans by private moneylenders.

The Waghmere family of Bothbodan village owns slightly more than five acres, so their debt to the bank of more than 60,000 rupees ($1,500) won’t be wiped clean.

Before Shanker Waghmere, 49, killed himself in 2005, “he kept talking about debts going up each passing day,” said his 35-year-old widow, Shantabair.

With night falling on her crops and her three children fluttering behind her, the widow said she hopes she’ll earn enough from this year’s harvest to pay off her husband’s debt, pay for her daughter’s wedding, pay for her son’s school.

She plans to buy a batch of seeds she heard grows better cotton.

She said she’ll pay for them with a loan from a moneylender.