CM yogi Adityanath lied that no farmer committed suicide in the last 6 years in UP
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Explanation
Yogi Adityanath, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh on 6, March 2023 flagged off 77 tractors in cooperative sugarcane and sugar mill societies for farm machinery banks in Lucknow. During the occasion, Yogi Adityanath mentioned that no farmer in Uttar Pradesh became helpless and attempted suicide in the previous six years.
The said event was reported live by News 18 UP Uttarakhand where Yogi Adityanath is seen speaking to the crowd.
What is the truth?
When searching for the data regarding the suicide of farmers on the government website, we found the required data on National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) website.
The year-wise ‘Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India’ reports are referred from the year 2016 to 2021. The report for the year 2022 is not available. Yogi Adityanath became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in 2017 and he retained his position in the 2022 elections.
In all the reports referred to, Table 2.7 displays the details of the ‘Profession-wise Distribution of Suicides’ for that particular year. This table includes the number of suicides by farmers/cultivators and agricultural labourers state-wise.
The report for the year 2017 says that a total of 110 farmers/cultivators out of which 94 cultivating on their own land and 16 cultivating on leased land died of suicide. In addition to it, 93 agricultural labourers also died of suicide in the same year.
In 2018, 36 farmers who cultivated on their own land, 44 farmers who cultivated on leased land and 174 agricultural labourers committed suicide. The report for 2019 says that 92 farmers who cultivated on their own land, 16 farmers who cultivated on leased land and 153 agricultural labourers died of suicide.
Similarly, in 2020, 60 farmers who cultivated on their own land, 27 farmers who cultivated on leased land and 85 agricultural labourers committed suicide
When seeing the data for 2021, the suicides of farmers who cultivate their own land and on leased land seem to have reduced drastically compared to the previous years with a count of 7 and 6 respectively. But in contrast to it, the agricultural labourers’ death due to suicide has increased a lot taking the count to 226.
A total of 398 farmers/cultivators including the ones who cultivate their own land and leased land died of suicide from 2017 to 2021. And 731 agricultural labourers committed suicide in the same period in Uttar Pradesh.
In 2016, 53 farmers who cultivated their own land died of suicide, 16 farmers who cultivated on lease land, and 115 agricultural labourers died of suicide. This data is from 2016 when Yogi Adityanath was not the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. The count before he became a CM seems to be less when comparing the data with the number of suicides that happened in UP in most of the years during his tenure from 2017 to 2021.
Conclusion
It is found that the claim made by Yogi Adityanath, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, that no farmer committed suicide in the last 6 years is false. It is to be noted that a total of 398 farmers and 731 agricultural labourers committed suicide from 2017 to 2021.
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