DISTRESS SUICIDES
seem to have spread from the ranks of farmers to those of artisans also in Andhra Pradesh. Eminent social scientists underscore that this phenomenon of large scale farmers suicides is something entirely new and link it to the last decade of globalization and trade liberalizaton under a corporate-driven economy. Some blame the modern ‘neo-coloinalist’ collaboration setup as directly responsible for all this mess. They point out that prior to the British occupation Indian peasant used to earn significantly more than the English farmer, and it is the colonial system of plunder and iniquitous land use that led to the collapse of the flourishing agriculture and handicrafts. After Independence, Indian farmer again rose up and was always able to feed the ever increasing population of the country with his skills and toils but again the LPG processes have reversed the trend. “Agrarian distress and consequent mass suicide since 1997 once again started when India again exposed its agriculture to foreign companies in 1991.” The same is true for the fate of handicrafts... And all this a part of the worldwide globalized ‘free trade’ cannibalism. See this severe indictment: “The transformation of life into commodities kills, but nowhere is this more deadly than in the extreme market conditions of contemporary China. Red capitalists use anything … for runaway overproduction. The Chinese commodities inundating the earth stem from a pitiless market of low-paid laborers, including children and prisoners, who put in long hours... With massive unemployment in rural areas and a huge migration to cities … life for many unfortunate Chinese is a constant struggle of one against all in which stolen children are sold for profit...” And that is exactly what is ailing us too. So in the final analysis it is an acute human rights crisis created by cruel capitalist greed but our human rights commissions and superior courts seem to be ‘blissfully ignorant’ and the State, giving up the welfare state ideal, aids and abets the monstrous capitalization spree. And ‘we the people’ are baffled, unable to fight concertedly to defeat such dehumanizing processes and forces §§§
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