TOI2019 ⁽¹⁶⁾

Read full article Today, we give farmers 2.2 trillion rupees in subsidies on fertiliser, power, crop insurance, seeds, credit, irrigation and a myriad other items. We have a massive programme of procurement of grains at above market prices; we give highly subsidised food grains to 75% of rural population; and we offer guaranteed employment for 100 days to one adult in each rural household. We run schemes that provide houses and LPG connections to rural poor and free primary education and free primary health care to rural households. Finally, substantial resources have been invested in bringing roads, digital connectivity and electricity to rural areas. Yet, after seven decades of development effort, stories of widespread farmer distress remain a daily feature of our television programmes. Why? It is tempting to hypothesise that since stories of distress capture viewer attention more readily than those emphasising positive achievements, media has a vested interest in focussing on them disproportionately. Given the vastness of India, there is always farmer distress in one or another of its corners, providing fodder for primetime television on a regular…