Indias debt trapped farmers (Editorial)
Suicide by over 17,000 farmers in 2006, the latest year for which systematic official data are available, is a huge national tragedy. In fact, the trends revealed by the National Crime Records Buresu (NCRB) on farmers' suicides are appalling. While there have been ups and downs in the annual figure, there has been no let up in the trend since 2001. The figure for 1997, in itself disturbing, was approximately 14,000. From 2002, there has been no year in which fewer than 17,000 farmers' suicides have been recorded. The 2006 figure confirms the trend.