‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan’ was a slogan given by Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1965. Almost 55 years after that slogan and 70 years after Independence, the farmers of Maharashtra’s Vidarbha are still taking their own lives.
Year after year after year, successive governments have failed to address the farmer crisis. The Quint spoke to farmers from the Akola district of the Vidarbha region, where the farmers give a report card of the Modi government.
In the interim Budget announced by the government recently, Rs 6,000 have been promised to farmers annually in three instalments. However, the farmers say that the amount is still too little to survive on.