Bhopal: The electoral debate of the by-elections in Madhya Pradesh to be conducted for the 28 assembly seats started with the issues of the farmer, but by the last phase of the election campaign, the entire election has been confined to controversial statements.
Usually, farmers are mentioned in every election, despite this, the economic condition of the farmers of the state remains miserable.
According to a recent Central Government report, the average income of a farmer family in Madhya Pradesh is even lesser than the MNREGA labourer.
The average annual income of farmers who toil with their sweat and blood to cultivate crops is only 1 lakh 16 thousand 788.
According to the report of the Doubling Farmers Income Committee of the Central Government, on an average, the farmer of Madhya Pradesh earns 9732 rupees every month.
In such a situation, if it is distributed among all the members of the family, then the monthly income of every person of a 4-member farmer family is 2433 amounting to 81 rupees per day, which is almost half of the MNREGA wages.
During the by-elections, the farmers of the state and their issues have been buried under controversial statements, even though 70 per cent of the population of the state is associated with the agricultural sector.
The plight of farmers is not hidden from anyone. The same situation can be understood from the statistics of farmer suicides.
According to the NCRB data, in 2019, about 550 farmers had committed suicide in the state. More than 15,000 farmers have committed suicide in the last 15 years.