This tale is not unique to this family only. Vidharbha has every house screaming similar tales of fate which we can only hear as silence.

Vandana Khandekar for past ten years is working as farm labourer on daily wages of Rs 50. Her husband poisoned himself ten years ago when he was unable to pay back his debt taken from moneylenders. Today, in those 50 rupees, she takes care of her marriageable daughter and unemployed young son. The fate of her tragedy is so impulsive that even today she is not being recognised as the below poverty line family by the government to avail relief and concessions for their upliftment.

But problems don’t end here. When Nanda Vasudev Rao Bhagware another widow went to avail her waiver/scheme benefits from the district magistrate office with her poverty card; she didn’t get anything. Tehsildar kept her card. It has been over a month and nothing has seen to be done.

Every suicide has a cause. But when you have nearly 200,000 of them, it becomes important to seek underlying common factors responsible for that cause. It is known to all that the suicides appear concentrated in regions of high commercialisation of agriculture and very high peasant debt.

It is also known that cash crop farmers are far more vulnerable to suicide than those growing food crops. Growing BT cotton is known as privilege crop and grown with proudness. But stories of Vasudev’s widow, Vandana and Nanda would reflect how government’s proudness is slowly and gradually shattering their existence.

Sowing BT cotton costs a farmer Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000 per acre than hybrid cotton. The seeds are three times costlier. It means far higher spending on irrigation and fertiliser. And, as Bolenwar shows, it still needs spraying.

Government has failed to touch the basic underlying causes of the crisis or they pretend to fail. Government initiated the predatory commercialisation of the countryside; a massive decline in investment in agriculture; the withdrawal of bank credit at a time of soaring input prices; the crash in farm incomes combined with an explosion of cultivation costs; the shifting of millions from food crop to cash crop cultivation with all its risks; the corporate hijack of every major sector of agriculture including especially, seed and growing water stress with no electricity. Government knows it all yet pretends to be unaware.

Maharashtra is the state where government has gone out of its way to promote BT cotton, even when some top officers in the department have expressed grave doubts over this step.
"In this region when there has been no irrigation facility and no rains; Bt cotton has not paid good returns deterioting conditions of farmers majorly,” says Raghnath Lakshman, head of Maharashtra Cooperative Society.

He added that, “This scenario implies disaster, since nearly 97 per cent of cotton grown in the state is ill irrigated. Though the use of BT cotton in Maharashtra is increasing; the yields have been unstable. When farmers invest heavily in purchasing seeds and other inputs, the net return has often been negative."

Even then last year, the state's agriculture commissioner gave the Government of India a report saying that ‘no significant differences were observed’ between BT and non-Bt varieties of cotton. Except, of course in terms of the price of BT cotton seed - which the report found was not ‘a justifiable cost’.

Cotton manufacturers on the other hand, are also supporting BT cotton cultivation because its production is three times than the local cotton.

"On an average three to five sprayings were given to both Bt and non-Bt,” clarifies social activist Kishore Tiwari who has been fighting for the cause of farmer suicide in Vidharbha region. “The attack of sucking pest was reported on both. Also it is found that BT cotton's performance is not satisfactory and that in some cases non-Bt varieties yield better than BT varieties,” he said.
Despite this, ministers, MLA’s and film stars were roped in to promote BT cotton. At the time of elections, ministers come to these villages; give chudda, local alcohol and 100 rupees note and buy their votes and leave giving hopes to their dried eyes.

Farmer suicides are rising within a declining farmer population. What is devastating to see is that many farmers are today drifting away from their occupation in order to meet their ends. Between just the census of 1991 and that of 2001, nearly eight million cultivators quit farming. A year from now, the 2011 census will tell us how many more quit in this decade. It is not likely to be less. Many have sold out their lands and are working as labourers in nearby districts earning megre wages of Rs 50 a day.

The loan waiver year of 2008 saw 16,196 farmer suicides in the country, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. The 2008 waiver also excluded those holding over five acres, making no distinction between irrigated and unirrigated land. This devastated many struggling farmers with eight or 10 acres of poor, dry land.

But does this scheme’s objective or implication has failed at ground level is not considered important to be explored by the officials.

The idea of waiver were given noble objectives. The specific actions taken to imply this scheme were misguided and bungled. The waiver was a welcome step for the farmers, but its architecture and implementation policy was flawed.

It is still flawed when we see no bank branches to approach in villages, when villagers are not educated of the loan waiver scheme and procedure to avail it, when hundreds of clauses are added to avail those schemes and bank give support just in name.

Later, loans were given under certain eligibility criteria. Loans were given only to farmer’s owning land. Farm labourers were no where to be compensated. If farmers have taken money from moneylenders then their widows are not compensated for their debt from the bank. It is still not questioned as to why seventy per cent of farmers are denied institutional credit which forced them to take loans from money lenders.

The plights of the cotton sellers are also hidden. They are forced to middlemen because the government gives money for their food crops only after a month.

According to Krishi Vidyalaya’s programme coordinator Pramod Yagirwar, “The reason why nothing can be done so effectively at ground level is because of low irrigation area, low capital investment in farming, no subsidiary business and change in climate.”

He suggested that instead of cash crops soybeans and fruits should be planted. That is a suggestion; which has not seen light of the day.

But what can grow on that land which has not smelled pre rain showers for years together; what can be grown on a land that has engulfed numerous soil toilers who failed to cultivate enough to fill their bellies; what can be grown on a land which still speaks unheard tales of women lying dejected with broken dreams. What can be done still remains a big question.