India, Jan. 15 -- Farmer suicides continue to plague the country. According to the latest data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 10,349 farmers committed suicide in 2018, which is only marginally less than the figures for 2016 when 11,379 cultivators took the extreme step. The figures for 2017 have been withheld in the report. Maharashtra leads the suicide list (17,972) followed by Tamil Nadu (13,896), West Bengal (13,255), Madhya Pradesh (11,775) and Karnataka (11,561).

Large swathes of cotton farms in central India have been the epicentre of a debt crisis that has gripped the rural population. For years now, this crisis has driven thousands of farmers to take their own lives. These suicides are not merely a loss of ...