Mass Suicide Of A Family In Samastipur Is A Debt-Driven Massacre
- Dipankar Bhattacharya
Caste massacres, communal carnages, state-executed killings, mob lynchings, political murders, illicit liquor deaths, even death of children due to toxic meals served in schools - I have seen them all over my nearly four decades of close association with Bihar. The collective death of five members of a poor household in Mou panchayat of Vidyapatinagar of Samastipur district on 5 June morning added a new category of debt-driven massacre.
Heard this shocking news soon after the 5 June Convention in Patna. But the account we heard from the survivors of this debt-driven devastation on reaching the spot next morning left us completely numbed.
Manoj Jha, the only breadwinner of this family of five, used to make both ends meet by driving an auto and selling chewing tobacco from a makeshift roadside shop. The family comprised his parents, wife and two young sons, Satyam and Shivam, aged only about seven and eight. He had got his two daughters married off - the elder in 2017 and the younger earlier this year.
The family had reportedly incurred some small loans from private moneylenders and microfinance groups. The lockdown had taken its toll and earnings had dipped drastically. The pressure from moneylenders and microfinance groups for loan recovery however grew in inverse proportion.
According to Govind, the elder son-in-law who used to work in Gujarat before Covid19 struck and now drives an auto in Patna, the loan amount was only about Rs three lakh or so, but the moneylenders were demanding nearly six times the loan amount! Unable to face this harassment, Manoj's father Ratikant Jha committed suicide a few months ago.
But the harassment continued to grow and became unbearable. One moneylender seized the family's land deeds and even confiscated utensils and gas cylinder. The family visited the local police station only to be turned away. The local panchayat too turned a deaf ear and refused to restrain the moneylenders and stop the harassment. On top of it, the family reportedly became a victim of the ongoing ration card cancellation drive.
The morning of 5 June saw the five members of the family hanging dead from the roof in a tiny room. Govind and his wife suspect it to be a case of murder while local media reports treat it as collective suicide. The DM has not cared to visit the spot and speak to the family. The CM has only issued a statement.
One look at the house tells you that the loud claims of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and Nitish Kumar's 'Sat Nischay' (Seven Guarantees) are just an empty cruel rhetoric. The reality is the renewed scourge of usury and people lapsing into extreme poverty and destitution. The reality is mass cancellation of ration cards and denial of even basic food rights.
What do we mean by justice for a family which has lost its all - land, livelihood and now lives? A survey we had done nearly ten years ago had indicated the growing scale of debt burden for poor households in Bihar. The pandemic, lockdown and rising prices and falling incomes have only compounded the burden.
The Modi government periodically writes off big loans even as the Vijay Mallyas and Nirav Modis continue to loot our banks and flee to safe havens in foreign territories. The debt-driven suicides and deaths of farmers and toilers show us the other side of the picture.
The distressed people of India need an urgent survival package - cancellation of all small loans; a complete curb on usury, the fleecing of the poor by private moneylenders; and provision of universal basic income and food support for the needy. The Vidyapatinagar Tragedy tells us that time is fast running out.
