It was only after Amma’s program in Vidarbha in Feburary 2008 that some of the Western devotees traveling with Amma learned the full extent of the region’s suicide epidemic. Figures that baffle the mind: farmers committing suicide at a rate as fast as one every eight hours— more than 1,000 suicides a year.

Wanting to clearly understand the problem, one such devotee asked Amma to explain the situation as well as Amma’s plans to help rectify it. “The entire lives of these people revolve around agriculture,” Amma said.

“The government should be supporting them. In some places it is doing so, but not effectively enough. In other places, it is not doing so at all. Some f a r mers own and cultivate very small plots of land—maybe only one to four acres. That is their sole source of income. If there is a problem with their harvest—if their crops fail—they go broke.

Sometimes when the crops are planted, the price may be at 20 or 30 rupees per kilo, but then by harvest time the value has plummeted to only 10 rupees or less. When this happens, they have no other means to continue farming than to take out loans, using their land as collateral.

Often they cannot take loans from government institutions or proper banks, only from private money-loaners. These money-loaners charge extremely high interests rates—as much as 30 to 40 percent. The proper banks will not loan them money because they feel the risk of default is too high. These interest rates place such a financial burden upon the farmers that they end up unable to pay their field-hands.

Furthermore, they may have additional expenses, like having daughters of marrying age for whom they need to raise dowry. The result is complete and total financial duress. The farmers feel utterly helpless and, seeing no other way out, they decide to commit suicide. They give their children poison and then drink it themselves.”

Amma also said that more often than not, the fields are maintained solely by the families themselves. In such situations, much of the responsibility of cultivation falls upon the shoulders of the children, forcing them to discontinue their educations at early ages. Amma explained how the Ashram’s Vidyamritam program, which is providing scholarships for 30,000 such children throughout India, is aimed at correcting this problem.

“In truth,” Amma said, “the situation is worse than a third world war. If it were war, there would be instant death—not this long, drawn out suffering. Rectifying the situation is a Himalayan task. Only if we generate love and compassion in our hearts and come together as one can we hope to make a change.”

“At least the children who are interested should be given the opportunity to study,” Amma said. “If they receive at least a basic education more avenues of income will become available to them and their families.” Amma said, “Amma feels the situation is due to how inextricably tied to agriculture these people’s lives are traditionally. If we provide them with alternative means of income, it may help.”

Amma then went on to elucidate the Ashram’s Amrita SREE Program [Amrita Self-Reliance Employment & Empowerment Program]. “The Ashram has started conducting vocational training for groups of women from such families. These groups are then given some initial seed capital to start cottage-industry businesses.

The Ashram is also coordinating these groups to avail of loans from proper banks. This will help the families become less dependent on the whims of Nature and the success of the harvest.” “When someone is drowning in a river, they will cling to even a single straw for dear life. Amma feels these programs could be like that straw, providing them with at least some hope for the future.”