Siddipet Man Gives Rs 1 Lakh Each To 100 Farmers' Families

Siddipet town today witnessed a unique program, Vanda Chekkula Yagnam: a distribution of cheques of Rs 1 lakh each to the families of 100 farmers who committed suicides.

Chakradhar Goud, a businessman of Siddipet town who settled in Hyderabad a decade ago and became successful, as a part of giving back to society, started an organization called Farmers First Foundation, and distributed the cheques as its initiative.

The foundation's motto is to educate farmers and bring awareness among them.

100 families who were in total distress and had no way out were selected for the foundation's current initiative. To reduce their financial burdens first, Goud gave each of the families a cheque of Rs 1 lakh.

The families were verified by a team of Farmers First Foundation and a few experts. Most of these are families of kaulu rythus (tenant farmers) who don't get the benefits that the families of land owners usually get in case of the land owner's death.

The 100 families belong to different districts of Telangana.

Pittala Divyakumari, the wife of a farmer from Choppadandi village of Karimnagar district who received a cheque for Rs 1 lakh cheque, said that her husband had committed suicide by consuming poison two years ago. Since then the family were living helpless lives, and when she heard about Chakradhar's charity event, she prayed that she be included in the list. Now that she has got the cheque, she wants to start a small provision store in her village and secure her children's lives.

A few other beneficiaries include Sulochana of Bandarupalli in Toguta mandal, who said that she would start a vegetable shop; Bussa Bhagyalakshmi, a Mandapalli resident who said that she would deposit the money equally in the names of her two children; and Kishtagari Kavitha, a beedi-maker in Rudraram village of Mirdoddi mandal who plans to deposit the entire money in the name of her two-year-old daughter.

Chakradhar Goud chose Dassara as the time to bring back hopes to the families of the deceased. He also succeeded in preventing many farmers from committing suicides by extending support to them to enable them to shape their futures. For instance, when he knew from his volunteer about a farmer in Tirupati attempting suicide, Goud arrived there and gave Rs 2 lakh to him to enable him to buy an autorickshaw. Now the farmer-turned-auto-owner is leading a happy life with his family, taking care of eight women of three generations dependent on him.

Another distressed farmer rescued from suicide by Goud in Hyderabad got his daughter wedded to a police sub-inspector.

In the last three years, Goud has reportedly helped 300 agricultural families distressed by the unnatural exits of their breadwinners from the world. Through his volunteers in the villages across Telangana, he gets the actual reasons for each farmer's suicide ascertained, and take a decision on the kind of help to be extended to the family. From his experience, Goud realized that moral support and advice were secondary for families that were under pressure from financiers. "They can think of tomorrow only when they are out of the stress today," he believes.

Goud expressed grief that no one was standing by the families of farmers who committed suicides. He also said that if all the ineligible beneficiaries dropped out of the Rythu Bandhu scheme, thousands of deserving farmers' families would benefit from the same funds.