Chennai, India -
Bollywood veteran Amitabh Bachchan was hailed on Wednesday as a
star of India's farmers after clearing loans worth more than 40
million rupees ($560,000) as an agricultural crisis forces many
rural workers into extreme poverty.
India's farmers have been hit hard by a drop in commodity
prices, stagnant wages, record fuel prices and high fertiliser
costs, sparking rallies across the country this year calling for
better prices for produce and loan waivers.
Farmers and other agriculture workers together make up about
half India's 1.3 billion people.
"It is a very big problem that has left farmers across the
country in dire straits," Rakesh Tikait, spokesperson of the
Bhartiya Kisan Union (Indian Farmers' Union) told the Thomson
Reuters Foundation in a phone interview.
"The government policies are flawed and need an overhaul. We
are fighting for that change but are thankful for any help that
comes along the way."
Tikait said Bachchan's gesture might have been symbolic but
it meant a lot for farmers who were struggling to survive.
More than 12,600 farmers and agricultural workers committed
suicide in 2015 alone, accounting for about 10 percent of all
suicides in India, with almost 60 percent of suicides caused by
bankruptcy and indebtedness, according to official data.
Bachchan, one of Indian cinema's most revered actors, wrote
in his blog this week that he had helped 1,398 farmers from the
northern state of Uttar Pradesh and felt a "sense of
accomplishment".[http://srbachchan.tumblr.com/
]
"Gratitude leans across to the desire of removing some of
the burdens that farmers continue to suffer ... and the inner
peace it generates when the desired is completed," he wrote.