Krupakar Sriram Chahande is from Chandrapur district, Brahmapuri Taluka in Maglinagar Kailasko. He belongs to the Kundbhi Dalit community. Krupakar was born into a family of activists. He watched his father, stopping discrimination against Dalits—there was a time where Dalits in his village were not allowed to purchase goods from shopkeers or take water from the wells. Today though, other…

Krupakar Chahande

Share

27th May 2015 | Gawarla, Chandrapur, Maharastra | Krupakar Chahande

Farmers from Gawarla village in Chandrapur district of Maharashtra have no access to electricity. They paid for the electricity connection 2 years ago yet no meter or appropriate set up has been done to ensure electricity supply. When they approach the authorities, they are told to purchase their own meters and wires for the set up. They have borrowed money so they could pay for the electricity which is needed to cultivate the crop. With no help from the electricity department, they have to use borrowed pumps on a daily basis. The worsening economic conditions of farmers in India is no surprise. In a recent incident, a farmer committed suicide in midst of political rally which caught the mainstream media's attention, sparking a kind-of national debate. Yet, much much more needs to be done to strengthen the backbone of this country which is deteriorating at a disastrous rate. In the last year, as much as 1306 farmers committed suicide - a massive 40% jump from the year before. This only goes to prove how bad the condition really is. Some media outlets allege that the suicides are just a ploy to attract attention and divert funds and only a mere 0.0058% of people involved in agricultural activities committed suicide compared to 0.0181% of the total population - rate of general suicide being higher than in farmers. But what's being forgotten while drawing this picture is the fact that ~25% of the overall population - which is the farming community - is under a lot of stress from bad weather, government schemes that threaten their only livelihood source and from the bad economic of the agriculture industry in India. More important is the fact that the rest [~75%] of population is also dependent on these ~25% in one way or the other. It only seems logical to make the conditions better for this 25%.

Please call/text the Chief engineer of the electricity department, Chandrapur district, Maharashtra on +91-7857761819 and ask him to help the farmers of Gawarla in at-least setting up the power supply which they have already paid for. Join us in helping the farmers of Gawarla, Chandrapur. Together, we can create change - one village at a time.