Home » Research Areas » Natural Resource Management » Multi-Sectoral Linkages

Technological Vulnerability and Farmers’ Suicide

Researcher: Esha Shah

Farmers’ suicides in agriculturally prosperous Indian states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Punjab have received wide attention since 1998. Farmers’ suicides have been generally attributed to an agrarian crisis. Liberalisation policies and the resultant withdrawal of the state, fluctuation of prices in international and domestic market due to globalisation, increasing indebtedness, and recurring droughts have all been considered responsible for creating the agrarian crisis. Based on fieldwork in Shimoga district of Karnataka, this study discusses technology’s agency in crystallising the agrarian crisis. It sheds light on how life experiences such as suicide are located in or related to a certain form of technological culture that produces both environmental and social vulnerability. How does technology provide a framework that shapes life experiences, perceptions, and practices, and how this framework shapes human agency are the questions probed in this research. The research ultimately questions values, beliefs, and assumptions employed in scripting technological designs.

 

Contact: cised@isec.ac.in

Back