There is no government report published on farmer suicides in India in 2016 and 2017. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) is entrusted with collecting and summarising data on farmer suicides across the country.
In a detailed report, Scroll highlighted that in the Budget Session, the Union Home Ministry had told Parliament that it was yet to compile data on farmers suicides for 2016.
However, the Ministry, to which the NCRB reports, tabled a provisional report for farmers suicides in 2016, pegging the numbers at 6,351 farmers and 5,019 agricultural labourers. The provisional report did not have a chapter on the causes of those suicides.
A senior official of the NCRB told Scroll that there has been a delay in publishing data on farmer suicides because there seemed to be a few problems with the data furnished by some states.
The bureau data shows that in 2015, as many as 8,007 farmers and 4,595 agricultural labourers had committed suicide. In 2014, 5,650 farmers and 6,710 agriculture labourers had committed suicide. There is no government report on farmer suicides published after that, which means these cases have so far found no place in published government data.