Wesley Stevenson

speaker

1,470 appearances 54 recordings 1 series first heard Sep 2010 last heard May 2015

Wesley Stevenson’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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More or Less · WS MoreOrLess: Indian Farmer Suicides · 21 Jan 2013 podcast

Hi Ruth. voice-verified

Yes, to check this out, first of all we contacted Jim Rogers, an influential investor who you heard talking earlier. voice-verified

Now what precise data was he referring to when he said millions had died in recent years? voice-verified

Well he said the statistic as he remembers it is officially two and a half million in the last 15 years or so. voice-verified

Yes, and he's actually out by a factor of 10. voice-verified

The official figures show that since 1995, which, as far as I can tell, is an arbitrary starting point, since 1995 there have been 270,000 suicides among farmers in India. voice-verified

Well, I think the reason is, is because he's probably mistaken a lakh for a million. voice-verified

Because in South Asia, they don't use millions, they use lakhs. voice-verified

And one lakh is 100,000. voice-verified

And in print, it's written in a way that could cause you to confuse the two. voice-verified

Well, no, they probably don't. voice-verified

A huge study of suicides in India, which was published in the medical journal The Lancet last July, found a problem with these official figures. voice-verified

Professor Prabhat Jha is the director of the Centre for Global Health Research at the University of Toronto in Canada and is one of the authors. voice-verified

Yes, and campaign groups who think food speculators and GM crop companies are causing farmers to get into financial difficulties would like you to think this is a big number. voice-verified

But? voice-verified

But the one thing that's missing in any of this is context. voice-verified

Let's just take one year, 2010. voice-verified

According to Professor Jha's estimates, there were 19,000 suicides by agricultural workers, which is clearly 19,000 too many. voice-verified

But I asked Professor Jha how this compares to other areas of Indian life. voice-verified

So 10% of all suicides are amongst agricultural workers. voice-verified

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