Loan waiver

Siddharamaya, a farmer in Ramanagara, Karnataka says, “I have about 13,000 square feet of land and I can hardly grow anything there, except to feed my family. My livelihood comes from my cows. I’d get INR 25 per litre of milk, and now the government has reduced it by INR 3.”

“The feed would cost INR 1,000 but they reduced it by only INR 50, and all the other feed comes up to INR 3,000 per month. This forces me to take a loan from private moneylenders, since the banks won’t give me any. They ask for too many papers which I can’t furnish. They ask for land records in my name but they are in my father’s name. To have them transferred to me costs INR 20,000. Where am I going to get that money from?”

“The government reduces the purchase price of the milk but keeps the costs of the feed the same; we end up losing money. No government can do anything for the poor, it benefits only the rich.

So how will a loan waiver help me?”

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