An Indian farm worker plows a field on the outskirts of Jalandhar, in the state of Punjab, February, 2018.

2018 年 2 月，旁遮普邦賈朗達爾郊區(qū)，一名印度農(nóng)場工人正在犁地。

Gazing across the pristine fields in the district of Sangrur in northern India, there was little indication families here were struggling. A nearby canal brought water to the wheat and rice crops that were the life source of the village's farmers.
Typical for India, the edges of the canal were littered with empty plastic bags, soda cans, and dark orange pesticide containers that swirled together in a corner where the water met a bridge.
But alongside the discarded trash floated something else: a bloated body. It was the third body that had been sighted that day, locals told us.

凝視著印度北部桑格魯爾地區(qū)原始的田野，幾乎沒有跡象表明這里的家庭正在掙扎。附近的一條運河為該村農(nóng)民的生活來源小麥和水稻作物提供了水源。
典型的印度，運河邊上到處都是空塑料袋、汽水罐和深橙色的殺蟲劑容器，它們在水與橋交匯的角落里盤旋在一起。
但在被丟棄的垃圾旁邊漂浮著另一個東西：一具臃腫的尸體。當?shù)厝烁嬖V我們，這是當天發(fā)現(xiàn)的第三具尸體。

I've encountered many devastating scenes like this, since I first started visiting farming families across the state of Punjab almost a decade ago. I go as part of a medical exchange program where American physicians learn how biopsychosocial factors -- such as government policies, the environment or economics -- impact health globally. Our group also partners with the local Baba Nanak Education Society, to gain a grassroots perspective.
In some cases, locals retrieve these bodies and return them to their families. Often, they are not recognizable and left to decompose in the river. By village consensus, the cause of death in this case was suicide. Though I'm not sure the body was ever identified.

自從大約十年前我第一次開始拜訪旁遮普邦的農(nóng)民家庭以來，我遇到過很多這樣的毀滅性場景。我參加了一個醫(yī)療交流項目，美國醫(yī)生在那里學(xué)習(xí)生物心理社會因素：例如政府政策、環(huán)境或經(jīng)濟是如何影響全球健康的。我們的團隊還與當?shù)氐腂aba Nanak 教育協(xié)會合作，以獲得基層視角。
在某些情況下，當?shù)厝藭』剡@些尸體并將其歸還給家人。通常，它們無法辨認的，并留在河中分解。村民一致認為，本案的死因是自殺。雖然我不確定尸體是否被確認過。

During these visits, we speak to families affected by the epidemic of farmer suicides. Those left behind -- parents, wives and children -- share their immense grief in the wake of a death. They describe debt passed from one deceased son to another, resulting in multiple suicides in one family.
The families tell us that children, particularly girls, are pulled out of school because they can no longer afford the cost of education. Young girls show us their carefully guarded treasure of dowry goods, woven with their own hands, to decrease the ultimate financial burden on their families.
The situation for India's more than 260 million agricultural workers is dire. Nearly 30 people in the farming sector die by suicide daily, according to the most recent figures available, typically due to overwhelming debt. Indeed in 2020, more than 10,000 people in the agricultural sector ended their own lives, according to government data.

在這些訪問期間，我們與受流行農(nóng)民自殺而受影響的家庭交談。那些留下來的人——父母、妻子和孩子——在其死亡之后受到了巨大的痛苦。他們描述了債務(wù)從一個已故的兒子轉(zhuǎn)移到另一個，導(dǎo)致一個家庭的多起自殺。
這些家庭告訴我們，兒童，特別是女孩，被迫輟學(xué)，因為他們再也負擔不起教育費用。年輕女孩們向我們展示她們精心保管的嫁妝寶藏，用自己的雙手編織而成，以減輕她們家庭的最終經(jīng)濟負擔。
印度的情況2.6億農(nóng)民的處境十分嚴峻。根據(jù)可獲得的最新數(shù)據(jù)，從事農(nóng)業(yè)的人每天有近30人死于自殺，通常是由于巨額債務(wù)。根據(jù)政府數(shù)據(jù)，事實上在 2020 年，超過 10,000 名從事農(nóng)業(yè)的人結(jié)束了自己的生命。

India's economic backbone -- its farmers and their families -- is in collapse. They face crushing pressures: insurmountable debt, environmental degradation, and extreme rates of cancer lixed to exposure to pesticides.
This strain is compounded by climate change and extreme weather -- from ground water depletion to water shortages and crop damage due to rising temperatures -- effects which have been tied to increasing suicides in India.
Farming is a notoriously economically unstable industry globally, but farmers in India find themselves buried under densely layered problems. Many are subsistence farmers who are drowning in the volatility caused by the Green Revolution which began in the 1960s as a way of industrializing the agriculture sector with high yielding seeds, mechanized tools and pesticides.

印度的經(jīng)濟支柱——農(nóng)民和他們的家庭——正在崩潰。他們面臨著巨大的壓力：無法克服的債務(wù) ,環(huán)境退化，接觸殺蟲劑有關(guān)的極端癌癥發(fā)病率。
氣候變化和極端天氣加劇了這種壓力——從地下水枯竭到水資源短缺和氣溫升高導(dǎo)致的作物損失——這些影響與印度的自殺人數(shù)增加有關(guān)。
農(nóng)業(yè)是全球眾所周知的經(jīng)濟不穩(wěn)定產(chǎn)業(yè)，但印度的農(nóng)民發(fā)現(xiàn)自己被埋在層層疊疊的問題之下。許多自給自足的農(nóng)民，他們淹沒在1960 年代開始的綠色革命所造成的動蕩中，這是一種利用高產(chǎn)種子、機械化工具和殺蟲劑實現(xiàn)農(nóng)業(yè)產(chǎn)業(yè)化的方法。

In some cases, farmers cannot work their land due to illness lixed to the revolution's pesticides and fertilizers. They are dealing with deep-rooted battles against multinational corporations. And all the while having to take out loans each year to make the agricultural cycle possible.
And then, when farmers are unable to get loans from legitimate banks, illegal moneylenders -- or loan sharks -- step in, charging exorbitant interest rates and creating an inescapable debt-trap for farmers, in some instances pushing them to suicide.
The state of Punjab where we visit, is known as the breadbasket of India. While it accounts for approximately 3% of India's arable land, it grows almost 20% of the country's wheat and 12% of the country's rice. It is also known as "ground zero" for India's Green Revolution. What happens in Punjab is a warning sign for the rest of the country. Over the last five years, suicides in the rural Indian State of Punjab increased by over 12 times.

在某些情況下，農(nóng)民由于與革命中使用的殺蟲劑和化肥有關(guān)的疾病而不能耕種。他們正在應(yīng)對與跨國公司的根深蒂固的斗爭。與此同時，每年都要貸款以維持農(nóng)業(yè)周期。
然后，當農(nóng)民無法從合法銀行獲得貸款時，非法放債人（或放高利貸者）就會介入，收取過高的利率，并為農(nóng)民制造不可避免的債務(wù)陷阱，在某些情況下會迫使他們自殺。
我們訪問的旁遮普邦被稱為印度的糧倉。雖然它約占印度耕地的 3%，但它種植了該國近 20% 的小麥和該國 12% 的稻米。它也被稱為印度綠色革命的“歸零地”。旁遮普邦發(fā)生的事情對該國其他地區(qū)來說是一個警告信號。在過去五年中，印度旁遮普邦農(nóng)村的自殺人數(shù)增加了 12 倍以上。

But addressing the epidemic of farmer suicide is not just a distant policy problem. In a country of nearly 1.4 billion, where almost 60% of the population relies on agriculture for its livelihood, effectively reforming India's agricultural sector is quite literally a matter of life and death.
A first step for India would be to acknowledge and track farmer suicides as the harbinger of trouble. While it's clear that Indian farmers are facing obstacles that make it nearly impossible to provide for their families, what we don't know is the magnitude of the problem.

但是，解決農(nóng)民自殺的流行不僅僅是一個遙遠的政策問題。在一個擁有近 14 億人口、近60% 的人口以農(nóng)業(yè)為生的國家，印度農(nóng)業(yè)部門的有效改革實際上是一件生死攸關(guān)的事情。
印度的第一步是承認和追蹤農(nóng)民自殺是麻煩的預(yù)兆。雖然很明顯，印度農(nóng)民正面臨著幾乎不可能養(yǎng)家糊口的障礙，但我們不知道問題的嚴重性。

Suicide is illegal in India, with prison time threatened for anyone who attempts or is deemed to have assisted with the act. This policy, a remnant of British colonial rule, makes it exceedingly difficult to collect accurate data.
Experts have noted for years that criminalizing suicide results in severe underreporting of its occurrence across the country. The 2017 Mental Healthcare Act attempted to limit the Indian Penal Code's applicability and to decriminalize suicide, in the hopes of empowering people to receive mental health treatment. But critics of the law have pointed out that these attempts have proven ineffective for two key reasons: Section 309 on suicide remains law, and law enforcement officials continue to enforce it.

在印度，自殺是非法的，任何企圖自殺或被認為協(xié)助自殺的人都將面臨牢獄之苦。這一政策是英國殖民統(tǒng)治的殘余，使得收集準確的數(shù)據(jù)極其困難。
多年來，專家們一直指出，將自殺定為犯罪導(dǎo)致全國范圍內(nèi)自殺事件的嚴重少報。2017年的《心理健康法》試圖限制印度刑法的適用性，并將自殺合法化，以期賦予人們接受心理健康治療的權(quán)利。但該法案的批評者指出，這些嘗試被證明是無效的，原因有兩個:關(guān)于自殺的第309條仍然是法律，執(zhí)法人員繼續(xù)執(zhí)行它。
原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://www.top-shui.cn 轉(zhuǎn)載請注明出處


Even today, India's suicide statistics -- including official statistics on farmer suicide -- are published by the National Crime Records Bureau and are based on police reports and investigations. In a culture where mental health and suicide are highly stigmatized, impoverished families are disincentivized from reporting suicide to authorities because the state fails to provide families the support they need and registers their loved ones as criminals.
Once acknowledged and documented, multiple potential solutions are available. Increasing mental health services can significantly reduce suicide rates, and is another step towards a solution. ?Informal moneylenders and loan sharks must be investigated, their systems dismantled and more viable loan options provided to farmers.

即使在今天，印度的自殺統(tǒng)計數(shù)據(jù)——包括農(nóng)民自殺的官方統(tǒng)計數(shù)據(jù)——仍由國家犯罪記錄局公布，并基于警方的報告和調(diào)查。在心理健康和自殺受到高度污名化的文化中，貧困家庭沒有意愿向當局報告自殺，因為國家未能為家庭提供所需的支持，并將他們的親人登記為罪犯。
一旦得到確認和記錄，就有多種可能的解決方案可用。增加心理健康服務(wù)可以顯著降低自殺率，這是朝著解決方案邁出的又一步。必須調(diào)查非正式放債人和放高利貸者，廢除他們的制度，向農(nóng)民提供更可行的貸款選擇。

Banning highly hazardous pesticides in farming is also a cost-effective way to prevent suicide, including across India as a whole. Indeed, India has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, with an estimated 170,000 people taking their lives each year, according to the World Health Organization.
While civil rights activists have been sounding the alarm over farmer suicides for decades, there has largely been deafening silence from the global community.
That was until February 2, 2021, when music icon Rihanna posted a tweet heard around the world. She lixed to a CNN article about the Indian government's violent crackdown on the non-violent "farmers' protests," and wrote: "Why aren't we talking about this?! #FarmersProtest." Within a day, it was already one of her most popular posts, with nearly 1 million likes. A few hours later, another tweet from climate justice activist Greta Thunberg went viral too.

在農(nóng)業(yè)中禁止使用高度危險的殺蟲劑也是一種經(jīng)濟有效的防止自殺的方法，包括整個印度。事實上，印度是世界上自殺率最高的國家之一，據(jù)世界衛(wèi)生組織估計，印度每年有17萬人自殺。
幾十年來，民權(quán)活動人士一直在就農(nóng)民自殺問題發(fā)出警告，而國際社會卻在很大程度上保持著的沉默。
直到2021年2月2日，音樂偶像Rihanna 發(fā)布了一條全世界都能聽到的推特。她鏈接到CNN一篇關(guān)于印度政府暴力鎮(zhèn)壓非暴力“農(nóng)民抗議”的文章，并寫道:“我們?yōu)槭裁床挥懻撨@個?!”# 農(nóng)民抗議?！痹谝惶熘畠?nèi)，這就成為了她最受歡迎的帖子之一，有近100萬個贊。幾小時后，氣候正義活動人士 Greta Thunberg的另一條推文也在網(wǎng)上瘋傳。

Just like that, the world's attention focused on the "farmers' protests" which by that point had already been going on for more than six months and which some had already identified as the largest protest in human history. By early December, more than 250 million people had participated in a nationwide strike, in a show of solidarity.
The protest was in response to farming laws aimed at loosening the rules around the sale, pricing and storage of farm produce that protected farmers from an unfettered free market for decades.

就這樣，全世界的注意力都集中在了當時已經(jīng)持續(xù)了六個多月的“農(nóng)民抗議”上，一些人已經(jīng)將其認定為人類歷史上最大規(guī)模的抗議活動。到 12 月初，超過 2.5 億人參加了全國性的罷工，以示團結(jié)。
抗議活動是對旨在放松農(nóng)產(chǎn)品銷售、定價和儲存規(guī)則的農(nóng)業(yè)法律的回應(yīng)，這些規(guī)定幾十年來一直保護農(nóng)民不受自由市場的限制。

Some saw the legislation as a necessary move that would finally open up India's faltering economy by giving farmers more autonomy to set their own prices and sell to private corporations directly. Others saw it as a heavy-handed move that would benefit large companies and spell doom for working class farmers.
Protesters against the farm bills flooded the streets of New Delhi, in the midst of a global pandemic and in the face of unrelenting police violence, risking their lives to make their voices heard. Indeed, 700 farmers died while calling for reforms, according to unx leaders.

一些人認為，這項立法是一個必要舉措，它將賦予農(nóng)民更多自主定價和直接向私營企業(yè)出售產(chǎn)品的權(quán)利，從而最終開放印度步履蹣跚的經(jīng)濟。另一些人則認為，這是一項嚴厲的舉措，將使大公司受益，但卻給農(nóng)民階級的農(nóng)民帶來厄運。
反對農(nóng)業(yè)法案的抗議者涌上新德里街頭，在全球大流行的情況下，面對警察的無情暴力，他們冒著生命危險發(fā)出自己的聲音。事實上，根據(jù)工會領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人的說法，有700名農(nóng)民在呼吁改革的過程中死亡。

Now, more than a year after they first started protesting, the farmers have won their battle with the government. In late November, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that he would be repealing the farm bills that launched the farmers' protests.
Many around the world have celebrated this decision, seeing it as grassroots victory over the commercial aspirations of the world's largest democracy. Some also see it as a source of hope for non-violent, democratic protest in a moment where many are investing in social justice efforts but also losing confidence in them.

現(xiàn)在，在他們開始開始抗議一年多后，農(nóng)民已經(jīng)贏得了與政府的斗爭。11 月下旬，印度總理納倫德拉·莫迪宣布，他將廢除引發(fā)農(nóng)民抗議的農(nóng)業(yè)法案。
世界各地的許多人都在慶祝這一決定，將其視為基層民眾對世界上最大民主國家的商業(yè)愿望的勝利。一些人也將其視為非暴力民主抗議的希望之源，因為很多人都在為社會正義努力投資，但也對這些努力失去了信心。

While there is much to celebrate, those who know the plight of Indian farmers more intimately understand that India's decision to repeal the laws is not the end of the struggle -- but rather, just the beginning.
India needs far more than agricultural reform. Officials can begin by destigmatizing and decriminalizing suicide, by sincerely committing to collecting accurate data on suicide attempt and mortality, and by devoting resources to support the mental health needs of India's farmers and their families. Because right now, many Indian farmers are killing themselves to put food on the nation's tables.

盡管有很多值得慶祝的事情，但那些更了解印度農(nóng)民困境的人更清楚地知道，印度廢除這些法律的決定并不是斗爭的結(jié)束，而僅僅是一個開始。
印度需要的遠不止農(nóng)業(yè)改革。官員們可以從消除自殺的污名化和非犯罪化開始，真誠地致力于收集關(guān)于自殺未遂和死亡的準確數(shù)據(jù)，并投入資源支持印度農(nóng)民及其家庭的心理健康需求。因為現(xiàn)在，許多印度農(nóng)民為了國家的餐桌上有食物，不惜犧牲自己的生命。