The Opium Cultivators; Insecure Voiceless Victims
By-:Piyush Kumar Roy
The condition
of poor opium farmers dragged my attention on this issue “The Opium
Cultivators; Insecure Voiceless Victims”, following which I decided to proceed
with analysing the prevalent situation in present scenario. The research on the
issue of improper channelization and substance abuse particularly in Rajasthan
took me and my friends out of the confined classrooms and library wall, to the
fields of opium and legal branches of police departments and judiciary. The
information gathered from the stakeholders gave me an insight to proceed with
the topic following which, I thought of jotting down my views in this article.
The sources have not been mentioned as the condition of anonymity was placed.
The cultivation
of Opium is practised in India since time immemorial, there have been changes
in laws regarding cultivation, licensing system and other procedural
transformation has taken place, but unfortunately what has remained the same is
the condition of the opium cultivators.
The United
Nations Single Convention on Narcotics Drugs, 1961 has listed India among 12
countries which is allowed to grow opium poppy for medicinal purpose. However
India is the only country allowed to extract opium gum from the plant. The extraction
of gum is a job which requires skill and experience of years. The gum is
extracted by lancing the flower- bearing pod which consist 70% of morphine. The
farmers make longitudinal incision in the pod, exuding latex forms a crust
under the hot sun. The next morning, the semi solid latex is collected by
scrapping with a towel. The process itself narrates the skill which needs to
applied very precisely for cultivation and extraction of opium materials.
The initial
stage of illegalities starts from this very stage. The other countries such as
China, Australia, France and Turkey which grow opium legally use a method known
as concentrate of poppy straw, where the entire plant is processed with its
stalk to extract the drug. The task of extracting opium gum involves hard
labour and skill and when appropriate monetary value is not sanctioned for the
task, the poor farmers sell the extracts to private dealers and suppliers for
sake of their livelihood.
Risky Cultivation
The cultivation
of poppy is designated as risky and very caring task for the farmers, the care
required here is as much as a pregnant women takes of the baby inside her womb.
The farmers labour hard throughout the day and at night they are engaged in
securing their cultivation, safeguarding it from thieves and wild animals as
the burden of securing the product is solely on the farmer and in instances of
any discrepancies, the helpless farmer stands to be the accused.
Financial Insecurity
The pity
condition of the poor and insecure farmers has resulted in improper
channelization of opium in the country. The words on moral ethics are simple to
be delivered but tough to be implemented. The poor farmers, after putting so
much of efforts and labour are paid a pittance which opens door for illegal
marketing of opium in grey market. The farmers were paid Rs.1,800/kg, for their
cultivation which is comparatively very low against the grey market pricing
which ranges between Rs, 60,000/kg to 1.2 lakh/kg. This wide difference between
the prices drives corruption and ultimately leads to leakage of opium and opium
products in the market which is further used for preparation of drugs such as
smack, heroin and cocaine with the use of morphine and is sold for addiction
purposes in the market by the drugs mafias and suppliers.
Legal Hurdles
The opium
licenses which is issued based on the past cultivation record as notified by the
government of India in its official gazette. The farmer has to fulfil minimum
per hectare quantity known as minimum qualifying yield criteria to get their
license issued and upon failure their license stands to be cancelled. There are
other strict criteria followed under licensing system such as 5.9% of morphine
content, the cultivator must have the land in his own name and he must be the
resident of the village and minimum amount of production is fixed, below which
the cultivation is not accepted by the government but when it comes to security
and facilities the condition is pathetic. If the production falls short either
due to weather or pest attack the farmers stands to be helpless and in order to
fulfil the minimum amount he is compelled to purchase the crop though illegal
means at a very high price. The burden of informing the narcotics department
for the destruction process is also solely upon the farmer and if they fail to
do so he is liable to face the charges. The way farmers make out is that to
sell the remaining crop to the private dealer and get some amount instead to
allowing government to destroy the crops and leave poor farmers empty handed.
The other trouble which cultivators face is in context to the area of
cultivation. The farmers mostly cultivate in lesser area in comparison to the
land allotted because even if the plot size for cultivation is an inch more
they are booked under the stringent sections of NDPS.
The miserable
life condition of pity farmers and imposition of stringent laws and legal
regulations upon the farmers deprives them of moral ethics and they lose the
trust and faith on the government and look for private purchaser who can pay
them handsomely in return to their hard labour and skills.
The Cruel Period of 2015-2106
The cultivation
of raw opium is not only used as extraction of poppy gums and other substances
containing morphine but poppy seeds are also yielded out of the crop which is
used as spice in kitchens of India. There is no legal restriction upon selling
of poppy seeds in the market. This sell accounted profitability to the poor
farmers but unfortunately in 2016 the price of poppy seeds dropped to Rs.
400/kg from Rs. 600/kg which laid loos of Rs.200/kg on farmers end.
Until the
orders of Rajasthan High Court by division bench of Chief Justice Anil Awbwani
and Justice B L Sharma while hearing the petition filed by Chandigarh based NGO
ArriveSAFE the sale of poppy husk was allowed in Rajasthan under the license
obtained by the state government. The order of High Court banned the sale on
poppy husk and the licenses were cancelled immediately.
The farmers were asked to burn their husk which resulted to heavy loss to the
farmers. The ugly side of this loss is that not only a source of income was
blocked but the farmers were even not compensated for such heavy loss.
The heavy loss
of this source still haunts the poor farmers but they are still engaged in this
activity in hope of better returns for the cultivation and other securities and
benefits from the government.
Conclusion
When the issue
of substance abuse and improper channelization of opium in Rajasthan is
analysed and its dimensions are evaluated it appears that addiction is not the
major problem rather, improper cultivation and hurdles faced by the cultivators
of opium leads to such alarming issue in the state. The poor farmers out of
their pity state sell their crop to private buyer and dealers for the sake of
their livelihood.
It is high time
that this issue gets redressed because such improper channelization by drugs
mafias leads to addiction of drugs in the society.
There are two
fold measure to control such improper channelization of opium, the first and
the usual one is that government should increase the rate of purchase for the
opium crop which will give financial securities to the farmers and repose trust
on the government which shall reduce the leakage till a great extent. This
method must be followed with other benefits to the farmers such as schemes
providing security to cultivators in case of crop failure and other
safeguarding measures should be facilitated by which the cultivators are able
to protect their crop efficiently and effectively.
The other
measure is that government should stop the open end cultivation of opium crop
by the cultivators and give way to captive farming by the pharmaceuticals
company under the strict laws and regulations. The license can be issued to the
pharmaceuticals companies for the cultivation and liability of security can
also be conferred upon them which is possible because such companies and
industries are financially well off to manage the resources. The companies may
engage its own cultivator for this purpose which will provide employment and
financial security to cultivator or may heir independent cultivator on
contractual basis for which proper legislations must be drafted so that
cultivators get their adequate amount of share. The security of crops under
both the conditions must be with pharmaceuticals companies so that helpless and
innocent farmers do not face any inconvenience or trouble in course of
cultivation.
The later method
can be opted only upon the condition that the current cultivators are
adequately compensated for their loss and their crop must be purchased at
reasonable market price which suits the needs of the poor farmers.
The issue is
not very complex to deal, only requirement here is the sincerity by the
stakeholders and framing provisions benefiting the needs of the labourers and
cultivators.
