Bengaluru: HD Ranganath, the Congress MLA from Kunigal in Karnataka’s Tumakuru, has asked for special incentives to be given to women marrying young farmers. He has written to CM Siddaramaiah, asking him to consider the proposal to address what he termed a growing problem within the farming community in the state.
“There is a situation where no one wants an alliance with a farmer in rural areas,” Ranganath told reporters Wednesday. Concerns voiced by him have been raised in other parts of the country, including in Maharashtra’s Vidharba region.
These concerns, he said, were addressed to the chief minister so that such a provision could be accommodated in the upcoming state budget, to be presented on 6 March.
The proposal is being dubbed the ‘7th guarantee’, after the ‘6th guarantee’ under which landless farmers are to be given land deeds.
Ranganath is seen as an all-weather supporter of Deputy CM DK Shivakumar.
Governments, both at the centre and in the state, place much emphasis on the struggles of farmers, including promises to double their incomes, reverential references like ‘annadaatas’, but the rising agrarian distress continues to add to the uncertainty in their personal lives, Ranganath said.
He added that many young men from farming families, now approaching 30, are unable to find brides. “Under the law, we are asking if some incentives can be given.”
He added that this can be modelled around the existing ‘Gruha Lakshmi’ scheme of the Congress government under which women head of households are entitled to financial assistance of Rs 2,000 per month. The Congress government has implemented five guarantees so far, which cost the exchequer Rs 52,000 crore each year.
Fluctuating market prices, growing pressure on land holdings, falling prices of produce and vagaries in climate have added to the challenges of farmers across the country. In Karnataka, 414 farmers died by suicide in the first nine months of the current fiscal year (up to 31 December, 2025), according to government data.
N Chaluvarayaswamy, Karnataka’s minister for agriculture, in response to a question in the winter session of the state legislature, said 2,846 farmer suicides were recorded in the state over the past 33 months. Though specific reasons for the deaths were not mentioned, he said 1,254 farmer suicides were recorded in the state in 2023-24 and 1,178 in 2024-25.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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