Kale comes from a part of India that is well familiar with suicide deaths. Maharashtra state has India’s largest economy by far. But that wealth does not reach Kale’s rural district of Beed in the western agrarian region of Marathwada, now famous for its farmer suicides. According to official estimates, the region recorded more than 26,000 farmer suicides between 2013 and 2022 – an average of seven a day.
The suicides in Marathwada have been triggered by falling crop prices, rising inflation and climate change, with the average farm household income being as low as 11,492 rupees a month ($138), according to government figures, forcing farmers to think of alternative income sources for survival.
But unlike thousands from Marathwada, the farm crisis was not the immediate trigger for Kale to try to take his life.
An exam scam was what drove him to that extreme step.
There's something really sinister about stealing hope and crushing the dreams of some of the poorest people in the world trying to escape that generational grip of poverty.
The inside scoop:
Amid the deepening agricultural crisis, tens of thousands of children of farmers have been taking online exams for various government jobs, seeking a better future than their parents. While the exams for the government’s top jobs – the so-called Class 1 and Class 2 positions – are conducted by a state body, the lower-grade tests for positions like clerks, village accountants and teachers are contracted out to private companies.
According to complaints filed with police, the lower-grade exams are plagued with rampant corruption and paper leaks, allowing those with influence or money to “buy” government jobs, cutting the chances of poorer aspirants and denying them a fair shot.
Look at the desperation:
In August and September last year, the Maharashtra government conducted the examinations with the help of a private software company to recruit village accountants across the state. More than a million people applied and just more than 850,000 took the test for a mere 4,600 vacancies.
And the cheating:
On August 29 last year, two candidates in Latur passed the online exam for village accountants. According to the FIR filed by police last month, one of them confessed that he had paid 2.7 million rupees ($32,500) to a man to cheat in the exam.
Once he logged in on his computer to take the test, he found two cursors on his screen – one his own and the other of the man outside who had remote access to his desktop. The candidate had to simply select the answers the other cursor pointed at, helping him pass the test.
The list goes on with more examples at the link.
It seems that the economic inequality and sheer poverty pushes the desperation of Indians ever onward and crushes those at the bottom,
