Celebrities in philanthropy: Nana Patekar lends a helping hand to farmers' widows through NAAM foundation

When we talk of farmer suicide, Maharashtra is the first thing that comes to mind. This is the state that tops the farmer suicide list. Maharashtra recorded 3,927 farmers’ suicide in 2019 out of the total of 10,281 suicides in the farm sector last year, according to the NCRB data

It is not a tough task for any sensible person to understand the hardships that the family of a farmer goes through especially in a region where even male farmers are not able to make a way out and succumb to the hardships of life.

Sujata Bachchav, a young farmer widow from Malegaon of Maharashtra narrating her ordeal at a function in Nashik in 2016, had said that her husband ended his life under the pressure of huge debt burden and how she was left to fend for her in-laws and her daughter with no proper means of income.

Sujata’s case is not an isolated one. Over 15,000 farmers have committed suicide in Maharashtra between 2013 and 2018, an RTI filed by one activist Shakeel Ahmend has revealed.

Keeping this very fact in mind, Nana Patekar, a well-known Bollywood actor who has given several hit movies to the industry, decided to establish a foundation and work for the family members of suicide victim who were left behind. NAAM foundation which was started by Patekar along with Makarand Anaspure in September 2015 has helped several such families so far and Sujata is one among them.

So far, the foundation has given financial aid to 2,641 widows in several regions of Maharashtra, claims the foundation.

Financial aid to affected families by NAAM Foundation

Other than the financial aid, the foundation has constructed houses of 17 widows in districts like Pune, Jalna, Solapur, Aurangabad, Beed, Ahmed Nagar and Latur. In its support to widows of farmers, the foundation claims to have distributed around 1270 sewing machines, 600 goats, 10 flour mills, three noodle machines and two dalmil or patravali machines.

Other than helping widows of farmers, NAAM foundation has taken several initiatives around disaster relief, farming, village welfare, help for farmers’ widows, and financial aid to army martyrs families, water conservation, medical and few others.

The foundation was initiated after devastating conditions of drought & listening to agony of drought affected farmers in Maharashtra.

Almost all agriculture experts agree that farmers commit suicide mainly due to crop failure, damaged crops owing to inclement weather, lack of water for irrigation, drought issues and poor market prices for their produce. Without tackling these issues, farmers suicide is not going to stop but initiatives like NAAM definitely give ray of hope that plight of farmers and their families are recognised to somewhere at some level.