You can sense the pain in his voice. “I don’t remember how many Diwalis my parents couldn’t keep their promise,” recalls Pankaj Mahalle. “They always tried, but couldn’t gift me new clothes,” underlines the first graduate from his family and village, Warud, in the Yavatmal district of Maharashtra, which is globally infamous for reporting the highest number of farmer suicides in India. Mahalle’s father owned four acres of agricultural land, cultivated cotton and had a decent output most of the time. The problem, though, started after the harvest. “The moneylender would come to the house and snatch away most of the produce,” recalls Mahalle.
(This story appears in the 02 December, 2022 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)