Dwarakabai - India's Cotton widow

Dwarkabai Mohud is yet to come out of the shock of her husband Sarangdar Tulshiram Mohud's death a few months earlier. Saragdar, a cotton farmer of Maharashtra's Ramapur Dharod village, committed suicide beacuse he was unable to repay back an agricultural loan of a mere Rs.8000 (200USD) taken from Indian Bank's Akot branch in 2007.
Dwarkabai has inherited the unpaid loan along with the two acres of land her husband owned. "We manage to grow five quintals of cotton a year, bringing home Rs 10,000 (250USD)," she says. Her son has taken over the responsitbiity of looking after her and clearing the debt. "He tills our land and then works on other's land as labourer," says a tearful Dwarkabai. She and her son will remain debt ridden for sometime, as they are not eligible for Government's farm-loan waiver. Moreover the unpaid loan makes them ineligible for a fresh loan. With Dwarkabai's son earning a meagre Rs 40 (One USD) a day, after a hard days labour, the future of the family doesn't look bright.
Over hundreds of farmers in the Vidharbaha region of Maharashtra, in Central India has committed suicide in the last few years over to loan dafault, due to bad crop and untimely rainfall.