Tamil Nadu fares poorly in terms of the coverage of Scheduled Caste farmers under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (Prime Minister’s Crop Insurance Scheme).
In the last three years (2019 to 2021), in respect of both cultivation seasons - Kharif and Rabi (which could be broadly equated with Tamil Nadu’s seasons of Kuruvai and Samba), the share of SCs did not exceed 1% of the farmers enrolled, according to a perusal of the data available on the website for the crop insurance scheme. Even during the Rabi season, when Tamil Nadu records higher enrolment of farmers in general, 2021 saw certain districts showing zero coverage of SCs. They included Coimbatore, Erode, Krishnagiri, Theni and Tiruppur. This did not mean that other districts fared better, as the highest figure of coverage was 2.88% in Dharmapuri.
Interestingly, farmers belonging to the Scheduled Tribes have performed better than SCs, as their share varied from 4.53% to 10.15% in the given years. The other two categories - Other Backward Classes and general - are evenly balanced, accounting for at least 90% of the farmers.
