Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a function marking the 80th Anniversary of the RBI in Mumbai. (Reuters)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday urged banks to lend more to millions of impoverished farmers in a bid to halt suicides by debt-laden agricultural workers.
Speaking at an event on increasing financial inclusion, the PM said he is pained to hear of increased reports of farmers taking their own lives after being unable to repay unscrupulous money lenders.
"Can't we ask ourselves how we can make our banking system so strong that no farmer is forced to give up his life just because he can't repay the loan (from money lenders)?" he said.
"We can pull the poor out of poverty, they just need a bit of hand holding," Mr Modi said at the event at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in Mumbai, alongside its governor Raghuram Rajan and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
Families say they were left with no choice after crop damage from unseasonal storms along with poor market prices for produce and other reasons compounded already dire financial problems.
Mr Modi said 14 crore people have opened bank accounts since his government launched a major financial inclusion initiative last year.
But he stressed that more needed to be done, and asked the RBI to come up with a 20-year roadmap for greater access to the formal banking system.
Farmers and other poor have long been unable to borrow from traditional banks because of a lack of capital, forcing them to become dependent on loan sharks and other lenders who often charge exorbitant interest rates.
The government is facing protests from farmers over a major bid to overhaul land purchasing laws making it easier to buy farming and other plots for much-needed infrastructure, defence and other projects.