Ujwala Vaman Wailkar in Waifad. Telegraph picture

Waifad (Vidarbha), July 20: Ujwala Vaman Wailkar still doesn’t want to marry a farmer, never mind that many of them are free of debt.

Two years after stunning the Prime Minister with her steely resolve, 20-year-old Ujwala remains firm that she will not marry a farmer or into an agricultural family, unlike her older sisters.

Now a first-year BA student in Wardha’s Lok Mahavidyalay, the girl had become a symbol of the plight of farmers in Vidarbha where suicides for indebtedness had reached alarming proportions.

Even Manmohan Singh had been at a loss for words in 2006 when Ujwala had met him at the primary school in Waifad, 92km from Nagpur.

“My family wants me to marry into a farmer’s family. But looking at the condition of farmers, I don’t want to marry a farmer,” she had told the Prime Minister.

Since July 2006, much has changed.

Singh, who interacted with more than 100 farmers, widows and young people like Ujwala during the two-day visit, announced a Rs 3,750-crore package for the suicide-affected belt. It also led to greater development initiatives in Vidarbha, and finally the Rs 71,000-crore loan waiver scheme for farmers across the country this year.

But all that has had little impact on Ujwala. “The Prime Minister did something for the farmers. But what he did is not enough. Either give a loan waiver to all or don’t give it at all,” she told The Telegraph at the village resource centre.

Just over four feet tall with a wiry frame, Ujwala has decided that unlike her two married sisters, Sarita, 23, and Preeti, 21, she would complete her education, though her farmer father Vaman Wailkar can hardly afford it.

She has learnt basic computers at the resource centre, joined typing classes and is now doing a beautician’s course hoping to work in a beauty parlour in Wardha city and support her education.

“The monthly pass for the bus to shuttle between Wardha and Waifad costs Rs 280, and gives me very little time to study. So, my younger sister Antima and I have decided to stay on rent in Wardha. If I get a job in a beauty parlour for Rs 1,000, it would help us a lot,” said Ujwala, who scored 60 per cent in her higher secondary and was the topper among Waifad students.

She hasn’t heard of Manmohanomics or globalisation, but seeing her father’s financial struggle to marry off two daughters has made economics simpler for her.

Her father had to sell his four-acre farm to pay off the loans taken for the marriages. He now manages a 10-acre farm on contract. “Farmers should at least be able to recover their investments. They still don’t get anything. The government should ensure that farm produce gets better prices. Farmers should benefit from farming,” Wailkar said.

The demand for a higher minimum support price for cotton and a complete loan waiver were two key demands made by farmers when Singh came calling. His government, however, did not concede either of the demands immediately.

A day after meeting Ujwala, Singh announced the special package that included a Rs 750 crore interest waiver on all defaulted loans.

Singh also assured the farmers he would “personally speak” to the chairman of the agricultural costs and prices commission to discuss the issue of higher minimum support price for cotton. Finance minister P. Chidambaram’s budget announced a complete loan waiver for small and marginal farmers in February, but skipped this key demand.