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MORE MARKETS, LESS GOVERNMENT (Vidyasagar and Chandra, 2003, CSD, NIRD). There is every possibility of worsening condition of poor farmers further with the emphasis on investment through corporate contract farming. Unless means of production is reoriented in favour of producers and meaningful employment and employability of poor cultivators are ensured through public sector initiatives for infrastructure development and input and output markets are regulated in the interest of producers it will be difficult to rescue farmers from the syndrome of distress and despair leading towards suicides. 4. Policy Imperatives And Options We have discussed a few dimensions of agrarian crises rooted in the syndrome of decelerating growth of agriculture amidst rising costs and inadequate infrastructure leading to deficient employment and income for the livelihood of rural workers specially small and marginal cultivators and agricultural labourers. It emerged from the analysis that decelerating growth with inadequate infrastructure, technological support and institutional arrangements forced majority of the peasants in the debt trap. Majority of indebted households were from the poorest lot in terms of size of land possession and monthly per capita consumption expenditure. However, rate of indebtedness and amount of loan was directly related with increasing size of land possession and households with higher MPCE. Contrary to belief major amount of loan utilized were for capital expenditure and current expenditure of farm and non-farm business instead of consumption purposes. However, significant amount of loan was spent on essential consumption expenditure, marriage and other ceremonial occasions also. Expenditure on education and health was the least. So far sources of loan were concerned with formal sector - commercial bank remained the major player followed by cooperative societies. Moneylender was yet significantly present in the rural borrowing market and other informal sources, i.e., traders, friends and relatives, professionals and others were not different than moneylenders with a few individual exceptions. Institutional credit remained favourable for increasing size of land possessions but mostly in poor states. Banks remained effective after nationalisation until 1980s but its performance declined significantly in late 90s. Per hectare credit to agriculture was also declined. Analysis suggests that the geneses of indebtedness were rooted in continued neglect of agriculture resulted in decelerated growth syndrome. Declining investment and inadequate infrastructure acted as a drag on institutional and technological transformation and modernisation with ecological balance. Poor support system for technological transfer and updating, credit, input, insurance and marketing with dependence on vagaries of monsoon resulted in crop failures and lower returns leading to misery, distress and despair. In this sort of syndrome, cultivators were often not in a position to repay the loan(s). They hardly sustained the loss The central issue of farmers’ suicides is the debt trap. Small and marginal farmers are not eligible for availing institutional credit and crop insurance. Thus, they land at the doorsteps of the usurious moneylenders of face before the community and committed suicides. Thus, most of the unfortunate suicides were debt driven. Credit needs have been grown considerably over the time following commercialisation and modernization. However, average household borrowing in rural India has not been excessive. Inadequacy of institutional credit delivery network, poor performance of credit cooperatives, regional rural banks, and commercial banks, to meet their farm lending targets, and high cost of rural banking, etc., have aggravated further (Radhakrishna, 2007). Consecutive failures of governance (in terms of effective policies and their effectual implementation) were witnessed. Instead of correcting aforesaid those lapses the economy has been moving in a different direction in the interest of the rich and corporate sectors with a faster pace of reforms. Interestingly despite symptoms of all the negative indications against the poor, contradictory policies for reforms have been put in place with a lip service to the poor. Unless poor producers are brought in the mainstream of production, control over the means of production and distribution on sustainable basis this process of marginalization, distress and despair, which has emerged out sharply in the era of reforms and globalisation of markets, may not be checked. Lowering the rate of interest on institutional loans and Right to Work may have positive effects subject to effective implementation THE INDIA ECONOMY REVIEW 59
REIMAGINING INDIA which is always doubtful. However, Right to Work on ad hoc basis cannot be continued for long. Sustainable employment generation led growth process for poor producers need to be put in place. This needs stronger and active role of State, which has been narrowing down during reform process. State has compromised with anti-poor development players. Unskilled labour force has hardly any space in the reform led labour market. Meaningful employment for skilled and unskilled workforce and initiatives to create institutions and opportunities to speed up skill transformation to enter into the job market is the prime tasks which market can seldom perform for poor having no purchasing power. And civil society cannot rest in peace if the idle hands do not get employment. Therefore, pro-poor activism of civil society and effective mobilisation and resistance of peasants and social activists have become an imperative for all peace loving people to create pressure upon the state to perform pro-poor role inorder to achieve growth, with meaningful employment and actionable social justice. Reference • Behera, B. and Mishra, P., (2007): Acceleration of Agricultural Growth in India: Suggestive Policy Framework, Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 42, No. 42. October 20-26. •. Bhalla, G.S., (2005): The State of the Indian Farmers, G. Parthasarathi Memorial Lecture in 88th Annual Conference of the Indian Economic Association, December 28, 2005. • Despande, R.S., and Prabhu, Nagesh, (2005): Farmers Distress – Proof beyond Questions, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol.40, No. 44 and 45, November 4. • Diwakar, D.M., (2007): Contours of Agrarian Crises in India, Uttar Pradesh-Uttaranchal Economic Association (UPUEA) Economic Journal, Annual Conference Number. • Government of India (2006): Towards Faster and More Inclusive Growth: An Approach to the 11th Five Year Plan, Planning Commission, New Delhi, November 2006. • Government of India (2006a): Agriculture at a Glance 2006, Ministry of Agriculture, New Delhi. • Government of India (2007): Economic Survey, Ministry of Finance, New Delhi. • Lok Sabha Starred Question No. 611, dated on 09.05.2005. • Mishra, Srijit, (2006): Farmers’ Suicide in Maharashtra, Economic and Political Weekly,Vol.41,No. 16, April 22-28, pp. 1538-45,see also, Suicide Mortality Rates across States of India, in the same issue p. 1567. • Mohanty, B.B., (2005): We are Like the Living Dead: Farmer Suicides in Maharashtra, Western India, Journal of Peasant Studies, Vol.32, No.2, April, pp. 243-276. • Narayanamoorthy, A., (2007): Deceleration in Agricultural Growth: Technology Fatigue or Policy Fatigue? Economic and Political Weekly, Vol.42, No.25, June 23. • National Sample Survey Organisation (2005): Indebtedness of Farmer Households in India, NSS Report No. 498, 59 th Round, January-December 2003. • National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) (2006): Employment and Unemployment Situation in India, 2004- 05, Report No. 515 -I • People’s Democracy, Vol.30, No. 09, February 26 th , 2006. • Rao, Nageswara, The Hindu, September 11, 2005. • Radhakrishna, R. (2007): Expert Group Report on Agrarian Crisis in India, Government of India, New Delhi. • RBI’s Basic Statistical Returns of Scheduled Commercial Banks in India, various Issues. • Sharma, H.R., (2005): Recent Trends in Wage Earnings of Agricultural Labourers State Level Analysis for Different Social Groups, Arth Vijnana, Vol. XLVII, Nos. 3-4, September-December, pp. 329-344. • Shetty, S.L. (2004): Distributional Issues in Bank Credit, Multi-pronged Strategy for Correcting Past Neglect, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. Xxxix, no. 29, July 17. •Sainath,P.,IndiaTogether, accessible at http://indiatogether.com/agriculture/ suicides.htm; Sainath, P. (2007): Farming- it ‘s what they do, The Hindu, May 24, 2007, p.11; Suicides are about the living, not dead, The Hindu, May 21, 2007, p.p.13.; Vidarbha: Packaging an anniversary, The Hindu, August 31, 2007; it’s official: distress up, suicides appalling, India Together, 22 November 2006, courtesy The Hindu, p.11; When farmers die, India Together, http://www.indiatogether.org/2004/ june/psa-farmdie.htm • Vidyasagar, R. and Sunianchandra, K., (2003): Study on Farmers’ Suicides in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, CSD, National Institute of Rural Development. 60 THE IIPM THINK TANK
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T.R.Manoharan, Senior Coordinator,
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Shubha Ghosh Professor of Law SMU D
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THE OTHER PATH proper management of
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THE OTHER PATH and income poverty;
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THE OTHER PATH Sr. Director HR on w
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TENANCY REFORMS brief outline of th
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P LANMAN TECHNOLOGIES KNOWLEDGE . I
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