Alarm bells on agrarian crisis.
By Raghavendra Verma
NEW DELHI: For the first time in Indian history, there’s been a decrease in the number of farmers in the country. The latest census data shows that the numbers decreased from 127 million in 2001 to 119 million to 2011. The news has led economic analysts to go into an overdrive to decipher its cause and effects.
In the past, despite a constant decrease in the percentage of Indian population cultivating the land, the absolute numbers always increased.
Experts termed the development as an alarm bell on the agrarian crisis. Significantly, as the number of farmers decreased during the decade, the number of the farm laborers increased from 107 million to 144 million. According to government officials, this increase could be due to two reasons. Firstly the farmers many not have been able to sustain tilting their land and after selling it off, they now work as agricultural laborers.
The second hypothesis is somewhat positive. Due to the central government’s employment guarantee scheme MNREGA, increasing number of unskilled labors are returning from cities and opting to stay at their rural home. After availing the 100 days of guaranteed employment, they take up the odd jobs of farm labor.
In all likelihood, both the factors are at play in varying degrees.
The increasing input cost of agriculture in India is growing fast, while the farmers are still at the mercy of exploitative middlemen who keep the farm price subdued. This dynamics makes farming a loss making venture. There are other equally important factors that force farmers to sell their land.
Treatment for serious illness and social pressure of performing big family weddings force many villagers to raise money by pawning or selling their farmland.
India’s second largest employer, the textile industry has been complaining for past few years about the shortage of labor. The industrialists blame MNREGA for the missing workforce, which they say is making the villagers lazy and leading to huge losses to the industry.
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