Abstract
As developing economies have experienced a rapacious exploitation through the foreign colonial masters, these economies have always insisted on the just and fair dynamics in general and rural transformation in particular. Although urban areas in these economies have depicted the elements of dubious modernity and as well as have also confirmed the high-ordered socio-economic transformation but in case of rural areas, a large chunk of population witnessed the deprivation in wide variety of manifestation and have to face the harsh social and economic realities. Thus, there is a need to put a check on the exploitation of rural people to avoid the dire consequences arising from socio-economic disorder for the present and posterior generations.
Since, India at once, also belong to the category of colonial countries, the condition of agriculture sector has remained pathetic during the British period and the suction mechanism opted by the British rulers has resulted into severe ruin of Indian agriculture sector and growing rural proletarianization and pauperization of the peasantry resulting from skewed distribution of land in rural areas.
Thus there is a need to enunciate such strategies of development as could help in the attainment of economic growth with social justice. To achieve this objective, planning process was initiated from 1951 onwards followed by the emergence of Green Revolution in late 1960s, which has proved a boon for Indian agriculture. Furthermore, the significance of agriculture in economic growth has been realized since the time of physiocrats aimed to understand and evaluate the dynamics of agricultural rural transformation. Thus, there is a dire need to have deep understanding of this phenomenon, as it serves as a critical link between policy formulation and implementation and its actual outcomes at grass-roots level.
Hence, the present volume entitled Dynamics of Rural Transformation in India is a tribute to the eminent Professor G.K. Chadha. Although many glowing and moving tributes have been already paid to him in the form of various books and articles, but the area of rural transformation for which he used to have deep passion has not been explored sufficiently. Thus, this volume is a brilliant piece of work in this regard by amalgamating the research papers contributed by eminent scholars covering the different aspects of rural transformation.
The volume opens with a remarkable tributary essay written by M.R. Khurana in the memory of his great teacher late Professor G.K. Chadha in which he has accomplished the monumental task of narrating the various aspects of personality of the revered Professor G.K. Chadha. Being his student, he has very efficiently covered all the minute details of life of G.K. Chadha and made readers acquainted with most inspiring incidents from the life of his teacher which made his personality more enduring. After elucidating the personality of G.K. Chadha in tributary chapter by M.R. Khurana and covering the acknowledgements, the present volume consists of 16 chapters contributed by distinguished scholars and associates of G.K. Chadha including postscript at the end of the book written by M.R. Khurana.
The first chapter of this volume is the contribution of T.S. Papola in which he has provided the detailed analysis of dynamics of rural labour market transformation resulting from the changes occurring in economic and social diversification. As a result of these changes, the share of non-farm sector has been observed to be increased resulting into declining pressure on agriculture and it is also backed by the other reasons like increasing level of education and mechanization. Thus, these changes have asserted a positive influence in improving the employer and labour relationship and declining significance of caste hierarchy. In spite of all these changes, still labour is not free on choosing their owners and employment and the owners are still having their dominance.
In the similar vein, the subsequent chapter contributed by Biswajit Chatterjee and Araparjita Dhara has further explored the major determinants behind this growing tendency of non-farm employment. They have identified various push (growth-driven), that is, per capita agriculture and non-agriculture output level and pull (distress driven) factors in the form of unemployment rate and density as the main determinants of non-farm employment. The growth-driven factors have remained more contributory in determining the share of male workers and whereas share of female workers is largely determined by the distress factors. Increased literacy rate has remained significant only in the case of male workforce and urbanization tends to play positive role in case of both male and female workers.
Further, Surya Kant has covered the various aspects, that is, growth, sectoral composition, social characteristics and regional patterns of non-farm employment. First, according to NSSO data two-fifths of the rural households are presently engaged in the non-farm sector and the major proportion of employment in this sector consists of casual and self-employed jobs and marked by very little proportion of regular jobs. As the manufacturing sector in rural areas is comparatively more capital intensive, major source of non-farm employment is the construction sector, leaving a very little space for job security of workers while promising better remuneration. Further, the author has examined the regional pattern of non-farm employment which shows that the economies having higher level of diversification, natural resources and significant exposure to outside world are also having higher share of non-farm employment.
After focusing on the rural non-farm employment in first three chapters, the subsequent chapter contributed by B.S. Ghuman has provided a review of various rural development policies and programmes adopted in India. Initially at the time of independence, due to severe shortage of food, the major focus has been remained on food problems and again in 1960, India has to face the problem of food shortage resulting into the series of programmes initiated by Central government covered under the umbrella term ‘New Agriculture Strategy’. Although these programmes have contributed to a large extent in increasing the productivity of wheat and rice but also suffered from certain shortcomings, that is, declining share of public investment in agriculture, diversion of agricultural land for non-agricultural uses and having adverse impact on environment. Subsequently, various programmes have been enunciated for up gradation of skills, self-employment generation and providing certain kinds of subsidies. Although performance of these programmes has exceeded in terms of coverage, that is, 165.2 lakh farmers against the target of 151.02 lakh farmers. However, the performance has remained unsatisfactory in terms of uplifting the poor people above poverty line and non-homogeneity of poor, poor resource base, corruption at various levels and leakage of funds.
Another significant issue that has been noticed in the context of rural transformation as highlighted by Sucha Singh Gill is the conflict regarding the land acquisition by the government from common people and reallocating this land to private sector for establishment of industrial and commercial enterprises. Earlier this land was acquired by the government for public purposes, but after the enactment of Special Economic Zones (SEZ) Act, 2005, acquisition of land by the government has remained mainly for setting up of industrial units, infrastructure, township, shopping malls, etc., thus resulting into serious conflict between the interests of land owners and government. Thus, the NDA government has made some amendments in the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, and made it compulsory to carry out social impact analysis for all the projects, as acquisition of land results into the displacement of people from their home, hearths and livelihood, but even then it has not led to settlement of land acquisition issues.
Further, in the sixth chapter Sankar Kumar Bhaumik has brought into prominence the very significant concept of inclusive growth in the context of Indian economy. Although faster growth has been witnessed in various sectors over the period of time, but this faster growth must be accompanied by wider and equitable distribution of benefits, in terms of employment and growth. Thus, the major objective of the Eleventh five year plan was not just faster but also the inclusive growth. Evaluating this plan in terms of growth rates, distribution of income and inclusiveness outcomes reveals that it has fully achieved its target in terms of growth rate, but marked by inequitable distribution of income and still a large proportion of the people are living below the poverty line. Lastly, regarding the inclusiveness outcomes, it has been noticed that although a little progress has been noticed in sphere of health and education, much more need to be done in the context of inclusive growth which can be targeted in the Twelfth Plan.
In the subsequent analysis, Inderjeet Singh and Lakhwinder Singh have made the comparative analysis of India and South Korea in the context of contribution made by different sectors in economic transformation for which growth rates and relative shares were examined. As South Korea has followed the traditional pattern of economic development, that is, agriculture to secondary and from secondary to the tertiary sector, but in case of India, there has been direct jump from agriculture sector to tertiary sector, thus undermining the significance of secondary sector which has also raised a question on its sustainable growth. As there has been significant growth in service sector across both the countries but the growth of service sector in case of South Korea is based on banking, finance, education research and development, but in case of India, the growth of this sector is characterized by the growing share of subsectors like trade, restaurant and hotels and transport, storage and communication and establishing the linkage between output and employment opportunities reveal that in India, the major share to the GDP is of service sector but marked by low employment growth as compared to South Korea. Further examining the forward and backward linkages across the three sectors in these two economies, it has been observed that in case of output of tertiary or secondary sectors, highest linkages are with secondary or tertiary sectors in case of South Korea where as in case of India, these are with primary sectors. Thus, India should learn lessons from South Korea which is governed by the right kind of complementarity among all the sectors to ensure sustainable and inclusive growth.
In the eighth chapter, while assessing the functioning of micro enterprises in India and testing the hypothesis that these enterprises are distress driven by taking the data from 10 states of India, H.R. Sharma, Kamal Singh and Shakir Hussain Malik have found that there is a heavy concentration of these enterprises in mainly two states of India, that is, Gujrat and Tamil Nadu and most of these enterprises are being run by male workers and as well as people belonging to general category. After that the factors leading to growth of these enterprises are divided into opportunity driven and distress driven. The results of the study reveal that factors like numbers of employees, use of modern source of power, perennial nature of production, use of technical know-how, etc., are having positive impact on the economic growth of these enterprises while factors like market value of fixed assets, age of enterprise and proprietary ownership are having negative relationship with economic growth. Further in the subsequent analysis, the distress-driven factors such as incidence of poverty, landlessness, unemployment etc., have insignificant impact on the growth of these enterprises.
Further Virander Pal Goyal and M.M. Goel have assessed the role of micro finance in the dynamics of rural transformation in Haryana reveal that the penetration of micro finance in this state is quite low. Further assessing the source of funds to self-help groups (SHGs), it has been noticed that major share of disbursement of the funds is from RRBs followed by little share of commercial banks and negligible share of co-operative banks. Although after joining the SHGs, the amount of loan taken, number of loan takers and various assets in the form of land and domestic animals, annual income and annual savings of the people have increased.
In the subsequent chapter, A. Venkateswarlu has examined the dimensions and insecurity of agricultural tenancy in united Andhra Pradesh and have also discussed about land lease liberalization provided through the ‘Licensed Cultivators Act’ to improve the conditions of tenants. Based on NSS data, it has been noticed that there has been declining share of tenancy from 18.6 per cent in 1953–54 to 6.23 per cent in 1980–81, but as land owners have already reached the limits of ceiling, thus curbing the fear of losing the land under the tenancy has resulted into increasing tenancy from 1991–92 onwards. Furthermore, the share of fixed rental contracts found to be increasing as compared to share tenancy. In addition to that there also remained a high tendency of suicides among the farmers of Andhra Pradesh due to the low public investment in irrigation, lack of public extension services and exploitation of poor farmers by traders and money lenders, etc. Thus, to tackle these problems various efforts like recognition of tenancy to enable farmers to avail the various services to improve their conditions have been made.
In the eleventh chapter, Dnyandev C. Talule has assessed the impact of Agriculture Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme (ADWDRS), 2008, on farming households across two districts of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra in addition to 10 farm households from each district obtaining bank loans. The primary data were collected for the various variables like the source of credit and proportion of institutional and non-institutional credit, the pattern and history of repayments, immediate pre- and post-ADWDRS, 2008, farm credit demand and supply pattern and insurance awareness of the life and general insurance. Most of the beneficiaries of these schemes were small and marginal farmers. The analysis of impact of this scheme has revealed that even in the post package period, the tendency of repayments of debts has not improved and still they have continued to borrow from different institutions.
Further, analysing the problems and prospects of agricultural transformation in Jammu and Kashmir state by G.M. Bhat and Showkat Anwar Bhat have stated that although various reforms undertaken under the Green Revolution technology have benefitted in terms of increasing agricultural productivity and employment. But in case of Jammu and Kashmir, due to some unavoidable reasons like rugged topography, lack of use of mechanical inputs, low level of financial inclusion, declining budgetary allocation towards the agriculture have remained serious impediments for achieving the agricultural transformation. Although institutional reforms undertaken in this region have asserted to have positive impact on agricultural transformation but still there exists a dire need to focus on other aspects also.
Assessing the progress and problems in the context of Punjab agriculture during the Green Revolution Period, H.S. Shergill and Varinder Sharma have stated that adoption of HYV technology and mechanization of farm operations, etc., has improved the agriculture sector in Punjab to such an extent that with less than 2 per cent area of country, Punjab is contributing almost one-third to the central pool of food grains. But, Green Revolution Technology has brought with it certain ill-effects as it involves use of more capital and machinery, farmers are becoming more debt-ridden resulting into growing tendency of suicides among them. In addition, it has resulted into environmental degradation, thus requiring the suitable policy mechanism to deal with these problems. Thus, there is need of potential strategy to uplift the agrarian sector of Punjab and defining some inputs that can rejuvenate the drooping agrarian economy through the concerted efforts towards the development of sound base for initiating the sustained process of agricultural change, more priority to high value crops, development of non-farm enterprises as an alternative source of employment and development of human capital under the proper direction and leadership by the government.
Subsequently, examining the agriculture and agro-based industry in India as a panacea for job-less growth by Nitin Arora and Rupinder Kaur has revealed that growth of service sector as a result of 1991 reforms has failed to create the higher level of employment growth. Thus, there is need to identify the sectors which can promote both employment and output. An aggregate analysis of 3X3 Social Accounting Matrix has been done to access the forward and backward linkages along with employment linkages across primary, secondary and tertiary sector and it reveals that although both secondary and tertiary sector are having a sufficient amount of forward and backward linkages but have very weak employment linkages, that is, 0.47 and 0.20. While taking the case of primary sector, employment linkages have found to be above mean, that is, 0.64. Subsequently, carrying out the disaggregate analysis of 41X41 SAM shows that across the sub-sectors of these the above mentioned three sectors, out of first 10 ranks, 6 ranks have been attained by agriculture and agro-processing industries having backward-oriented manufacturing or industrial products. Thus, there is a need to pay more attention towards the development of these industries for assuring sustained growth with equal opportunities.
The last chapter of the book includes the post-script by M.R. Khurana which provides a very elaborative preview of dynamics of rural transformation taken place in India. Thus, it has been emphasized that cross-sectoral and multi-occupational character of contemporary rural livelihoods in India must be given the central place in any development strategy aimed at desired outcomes in context of ongoing and future dynamics of rural transformation. Hence, the number of measures should be adopted for total refurbishment of rural development strategy in the present scenario involving the adoption of increasing farming system approach and as well as providing impetus to the non-farm employment and earnings, formation of SHGs, flow of institutional credit by commercial banks, etc.