Rural & Agrarian Transformation

Answer : Compared to other developing countries like China, Brazil, Sri Lanka etc the literacy and education level in India is very low. The situation is complicated further because of various disparities within the population. The various kinds of disparities are caste biased, class biased, gender biased, region and religion biased. Most often these disparities overlap each other.

Caste based disparities show a pitiable situation for most Dalits and Adivasi groups. SC literacy rates at 1991 were just 37% compared to national average of 52%. The situation in higher education level is more worrisome. Only 7% are represented. There is overlapping of all five levels of disparities, i.e., poor SCs in BIMARU states more so women have very high level of disparities.

ST education level is lower than of SCs. In 1991 it was just around 30% and only 18% for women. Most states with significant ST populations, except north eastern states have low education levels.

Recent NSSO studies indicated that class based educational disparities are existing at all levels of education. Education level was highest among highest expenditure groups, i.e. mean per capital expenditure. Even in rural areas 90% plus attended schools from this group. In contrast just 50% attended from the marginal groups.

Higher education also witnessed similar situation with upper class, caste families benefiting more. Oommen’s study of doctors, Santosh Goyal’s study of private sector executives proved these disparities in favour of higher caste class groups. Women literacy levels are only 54% (2001) compared to 75% for males. The disparities between genders have come down by mere 4% to 21% since independence. This disparity accentuates at higher level of education. Women are over- represented in particular courses and careers like nursing, teaching, secretary level etc.

Among religious groups Muslims are least represented in education at all levels. Christians, Parsis on the other hand fare better than national average.

BIMARU northern states in particular show dismal educational levels than Western and Southern states.

Answer : Rural India is not inert. It is seething with discontent of conflicts. The old stable social structure of the village community with its varied institutions had experienced a severe jolt during the British period and is undergoing a very rapid, almost hectic transformation after Independence.

The impact of elections based on universal franchise, of increasing competitive profit-oriented production by peasants and of the emergence of various new institutions and associations-political, economic, social and administrative-on various classes of caste, has resulted in a mobility and created a tension which is, in its intensity and depth, unparallel in the history of Indian rural society. The causes of these great conflicts and tensions have to be located in the rapid structural transformation of rural society.

There was visible among the peasantry a growing restlessness which took the form of violent and deadly clashes between the Zamindars and Kisans every now and than. The peasants increasingly began to resist evictions and protest. The Zamindars, having wealth and power started to organize themselves and to resist the plans for zamindari abolition of Congress Ministries, which had come to power after the 1946 General Elections.

The forces of revolutionary socialism made full use of the situation and under the hammer and sickle play, thousands of peasants were organised to forcibly sow or reap the fields which they claimed to have belonged to them, and from which the Zamindars were forcibly evicting them. The middle peasants, on the other hand, are initially the most militant element of the peasantry and they can be a powerful ally of the proletarian movement in the country side, especially in generating the initial impetus of the peasant revolution. But their social perspective is limited by their class position. When the movement in the countryside advanced to a revolutionary stage, they moved away.

Answer : New economic policy, i.e., reforms, focussed attention on the greater role for the private sector. However, it controls the notion of ‘license raj’ and removes unnecessary burden for securing licenses. To provide larger scope to the private sector, a number of changes in policy were introduced with regard to industrial licensing, export-import policy, technology upgradation, fiscal policy, foreign equity capital, removal of controls and restrictions, rationalizing and simplifying the system of fiscal and administrative regulation.

All these changes were directed towards creating an uninhibited climate for private sector so that investment in this could set a big boost to modernize the economy and usher in rapid growth. The economic reforms were introduced by then Prime Minister Mr. Rajiv Ganghi in 1985. After that it was elaborated and given a new direction by the policy by Prime Minister P.V. Narsingha Rao, under the Finance Minister Dr. Man Mohan Singh. These new economic reforms were linked in the policy of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation.

Liberalisation: Experiments with domestic liberalisation began in the mid- seventies. In 1975, a scheme was introduced which provided for an increase in licensed capacity up to a maximum of 25 percent in a five-year period. Other measures included regularisation of capacities in excess of authorised capacities for certain industries, some liberalisation from controls for unit which exported 100 percent of their production, and a more general scheme of endorsement of capacities introduced in 1982. The main emphasis during the seventies was on reducing the restrictive and complex features of the licensing policy which, in the main, were due to the manner are which the IDRA was implemented. The results, however, were not impressive. The regulatory systems continued to be much more elaborate than originally envisaged in the Act. The system seemed to have acquired a momentum of its own and only attempt to reduce its procedural rigors or to ma ke peripheral improvement was being rejected by the system like an unwanted transplant. The process of re-orientation of industrial policy gathered momentum since mid-eighties. The Government set up several committees to examine its fiscal, monetary, industrial and trade policies.

The process of liberalisation got fillip with thee announcement of the New Industrial Policy (NIP) in July 1991 and entered a new phase of what has been described as “reform by storm” that supplants “reform by stealth” during the second half of the 1908s. The policy issues described above for improving industrial performance that involved a considerable measure of deregulation and therefore may be called economic liberalisation.

There is considerable internal deregulation aimed at strengthening the more efficient domestic firms and encouraging them to invest and expand. This is expected to inject much more competition into the system, creating incentives for reducing costs. The internal liberalisation has been accompanied by a policy of maintaining sufficiently open doors to import and permit modernisation and technological upgrading in Indian industry which again will reduce costs and promote internal competition. As far as trade liberlisation is concerned, a broad direction has been given about the desirability of switching from quantitative controls of tariffs, but the movement in this area is limited and certainly does not include import of fine consumer goods. However, significant tariff rational measures have been implemented in several sectors.

Social consequences of liberalisation are the following:

1. Hundreds of small-scale units have closed down because liberalised imports killed the market for their products.
2. Growth in some significant sectors of the Indian Industry (e.g. chemical industry) has dipped down; the large players are putting their planned investments on hold. This is because there has been large-scale dumping of raw material feed stock from abroad at cheaper rates.
3. Non-transparent export incentives like the Value Based License Scheme (VABALS) for promoting growth of exports back fixed as people imported items that fetched a premium in India, more than they needed, and dumped them in the market.
4. Liberalisation has altered the industrial structure in favour of goods in demand from the better-off sections of society. There sections have benefitted from inflation, high interest rates on financial savings and the growth of high paid jobs with lavish perks.
5. The pattern of investment continues to favour the use of sophisticated plants and equipment at the expenses of labour. Job growth is inadequate in both the urban and rural areas.
6. Industry’s profitability has stumped and demand is sluggish for the capital goods.
7. Even the large industrial houses have felt the pinch of liberalisation. This is evident from the message of the so-called Bombay club of industrialists: “Slow down reform”.
8. Over the last three years the output of the capital goods industries has continuously declined, 21 per cent in 1991-92, 8 per cent in 1992-93, and 5.3 per cent in 1993-94, provoking one commentator to remark that the ongoing reforms are leading to industrialization.
9. The new policy has left the public sector worse. They are losing market and their capacity utilization has declined. The decline of the public sector is also undermining the country’s technological base, whatever it was.
10. With opening up, the economy has become far more unstable than earlier and the impact of this will fall on the already marginalized in society.

Privatization in India: The privatization was that swept the world was bound to have its effect in India. In India the wave of privatization has been generated during the eighties more so after the resumption of power by Mr. Rajiv Gandhi as Prime Minister. Although there is a strong rhetoric in favour of privatization, in reality, it is becoming increasingly difficult to push through proposals of privatization.

Firstly, in India with the emergence of strong trade unions, privatization in the sense of denationalization is not considered possible.

Feelers have been sent by the Minister by issuing statements regarding denationalization of banks, insurance companies, power generation companies, coal mines, unviable public sector units, postal Services, etc, but they have aroused spontaneous and violent reactions from trade unionshave come which are highly organised. Even the INTUC which is affiliated to the Congress-I has to fall in line with the CITU, HMS, AITUC and BMS in opposing all moves against denationalization. Consequently, the Government in order to arrange the feelings of the trade unions declared that it does not intend to denationalize any of the public sector undertakings.

Problems of Finance: One hurdle that one face in implementing the aim of Privatization through the transfer of ownership of PSUs into the private hands, is that of finance. If it is outright sale, the amount involved will be very large indeed. Over and above this the purchaser will also have to find some money to invent in the enterprises for operating it. If this money comes from the public financial institutions, including banks in the form of loans to the private sector, it will amount to the transfer to ownership from one public institution to another. The alternative to the outright sale is the sale of shares to the general public. This on the face of it looks feasible. But here too there is every possibility that switching of investment may take place. In other words, the financing may take place from out of the existing saving. As far as the new saving does not take place to finance such purchase of shares, the economy will not benefit.

Inefficiency of the Private Sector: Another serious problem is that the private sector, which is supposed to improve upon the performance of PSUs, may not come up to the mark. This apprehension arises from the fact that the private sector too has not performed satisfactorily in a large measure. It is now a well-established fact that many units in the private sector are lying sick. There are many with large overdue. All these units are seeking financial help from the public sector to bail them out. Efficiency in the private sector is not that high. Further, this sector, despite some modernisation in a few fields, is still technologically far behind the developed countries. In terms of the cost-price and the quality of products, it is the same dismal story which marks a significant proportion of the enterprises in this sector.

In Built-Resistances: The policy of privatization is also faced with difficulties of a type which are not easy to overcome. One such difficult is, for example associated with the behaviour of the employers, owners or capitalists towards the labour. In some reputed enterprises this, of course, is not the case. But in many private enterprises particularly many small sized ones, as also in the unorganized sector, there is gross exploitation of labour.

The women and child-labour are a much fleeced lot. For these rightly or wrongly, any further privatization is tantamount to their further exploitation. In the organised sector, the trade unions are sure to oppose such an orientation of the economy. In this move, these unions will get full support from the employees in other producing units.

They will feel threatened in regard to the security of their interests, as also their benefits which they are getting at present. The labour laws which are for the protection of laborer’s rights in respect of payment of wages, working conditions, etc, are also in the nature of industries which are small, infants, and are struggling to find their feet. Even large-sized industries will find it difficult to modernise their equipment, or make other changes easily in view of these laws.All these preparean environment of resistance to any move towards the privatization of the PSUs on a large scale.

Globalisation: The world market place and the entire global economic environment are today at one of the most profound points of change. This has been due to several dramatic developments that have taken place in the recent past. These include: the formation of united Germany, a powerful economic and political entity which came into being in October 1990, the collapse of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe and the opening of their markets, disintegration of USSR and the formation of ASEAN, emergence of Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan in addition to Thailand, Malaysia and Philippines as successful and leading exporters and last but not least the efforts being made by China to modernise its economy and double its GNP by the year 2000.

An outward looking or globalisation policy is not a free lunch. It carries a price as it demands certain social consequences on the formulation of national policies.

In the first instance, the international economic environment has qualitatively changed in more times. The industrialized countries during their economic prosperity phase seemed to adopt a liberal attitude and facilitate relatively high cost developing countries to enter their market. However, recent experience shows that in recessionary conditions a more restrictive stand may be taken adversely affecting the developing economic fluctuations, the dependent developing countries will have to bear these economic shocks.

In other words, outwardly oriented economies tend to do well during a period of dynamism and high growth in the world economy whereas they are prone to severe dislocation and collapse during a down turn in international economic activity. In the latter phase, internal oriented economics are likely to be less damaged by the stagnation or slow down in world trade.

Another constraint in adopting an outward looking approach by a large poor country as India arises from the relationship on the one hand between investment made for export-output and income generated via the multiplier, and on the other between income generated and imports via prosperity to imports. This problem stems from the fact that income multiplier effect in a developing economy is higher than in a developed economy due to higher marginal propensity to consume. Consequently, demand generation is also relatively higher in the developing economies than in the developed economics. This rise in demand, under certain given conditions, will push up the domestic price level if marginal propensity to import does not recede, it will further lead to higher imports to the extent that proportionate rise in imports and thus the trade balance is shaken.

In order that globalisation may be beneficial to developing economy, it must have a policy to stimulate technical progress and the manufacturing sector. In the absence of these, a closed economy is to be preferred. The moral of this lesson is that, before bringing in the chill blasts of global competitive forces, we should prepare our economy in all aspects to meet that sort of challenge.

To succeed in global markets, competitiveness of Indian producers has to be improved. Higher productivity growth, better quality products and innovations in products and process technology are required. Companies have to enter into strategic alliances not only for bringing in state of the art technology but also to reduce costs, improve efficiency and penetrate the global market with joint efforts.

For too long, Indian companies have been used to operate in protected domestic market where customers are less demanding, have developed a cost-plus mentality and are excessively dependent on the government or foreign collaborators. But the changing realities of the global environment dictate that they must adapt in order to survive.

Answer : There has been socio-historical journey of the poverty alleviation programmes which instructs to remove poverty and indebtedness present among deprived people of India. However, we still need to reevaluate it and give more emphasis on practicality of the programmes rather than their theoretical aspects only.

The integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) is a major instrument of the government to alleviate poverty. Its objective is to enable selected families to cross the poverty live by taking up self-employment ventures in a variety of activities like agriculture, horticulture and animal husbandry in the primary sector, weaving and handicrafts in the secondary sector, and service and business actives in the tertiary sector. The aim of the IRDP is to see that a minimum stipulated number of families are evaded to cross the poverty line within the limits of a given investment and in a given time frame. Thus, the three variables involved are: (a) number of poor households, (b) resources available for investments, and (c) the time-span over which the investments would yield an income which would enable the family to cross the poverty live.

The IRDP was launched by the centre in March 1976 in 20 selected districts, but from October 1982 it was extended to all districts in the country.This programme considers a household as the basic of developments. The functional aspect of this programme can be gauged from the fact that above 80 lakh households are said to have been assisted within five years-1993-94 and 1997-98 in the matter of improving their economic conditions and rising above the poverty live.

The scheme called Training of Rural Youth for Self-Employment (TRYSEM) was started on August 15, 1979 to provide technical skills to the rural youth to enable them to seek employment in the fields of agriculture, industry, services and business activities. Only youth in the age group of 18-35 and belonging to families living below the poverty live are eligible for training. Priority for selection is given to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribe persons, ex-service men and those who are ninth pass. One third seats are reserved for women. Stipend to the trainees ranges from Rs. 75 to Rs. 200 per month.

On completion of training, TRYSEM beneficiaries are assisted under the IRDP. In 4 years between 1992-93 & 1995-96, about 2 lakh youths were trained every year, of which about 45% became self-employed and 30% remained employed on wages (EPW, 1995). The main criticisms against this programme are:

1. Its coverage is very small in relation to need.
2. Skills provided have not been linked with rural industrialization process. Training is provided on the basis of adhoc considerations and skills imparted one of low level.
3. Amount of stipend is rather inadequate to motivate the youth to go for training.

National Rural Employment Programme was planned for creating additional employment opportunities in the rural areas with the help of
surplus food grains. Initially, this programme was called Food for Work Programme (FWP). It was drawn up at the end of 1976-77 but it exactly came into effect on Anil 1, 1977. Under this scheme, millions of mandays of employment were created every year by utilizing lakhs of tones of food grains. The works undertaken were flood protection, maintenance of existing roads, construction of roads, view link roads, improvement of sanitation facilities, construction of panchayat ghars, school buildings, medical and health centres etc. in the rural areas. On finding certain shortcomings in the programme, it (FWP) was restructured in October 1980 as a part of the 6th Plan (1980-85) & came to be known as NREP. It took care of those rural poor who largely depended on wage employment and virtually had no source of income in the lean agricultural period. The important points on which stress was laid in the implementation of this programme were:

1. 10% allocation was earmarked exclusively for drinking water wells in Harijan colonies and community irrigation schemes in Harijan areas. Likewise, another 10% was earmarked for social forestry and fuel plantations.
2. Only such works were undertaken which had some durability.
3. Allocations were made both at the inter state and inter district/block levels. The central government released the state’s share of the NREP allocation in cash every quarter.
4. Maintenance of assets created under this programme was the responsibility of the state governments.
5. PRIs were actively involved in this programme. This programme has now been merged is SRY.

Rural landless Employment Guarantee Programme(RLEGP) aimed at providing supplemental employment to the poor on public works at a very low wage of Rs 3/day. Maharashtra was one state which had used the Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) for the unemployed in rural areas by levying EGS surcharge or collections on land revenue, sales tax, motor vehicles, irrigated holdings etc. The amounts so collected, with matching contributions from the state governments, were credited to an EGS fund taking up employment works. This programme too has now been merged (along with NREP) into the JRY.

Jawahar Rozgan Yojna was announced in April 1989. Under the scheme, it is expected that at least one member of each poor family would be provided with employment for 50 to 100 days in a year at a work place near his/her residence. About 30% of the jobs under this scheme are reserved for women. Both the rural wage employment programme (the REP & the EGP) were merged in this scheme. Central assistance to the scheme is 80%. The scheme is implemented through village panchayats. The central govt. claims that 3121.33 million mandays of employment were generated in various states between 1992-93 & 1995-96 under JRY at an outlay of Rs 13, 248 cr (Rajasthan Patrika, June 16, 1996). The scheme comes 46% of our population.

Antyodaya Programme means development of the people at the lowest level, or the poorest of the poor. This programme was initiated by the government of Rajasthan on Oct 2, 1997 for special assistance to the people below the poverty live. The idea was to select five of the poorest families from each village (out of 27000 inhabited villages) every year and to help them in their economic betterment.

Initially, a random survey was undertaken in 25 villages situated in different ecological regions of the state & information about individual families with regard to indebtedness, dependency ratio, and physical assets of land, cattle, occupation, education level, income and size of the family was collected. Therefore, a detailed scheme of Antyodaya was drawn up. The economic criterion, in order of priority, for the selection of the poor families was said down as:

1. Families under severe destitution without any productive assets and with no member in the age group of 15-54 yrs capable of any economic activity.
2. Families without any productive assets of land or cattle but having one or more persons capable of working and with a per capita in come up to Rs. 20/month.
3. Families having some productive assets with per capita income up to Rs 30/month.
4. Families having per capita income up to Rs. 40/month.

The Garibi Hatao slogan was given by India Gandhi in March 1971 at the time of the national elections while the Bekari Hatao slogan was given by All India Congress Commitee (AICC) at its annual session in April 1988. In fact, the Congress has been talking of ‘Socialism’ since the 1950’s. It declared ‘Socialism’ as its main goal in its Avadi session in 1955, Bhubaneshwar session in 1964 and Kamraj Nagar session in April 1988. But the extent to which the Congress has succeeded in achieving this goal is indicated by the fact that more than 10 lakh people in our country live by begging and about half a lakh people survive on donated blood.

Answer : Two types of policies affect rural life:

I. production-oriented activities targeting production and services, e.q., subsidized fertilisers, providing irrigation, credit, locating village industries, and so on; and ii) non-production oriented activities targeting living standards. The first type of activities are defined as rural development measures. Those activities may affect either the whole community or a particular section of the community.

Three distinct strategies for rural development may be identified.

I. Initially, in the 1950s, policy-makers stressed maximisation of economic growth by stepping up investment assuming that the benefits arising out of it would 'trickle down' and diffuse among all sectors of the rural society. But in the 1970s, it was realised that the benefits of agricultural growth did not percolate to the rural poor.

II. This game birth to the second approach led by structural school which suggested distribution of assets through land reforms, community development programmes and cooperative farming. But this also did not work.

III. Then came the idea in the 1980s that suggested attack on poverty though rural development programmers, such as IRDP, TRYSEM, NREP, and RLEGP which later on merged in JRY programmes.

Answer : Unrest among the Indian peasants is not new. It is historical. Bipan Chandra observes that peasant movements had been a part of national movement since 1920. With the emergence of agricultural capitalism, the growth of green revolution and the spread of education along with the development of agriculture, unrest among peasants has increased. The tribals of the country who are late comers to agriculture have also raised their head high to agitate against the government for the fulfillment of their demands. Land and agriculture are the state subject. And, therefore, the peasant unrest is the concern of the state government. There are some vital questions related to the peasantry of our country. The route of peasant unrest, therefore, lies in the social structure of peasantry, its history and process of agricultural modernization.

Indian peasantry has witnessed certain ancient and medieval history when the country experienced long battles and constant blood. But these long term disturbances did not affect our peasantry. The wars were fought by the warriors and the peasants with plough on their shoulders to the field for cultivation. Even during the feudal rule the cases of land eviction were few and for between. But, this peaceful and quiet peasantry has now been transformed into an agitating peasantry. A.R. Desai very rightly observes that our peasants today are up in arms. The history of peasant unrest goes back to the first quarter of 1920s. The rural sociologists have analyzed the peasant unrest in different terms. For instance, A.R. Desai calls the under as the peasant struggle, Kathleen Gough terms it as peasant uprising, for N.G. Ranga again it is a struggle of the peasantry, and it is peasant revolution according to Hamza Halvi. It appears that the sociologists who are oriented to Marxism have analyzed the peasant agitation as struggle on the pattern of class struggle and class war. These sociologists look at the peasant agitations from the perspective of class antogonism.

There are few other sociologists who analyze the peasant unrest from the liberal point of view and they call it simply a movement. For them, the agitation among the peasants is nothing but only a movement which started as a peasant movement during struggle for independence in 1920s. D.N. Dhanajare reviews the peasant agitation also as a peasant movement. Whatever term we may give to the peasant agitation, the fact remains that in the post independent India there has come a revolution in agriculture. It has increased the farm produce. The subsistence farm produce has now became capitalistic. With the transformation in agriculture the situation of peasants has also undergone change. And, this change has given rise to many problems. The peasants have demands. The relations between peasants and agricultural labourers have also undergone change and all this requires a thorough analysis for students of rural sociology. Anyone who decides to understand peasantry must take into consideration all these factors.

Infact, the old stable social structure of the village community with its varied institutions had experienced a severe jolt during the British period and is undergoing rapid, almost hectic transformation after independence. The impact of -elections based on universal franchise, of increasing competitive, profit-oriented production by peasants and of the emergence of various new institutions and associations-political, economic, social and administrative, on various classes and castes, has resulted in a mobility and created a tension which is, in its intensity and depth, unparalleled in the history of Indian rural society.

The pattern of political behavior of the peasantry is based on faction which are vertically integrated segments of the rural society, dominated by landlords and rich peasants at the top and with poor peasants and landless labourers, who are economically dependent on them, at the bottom. Amongst the exploited sections of the peasantry, there is little or no class solidarity. They stand divided amongst themselves by their allegiance to their factions, led by their masters. Political initiative thus rests with faction leaders, who are owners of land and have power and prestige in the village society. They are often engaged in political competition amongst themselves in pursuit of power and prestige in the society. The dominating factions, who by virtue of their wealth have the largest following, back the party in power and in return receive many reciprocal benefits. The opposition finds allies, generally in factions of middle peasants who are relatively independent of the landlords but who often find themselves in conflict with them. Many factors enter into the factional picture: Kinship, neighbourhood ties, and caste alignments affect the allegiance of particular peasants to one faction to another. But broadly, it does appear that in one group of faction the predominant characteristic is that of the relationship between master and their dependents while other factions are predominantly those of the independent small holders. For the allegiance of the poor peasants such as their backward mentality, etc. It is based on the objective fact of their dependence on their masters for their continued livelihood. But this backwardness of the peasantry, rooted as it is in objective dependence, is only a relative and not an absolute condition. In a revolutionary situation when anti-landlord and anti-rich peasant sentiment is built up by the militancy of middle peasants, his morale is raised and he is more ready to respond to calls of action. His revolutionary energy is set in motion. When the objective pre-conditions are realized, the poor peasant is a potentially revolutionary force. But the inherent weakness in his situation renders him more open to intimidation and setbacks can easily demoralize him. He finally and irrevocably takes the road to revolution only when he is shown in practice that the power of his master can be broken and the possibility of an alternative mode of existence becomes real to him.

Answer : The large increase in agricultural production, especially in wheat, which took place in a short space of tense (1965-66 to 1970-71), as a result of application of high yielding varieties of seed, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and agricultural machinery, is described as Green Revolution.

The effect of the application of the new technology was that there was increase in production of food grains from 1965-66 to 1970-71. Of the foodgrains produced. the greatest impact of the green revolution is to be seen on the production of wheat. But the harmful social effect of the green revolution were also soon visible. “It has been established that disparities in income have been widened by these innovations in agriculture. Agricultural input, and improved chemical fertilizers, were largely cornered by rich landlords. Besides, the poor farmers also found themselves handicapped by small farms of land and inadequate water supply. Given the need for complete agricultural techniques and inputs, the green revolution tended to have its most concentrated application on large farms. Generalizing about the expenses of the new technology in a new developing country, Earnest-Fader correctly said that “The Green Revolution is a programme for landowners par excellence and cannot be different, they are already better equipped, have almost exclusive access to input and output markets, and are major if not the almost exclusive recipient of agricultural credit”. As a concentration of the new technology to large farms, the inequalities have further increased”.

The small farmers have been adversely affected by a growing tendency among the large farmers to reclaim land previously leased out under tenancy agreement, which has been made profitable by higher returns from the new technology. The small farmer has been increasingly pushed into the rank of the landless labourer. There has been increase in higher level of rent with land value soaring.

Answer : After independence the Central Government of India adopted a large number of welfare programmes for the women. Recently, the year 2001 has been celebrated as the year of Empowerment of the women. All these programmes aim at elevating the social, economic and political status of the women. Some of the popular programmes related to economic empowerment of women are as follows:

The new Model Charkha Yojana (1987), Naurad Training Programme (1989), Mahila Samakhya Yojana (1992), National Women's Loan Scheme (1993), Self Help Group Yojana (1993), National Maternity Benefit Yojna (1994), Margin Money Loan Yojana (1995), Rural Women Development Progrmme (1996), Raj Rajeshwari Insurance (1997), DWACRA Yojana (1997). Besides the above mentioned programme, some other important programmes are Kishori Shakti Yojana, Mahila Swayamsiddha Yojana, Mahila Swadhar Yojana etc.

In the year 2001 the government had adopted National Women upliftment Policy (2001), the main objectives of which are : (1) To create such an environment in which women may contribute in the formulation of socio-economic policy, (2) To make the women independent in the social, economic and political fields so that they can make pace with their male counterparts, (3) To ensure education, health and employment of the women, (4) To take proper legal and community action against any form of descrimination against women, (5) To ensure equal participation of women in the social, economic and political fields. This programme will take at least ten year’s time in implementation in the whole country. It is a praiseworthy programme but still not producing results. Some newly launched programmes are as follows:

1. Mahila Swayamsiddha Yojana : This programme is specially adopted on 12th July 2001 by the Central Advisory Board to enhance the socio-economic status of women. In the very first phase it has been implemented in six hundred fifty blocks with the expenditure of Rs. 116 crores. It will provide benefit to approximately 9.30 lakh women.
2. Mahila Swadhara Yojana: This programme was adopted on 12th July 2001 to make the divorced, separted and dependent women independent. This has been implemented through the three tier Panchayati Raj system.
3. Loan Programmes for Women Labourer: This programme was launched on 15th August 2001. Under this programme, the Public Sector banks provide interest free or friendly loans to the women workers. The limitation of loan is 17,000.
4. Kishori Shakti Yojana : This programme is meant for proper health, nutrition and education of the adolescent girl. In the very first phase it has been implemented in 507 blocks. Only those families will be benefitted whose annual income is less than Rs. 6400. 15 to 18 years of girls are also provided professional training.

Some of the legislative measures in favour of women in India are: (i) Women Reservation Bill (1998), (ii) Indian Divorce Amendment Act (2001), (iii) Domestic Violence Against Women Act (2001), (iv) Compensation to Divorced Women Bill (2001), (v) Necessary Women Education and Welfare Bill (2001), (vi) PNDT (Prasava Poorva Parikshan Technique) Act 1994. On the eve of empowerment of the year 2001 a number of programmes were launched to promote the educational, economic and political status of the Indian women.

As far as the realization of objectives of the above mentioned various programmes related to women is concerned, it may be said that it has hardly realized even the 50% of its coveted goal. Corruption at the bureaucratic and political level and lack of community participation, most of these programmes are not successful or exist only on the paper. As a greed factor, most of the politicians used to declare such types of programmes in favour of their vote-banks. Illiteracy at the community level is also a barrier.

As far as the benefit of these programmes in the various sections of the women caste, class, age-group or community is concerned, it is not unanimous. Those women who are conscious and literate are, to some extent, able to avail the facilitation of the programmes. These women are specially from the higher class and caste of the society. The women belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are very illiterate and know nothing about the programmes and even their rights and obligations. In these communities the male literacy is also very poor. The local administration and community generally also used to ignore the due right of the women.

The unmarried, divorced, old-age and separated women constitute a major segment of the society. The assistance provided by the government is very insufficient and even 80% of it is not reaching to them. Secondly, as far as financial transaction is concerned, there are so many formalities faced by the illiterate women which is difficult for them. It also discourages them. The needy and geniune women irrespective of caste and class are still largely alienated from the benefit of these governmental programme.The used means prevent them from getting their due share of the programmes.

Answer : After independence, India adopted a large number of poverty alleviation programmes under the Five Year Plan or outside it. In the first five year plan independence in food production was given priority. The famous 'Garibi Hatao'programme was adopted in Fourth Five Year Plan.

The Crash Scheme of Rural Employment (CSRE) was started in 1971. The Pilot Intensive Rural Employment Programme (PIREP) was started in 1972. Drought Prone Area Programme (DPAP) was started in 1970-71. Integrated Rural Development Programme was started in 1973. The Food for Work Programme (FWP) was started in 1997. National Rural Employment Programme in 1980. Rural Landless Employment Gurantee Programme (RLEGP) was started in 1983. Jawahar Rojgar Yojana (JRY) was launched by merging NREP and RLEGP. Employment Assurance Scheme was started in 1746 blocks of India. Under it, 100 days of employment is provided. The Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA) was implemented in 1993-94. The National Literacy Mission (NLM) and Mahila Samakhya are also praisworthy programmes. Ganga kalyan Yojana (1997), Wasteland Development Programme (WDP) for agricultural upliftment and Indira Awas Yojana in 1996, National Old Age Pension Scheme (NOAPS), National Family Benefit Scheme (NFBS) and National Maternity Benefit Scheme (NMBS) were started in 1995.

Most of these programmes have not given positive result because of lack of community participation, corruption at the bureaucratic level and lack of political initiatives.

Answer : There exists several child welfare programmes in India aimed at the upliftment of 17.5 percent of the population (1991) who are below the age of six years. A large number of these children live in a kind of environment which retard the unfolding of their genius. Such environment involves poverty, poor sanitation, disease, inadequate access to primary health care, malnutrition etc.

The welfare programmes for children draw inspiration from the Constitution of India which emphasised the importance of the well-being of children. The article 39 of the Constitution calls upon the state to direct its policies "that children are given opportunities and facilities to develop in a healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity and that childhood and youth are protected against exploition and against moral and material abandonment."

In pursuance of the Constitutional objective, the National Policy for children (1974) was declared. The policy provided a framework for assigning properties to different needs of children and for responding to these needs in a holistic manner. The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme (1975) was the concrete form of this policy.

The ICDS scheme aims to improve the nutritional and health standards of vulnerable groups including pre-school children, pregnant women and nursing mothers. Secondly, it seeks to lay the foundation for the proper psychological, physical and social development of the child. It also seeks to reduce the incidence of morality, morbidity, malnutrition and school dropouts. Another goal is to achieve effective coordination of policy and its implementation among various departments to promote child development. The ICDS programme involves several small programmes and schemes. One of them is supplementary feeding scheme. The targetted beneficieries identified through survey avail of supplementary feeding support for 300 days in a year. The aim is to bridge calorie gap between the national recommended standards and average intake of children and women in the economically lower strata. Another programme called National Prophylaxis programme is for prevention of blindness caused by the deficiency of vitamin A and the control of anaemia among children and others. Next, Early Childhood Care and pre-school Education (ECCE) strives towards child care and development at the pre-school stage. It makes the anganwadi a joyful centre of active and play-way learning, close to primary school. There is also an Adolescent Girls scheme which aims at breaking the intergenerational life cycle of nutritional disadvantage, and providing a supportive environment for self-development. The last important programme is creches for the children of poor working mothers. These provide the children with day care service, supplementary nutrition, immunisation, health care, recreation etc. By 1998 estimates more than 12,000 creches are being run by voluntary organisation with financial assistance from the Government.

By 1997, ICDS reached out to 3.7 expectant and nursing mothers and 18.60 million children (under six years of age) of disadvantaged groups. Of these, 10.81 million children (3 to 6 years) participated in centre-based pre-school education activities.

The study of the impact of these welfare programmes show that much has been achieved. The programme has a direct impact on decline in Infant Mortality Rate. The Programme Evaluation Organisation, 1982, highlighted that about 2/3rd of the population benefitted by the scheme comprised the most vulnerable groups including SCs, STs and Other Backward classes. Study by NIPCCD, 1992 shows decline in Infant Mortality Rate in the areas covered by ICDS- IMR at 66.6 per 1000 in ICDS areas as compared to then national average of 86.

However, these welfare progra­mmes like other national progra­mmes leave much to be desired. The figures speak about the effectiveness of programmes. Around two percent of children below five suffer from protein energy malnutrition. Almost 50 percent of children below 5 years are in the grip of iron deficiency. The percentage of children affected by stunting stands at a high of 65. According to UNICEF (1999), 33 percent children in India have low birth weight, 53 percent of under-five children are underweight and nine percent of children between the ages of 6 to 11 suffer from goitre.

These programmes are also victim of the lack of resources, bureaucratic hurdles and unwillingness to implement them sincerely.

Though ICDS programme was universalised during 1995-96, IMR is as high as 72/1000. Though the programmes meant for the children and women from the lowest strata of population, it is common sight that children accompany their mothers at the site of work in extremely dangerous work environment. Their emaciated but supple body make every conscious citizen think over the effectiveness of the programmes. Thus, a lot need to be done to achieve the desired end from the Child Welfare Programmes.

Answer : The "Green Revolution" chiefly refers to the breakthrough accompanied by a sudden jump in the yield per acre as a result of introducing high yielding varieties (HYV) of seeds and seedlings, increased application of the recommended chemical fertiliser in the areas with assured water supply, adoption of mechanised farming and use of pesticides. Prof. Swaminathan is considered as the father of Green Revolution in India.

In the mid 1960s the government introduced Intensive Agricultural District Programme (IADP). The traditional practices were gradually replaced. The new technology was tried in 1960-61 as a 'Pilot project" in seven districts. Later on, high yielding varieties programme was also added to the IADP and extended to the entire country. The Hyv was put into practice in India in the year 1966. After 1966, there was a substantial increase in food grains production especially, wheat production as a result of new agricultural strategy. However HYV Programme was restricted to only five crops-wheat, rice, jawar, bajra and maize etc. HYVP of non food grains were excluded from the new strategy.

The Green revolution is criticised firstly, because it has been limited in its coverage of crops, land as well as regions. In case of crops, the charge is that it has been largely confined to wheat and rice to some extent. In India, a major part of cultivable land is without proper irrigation facilities and in the dry land this technique has failed to make any breakthrough. The Green Revolution has been practically limited to Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh. Secondly, the crops coverage of the new technology led to the increase in production of wheat and to some extent in rice. But other crops remained practically outside the ambit of the new technology, at least in the first few years. Commercial crops were not covered by the new technology. Most of the HYV seeds have been developed for and used during rabi seasons leading to seasonal instability in production. As a new assessment is coming up, there are indications that disappropriate use of fertilisers has led to substantial erosion of natural productivity of the soils. Therefore, some people are of the opinion that the Green revolution has outlived its utility.

Socio-economic consequences of Green Revolution: The new agricultural strategy adopted since the 1960s has helped in revolutionalising Indian agriculture. It has pushed into background the era of chronic and continuing food shortages. It has also provided an incentive to the further development of agriculture. Application of modern science and technology to agriculture has succeeded in breaking through a long close circle of rural poverty. It has spearheaded the agricultural take off that will provide missing momentum to rural resources and usher in the era of prosperity. However, the gains of Green Revolution have not been uniformly distributed all over the country. The new agricultural strategy is characterised by adoption of high yielding varieties of seeds, fertilisers, irrigation, machinery, improved implements, soil conservation etc. The successful adoption of these components of new agricultural strategy depends upon factors like assured water supply, farm size, institutional credit, extension service etc. The regions which had better endowments of these elementary facilities were, the first, to adopt the modern inputs and thus reap the benefit there from. Similarly, there are some basic properties of regions such as better soil, assured water supply and human factors which are prone to the adoption of innovation and new technology. Thus, in view of such diverse conditions and due to differential opportunities to, all the regions at the same place has thus resulted in differential gains.

It must be remembered here that the Green Revolution has proved partially beneficial. It has removed poverty, but not every where. The benefit of Green Revolution have been reaped only by richer farmers, holding larger holdings. They have been able to acquire the necessary supplies of fertilisers, tractors, water pumps and so on. The poorer formers have been left out of the benefit for want of credit and finance. This has caused widespread unrest among poor cultivators in many parts of the country. This is the reason why a lot of discontent has spread amongst those who have not been able to get the benefit. Even some people have apprehended that the Green Revolution may result into violence or a red revolution.

Answer : According to the Planning Commission of India, 'Community Development is an attempt to bring about a social and economic transformation of village life through the efforts of the people themselves'. In this way community development programmes indicate those projects for social and economic reconstruction in the villages, which are implemented with the co-operation of public themselves. A.R.Desai has described ‘Community development project is the method through which Five Years Plans seek to initiate a process of transformation of social and economic life of the villages’. In this way community development project is the method through which the entire process is controlled by the community itself. Here community chiefly refers to the rural community. According to the India Year Book (1973) published by the Government of India, "The community development programmes lunched on 2 October 1952, aims at bringing about an integrated development of rural society, covering the social, cultural and economic aspect of community life.

Prof. S.C. Dube in his book "India's Changing village", has argued about two main aim of the community development programmes. Firstly, to manage or achieve an adequate increase in the country's agricultural product and progress in the means of communication, rural health and cleanliness and rural education. Secondly, to initiate and direct a process of synthetical cultural change aimed at transforming the social and economic life of the village.

Government of India Publication" A Guide to Community Development" has argued about following major objectives of the programme.

1. To create a change in the mental outlook of the masses.
2. To develop responsible and active leadership in the village.
3. To make village self-dependent and
4. progressive.
5. To modernize agriculture on the one hand and to develop cottage industries on the other in order to raise economic status of the villagers.
6. To improve the condition of women and families of villagers in order to make the suggested improvements practicable.
7. To develop properly the future citizens of the nation.
8. To protect the interest of rural educators rural populace and to protect them against the disease.

The CDP which was implemented through the various five year plans has varied impact on the rural life. Firstly, agriculture is the main source of livelihood of the rural people. The traditional methods have been replaced by the modern equipments, machines, high yielding varieties of seeds, irrigation and fertilizers etc. which causes Green revolution especially in Punjab and Western Uttar Pradesh. Secondly, the community development programme has encouraged the cottage industries and handicrafts. The unemployed people are provided with work trough auxiliary and useful service. Thirdly, the community development programmes have paid desired and necessary attention to the education of children and adults, men and women. Schools for primary and adult education have been opened. Fourthly to prevent epidemics and other widespread diseases, arrangements have been made for one health center in each development block. Mobile dispensaries have been arranged. Midwives and nurses are also being trained. Except these, the development of the quality of animal, means of transport, cleanliness and arrangement for residence have been especially cared under the CDP.

With the decentralization of power and Panchayati Raj system, the community development programme has further boosted up. But, according to data, some direct observation or case studies of Bihar, U.P., Rajasthan, M.P. etc. revel that the targeted group of people are still deprived of its benefit. Late Prime Minister, Rajeev Gandhi had aptly remarked, "out of one rupees only twenty paise reach the real people". Due to lack of consciousness and illiteracy among the village people, this programme has negatively affected in the above mentioned states. There is the lower level of people's participation, only a few literate and dominant persons of the society participate for their vested interest. At the bureaucratic level, there is the lack of proper coordination and monitoring. This programme is still relevant and now, under the Panchayati Raj system it is being modified for the socio-economic reconstruction of the rural life.