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M aln u trit ion :

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Ku ruk she l r a

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/

Vol. XXXI No; 13,

Hay 1.15 1983-

Re 1 /-

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The Changing Face of Holambi Kalan villageSHAKTI TRIVEDI

THE FRUiTS OF GREEN REVOLUTION Were reaped by big .dnuentfarmers all over the country, but the small and marginal

farmers who are having 70.5 million holdings of less than one hectare were really deprived of this opportunity. High

yielding seeds, fertilizers and technical know-how of. new cultivation had not reached them. They still adhered to

traditional farming with low yields, high input of iabour and,time.

Our rural development programmes had given a fillip to wakeup small and m"rginal farmers whose contribu-

tion could have helped India to become a strong food pow<r.!Under various schemes 'government helped them, surplus

lands Were allotted free, pattas and possessions were handed over, subsidies were poured in but all in vain in the absence

of know-how and technical skills. These small and marginal farmers could not procure the facilities from various

agencies as strongly and organisedly as rich farmers.

Here is a story of a small village of Holambi Kalan of Alipore block of Delhi. Earlier, it consisted of two small

villages known as Holambi Kalan and Holambi Khurd .. 80th villages traced the history of their origin from their

forefather, named Holambi of Jat community. His part of village, called Holambi Khurd, means a habitation for his

own family people and another, Holambi Kalan, for all communities from Tyagi brahmins to Scheduled castes and

refugees from Pakistan etc. Harijans of Holambi K"lan were traditional scavengers and landless labourers since deca-

des. Some of them got government jobs under reserved quota but the meagre salaries were not sufficient to bring up big

families.

Under the Twenty P"int Pcogramme of the Prime Minister, one acre land was allotted to each of such families

in Holambi Kalan in 1975. A chunk of waste land for cattle grazing was given away to them. But the

land of this village was uneven, saline, unirrigated and alkaline. Eleven families got one acre of land each and they

become land-owners. Farmers are known as marginal farmers, they are entitled for more support than small farmers of

two acre holdings. In spite of minor opposition from the caste people they got peaceful possession of their lands and

started cultivation-in a traditional way. N ,ighbouring farmers were their guides and only millets could be sown

and reaped with seven to ci~ht quintal yields throughout, the year's labour and much hard work.

Surj~ an~ Ri~alo in"their fields-talking Creelyabouttbe bcn.;fit~of n,:w techniques being implc~cnted in their fields.

Long. ~truggle on these lands almost proved frilitless. N ; irrigation facilities were there, lands were low-lying

and salinity was a great hazard to crop-raising. Ultimately a group of scientists from Pusa Institute of.Jndian Council

of Agricultural Research came to .their rescne. The problems were.noted, thrashed out and systematically solved.

Irrigation wate~ channels and pipes were laid down and water-stress technique from the upper side was used to bleach

out the. salt.inthe. depth "of '.soils. The upper strata' Decame fertile to grow the crops like wheat and rice. Gypsum

and other chemicals were not used to treat the saline lands. 'Thi; was the cheapest technique though it took a litt\' :

If'll~er time.to~reclaim the soils. . -'(C~~;d.on Cover III)

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.'

,p( te-' No. 16

May 1,1983.

Vaisakha 11, 1905

Editorial

(India's Journal of rural development)

H u r u k s h e l r a

4

9

12

14

1 7

21:

CONTENTS,

MALNUTRITION: AND.HOW TO FIGHT IT

Laxmi Devi A ehanta

IMPACT OF RURAL ELECTRIFICA.nON : A STUDY

D. P. Sharma and A. Venkateswara Rao

THE TARGET STIU:ET

Ani! C. Shah

EDUCATION : WHY 110 MOREGffiLS DROP OUT

G. Ravindran. Nair

I.R.D. PROGRAMME IN V.P. HILLS

C. S. Adhikari

, 'THEY.SHOW TIIE WAY ...

EDITOR

RATNA JUNE.fA

ASSTT. EDITOR

N. N. SHARMA.

SUR,EDITOR

~AP.AMJEET G. SING1;

COVER

M. M. PARMAR

, .

Enquirie!; regarding Subscriptions, Agencies, etc••

R~lsin~~ Manager. Publi~8tion~DivMon.

,:I:Patiala HouS('. New Delhi.110001

. Tel: 387983

Editorial Office: Krisbi Bhavan, Ncn' DeJhi41l0001

Telephones: 384&88& 382406

Editor's Re~idence: 615920

SINGLE COPY: Re. 1SUBSCRIPTION FOR ONE YF.AR.: Rs. 20

NUTRITJOUS FOOD is essential for the healthy growth

of children and is of paramount importance in

fostering the physical, mental, social and emotional

, • well-being of human beings. Malnutrition adverselyaffected physical and mental development of an indivi-

dual. The problem of malnutrition in India is acute

and widespread. It is most serious among growing

,children and pregnant and lactating mothers. The

_ ~uses of malnutrition in our country are not far to

-;seek. But the most important is the widespread

poverty of the masses, particularly in the rural areas

where the majority continue to live below the poverty

. "line and are hardly able to manap;e two meals a day.

Their struggle is struggle for sheer existence, the qualityof existence hardly matterS. '"

Another cause of malnutrition in our country is the'.

ignorance of what balanced and nutritious diet .is.

Traditional beliefs and superstitions, some of which are

definiiely h1rmful, have such a hold on our minds that

even those who could afford nutritious food also con-

tinue with conventional' food habits inherited from

parents. Not much thought is given to the llUtrition

aspect of foods taken. Even less care is taken to know

and utilize locally a"ailable foods.

'The drive to fight mainutrition ill this 'cou~try has to be

two-pronged: one, to produce trior" ~o tha~ we' j,a~e

enough. food for all our. people and second, to inform,. ..

and, educate the. people aboul. the importance' of a

,nutritionally balanced diet.

Till such time there is enough .food"for all seCtions of

, . ,

the society, we. must make', it sure .that atleast the

vrilm!rable sections of the society afeable io get' nutri-

tious food. Schem~ like ilie mid,d~y' ~~al ;ch~~~ for

~hiidren, thoup;h ~ot a permanent sojuti~n, do:help in

fighting the bane' of malnutrition .. A ~onc~rteddrive

has, to be made. by the Central, the Slate Governments

and oth.er agencies concerned to educate the people

about the value of nutritions food. It should be made

sure that the information imported to the people is such

as can be gainfully utilised by them in their day-to-daylife. . 1

.. ' ,f"'"

. JJi this issue we carry an informative study on the sul:>-

ject of malnutrition and how to fight it. We hope our,

readers will find it quite u~eful,

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, .

Malnutrition !

and how to f ight itLAXMI DEVI ACHANT A

Asstt. Prof., ,College of Home Science. A. P. Agrl. University. Hl'deraba

GOOD NUTRITION in childhood and throughout the ,

life span is of paramount importance in fostering

the physical, mental,. emotional and social growth of

Populations. Food habits are the outcome of the sum '

-total 'of the influences exeited by numerous activities,

thoughts, sentiments and beliefs; on the food prac-

tices .of.a group or' community. Food is thus intima- I

!ely woven into the life fabric of the society.

What people. eat depends on many factors, includ-

ing the availability of food. Food is not only some-

thing to eat and satisfy. hunger, but also the symbol

of social status, prosperity .or poverty and the focus

of emotional associations of love and hate, pleasure

and pain and satisfactions and disappointments. Man

is a. social being. He' is born into . a culture: His

early childhood 'experiences are conditioned by the

customs, traditions and. mores of his society. Con-

sequently biological hunger is transformed into. cul- "

tmally determined appetite and socially patterned

practice. Therefore, nutrition cannot be considered in

isolation.

Food habits are the 'outcome of the Sum total of varied influences-thoughts, sentiments, beliefs and

•.clivities in a.group or community. Food habits iIi-

dicate not only the practices in selecting, comhining,

cooking and eating food but also the psychological,

emotional and soCial values of food.

Seventy per cent of India's population live in the

rural areas. Their food practices are deeply rooted in

their oolrure, which controls the choice and use of

food. While income, food' availability,' homi, food

production and marketing facility influence the food

preferences of the individual,. customs and traditionsdictate the manner in which food should be procured,

stored, cooked,' served and eaten. EventuaUy dis-

tinctive food preferences and prejudices are formed.

The interaction of the effect produced by the social

factor and the individual factor is. what ultimately

results in malnutrition.

Jelliffe (1962), Simpson (1963) have traced the

. causes of malnutrition to poverty, ignorance, tradi-

tional beliefs, unhygienic and insanitary ccnditions,

insufficient utilization of local low cost and easily

available foods, wastage of foods and nutrients

through unsatisfactory and improper cooking m!,thods,

undesirable food habits and fads. According to theFood and Agriculture Organisation of the U.N., FAO

(1962) lack of knowledge of the simplest facts oC

nutrilion is at the root of the most of. the causes of .

malnutrition.:

Malnutrition adversely affects mental develop-

. ment, physical development, productivity and the span

of working years all of which significantly influ'ence the

economic potential of man. .

Malnutrition during the foetal period and in infancy

is associated with intellectual impairment. Althoughthe significance is not fully understood, severely mal-

nourished children have brains smaller than averagesize, and have been found to have 15-20 per ce';:,t}

fewer brain cells than well nourished children.

Malnutrition contributes to poor performance, to low

aspiration to higher educational levels and to subs-

tantial student drop-out rate often found among the

poorly fed sections of the population.

.Malnutrition : concept and the causes

T H E ?TETARY HABITS of different communities have

been handed down for generations. The following

KURUKSHETRA May 1, 1983

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complex components of the human factor derived

from generations appear to govern nutritional beha-havioUf. . : : n ; : " - ~ ~

I

• 1. Ueligion.-Religion and caste system play an im-

portant role in determining the .choice of foods. Peo-

ple belonging to certain castes like Brahmins have

prejudice against flesh foods and even eggs on account

of religious sanctions against such foods. Even among

he flesh foods, it is common knowledge that certain

ects do not take beef while certain other sects avoid

pork. Some persons avoid taking flesh foods on cer-ain holy days. ,

Children look forward to the feStival days with

great appetite. There are many ceremonies, feasts

and fasts with appropriate seasonal food preparations'

nd connotations. Food has religious significance.from

birth to funeral. In many cultures, religious beliefs

<)ictate methods of food preparation also.

. '2.' Prestige and slatus symboIS.-Foods are an ex-

ression of wealth, prestige and social status in all

cultures. There are foods and dishes for poor people

and rich people, demonstrating' wealth or poverty.

Prestige demands that one should have rare and costly

tems of food. Thus, the foods that are grown in

bundance and available free of t cost, such as drum-

tick leaves and foods which are, less expensive,such

s greens, papaya, plantain and amIa are regarded

with disdain.

Studies by National Institute' of Nutrition indicatehat the mid-day school lunch programme has not

Qeen received very kindly by some of the prestige-

onscious villagers. "Why should our children .eat

he yellow com or maize upma a/ld drink powder milk

when we prodnce the best rice ahd possess the highest

milk-yielding bufialoes in the village?"-is the constant

efrain one hears, for which there is no answer. .

3'; Food belieis.- The several 'food' beliefs and atti-

ndes towards foods entrenched, in our communities

ave an immense role to play.,

Some belief systems in food of the Tdugo-speakingeople of the Telengana region are :-

1. Foods of animal origin were regarded as. desir-

able for their 'strengthenmg' properties by most

of the. communities except Brahmins and Komaties. '

2. Eggs were considered as hairnful daring illness, .

dnring pregnancy, lactation', for infants and for

those sufiering from skin. diseases. Egg was

blamed for inducing boils and digestive distur- bances specially in summet.

3. Certain food combinations were considered in-

compatible and nnwholesome, while others were

considered suitable and wholesome, e.g., (i) Egg

and snakegourd were considered as poisonous;

URUKSHETRA May. 1, 1983

(ii) . consuming water after eatirig cuStard apple

wonld neutralise the poison in the 'fruit. .

4. Food 'preparations and menu planning were also

influenced by seasous because of certain beliefs

attached to the effects of these food items in

.different seasons. In' cold months which in-

clude both the winter and rainy seasons, such

foods as eggs, meat, fish, roti, redgram, bengal.

gram, papaya frUit etc. were considered as heat-

producing articles. During the cold seasons,

green leafy vegetables, brinjal, lime, butter milk

etc. were considered .undesirable because 'they

were considered to induce cold and diarrhoea.

5...Breastmilk was highly valued and considered

uuequalled by any other food with regard' to its.

nutritional value to infants. Breastmilk colo-

strum was usually not given and the infant was

put to the breast only on the third day. It was be-

lieved that colostrum induces diarrhoea and was

considered. as harmful, being equivalent to. pns

and blood. Before the child was put to !hi,

breast, a purgative usually castor oil was given

to get rid of all the dirt and toxic matter in the

stomach of'the child.

Since breast-feeding was a prolonged phenome-

~. non and considered adequate for children as

long as the milk was' available, no great im-

...., parlance was attached to any supplementary

n feeding.

6. Likewise the belief is held that with the onset

of another pregnancy the mother should not

breast-feed the previous infant ..

7. The foods that were taboo during pregnancy

were eggs, papaya,horsegram soup, jaggery and'

plantains.

It Is ironical that these beliefs and taboos are usuaf~

ly directed against the most vulnerable groups.

. 4. Social status and family cohesiveness.-F ood

distribution depends upon the status, role and inter-

personal relationship among the members of the

,. family rather than on their nutritional needs. The

seuior" and earning male members are served first

and are also given the best diet both in .quantity and

quality while the vulnerable segments namely the chil-

dren and women of child-bearing age get the leftovers;'

S. Influence of the head. of the family.- The

head of the family inflnences the family dietary pat-:

tern directly by making all the purchases hinrself' or

iI).directly by making his tastes known so that the'

",omen of the house are forced to cook foods of his

choice. .

In matters of child-feeding and the diets of preg-

nant and lactating women, mothers, mothers-in-law

and grand-mothers often have authority. The older

5'

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\Vomen's decisions as to the diet or the Ilregnant, or

lactating women and how she' should feed her baby

tells npon the nutrition of the vulnerable segments of

the population and sometimes the consequences may

even be fatal.

Eating habts also have a taste base. When ADT-27,

a new variety of rice was introduced in Madras, people

disliked it because of the sticky and glutinous nature,

especially when it was used as "cold rice".

6. Yalue systems.-It is observed from National

Institute of Nutrition studies that even among the SO-

called better-off families, it is the quantity and not

the quality of the food that increases with wealth. The

expenditure on food is similar in both the apparently better-off classes and the low socia-economic groups.

More value is placed on' gold, transisters, houses'

and watches than on food.

7. Impact' of urbauismion.- There is a great deal of

influence of urban practices over rural practices.

Rural mothers resort to milk powders like Amul to

supplement breastmilk when the need arises, which

they would never have done ten years ago. Unfor-

tunately, the milk given is much more diluted than

the ordinary buffalo's milk would have been, with dis-

astrous results. A good breakfast of staple diet, taken

early in the morning before going to work has been

replaced by tea and coffee, sometimes followed by

light snacks in the dietary of the young rural men.,

Even weaning infants are given tea or coffee instead of milk.

A few years back with the rural groups in our coun-

try ,several millets such as jowar and bajra were popu-

lar. ' When some of the rural populatlon"migrated to

towns in search of industrialemploymeil.i, they fOl'nd

that their urban colleagues consumed rice. Use of rice

was thought to confer prestige and hence the migrants

also started consuming rice.

, Thus what would have been adequate at least in

calories is now reduced to ai great extent leading to al<Dweringof their nutritional status.

. 8. Publicity and deliv~ry cbolces.-A well ol'banised

commercial publicity campaign can influence signi-

ficantly dietary choices.' For instance, vanaspati which

was practically unknown iI! our country two decades

back bas now come to occupy a significant place in the

dietary pattern of our people.

9. Other s(lcial and economic faclors.-In manyfamilies both the parents wonld be workmg full time,

from morning till evening. This necessitates leaving

an infant or a pre-school child in tire care of an older

child whose age may range anything from 6 years

upto eleven or twelve. The mother has to depend on

this older sibling who is herself a child, to feed and

look after the youngest in the family. The consequen-ces can be well imagined. .

Sometimes the woman goes for every delivery to

her mother's house. She does not always take the

older sibling, invariably a pre-school child with her.In her absence, the child may not be taken care of

and there are in9tances of such children who have

developed some comlications later on.

In general, a mother is concerned about her whole

family and not one single individual. For instance

she delays taking a child to the hospital becauseshe cannot afford to spend more time on one child.

, 1'0. Family size.- The greatest source of develop-

ment of a nation is its people. India has the second largest population in the world (nearly 684 million),

aIthougll it occupies only 2.4 per cent of the world's

land area. Children in large families are more affec-

ted by this problem than their counterparts in the

smaller family. The smaller the family, the better is

the nutritional st,.tus. Limitation of family size in-

creases the quantum of food available to each mem-

ber of the family. Limited income is better utilized

when the family size is small. The calorie and pro-

tein intake and nutritional status of 125 pre-school

children from families of varying size is given in the .

following table.

Table 1

Calorie intake, protein intake, nutritional status of children 1-5 years and family size

Fam ily size

Large (55 families, 5 or more children)

Medium (25 f!l1l1ilies, 4 to 3 children)

Small (45 fami.Iies, 2 children or ~ess)

Source: Ref. 10, p.68

6. ;..

Percentage of requirement . Nutritional status

Calories Protein Mean height Mean weight

in em. in kg.

66 8 8 8 3 . 0 1 0 .J,

.7 8 9 5 8 1 1 ' 9 1 1 ' 6

9 0 1 0 0 9 3 . 0 1 3 .J


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.Foods like eggs and meat are thought to produce

jaundice oedema and considered unsuitable for the

delicate stomach of the child. Citrus fruits, butter-

miIKana'curds were forbidden for fear of cold. and dallf~r {«ar of diarrhoea.. . . r .

) , - . \

The study' 'revealed that, children' from the families

of small size (below 5) had'a beller nutritional status

i~ terms of h~ight 'and weight than children from the

large-sized families ( above 5). 111e children ~from,,'

small-sized families had lesSer' evidence of clinical de-

. ficiency than' children from large families.

11. Education.-'--Ignoranc~ is perhaps the mOot im~.

portant single factor underlying malnutrition, parti-

cularly among infants and children of the better-of!.fanlilies. Some. of, the igno;ant nutrition practices. in

existence are: '

1. .Routine use of laxatives such as castor oil and

milk of magnesia;

2. Us~of gripe water and. tonics at heavy expendi-

ture which can easily pay for less expensive but

mOre nutritious foods; ,

3. starVing in prolonged' fevers like ,typhoid and .

other illnesSes;

4. Exclusion o t curdS llnd cert~in frnitli for fear of

bringing colds Imd coughs;

5. The belier that', nutritious foods such as dal,' egg,

meat; groundnut;' bengalgram . and green' leafy

vegetables will cause indigestion.

Food!! for the pregnant woman

THE NEED. FOR extra nutrients during. pregniincy is

. hardly realised in, many communities. On the. con-

trary, a pregnant wOll).an'sdiet is restricted both quali-

tatively and quantitatively thus precipitating nutrition

deficiencies like anad:ua. Foods of .animal origin

like milk which is so very essential is denied because

of the firm belief that !foetus may become too big caus-

i)ig diffi.cult'labour .. Eggs, jaggery and. papaya, which

are considered to be 'hot' foods are forbidden for fear

of abortion. BananaS' are thought to result in 'one

child' sterility and hen~ are not allowed.

For ,the. first few days after .delivery, the woman's

food consists of rire, ehillie powder and garlic. Brin~

jal and maize are, completely forbidden for fear of

women being affected by paralysis of the lower limbs.

Foods like goat's udder,. spinach, dry fish and a 10-

eally available tuber called 'Palagadda' (palak) are

considered to increase the breastmilk supply and eaten

by the lactating. women of 'I;,elengana rellion. ' .

The mothers are against early supplementation 'ad- .

vocated by nutritionists i'.e. af about 6 months, because

they feel such early supplementation results in. pot-

belly, thin hands and' legs' and indigestion. Most of '

the children, however". are' given loeally available

biscuits from the ;fourth 'or fifth month onwards, a

point to be remembered .when we advocate cheap in-fant weaning foods. . .

In Ingian culture; 'hot' . and 'cold' foods are an

Important concept. 'This concept of 'hot'or 'cold' is

not in tenns of 'the temperature,. but in the sense.,thAt some foods;' such as biinjal .and tamarind,

'produce 'heat' in the body and, therefore, deemed.'

suitable f<:>rcertain conditions, such as colds. Simi-

larly, 'cold' foods 'produce' "cooling effect". There-

fore, they. are "good'" for conditions that. requir~

cooling, such as' the summer heat.

, Foods have different priorities depending on whe-

ther it is served io infants, sick children, girls during'

puberty or pregnant women. Some food are also

ascribed 1lledicrnal values.

Roods like eggs',' chicken, fish, pucks, maize, roti,redgram, bengalgram and frnits like' papaya and

tlibers like colacasia are supposed to be heat pro-

'ducing' or 'hot' foods.' All the fruits and vegetables

-wifu a high moisture content like the members of the'

'citrus and melon families, gourd family, green leafy'

vegetables and certain other foods like 'ragi' porridge

with buttermilk and curds in it 'are considered io be

'cold' foods: Goat's meat and riee are eaten in all the

seasons because they ate .considered to be n(l~tral.

Socio~economic status and mortality

'IT IS AN ACCEPTED fact that the socio-eConomic and.

.' environmental. conditions of families have great

effect on the morbidity and mortality of children inearly age. .

Datta Banik et a l. (1969; IndianJ. of Med. Res:,

57,948) observed: that the morbidity and' mortality of

. children increases as one. goes' down from higher to

low socio-economic status of the families and also from

better to worse. environmental conditions at home. It. was also observed that the literacy level of the mother

.'had positive relationship with the morbidity and morta-

lity of children ..

In a longitudinal study at the WHO-aided _ project

in. the 23 villages around P?lghar, very interesting and

useful infonnation was gathered on the changes in the

. 'nutritional status of'the under-fives. All the, children

in the villages were covered an.d fqllowed up.

Delayed introductiop of solids. - . ' "

IT WAS OBSERVEDthat 50.6 per cent of the chilqren

who had wei!,:ht agove 80 per cent of the' reference

( .

, .

KURUKSHETRA May 1, 1983 . , '

.1

7

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, 12.5 per celit and 2Q.0 per cent respectively in urban

families.

An .inverse relationship was observed between the

period of spacing and prevalence of moderate or severe'

.malnutritioJ!. When spacing of 'children was one year

'Or less; there were 1.9 times as' many moderate and

. severely, malilOurished ,childrenas_. when the period

., between births was three to' four years in the urban as

well 'as rural groups.

There was a -significant rela'tionship between size of

_-family and nutritional status of young children. T h e percentage of children weighing 70 per cent 'or less .of

the referen'ce..weiglit \Vas.46.2 per cent in small' and

(j2.5 per cent in large faniilies iti rural community'and ,

At the Kasa project in tribal villages about 80 per-ccnt of the mothers were ,,;orking and 57.4 per cent of

.their children were looked. after by child-moth~r subs-

titutes who themselves were lJ1lder six years of age.

About 48.4 per cent of. children who were cared by

.mother- snbstitutes were below two years. of age. When

'.the children were .looked after b y ihe mothers or,

. elderly -mother substitutes; the prevalencc of severe'

malnutrition, was 8.5 per cent and 21.3 per ccnt res: .

pectively. .

in.' June, 1973, deteriorated in. their nutritional status

in May, 1974. On analy~is, it was found that a Il1ajo-

. . rity of 'those who lost-weight were,children iii the age-

group of 1-,-2. years, During the previous year;

they had 'been breast-fed and had normal nutrition.

Delayed ihtroduction of semi-solids and solids was it

.factor that caused nialnutrition. It was obseivedthat

ouly'1/3rd of the urban and 1.8 per cent of rural

children were given semi-solids during six to eightmonths of age while 10 percenl of urban and 50.9 per

cent or rural ninemonths-old wer<;not given any semi-

solids. Introductiol) of semi-solids is governed by beliefs

. and customs.


It was interesting to' note that the velocity of weight

gain in the children in villages around Palghar wasmaximum from January.to April; after thatit- gradually'

declined to negative side during summerfrom.April to

Jilly: - " .The negative velocity of weight .gain was more evi~.

dent in the girls than :boys ouly, during the su.mmer'pe.-

riod of a year, which might he due to social attitudes

tow.frds girls particularly during adverse situations of

shortages. resulting into neglect in their feeding. r:n

96.2 per cent of the families of malnutrition cases 11'.6

per cent of the family's income was spent on alcohol.-

-

Despite these improvements on effective increase in

the 'real' income. was not seen due to a three-fold in-

crease in the prices of comniodities. As a result, th"

diet' did not show much. improvement except for an

increase in the intake of milk (mostly because of ,theincreased availability) as reflected in the intake of cal<

, cium. The. nutritional status remained essentially un-

(Contd. on p. 16) .

•

I.!; V A S OBSERVEDthat 85.2 per cent of the families

of malnourished children in villages were nuclear and

their mothers were economically active and unable to

. attend personally ~otheir children. More the time spent'

for household work lesser is the child care given by

the moiher which results in malnutrition and increased'

. frequency of. diseases lile« diarrhoea. • '., .

About 96.2 per cent of.the fathers and 85.2 per cenf

of.the mothers of such.Cases were economically active,.

-The average jobless period per year wa~ two months

,for fathers arid four m~nths for mothers. Jobless spells

were also periods' of semi-starVation for entire families'

and especially ,young children since for the most' part,

the habit of saving did not exist or 'there was nothingto save. ., ( .

THIMMAYAMMAET AL, in a study on nutritional

'changes in. India over' a deCade (1961-1974)

observed that' (i) there. is a shift in the occupational- status which assured the 'community regruar monthly

income, (ii) an ,improvement in .the type of housing,

electricity, transport and communication faciliti<;s, (iii),

amarked improvement ill the educational status, (iv)o

an increase. in' the production of food items such as

. cereals and milk.

Diluted supplementary feed~•

~.

FEEDs'WHENPREPAREDout of milk ~~~hased from ..

a.vendor or buffalo's and cow's milk 'are 'exces-

sively diluted. Many a time excessive' dilution conti-'.

nues for a prolongcd' period. In a stuay on feeding practices in 9 months old' infant. in Bombay and

villages, it was observed: that 40,8 per cent of ihe

urban. and 13 per cent of the rural infants' 'received

diluted milk: In 42.5 'per cent of the' urban 'situations

dilulion was ac~v';sedby, doctors. The grandmothers in-

. fiuenced dilution in l7pcr cent of urban and 21.7

per cent of the rural infants. 40 per cent of ,the urban

and 60.5 per' cent.of .the rural mothers thought of dilu-

ting the. milk on their own. .

All the milk powder tins mcntion that one' measure-

ful of powder 'should be added 10 one ounce of Wilter.In practice, the parents do not have an ounce measure

at home and above 80 per cent of the feeding. bottles

used in the. community were 'rnedicine' or 'tonic' bot-

tles as tllose empty bottles were available aLhomes. Un- .

hygienic conditions and improper sterilization of bot- -

. tics contribute to gaslro-enteritis. The mother or grand,

mother attributes it to.concentrated milk forniula which

small i'Mant is not 'tolerating'. Tiley further dilute the

milk which results in marasillus. Hence, a .vici~ cycle

continues.

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" '

I

. ,

, .

,

,Impact of rural electrification:, a study

, , '

, .D,P.SHARMAandA. VENKATESWARARAO

SOO!Uislmadevaray,; University. Ananlapur (A.P.)

. ,

ELECTlUc POWER is indispensable for any sector o f . ,economy. As economieS progrcss, the demand for

electric power will go up and it necessitates slructural

changes in power sector. Renewed emphasis on, power

sector in Indiim plannirig has brought"structtira1 break-'

through in generation and utilisation of power. Rural

electrification programme has emerged a s an important

area in the field of electricity, economies. Of late, -it is

ecognised in India that, the rural electrification has

been an important and' most powerful instrument' for

ransforming the traditional ecouomy into a progres-ive economy. . ., ."-

The'inunediate impact, of electrification on agricul- '

hire maybe noticed mUle increased area under-irri-

ation. An assured irtigation for cultivation relives the

nxiety of. the farmers who otherwise have to depend'

n dependable rains. Diversification of the cropping'

attern and intensification of cultivation naturally

ollow irrigation. The yield Per acre increases. Higher

ield offers opportunities for .more employment and "

etter woikingconditions: Thus, electricity can trans-

orin backwj1rd agricultural economy into a prosperousne. . •

Objectives of the ,study

T'H E 'PRESENT STUDY has been, focuSs'ed to analyse '

the impact of. rural electrification on' agriculture, in

nantapur District of Andhra Pradesh. The main and pecific objoc,tives are as follows.

1 To assess the extent of 'additional area brought

- under irrigation due to rural 'electrification.

2 To 'study the impact of 'F'1 electrification on

agricultural productivity and production... ~ . . _ .

, 3 To estimate the amount of net returns obtaiii.-,'

,ed from agriculture through rural electrificac, tion.

URUKsHETRA May. 1, 1983

4 To work out the, inlpact of rural electrification

on agricultural income of the selected farmers.

Methodology

T'HE STUDY :WAS' CONDUCTED in '5 cluster villages of

Singananiala Block in Anantapur district of Andhra

Pradesh. Farmers numbering 65 out of 58p were

selected on the basis of stratified proportionate random

sampling.. The stratification of farmers was d.9ne ac-cording to the ,size of holdings. 'Dms 3 different cate-

gories of fat'Il}ers hav,e been selected as

'1. Small farmers having below 5 , acres of land

holdings.

2. Mediuni farmers--between 5 and 10 acres, and

3. Large farmers--above'10 acres of land. ',

The data have, been collected from the farm,ers

through a pretested questionnaire and it pertains to the

, years before electrification and afte~ electrification. The

study covers a period of 4 years frolll 1975 to 1979.

THE'LAND-HOLDING of 'the 65 cultivators in the

" 'selected villages was 519.85 acres of which 372-70"

acres were meant fot dry farming and 147.15 were irri-

gated by wells. ,Thus less than on<>-thirdof tbe total

land-holding was under 'irrigation in the year 1974.

The total land-boldiJig remains unchanged. But after

'tbe supply O f electricity to these villages many wells,

which were unused because of low-water level in sum-

mer have now been put to use. ,It-was repcrted that

'about 35.00 per cent of'the total dry land was unculti-

vated fallow, where nothing was groWn: After electri-

fication ,this laud has been brought under cultivation as

may be seen in Table 1. Now more than 50. per cent

of the land rec"eives irrigation and tbus used for culti-

9

•

,

!

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vation .. The farmers of Anunavaripeta village are the

greatest beneficiaries of the rural dectrification pro-

gramme .as about 93 per cent of its totiU land is now

under irrigation; The next village is Janthulur which

has now about 86 per cent of its land under irrigation.

gation. t

..

Electrification, has thus' brought about a qualitative'

change in the land hoklings in the villages. It is a

source of real earnings for .the land-holders. Average

land holding in the selected villages ranges between 3.08

'acres and 1!l.35 acres. But prior to electrification the

actual average wet land holding in use ranged between a

1.53 and 2.86 acres. ,The average wet Jand~holding"

actually in use now ranges between 3.43 acres and 5.22 n

acres as may be seeu from the table. ' ,

As a result of extension of irrigation facilities the

- gro;s cropped area in all the villages has also increased.

, The co-efficieut of correlation between irrigation aud ,

woss 'cropped area is very high. This indicates the' fact

that increase in gross irrigated area' after electrification jis an account of Mal electrification.: This fact i~ :>Iso

corroborated by the increase in the number of wells

and the increase iu the number of electric pumpsets in

'. L'le,village. 1t is evident from the table that the per-

centage of wet land to the 'total land was 28.30. Before

electrification the' same' has increased to 53.08 per-

cent iifter electrification in the 'selected villages. The

increase inlVea under irrigation was ranging from

17.90 per cent in Ammavaripeta to 33 per, cent, in

Neelampalli. .

Table 1

Area under Irrig~~i~D in Sample Land~holdjDg ~eroreand after electrification( in ' acr es) .

S. Village under study No. of iie lo re Electrification After E~ectrification In-

No. culli-

Crease

varors Dry Wet Total Per- Dry W e t Total Percen- in area

.' land land land centage land land land tage under.

" (6 to 5) (10 to 9) irriga.

lion

(9--,-5)

1 2 3 4 ,S 6 7'. 8 "

9 11 11 12

1 . Amma'Varipeta 10 20,65 17.40 38'OS 45-72 2.75 35.30 38.05 n'7} 17.90

2. Bukkarayasamudram 15 108"60 46'25 154'85 29,86 ' 80'10 74,75 J54 .85 48.27 28 '50

3. Jarithulur 11 27 '90 20'50 48,40 ~2'35 7.00 41 ',40 48 '40 85'53 20.90

4. NeehimpaUi.

" 14' 146.90 40'06 '''186 ,90 21 '40 113'90' 73.00 186'90 .39 ,05 33'00

5. Reddipa1li "15 68'65 ,23'00 91,64 . 25,09 40.15 51 :50 91.65 56.19 28 ,50

Total '6S 372'70 147.15 519'85 28.30 243 .90 ' 275 '95 519'85 53'08 128.80

, Agricultural productivity

' A ' , S A RESULT OF THE ' developments described-' in.

preceding' an.illssis, the productivity in respect of

different cropS has also gone up. Th6 productivity" per

a~re in respect of paddy has gone np by 33.33 per

cent as may be seen from the Table 2 given below., .

crops per acre has gone ~p by 5.55 and 10,00 per

'cent respectively.. - ( ,

As a result of electrification the production. of. aU

major cross has gone up. The total food production in

..the sample -villages has increased by .70.22 per cent I

over '1974. The change in ",roduction of major crops

for the sample villages is shown in the following Table.

B ef or e

Ele ct ri fica -

tion

, Table 3

Distr,!bntion of' PrOdnctlon of Major Crops (Sample)

(In Qaintals)

. s, , No:

Agricultural

Crop

P.rodnl'tlvity (S~ple)

'(In Quintals p er acre)

After ' Pe rc en ta ge Eleclrifica~ o f Change

lion

S.

No.

" c .ro p -- . Before After .. Percentage .I io l

, Electrifica~ .. Electrifica~ of'ehange

don tion

The prodnctivity.of groundnut crop per acre

after electrificationchas ,increased by 20.00 per, &ntas

shown in table. Though .the area ,in 'which Ragi and

Korra are cultivated'in SJ!1all,theproductivty of these

I. Paddy

2. Groundnut

3. Ragi .

4. Korta

11.25

2,5

4,50

1'50

15.00

3,00

4.75'

.1.65

:; '33 '33

+20: 00

' -1 '5 .55

+10'00

I. Paddy 2,291.03 4,702 .50 ',+ 105.25

2; Gtoundnut 1,042.86 1,100 .70 . +5 '55

3. 'Ragi 144 '00 149 .14 +3 ,57

4. Kotra 36,30' 29.70 '-18.l8.

Total 3,514.19 5,982 .04 +70.22

.., ih~ '~bl" :sho~ that the prodnctiori, of padd~ before

electrification was 2291.03 qnintals. After' electrifica-,

10 KURUKSHETRA May 1, 1983 '

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The major cropped prodllction is paddy, which ex-

plains how irrigation has helped in raising moce than

one crop during the year.

tion, the prodnction of paddy has registered an increase

of 105.25 per cent. The groundnnt production in the

Ilre~electrification period was 1,042:86 quintals, 'wh~,e

a. it sJoowedan increase of 5.55. per cent after electrifi-

cation. The Ragi 'production has registered an increase

f 3.57 per cent over the ,pre-electrificatioa period.

Korra production has decrea,lid by 18.18 per cent after electrification.

TH E D ATA collected from the 65 cultivators in the

, pIe villages show that the food crops they grow

are paddy, groundnut, Ragi and Korra.With an in-

crease in produdlivity the net return per acre has also

increased. The net return for average cultivators from' '

d crops was Rs. 1,125.00 before electrification. The

net return has increased to :B.s.1,900.00 registering an

ncrease of 68.88 per cent. The details in 'respect of

he net retum 'per acre of different crops are given

below.

" , . "Increase in net return

Table 4

/Iiet Return from Agriadlure (Sample)

(Rupees/acre)

S. Crop Befor.e After Percentage .-N o. E/ec tri fica- Elec/rifica~ of Increase

l ion tion

1. Paddy ' . 325'00 600.06 +84'612. Groundnut 350.00 550.00 +57'143. Ragi

250'00 400.00 +60'004. Korra 200'00 350'00 +75'00

TOTAL 1,125'00 1,900' 00 +68'88

The table shows that there is an increase in net re-

turn from ,the prindpal crops in the sample study. The

net'return from an acre of Paddy has registered an in-

crease of 84.61 per cent and it is 57.14 per cent in

the case of 1J'0undilUt. Similarly the net return from

rag! crop has increased by 60.00 per cent and Korra

by 75.00 per cent.

Impact on agricultural income

To KNOW the total income from agriculture, data was

collected from the selected 65 farmers. The details

about the average annual mcome from cultivation be-

fore and after' electrification are given below.,

l,

, Average Annual income from -Agr!cuIture (Sample)

S. Category of [«rmers

No.

1. Smail Farmers (0~5: acreS) 1

2 . M e d iu m F a rm e rs ( 5" " :: "" 1 0acre~)

3. Large Farmers '(more than 10 acres)

Total

(In Rupees)

Total no. of . Before Elec/ri- After Eiectri~ Percentage

,farmers facation fication of increase

33 3;201 .18 9,734 .02 +204'08

15 5,215 .95 , 14,042'68 +164'16

17 9,135 .10 32,078 .79 +251 '15

,65 17;652.23 55,855 .49 +216 .42

The average incOme in the case of large farmers hasegistered the highest Percentage of increase (251.15

er cent) of which shows that the advantage of rurallectrification and consequent moderillsation of agri-

ulture has been reaped by this class of farmers to the

maximum extent. This also points out (l) the need for close attention and' (2) the need for development of

all and medium farmers. What is surprising is the

owest increase i n the income of the medium cultiva-

ors. Most of the medium farmers belong to lhe'middle

rata in the caste system and' probably were not given

l the loan .facilities for the purchase of implements or

rtilizers. Added to this for every' agricultural opera-

on they have to depend on the' hired labour which

creased the cost of cultivation.

,,

URUKSHETRA May 1; 1983

The study reveals that the area under cultivation has

increased due to electrification in the selected villages.

It also revealed that the percentage of wet land to totalland has increased from 28.30 to 53.08' acres due to

electrification. The '~gricultural productiViiy has also

improved particularly in paddy and groundnut. The impact of eledlrification could also be observed from thestudy on-,the net 'returns from agriculture. The net

return from one' acre of paddy increased !)y 84.6 per

cent while in case of groundnut it increased by 57.1

per cent.' Thus the electrification has played a great role

in transfonning the traditional agrictilture U;to a profit-

able o.ccupation benefiting all sections .of the farmers inthe seleced villages. ' . ' .

"")." .

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~

IT is t1}esame village thiIt 1 had visited dozens of

times earlier as a Project Officer, where 1 had also

stayed for 7 days at a stretch to know more intimately

the Ufe style of the people and to work for its improve-

ment. Somehow it had not apparently changed much

except more children and some pucca houses were seen. .

1 had selected Sendarada for my visit not only because

1 had some. special relationship with that village, may

be couple of decades before, but. also because it was

not connected by a good road. It was out of .the way

and therefore 1 thought it would give me better idea

of how the anti-poverty programmes were working inthe dislrict. . 1 had asked the meeting to be organised

in the Harijan locality. '''-

The Extension Officer initiated the discussion by ex-

planing what was the Integrated Rural Development

Programme about and how people could avaiP of its

. assistance for improving their lot. Of the 60 Harijan

families, applications for assislance for 19 havt"iilready

been sponsored, 6' have acquired milch animals. Then

followed this dialogues.

1 asked, "Have' Harijans some land? We can

give substantial assistance to Harijans who arE being

given land by Government."

There was a :chorus in reply-"18 harijan} have

, been given. land by the Government."

1 suggested "Why not help them to acquire s01"e

implements or bullocks or wells for irrigatian 7 '" •

Extension Officer clarified' "Bank would not give

assistance to these Harijans beca'f'e land is '11ottrans-

. ferred in their name in the revenue record". On in-

quiry 1 learnt that it, was before two years and a half

that the Assistant Collector passed the ordtg alloting

Goyernment land to 18 Harijans. They have.also been

given posseision by the Circle Inspector' but some

12

The target streetANILe. SHAH

Secr~., Rural Development, Govt. of Gojarat

more formalities wer" required be/ore their nam scould be entered in the record of righls,

1 asked in amazement "What is happenil1g? What

had you done about this?"

The Sarpanch of the Gram Panchayat said the

problem has not 'been brought to my notice. 1 was

happy to notice a note of apology when the 8arpanch

said this. The Block Development Officer said the

same thing. The problem was never reported to' him.

The Extension Officer was confused and he was, trying

to confuse others. The simple fact was that the

Harijans were ~oo ignorant and too timid to force theissue. It required a meeting in the Harijans locality_

for about 2' hours to bring out to' surface this and

other issues, with a . promise from the BDOthat he

.would see to it that. proper entries are made in the

land records.

Much remains to be done not only for those who

have land but many others so that all the 60 families

are assisted under IRD. It was agreed that' those

amongst them who were Uterate and wiUing to help

others 'would be kept informed by the BDO and the

DRDA about various scl/emes af!d how they canavail. of them. Hira Giga offered. to' become Hono-

rary worker who would become the channel of com-

munication i>etween.the administration and the Har

jans. It is hoped that when the Harijans takeadvan-

. tage of a scheme others who are also entitled would

take their own initiative.

HANDALA is 10' kms from the main road, 3 kms are

asphalted, the rest 7 kms tappered down from

. mettalled road to dirt road I'is one approaches the

village.. I n the dim moon light, we reached the Hari

jan locality where the entire Harijan populatilm wawaiting for us. The village leaders were also with u

as also the Block and District Officers for rural deve-

KURUKSHETRA May 1, 19~

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Coming to brass-Tacks

that there was netJd for much better communicationbetween the poor and ..the administration. Luckilly .there were 3 literate Harijans who were willing 'to work as honorary workers-Amra Nathu, Ramji ShakraParvat Bava ..It is now upto the Block and Districiadministration to use this channel to ensure that maxi-mum benefit reaches the poorest in the village whoappear to. be keen and hanest.

.•; The reply was without complaint in it, "1 haveheard about the visit of a veterinary doctor but 1amout for my work! when he comes. 1have not beenable to meet him".

. .Asked "Then what. happens to your repayment of .... ... .the .loa n ?" . . . .

"[ ha:ve been paying 'my instalments regularly. I.~have to work little harder, that is all".

Here also; a leader offered to work as voluntary

worker as a link between the' poor commz,nity and

the administration. Meanwhile possibility of ~ssisting

. a,'good 9000 number of Waghari families was con-

sidered. '

IT WAS THE FIRST direct contact ill several decades' ot..these groups of people in the three villages

with the adminiStrators of the, Block level, I.t alolle District, and State level. They were obviously happyabout the promising presence in their midst of senior officers not knowing that. such visits raise hopes whichmay not be easily fulfilled. However, it preved one point. The target groups confine themselves in their 'own -locality unperceived, unheilrd (Robert Cham-bers) by the routine "development tourisf'. If onewants to help them one has to contact. them there and establish lli relationship. Olle has to go to the Target

Strut ..towards the lowlying other end of the village.. T m s ' is the first step befere one could enter their homes..,..,and hearts.

THIS IS NOT an is6la'ted experience of information. anq. assistance reaching in a tardy manner 10 therural poor who was brought home to me and the district officers who accompanied me when we visited village Badapura in Anand taluka, well known for its dairyindustry that has aBsisted large number of marginal farmers and agricultural labourers to take to dairy in-dustry for improving their lot. Leaving others and thevehicles behind the DDO, tlie BDO and a seniOr officer of Annual Dairy and myself tracked down .thelast 2 kms., seeing over way with the occasional light

.that was thrown by the matchsticks of our village guide.

This was also a village, like the previous two, that wascovered in the cluster approach, which meant all the families wer/! supposed to have been contacted offeringassistance under IRD. We nosed our way to Harijanslocality and the locality of anoth'er very' backward

'-community-Wagharis. In the hour and a half that we.- . spelit .with them, the Amul Officer who was rightly. proud of his mobile veterinary services which could be

.' contacted on .wireless, found that the buffalo bought by c!,ly orie family under IRD, was giving milk onlyonce in a day. He asked "why don't you show it to theveterinary doctor who must be regularly visiting your village ~

Controlling my true feelings 1said "but that would

not help. When the panchayat has not supplied water

for last' three years, should you not even refund the

tax that has been collected and then give clean no due

certificates ?"

"But without water?"

The Panchayat 'Secretary conceded: "1am willing to forego tax for the. current year and give the certificate

of no dues" .

The Panchayat Se~retary was equally solid in his'.knowledge and convictions.' He firmly said, "1 would not make any commitment for the previous two years.

It would require a formal resolution of the Gram Pan- ,chayat:; The District Officer, the BDO and otherswere stunned: The BDO then canie out and said hewould .look into the rules. and see to it that the' prob-lem was sorted out. Incidentally, during the discussionit came out -(hat for two years when water could not be supplied to anyone through the house taps nospecial water tax was collected from anYCHIein thevillage; but when .the 'house taps gave water to othersbut' not to Harijans who lived in the low lying locality,

,tax had to be collected from everyone. With the pro-mise of B DO that he would sort out the problem, therewas again an atmosphere of enthusiasm when number of proposat.1 were put forth. which were viable

according 'to all whO were presellt but not considered at the time of initial: survey-poultry house .timning,groundnut shell opener, camel carts, etc; It was obvious

"Water tax must be paid"- /" said, "of course " that:

should have no relevance to Bank loan". Before I could complete; several Harijans stood up ilnd said "w~ have paid all ,along hut how long 'can we paywhen we are noDgetting water? "The hot discussionthat followed brought' out that the water supply came from a tank that was located at the highest point inthe village and the. water reached the Harijan locality

after 11 in the morning and that too in a trickle.'" Water never came out of the connections that weregiven in the 6 individual households. All Harijans

'had nevertheless paid their general water tax and the6 families having house connections had paid the

special water tax for 2 years,-without getting water.They did not pay only in the currelll year. Now listento. further dialogue. ,'Is it fair?" Iasked in suppressed anguish. Breaking t,"e silence the Panchayat ,Secretarysaid, "It is according to the rules. When connection is provided tax has tOlbe paid". . ,

Iopment programme. Again mikh aniriUllsis the ';'ost

popular programme. 20 families have came forward

asking for a buffalo. Their applications are not being

forwarded to the' banks as banks would not entertain

them. Why? They are defaulter<.

"How cOuld Harijans who are all landless could bedefaulters? Whom have they defaulted?" Iasked in

amazement.

The Panchaya{ Secretary, a stocky .olid village

o/lidal replied quietly "They are defaulters with the

Gram' Panchayat. They ha:ve not paid the water

tax".

KURUKSHETRA May'l, 1983 13

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.,

oj

Education : why do more

girls drop out ? 'G, RAVINDRAN NAIR

•

THE GIRL IS NOT SENT to' school simply because

her mother and grandmother have never had

any schooling at all. Why should I send my daughter

tg, School, a farmer in Haryana asks disarmingly; She

doesn't have to ltecome' a clerk! In the peculiar Social,

cultural and economic' milieu obtaining' in certain

regions where the parents themselves are not educat-

ed, talking about the advantages of girls' education ", '

would be as difficult as drilling the hard, rocky' crust

for water which we mayor may iuit obtain. All die

same efforts have to go on to turn the clock back.

Jobs and material, gains are very important, in the

mundane merry-go-round that is the 'modem life. Bat

one has to convince the rural masses' that a, rcason-

, abiy educated' girl would inake a better housekeeper,

,better mother and a better wife than an unedug,ted

One. 'The educated mother will have a better idea of

child care nutritious food for 'the entire family, clean-

line;s of ;he, house' and environs, a better 'awareness

in the realms of personal hygiene 'and', ,the health' of

. the members of the family. lbe educated know what

it means to have a smaIl family or a bigJamily.,' How •

do we fill this awareness gap in educating people as,

to the need ,for educating millions of girls who justdo not jom any schools or drop out in between? '

Education is both an end in' itself and a' mean~ 'to

secure certain mundane objectives. It .develops the

personality and rationality of individuals and betters

their socio-economicstatus. It serves as a major

instrument of social change and the crusade for inF

,proving women's status all, over the world has under-,

scored education as the most vital catalyst for chang-

ing the socio-economic status of women. The .very

fact that higIi literacy among the women in ' 'KeraIa

has contributed to an enviable status that the, Stateenjoys in the realms of health, .family planning c1;Jan-

liness, environmental sanitation and the reduction of

14

lbe infant mortality rate (Kerala has the lowest infantmortality rale in the country) points, to the social.

Spinoff 'of the education of ,,:omen.~

Slow progress in girls' education

THE CONSTITUTIONAL' DIRECTIVE to provide free

, :and compnlsory education for all, children npto

the age of 14,has remained unfulfilled till now. It is

widely felt that this glaring gap in 'performance is

'mainly due to the snail's progress in the education of

girls.. Whatever. progress we have achieved has beenuneven from State to State, as between the urban 'and.rural areas and as between 'boys and girls. For

example, all' urban areas have facilities for elementary

and middle school education.' In rural areas 80 per

cent of the habitations have a primary school within

1.5 km and over 60 percent of the hab'itations have

a middle school within 3 km. Out of a total of

575,926 villages in the country, it is estimated that

about 48,566 are not served by IIny school at, all.

Education is free for all, children 'upto the secondary

stage' in 12 States and Union ,Territories. In eight

other States and Union Territories, it is free for allchildren upto the middle sChool,tage; Another eight

States or Union Territories offer free education for all

children' 'upto tbe middle school' stage, and upto afew. more years, ouly 'for girls.' .,

, .

Co';'pared to the' dism~l position in 'regard to wo-men's education before Independence, the position

now is far better, but all the same we have miles to

go before' we can take real pride in our achievements.

The enrolment level of girls is' much lower than that

fO,i-' boys. . While 'the enrolment of boys of the 6-11

,years 'age group is ,97.5 percent, it is only 63.5 per-cent for the girls of that group; ,again'in ,the 11-14

years age group, the enrolment of' boys is 48.7 per

KURUKSHETRt\ May'I. 1983

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- -- --. ~~

- ,~.

, .

, Reasons for dropping out, .

t;

small bundles of firewood and ar~ taught weavin&at a .

tender age. In"many instances, they are initiated into

the traditional occupa~iolls or industries in early life.

The parents', aSk ,poiJ!tblank what would the school

. do' to relieye .them of their drudgery or help earn the

extra inconie if the girls are sent a~y to the class-

rooms? . E1sewhere"in bulk of iIie match' factories '

in' Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu, the majority ot the child

, labourers are girls who. ought to be in schools. Butwhere proverty rules the roost, education becomes a . ','

luxury which the tFaditional1y poor Parents' can ill-

l!fford. "

•~l ,. l i! . •• -~' _

, M ' , ANYOF T~E GIRLSare found to be droppinjl out

. of schooling once when all kinds of work other

. than schooling .become too much for them. An ex- •

ception has, however, been founa' in eertafu parts of

Kerala where some girls' have combined workwlth

schooling: In certain parts of Neyyatinkara'Taluk iriTrivandrum District household production of coir

is still being practised. A study made here found

that although ,the proportion of school dropout was

as high as 48 per cent; the girlS'combined s.chool~th

participation. in coir-making. They worked in the

,'early hours of the _day and contributed' two hours

after returning from, school. Where' the children. had

to go to production centres, those attending school

generally wor~ed during holidays llUd Only those

, living near the centre worked for some time' after

school hours. A' household mainly using family -

labour needed iis childrl'n to help in the coir-making

operations;, others nee,ded the children's wages" for maintenance. . . '. _ .

, 1Jl this." dem~nstr~tes' that one cannot easily dis-'entangle the reality of child labOur and.the WnnIng

scourges of urbau and rutal 'poverty from the syIid-

rome. of stagnation and wastage in ,education. Mariy

parentS feel that, girls' educatiOn is futile since they

are not going to take jobs later; .the girls' are siniply

to be got maITied and helped in setting up homes.\Yhy.waste time in schooling, they'ask. ."

, Where the. school is situated pretty far' away from.

home, the parents are reluctaut to send their wards' tothe. school for reasons of security.. Many schools in

the villages and towns aie still ,far away from 'home-

s!;eads. To provide motivation ' for girl's education,experts have often' suggested that incentives in the

.fo~ of UJJ!forms,mid-day-meals; sn~ks, scholar.,ships,..,,:!c.C()uldbe ,offered. .No doubt, the mid-day

m~alscheme has almost wrought a miracle in the

percentage 'in . the retention of girls 011the rolls as

the experiments in, 'som,e of the. States have sh:>WIl.

The'..:r'fatio~alCo,?,,:tence on ,Women and Develop- .

me~t held m Delhi m~May 1979 suggested that edu-

cation should be activity-oriented and suited to !the

As one delves deeper into. the imbroglio, certain

specific reasons come to. the sUrface: Many of" the

girls in the poor homes in both the -villages and the

slums in the. cities have to look after younger 'child-

ren when both the paren!S are away. at work. We

have just made a begimiing in the provision of creche

or daycare facilities; but millions. of children. of

agricultural women labour,. industrial labour in 'both '

the otganisedand unorganised sector, are outside' the

pale of the meagre daYCare facilities". scattered indiffeien~ parts of the, country. .

cent, but diat of girls is only 24.5 per cent.. Th~ ,gap

widens further at. the 'high school level (14-.17 years)

with enrolment of boys' at 28.8. percent and that . of

girls at'iust 12.3 per'!",nt. ,The bleak picture of"girls'

enrolment is only matched by the alarming rate of

drop-outs, .out of every 100 children who enter Class I,

less than half coinpletli Class V and only. 24 complete

Class Vlll. The dropout rate: for. girls is much

higher. Of every 100 girls who join Class I,', onlyabout '30 reach Class' V. :Thus, 70 'percent of. girls.

who get enrolled leav~ sch90t wiihout attaining func-tional l!teracy. . .' . .

1b~high incidence' 9f girl dropdutsshows that. a

considerable proportion of the expenditure in school

education is wasted on account 'of imbalance in the'

ratio of Cost and' benefit.. The roots of the phenO'-

men~ have to be traCed to: the. peculiar social,

economic and '.cnltural' structures obtaining in differ-

ent parts of the country; and for this reason, the

dropout rate is found to be higher in the rural areasthan 'in the urban areas.:' .... .' •

Lack of motivation. ~I

A'}'I0THERMAJOR,REAsONadduced for the high

dropout -rate is that. education does prove n Oattraction for the majority of the rural poor and that .

the entire curriculum seems irrelevant in the ' context

of.the day-tO'-dayneeds"of the family and the commu- .

nity.. 'In addition, ~.ey feel that there is no motiva-

tion in education, because the time spent in the school .

could be utilised. in .earning extra income for thefamily. Apart from baby, sitting, many' of the girls

help the mother in the different. household' chores.

Girls begin helping in the house-hold at a very early

age. In the rural landscape we can still see' th.y

.girls with'small pots on their heads. followillg rpeir'

mothers or elder sisters to the well, and what at first

is little but'play; develops soon into a~seful contri-

bution tothevolume.of w~rk which has to be done b tevery' household. They accompany the parents to

the field ~o help them in; such activities lIS.' sowing,

transplantmg, weeding and harvesting digging roots .

collecting fruits and scaring off birds; '.they aecom:p~ythe mother to th,e ll].arket With small loads on

herr !:leads o~ backs; they; fetch drinking' water and

KURUKSHETRA May 1, ~983

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•

is engaged in agriculture, followed by other Services

(6.07%), trade and co=erce' (0.51 %), Cottage'

'Industries (0.41 %) and other non-agricUltural activi-ties.1 .

AgncUlture, which engages most of the popUlation

is subsistence-oriented because 'of small terraced hol-

dings, poor irrigation facilities and lack of other in-

fra"structures. In fact,_ the block falls -in raibi;d /

.area. Irrigation facilities, except in a few villages

adjoining rivers .and canals, are negligible. Of' the

net ,area sown of 1O,977.hectares, the net area 'irrigated

. is only 63 percent.' . .

The IRD Programme was started in SALT block

during October 1980, but it' actually carne into effect

since 1st Jan., 1981. The progress 'made during the

calender year 1981 has been taken into account for

the purpose of the present analysis. The numbe~ of

'families which received some assistance under the pro-

gramme during this period was 153 (1.33 per cent of the'total number of families 11,5'00 as per 1971 cen-

sus). Of these, 29 were schedUled caste families (there'

are no S{f families' in the block~ The programme in

. this block cover~a limited number of economic 'acti-

. vitie~ a; w~Uld be evident from the 'following Tabie "

.Table J : Activity-wise break-op of beneficiaries under

IRD Programme. '. .~

. (Num~er of benefi~iaries)

SI. N,!me of Actirity Non-SIC SIC Total

No. ->

1. Agricultural. Acti-vities 4 I 5 -

2. Milch Animals 79 21 100

.): Sheep~rearjng '17 I 18

4. Black-Smithy"

I i

5. "Basket.Making 2\~. .

2

6 .~Sewing'Machine 24 3 . 27

Tvtal' 124 29 153

(81.05%) (18.95%) (100%)

Note: :Figures in Brackets denote percentag~s,

THE .ORIGINALTARGETwas to cover 600 faniilies

under this programme during 1981;.but only 153

, families could be covered. Thus, the achievementS in

.•terms' of coverage or families are far .from the desired

level. FIowever, the percentage. of schedUled caste bene-'

ficiaries' to total number of beneficiaries is about 19

percc3.t which is fairly good in-view of the ehvisaged

target of. 20 percent:.

Loall' Vtilisatioll.- The total amouht of loan'

(medium-term) advanced by the banks against ab'ove

mentioned programmes' was Rs. 3,.14 .lakh.~ during. . . ','c.

1. DistriCt Statistical.~k"Atmor~. 19-80.

2.lbld.

18

.. ,

'. 1981. Bank-wise break-up of the total'loan advaJic-

ed is given below..'

Table 2 : PerceIii~gcshare and Absolute amou~tof loan

. advanced by the banks

(til Rs.)

qategory Cqopera/ive State Bank Total ( Ban k ' 0 / India

, Scheduled Caste 44,500.00 7,292.00 51,792.00(28.25) (4.65) (16 ..48)

General 1,13,000.00 1,49,509.00 2,~2.509.00

(71. 75) (95.35) (83.52)

Total '1,57,500.00. 1,56,801.00 3,14,301.00

(100.00) . (100.00) (100.00)

N o te : FigUres in, brackets denote percentages.

.According to the provisions made in the pro-

gra=e, of the total loan advanced, 20 per cent was

to go to the schedUled castes. However, in 'actn

practice we lind that Cooperative Bank .advanced

28.25 per cent ot'the, total loan, the State Bank or

IIidia conld provide only 4.65 per cent of ,its t~ta\ to

this category. , .

THB MOREimportant question that arises is whether

the loan advanced for different activities given ,in

Table ~ has been utilised in a way' to provide the bene.

ficiarieswith adaitional employment, which, woUld

generate additional assured income? On the basis 0 1 '

. some intimate. and friendly discussions with the bene-

ficiaries; it seems that the implementing authorities are .

more concerned :with the number, of 'families brought

under. the' programme rather, than the basic objeCtive

of providing employment . and, in tum, assured in-

come to the beneficiaries. Five beneficiaries who got .

fertiliser under the programme were neither trained in

:its use, nor the soil testing of their fields was done... The beneficiaries' used the fertiliser without baving

knowledge of proper .dosages. Similarly, 100 benefi-

c ciaries whq were supplied 'with sb,.e-buffaloes could

hardly gain ,much, firstly because of the lack of

marketing and other package' of assistance, and

secondly, because of the missing commercial attitudeon the part of thy beneficiaries. IIi fact, 'subsidy waS

• the main point of attraction for beneficiaries who pur-.

chased she~biIffaloes under thiS programme. .~

. The 24 beneficiaries .belonging to general category

who got sewing-machines under the programme are

mainly unmarried educated girls..' These girls have

got training, but t!tey .are not professionals, and con-

fine their, work upto' their family level. The girlsilo

not, come up as professional tailors because of' some

social barriers like Parda system. In actual practice

.. what we find is that the sewingCmachines wnich have been. provided under this programme ar~ being utilis-

edfor the purposes of dowfy at the tinie of marriages

of these girls.

KURUKSIlETRA May 1, 1983

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Sheep-rearing heneficiaries who are producing

about 500 gIllS. wool per sheep per year (which is

quite low as compared to the State average of 754

gms.) reported that they are facing various problems

viz., marketing of wool at reasonable rates, lack of

fodder and high mortality rate of sheep due to the lack of veterinary facilities.

The Scheduled CaBtebeneficiaries who :lIe engaged in tailoring, black-smithy and basket-making have fairly.

better performance mainly because they have been

traditionally engaged in such activities and possess re-

quired skills and inclination. The IRD programme

has enabled them to expand their net-work, which has

finally helped them in enhancing their remunerations.

Procedural Hurdle.-In order t'o seek a particular

facility under the programme, the applicant has to ful-

fil a number of formalities starting from fillingof appli-

cation form which should be endorsed with a land re-

cord certificate and nO-dues certificate of financingagencies (Cooperative Societies, Co-operative/Com-

mercial Banks) for forwarding the application to the

BDs. Further, the BDOs send the application to

their subordinate staff for scrutiny and finally the

application is sent to the bank officials, Bank officials

also assess the economic condition of the applicant

and ouly after being convinced of the applicant's

ability to repay the loan; one is selected under the

programme. During this proces~ the applicant .has

to visit the block and bank offices many urnes. Fmal

selection of an applicant for a particular scheme isnot the end of his miseries. He (applicant) has to

wait for ,; long time to become recipient of the penefit

because the purchasing Committee, comprising BDO,

Bank officials and Veterinary Surgeon etc. takes qnite

a long time in making pur~hases of various articles.

Problems of implementation

SAL T BLOCK is linked with a single motor road and

only 20 villages situated within a radius of 20 Kms

of the road have been taken up under the program-

mc. Remote villages have been ignored due to their unaccessibility. Therefore, lack of link roads leaves

a larger population untouched under this programme.

The banks .and block officers are under-staffed.

Absence of supervisory field staff not ouly delays the

selection of beneficiaries, but also hampers the work

of proper utilisation and realisation of the sanctioned

oan. The block officials generally attribute the slow

progress of the programme to the lack of coordinati~n

between the block and bank officials. They complamhat the bank officialsare. the final authorities to sanc-

ion the loans and it is absolutely their discretion togrant loans to the applicants. 'on the other hand, bank

officials usually plead that since realisation of loan

KURUKSHETRA May I, 198~

is exclusivelytheit work, they have to carry out proper

scrutiny of the applications.

The veterinary surgeon. who is supposed to be

closely associated with the programme, finds it very

difficult to devote sufficient time to the implementation

of this programme due to various reasons. Firstly,

Veterinary hospital is situated about 15 Kms far from

f the block-headquarter and has no telephonic facility.Secondly, the surgeons belonging to urban areas find it

very inconvenient to stay there due to the peculiar

geo-climatic conditions. Very often, they spend most

of their time in the district headquarter and the capi-

lal of the Slate in manoeuvring to get them transferred.

, Most of the beneficiaries in SALT block have been

provided with buffaloes. The programme aims at to

purchase milch-animals of improved breed, in order

to generate adequate income to the beneficiaries by

selling milk or milk-products. Generally, she-~uf-

faloes under this programme have been purchased from out side the district (Ramnagar Tarai). It has

caused a number of problems to the beneficiaries, e.g.,

high transportation charges, costs incurred on the en-

tertainment of the purchasing committee, malpractices

adopted by We middlemen in the purchasing of buff-

aloes and finally inability of milch buffaloes purchased

to adjust to the changed climate and environment of

the new place, which results in poor milk yield.

A limited number of activities have been taken up

under We programme. Various other economic acti-

vities like handloom, horticulture, carpentry, goid-

smithy, hydro-flour nnits, agro based industries, poultry

furming and bee-keeping inspite of the availability of

potentials have not been encouraged so far in the vil-

lages. As a matter of fact, these activities involve

an element of risk. Besides, before launching these

activities, one should be trained in a particular acti-

vity with proper marketing facilities to assure a regu-

1ar flow of income. Therefore, to get a new opening

into these activities the implementing authorities should

induce and encourage the people of enterprising nature.

Some people could be picked-up for demonstration. If .these specific activities fetch some good returns, they

could be extended to other aspirants and thus the pace

of achievement could be accelerated both in terms of quality and quantity.

How far the activities hitherto taken-up provide the

beneficiaries with additional 'employment which would.

generate additional aSsured income? In SALT block

the programme does not seem to have fulfilled its

basic objective of generating additional assured income

to the participants. On both fronts/quantitative a s

well as qualitative-the results are not encouraging.Poor achi!,vementsin terms of number of beneficiarieg

could be attributed to the peculiar social and geogra-

phical conditions of hill region. But, qualitative re-

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suIts of the selected activities are also disappointing

and subject to improvement.

Mere assigning a scheme to the beneficiary such as

supply of buffalo or sewing machine does not neces-

sarily generate additional income. .After the buffalo

is supplied many follow-up actions like imparting

training to the beneficiary for proper management of

the buffalo, arrangement for supply of fodder, veteri-

nary and marketing facilities should be taken care of..

Thus monitoring 'and evaluation play vital role in the

implementation of IRD programme.

Conclusion'

R URAL DEVELOPMENT is internationally diffused

phenomenon, essentially involving better use of

participatory and local level plal)ning. Implementation

of various schemes under this programme is undoubted-ly' beneficial particularly to the weaker section of the

society. However 'our previous experiences suggest

some necessary modifications both at the planning

and implementation stages. A olear-cut identification

of families to whom the benefits of this programme are,

expected to percolate is invariably needed and for this

purpose house-hold survey at the village level will be

sine-qua-non. Furthermore, requirements of identified

families' are to be worked out with the help of house-

hold surveys. .How far their requirements can be

. "

" \

,~,

fullilleci by way or implementation or various. schemes

is io be further examined in greater detail and if need-

ed more new schemes may also be introduced tosu;t

their aspirations and attitudes.

The degree of success of this programme largely"

depends upon the active participation of both official

and non-official functionaries available at the local I

level. Higher the degree of this participation, higher would be the efficiency of delivery system and stronger

the receiving mechanism. Thist

in turn, will ensure

maximum possible benefits to the neeay persons of

the society•

.Percolation of benefits to the remote pockets is

difficult in the absence of proper road and transport

network. Benefits of the programme generally con-

centrate in the villages or places situated near the

roads. Therefore, integration of production planning

with accessibility aspect would be an important factor-.,for success of he programme. '

The' problems and difficulties encountered by the

participants in receiving loan from the banks are

centred around cumbersome procedure and delayed

action on applications at different levels. Streamlining

the procedure and toning up of administrative machi-

nery with horizontal synchronisation 'will result in

overall improvement of organisationai machinery pave

way for better implementation of programmes of deve-lopment.

.." ~ . , 1 •

A(" L'

1" "

,'NATioNAL <RURAL ~MPLOYMENT PROGRAMME"

.P'ROVIDES~v.iJOB OPPORTUNITIES. -. , . . . .

'1 ..

. . ,

IN .AND' NEAR YOUR VILLAGE

.l

, ." . 1 . ~ ,

2.0 KURI'JRSHETRAMay 1,. 1983

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TIley show tl'te way ...This feature is biised on success stories viz. achievements gained in vQrlous

spheres of rural development by farmers, institutions, experimenters and indivi-

duiils. There is hardly an argument over the fact that dedication and zeal to

put in hard work can achieve anything. A nd one achievement inspires and showsthe way to others!

We hope our esteemed readers will send us their own experiences in the

field so thot other can benefit by them to usher in a better life for our rural

people. (Editor)

"Sanchayika" comes to Sikkim

EARLIER A number of bawkers used to come out-

side tbe gates of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Gangtok to

sell their unhygenic and dirty stuff to the school child-

ren during lunch hour. They don't come now. It is not

because of tbe action of any autbority but because thestudents do not buy their stuff any more. Instead,

tbey save their pocket moncy with "Sanchayika".

"Sanchayika"-a unique savings scheme for stu-

dents has recently been introduced for the first time

in Sikkim in the Kendriya Vidyalaya, Gangtok. Run

by the National Savings Organisation, tbe scheme is

aimed at inculcating and encouraging the habit of sav-

ings among the children. They save out of the petty

amounts given to them by 'their parents to spend,

"Sanchayika" is.a savings bank' of scbool children

run by the cbildren. The Bank Manager, the counter clerks and the accountant of tbe bank are childreo

Small children of Kendriya

Vidyalaya, Gangtok deposit

their savings under 'Sanchayika'.

URUKSHETRA May 1, 1983

•

themselves, though in tbe initial stage tbe teachets

do belp them in learning tbese functions. In addition

to encouraging tbe students to start tbe practice of

regular savings, it also teaches them tbe normal praC-

tice of banking and acquaints them with instrumentsof money like cbeques.,.

. Each student is a proud' owner of a pass book.

Every time a student deposits his savings, an entry is

made in the pass book. 'The students can see their

money grow, In case of need, the students may als.o

withdraw small amounts from their accounts.

Wben the students leave their school, they will go

not. only with a tidy sum in hand but also with the,

good babit of thrift formed over the years whicb will

stand them in good stead throughout their future lives.

T. K. KAUSmSH AlD, Press lnformation

Bureau, Gangtok

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A village finds an indentity

DHAKWALA, A SMALL VILLAGE 12 Ian from Kamal,

situated right in the lap of river Yamuna has,

turned the comer. All these years tbe village bad been

at the mercy of tbe river. The authority over the village

bad been changing hands between Haryana aud Uttar

Pradesh every time the river changed its course, which

happened quite frequently. Almost every year, 'the"

village would be flooded causing loss of property, life

and crops and the villagers had to be evacuated to safe

places.

No development agency or financial institution dated'

to invest in the village. The land being the uneven,

river bed yielded very little, until a nationalised bank _

adopted the village for intensive financing in 1978-79.'

With great difficulty, a field worker of tbe bank Shri

R. P. :Singh, could motivate some villagers to accept

credit. Villagers were afi:aid the flood would wash'

away eveiythhig andthey would'ulthirate!y be penaJjs-~ ,.fo/ r~cov~')'. ,~oreover m,any of them were 'i(rea~;yjp,tbegrii> of 'traditional money-lenders.' ,'TIle

"'J:>",,l(finally ma~aged, to,'advance ,:Rs; 34,000 as' loan

io ,2 5 .f,umers ..• Fertilizers an:d,seeds ,were made ,,'Vail-

,ablUIi 'the~,viU~geits~lj',: {The, resultailt good' crop~

, }' b,elped iniilitIosq OO'Jl~i:ceritfilcQvery.. f -. '. e . ' ; '~~.. ;, i'}!: ',; > J ~ _ '•.;..l~:,:,.,i~;.):":''':l' I!; .,:. .': : ; '< \ . " - . . . '~

•",:"iff!"~;lJi~[0l'wa[~.ithqillage' and the barik/ii'otb

',' -,:~~~.e.t~<;i~1~~9l<¥})~!'.~:',"Tl1erbat.'k has' advanced' ','a

total of about Rs. 30 lilkh wbicb the villagers bave

beeri repaying regularly. At present the total ,?utsand-

ing advances are about Rs, 11 lakhs.

Today the village bas 31 tractors, 70 tbreshers and

more tban a 100 tubewells. The land which used to

be infested with weeds has been levelled. Gujjar,'

Ror and ,Rajput are the three main communities of ttbe 253 families in the village. Out of these 170 are

farming families arid 83 non-farming. "

The bank bas a scbeme for every faniily. At pre-

sent tbe total number of accounts to whicb tbe bank

bas advanced money is 152. Of these, 72 are for crop

loans, 20 for trilctors, four for farm implements, 14

for Dairying aild Piggery eacb, 16 for jhotta buggis,

six for rural transport (tongas), three for ' kiryana

shops and five for rural' bousing. The weaker sec-

tions are given advances at 4 per cent interest. The

bank has been able t., 'mop up Rs. 2.75 lakh as de-

posits from the village: -

. . . .A young under~duilte 'farmer" Rajpal, who could

not complete his .studies because of financial difficul.

ties told a 'party of' visitii:tg newsmen that he took a

tractor loan of Rs:, 3 0 , qOO , 'levelled his land 'and' raised

good crops With the 'help of crop loans. He has not

only repayed his' loan' rompletcily 'but has deposited

Rs. 80,000 with the: bank.

~PatriOt; New Delhi

.:; .

.,.:.~.. -

"

, . . , r .--;'

", • • • .~

.'

SUBSCRIBERS PLEASE NOTE.".t.~.." -

, Slibscriber,s of 'Kurukshetra" ,~nd other journals brought out by Publications Division CQJl buy all, the bookseub~ishesby Publications Division, Patiala HOuse

New Delhi-llOOOl at a special discount of 20 percent as long as their subscrip~tion lasts. ' ,

.. ' . .~ Dear Subscribers, if you" are not. getting your copies of 'Kurukshetra'

regularly or have missed'''ecd'ving any,of the issues, please write t() the under-signedfor looking into the niatter~imrnediately {-

The Busines's Manager,

PUblications 'Division,

P:itiala House, New.Delhi-llOOOl.

:

'KURUKSHETRA May 1, 1983

•

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--(Conld.Jrom Cover ll) ."".~••"-~~""" '

The new life started with the advent of scientific help and other inputs from the side of Delhi Admin istration.

Development departments, cooperatives, agriculture and other departments came together to help farmers profitably.

A community tubewell was put nearby to irrigate the lands all around. Half of the price of this tubewell installation

was met by the Gov\,rnment.. Good quality seeds of wheat, paddy, berseem etc. were given to these farmers for sowing .•••_

Uneven lands were levelled in such a way to consume the irrig,lion water efficiently and profusely ..._. . "',:'..... - _, - 'f-.. ~-

As some members of these families Were employed in the city, their wives and children worked in the fi,lds

nder the guidance of Pusa Institlite scientists. On week,nds andholid,ys the mlle m,mber> also worked and supervised

he new type of farmino. Continuous efforts since 1975 onwards yielded satisfactory results.'- .

The success story of SurjoSUR10, mother of six children and wife: of Shri Krishan unveiled her face and started talking freely. She said, "I

have sown Pusa-I50 Basmati variety of rice and reaped 50 maunds harvest per acre". She also reaped' berseem

folder crop for her buffalo which gives 8 to 10 litres milk every.day which is consum,d by the members of her family.

Surjo has become an experienced farmer now. She claims'l'b:atshe can do much mJre with the help of new ideas and

new techniques. She was bold, self-reliant and confident in'tearning and implementing new methods in her fields. She

said that two families in their village have television s e t ' s and they enjoy the. evening programm~s. Risalo

Irrigation channel is laid in the fieldS o f pdO! fa~;.rs~veraised hopes of bumper crop ;!Ii',: •

:; ,"-,

and Surjo talked about the programmes of Krishi Darshan at length and suggested that the cont"ets of the programmes

should be made more simple, easy and digestable. For poor and srriallfarmers, television has jmuch more significance

provided agricultural [programmes are made more dramatic, interesting a"ndhumorous .• . . . • ,'.

f ~~.

Food is the basic requirement of everybody.' Complete food gives a feeling satisfaction and contentment. They

work h,rder to preserve more food so that they can enjoy better life and forget the days of darkness, misery, ignorance

and forced labour. Knowledge has provided a sense of'confidence .•.honour and selfrespect and had changed thOir life

siyle. Th,y are not only own,rs of land but grow good quallty'seeds, eat basmati rice and "near fancy clothes. They

ive in electrified pucc" houses of their own and are proud or their pOSlession, and sale of ~their produce in the "larela

mandi market. " ,_ "".- J. ' •

They enjoyed e"ting pulao and biryani of basmati wbichthey could never' think of a decade ago. The contentment

of rich and nutritive diet is reflected on their smiling fa';"s. SUrJ6 remeinbered the days when dry jowar and bajra

chapaties were their daily intake and sometimes they had'to remain without food .. • .. . . . . . ; ; . .

More Income

BESIDES, their income was .raised t?'Rs. 300 per mont~ per f~n'ly ex,luiiag all farm!ng expenditure earned by

women only. M);lthly mcom, ora mIle m,mber'" s);lutlm" low,r thaa the farm Income. It has been proved and accepted that high-yielding variety cultivation is ,not so highly productive and beneficial to big holdings as was t9~

, ' ' , ,(conld. overler-

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ment at Civil Lines Post Office, Delhi).

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small and, marginal farmers. This Holambi Kalan experiment had shown a path to other small and marginal farmers

in the marby villagES to follGW the t«hniqu,s ar.d~'5jy1<s of the cultivation adGpt,d here, It has created

a sense of awareneSS and interest in learning neW techniques, ldeas and technical know.JiGw provided by the, scientists

to bring productivity and prosperity.

,

Adoption of n, w agricultural !<cheology by lhe participating farmers of Holambi Kalan is being used frequently for ,,'

educating other farmers of the weaker community. As, a:~')!.lt, 90 per cent of the small farmers have taken to new

technology for increasing their production. Evm rich farme1t are attrac!<d by this innovation and are eager to follow

the same t,chniqu,s. This ',nccuraging ph,r.cmmon is clearly a diffusion of information and is' creating a wider

impact on the'""famlers. I. .'

t

By now the farmers have dtv<icp,d the habit oftaktrrtwcdits from the banks for their p(~duction requirements

without any hesitation. Gone are the days wb,n thtse fat'TlTerswere treated as illiterate ilDdnot cared for.' Banks are,

now humble and helpful to them and patronising th,m free)1.;ntly. This is positively a favourable attitude in favour of

,small and marginal farmers. These farmers are havi;g savings accounts in the banks.

Press Party assessiDg t he p ro gn ss o f on, c;:cn:[ficlds of wh( at of J:;mal1and marginal farmers in Holambi Kalan~,,~

This experiment can be taktn anywhere in the country "n the same lines. While we are aiming at the average

lifting efforts in every district and block of tht. country such experiments with small and marginal farmers arc very

important and: ex,mplary. It has bew not,d tha(.lhe y'e1ds of Hol"mbi farmers were quite high than the average yields

of the common and caste farmers of Delhi villagei'ilY this case. Even rich farmers having all the technical know.howsometime "ouldfnot produce such'high yields. Th's is neither a surprise nor,a 'miracle but is the result of continuous

and intelligent efforts. of scientists 'and' planners of ~R.I. They have shown a silver path to these ignorant and illiterate

, farmers to... b€\:.cnie.;s~\f-sufficiwtwhich is not feasibk,without their ,help." , ' '

;; Again, tiiis~eriment shows that ~ven illiter~te and conservative fami womas are more prone to learn new

techniques than literate farmers. They take more interest and work jIard and understand the skills very well. Marshy,

saline and low laying lands themselves are telling tne'truth of this successful experiment. Surjo and Risalo are everywhere

,In the country who can change the face of poverty and scarcity to plenty and prosperity. Illiteracy a ile lands

ar'e certainly the problems of the villages but these can be overcome by proper guidance, regular su y/ ality

inputs, and missionary and zeal to make such ex~2r1inents successful.. . , ~tl!, .:]

~even years' of con,tinuous guidance and dfclts of these Pusa scientists. an;, o~er. They , . ~at~jj.~ti!li in

makmg these farmers VIable, self-rehant and knowledgeable The caravan of SClenttstsISnow movFg',tolfn~he~af)!Jlna

village in. Gurgaon district where they wi.nProd~:~other example of lifting ~he ec~ii?mi~ly w'e.~<l/!,.i ~f th~al

commuDlty. .The~e formers at Holambl ',low wdl be looked after by Deihl AdmlDlstratl9n for~~n-"c and

supply of varIOUSmputs as and when re'!cUlred. ,'... ,,~ '.

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