The new land bill reinvigorated the hope of the investors. Under the bill, the most stifling clause of the “consent of the farmers’ was done away for six categories of public sector projects, including infrastructure. The new bill committed for double of the compensation to the farmers in these six categories of projects, in exchange of the consent of the farmers. Are the farmers aware of this? Or, do they know that the only dependency on agriculture will lead them into extended poverty, given the agriculture being deprived of modern agricultural practices because of dwarfing of the size of land holdings?
Logically, the new bill has no content, which can trigger animosity between the farmers and the BJP. It should not erupt any war between the farmers and the acquirers and investors. It was the politicians, who snowballed the exacerbation between the farmers and the investors and coined the feud to bash the real purpose of the bill.
About 70 percent of the population depends upon agriculture. Given the simmering growth in agriculture due to low rain-fed areas, decline in land holding and use of conventional method for farming, the chances of disguised unemployment is on the rising trend. Area of Land under irrigation remained static. Over the past two decades, only 40 percent of the land is under irrigation, resulting a larger part of the farmers dependent upon the vagaries of natural rainfall. Use of agriculture mechanism is at low ebb. Subsidy has become the main support for the farmers.
Land holdings were divided into smaller plots with each successive generation. Most of these plots are so small that the farmers are deprived of the benefits of scale of production, using modern agricultural machineries. According to the Agricultural Census, the number of marginal land holding (0.5 hectare to 1 hectare) small land holding (1.0 hectare to 2.0 hectares) spurred to two and half times in between 1970-71 to 200-11. The number of marginal and small farm holdings increased from 36,200 thousand and 10,681 thousand respectively in 1970-71 to 92,826 thousand and 24,779 thousand respectively in 2010-11. The fallout is that it made the farmers almost impossible to mechanize their fields and depend on subsidy to support their bare subsistence of living year after year. For most of the farmers, agriculture is not a viable economic activity. It is either a family tradition or employment under compulsion for want of alternative reward able job.
Had there been proportionate growth in industry and manufacturing with the growth in GDP, which is the backbone for global growth and similar on the footsteps of China, it would have acted a counter measure to the increased disguised unemployment in the rural areas. Due to large dependence on monsoon and lower utilization of modern agriculture machineries, under-employment in agriculture is snowballed among the marginal and small plot holders. In most cases, the farmers remain unemployed for over four to six months in a year. These resulted the new generation of farmers unsatisfied with paltry income and led them toil into the two meals a day.
Singur in West Bengal is a case in point. Had Tata not been thrown out with his new venture for Nano small car project, a big part of disguised unemployed persons in rural areas would have the opportunities for alternative jobs. These could fetch them for full year employment and better earnings. Tata project was envisaged to create about 10,000 new jobs for the successive generation of the farmers. In contrary, Gujarat turned a bonhomie for the investors at the behest of Tata’s shifting to the state.
Gujarat recorded a spurt in investment and manufacturing. Manufacturing in Gujarat accounted for about 27 percent of GDP against national average of 15%. Gujarat contributes about 16% to the country’s industrial output. The growth in Gujarat helped in abating unemployment. Gujarat has the lowest unemployment ratio in the country. It is 1 percent as compared to national average of 3.8 percent , according to Labour Bureau of India,
The country is on the rising path of education level. Currently, over 80 percent of the population is educated. The growth in education level among the farmers will dent the politicians’ deftly created misleading messages to the farmers. Days are around the corner when the farmers can distinguish between the mesmerizing catchphrases and the ground realities. (IPA Service)
India
LAND ACQUISITION BILL HAS POSITIVE FEATURES
Subrata Majumder - 2015-04-10 16:25
The acrimony over the new land bill, converted from ordinance under Modi government, shadowed the Make in India movement and make it a far distant dream. The politicians, who out cried against the bill as obnoxious and anti-farmer, could successfully de-throne the bill, given the BJP shackled by minority in Rajya Sabha. But, the irony is that the farmers, who hogged the limelight, are sunk into doubts over the ground realties of the benefits of the new bill. The first amended Land Act 2013, which was drafted for the benefit of farmers, has almost crippled their hope when not a single land was procured under the Act. Investors shied way from investment in any big green-field project after facing more hardship to acquire land directly from the farmers under the Act. The growth of infrastructure projects remained at abysmally low.