Vol.

XXXI
No.2'

t,

"'-",

:1 ACCIENTONNlUJ-rfi ~1r~ON
.,

.:

,~

The new
20-point

program,me :
Health
Point No.

14.--Substantially

augment universal primarY

bealth care facilities,

and control of

leprosy, T .B. and blindness

The country has made notable progress

;n the healtlt ~

sector after the beginning of planning.

A number of

serious epidemics
human

life,

eliminated.
reduced.

which used to take a heavy

like plague

Periodical heahh check-up of the children is a must

if we are to achieve Inc goal of 'Health for Ali'.

toll of

and sma.'.po.i:, have been

The incidence oj malaria has been grea(v

The incidence of leprosy alld tuberculosis is,

however, still high. There is a good deal of preventable

blindness. in the country due to nutritional

deficiencies,

disease or cataract. Morbidity rates on account of

~:~,nutritional -deficiencies,

waterborne diseases and en-

vironmental causes are a/so still high.

Adequat~ health C:lre facilities are being

extended even to the remOle rural arens.

More than 174 rural hospitals and

1600 primary health centres will be
added during the Sixth PklO period.

I . 'Vol. XXXI

.,' ,.',

(India's Journal of Rural Development)

ORLD FOOD DAY'observed annually on October

W
.
] 6 is thc anniversary of the f{lundation of the

.CONTENTS

13
15
21
~25

APPROACH : ARE WE
ON THE ,RIGHI' TRACK
Dr.' Narin Tongsiri and Vi;lOd 'K. {furia.
. lImv TO AVOID LOSS OF NUTRIENTS
.
IN COOKING
Dr. Kanta Sharma and Anita Sharm'd
GRASSROOTCOORDINATION
IN RURAL
DEVELOPME1'\'T .
N. Markandan
NEW 20.POINTPROGRAMME:
ROLE
BANKS CAN PLAY
R. C. Bha/liagar and T. R. Singh
ROLE OF RuRAL W01\1EN IN
AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT
LaJalli Devi Achanta.
AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY IN
..
.
RURAL'DEVELOPMENT
S. E.' Kathandaranian
TlIF,Y
SlIO\V
THE WAY ...
,.
BOOK REVIEW
Rashmi Khol'Ona'

26

, EDITOR
RATNA JUNEJA

' .. ASSTT.' EDITOR

N.. N.

SHARMA

SUB.EDITOR
,:;,

.PARAMJ.ET

,9.,

SINGH

BUSINESS MANAGER
. $, L

ASSTT. DIRECTOR

JAISWAI,

(PRODUCTION)
1<. R.

KRISHNAN

COVER
IrvAN ADALJA
Rnquiries'regarding
Subscriptions, Agencies, etc.,
.
BmdneD MRDsger, Publications Division.
Patlala House, New Delhi~110001
Tel:
FAitorjal Office:

Krishi B~vall,.New Delhi-liOOO!

Telephones:
384888 & 382496
Editor's Residence: 615920

SUBsCRIPTION

....__ .

'.

,,:"

387983

SINGLE COPY: 'Re. I

FOR ONE YEAR: Rs. 20

Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United

Nations. It scrves as a reminder {If the basic human
right to food without which the right to live is 'itself
meaningless.
In a world.where millions are hungry, foad must come
first. World Food.Day is a reminder to the Govern-'
ments and peoples of the world Ihat hunger exists not'
only in poor and developing countries but also .in
'pockets in developed countries. It is a challenge to
the entire humanity. We must strive to ensure for all
people-irrespective
of their caste, religion and country-basic human right to an adequatc. supply of food
of good' nutritional quality and at prices that are fair
both 10 them"and to those who work' the soil,

MALNUTRITION

10

\'" .. _~~.-t

.}Hurukshelro'
7'

Editorial

No; 2
October 16, 1982
As'ina 24, 1904

"

It is hcartening t.o:note from a recent. F.A.a. report.

on the world food .situation that the world's 'supply
of dietary is 10 per cetl! higher than is strictlY'necessaryto meet the nutritional requirements of world's
population. '. In other words, we have enough food in
the world today t.o feed' its entire population, but it is
a stark fact that millio!)s of human beings in a number
of' countries g? without food daily. It is also a sad
fact that within countries having enough foodgrains,
some peopk have to remain ~hungry because they'cannot afford to buy it. All countries must strive to
produce more foodgrains. But this by itself is not
enough. We must evolve an international food secu.
rity'system by which the surplus food reaches Ihe
neCdy millions in deficient countries. Within the
countries also the Governments must ensure that the
food reachcs thc hungry: We must get rid' 'of" the
phenomenon of hunger and stm'vation amidst plenty.
Efforts in India for increasing' the food grains pto'duction: and ensuring eqtriinblc disiri~utio]1 withir!' the
~t~tes and the people have. becn. wvarding .. Thd
[oadgrains' production. in the. country ha.increased Z:}
times sin~c Independence and -\vehave a vast network
of' Z'lakh 77 'thousand fair price shops thtoughwhich
tIle rii.iiiimum" requi'iements of a "hiige' percentage . of
the'
pepp]~ ~re~et.:'
H9\V~ye~,. eff~rls' t~ susrn'i']1'ih~
.. ',
'.
. ... .~
..
gr.o~rtJ;1:in. Jdod pn;:>duction 'al1d 10.,irp.prov~ .the .11?tf,i-;
lionaL levels, of our. people must continue vigorously
if the objective of World Food Day is to be achieved .
'

'}"

.'

Malnutrition approach!

are we on the right track?,'

DR NARINTONGSIRI
and VINOD K. HURIA
Central ,Food Technological Researcb Institute. Mys:or~

the so-called 'developing countries'

Mare familiar with
international organisations like
OST OF',US IN

UNICEF, FAa, WHO, the World Bank and many

more who are directly or indirectly committed to'
soive the food problem of the world at large. These
organisations have provided assistance to start a number of projects designed to improve' the nutritional
status of the populations living in the developing countries. Most of these programmes, like the pre-school
fecding programme, the special nutrition programme
and the school mid-day meal programme are centred
around the idea of free feeding. What has been the
outcome of these efforts? Each country has its own
tale to tell.

Food a,id programmes for the developing countrie,

have been a controversial subjects. For instance, some
consider the food aid programmes of the USA 'as little.
more' than a dumping ground for their surpluses"
arguing that to dIspose off the excessive produce is
the most economic alternative since storage costs are
so high. To sustain a higli level of production, American farmers have to be ensured snpport prices whenever there is a glut in the market. Government expenditure ,in processing and storing surplus' stock is
extremely 'high. Hence to say that food aid programmes are merely a compliment from the developed to
the developing countries is fa distort the fucts. From
the view point of the recipient country also, the dis- '
incentive effect cf food aid, on local agricultural production cannot be completely ruled out. Aid that
leaves the recipient country totally dependent on the
donor country is not condncive to development.
I. Schuh, G. E. (1979)'. 'Food Aid: Does it help the
poorf?' Agenda, June 1lJ.,12,
4

Alternative policies to solve, the malnntrition problem

need to be evolved.
Many developing countries have rcalise4 this and
are now going, in for feeding programmes using indi-,

genously produced foodstuffs, But unfortunately these

programmes have adopted tbe tniditional approach of
distributing free food to ,the vulnerablc population,
which most experts from developed countriesthougbt
to be best. Such approaches have served mOre for: ,
t"heexperts to self-justif,ytheir doing something about'
the problcm rather than really' helping the poor who
sllffef'from malnutrition', In India too, till recently,
the approa'ch of nutritiollists and food scientists to
solve the malnutrition problem has been through
feeding programmes. With resources largely drawn'
from scientific institutes such 'a's the Central Food
Tecimologica\.Research Institute (CFTRI) at Mysore,
the National "1nstitute of Nutritioll (NIN) at Hydera,
bad and various Home Science colleges all over the
country, a variety of formulas for the preparation of
balanced foods for feedillg programmes bave ,been
evolved of which at leas't 27 have been~pubJished': The
composition and cost of each formula has been evrilllc
ated., Keeping in mind that only locally-available
foodstuffs have been used to make these foods, one
might jump to the conclusion that this is the be~t.
method of approach as neither the material nor the
technology needs to be imported. However, as we
shall see, ~"en such an approach may be misleading.
"

2. Schuftan, Claudio (1976). 'Nutrition PIannirig-\Vhat

relevance to hunger'? Food & Nutrition-notes and
r,eviews. Vol. 35, NO.3,
105.
3. Natarajan, C'-P., Shankar, J. V., Srihari, B. R. Nara.
,inga Rao, M, S:.and Raghavendra Rao, M. R. (1979),
'Food Requirements and Supply to Special Nutrition,
.:Programme In Inaia', lndinn Food Packer, Vot. 32:
o

No. 5,31'-52.

KURUKSHE'TRA Octoher 16, 1982

Time to question our approach

Malnutrition due to deficiency

ALNUTRITION
RESULTING
FROMdiet~ry ,deficiency
in calories, proteins, vitamins A and B and essential fatty acids is a major culprit implicated in the high
. 'rates of mortality and morbidity of Indian pre-school
children4, Dr. Gopalan and his colleagues have stated
that 19 pcrcent of the. population in 1971 comprised
pre-school children" and if the same ratio is used the
number in .1980 was 123,5 milliOn in India alone. A
survey carried out by the Nationa.l Nutrition Monitoring Bureau has also indicated that .75 p"rcent of preschoolchildren suffer p-om underweight; and 23 percent suffer from severe malnutrition'. Thus 92.6.
million pre-school children suffer from UIiderweighf
and 2f million from severe malnutrition. Nutritional
deficiencies also affect the health of 'expectant and
nursing mothers who number abO'Ut65 million oralmost 10 per Fent of the' populatIon; Some 50 to 60
percent of the pregriant women 'have been reported 10
suffer from nutritional anaemia particularly in the last
trimester which will mean another 32.5 to .39 million.
Thus the total vulnerable population in India numbers
.158 million, and these should b~ the target for nutrition inlprovement.
.

i
'

The cost of 'preparing various formulations for feedll1g programmes have been calculatcd by CFTRF.
~. Based on all the 27 formulae, the average per capita
daily 'expenditure for .children works out to be 23.6
paise and for expectant and' nursing mothers 39.5
paise. .If these preparations are distribllted free to
the target population the annual expenditure per child
will be Rs. 86..14 and per adult Rs . .144..17. This
means that if the government wants to run su~h a
programme, about Rs. 8,000 million have to be allocated for -children and another ;Rs'. 5,000 to Rs. 6,000
million for expectant and nmsing mothers, arriving
at a total outlay of about Rs. .13,000 million just for
one year. Unfortunately the preseut allocation of
Rs. 2,380 million for a period of 5 ye"rs' (1980'85),
"which comes to Rs. 476 million,per y,ar, can reach
, only 37 percent oE the target population.
4. Singh, Saran
(1978).
'Impact
of Government.
Development Policies and Programmes on Food and
Nutritional Sector-Indian
Experiment', XI Internal.
Conge Nutr., Rio De Janeiro.
.
5. Go.palan, c.,. Balasubramanian," S. C., Rama Sastri.
B.
and Yisweswara Rao, K. (1971). Diet Atlas of
Ind!a, NatIonal
Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad,
IndIa, 102.

y.

6.. Annual Report, National Institute

H yderabad, India.

of Nutrition

7. Sixth Five-Year 'j)bn (19-80-'85)

sio~, GO\'ernmcnt of Indiap.
381.

:URUKSHETRA October 16,.1982

(1976)

rl;lOningCommi~

ES, IT IS THE TIMENOW to ask this question because feeding progr,.mmes have been tried o~t for
almost 30'yearswithout
any appreciable outcome.
The point of concern is that even without realising this,
more and more developing countries arc going in for
feedmg programmes as a solution to the malnutrition
problem, A number of experiments on acceptibility
and impact of feeding programmes have been carried
out. In one such Slndy carried out by a UNU team
at Senegals, the anthropometric measureme:ntsconfirmed the nutritional indicators in showing no significant
imprdvelllent at the end of the feeding programme in a
local rural primary school.
'
Thailand too shares the problems, of the other developmg countries. Out of its population of 45' million
16 percent are pre-schaal childr",n numbering 7.2 mil:
han. Accordmg lothe fourth (1977-8'r) and the fifth
(1982-86) five-year plans for Social and Economics
Development 63 'percent of pre'school children are underweight, which is roughly equal to 4.5 million. Also
mcluded in the ,plans is the incidence of malnourishment among expecta'nt and nursing molliers, The Thai
Government (00 has incorporated feedj,ng programmcs
mto Its plans even though confronted with a tight budget allocatIOn. Thailand is facing not ouly the problem.of hmlted financial resources but also the unaccep-,
tlblhty of. the feeding programmes. Inefficient methods
of agricultural production give rise to low produce on
the larm and in turn keeps the income of farmers at
a low level. ~Food aid programmes make iP"~pl~rehant on the government, and once such ~id is stopped
people will still,not be \lble to afford a nutritional diet
because of low purchasing power. Hence attempts to
initiate activiti",s in the village that will gener,atc additional insome for the poorest farmers arc called for
so that it has the impact oE increasing the purchasing
power.

A self-help programme

'A.

LTHOUGH
EXPORTOF FOODitems from Thailand
has been on the Increase,_reflecting an increase in
, l?cal food production, a substantial part df its populatIOns!Ill suffers from protein-calorie ma1hutrition. To
overcome thiS situation a programme' was started at the
Cha~ng Mai University on the basis of self-help,
ThaIland IS baSIcally an agricultural countrv where 80
percent of the population consists oE farI1l~rs. These
f:u:mers labour hard to enable their coUntry to export
nce, maize and, other foods. The Chiang Mal app.8. T~gle, M. A .. (~9.80). 'Operational Conflicts of Food
Aid at the ReCIpIent Level: Those who know Don't
Plan. ::nd Thos~ Who Plan Don't Know', Food -olld
NUIJ'lt10n
Bullelm, Vol. 2, No.3, pp. 5-15.

./

rorich~wasinteiided to prove to these farmers that they

themselves could solve their' malnntrition problem.
, The idea was put into practice in ,a y~Hagc day.cate

centre 'whicl) was originally established by the Forestry

Department of Chiang Mai for the children of its workers and those of nearby .villages. Earlier the child1'Onuscd to bring their lunch, which was inadequatc
and also nutritionally poor.

The programme was ini-

tiated by taking weight and height measurements and

'it was found that more than 50 pcrcent of these childrCli were Ulid'?fWcight. The day-car~ centl:c was enthus'iastic to remedy this situation by self-help because
help troin any other source was not forthcoming. The
children's parents were called to the centre and educalcd, employing slides, of the ill-effects of malnutrition,
and were also asked to cooperate if they wanted their
children.1O grow healthy. They were also given. demonstratio~s of how' to" prepare soyabean milk and
soyacake which they could easily make at home. Later
chil~~e.nwere asked to bring along r~w vcget~lbles,
fruits and other home-produced food stuffs' which were
cooked for them for lunch.
This activity' has 1:>ecn going on since t1}? beginning

.of June 1980. Rcgalar visits to the .;;entre were arranged by the Department to sec the progress.of the child~
reno ~

Impact of the programme

1

A.

LEAST" four major impacts can be listed,

Problem at the goyemmcnt level in budget
allocation: Ailocation of s~are resources is always
a difficultJlexercise. The Chiang Mal. Programme
. can be extended to any country with little or no
government -a.ssistance.
T

2
Changing the food habits of children: It is very
difficult to change the food habits of childrcn with
" the" right' approach. Improved food habits will
benefit them in the future.
.""

"Impact on the family's diet: Since parents were

toa provide their .;;hildren with vegetables grains or
fruifs., to take to school.insteadof
money, as earlier
they started growing all ~hesecrops which could be

1-"

used for the whole family as well, with likely

improvement in their -home ,diet.

4
_The approach is simpJetoapply

: Because there,

arc no cOl~~i?licatio.n~iJ) the approach itis v:ery likely

to be accepted in many developing count,ries.
6

-Can the' Covermt.eht--adop( the.Chi~ng Mai Progra,nme for the whole country? Certainly it is within
the means .of the Thai. governments to do so. The "government has already planned to spend some money
on feeding programmes anyway, and this would not be
enough to cover completely the target groups.

Money:

to he spent on raw materials for feeding programmes

in the viilage and giving ita goqd start with the meagre
amount allotted for feeding programmes, a self-sustaining activity can be sfarted. Take as an example India,
which has 576 thousand villages scattered all over thc
country. From the governmen!'s allocatiol] for the
five-year plan 1980-85, Rs. 476 million are availablc
for. feeding programmes every year. Assuming that.
each year 20 perceni or a little over I 55-thousand villages are covered, .a sum of Rs. 3,070 is available for
each village. Ii' with this money all the Inalnourished '
.children of the' villagc are to be fed the amount will
last only a few mo'nths. Alternatively this money can
be spent on creating facilities like building, utensils or
~demonstratiofl materials for a programme such as the
Chiang Mai's Self-help Programme and this will be of
much greater bcnefit in the long run. Such activities
can be extended to other villages too on a self-sustaining I
basis, '
j

Manpower utilisation

In Thailand there is ample manpower in the govem- JJ

meilt departments and Universities which can be mobiJ ;
Iised for such dev'l'lopment activities. In fact this is
one 0.1 the vital roles which organisations' like these
can play. Once human resources from Ministries such
as Health, AgriCulture, Home, Defence, Education,
Industry and Finance are brought together,' development plans can be worked out in detail. Universities,
Research Institutes and Iilternational ",organisations
can also playa vital part in popularising such activities. International food aid should be accepted with
caution, and such aids" should not be used for free
feedilig programmes or spoon feeding which is treating
the disease but 110tits root cause. Aid should be handled with the utmost ;;ai'e, so that it can help in building,
an ililrastructure for further development. An outstanding example of this is the operation Flood project
. in India. Aid ill the form of skim milk powder and
butteroil is being creatively used to build an infra'::cc
structure for dairy deve-ldpment in the countl:ylJ. The
second. phase of thc project aims to cover 10 ,nillion .
rural families or. 45 million people to enable them to,
build a viable self-sustaining dairy' industi"y by J 98511',
(Comilllled 01'page 9)
9. Huria, Vinod K. and Achay:\, K. ~T.(1980). 'Dairy
Development India: Some Critical ]ssues,. Ecol/omic
{lild Political
Weekly, Vol. 15, No. 45.& 46.
lO, The Financi:ll Express. nomhay,

lilly Hi. 1;>79.

KURUI<:SHETRA Oct~ber 16,1981

..

How to avoid loss' of,nutrients

in cooking ?
. DR. KANTA SHARMA and MRS. ANITA SHARMA
Departnlent of Food, I\1inistr.y of Ag-riculture

.T"iE'

Effectsof processing on Cereals

NUTRITIVE VALUE OF
the' highly nutritious
. foods can be .greatly reduced speciall)' with res. pect to the levels of soluble vitamins, minerals and
proteins when proper methods of preparation
and
cooking are.. not used. Almost all the foodstuffs
undergo a few. stages in preparation before they are
. brought to the dining table.

l;,
:-

COOKING
and processing has
senotisly a!Tcctcd the nutritional value of even
basic staple foods ~n 'which the nutrition of the majority, of the people .depends. Although food processing is essential in modern age but it should not

_TilE

SOPHISTICATED

become--so commcrcialised

.as to reduce the

nutrient

contents of basic -foodstuffs. Some of the . examples

quoted below will illustrate the point

"

TABLE
<;iIanges in nutriti,e value on processing ~fRice and Wheat
Protein
g
Rice

7.5
6.8
"8.5
6.4

\Vheat flo_urwhole
-Wheat flour refined (Maidn)

Rice Parboiled Handpqunde~,

Rice Parb.oiled Milled

0.9

lrrnl
mg

Thiamin
mg.

RibojlaJ'in Niacin
mg

mg

. 0.9
0.7

to
10
10
9

t90
160
280
143

3 .2
3.t
2.8
4.0

12 .1

2.7

48

.355

1I .0

. O.j)

23

121

29.2

3.5

40

~46

0,6

"

;- Wheat Germ
Source:

Calcium ?hosphoms
mg

mg

valueper 100 g.

Rice rav':Handpounded
Rice R~w.Milled

Wheat

Minerals
g.

0.2t
0'27
0'2L

0.16
0.06
0.12
0.05

3.9
1 .9
4.0
3 .8

11 .5

0.49

'0 .29

4.3

2.5

0.12

0.07

2.4

6.0

1.40

0.54

2.9

0.06

ICMR

The table shows that more the food is refined by

milling or extraction, Jess is the nutritive value specially
in terms of protcins~ minerals and vitamins of the 'B'
Complex as these nutrients arc present in the outer

portion of t~e ~ce(j and the' germ' which are removed

i'n these processes. For this reason, the home-pounded
parboiled rice (paddy soakied in water, steamed dried
and then de-husked) has higher nutritive value than the

during parboiling. Likewise, home-pounded raw-rice

'is belter 'mitritiohalIy than 'raw-milled rice. Accordingly, thewho1ewheat flour is more nutritious than the
. refined 'wheat flour (niaida) which is 80 10 85% cx'tractio'n ratc.

The bran removed in the process of

extrattion or in sifting of wheat flour (A Ita) at home

contains good amount

6f vitamins.

:fllinerals,_ proteins

,md :fibre.

ra,w milled rice as the nutrients~ diffuse into t.he grain

. URUJ<SHETRA OCtooer 1'6; 1982

Washing
to wash
cooking.
of water
cooking.
B group
as 60%
washed.

and Cooking of Rice: It is usual practice

rice three or four times witi, water before
Besides, cooking is done in a large quantity
and the excess water is thrown away after
In this way water soluble vitamins of the
are considerably lost. For. instance,. as much
thiamine is lost when raw-milled rice is

Processing of Vegetables and Fruits

Trimming and Pee6ng : When th'e vegetables and
fruits are trimmed, the nutrient loss generally exceeds
the weight loss as the nutrients are found in higher
concentration in the outer leaves/layers of vegetables~
tubers; roots and fruiis ... Ascorbic acid (vitamin C)
is present in highest concentration just beneath the
peel of the potato' and peeling may result in 12 %
to 35 % loss of this vitamin. The peel of carrots is
especially rich in tlie B-Complex vitamins-thiamine,
riboflavin and niacin. The outer leaves of lettuce ~re
richi'n the B-vitamins and in ascorbic acid. The outer
green leaves are often richer in mineral salts than the
inner leaves.

24 hours. Quartered apples, both peeled and unpeeled lost 20% ascorbic acid in 1-2 hours and 33% in
. three hours.
Boiling: Ascorbic acid is the most sensitive of all
, the nutrients. During boiling retention of this vitamin
in cabbage is (TIlly13% as compared to 100% in~'
boiled unpeeled sweet potatoes. Retention in potatoes
is also good if boiled' in their jackets. Retention of
ascorbic acid is lowest when they are boiled in large
quantity of water and cooked for a longer time.

During boiling measurable amoUlit of calcium is

extracted from vegetables. Over 20% of the calcium
was extracte? from cabbage during boiling and only
9% during pressure cooking.
The average result
with vegetables is that 25% of the calcium leaks out' .
when the vegetables are covered with water during .
cooking and less is lost when smalI quautity of water
is added. Slow cooking results in greater losses, especially in uncovered vessels. The loss is minimised
by cooking' in covered vessels.
Pressure Cooking: 'The loss of nutrients is considerably less during pressure cooking of vegetables
than 'during boiling. There was 91 % retention. of
ascorbic acid when cabbage was cooked under pressure.

of ascorbic acid in
peels is 3 to 10 times higher than in the cortex.
The concentration of niacin and riboflavin is also
somewhat greater in the peel than' in the flesh. In
general, the skin and tissue just unde! the skin of
fruits including tomatoes are riCher in ascorbic acid
than the flesh. Care must. therefore be taken while
peeling and trimming of the different fruits and vegetables so that the, useful nutrients are conserved to
the maximum extent. .
N APPLES,

'.

THE

CONCENTRATION

Washing and Soaking

Preliminary washing and
soaking of vegetables and tubers before cooking permit extraction of water soluble' nutrients. Potatoes
soaked two hours in water lose 11.9 % thiamine and
sweet potatoes soaked five hours in water lose 21.1 %
thiamine. Peeled potat<;les soaked for 28 hours in
water. lose 14% asorbic acid,' R% thiamine, 5%'
riboflavin and 14 % niacin.
Vegetables should be washed before peeling and
culling. Peeling should be minimised and soaking of
vegetables should be avoided to prevent loss of nutrients.
Chopping: In diced cabbage, 9 to 15% ascorbic
acid, 0.5%
thiamine and' 0.3% ribofla,in is . lost.
. Large losses of ascorbic acid in mashed potatoes have
been reported. Cucumber salads 'lost 22% ascorbic
acid during preparation and further 8% and 11 %
during standing for one and three hours respectively,
The losses of ascorbic acid in tomato salads were 8%
in three hours. Grated radish lost 27% thiamine in

Steam Cooking : Steam cooked vegetables are superior in nutrient content. There is retention of 67%
ascorbic acid, 88% thiamine are 100% riboflavin in I
. steamed cabbage as compared to retention of
ascorbic acid, 43% thiamine and 50% riboflavin in '
boiled cabbage. the lower losses in steamed vegetables are due to the fact that there is less extraction
of the llutrien.ts durin;g steaming than during boiling.

300/1

cMetalContamination:
.Copper, copper alloys and
iron affect flavour and food value of most linces.
Zinc, cadmium and chromium are undesirable because of their solubility in an acid medium and ~esulting in possible toxicity. Tin is soft and tends to -have
a bleaching action on some juices. The use of these
metals should be avoided as far as possible.
'
Juice Extraction :. In citrus juices the ascorbic acid,
is rehitively stable and unless the juice is brought in
contact with an. oxidation catalyst (copper, iron, zinc)
losses are very smalI. In other juices like tomato
juice, as much as 50% of the ascorbic acid may'
lost in a few minutes. Straining and filtering of juice
removes carotene. Therefore, whole juice is nutri
tionally beller than clarified juice.
Keeping of cooked foods : Relatively large amounts
of ascorbic acid, thiamine, and riboflavin may be
lost if cooked food is kept for long. It is advisable
that vegetables should be consumed immediately after
cooking.

,
8

KURUKSHETRA

October 16,198

Avoid reheating
Effect 01 refrigeration:
Although storage of goods
in refrigerator minimises loss of nutrients, yet significant amount of ascorbic acid is lost on rcfril!eration
f cooked vegetables for one day. When. thes; stored
n
cooked vegetables are re-heated, there is a further loss.
Oils and Fats
HEATING of the oil or furleads to loss of
vitamin A and D besides breaking down 01 fatty
acids leading to rancidity and other chemical changes.
Reheating should, therefore, be avoided.

EPEATED

Whey : Whey is the fluid that separates from milk

'''<luring the preparation 01 cheese (Panir). Whey contains most of the lactose, the milk sugar, vitamins of
B Complex and somc amount of soluble milk proteins. If whey is discarded, these useful nntrients a.re

lost. The use of whey in cooking of vegetables,

dais, rice or 'In kneading of dough can save these import ant nutrients besides enhancing their nutritive
value. Whey can also be used as a drink after flavouriug and spicing.
o

PREVENT
LOSS OF NUTRIENTS,
one should remember the three R's of cooking i.e. Reduce
. the siJrfaee area, Reduce the cooking time, Reduce the
temperature.
As already mentioned, cooking should
be done in -minimum water so as to .avoid discarding
any extra water from vegetables, rice etc. Bran may
not be removed and be utilised. In all cases, exces.
sive washing, over-cooking and over-refining should
be avoided. "Best processing is the least processing" should be practised in home preparation of foods.
More the retention of nutrients, less will be the required in-take at foods and more will be the nutrition
and health of the body.

\ (Co;ud from page 6)

Conclusions
PROGRAMMES'
are short term approaeh,lo
solving temporarily the malnutrition problem and
they are nol Iik"ly to have much impact in raising the
nutritional level 01 the .vulnerable population. 'The
meagre allocation 01 government funds in the five year
plans'.is \00 small to eover adequately the nutritionally
vulnerable population by feeding programmes but il
this outlay is constructively used for building an infra- .

EEDING

structure

-for a self-sustaining

activity in every village

it is likely to have a much larger impact. The Chia'ng

Mai Programme is an example of such a self-help
programme which establishes elose linkages between
the disciplines of Agriculture, Food Science and Technology and Nutrition. It calls for setting .up small
kitchen.gardens"in every home wherever there is space
so that the fruits and vegetables grown can be utilised
to improve nutr~tion.

"URUKSHETRA October 16, 1982,

Grassroot .coordination In
rl,Jral development
"The Gandhigt'am Rut'allnstitutc,GandhiJ,,'1'am

.OVERNMENT

AND

PRIVATE

AGE~CIES

and -aided-

institutions have been engaging in rural develop-

ment works in the breadth and length of the country ..

We cannot say that these agencies

are carrying out

their programmes successfully in the way they are expected. They need so much of money, human labour
and time. It is true, at times when the' development
oflicials visit the villages, people express. their dissatisfaction over the ways in which the development
programmes are implemented:
Personal discussion
with some of the village leaders by the author revealed that people are very critical about the rural deve"
lopment oflieials and the social workers. They said
that number of people such as officials; social workers
and fysearch scho'lars are visiting their villages in the

nam" of rural development and a huge sum of money

is being spent towards their salaries and allowances
for doing little of concrete tasks. There may not be
much .truth in this remark. But one cannot completely dismiss this either.
The State and the Central Governments arc doing.
a lot for the many-sided development of our villages.
But the rural population is not satisfied, The basic
problems 'of the villages arc not solved yet. The
reason:

thcl:e is no coordination

between the dcvc-:-

lopment programmes and the personnel who are responsible for the programmes. Local level organisatiOllS'

such as Village schools,

Cooperatives,

Youth

N MARKANDAt"l
(Madurai. Tamil Nadu)

. are to be tded out to ensure willing participation hy

the .people.
Ail eflicient. coordinator at the viliage
',vel-between
the government and people-is one of
the solutions.

Village Level workers

HE

ABOVE. OUTLINED

SUGGESTION

was caried out .'

by the "Gram Sevaks" (Today they are called

Rural Welfare Omcers in Tamil Nildu) to some ex-/
tent during the days of the community development'
projects in the selected areas of the country. Such
village fevel workers must be having a good knowledge about the problems of the village and in aposi-'
tion to guide the village people in solving their economic and social problems. They must help the secretaries and the office bearers of the various organisa~
tions in contacting government agencies and officials
in co'nnection with the implementation of the" various

schemes in the villages.. In fact, this kind of contacting ~he- private and government

agencies, and. coordi-

nating the various departments for .implerrienting" the

development schemes in the villages is the main job
of the village level workers. Their ",eekly or monthly diary should be the report of co;'tacting persons
afld how far they havc contributed to implement the
current programmes in thc.villages, Their diary shaul also contain their niftcctions

1i

and suggestions, to im_

plement the schemes more effectively.

clubs, Women's clubs are not being run effectively.

Although several development programmes are being
carried out by both nationaf level as" well as local

Today number of private agencies, educational institutions, 'such as universities, colleges~ schools
and
, -ti~aining institution~ are engaged in rural develop-

organisations, people are not positively' oriented and

hence decline from. active participation .. Since people's
participation
itself -is one of the' il1dicators of the
success of development programmes~_ways and ~means

ment activities. They need the help of the government departments and the public minded well-to-do'
people' in society. Vniess there is some one like the
.village level worker who l-eports about such agencies to

10

KURUKSHETRAOctohcr

16, 1982

.1

l
,the government departments and public minded rich
. 'I'!'pp).'\ jt is very' difficult..for those agencies. to get
help. from the above .~aid. quarters.

Educational institutions
a40pt villflges.
In the
name of .social service or making study. for re-

. ED~CATIONAL.INSTITUT}ONS

,'.

search purposes, students, teachers and scholars are

visiting villages. These visits must be helpful for the
uplift of the villages. The institutions which are engaged.in village extension work should adopt a cluster
. of villages. and act as coordinating agencies and help
. for the many-sided development of the cluster of villages wh~re. they frequently visit. Th~y should sit
with thc people and discuss and formulate a plan for
the village and see that it is imp1ementcd. Our higher
education institutions should give up the picoe-~ea1
approach, i.e., doing some thing in the village in the
name" of social service and cutting off their connec-

tions with the villages' later on. Instead they should

'he1p to build up a good scrvice-minded youth-leader~
ship in the villages. The government .machineries
should. by all means. lend whole-hearted support to
the institutions. which are actively engaged in .this kind
of activities. If the government and the educational
.institutions join together in carrYing out development
programmes in the villages, we can witness an innova-

tive and encouraging turn in the field of rural

deve-

lopment.
Some rural development agencies are rendering a
, noble service in the villages with' the help of the
. moncy they receive from foreign countries. If such
agencies are guided and helped by the government
officials the programmes will be implemented well
and with in a limited period of time. The contact,
. coordination and guidance of the development officials with such agencies will also help the agencies
rationally 'investing the foreign funds.
Number of studies are being conducted in the area

of rural development. It is good if the outcome of

the studies are. put into use in wactice. The findings
may be made known to the villagers. They must be
helpful to solve problems or implement the development programmes effectively. At present. most of
the rcsearch studies have hardly made any impact
over the rural development

programmes.

Even pur

" social workers have little knowledge about 'the findings of most of the research studies on the present
day rural problems. There must be a close contact
between the rescarchers and the field workers. In
each university there must be a separate cell for rural

development studies to study vafious problems of the.

rural areas.'

These

research

cells may .periodicallY

. bring the educated vouths of villages and the ,ocia!

workers to the unive;sities and cxpl;in them the nature
of the problems and how to solve them.

The ide.al coor~inatPrs for the development programmes m the -villages are the wellinfOrriled eihi~'
c~H~d.
village youths thcmscJves.
The)'. ni.ust- bi-.'eJfi-=
Clent anddedieated to the task they have.' taken up."
. They must also be above party politics and selfish
motives. They should not expect any remuneratiou
for their work. . They have to help the village level
workers during their leisure hours. The office bearers
. of the youth clubs, women's clubs, panchayat., etc.
should always be in touch with the rural developincnt
offic",ls and the aided institutions for rural development.
.

Coordination Committees
to have

a coordination

committee

in

I each village consisting of the secretaries or presiT IS GOOD

dents of the various

organisations

of lhe villa~e.
com-mittee
may be respOllsible for some kind of development programmes of the village it will be helpful to review the

Since the members of such a coordination

programmes which arc being carrico out and find out,

the possibilities for impleme';;,tingthe programmes well

within the limited time.: The social wo;'kers or offi~
cials of the concerned villages must also be' the meIDbers of 'Such coordi'nation committees.

Today our district collectors coordinate various departments which are engaged in rural
development
programmes. It is true some of our districts have
made good progress in this respect (especially in
Tamil Nadu). Some of our collectors are visiting
every nook and comer of their districts and condu~~
ting review meetings and taking steps to see that the
programmes are implemented. But tbis kind of coordination must prevail at the village and. block
levels. Then only the programmes will be planned
and implemented 'effectively. Visits by the district
level officials to villages is very essential for monitoring the. development programmes of their department
which could also serve as an opportunity of meeting
the villagers and triggering speedy implementation.
THE
-WAYhere to mention the-disparity shown between one and the other aspect
of the problems. For instance, undcr rural health
so much of importance is given to start primary 'health

T ]5 NOT OHT OF

centres, \Vh.erea?, we don't give importance to public

latrines. .Various components in each sector should

be prioritised and attention should be paid in a balanced manner.. In the field of. agriculture . though
we feel proud of Green' Revolution we have not succeedcd in creating organisation in the local levels for
marketing the agricultural produces at a reasonable
price. We have not solved ihe problem of landless
agricultural workers. Similarly ih the field of education. rural industrieS etc. proper attention 'SllOUldbe
11

eKURuKStIPTRA
....
--

Octo1)er 16, 1982

paid to all . the problems equaBy in the respective

fields. So at the planning stage in ;the grass root level
eXjJerts in different fields should edncate the ruml peo- ,
pTe and make a change in their attitude to accept
and welcome the radical changes for their welfare.
This process of educating the vtillage people is mainly
the job of the social workers. They have to take
the experts to the villages and make the people meet
them in. small groups a"nddiscuss and learn things ..
The need of the hour is involving the village people ,in the planning' alld implementation of the plan
.. and coordination among various implementing agencies of, tJ;e
deveJopment
programmes.
This,
thought is not a new one. During the days of the
first and second five year plans itself Shri C. D .

Deshmuk, the then Union Einance

Minister said
"Planhing should begin from the bottom';. When the
commuhity development programmes were started, the
Gr~lJnscvaks and the extension
ofiicers of various departments in the block were considered very important
field workers: Proper training was given to them.
Even now such type of training is given.
But the ,:.
spirit witl). ,vhich the programmes were carried out in
those days at the grass root leveJ is not seen now. Due
to lack of coordination among the various implementing agencies a;ld lack of cooperation of people \~ith
most of the programmes the'suceessful implementation'
of the same is fonnd difficult at the grass root level.
Therefore, coordination at the. grass root level should
be given utmost importance in rural developmentprogramme..

.,

SUBSCRIBERS PLEASE NOTE

Subscribers
of 'Kurukshetra' and other joumals brought out by Publications
,
Division can buy all the books Publishes by Publications Division, Patiala House,
New Delhi-HOODl at a special discount of '20 percent as long as their subscription lasts.
.
,
'

Dear. SUbscribers, if you are not getting your copies of 'Kurukshetra'

regularly or have missed receiving any of the issues, please write to the undersigned for looking into the matter immediately :-.,

The Business Manager,

Publications Division,
PatjalaHouse,
New Delhi-HOOO!'

~"

~'_'

KURUKSHETRA

!!letoher 16, 1982.

,f

New.20-point programme:
role banks can play
R.C. BHATNAGARand
Deptt. of Economics

NEW ZO,POINT ECONOMIC PROGRAMME announced by .'thc Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira
Gandhi on January 14 this year and described ,as:
. 'agenda' for the nation' is expected. to yield quick
results especially Jor .th;;- under-privileged sections of
our society. The programme pinpoints areas of special
thrust which will show tangible results for various segments. Special allocation of funds was made for this
programme in the budgC't.of 1982-83 also. The Chief
HE

Ministers of various states, in their meetings also agreed

. j'n principle to follow up this new programme by givine
it all ~dministrative and financial support.
....,

T.R. SINGH

B.s.M. CoUegc, Roorkee

and sociology,

\'latcr, arresting unwarranted increase in land prices,

afforestation,~~trition of women and children: spread
of ~lementary

.education,

act"toil dgainst smugglers' etc.

but thcse .,are outside the purview of this paper as

commercial banks have little rple to play in these sectors. We shall thus confine ourselvcs only to the first
part of the programme.
Mrs. Gandhi while announcing the programme said,
"This programme is for .each one of you and for this
nation wh~chis .ours t.o serve, to cherish and to build."

nationalisation of these banks had imparted a new .

There is no.d6ubt that concerted efforts ivill .have to

be made at all levels to achieve perceptible results in
the desired fields' but the nationalised commercial
banks, under lhe supervision vf their district. Lead
banks and overall direction of the Relierve Bank of
India can also play a very useful Tole in giving new
meaning and dimensions to the programme -under dis.

ethos to comme-reia:! banking

cussion.

This paper is an attempt to examine the .IoIe which

the nat~onalised commercial banks can play
accelerate the pace of this progra mme and contribute. thcir

to

might to the achievement

of national

objectives.

The

and they are now shifting

the focus of their attention to the small man, the weak

and the under-pri"ileged. There has been a purposeful
change in the pattern of their credit deployment and
they are now more aliye., to the soc;ial cha.Ilenges ..
It is in this light that the role of cotll'mercial banks has
to be reviewed in the context of our ne,~ economic
prolJ{amme.
The 20-point economic programme, [or the purpose
'.of this papcr, may be divided into two parts. The
firs't part pertains to some important field of Indian
. economy and its w~aker segments. The:se are agriculture, rural housing and electrification, conservation
and development of indigenous energy resources, family
welfare pr01umme,. eradication of poveliy
througl.l

self-employment schemes as also the expansion .of

small scaJe and cottage industries. The second part
deals with certain other areas -of activity like effective.
enforcement of minil11ul11wages~ supply.. of dri~kil1g
KURUKSHETRA

October 16, 1982

Agriculture. and Allied Activity

.niE
the programme en-.
Ivisages
to accord high priority to .ihe expansion .of
N

FIELD OF AGRIc'uLiuRE,

irrigation f~~ilities as also to encourage the production

of pulses and oilseeds. It is propo.sed to speed up land
reforms, fix ceilings on land holdings, distribu!e the
surp.:us land to the landless and rehabilitate the.
bonded labourers.
It goes' without saying that the state governments
have to playa very important

role in identifYIng the

areas and. individual b.eneficiari~s but the Lead banks

can alsp playa "il;il follow-up role in lending snpport
to .th.~se programmes.
For example, ec:onomically
v.iable.farm units may be given loans to construct tube.
wells on .priority basis in areas where government
tube-well facilitics are not available. Similarly small

13

landholdei2 may also be sanctioned niedium

teriii
Idans to purchasc pumping sets moderatcly priced between Rs. 5 to 10 thousand. The banks are already
actively involved in this type of lending bot it should,
however, be ensured that the~e loans are negotiated
directly by the party and not tlnough the dealers of
pumping -sets.

The production of pulses has been stagoant during

the past few ye~rs and also there is cousiderable shortage of edible oil in India .. It is precisely for this reason
that spceial .emphasis is placed on the' production of
pulses a~d oil~~eds in .the 20-point programme. Short
term loans, on priority basis may be sanctioned to farmers, at speCiitlly attractive ternls and conditions Jor
thc purchase of nccessary inputs;f they are ,prepared
10 bring more area uuder weir cultivation. . But this
step in itself may not be adequate if the governmeut
does not come forward with a proper price support
policy for' pulses.
.'
.
As' a result of the distribution of the surplus land, .
a large number of .new smail landholders wil1 come
into. existe'nce. Since these farmers belong to poorcr
groups and backward classes, they would require credit
facilities for various inputs such as seeds, fertilizers,
pesticides and implements etc. A certificate 'of allotmcnt .by the state government sboutd be considered
adequate by the banks for providing financial assistance on easy terms. They may also be encouraged to
take up' aUied activities like'dairy
farming p_oultry
etc.

.... :"-'

RehaBilitation of bonded )abourcrs may have to be

. treated on group basis. Since these labourer,' do not
have any assets, they should be encuuraged to go in
for'self-erT;ploymcnt schemes and group loans may be
sanction'od to them by the banks to enable them' to
start sheep rearing, dairy farming or poultry etc. The
block officials should identify these labourers
and
actively participate with bank officials to prepare bankable schemes of assistance for them.

,RliraL Housing" and Electrification'

'TiJJ:OU'SIN~:'LO~~s~~~e~'
rt~t.considered eco~omically
"fl. viable' but the. banks may help allottees of
.,'

'!,

house-sites for house-building if the allottees are prepared to c?mbine such loans with some other loans for
productive enterprise and'thereby increase their repayment capacity. The state governments cap. issue a list
of such allottees to the Lead bank of the disiriet to
provide a working basis to the commercial banks of
the. are~; The commercial banks .may,. however, lay.
down the condition that the prospective house owners
will confirm to the specifications prepared for low-eost
houses by the architects of Central Building Research
I~stitlite, Roorkec, which has carried quite-.3 "reputation in this field.

Rurai electrification is a gigantic task involving cM;

siderablc tin)e and money. 11 wuuld, therefure, be.
better if more aod more peopk 10 the rural areas are
encouraged to exploit bio-gas potential for lighting purpose in the rural households. This indigenous source
of energy will not only reduce the pressure on conven-i
tiona I methods of power generation but also provide
combustible. gas for co<;,kingand residual m'anure, rich
in nitrogen and humus. if built on cooperative COllimunity basis, these bio-gas plants wil1also help to elean
'up enviroument through scientific sewage disposal. . In
this field again the commercial banks have a dual role
to play, They can encourage the construction o~ biogas plants in rural households by advancing easy loans
through its field officers. The block officials can . "
provide the teelutical guidance and also arrange for
25 % central subsidy. At the macro level, the .commercial bank can finance the Power expansion

Family welfare programme

we have gradually moved'frqm

family planning to family welfare, a 'more mean"
ingful and comprehensive term. Th~ programme now
includes expan.sion of primary health services, control
ot'Leprosy, Tul1erculosis and blindness. It also in-'
eludes the voluntary acceptance of the norm of a small
family. What could 'be the role of commercial banks
in this field?
.

VER

THE

YEARS,

The moder!, developmentalist approach is that the I

deeline in birth rate;is possible .only with ,the elimination of poverty. If the living standards impr,?ve, the
small family norm would be automatically. accepted.
This viewpoint thus boils down to the fact. that only
with rise in living standards, there will be a decline in
the birth rates; development alone can be the best contraceptive. The new development approach. having
been acCepted, there is no denying that .commercial
banks have a very importaht role in acc~lerating the
process of development within .the country by providing' the financial base to the innumerable schemes. of.
investment fro~ agriculture, industry and .transp9rt
to tourism. These bankS shall remain the fountain head
of institutional fina~ce for practically e~ery sector 'of
Indian economy.
As 'regards the controi Of disease and siCkness, it is').;
weU known that banks are providing educational Joans .
to deserving and brilliant students iil the field of engineering and m~i~ine. It would-be quite reasonable
if the banks were to. finance the professional studiesof
only those. medical students who are prepared to give
an undertaking that they would be prepared to. serve
at. the p'riplaty health centre- in rural areas for a,mini.
mum period of 3 to 5 years. This would help to proino{e the 'cause of ruraf -health' programn1e,

,"';'.

(Continued on p. 24)
KURUKSHETRA

schemes

of- the State Electricity Boards; which are aCtively engaged in the rural electrification programme.

October '16, ,1982;

..

'.

-If

Role of rural wonlen In

agricultural development

~
.,,/-

Assistant. Professor,

"

hav'c played a
pivotal role in our agriculture.
Agriculture is the
largest
industry in the countT)' contributing
to
the source of livelihood for over 70 per cent of the
population.
Worn,en contribute to -farming either in
their own property or as hired labourers.

R01'1 Tl~lS

I,rvI~EMORIAL women

In modern agriculture too. women

continue
to
share a numb~r"""of-farm ope~ations with men.
Acti\ vitks such as transplanting
of ricc, weeding crops,.
. sca.ring ~irds, sowing behind the plough, reaping, winnowing, threshing, storage.of
seeds and foodgrains,
preparation of compost and manure pits and most of
bther farm operations arc mainly carried out by women.
In many places the 'entire management
of livestock
starling from cutting, collection~ carrying and chaffing
of fodder to feeding and milking, preparation of milk
products, cleaning' of cattle shed, collection of urine
and cowdung
for the' manure
pits, preparation
of
cowdung cakes and 'their :storageare
done by women.
Kitchen gardci,ing. a~dpoiiltry
.keeping arc also 'the

jobs

bf

far~ wo~'-e~. '~," ,,., -",,'.'.

.

l';r

. ' <,I"

-All,c1eani.l~g operations-l,lke removal' ~f stones, dust

and dirt, -drying of crops, dehusking or hand pounding of grains, tnrning 'chakki' (grinding stone), carry"".jng firewood. and . other laborious
household duties
'and
food preparations
are- done by rural
women.
Thus they provide much of the unpaid family labour
in aglicult.ure~ .

Variation of division of labours

"Ali PATTERN OF DIVISION of labour between men
. . and women 'varies fr~ril region to region-.according:
to social customs.
Cultural Dorms do affect women's
parti'cipa1ion
in ngricll1tUl"C.. For .px:lmple, the parti.-

KURUKSHETRA

October '16, 1982

LAXMI DEVI ACHANTA

Agricultural Uniycrsity

CollcoJc of Home SCience, A. P.

cipation rate is high 'in all the southern states but low
in West Bengal where the taboo on women engaging
in field work has penetrated even among the scheduled castes.
Communitywise,
women's participation
in
agriculture
is the highest
among the' tribes,
then
among the scheduled
castes.
Since the census no
longer collects data separately for other castes, it is
not possible to calculate variations in 'participation
by
different castes
but social researchers maintain that
the degree of participation
declines with higher status
in the soci"! hierarehyl
Recorded
evidence
IS available
to justify that
women occupy even a more important place in agriculture in hill areas'like Himalayas, since they -attend
to most of the opemtions connected. \vith crop
production. ,Thewomen contribute 70 per cent of
~he \~ork and the rest by men .. In fact; the women
do all the-work except pl0ughing.
If there
is no
male member in the family,. the wonicll
do every...;
thing, but rarely does one find a maIl: doing the work
of a \vo.nla~. Women are required to .walk long distances to fetch grass for the animals and water for
the:family.
That is why in hills' the. women in the
societY'fank

higher.13

I>emographic perspective
.LARGEST NUMBER
OF working women in India
is engage-din farming operations' either as cultivators or as agr~cultural labourers.
According to the
1971 census; 28 per cent of the total number of
womenwork~rs
-w.ere engaged as cultivators
and another '46 .'-per cent as agricultural -labourers. Hence
they formed.74
per cent of the total working populatioh of women ..
HE

15

".

According
to various' rounds.
of the
National
Sample Survey. unpaid family workers in rural India
constitute J 5 to 17 per cent of the male labour force
and between 41 and 49 per cent of the female labour
force.
The National Sample Survey in its third subround
(January-March
1971)
of twenty-fifth round (JulyJune 1971) found that in rural non-cultivating
wage
earner households
(households cultivating no land)
females spent 29.7 per cent of the estimatcd man days
in a week in household work in contrast to 2.2 per
cent of the same
in case of males.
In rural small
cultivator households,
fcmales spent 32.7 pcr cent
of the same in household work." Apart from participation III actual cultivation,
women 'also participate
in various forms of processing and marketing of agrl-

cultural products.
Unfortunately
no propecestimate
of the numbers engaged .in these' funetio.ns i,s available.
As shown in Table-i,
between
1971 and 1981
there has been a fall in the proportion of eultivaiors
and of agricultural labourers in the population which
is offset to a considerable degree by- the increase
in'
the proportion oi other workers.
This is so in' the
case of male workers also.
In thc case of female
workcrs the proportions
of cultivators
and agricultural workers have increased between "1971 and 1981
and there has been an increase among female work.ers
classified as other workers.
The increases in proporpions in these categories of workers are in fact the
components of the total increase of the proportion of ,
the female
workers which will. be noticed beweeI1 l
1971. and 1981."
,.

TABLE

of Tohit

Proportion
.
Tot'll

Urban

I
.

Workers, .Cultiva:h,rs Agricultural Labourers and other Workers to Total Population (per cent)
India
.

Person
Males
females

Rural

.'

Total

Workers

Cultivator

--_.-

. Agricuitural
Labourers

Other \o.rkers

~-------_._-'
---' --~---'--'-'---------- ----._.;....--"'--------_._1961 . 197t
1981
196t
1971.. 1981
1961
197]
1981
1961
1971
t98t
----_._-------_._----_.
----2
3
-4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
t3

14

-----_._-

Total

Rural

Urban

Persons
Males
Femaies

42.97
57.16
27'93

Persons
Males
FCffilles

45.09

Persons
Males
Females

33 -09 33 .44

22'49

52.6t

51 .23
1444

29.t3
15'45

. 3404
58 -30
53.62
13 .44
'3t 42

34.77

27.03
35.37
18 .39

17.42
29'78
4.41

17.73
28 '85

33 .47
52.37
II .J 6

29.17
48.18
7.57

2.19
2.91

I .49
2 '54
0'28

1.53

12 ']3

29.34
48.82
6.68

52.2.1

16.49

1 -34

14.20
24.06
3 '61

13.89

7 '38

8'89

22-42

7.85

J 1.42

4.77

6.87

6.18

8 '41
10-13
6.58

8.76
9.44
8.06

10.70
t3 .84
7.39

10.47
12.67
8.17

9.30
t3 .49
4'97

5.92 6.57
to .00 10'69
.1 .64 2 .24

1.18
1..17
I'.19

2.31

t .79
.2-28
1 '18,. 1 .23

30.tO
48.29
. 8.63

26.06 25 '85
43.97 43 .36
5-22
5'95

6'08
2 -54

0'39

1 .79

--_.-_.

HE

MAJORITY

remain
development
making'.

1n de~eloping_ countIje~
from the process of economic
.of their engagement in 'home._

OF WOMEN

isolated
becapse

As early
as 1930, Gunnar
and Alva Myrdal in
their book. "The' Population Crisis" expressed the view
that "The values built round the system of keeping
wo~en confin~d to home-making were essentially the
creations of the middle class; Ihe product of the industrial revoh[tion~ to prevent competition' bet\veen
men and women of the same dass for sC~lrce jobs at
the higher levels.

Farm women contribute about - 36 per cent of the.

total employmeni in agriculture and they arc born and
bread in the tradition of work in the field but statistics
have under-rated their contribution and dlIbbed them
[IS m.ere stay-at-home be.ings,S T~ey are. not.,consider16

t3.tO
20 '18
5 '61

10'00
11'14
17 .13 .18.68
2.34
3 .09

ed"to be 'gainfully employed' and are even. categori~'cd as 'outside labour fo,ce' as they do not 'actively
seek work':
. In. the Soviet Union, wOmen are made to work for
lesser number of hours
in the' fields, compared to
. their men counterparts on accbulit'of the work done
by them in the house.' WhilC in India, discrimination'
in wages even for similar f~nctions that a~e performOedby.men as weIi as women, jack of s~curity, fluctuating periods of unemployment
and imderemployment .'....
and malnutrition
from
poverty and excessive hard
labour char~,tcterise the women's Jives.

.I

TO .pARTICIPATION-in
,farm activities andphysical work, women help' also in decision"
~ith regard
farm practice
~perations.
as wives and mothers have a considerable
dccision-mak1ngii1
the farm and at home.

N A.DDlTI~N

the
m'aking
\\-romen
pa.rt ill

to

KURUKSHETRA

October

16, 1982 . ~ .

l
Decision-maWng'
is hnpo(tant' because much of the,
, success of famiing depends upon how well ihe family
-makes
decisions.
Only when. the. women
in the
, fa'mily are convinced about the efficacy of new ideas
in ag~iculture they would' ~e iniplemented on a "large
scale.
technology .is a means to
increase agricultur~l
production.-- It implies the
discontinuation
of some of the traditional.farm
operatiens and introduction
of new ones. Earlier 'studies
indicate that while the decisions
were made mostly
by men, women were consulted with regard to
the
adoption of improved seeds. 'Since most of the grains
/
'produced
in, the families with _ smaller holdings are
consumed locally, the opinion of the women with regard to the cooking quality or otherwise of a particular
variety was' taken into a',count..
They were also
consulted with regard to the marketing of foodgrailjs
and adoption of improved agricultural implements and
fertilizers.
.

DOPTION OF NE\V FARi'vl

>\-

More often women are' consulied before important

financial transactions
,are made.
In significant and
complex decisions such as purchasing a new piece of'
land, selling a part of the holding or borrowing money
to meet the farm and home obligations, the farmers
consult women more than in any other aspect.'

The
role of 100 farm
\VOmen in 24 villages of
~ Najaigarh
Block' (Delhi)
where the high-yielding
" varieties of whea" had been adopted, was studied by
Shashi Puri in' 1974, with respect
'to expected' and'
actual, performance of selected .tasks and decisjons. In
these areas mixed farming was widely, practised.
The
, study ,showed that all the following 11 animal-related
tasks were predominantly
wife-eentered
and were
mostly 'Performed and decisions taken by them--'bringing fodder from the field, chaff cutting, preparing feed
for the cattle,
giving water and feeding
the cattle,
bathing and cleaning cattle, cleaning the cattleshed.
making cowdnng cakes, preparing Bitora (a structur~
for storing cowdung cakes), compost making, milking
and making curds, butter and ghee.~6.
Davadas, P. R. ef al. (1972) reported that
women arc almost always consulted in ma1(ingsians with re.gard to various farm operations like
t",Ang, new seeds, selecting crops, getting fertilizers
.1 pesticides,
appointing labourers, etc}~,(",

farm
deci":
gettand

Hir,mand and Kumar, K. (1980) reported that the

most important
areas.in which the women were found
to influence the decisions was fixing marriages of 'sons ~
and daughters.
Purchase and .sale of lahd, borrowings, purchase and sale of animals and education of
girls were other important ~reas in which women very
often influenced the decisionj17
-

, KURUKSHETRA

October

16, 1982

Timeutilisatron

and wages

EMPLOYMENT'
OF WOMEN
in agriculture for
wages is IT!0stly due to necessitous household
',economy and the need for supplementing meagre' family _
in',omc. For examplc, in the study, "Employment Pattern in Rural Gujarat (1970-71)" by Patel and others,
it was pointed. out that the highest number of workers
'.among females were found i.n the low income groups
in all the three seasons of agricultural work."

HE

A recent study conducted by Shanti Chakravarthy

in, some villages of Haryana
to see thc role performances_ of women ,in the farmers' families revealed
that an active farm 'woman spends 8 (0 9 hours on thc
fami during the' peak agricultural
sCason (the study
was conducted' during 'the wheat harvesting period),
3' to -4 hours on takiug care oLthe cattle and 3 to 4
,-hours on their 1'0useh,?ld chores.
Also a considerable
number of studies have demonstrated the longer working hours, of women compared to. men.'
Their wages
are, however, 20 io 40 per ccnt lesser than those of
men.
This shonld be seen in the light of the fact
that the Minimum Wages Act is, hi the present circumstances, -impossible to be applied to the unorganised
sector and the actual wages fall far short of thc statu- _
tory minimum.3
No welfare or protective
rules
govern
their conditions
of work, Often,. economic
pressures compel these women "to return to their backbreaking tasks within days of child birth.
There are
no maturity cCRtres: n'o creches: no childcare services
to -help them.
Due to soCial nconstraints, women seek work nearer
to their homes and are the worst sufferers at times of
flood, drought and famine.
While the menfolk mig- ,
rate to other
centres 'of work: women have to
stick around their homes with their children. Unprotected and.in acute ,economic diStress they are exposed to social exploitation by those who dole out petty
casual. employment to them,S

Impact of new technology

ADVENT OF m~chanisation,-'
women's
contribution to agric-ulturehns
been on the decline, as they .are unable to .cope up with new innovations in agriculture,
This is partly due to negligence
011 the part of extension
personnel to gear training
programmes for 'women and partly on accouilt
the
conventional opinion tliat women and machines do not
match:

lTH. THE

of

Tragition dictates that women have to depend' 011

men,
Woman is not allowed to try and 'sce whether
she can manage to ~o ploughing
herself.
A young
lad can be entrusted with the plough, but not a grown
up woman. This one laboo has been mainly responsible -f9r making rural women perennially
dependent
17

.on ~en.~ :Abo!'t .a ce",tury .aio John Smart Mill ob ..

served that "the sllbordiliation of one sex to the other
is wrong in itself and now one of the chief hindrances
to human improvement".
In villages with modernised agriculture we find a
decline j'n women's economic activities compared to
villages where traditional farming is still in use. Several s~udies indicate that as a com:equ'en.c:e of mcdernisalio'll, women arC left with the entire. respJnsibility
for the cultivation of the village dryland, thus freeing men to tend to cash crop cultivation.
It seems to be an almost universal trend that men
take over women's work when production changesfroill
subsistence to market economy. It also appears to be
a universal pattern that as sO'on as working operation
is modernised, 'it is 11105t likely to be taken over bj
men.
While hand pounding of grains Was
femald
task, tile miller is always a man.

The increasing commercialisation

and the 'growing
importance
of the 'wholesale trade in food products
have also forced women out of -the retail trade.
The
result can be seen in the steep faU in 'women's participatj~n in trade and co~merce,
where their number
declined from 22.6 lakhs in 1911 to 5.5' lakhs in

1971.'
Traditionally,
dairy production and marketing were
also mainly carried out by women, particularly of the
poorer castes.
In today's dairy indnstry both the
management as well as the rewards have moved out
of women's hands.

ing and edocating them about uptodate farm practices .

The extension \~orkersJ normally:menJ~pass on the -n~.\y-.
knowledge to men of the ~'illagc"s: This means that only
by contacting
"the farmer, the extension
personnql
\VQuld not be sucC;cssfulin
introducing
the various
innovations ill agriculture.
This-. reminds
m: of
Gandhiji's dictum:
"\Vhen YOt; educate a man, you \
v
educate an individual whe~ you educate a woman, you
. educate .a family".
~
From close observations and studies carried out by
the _Directorate
of Extension! it was apparent that
there was a distinct need for edu'cating the farm women in the consumption aspect of the I)ewly released
high yielding variety cereals and in domestic
storage of foodgrains .. Initially there~ was ~ resistance. by
the consumers to the acceptance .of the newly released
cereals due to their unfamiliar 'colour, texture ;and
t?ste which would 'be overcome only by changing the
attitude of ~the women who largely
influence
diet
pattern of the family.
Similarly, 'domestic storage of
foodgrains is the exclusive domain of. women.
Introduction of technology in this sphere could be possible only by motivating 'the women and giving. them
the new information.
Expe;ience of the high. yield"
ing varieties districts where the training programmes
for farm women haye been conducted, giyes a good
account of the keen response of the farm women to
the training courses and the
interest they show in .
knowing more about scientific agricultu~e ..
According to Shanti Chakravarthy,
the prog'iamme
for education of rural women should include information on :

'

.j

The' traditional division of labour within the fishing communities has always brought the men out on
the seas for fishing while the women took care of the
distribution
and handling of the catch once ashore.
All along coastal India, women conld be' seen running with their head-loads
of fish 'to the nearby
markets or directly to private consumers. Preservation
techniques like salting and drying were also
mainly in the llands of women.
Though traditional
fishing and fish trade still ~ist in most places, it is
increasingly being replaced by modern' methods
of
- fishing, processing and marketing.
The division of labour . between men and women
scems
always to . have left wom~-n with the most
labour-intensive
responsibilities.
This .is particularly
true in the area of food production and food handling
for local consumption.
A women's role is thus de~
fined as one that does not require tools,
.

Specific agricu Hural practices;

EcoIlpmics
agriculture

of introducing
. new technology
and proper fann manageinent~

"

4
Basic principles of nutrition and how family diets
can b~ improved by using local resources;
.
Raising of kitchen
nutrItive vegetaples

"
.,
gardens for the supply
throughout the year'
'

18

5
of

"

6
Supplementing
the family income through 'subsidiary occupations like dairying, sheep, pig. goat
keeping and poultry raising;

7
in th.e family and its pr~vention;

, Training needs of farm women

OM~NJs INCREASING
UN.EMPLOYMENT
on
the
".
agricultural
front cannot be checked without
sincere effort to include women in the process of learn-

Nutritive values. of food crops; animal products

- and fish and their importance in, family diets;

.Wastage

'N

2
in

Child care; and

'9
Relationship
between a small family' and soCioeconomic: development
KURUKSHETRA

October.l631982.

Sandhu and Abllasha,.Sharma (1974) whlie' study- . ,

ingthe information needs of farm women, stated, .the
information needs of farm
women respondents. in
. order 'of importailc~. as plant protection
measures,
seed selection, treatment and grading, storage, and
marketing of foodgrains; fertilizer use and improved
" agri"Cultural to01S.'19
Kumar and Snehlata Mago (1974) conducted a

study on training needs of farm 'women

in Haryana.
They found that farm women were interested in receiving training in kitchen gardening, feeding of
aniI11als, storage of grains, care of -sick animals, maintenance

of cattle-shed, transplanting,

weeding,

hoeing

and milking of animals. IS

Ignorance

a~'d superstition

were' characteristic

of

both sexes in the old days when neither went to schnol,

and the 'girls had less reason to feel inferior to men.
Thus, due to growing advances: in agriculture, the men

equipped with the' new know-how, become the only

'decision-makers in the family and the role of women
changes from that of primary food producers to
domestic helpers. The men's prestige is enormously
enhanced while the relative status of women declines
an~the gulf between the sexes is widening.s

The policy should be to train. rural women for

rural extension work not by bringing them ouLof tileir
setting to city style institutions, but' by taking the
institutions

to them.

Urban oriented extension

\\'0[-

'\ kers can hardly be expected to show any preference

, for village life or to be able to communicate without inhibitions. It is the rural women who must be guided
to ill~prove their 'own environment from within.

Time aiiocatlon studies oi women;s work have been

carried out in a few villages. But much mOre information .is needed to get a bett~r understanding of how
women allocate their time, to make both ends meet!

with their limited resources:

J. Since women are more likely to focus on
women and are better qualified to identify rural wo-'
men's problems, the increased recruitment of female
.professionals into research 'and planning is of utmost
importance.
2. The economic

status. of women is now accepted

as an indicator of a society's stage of development.

The need of the hour is to formulate an effective
educational programme to tackle the problems of
both men and women and thus bring about a change
in the outlook of the entire fariiily. Swami Vivekananda
"iid that just as a bird could not fly with its one wing
only, a natioil would not march forward if the women

arc left behiud.

Training in new methods 'of agricultural and allied
techllology, may
.. hclp to improve the economic func-.
tions and the rehabilitation of majority of rural
women in the development process.
3. Home

science

colleges

mostly cater to the ne'eds of

located

in big cities

the middle and 'upper

middle classes.
If such colleges set IIp training units
in rural areas to e9ucate and train rural women, it
-would be of great. help to rural women in improving
their knowledge in the various activities of village life.
I

Conclusion and suggestions

IN

4. The existing Mahila Mandals iii rural areas need

THE

LIGHT

OF

THE

decisions

arrived - at

the

World Conterence on Agrarian ,Reform and Ru'ial

Development (WCARRD) sponsored. by F.A.O. held
in Rome, Italy between 12 and 20 July, 1979, womeIl:
should participate and contribute 'on an equal basis
with men in the social, economic and pc.litical process

of rural development and shate fully ill improved conditions of life in rural 'areas. There is an urgent .need
to expand knowleuge and statistical"data on all aspects:
of the Iural POOf, particuhlrly in regard to women.'s
Iole in rural activities. and to disseminate this inform av(tion in order to promote greater awareness of women's
, role in' society.

to be promoted and' strengthened so as to implement

the socia-economic. programmes in rural areas and to

bring about a change in rural India for belter conditions of living.

5. lufants and toddlers are in need of food that is
easily. digestible and which along with breast milk
can provide sufficient nutrients at the critical stage of
child development. It is unrealistic to expect mothers.
who are already ovef\vor~ed to prepare special .foods

and dishes for their children every' day and several

times -a day. The only realistic alternative left seems
to b~e to process supplementary

and weaning foods at

village leve!, according to local food habits _and food .

. Studies in this field so far, have exhibited. a negli- .
-gible concern for a systematic study of women's -role.
In orde-r to include woman as a campOli.ent in the
mainstream of development it' is ~ssential to know as
to what exactly she is doing now, where she needs_

help and where she could contribute to the development.

KURUKSHETRA

October 16,1982

availability, so .that the mother can spend morc time

in product.ive occupati0!1s,
..
. Reducing time spent on household duties will give
women the opportun.ity to take up training or education, the learning of new skills or incojne-ge-ncrating
activities.
.

19

Karl Marx and Engels have .pointed out that "tlle

emancipation of women and their equality with mcn
arc "impossible and must remain so as long as women
arc excluded from productive work and restricted to
household work, which is absolutely private".

O. Women havc to be -involved in the process of

modernisation. If this is not done, the chances of an

all-round
bleak.

development

of rural

India

are rather

In this connection, J awaharlal Nehru has rightly

mentioned, "In order to awaken the people, it is the
women who have to be awakened. Once they are on
movc, thc household moves, the village moves and
the country moves."

REFERENCES
1. Villa

Mazumdar,

Farming,

"Woman

Vol. XXV,

NO.8,

in Agriculture",
iVa\'. 1975, 5-9.

Indian

2. Sreelekha Basu, "Role of Women ~Jl Rural Economi~'

Derelopmenl",
Yojana, Vol. XXlll/21,
16 Nov. 1979,
.23-27.
3. Kanda Mallkekar,
. YOjWUl,

"Women

Vol. XXIV /16, Sept.

Working Against Odd~/',

1, 1980, 13-14.

4. Rljammal P. Det'odas, "Role of Womel1 ill Modem

Agricu!Jur:..e", Indian Farming,
Vol. XXV,
NO.8,
Nov. 1975, 15-17.
.
5. Ralljil Siugh, "Role of Farm Women':,
Vol. XVll, Aug. 1969, 'No, II, 27-28.

Kurukshetra,

6, Atrc}'i CIJ(lt1~r;ee,~ "LclIldle,rs Ag;icltltuwl

Womcll
Workers, A Statistical Profile'" Indian Farming, Vol.
XXV, NO.8, Nov. 1975, 30-32.
7. SIIO.llti Chakravarthy, "Women POlVcr in Agriculture",
Kurukshetra,
Vol.' XX/V, No.4, Nov. 16, 1975, 8-9.
8. Ba/jit Malik, "Women in a Changing Rura{ Society",
Social Welfare, Vol. XXIJ, No, 8, Nov.'75,
24-26.
9.. Ra;IIIc..J~Devi,A.

Vol. XXll/I3,

k,

{~Womell EntreprellclId',

lYojana,

16 luly 1978, 19-22.

JO. Brifa BluUldtzaeg, "Women, Food (md Technology",

Ecollomic and Political WeekI}', Vol. XIV, No. 47,
No\'. 24, 1979, 1921-24.
11. F.A.O. Workshop all the Integratioll of Women ill
Agriculture
a/ld Rural DeFelopmeJll.
Proceedilljfs,

20

Natiollal ItWittlte of Rural Development,

Nov. 17-22, 1980.

llyderabad,

12. "Towards Equality"-Report

of the Committee on the
Status of Women in India, Govt. of India, Ministry of
Education and Social Welfare, Dept. of Social Welfare, New De/iii, Dec. 1974.
13, Satyavati Parmar, "A Saga ,of Women ia the Hills",
Indian Farming, Vol. XXV, No.8,
Nov. 1975.
14. Census of 'India, 1981, Series-I, India, Provisional
Population Totals, .Workers and Non.workers, ,paper-3.
15. Devadas, P. R., Mutllu, S, Thangamani, ~, "Role of'
Selected Farm Warnell in Agricultural- Operations",
The "Indian Journal of Home Science, VI(1),
April
1972, 50.
16. Shasi Puri, "Rural Families and Decision Making
Pattern", Indian Journal of Extension Education, Vll,
Jvlal'ch-hme, 1971, 66.
17. Hiranand a.nd Kumar, K" "Role of Farm Women. of
Dry Farming Tract ill Decision-Making",
Indian Cooperative Review, XVll, Jan. 1980, 105-106.

-I

18. Kumar, K. and Snchta/a Mago, "Training Needs of

Farm Womm in Haryana", Indian Journal of. Adult
Edllcatioll,
XXX
(10), 1974, 72--76.
19. Sandhu, A. S. and Abhilasha Sharma, "Informa/ion
l\lceds'of Farm Women", Indiall Journal of Extension
Education,
Vol. XU, Jam-Junc 1976, Nos. 1 & 2,
53-55.

KURUKSHETRA

October 16, 1982

Agricultural technology in
rural development
S. E. KOTHANDARAMAN
'Executive Secretary. Farmer's Forum, Madras

WELL 'KNOWNthat lndia is predominenlly an

I agricultural
country and a land of villages wilh
T IS

about 80 percent of its population residing in about

six lakhs of villages spread through out its' length
and breadth in which about 400 million peoPle-Jive.
Thus agriculture forms the backbone and an important sector. in the Indian economy and about 70 to
75 percent of the working population depend on
agriculture for their livelihood.
But the attitude of rural population is fatalistic.
,They feel that agriculture is not paying and hence
resist any ehange suggested in the methods of improving their lot and stick to the _old " traditional
methods for fear of losing their scanty capital1n trying new methods.
They are also paid poorly for
their_ produce.

Thus Indian agriculture has been

deficit economy with overcrowding of people on land,

lack of alternate means of livelihood and obstacles
like natura.] calamities, technical and cconomic problems, social and structural barners and various land
reforms and administrative problems.

The' problem now is to transform agriculture from

merely a J:node of living into a bl!siness proposition for
the benefit of the miUions' of farmers. While thc
influcncial. section of farmers henefitted by the vari~
ous development programmes, a large . number of
small and marginal farmers
and
agricultural
labourers had not gained from, these various developments. Their. holdings still remain fragmented, irrigation fa.cilities are. unevenly
distributed,
land
development and soil conservation methods have not
been satisfactory with the. result scientific agriculture
could not be adopted on a large scale. The
indifferent attitude of the urban people and Government agencies also brought the villagers to the lowest
level of destitution, appaHing poverty and indebtedness. This made both the people and the. Government
to think how best to bring about the rehabilitation of
. the villages. It was realised that if poverty of the
teeming millions is to

should be paid to rural

peoplc lived.

In order to feed the millions and provide raw

materials for industrv and for exports, we have to
increase agricultural production both of food and
'cash crops since about 45 percent of onr exports are
ag-ro based.

The growing disparity in

income

bet:'

ween the urban. and ,rural areas, also needs to be

tackled. There .is also disparity between the influential section and small farmers and Agricultural
labourers in the rural sector besides the unemployment problem in the villages. About 300. million
people representing about 5i % of thei rural lJOpulation are estimated to be below the poverty line. The
poorest section of the, population belong to the
families of landless labourers, marginal farmers and
rur"al artisans.
KURUKSHETRA

October 16, 1982

be

"relieved,

areas

more attention

where

most of thc

The approach
,

ORPROMOTING
THE WELFAREof the' people and increasing the productivity in rural areas it was found
necessary to make a whole village approach to development. Development of the village can be 'done
by making the best use of available facilities for
adoption of scientific agriculture and increased productivity. To reduce the disparity in the rural
economy and to benefit the srriall farmers, the
marginal farmers and agricultural labourers who
form the village community a package approach to
deal with village economy as a whole. is needed. Also
the village community is to be enthnsed into common
21

actian tawards development so that the whole community gets the benefit.
-

Rural development programme

URAL DEVELOPMENTPROGRAMME-hasas its aim
the threc fold aspect af material, intellectual and
moral dcvclopment, by using all the good things in
the village life and thus seeks to' change the villagers
entire outloak an life.

Besides thc abave, a-gricultural aperatians like raising of nursery,plaughing

the entire cultivable areas
by tractor, undertaking of plant production operar
tions could all be done in cOmmOn in the village.

Integrated _Rural Development

Programmes

"

Under the Integrated Development programmes of

the viIIage, the fonowing items were included.

Amang the variaus changes made in the rural India

was imparting dynamism
to agri( I) Agrieultural demonstration.
culture which was s.tagment. Allied occupatians like
(2) Agricultural extension .
.,jairying, poultry, piggery, fishery and social far,s.
.r
.
~;.l
(3) Starting of Agro.based IndustrIes .
i_try which have special relevance to' the economy of
(4) Training in leadership .
. weaker sections were develaped. New Agricultural
(5) ,Health and family planning programmes._
techniques in scientifi_c use of major and minor irrigatian were made available to' the farmers. Cattage,
(6) Functional liie~acy.
village alid rural industries were developed -at the
In addition to the above the fonowing items of assi,
specified productian points. Facilities for issue -of
stance are- also provided.
.
,
in'stitutianal credit fOT effective implementation _af
.(i) Provision
of medium term' credit for reproductive prajects were made available. Further
demption
of
mortgaged l,ands, for purchase
the development of marketing_ facilities: emergence'
of
work
_
animals
and agricultural impleof growth centre~" emphasi~ on group action and
conjoint activities, special efforts to organise and
ments.
assist, in particular, thc!,veaker section. of far!mers
Seed-Bank
facilities .
(ii)
and the poarer sections of the society 'in general and
(iii) Food_ for work prograinme for'land reclaprovisian af welfare and municipal utilities in the'
mation and construction of' comm~mity- i.rrirural areas were aU initiated 'in full measure;
gation projeets and
~
,
Construction
of
drinking
_(iv)
,
. water wells ete.
ViJlage development
most important

T was built around thc village community as a whole

HE

V,lHOLE

VILLAGE

DEVELOPMENT..,..PROGRAMME

mid it cansisted mainly of:

(1) Consolidatian of haldings'to 'facilitatc: irrigae

tion from one sonrce or a community
(2)

irrigation. source.
Land development for maximum -water
control and moisture .c6nscrVution iI).
dry
areas to develap rain fed areas' for -better.~ ~griculture.

(3) Maximising irrigation facilities especially in

delta areas for improving agriculture by

providing field channel system and field
drainage system. ending in mas.ter drainage.

system. Sinking of filter points or tubewells

in these ayacuts to cnable a double or triple
cropping possible, thus increasing production.

(4) S~itable cropping pattern.

(5) Acceptance and enforcement
of Mirumum
wage -for agriculture and non_agricultural
labour.
. ~

(6) Distrib~tion of waste land and cxtra

landto ian'dl6ss aftcr allowing for con;mon utili,

ties of the' village.
.-

22

The above integrated rural oeveiopm~nt programmes and subsidies for minor irrigation' and employmen~generation programmes like the . "Fo6d for
Work" a;,d the'Natiimal
Rural- Emplayment Programmes have been formulated and implemented to
- help develop rural areas in general and the weaker
sections of the rural population in particular.

Eilrlier ,Programmes:' Earlier _attempts at rural reconstruction of the -viIIageand the farmers were made
in the following place~-but -they had to be abandoned
due to various reasons.
SriiIiketan: Notable results were achieved by this
centre -in_a small area and in a -few villages in' the
matter of economic and DlOral rehabilitation ~of the
."rural community.

"",",-

Artandam: This centre had succe;eded in chang- .

ing the psychology of the people with a desire to improve, a spirit of cooperation and new self respect.
Gurgaonl: In this 'sehenie ~nder agrieuitural
development progJ:amme, farmers were exhorted to set
up m~del farms, .use improved seeds, .~dopt gurgaon
. plough and othbr improved implements~ use preventive nleasures against crop pests, killin~ field rats
and monkeys, drawing away harmful- insects ~ using
'kVRUKSHETRA

Odober 16, 1982

facilities inriiin6r

light tnips In. the fieids, and consoudatlon of holdings

on 'cooperative' basis. This scheme . in a way succeedcd .in awakening people and the Government to the
vital problem ot village' reconstruction as an imme~liate necessity.

.lion,

,rrigal1olt,soll

dIa"inage, processing

facilities.

'

and-

conservamarketing

Programmc:(c) Whole village Dcvelopment

Thi~ p"rogramme ajm~. a~ consolidation ot
holdings, ovcr all land

Baroda: 1n this . centre

agricultural
production
programme was expanded to cover measures such as
provision of irrigation facilities, conservation -of soil,'
production of nucleus seeds, their multiplication and
distribution. education in agriculture and subsidiary'
oceupation~. This centre's experiment was a great

development

and

~1Uximisjng water control and moisture preservation in dry_ area~~ maximising irrigutioll

support, cropping programme for the village

for the best use of irrigation and best coutro1. of irrigation and drainage.

(d) Integrated Rural Development Programme :-

success.

This programme cnvisages the development

of rural areas and weak~r sections of . the
people such as small and marginal farmers
tenants share croppers, landless labourers.
rural artisans, members of Scheduled Castes,
Tribes who suffer economically and socially.
removing poverty and unemployment, developing of local potential resources to satisfy
local needs and bring Hbout enviroJ1;lental
balance.

Sarvodaya Scheme 01 Bombay: This scheme is largely

, based 011 Ga'udhiji's idea o[-SarvOda.ya and the underlying idea wa-? to incL!lcate jn._the villagers the sp~rit
of sclf-help and mutual hclp.
FirJ<a Dnclol,mcnt Scheme 01 Madras.: This scheme of Goverllll1ent aimed at attainment of Gandhian
ideal of village swaraj by attacking the rural problems
as a' whole. <lS well as in its several parts. TIlis
scheme \vas started for undertaking experiments 1n
Intensive Rural Reconstruction and improving the
economic and sanitary conditions
of the villages.
Rural water supply and health improvement had. first
priority with better coinmunic~tions and improved
agricultural practices following closely. This scheme
was subsequently merged with the National Extension
Service.

In this new approach, integrating field programmes

with the idea of employment and development of the
rural farming is the basic objective and in the primary
sector programmes for agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries and poverty. development were intensified.

'\

Post independence

schemes

.l?mphasis on R. D. in sixth plan

EARLIER 20 POINT P~OGRAMME
laid considerable stress on improvement- of living conditions of
rnral poor. Th~ Sixth Five Year plan lays emphasis
.on the need for further intensifying the developmental 'efforts to promote and accelerate the development of rural "areas and to ensur~ a distinct improvement in the living standards of the poorest groups and
reduction of inequalities in asset distribution. It also,
emphasises that if the economic condition of the
rural poor should)mprove, productivity of the land is .
to be raised by. provision of more of irrigation, more
of fertilisers and, more of high yielding seeds.

HE

1. The pilot 'development prujcc( of Etawah:

Significant results were achieved in various fields and
the specific programme .of worJs-was of increasing
Agricultural Production.

2, The Nilokheri Experiment: Tllis has been the

pioneer in the development of Industrial Estates.
3. Rural Development Programme of Government:
Under the various Schemes of Rural Development,
programmes of Government the following . measures
are worth noting :-:-(a) Setting up of small f,umers D."velopment
Agency/Marginal farmers and Agricultural
labours projects : Under' this programme
atleast 10,000 fanners are to be benefitted
in each ~sclecled Jistr,icts through the various activities as sheep~ cattlet -dairy, crop

husbandry, wells, small tube wens, sericulture, Horticulture! development, etc.

(b) Hill area development project: -This project
aims at integrated development of Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal husbandry, Dairy,
as well "as Development
of illfra-~tructural
,KURUKSHETRA October 16, 1982

Programme for substantial increase in ~productivity

in .agriculture and its diversific'il.tion, iilcreasing irriga.
lion --potential. and stepping

up utilisation

of cxi,sting

facilities, promotion' of village and cottage industries

which have a direct bearing on the development of
rural areas are important

aims and activities."

The

_ rural employment programme in the Sixth plan will

benefit about 15 million farmers consisting of about
75 million persons \vho are below the poverty line,
during the plan period and this programme will.supplement employment opportunities particularly for the
. labourers during the lean agricult\lral period. During
the plan period the l(lcal food grains production is to
23

be raised from i28 million tonIles in 79-80 to i54

million tonnes in 84-85, Oil seeds production from
10-20 million tonnes to 13 million tonnes~' and sugarcane from 175-80 million tonnes to 215,00 million
tonnes, Besides, programmes for village and small
industries sector for meeting mainly the medinm needs
of rural areas and several outlays directly bearing on
'the development of rural areas and olher" sectoral
outlays in industries
indudiilg
Fertiliser. proj~cts,
pesticide units and other industries providing essential
inptits for Agricultural growth, transport,' energy, communication,

social, services. etc. for rural areas which

involve the utilisation of a large fleet of rural labour

force are all to be initiated,

,p

ROVISION

OF ADEQUATE

INSTITUTIONAL

credit for

the rural areas through primary cooperative societies, commercial

banks with rural and special agri-

~ultural branches and regional banks have been made

in the Sixth Five year plan, This brings ont

the
considerable emphasis placed by the Centre and State
Governments on improving the economic condition and

quality of life of' the majority of people living in

the rural areas of our country, During the Sixth
plan a sum of Rs, 32,287 crores IS proposed to be'
spent .on agriculture,

rural

development,

irrigation

and flood control" ;'illage and small industries and

"on 'Minimum Needs Programme, It has also set a
target of 3.9% per annuill growth in foodgrain pro~
duction and thus Agriculture will continue to be the
largest, provider of 'employment in the villages,
The success of the progrannne of rural develop'
ment and other activities affecting thc lives of millions
of our rural people depend 'largely 011 its effective im-,
plementation by the Centre and State Agencies and
with the development of modern means of transport
and industrialisation, the villagers will be able to
enter into commercal competition and world market

(CcJliliilued,
frol1i.p:, 14)
,

,Thc commercial banks took up 'Village Adoption

Schemes' to cater to, the varied and diversified needs
of "their'inhabitants' i.e. -the small~farmers, rural artisans,
technical men" small entrepreneurs or petty shopkeepers, If ,catered to systematically by the commercial banks, they can certainly 'help' the process of d.evelopment as also increase the'share, of (he poor in the
fruits of development.
' ,

Suggestions
T IS, HOWEVERSUGGESTEO
that if 'the banks are io
really serve the cause of our new 20-point programme, the ~ollowing points should b~ kept in mind:

1
They should, wherever possible" operate through
intermediatory agencies like primary cooperative societies, large scale multi-purpose societies, farmers'

2 ~

The Lead banks of each district should prepare a

district credit p1<infor' target groups under the 20point programme and pass it on to the banks' for
implementation under their supervision,

3
'There shonld be proper coordination betwcen different developmental agencies to avoid dnplication and
waste of efforts,

'4
Banks should cO\lduct studies of specific bchemes
financed by them and the findings be shared with '?ther
banks,
'

5
The State lev~1 bankers committee should review' the

service societies., cooperative development societies and

performance of commercial

the HanJloom development corporation, -

point programme and regularly mOnitor the progress, '

banks under the new 20- ~

.KURUKSHETRA

'

October ,16, 1982 ):

.They

show: the'~way.

This feature is

based

Oil

success stories viz. achievements

gained in various

sphere" of rural de'velopment by farmers, institutions, experiments and indiviquais. There is hardly an argument oyer the }act that dedication and zeal to
put .in hard work call achieve anything. ,And one achievement Inspires and shows
the way to others!
. We hope our esteemed readers will send us their own experiences in the.
field sO that others can benefit by them to usher in a better .life for our rural
people. (Editor)
a problem to the management o~ the temple. With
An elephant for a mahout
the installation of the Re-cycling Model Plan, 30
ARAYANA MARAR made his living by' working as a
families are getting cheap gas in a place where supply
mahont in a village in North Kerala. His father
of cooking' gas was not in vogue. The Khadi and
too used to work as mahout iu the good old royal
Village Industries Corrnnission has spent Rs. 2 lakhs
for the establishment of this community bin-gas plant
set-up of Malabar.
the first of 12 such plants proposed'to be set up.
At the.age of 52, he lost his job as a result of the

'IN

implementation of Land Reforms Act in Kerala which

compelled landlo'rds to restrict' themselves. to a few
a"res of land. Narayana Marar did not know any
other kind of work. The elephant he tamed also. became redundant like the royal family'to which. it be-

"I

-E.
Editor,

'Grambhoomi',

I-j

VASU

Trivondrlitn

longed.

Is it possible to get an elephant through the Integrated Rural Development Programme meant for people
below poverty line? Though elephant is a symbol of
"affluence, Narayana Manu was reduced to the inevit",able misery of a labourer in feudal system. He could
s!iI1 kneel down any proud elephant by sheer mllStery
over his profession. Bnt this was of no avail in the .
changed situation.

AI.

The State Bank of India in consultation with .. the

Development Block at Nileswar in Cannano,"" district
agreed to assist Mar"ar to the ttine of Rs. 30,000/Marar is noW upon. his pet elephant 'Nirm'ala', aged 9. It was due to a feasibility study conducted by Spri D.
Janardanan, the Block Development .Officer that the
bank officials agreed to assist the. novel scheme under
the Integrated Rural Development Programme thongh
most of the schemes are worked out for purchase of
milch animals alone. The genius of a development
.officer lies' in finding out new' avenues, after assessing
the potentiality of the area and the individual taste of
the man below poverty ,line to be assisted. Thus, a
~ mahout is tumed to be an owner of an elepIlant now?
The Krishna Temple at Guruvayoor in Triehnr dis-'
rict attracts devotees from all over India. There are
forty elephants at Guruvayoor among whOm many are
received as offerings of devotees for prayers answered.

Till now, bin-gas plants established in the country ot

cow-dung. On 15th May 1982,' a communitybio gas plant was 'inaugurated at Guruvayoor ntilising the
droppings of the elephanis of Guruvayoor. The droppings of 40 elephants of Guruvayoor Devaswam posed

.. Better life through NREP

..
Begmabad is n.ow a suburb ?f
the famous mdustrIal town-Modinagar.
A bIg
0
dirty naJah separates the two. Thediri of the drain
NCE A BIG Vl.LLAGE,.

is a menace for about 150 families, mostly of scheduled castes living. on both the sides of this about one
kilometre long nalah.'
. A step is being tnkcn to c6iistruct and clean it
under the National Rural Employment Programme.
An amount of RS.one lakh is sanctioned and placed
at the disposal of the B.D.O. for it. The work is
being ca'rried ont under the technical guidance of the
Rural Engineering Service. When completed, it will
provide relief to about 150 families and geneniteemployment about 2,200 mandays.

-D. P. GUPTA
BDO, Bhojpur (Ghaziabad)

25

Book reVIew
EDUCATING
HARIJANS,by B. R. GOYAL
~heAcademic Press, Haryana; pp., 129; Rs. 50._ ..

PLTFT OF HARTJANS
has been one of the' major
objectives of our social reformers from time to
time. We cannot forget that our ~ociety is demirIated
by rigid caste system which leaves an unbearable effect
at its lowest echelons, i.e. that class of. Indian society
Ivho bave not only provided a helping band in maintaining hygienic con4itions but have also contributed

their blood

and sweat' in setting up various artistic

monuments. A gist of Indian History and her caste

system would make it crystal clear that harijans have
been the most neglected section of the society. This
section has always attracted the attention of social
reformers such' as Raja Ram Mohan Roy' and
Mahatma Gandhi; to the extent that Gandhiji gave the
name "Rarijan" to this .community, meaning Hari+
Jan-"The
mnn of God". In their attempt to uplift
this minority group upto the level of rest of their
brethern in the society, . imparting of education has
been at the first method.. This very attempt, that is
"Educating these men of God" in all its ramifications,
has been .very thoroughly assessed by Sh. B. R. Goyal
in his book under review.
He has sympathetically
evaluated the various
schemes and strategies developed and implemented by
the pioneers of the field: He has explained, at his
level best, the Government's' efforts in various States

26

where this class is in majority. The whole' effort of

the author is eonsolidated.in mine chapters,' all brief
and to the point, touching the pros and cons of each
aspect df the"education systems variously evolved and
enforced for Harijans ..
The author has staried the book with the c:evelopmen! of discrimination in Indian society through the
praCtice of prominent religious and orthodox ;10rm~

and values. He l1.as emphasised en the fact tbat to

fill the 'gap between harijans and general population
we have to ensnre due status fer the farmer by.educat-lng them. . .

onll

. T'

HE GOAL" 9f. equali(y and .social justice. can

a"hieved by provision or opportunities, a motivating force for education, siinultane<:i~slytaking care to
." hinderances. An insight into future of
overcome possIble
Indian Socio'<;,eonomic structure has been dwelt upon
in the" last chapter '~Vision of T omorrow"arrivin!!; at a
c"lllclusion that this section of society ~ot only ~needs
a helping hand 'but
. also .a sympathetic attitude.~

The entire study has been accomplished' with the help

and support of selected books, .research monographs,
reports, official documents.. The .study is hrief that
. almost everything has been consolidated into 129 pages,'
With a -systematic and descriptive network of engrossing words. and sentences which ensure.u" rcadabilitv of
order.
.

a~vivid

~ ",'

~lJRU~SHETRA

October 16,.19S2r

Infant m,?rtality rate has been

brought dov.ll by immunising
them from v<1rious diseases.

The new lO-point programme

Health

An integrated approach to the health problem thraugh

preventive, promotive and curative measures along with

effective linkages with other programmes like safe

drin~ing water supply,
improvement in sanitation,
nutrition, education has, therefore,

been adopted under

the Sixth Plan. The rural health infrastructure is being

strengthened and remodelled. For every' 1,000 people
in villages there will be a trained Health Guide who
will provide health education to the people, including
family planning, .treat minor ailments, and refer cases
requiring attention of a doctor to the nearest Primary

Health Centre. There will be a sub-centre for every

5,000 popu.'ation (3,000 in hilly and difficult areas). A
Primary Hea'th Centre will serve roughly a population
of about 30,000 (20,000 in hilly and difficult areas).
By 1979-80, the country had 1 .4 lakh Health Guides
and 50,000 sub-centres, 5,400 Primary Health Centres
and 340 rural hospitals (Community Health Centres).
The programme in the Sixth Plan is ta add another
4 lakh Health Guides, 174 rural hospitals (CHCs),
40,000 sub-centres and J ,600 PHCslSubsidiary
Health Centres.

Care of the old and the destitute is an essential

Part of the health care programmes of today.

(Licenced under U(D)-54 to pOst without prepayment at Civil Lines Post OJice, Delhi)

Regd. No. D (DN)/39.

-----~-~-,
RN 703/57

t
,

T ho~ghnoteworthy progress has been made on the health front, health cover is yet to
,
extend to one and- aU.

.The new 20-point programme

Health

A .programme for control of leprosy is being implemented as a centrally sponsored scheme funded by the
Centre on 100 per cent basis. The object of the programme is to detect at least 90 per cent of the cases
and arrest the disease in at least 40 per cent cases. It has since been decided to draw up and implement
au intensive programme for the eradication of this disease before the end of this century.
Under the current programme of control of preventable blindness' on account of disease, nutritional deficiency
and cataract, the target in the Sixth Plan is to bring down the incidence of blindness from 1.40 per cent
in the base year to 1per cent by the end of 1984-85.
PUBLISHED
PRINTED

BY TIm DIRECTOR, PUBLICATIONS

BY THE

MANAGER,

DMSION.

GOVERNMENT

NEW DBLBI-llOOOl

OF INDIA PRESS,

IY.RIDABAD

AND