1

Vol: XXX

No:9

<,

February

::

1-15, 1982
Re. I

~ 2J2:::~===
.

"

"'Ensuring
'-,.
.' ..'"."eqljjtable . " ,.
'_ _ '.distribution,
. . -of
",
;,-....,;~:"~.q"-:i'rr i9atia n
,.

,.

PM's New 20-Point

Programme

The Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi has commended to the

nation a new 20-point Programme. Under this Programme, it is
proposed to ,:
1 Increase irrigation potential, develop and. disseminate technologies and inputs for dry land agriculture ..
2

Make specia:I. efforts to increase production of pulses and

vegetable oil seeds.

3 .Strengthen and expand coverage of Integrated Rural Development and National Rural Employment Programmes.
4

Implement agricultural land ceilings, distribute' surplus land

and complete compilation of land records by removing all
administrative and legal obstacles.

Review and effectively enforce minimmu wages for agriCultural

labour.
'

Rehabilitate bonded labour.

Accelerate programmes for the development of Scheduled

Castes and Tribes.

Supply drinking water to' all problem villages.

Allothouse"sites to rural families who are without them and

expand programmes for construction assistance to thein.
. .

10 Improve the environment of slums, implement programmes

. of house building for economically weaker sections, and take
measures to arrest unwarranted increase in land prices.
(Continued on Cover III)

. Editorial
.

.I

,~

-rullshetr.
dia's lournal' of rural development)

CONTENTS
'.

'.

"

, ;.

I : ~.: .

.
.~

'"*'

. '-, ~.

EQUiTABLE DISTRiBUTION OF
. :,.
lRRI(;ATION WATER
... /:
'.,{
'.
.'
.
.' - M. Veilkata Reddy

9 .' .....FINANCIAL
INTEGRATED
,

MANAGEMENT,IN
RURAL. DEVELOPMENT
' B:L.Si:J!1

14
17
19

22

2-1-

the basic requisite of agricultural proAdequate and timely availability. of irri,

gation not only provides an insurance against the fai. lurc or. delay 'of mon~oons but also promotcs the
growth of crops and adds to the efficient use of agricullural inputs like fertilizers, improved seeds etc. Irrigation is thus vital to agricultural productivity and has
a direct bearing on raising the living standards of our
farmers,
'j " : I,
RRIGATiON

IS

. Realising the importance of irrigation in developing our agricultural productivity; large amounts have
been spent on increasing the irrigation potential. The
total investment on irrigation development till the end
of Fifth Plan has bee'n Rs. 9,282 crores. As a result,
there has .been tremendous

13..; llOW
,:.. '

.I ductivity.

FARES THE COMMUNITY T.V.

".' B. Subralmianyam and Sai Prasad A'ahari
PRIORITY CREDIT UNDER THE D.R.!,
, SCHEME

-increase

in

"the irrigation

potential and the irrigated area has gonc up from 2.26

crores hectares in 1950-51 to 5.85 crores hectares in
1978-79. ' Even this is less than one-third of the total
cropped area in the country. '

Navin Chandra 105"i

A CASE FOR RURAL INDUSTRIALI:
SATION
V. C. Sinha

. The optimum utilization' of the irrigation potcntial

.ciealed' at the: cost of 'hundreds' of-.crores of rupees is
. essential for alround agricultural-development in the
country. It is. not merely enough to provide addiSELLING FAMILY PLANNIN~TO
. tional; irrigation potential; it, is equally important that
,TRIBALS
.' "the 'water available is,scientifically and equitably utilizK. K. Sundaram, R.' DTianii~pani
ed. Unfortunately, this aspect has 'not been given as
'. N. Nf1rlly,!na~wamy
'much impi:>rtance:iTt' our schewe of things as it should
BOOK REVIEW
have been.'" Lack 6f -adequate water . management
Badar Alam ,Iqba'
planning has led to wastage of a big percentage of
"water'resourc.es 'which .couldhavc helped in increasing
TitE\; SHOW THE WAY' .. ' .
....
:agricultural :production a'rid.prosperity. There is an
EDITORS
urgent n~ed to adopt a most scientific and cquitable
"'system' bf' distributing' and"'utilizing irrigation watcr
, (MRS.) RATNA IUNEJA
ASSn.
EDITORS
td' eliminate unproductiye use of water.
N. N. SHARMA
.. ~
SU~EDlTOR' .'
The most recent development Ln.this direction is the
introductio'll (,f' warabandi .or rotational water supply
...
"PAiiAMJEET"(;;'SINGff
system which is presently. ,.being trie,d in Andhra
COVER
Pradesh.
Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and
JlVAN .ADAUA
PunJab.:'
This system 'ensute~ adequatc, timely and
Subscriptions,
Advertisements,
Agen9ie~,) etc.- ~ .,. ,dependable. 'supply of. w.ater to all farmers irrespective
of the location .of.nie;r farm:'holdin~s and their socioBusiness Manager,
publications'
economic -st_~tus~ancCat Mth~"same,time provides scienDivision,. Patiala ~ House,
. tilic a'nd eql!itable. ;ljstrib,ution' of,w~ter thus minimisNew.Delhi.lIOOOI
ing the wastage of wate~ -alid" farmers; time.
Tel: 387983

~na

.... '

..

Editorial afiree ':

Krishi 'Bhawim, "New' Delhi. I 10001
Telephones: 384888.& 38240,6
, Editor's: Residence : 617226

".'

,In this iss~c ;"'e,carry~n';anaiyiicalstudy

on equitablc distribution"';,f irrig~tiori"water. We hope our
readers, will ,lind t)lis study informativc and enlightening.
.

!!INOLBCOPY IRe. 1
SUBSCRIPTION FOR ONE YEAR: Rs. 20
''-' - ~
...
'

,"

-~

. :- .:'.

"

.Equitable distribution
irrigation wat'
.'
In~tituiefor Social and Economic Change, Bangalorc

T", Jably

HE GROWTH

"

OF

agricultural production

is inexo-

itiferlinked wi1h irrigafionpotential,

becansc of' the limited' availability' of', additional lands
to bring under cultivation. 'Irrigation
,generally incwases productivity per unit of inputs and -intensity of.
cropping as well as facilitates cUltivation of those high
value crops that could not be cultivated under dry
conditions, Even so, it may not be 'possible to" ensure'
maximum economically and socially desired retutns
without proper distribution and management of available water resources. ,Improper di,slribution may.!eadto
excessive use of water by head-reach and influential
'farmers depriving the legitimate right of those at the
t",il-end of an outlet command. Insecurity of water
supply is"likely to result in a vicious circle Of low input use, low productivity and hence low income
widening economic inequalities.
Thus there is an
imperative n,eed to study a suitable system for obtaining' equal distribiJtiOll ensuring ma,ximum returns per
unit of available water.
Jn the .distribution network of an irrigation project,
outlet'is a pivot",l point for implementing water mana'
gement.
It is' at this' po}nt where "irrigation bureaucracyends and 'farmers' responsibility begins. Distribution of ,water below an outlet; essentially, is the
responsIbility of all concerried farmers, It is here a
multi-pronged built-in socio,economic orders' of. the

Warabandi system
ARABA'NDI could be an appropriate and effective
, ,: 'system for obtaining' egalitarian distribution of
irrigation' benefits. It is nothing but rotational water.
,supply and is riot alien, to Indian fanner. The significance, however, lies in ensuring adequate, timely;and
dependable water supply to all the farmers irresp~c, tive of their farm location.

The broad objective of this paper is to study, the

, 'impact of improper
distribution of, water on cro,p
yields. The views of farmers on existing wa.ter distribution system in an outlet command and their 'aware.
ness 'of' water management and willingness to ,follow
a ncw' system are, highlighted. The problems of
implementing, Warabandi to avoid unequal distribution and achieve egalj~a:rian benefits are discussed.
,Data are drawn from one of the projects, namely
,"Land Development and Water Management" under-taken by the Command Area Studies Unit of Institute
for Social 'and Economic Change, Bangalore. A
sample of 174 farmers under one distributory in Malaprabha Command Area is considered for examining'
water distribution problems.

society operate, causing improper distribution of water.

A systematic multi-disciplinary
to overc~me plausible hurdles

approach is essential

in

implementing
a
scientific method to achieve equity in available water
. utilisation.
".,

lRobert -Chambers, Canal Irrigaiion Management in l;/dia:

'Some Areas for Action,- Analysis

ani Research:

.I

'

THE:ture~uRP6sE
in adequate

of irrigation is to provide soil'mois-

quantities in the, immediate

vicinity of plant roots. This purpose, will be defC'ated
if correct amount of water is not applied. Excess of
water may result in salinity and insufficient watcr will'
reduce soil moisture level resulting in low yields of
crops: Water: use,. in terms of net requirement, gioss
wat,:r application, irrigation frequency and period. has
KURUKSHETRA

February 1, 1982

Ie influence on crop yields. The relalion

ter use (in terms of number of irrigations);
tivity .for a few important crops in' the
rea has been tested by fiiting a 'second
omial
for data collected from . 174 sample
.

higher .yield~_ A large percentage of famiers, especially those growing Maize (62%). Wheat (25%) and
Cotton (78%) gave greater number of irrigations thad
required and wasted valuable water.
Cultivators. who have given inad~quate n~mber. of
. irrigati<?TIsand excess nu~ber of irrigations .got invariably low yields when compared to those with optimum mi"mber .,?f irrigations.
In case of JGwar, .6 irri"';'
gations have' proved to be optimum while below and
above that has' resulted in low yields. Similarly. far-.
mers who gave 7_ irrigations for l\laizc, 8 for Wheat
. and 8 for Cotton obtaincd higher yields.

ations 'are given below :

Y =6.1 +0 ;26x-O '009x2
atX=7, Y=7.5
ar: Y=2.90+2.i9x-O.13x"
at X=8, Y=6.3
heat: Y=1.90+0.35x-0:10x,
at X=8, Y=4.0
e X denotes the number of irrigations amI Y is
Yield' per acrc (in quintals).
itIercntiatiol1 'Of above. rt?nctions. wid; respect
to
nber of irrigations, (x) shows that optimum num:r of irrigations for the three crops under examination
uld work out 'as 7 (Maize), 8 (Jowar), .and 8
heat) ..
Table 1 presents. irrigation fr.;quencies. of the 174
samples_
TABlE 1 : Irrigation

Excessive

frequency and crop yields I( Yields

Iowar

------.---~--------% of
~ of
farmers

Yiellts

1 .
2"

I .3
3 -9

3
4
5
6

9.2

14.5
9.2

15 .8
. I .3
44.8

8
9
10+

--'--'

yield

No. of
farmers

2
29
. 26
21
96
174

Upto 2 .50
2.51-5.00
5.01-7.50
7.51-JO.00
10 'OJ-i-

Total

4.9
19.5
7.3
34 .1
7.3
12.2

1 .1
1.9
2.3 .
3.3
4.0

I .8
3.6

0.7
I .0

14-3
12.5
21.4
J4 .3
7.J

3.0
3-4
3.6
3 .8
4.0*

J4-7 .

4.2

25"0

3.J

7.4*

% of
farmers

Yields

4.3

I .0
-j.

4 .3

3.0

3.0

3.3*

78.4

3.2

-----------------------n

of irrigations:.

Awareness about
need for water
mallagemellt.
Yes
No
2
27
25
21
. 94
169
. (97.0)

Knowledge aboftt
Warabandi
Yes
2
24
2.1
J6
80
. 143
(82 '0)

2
1
2
5
(3.0)

No

5
5
5
16
31
(lS'O)

Opinion about the pr.e

sellt distribution
.
system
Satisfactory
Ullsatis
factory
a

9
10
14'
38
71
(4J

(31)
(39)
(66)
(40)
.0)

2 (J00)
20 (69)
16 (61)
7 (33)
58 (60)
103
(59 .0)

Figures in brackets ate percentages.

This clearly reveals that a high percentage of far- .

Iners gave greater number of irrigat~ons than required
and got low yields.
This might have resulted in s~r~

~ty
.,'l'.

Cotton

TABLE 2 : Dis~ribution of farmers according to landholding size, knowledge and pre'fercnce for Warabandi

L.H. size (acres)

Note:

Wheat

--------_. - ---"-------% of
Yields

41

number

could

ill qts p~r acre)

farmers

--_._----------;----_._---.

with opti~um

essentially,

to give required quantity of

Yields

farmers

T<;>talNo. of farmers
Note* :-Highest

2.0
2.1
5 .3
6.4
7.5*
5.0
6.0
7.2

byfar1l1ers,

. have been in a position

Maize

-: No.- of Irrigations

irrigation

be due to lack .of knowledge on water requirement of

crops. Further, big and influential farmers and also
those who are advantageously located in 'an outlet
. command might have an opportunity to have ;l major
share in available water supply_ The tailend and.
other socially, economically handicappedJarmers, even
if they have knowledge of water requirement, might not.

of water, 'mostly for tailenders, depriving them eif

__
..
..
lRichard. B. Reidinger: ';Insti(utional Rationing of Can,!-l
Water in Northern India: Conflict between Traditiomil
Patterns and Modern Needs" Economic Development Glu!
Cultural Change-Vol. 23, Number l, October 1974..

KURUKSHETRA

February

1: 1982

water due to the scarcity caused by excessive use by'

others III an outlet. command,

Water management training

SItUATION
HAS"MADE
farmers reali-.e adverse
. effects of improper distribution on soil fntility
and productivity of- Crops. Table 2 gives sample far~
- , mers' anxiety to learn tlle wa1er ~anagement practiCes-

HIS

and. also 'adopt a neW system to solve water dIstribution problems ..

It is interesting to find thal.97 per cent olthe far.
mers have an inclination to learn and adopt scientifie
water managcment practices. In a reeent visit to the
region under study, it has been observed that quite a
few farmers have shown their concern against low productivity of a few crops, especially wheat and cotton.
Even so, they use more water, as water rate is fixed
on p;o rata 'basis of the area owned by a farmer, irresp'eetive of the quantity used. lt was to1d that advan;
tageously located, espeeially top end, farmers normally
will not be present at ti,e time of irrigating their fi.elds,
. After diverting water into theirjilots they go away and
attend 10 some other works. The result is wastage,
of 'water, after' covering the plot, through escape to
drains.' Stoppage of water in the absence of concern- .
ed farmer by another needy person leads t6 conflicts
between farmers.
The table reveals yet another i~teresting aspeet of
farmer;' reaction .. As high as 83 per cent ,of sample
.farmers are aware of Warabondi concept. What they
mean 'by Warabandi is using water by turns. It.
appea~s that a system cailcd as "roaster irrigation
system" had been tried in the initial stages of irrigation
in the region. This system, however, could not become popular due to administrative lapses, resistanCe(
and violation by big and influential farmers. Perpetual
scarcity of water foi t~ilend farmers, long hours of
waiting io irrigate even small plots, water disputes Hlld
quarrels have made farmers realise the need: for a
change in water d~str~bution syst~m"

Many eultivators are not satisfied with the present

water distribution system (59%)., A glance at Table 2
reveals th~t dissatisfaction about the present system is
quite high among small farmers when eompared to
big farmers. .Land holding sizcand satisfaction in the
. present system are positively related. This rimy prove
the fact that big farmers take undue share in available
water supply causing unreliable and scarce water supply to tailend and other socially and economically
weak farmers.

W','.

is increasingly. gaining i
bureauerats, technocrats and 'social
an effeetivetool for solving water distri'
blems in an outlet command. The system
pIe to. read but highly complicated to implem
field Iev.el successfully, as it involves a multi
nary approach.
ARABANDr

The basic principles of Warabandi are to :

(n Provide assumed, adequate:
timel
dependable water ,upply to all the farm
ings irrespective of their location in an
let command, notwithstanding, land lio!
i"ze -ap.d other socia-economic c~nsiderati
of a farmer;
(2) Provide. equal and opti~tlm amount of wat
for each aere taking into consideration th
~rop water require;nent, soil type and otlt
agroclimatic conditions;

(3) Minimise wastage of time for the cultivator

in securing water to his plot;

(4) Enthuse farmers for taking up scientific laud

.development in order to make optimum use
of water allotted;
(5) Create a sense of ownership of water among
the farmers mid prevent unauthorised culti.vation by influential and advantageously
located
fanners
under -an oullet; ' ~
..
.
:( 6) Make farmers realise that controlled water
supply helps increase in produetivity and
avoids :Of minimises deleterious effects of
over-irrigation; and'

'( 7) Achieve eg:Ilitarian distribution of irrigation

benefits.

A , think about a system that could help solve these

These principles,sound high, and give an impression

that Waraband! brings an altogether new irrigated culture .free from' discrimination and inequalities .. This
may prove to be true, though not immediately, in
course of time, provided the system is built on a wellknit initial base. Four components namely technical,

problems. and achieve

financial, administrative and social together constitute

II
GAINST

THIS

BACKGROUND,

greater.

it is

imperative to

irrigation

efficiency ..

Warabandi (rotational water supply) has been and is

being tried by some of the state governments in India
'especially . Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, ,Gujarat and Punjab as an alternative to .the
unorgani~ed and. traditi.onal s.yste~s,.to solve irrigati.on
.~risis and obtain efficient .and equal distribution of
available 'water resources) with
success.
6

varying

degrees

af

the preparation of a sound base.

M
, . lised problems

OST OF OUR lRR1GATiON

PROJECTS

have not visua-

of equitable water distribution,4',<

and thuS made no provision for enough' control and regulating devices,in irrigation network. The. first principle of Watabandi cannot be answered without additional structures and improvements like strong embank-

KURUKS~TRA

February ], 1~~2

nients~' cross regulators,. drop :Struct,!"es, .gates; di.tribution boxes and 'mea~Uringdevices.
A sYSteD:!lIl.ic
and detailed 'survay of distribution network. is essential to decide the type of structures, their size; number
and appropriate spot for construction to avoid wasteful expenditure.
.
Improvements in distribution network involve huge
additional expenditure wbich did not find place in
original estimates. The. major problem is how to meet
additional expenditure:' Whether Cominand Area
Development Authority .or regular irrigation department?
A strong and dedicated administrative will and
political support is necessary to put the scheme on firm
footing.' Introduction of- Warabandi may mean additional staff and also intensive use of existing machinery.
Proper understanding and co-ordination between the
departments involved. is a prerequisite for. successful;
implementation 'of .the scheme. .
:&onomic and socIal inequalities in the society have
a dire~t bearing on water distribution. Influential
farmersiry fa' take undue share in availabie water and
alway~ ie~ist' for any change. They try to dissuade
those prefering this discipline. Farln1ng community as
a whole needs to be educated on fast changing community a~proach.
.

of Warabandi
. .Implementation
..
. '.
.HE.SfGNIFICANT.
FEATURE.inimplementing Wara~'
. . bandLis to take ..target group .(farmers). into con.
fidence. This. should prec;ede physical improvements
to distribution network. If the farmers. are. not educated properly, they may: d'amage. con~tructions and
misuse. the.)1!aterlal used for. structures and' s~ on.
Farmers' .faith .~dU~Sthl!;,(jcooperation.h~ip' in s~cc
cessful implementation of the scheme..
.
.

A special campaign by an organised group of

experts mcluding engineers, agricultural' scientists',
revenue, CO"Operationdepartments and social scieIitists
will help farmer to believe and understand the new
system in its true perspective. Specific' and visible
disadvantages like area not irrigated due to non-availability of ..water, crop damage to tailend farmers due
to inadequate and irregnlar water supply, impact o~
overirrigation on productivity and so on should' be
brought to .the 'notice of, all farmers in an outlet ,com-,
mand. The problem has to be placed before farmers
seeking out a solution. In the initial stages, this p~pose could better be served by involving an outside
" agency, as catalyst, free from local departmental par.,; . ticipation. Farmers, by and large, may not repose
lCommand Area Development Department, Andhra Pradesh .
Final Report on Integrated Water Management in 7th Dis:
"tributory of Tadparti Branch Canal of HLC ,tate-I, 1980.

J:(URUKSHETRA February'1,

1982

confidence .hdocal of!ieers because, oC their

lapSllSto solve WOblems,

earlier

'This,sliould be followed by the execution of already

prepared plan for upgrading' distribution network.
Farmers may be consultedl'or field channels alignment
to individual 'plois, 'convenient spots for constructing
drops and gates etc. 'Ibis approach may help boost
up the sense of involvement creating a community
respOnsibility to safeguard and' maintain 'physicaJ-struc-,
tures'in the distribution network. ' Comniunity: res. ponsibility to mamtain public system .avoids or minimHes mdiscipline .m- water 'distribution.' .It is desir.
able' and 'necessary ,to .complete .construction .of' additiottal' structures. and. improvements in the irrigation
network before .actual release of -water. '
The cropping pattern' envIsaged in the original pro'j'e~t'proPosai is to be strictly observoo.' Any Violation
';f accepted ~ropping pattern leads to complication, like
inadequate 'water and water disputes amimg' farmers.
Fo;'example m a distributory, where it'islocalised for
s~mi-drY crops, if paddy' lsaliowed to grow, designed
discharge will riot be' sufficient and there wi)1 be scarcity for 'all. Designed'discharge canno,t be mcreased
due to limited capacity of outlets arld ,field' channels
to carry water: Thus; fixed cropping pattern is essen.
tial to calculate crop water 'requirements in each. out~
let: ~This' facilitates. the use of optimum quantity of
water for crops .
. ' 'The di~tributo'ry' may have to be divided into convenient, blocks. Water to be released at eacli outlet!
block pomt has to be detemiitieo, based on crop water
~equiiement, soil 'type, seepage and other transportation lOsseS. A'v tlOtChor'a parshall'fiume should be
flied at' the beginmrig of' the block 'to release' a ,mea.
sured 'quantity of water. 'Both farmer and tlie person
concerned With release 'of water needs to be educated.
to read' exact flow looking at the 'measuring device.
Farmers may noi be m a ,position to see water short~
ag~ or overfiow in terms of Cusecs or gallons. Thus,
. -a .permanent. coloured line, indicating optimum floW
~equired to feed entire block, should be marked on the
wall or blade of measuring device. It will be easy
.for the' farmer to know whether the required quantity of
wa~i flow is there' or not. In case a farmer finds the
flow below' the optimum niark, .it could, immediately
be brought to' the notice of concerned persons in irrigation department, to allow correct flow.
'
. " .

.,

Preparing.a time table

REPARATIONOF water release time table is . most
. crucial. Freq)lency of irrigation for the ~rops, in
. an outlet command has to be decided before calculating time. Normally rotation is wo~ked out on the
basis of weekly one irrigation. . This may not always
hold: gOod and it may change depending upon the, crop,

soil tYRe and other alll"onomic 'characteristics. After

deciding irrigation frequency, it will be known how
many days will be available for, each rotation. The
time available should be uniformally disuibuted among
farmers on the basis 'of area owned.' Time allotment
in a day may start at any hour; preferably morning,
and should continue without 'any break till one rotation is complete. This: includes night irrigation also,
How to enforce night irrigation especially for semi-dry
crops? This rieeds careful thinking to arrive at alter'nate approaches.
A board with details of farmers name, area, day,
and time of irrigat10nat the beginning ~f outlet helps
all farmers to know the exact time and day of their
irrigation turn. In the iiritial stages farmers may
'need assistance to follow exact turns.'
The day and time allocation in Warabandi would
essentially create a sense of ownership of water. A
farmer feels, that water allotted to him during a parti"
cular period is his own property and thus do not allow
others to nse water during his time. His right is
recorded on the board. In its absence it. is every'
body's property and might will decide the right.
Farmers need to be trained for voluntary managemenl ,of water distribntion free from irrigation bureaucracy, Responsibility of irrigation, anthorities is to
give required qnantity of water at the outlet point,
leaving distribution to concerned farmers. However,
this demands intensive agricultural extension programmes.
COLLECTrvEAPPROACH'from the farmers couId
help overcome water distribution problems according to water turn schedule fixed'by'irrigation authorities, 'This ,requires appointment of a committee for
each outlet and also at the distlibutory level. The com, mittee should give due representation to top, middle
and tailend farmers in an outlet with a bias to landholding size etc,
This may' help proper repre-'
sentation of Problemst" the committee enabling quick

remedial measures, It is always difficult for small and

ll1arginal farmers, rn: a given social, set up, to resiSt
dominant and authoritarian attitude of big andinfluential farmers, These' conunittees with their community
approach give enough support and strength to individual farmers to solve water distribution problems.
Regular feedback of the problems between target
group and irrigation authorities is vital to obtain egalitarian benefits of irrigation. 'In absen,e of such coordination, Warabandi would turn out to' be an academic, futile and costly exercise.

Conclusions
HE ABSENCEOF SYSTEMATIC
APPROACHto water
, " distribution problems in an outlet command leads
to wastage of water minimising per unit productivity,
, Farmers are gradually realising the ,importance
of
scientific water management. Successful implementa;tion of a new sysJem depends a great deal on appropriate, need-based approach. This is more so where
multidisciplinary problems are involved.
A detailed survey and thorOUgh examination ,of the
irrigation network should precede implementation of
Warabandi in order to identify technical and administrative problems. Adequate, dependable and timely
supply of water, which is the crux of Warabandi system, may not be possible without physical improve, ments in the existing distribution system.
Farmers should be taken into confidence by involvlngthem at each stage of implementing Warabandi.
Their faith and co-operation in the initial stages will
go a long way in popularising and practising the system. This, coupled with inter-and intra-departmental coordination involved in Warabandi , programme,
would help the scheme to achieve its desired objective of equitable water distlibution.,
In the absence of volumetric water use ,at field level,
Warabandi, if implemented in its true spirit and pers~
pective, would serve a's a useful device for attaining
equitable distribution of available irrigation water,

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KURUKSHETRA

February 1, 1982

Financial. 111anagement in
integrated rural. development
B. L. SAH

finanT..cial administration of the Panchayati RajandinstituHE

PROBLEM

OF

ECONOMIC

VIABILITY

tions assumes a special significance in the context of

the responsibilities for promoting economic dev~lopment which .have .been devolved upon them.'. The
successful working .of village pancliayats as rura( local
self-governingbodies depends largely upon their sound
finances.
The role of the local government institutions is to
be studied in the broad perspective of the .develop-.
mental functions that. they have .been asked to do and
the finances placed at their disposal for the reason
that they are inter-related. It is obvious that an
cffective role of the institiJtions cannot be expected
in the absence of adequate assured resources. A
hypothesis made here is that finances should match
with developmental functions assigned to Panchayati
Raj Institutions. Even though the statement is simple,
its application in ope.rational field poses many problems.
"One o( tlie most important reasons for the compamtive lack of success of our non-urban 10cal selfgoverning bodies is their exceedingly limited and in- .
elastic resources" thus observed the Balwant Rai
Mehta Team more than two decades ago. The position today is not much different.

Position of panchayats

N KUMAUN
HILL DISTRICTS of Uttar Pradesh the
. public property belonging' to the Gaon Sabha COnsists of some unmeasured tracts of land, which lie in
the village boundary and may be utilized for some
common purposes by the villagers with the prior permission of the officials of Revenue Department; i.e.,

1Matbur, M.V .. and O~h~rs:Panchayati Raj in IWjasthan,

New Delhi, Tmpe" India, 1966.

KURUKSHETRA February I, 1982

S.D.O.. In the case of single village Gaon Sablia, tlie

panchayat c~. utilize such portionsol land for any
of the panchayat activities easily, and no difficulty is
felt in. utiliSing the income derived by the Panchayat
from such .property for the development of the village.
But in case of .multi-village units, disputes arise in
making USeof such pieces of land by the Gaon Sabha
as a whole because the people of one revenue village
might object to the"utilization of a portion of land lying
in their village for such activities as may concern the
Gaon Sabha as a whole.
Although the sources of panchay.atincome provided
for in the Act are pretty numerous, yet in these hill
.districts the panchayats have either shown great apathy
in making use .of these. sources of income. or the
sources indicated do not yield any income worth the
name. The result is that a large number of pan-.
chayats
.
. have a nominal income..
.

Sources of mcome
MAJOR SOURCE OF
panchayat's income is
non~recurring grants. .It provides a flow of
Ill1111mUm
income to panchayats. The. non-official
.members.of village panchayats connected with Panohayati Raj feel that the panchayats should be given
a large share of land revenue or, alternatively, arghe
.that the function of collection of hind revenue should
be entrusted to the panchayats so that they may be
able. to augment their income by Collecting the commission for performing this task,

H~

As .far as revejllles from taxes are concerned iliey

do not show any progressive tendency. Though' the
2V. P. Governpient!las circulated an order from 15th

Ju~e,

to 15th July. 1980 to impose a compulsory land revenue

tax by. Gaon Panchayat,s to increase, their itwome.

docentriilisiition niust
decenlrllU,.tion .'''

State Goveniment and the high goverIiment officers

e~thWliasticaIIy campaign for the imposition of,taxes
by the panchayats, the response of the non"offi~
(members of village panchayats) have not been qUlte
encouraging.' The question of imposing taxes ~ery
often comes up for discussion at panchayat meetings
but the issue is generally evaded because of the intensity of existing tax burden and rise in prices.

correspond

to, the

functional

Apart from fie budgetary devolution, the P.R.

institutions should also mobilise enough resources of
their own. No democratic institutions can continue to
maintain their operational vitality by depending upon
external resources. For this purpose, all P.R. Institutions should have compulsory powers of taxation. In
addition to certain compulsory taxation items, optional
items should be given to the P.R. institutions which
should be exercised depending upon the local situation.
Ashok Mehta Study Team' had suggested that "Apart
from the taxation powers of their own, a permanent
annUal grant of not less than Rs. 2.50 per capita
should be available to the panchayats.' But thissuggesti~n does not seem to have been followed.

Tax on commercia,l crops is another fruitful Bolirce

of income but the sample panchayats do not impose
land revenue: These panchayats have, however,
levied taxes on'water, trade and irrigation. In actual'
'practice, most of the panchajats 'do not receive any
significant revenue on this account. Only few pan,
chayats under study, received incornefrom the management of property.

NEED FOR RAISING subscriptions from private

. persons both in cash and kind on the occasion
of ceremonies, festivals and .harVesting season has to.
be' greatly emphasized. Some villages have raised the
voluntary donations but the income derived from
them is not paid to the Gaon Funds of the panchayat,
but' it is spent on feasting and worshipping of village
dietieS. This expenditure can be curtailed and sonie
amenities instead" may be provided, e.g. arranging of
light on village streets, purchasing some articles of
common use for the villagers, viz. utensils, petromax
liihts, mattings; musical instruments etc. In some villages, however, such activities are being undertaken.

HE

This consideriilg 3llthe

sources of income, the .
financial .position 9f panchayats is very poor., With
'constantipalicity of fuuqs, the. panchayats rely on. th,e
Kshettia .Samitis for the. exeCution of development
schemes in their. are~ and keenly compete with one
.another to ~get .as . many grants from' the Kshettra
Samitis as possible. Though a sizable portion of.
the financial resourCes of the local governing institutionshave. necessarily to come from the government,
'it is necessary that these U;stitutions also raise their
ow~ .resources through :different.methods in order to
have a sense of achievement. and self-reliance:

. Financial'decentralization
HE PROBLEM .OF ECONO~lIC yiability and
finan. cial'administration of the,Panchayati Raj institu- '
tions assumes a special significance in the context of
the responsibilities for promoting economic development which have been develoved' upon them.' .. I.pcal
self-governing bodies have always lagged behind for
want of adequate funds. With a few exceptions, the
financial position of -oUr local bodies, in general, is
hopeless, as of "iIiefficiency'; and "local body" have
become synonyinous terms.

It is the general' view' that :part. of the inability of

the Panchayati 'Raj institutions to come up.to the ex,pectations lies in their weak 'financial resources. Tbe
Committee on . P.R. institutions' appomted 'by the
'Governiuent
'of -Ini:lia 'in '1978, ~upder the Chairmanship of AshokMehta rightly obsetVethat' :'For .:dischaigfug the 'developmental respodsibilities 'entrUsted
to Panchayati Raj inStitutions; the 'State Government
should make available the commensurate funds .from
its total budget on a contin.rlng-basis. ',"nie "n?n-plan
expenditure pertaining to the aecentrallsed items will
be administered. by the Zila PariShad. . Thus,' financial
'Mathur M,V. and others ,op. cit. p, 209.
10

Another important aspect which must be kept in

mind is the. need for adequate financial support to
match the requirements for I.R.D. programmes .. As
has been envisaged Mancial backing would necessarily
come from' the beneficiaries or the institutional sources,
. the structure of organisational set-up need to be such
as would enable it to raise maximum resources locally
as well as from the baJiking institutions.

Control over.finances
ONTROL OVER PANCHAYAT FINANCES refers to
. the cOlleCtion, preservation and distribution of
public funds, with the coordination of public expenditure and revenue.' In other words,. it is concerned
with the preparation of estimates of income and expenditure, the collection of revenue and co~tractmg of
loans appropriation of estimated revenue lUcome for
vario:rs .items of expenditure, the accounting of the

. 2Government of India, : Report of the. CO'}7mittee O~lPa~.

thayati Raj Institutions. Ministry of Agriculture and Ir~.
"galion. Department of Rural Development, New l?elhi.
1978, para IX, '12 'I, p. 125.

>Ibid. para lX.}2 '6, p. 795.

Locdl Finance in India, Quarterly Journal
.0/ the Local ~e/f-Government, Bombay, Vol. XXXVI,
No.2 page 182.

''''"chand, Gyan:

;KURUKS!J.ETRA' Febru~

,1,11982

income and expenditnre

periodically and finally the
submission of accounts to the audit to ensure their
accuracy as required by the Act and the, Rules,
'It may, hn~\'e\'er, be remarked
th;t' efficiency of
financial control depends to a great extent on the efficiency, honesty and integrity of the staff entrusted
with the task of financial administration.
Even the
most efficient systems of budgeting, accounting and
auditing 'are bound to faif unless the people in charge
of these operations are efficient and honest.
Dr. Gyan '
Chand rightly observes, "integrity and competenc;
of
the staff is a factor of primary importance of the slaff
and cannot be ensured merely by in'stituting the right
procedure
of transacting financial business and providiug a system of checks and'counter-ehecks
'on the
conduct of financial affairs. m

Maintenance of funds

HE' PROPER, S:0MPLtANCE OF the rules regarding maintenance

of Gaon .fund and its transactions depends upon the ability of the Pradhans, and the
more sa upon the panchayat secretaries 'who actually
prepare these records,
But in fact" panchayats have
not generally bcen able to follow the prescribed
accountm'g procedure i~ 'these hill districts.
Cash, books
are'rarely posted and closed on due dates. Often, the
entries and balances do not tally, Vouchers are not'
kept in guard liIes and sometimes
they arc n~t cancelled, and the payments are not altested.
The receipts for' the sum realised are not issued regularly
thongh the entries are brought
if! the
cash books.
Sometimes the receipts, are issued but the accounts are
not accounted for in cash books.
In some cases unauthorised payments are also made,'
Pradhans,in
their
ignorance of rules' and procedures about the. maintenance of these account books,
leave this responsibility entirely on the panchayat secrctaries.
The lalter are so much overworked that they
do not find time to visit all the Gaon Panchayat headquarters regularly, to post the account' books IIp-todate.
The- inspecting staff has been very much con-'
cerned about this shortcoming Of the panchayatoffice
"
bearers. These irregularities in the maintenance" of the
accounts are quite common and unless the Pradhans
are given special training in this regard, the problem
would remitin unsolved.
The large size of Nyaya
Panchayat Circles having 11 Gaon Panchayats' on the
average, offers little opportunity for the pa~chay" ..at
secretary to cope with this responsibility 'efficiently.
The procedure of making payments of the government grants to the panchayats for 'specific
activ.it.ies
1. Ibid, page 182.
2. Rule 178 to 181 of the U. P. Panchayali Raj Act 1947.
3. These observations were made through a personal study
of the Inspection Reports of the some Panchayats in Sample
Kshettra Samitis.

KURUKSHETRA

February

1, 1982

has also contributed to the irregularities being committed by the panchayats.

The panchayats
are required first to complete the project to the entire satisraction of the authority entrusted with the responsibility of. issuing completion certificate.
Then they have
to procure the receipts of payments from the parties
concerned to whom the payments" are due. Thereafter the demand for money is made to the Planning
Department, supported by the vouchers, estimates, etc,
This implies that the panchayats should first invest the
money.
But the borrowing of ffipney from private
persons'is
subjected to objections,The panchayats
are ignorarit of these 'technICalities.
This problem can
be solved by making advance amounting at least to
one third of the sum sanctioned for a project, so that
the, work could be started promptly and thereafter in
piecenieals in one' or two instalments' according to the
progress of the work.

Income and expenditure

,T

HE PRE'SCRIBED'PROCEDURE OF' preparing

the
,
budget (Annual Estimate of Income and Expenditure) is not strictly
followed by majority of panchayat'S. In actual practice, some routine figures are
. noted down by the panc.hayat secretaries, first in respect of Nyaya Panchayat and' then in respect of different Gaon Panchayats in the circle .. Thus, the budget
planning by the jJancha'yats has, as a rule, become a
routine office work of the panchayat secretaries, merely
to keep the' wheel going,
Their formal approval by
the Gaon Sabhas has, likewise, become a mechanical
~ffair, and in the majority of cases, the pOOrly altended
meetings of the GaonSabhas
do not raise any objection to these budget proposals, because of the fact that
in these proposals no such items are included as might
impose any burden on the people.
These budgets are
snbject to the final approval by the. Assistant District
Panchayat Officer of the ,district
concerned,
whose
assent is received as a" matter of course.

Conclusion and
. suggestions .

OF POOR FINANCE
of panchayats
has been an important
factor that has hin-'
dered their
proper
aud' efficient functioning.
Of
course, hill viIIages are desperately
poor,
but the
poverty of most of thc panchayats is at least partially
seU-inflicted.
They have been given powers
to impqse taxes but they do not exercise the.m; taxes are
not collected.
Majority of the panchayats have failed
to' raise their annu~l income from thei-r. own" local reH~ PROBLEM

4. Under Sec. 36 of the U. P. Panchayatr Raj Act, the

panchayats can borrow money from the State Government or any other Gaon Sabha only. But some of the
panchayats have !Jeen taking loans from private persons
for completing the projects. This irregularity has been
subjected to objection-by the auditors. (A study of the
reports of some panchayats made by the author).
11

soUrces, tei the exle1it of meeting the routine office expenditure consisting of stationery, forms, audit fee, and
the like. Most of the panchayats in Kumaun have a
very low. income through which they cannot be cx-p.ecled to perform any.civic activity.

.Apart from the lJudgeiary devolution from the State

Government; the P.R. institutions should also be encouraged to mobilise enough resources of their. own.
Nc; democratic. institutions call c.()ntin~e to maintain.
its operational vitjllity by depending upon external re-

The taxation po.,.,ers given to the P.R. institutions

sbouldbe more specific and must not operate inequitiously. Certain occupations and professions in wbich
the weaker sections predominate should, however, be

tation" should be discouraged. For this purpose, all

P.R. Institutions should have compulsory powers of.
taxation.' A select list of taxation powers should be
given to the P.R. institutions and out of them some
should be made compulsory. Certain taxes like bouse
tax, profession tax, entertainment tax, special tax en
land mid buildings should bc levied compulsorily by
the P.R. in>.titutions.

"exempted through statutory provisions in order to ensure social justice.

~~

Tax on -Jand revenue eari be replaced. by a uniform

system of assessing panehayatcess
to be collected
with. land re~enues and paid to the panehayats at the
source. There exi.sts no system of ghiing. recurring
government grants to the panchayats out of tbe general revenues. or a certain percentage from R particular
sourc~ of income, such as land revenues which could
be utilized. by the pancbayats at tbeir discretion for the
performance of any activity imJ'!Osedon them. by the
Act.

ITHOUT

SUFFICIENT

FINANCIAL

assistance

from

the State. Government, the panchayats cannot

c.ontin"uetheir e.xistence, because in these hill districts
the scope for local taxa'tion and other sources of income of the panchayats are very limited. In fact, in
many cases even if the whole income from land revenues of tbe village were. paid to its panchayat that
would be quite inadequate. Hence. the panchayats
must be given goveniment

grants Jrom

the

received

by.them:.as grants-in-aid. The chances of misappropriation may be .ehecked through regular inspection,
vigilance and guidance by the field stal!, - and
through a system of regular audit. The report. on
Parrchayati Raj Finance has made a useful suggestion
in this regard as follows: "The form of panchayat
accounts should be simple and should indicate independently the normal recurring receipts on one side
'lOd the committed expenditure on the other. Special
grants~ 'contributions, its own matching ~ontributiori
and loans for development projects should be separ~tely shown on. the receipt side and -expenditure on
development works; either its own or of samiti, shoul~
be shown on the expenditure side.'''
I. Government
of India ; The Report .of the Study Team

UP THE ARTICLE,
a hypethesis is presented here that developmental - functions of
P.R. bodies are many wbile their finances are meagre
to fulfil their developmental functions. They have to
depend on grants from the State Goverriment for all
developmental activities. To that extent, the effective
control by local bodies over local.development is affected and little scope is left for decision-making or administrative improvement at the .Ioc.al level. If this
feeling develops, it would result in the progressive loss
of interes.t in area planning and local .development.
"In the new context of development, establisJm1ent of
a Panchayati Raj Finance Corporation. and Pancba-.
yati Raj Finance Commission -would iiitroduce much

UMMING

order in the present sItuation.":-)

It is also necessary tbat the intimation of available

funds to Panchayati Raj institutions is made well in
advance so that budget formulations at the rural local
levels may ~oi be r~duced to ~ formality, . j,hmning
from below in financial terms may become a reality
and. there may not come about unplanned and hurried
frittering away of resources on the eve of the closing

of the financial year.

- A true picture of. the
Panchayati -Raj Finances
- would be I'ossihle only when the income and expenditure patterns of tbe three tiers in each district are integrated in a ~inglemap.
2. Nandedkar, V.G. :"/oca/ Govemment :TtsRole in Development Adil1inistrafioll, Delhi, Concept Publishing Com~
pany, 1977, page 195.

3. Henery, Maddick: Panclwyatl Raj-A

Study of Rural
Local GOJ'ernmenl in India, London~ Longman Group Ltd.
1970,. page 159.

Oil

Pancl1ayari Raj Final/as .163, Ministry of Community

Development and Co-operation, New Delhi, 4. 24. p. 52

. 12

The thesi~- "no tax'adonj only represen-

general

revenues of the State Government. . Side by side,.

more liberty should be given to the panchayats in
making schemes for the utilization of money

sources only.

/1

KURUKSHETRA

February 1, 1982

How tares the' community T.V..

.;

,-

B. SUBRAHMANYAM

teORDING
TO T~E LATEST" NEWS REPORTS the first
Indian Communication Satellite will be operational in 1982 and Jprovide Television Service to 15,300
villages spread over six states in the country.' As it
was during the Satellite Instructional Television Expt>riment, the programmes will be predominantly educational and the telecast will be for an hour in the evening every day. There will also be a morning telecast
of 45 minutes for children. While SITE was in' operation for an year, INSAT project will be fo~ a longer
period and' on a larger scale in terms of villages .that
are proposed to be covered.

Naturally the planners of this Project would be utilis'

iug the insights gained during SITE and later during
SITE continuity operations; both in teehriical (ground
segment and its ihfrastructure) and programming (programme production and. research) aspects. Certain
other aspects which may not strictly fall in either of the
categories.also deserve attention at the planning phase.
These have been. observed in the T.V. villages:around
Hyderabad. "('hey'are mostly silu'!\iohal, which might
turn out to be crucial for furthering the cause in:eommunication for development, like' location of the tele- .
vision set in the village, accommodating the set, .pro- .
per maintenance of the set and. operation of ~e set.
On the 'face of it these may look quite simple but in the
context of rural community viewing, they assume
importance and deserve attention because of the
following reasons.

Location

P.

of the

set

the project fruitful. No doubt beaming research-based

and need;oriented programmes do motivate the people.
But still, certain physical eonditio'n do have a role to
play. The atmosphere should be such that the viewers
are free to come' and watch without any hesitation or
. hindrance. The service should be uninterrupted .S0
that the audience interest is sustained.' Especially in
the coniext of a village these are. to be managed well.
because eve'n .a small constraint or impediinent might
cause loss of .audience.
Among the above mentioned conditions, location .of
the T. V. set in the village is the most important. Since
lhe set is intended for community viewing, it should
be made accessible to every merriber of !he community.
Each. village has its own characteristics like economic
and 'social"classes which determine the social atmosphere: This should be taken into consideration before
installing, the television' set. Instances of T.V. Sets
becoming.:inaccessible t.o certain segments of the popu~
lation due to the above, have been noticed during SITE
and later. It is true that there are technic~l conditions
like availability of power, secure \JUildingetc.' which
restrict the choiCe of building ang the locality. for installation. What is being suggested is to evolve certain
guidelines for: the people responsible for installation
to select the buildi'ngs and locations af!er a"essing the
villnge situation in its entirety and not by.' technical
reasbns alone. Also it is advisable to d.ecide the ease
of each village sepatately rather than. implementing:
blanket. decisions.

C.'.

Some problems

WITH, the accessibility is the

problem of accommodation at the set. The place
selected for installation should "be able (0 accommodate a maximum audience (depending on the popu<lation of the village). Crowded aud congested places
'LOS ELY ~SSOC[ATED

to the villages prec

supposes community viewing by the rural people..
It "is a situation where in the. pros~tive vieWers are
expected to come to the television set voluntarily and.
catch' the programmes as long as tbey feel Uke and
this ought to continue day after day in order to: make
ROVlDlNG

and SAl PRASAD ALAHARI

TELEVISION

SERVICES

KURUKSI:lETRA February 1, 1982

(Cqlltd. on p. 16)

13

"

Priority credit underthe D.R.L scheme

NAVIN CHANDRA JOSHI
Lecturer, Motilal Nehro College, University of Delhi, Delhi
:

PUBLIC SECTORBANKShave been asked to

step up their lending to the priority and the ncg~
lected sectors from 33.33 per cenj 10 40-per cent of
their total credit advances in a' period of five years
beginning from the financial year of 1980. Adva'1ces'
to these sectors from banks had been more than
Rs. 6,000 crores at the end of December, 1979 and
this amount represented 32.5 per cent of their total
advances. Over the years, the percentage figure has
been creeping toward~ the target of 40 per cent and
hopefully, it will be attained sooner than the target
period. On the one' hand, the tight mane ypolicy, of
the Reserve Bank has made credit dearer to ' other
sectors of the economy while on the other, credit under
the Differential Rate of Interest (DRI) Scheme has
become totally out of tune with the prevailing money
market conditions as also with the needs of the'
economy.
It may be recalled that in order to encourage lending to priority sectors, the' DRI Scheme was introduced by the Government of India in 1972 for conferring special benefits to the weaker sections of the
community.
In the initial sfage-s, ~his scheme
was
introduced in' selected centres only but in May,
1977 it was extended to the entire country. ,Onder
the scheme: individuals with income not exceeding
Rs. 2,000 in rural areas
and Rs. 3,000' in urban
arcas are elicrible
to
obtain
a
limited finance upto
e
'
'
Rs. 1,500 as working capit(il loan and Rs. 5,000. as
term loan, carrying a maximum of 4 per cent rate of
interest. The loans are also paid to state corporations for the development of scheduletl castes and
scheduled tribes, a'od cooperative societies including
largc-sized multi,purposc societies organised specifically for tho benefit of the'tribal population.
.
The banks are required to lend a minimum of one
per cent of their ilggregate advances as at the end of
HE

the previous year. They are required to route, through,

their rural and semi-urban branches, not less than
two-thirds of their advances (half per cent in the
case of banks with demand and time liabilities below
Rs. 25 crores). To enable persons belonging to
scheduled castes/scheduled tribes to obtain their due
share of' the benefits of the scheme, at ieast 40 per.
cent of the eligible, credit under the DRI Scheme iJ;
required to be given to eligible borr9w~rs under these
categories. Banks may also roufe credit through cooperative societies.

Emphasis on D.R.!. scheme

FORMAL OBLIGATON
was placed on the private
sector banks in December, 1978 for implementing
this scheme and for ac'hieving the target of I per
cent of their aggregate advances. Earlier, lending
under, the scheme by private" sectQf banks was on a
voluntary basis. The smaller banks having deposits of
less than Rs. 25 crores are required to lend at least
1/2 per ceht of the aggregate advances under the
scheme. The total advances given under the scheme
bv commercial banks were of the order of more than
is. 150 crores at the end of December, 1980.

Recent experiences and 'studies have' shown that

banks have been incurring loss of earnings by lending
under theDRI Scheme. There.' is also no provision.
by which the loss as also the risk could be covered.
Effective measures' need to be tak~n to maint~ln a
reasonable level of profitrubility in' the eontext of the
higher cost of retailing credit to smaller borrowers

'and the burden being placed on the banks in regard to

the sick units. There are serious difficulties faced
in the recovery of "loan.s in some priority areas such
as -agricult~re. The expert group of th~ Reserve
Bank (headed by Dr. Desai) found that In the case
KURUKSHETRA

14

Febrmiry 1, 1982 ,

at general tarm credit, recovery

as percent'ge
of
'demand varied from 33 to 79 .dnring 1975-76 and,
from 32 to 78 during 1976-77.
TJ]eposition
in the
case of DRI advances has been more serious,
Thc-'
total overdues of Joans have been as high as 72.8
per cent during the quarter ending December, 1978.
Out of the Demand for Rs. 266,22 lakhs dnring the
said quaiter, only Rs, ,65,27 lakhs could be recovered,
The recovery position was' uniformly
bad
in
almost all the major states cxcept.Punjab
where the
percentage of ovcrdues was below 50.

Problem of recoveries

OF LOANS has made the recycling of the limited funds o'f banks almost impossible and cons"quently; the profitability' of banks has
been eroded.
The Dantwala Committee on regional
rural banks had pointed ant the "laying down arbitrary
quota of credit for agricultnre
and putting pressure
on credit institutions to speed up the flow of credit
to agriculture is
exercise which may prove
self-.
defeating. , "," This observation
holds equally true
for advances under the DRI Scheme. Further,
the
scheme does not provide for any kind of subsidy
to
bear the loss, Sometime back a working group on
D,R,L .had recommended a subsidy 0(4 to 6 percent
but the Government did not accept the proposal.
HE

POOR

RECOVERY

an

The Kamath. Working Group on Multi-Agency Approach to Financing to Agriculture had recommended a
thorough review of the working of the DRI Scheme,
Somehow, no action has been take~ on thi$ !in any
substantial manner.
It is time that the whole concept
of the DRI Scheme is now reconsidered and rehashed,
When the' rate of interest for other sectors of the
economy has been m"oving in upwar.d direction, there
, is no reason why it should remain at a low figure of 4
per cent under the scheme.
Tlie m!,jor justification
in sueh, thinking is that the weaker, sections are getting
all kinds of facilities and therefore, they could be treated at par in so far as the rate. of interest- on advances'
by banking institutions is concerned.
After all, banks
have to create their viability.
The low rate of'interest
on loans also makes the client, in-esponsible in the
use of credit and in its repayment.
When advances
are not, recovered it creat.e~ a dampening effect on
other borrowers who arc hom;st in their dealings,
Recently the Maharashtra
and Tamil Naclu Govern-ments intended to write off the overdues against the
agriculturists though the decision had absolutely
no
justification whatsoever, Such actions vitiate th~ credit
climate and encourage financial indiscipline .in
all
governments.
Indiscriminate
writing off .of the overdues which amount to around Rs, 900 'crores at present for the whole country would 'c.ntai] further bUT- ,
dens on the resources. of the Centre
and the States
themselves will have to resort to more
overdrafts
f;om the Reserve Bank to compensate for the 'loss.
KURUKSHETRA

February

1, 1982

N VIEw OF THE AFORESAID,)t wouid be better to

. ' allot a higher ,percentage, of tOlal advances, say 20
per .. cent, for weaker sections but the rate of interest
charged shpuJd be normal. ,The Government
should
devise methods
and institutions
by which it could
atlord physical inputs, facilities and guidance to persons desiring to take loans for productive purposes so
thai members of the weaker sections are helped
in
matters which they themselves cannot sort out,
As is
well-known, the dear money policy of banks has been
stepped up making bank credit more
scarce
and
costlier from July 1, 1980,
All bon-owers
are
'paying
higher intercst'. rates and
there
is tighter
scrutiny on credit utilisation of large borrowers. This
should happcn. in the case of borrowers
under the
DRI '(Sheme as well,
The incidence of 7 per cent
tax o;;'''the interest eafllings of banks as provided for
in the recent Central Budgets have been passed on
to all borrowers on a pro rata basis, but the bene.
,ficiaries under the DRI Scheme .have had very little
,impact for the reason
that
repayments'
are
very
meagre as compared the overd ues,

So far there
IS
no recovery
reporting
system
under the DRI Scheme.
The Scheme could have, been,
successful if there was a machinery. to- ensure
the
end-use of, credit granted as also the
recovery
of
loans.
Unless something
is done in this ,direction
on an enduring basis, the DR1 Scheme will continue
to remain a white elephant for the banking sector.
. Time has therefore come to evaluate if the scheme.
lias really helped the beneficiaries
in settling down
, for productive
activity,
No one disputes thai poorshould be helped in all possible ways but to fritter
away our scarce capital fe.sources when the outcome
is zero, is not sound economics.

Some constraints
T HAS

ALSO TO BE APPRECIATED that financing

the

I priority sectors on a large scale involves certain

,conceptual

and practical

problems

as follows :

1
While it is easy to alter a policy it is more difficult to change
certain
conceptual
beliefs ,like.
'security' and 'profitability'
which have been tra.
ditionally held to be very sacred prinCiples of commercial bank lending,
Changing them in favour
of 'certain other 'unorthodox
and economically and
socially more relevant concepts requires concerted
effort on the pari of economic policy makers.

2
While the, traditional' concept of 'security'
can
be easily implemented,
it is more difficult, to assess
the productivity
and so.cial importance
of a loan
application .. '
15

'. there IS also the difficulty involved. in the etrec-'

tive end-use supervision 'of agricultural louns.
Granting of osuch loans involves a larger supervisory staff and an enormous' increa.se overhead ex-'
penditure of banks. The amounts of individual
advances being 'small and the lendings being on
a scattered basis "among many people, the cost of
s'upervision and conveyance' charges for contacting
the borrowers is much disproportionately high in
relation to the amount of advance.

As most of the borrowers belong to the, poprest

sector, viabjlity of their credit proposals has been'
found to be weak and superficiaL ,It the venture
for. which they take loan fails, recovery of advances
becomes extremely' difficult

4
Diversion of larger credit to the priority sectors
may put the traditional sectors of bank-financing'
. to undue ~ardship by den~ing them finan~~which
they genumely need: It IS therefore n'Etessary
.that there should be timely assessment of creditabsorption capacity of .the' priority sectors so that
credit granted to. them does not remain idle.

6
The spread of the loans under the scheme has
not been even. There are complaints that before
getting loans, the poor borrowers have to spe.nd
money, approach many persons and pay a little
umount as bribe too. Apart from this, the middlemen usually take the liori's share out of the loan .
All the aforesaid difficulties and defects need to
be removed so that the DRI Scheme serves th~
right purpose in its right spirit.

"

(Con/d. frol11 p. 13)

disrupt the viewing very much. Such places may also

lead to -noisy scenes during the transmi~sio'n time and
tension within the village later. These can be avoided by a. judicious selection of the place. Otherwise the
purpose gets defeated.'
r
The other important conditiolJ is proper mai'ntcnance of the television set. Keeping the sets in work-.
iog conditions aU the time is imperati~e for community
viewing. During the SITE operations a decentralised '
system with mobile teams. was used to maintain the
sets. This' system ensured proper maintenance and'
prompt. fault repair services. A system in the similar
pattern may be d.evised for INSAT,project also. Preventive maintenance .may add to the cosj of the project
but it ;;Usures uninterrupted service. Frequent failures
of the set lead to disruption in the viewing, frustration
among' the ~iewc~s and e-ventual los~ of ' audience-.
Another problem thatmust.be tackled relat~s to availability of ele~tricity., Frequent power failures 'are
common in the villages. During SITE this had been
a constant irri~ant a'od frustrating experience for villagers as well as those. involved in the project. An
arrangement should be made with all the State Governments to ensure power supply to the sets during the
transmissiontime invariably. Otherwise this could be

As it was mentioned earlier, these fac.tors arc not as

simple as they appear to be. .Better they are dealt
with at an appropriate stage of planning to ensure the
intended messages reach the maximum audience.

detrimental to the project a'od its objectives.

16

The last and most important is the operator/custodian of the television set in the village. Whoever happens to be the operator/custodian of the set 'virtually .
becomes the 'Gatekeeper' for the entire communica- . tion process. So it should be ensured that this Gatekeeper does not become an autocrat. A responsible
person .who is answerable to the community/authorities should be apponited as operator/custodian. Monetary incentive may even be provided for the additional
responsibility. Before assigning the responsibility, it
should be asceItained that the person lives in the village. Otherwise there is 'every likelihood of the responsibility being delegated to some unauthorised person
leading' to several problems like irregular operation,
mishandling etc. which do not help fultil the objectives.
of the project Some of the school teachers who were
nominated as operators/custodians during SITE were
residents of neighbouring villages. This rendered the'
operation of the sets irregular. As in the case of selecting the place for instaUation, selection of operator will
also deserve utmost care. Operators should be appointed after assessing the situation thoroughly.

KURUKSHETRA

February 1, 1982

A case for rural

industrialisation
v. C. SINHA
Head, Scbool of Business Economics, A.P.S.:ynh:ersity,
Rewa (M.P.)
of our failure to tackle the
problem is the refusal to accept
the uselessness of large industries as an instrument for
creating siz~able employment opportunities. ' Indian
planning had so far asspmed that rural industrialisation
would be a resultant phenomenan .of the percolation
effect of metropolitan industrialisatian, but this
assumption has been proved ta be unrealistic. . The
experience of the last 30 years has demanstr~ted the
patent inability .of the'large scale'sector to provide the
neccs<ary expansion of employment .opportunities to
absorb the persons found surplus in agric'ulture.

T .unemployment
HE

MAIN

REASON

. Whitt is the solution to the unemployment problem

posed by this cxplosion of labour' force? Obviausly,
for absorbing all' or at least a 'good proportion of the'
working force in non-agricultural occupa:tions, reliance
will have to be placed in small and cottage in,dustries
involving " comparatively smaller capital investment.
In other' words, rural industrialisatian: is the .only
alternative left to 'us for finding rewarding work for
.our fast growing labour force in the "illages. The'
reaSOn is not far to seek; it is. that the cost per job
in ,the organised industries has shown a tenelOncy to
go up. Accarding to a study prepared by the Industrial Credit and Investment CorPoration of India Ltd.
(ICICI) about Rs. 40,000 is required for creating .one
job in ICICI-aided industries which obviously were
the large industries: As against this' if one take, into
consideration" a modest shed, implements, raw materials., assistance- for. marketing
and cash-in-hand

rcquired for creating one jab in village industr,ies, the

investment would be of the .order only Of RS: 3,000
ta'Rs, 4,000 only, So to cieateone--job in larg~ industries Rs . .40,000 will be requircd while we need only
Rs. 3,000 to Rs. 4,000 to give a job'ta an unemplayed
person if: we rely on village industries. The <Chinese
KURUKSHETRA

February I, ]982

in rural 'transformation has shown a new

directian by adopting indigenous technalogy which
utilise laca1 materials, make-da equipment and native
ingenuity for making goods that are needed.
experiment

Reducing rural joblessness

.of village industries mention
A may berHE
made of processing of cereals and pulses,
MONG

NUMBER

ghaui oil, village leather, cottage match, manufacture

of cane gur 'and khandsari,pahn gur-making and ather
palm products, non-edible oils and saaps, hand-made
paper, bee-keeping, village pottery, fibre, carpentry
and blacksmithy, lime manufacturing, gabar (methane)
gas, collection Of farest plants, and fruits far mcdic.inal
purposes, shellac, manufacture of househald aluminium
utensils and Khadi. These industries' enable the
villagers to develop_ :own initiative, "co-operation arid'
a spirit of self-reliance, They also heip utilisation of
the 'available manpower for processing the locally available raw materials by adoptian of simple techniques .
. These industries have capac.ity to correct the regional
imbalances by initiating industrial activities on dispersed basis in the most neglected, backward and
inaccessible

areas, where perhaps large scale sector is

unable to penetrate. Another striking featufe is that,

as .compared to the organized sector, there is na element of exploitation or profiteering; the wage content
of the prices at which these products are sold is relatively higher compared to that of 'similar products
"manufactured "in all organised sector. In short such ~
. rural industry could provide employment, increase
incomes, slow down migration to cities} and increase

the supply of goods .and services to farmers at lower

cost and generally stimulate ru'ral and regional
development.
17

Looking from all points of view the ,development of

village industries can be an effective, solution' to many
of ,the problems lhal confront us today, Thc 'aim 01
the Govcrnment policy should, thcreforc bc, as Gandhi

resources for the development of these industries in

the successive plans, but the financial allocation does
nol rellect this emphasis.

observed nearly half a century ago; to "return to the

The allocation for khadi and village industries came

down from 0.8 per cent of the' public sector outlay in
the First Five Year Plan to 0.6 per cent in the Sixth
Five Year Plan, This allocation is utterly inadequate
to make any impact on the village economy~ not ~to '
speak of the national economy.

villagers the industries that have been 'cruelly and

thoughtlessly snalched away 1rom them by the citydwellers."
,

. Encouraging entrepreneurship

Iting up largc plants.

NDUSTRIALlSATlON

DOES

consist merely in set-

NOT

Small factorics, using up-todate machines and modern tcchniques are ideal for
rural industrialisation

bringing to surface resources pf

entrepreneurial talent, capital and labour which might

otherwise. remain undiscovered. From the experience.
of small scale engineering industries' in Punjab, it
is clear that thcse industries which lise up-to-date
machinery can makc significant contribution to the
economic development Of a region. The experience
of Japan in this sphe"c, particularly in ancillaries and
feeder indu~tries, is worth emulating.
It has to be admitted that technology cannot be
taken to village at one stroke. It is a two-way process, rural arcas have to prepare themselves to receive
it as much as the means and ways have to be found
to take modern ideas and techniques to the villages.
Orily an all-enveloping agro-industrial economy.for the
utilization of fast-increasing labqur force hold out the
promise for bringing about the desired shift is occupational structure. Successful utilization of manpower
resour~es has been 'the keynote of the progress of
several advanced countries.
Japan built her cottage industry by the introduction
of simple light machinery on a labour intensive basis.
Prof. D. R. Gadgil in one of his very valuable contributions on the subject of rural industrialization, states:
"} 'conceive rural industrialisation

as one of the major

economic. and social' objectives of the plan of economic

development,
Therefore, it can be achieved only if
the entire development plan and in particular the entire
pla'li of industrialization is framed so as to attain this
objective." The growing population crisis in the
country has proved beyond doubt that without the
dev~lopment of an agro-il1dustrial economy the prob. ,
lem of utilizing the fast-growing idle man-power of the
country, owing to population' explosion,. cannot be
solved. As the development of small scale and vill~ge
industries is most important from the point of view of
opening additional avenues and opportunities of
employment in the rural areas,' there is a need for
concentrated and co~ordinated eilort to develop the

processing and other industries

HE

NEED

in the

rural areas. -

Remoulding technology

employment opportunities
of these industri~s to gene-

T'O MAXIMISE

-and the potentialities

rate employment called for an increasing allocation of

18

The financial starvation has sapped the vitality of

these industries which have become prone to look up
to some other agency for their financial sustenance
rather than rely on their own viability. It is estimated
that the credit requirements of village artisans would
be of the order of Rs. 400 to 500 crores a year. The
P,lanning Commission and the Reserve Bank of India,
should jointly prepare a credit plan for village indus'
tries: If only 5 per cent of the credit provided by
the banks were to be earmarked for financing the
village industries, no less than an amount of R;.500
crores ""ould be immediately channelised into the
. sector.
After the Govcrnmeilt had taken over the20 major banks in the country, it is nOW possible
for'lt to suitably alter the credit policy of the banking
system in the country so as to facilitate the establishment of small 'enterprises. In all nationalised banks,
village induStries department should be set up. The
Reserve' Bank of 'India should take an initiative by
setting up a village industries division so thitt there
could' be a continupus supervision of the implementation of this worth-while credit target.
PRINCIPAL TASK
iridu3trialisation
o[ rural industries. The task
THEthe organisation
in rural

is
of

organisation includes dissemination of advanced know-

how to the rural artisans, supply of raw materials and

collection of finished products for marketing. The
mass illiteracy in India has seriously hampered the
development of co-operative mode of organization.
The illiterate villagers are quite ignorant of the prin-,
cipk of management of a co-operative. organization.
Thus for a long time the rural artisans'will need to be
spoon-fed in the field of organization by Government
and' other public institutions. Perhaps the biggest snag
in rural industrialization is that agro-based industries
are not sustained by an effective marketing organization, The immediate task, therefore, is to strengthen
the'organizational: effort in the rural areas and to make
the nu~nal!ers C:lnd accountants of. the registered institu-

tions <llid ""theco-operative ,societies roUC}l more socially

accountable than many of 'them would like to be or
they have been so far. The point is often missed that
the programme' for village' -industries has' to .be implemented in the context of the existing national situation
an<:~ .not in"a void,

'

(Con/d,

Oil

p. 21)

KURUKSHE'PRA 'February I, 1982

. - ~,~..
'.

,.
.,...-,

"

-- ..
~.

J ,

..

'

,.
"

..

...~~.
':

: -:

, c.
'/

Sel1ing familyjjhiQning

.-' ..to 'trjhals.

.

. K. K. SUNDARAM, R, DlLj.NDAP~
and
,
',N. "NARAYANASWAMY

"

. i

'T' HREE-FOURTf!.ot
lndia's.
.villages. Unfortunately~

,population, live in
the ,illiterate, rural
ma.sses, are full of. superstitions and orthodoxical no)ions .and .theories. .They. are not .-prepared to limit
their families for various fallacies,. for instance, more
"number of-hands in family' 'resuit in 'more income and
so '6n: The case' with the tribes is still, more 'worse
'liS they' are placed .usually' away from the civilised, in
'foreskand' hills., One sutn "tribal community is taken
~Up"for 'a"detailed' study ttl understand their population
'outlook and the" stuay: cenltes on one of the largest
'ttibal'cohlmtmities' in'th~ Smith viz. the Paniyatribes,

The
case of paniya
tribes
~
_.
~,

'T'

~'"
'HE ,ESTIMATEDPOPULATION'of Pal1iya Tribes is
'arounel 50,000 and they are scattered over. three
'States:":"'Kel'ala, Karnatak1t and Tamilnadu: Paniyas
'h~ve' stdlQiJg'siIriililrities"with 'African negroes in .their
.physique, "colour, hair and 'lips ~andhence known' as
the Negroes: of India," ,
.

~."I~

~,,~'

..

AnthrOjlologi~ts.have a 1]un~h .Wa! . the P!lniyas

.and Negroes are 'of the :;arne he~edity. Having been
'driven away' fror"n-the plains, the .Paniyas "'vould have
,been ,forced' to settle' iIi hills and 'forests like any
'other, 'tribes., The ."Je~der: of' th~ Paniyas is called
Kullal1 or Mqthali wljO,.commands' ,resI'ect ,anlongst
his brethren and his words are flnal in all disputeS.
'The Pahiyas 'generally' go, in for .arranged marriages.
'Dowry'system'is
prevalent. .:Divorces' and remarria.
'ges'ari generally accepted. :Pala ,and Kakkapula 'are
'the popular tribal ceremonies; the former is to com'memol1lte the birth ot' a, cnild and, the laiter to mourn
'the ,death, Non-vegetarian food ,is .strictly prohibited
iluring'}he ceremonies.' ~The 'Paniyas speak Malaya.
him iiid"Famil. .. '.'.
':"

l"

..

,
inost backward 'tribal; ~6nni1Unity,
I, N"THIS
is there an awareness it! existence about lamil]'
LARGE,

'planning progralume? Could it be quantified? Would

SUCll a quantified awareness help appreciate' the Jinks
that are woefully inissillg? Perhaps "an awareness
,about the family,planningprogramine
alone may ,not
be the solution. But then,.will not, the awareness'
tempt people to have an .attitude io~ards ~mall fa~ilies ,
ff so,. does this awaren,ess' help people to have a
fav(ourabk ,attitude towards. Family Planning. pro' ,
gr!lmme ? , ,The awareness, and favourable altitude
m'turally would in turn inJlueirc~ people to accept and
adopt-family'planningmethods.
'Keeping this in view,
the authors deemed' it 'fit 'to 'explore' in depth' the
knowledge' and practices' of family planning - among
.the' Palliyps., "The,stpdy .t4rQws,light .on the P9Jl;yas
,tribe's lqiowledge about the smai.1family florm, popu.latio,n.:njlroblem, vari9us Jamilyplanniilg me)!J.ods.in,
vog\,",an<!!heir attituge :to\,,~rds family,p,lanning with'
selected charaCteristic .f<;atures of the P9Pulation and '
adoptio,n._ Incidentally, the altempthelI'S. to ,asses,s
how tar ,the family planning progiallJ1l1"Shave mad~
a dent into the socially secluded segments and economi'cally ,underPrivileged tribal coinmuniiy. in "I~itillg_
their f!,n~lies, tor, a better standard of livillg:
'
Th~ 'location of th~ study is Kadalaikollai of
Nettiyalalll village in' Gudallur taluk itt Nilglri' hills'
and, the population of the Pal1iyas at the time of investigation is around 235. The study covers the entire
Palliy,,: community ill the village. As the investigator
hails: from 'a nearby ' area aI!d:is ,well.'acquainred ,with
the tribal. diillect, the data gathered, are' a1lthe more,
reliable., Eligible' couples. of the P~lliya tribes .'wer\:
met'ovet'ptetested'schedules
.to collect' data"
_,-

__

-,

~i,~,'

'

>

_''''

'19

I:~~

'

I'he Socio-economic backgro:und

TRIBAL POPULATION
under study is dominated by females with 104 females for every hundred males. While the two-third of the population is
less than, 15 years, more than half of them are in' the
age-group of 15 to 50 years. In other words' the
tfibal popuhition is obviously very young. ' (Eligible
couple refers to the married women in the age-group
of 15 to 49 year~). As the ,age distribution of eligible
couple is useful to assess the fertility performance,
the study analysed its distribution. A little less
than of them are found in 15-29 age-group and surprisinglyone-third
of them' belong to the later agegroup of 40 and above. The age-distribution of the '
,eligible couple seems to be favourable for a higher
rate of fertility.
'
'
HE

The higher level of cducation implies greatcr,

kIl;0wledge and awarcness towards- family planning'
methods. In thc study area, a meagre number of
children undcr 15 years arc undergoing primary educ~tion in the nearby Harijan institution. Of all the
malc adults, only a handful have had a' formal cducation worth a name and that too never crossed out
primary school. More than ninety-five perccnt of the
women did not attend a school at all. The tribes
are'living in huts in an isolated area.
Agriculture bcing the main avocation. the tribals
are gcnerally cmployed as agricultural' labourers-'
either in their own lands or land holdings of the landlords., While the males are paid Rs., 6 to Rs. 7 per
day. the females earned Rs. 4 to 5 a day.' They do.
not work round the ye~r as agriculture is seasonal.
'.

The income and expenditure are two important

md,cators of economic level which facilitate the
assessment of their savings and inve~tment.

The annual income of families ranges from Rs.

1000 and Rs. 7000. One-third of the tribal families
, . have an annual income of Rs. 5000 "and above. Approximately two-thi~d of them earn anywhere from Rs.
2000 to Rs. 5000 per annum. The expenditure pattern
shows that roughly one-third of the families do spend
more than Rs. 5000 per annum. Two-third of the
families annually spend between Rs. 2000 and Rs.
5000. The stiIdy has established that there exists no '
savings investments with the tribe, as ,the average
income and expendi\ure of the families stand at Rs.
4277 and Rs. 3811 respectively.

Age at marriage & family siz.e

is an important factor associ",ted with fertility. Well established studies
,state higher the age of marriage, lower is the fertility
level. The mean age at marriage of the males is computed to be 22.24. years, considerably higher than
GE

AT MARRIAGE

those of many oth~r tribes in ~ndia. Ne~rly two'

,thirds of th,e males' ~remarried
l:!~tw~n 20 and
24 years. Strikingly nO male i~ m;lffied belo~ 18
years, a riITephenomenqn to be noti~ed ,among other
'tribes. As regards the ,women, the mean age of
marriage stands at 20.29 years, which is far high
when comp",red ,to other tribal groups. While a little
below half of the females married between 20' and
, 24 years, one-third of them were married between 18
and 20 years., Generally, the distribution at marriage
shows a higher wedding age was in prevalence both
for males and females possibly due to its adjoining
position with Kerala where the average marriage age
slands at more than 25.
'
, In order to 'assess the fertility level of the populat:on under study, the number of living children was
considered. This may provide to some extent ulformatiomabout their fertility level- leaving sc<:>pe for ,the
dead ones, covered. Half of the couples have between
1 to 3 children and little below one-third of them
have 4 to 8 children. Interestingly, just above one of
the eligible. couples do not bave children a! ill. .

Attitude towards family planning

ASC~RTAIN
tbe knowledge of the
Paniyas about the population problem, the study
included questions on their agreement and disagree..ment towards the need for controlling thepqpulalion
growth. Interestingly nearly three-fourth
of them
,feel that there is no urgent need for population control
wbile just above 2-lOth of them acknowledged the
need for a control. Ten percent of' the respondents
are of the definite view tbat pOPl!lation growth need
not be a negative factor for socio-economic development. Perhaps, this fact has to be viewed from the
primitive thinking of "additional incom~ if there are
additional hands." A little below on~third of them
agreed that enormous population would retard socioeconomic development. Regarding their depth of knowledge about population problem approximately threetenth of them suggested family planning is the only
way but most of them are unable to identify any other
indirect methods like age at marriage, improved standard of living etc. to check population growth. It is
really unfortunate to have nearly three-fourth of the
population without being aware of atleast one of the
methods of checking p9Pulation growth.
N A BID 'TO

The respondents' perception about the optimum

number of children for it family helps decide the tribals
preference for small or large families and the reason
behind their preference. A little above two-tenth
of them could not give the ''Optimum number of children for a 'lantily. Roughly one-third of the r"st of
them opt for large families i.e. more than 3 children
whereas six-tenth, of them expressed:in
of
.:...c
~..favour
....
,

>'

KURUKSEIE'I'R{\ :F~1mlllry 1, 1982

20

small familieS with 3 or less children; out of the

rel;pnndenfs who OiPtM fiii small families, jllst above
one-third of them identified 'better living conditions'
~s the reason for their preference. Among those for
large families; 'prolonging the generation' and 'greater
sociul dominance', are the. two identified factors by
seven-tenth of them and little below half of them respectively.

ARlOUS METHO?S
of family planning, the .sources of mformation, the: knowledge about mcentives, attitude towards family planning and the reasons for such an attitude as perceived by the Paniyas
deserve a detailed study. It is significant to note that
95 percent of the couples interviewed are fully
aware of vasectomy-the male sterilisation and this
may possibly be. due to the influence of Government's.
accentuated efforts to popularise practice of family
planning. methods.
Similarly the tubectomy-the
female sterilisation is well known to a little above
half of them. On the contmry, knowledge about
Intra-Uterine Device (Female loop) is woefully inadequate and poor. Surprisingly, a small number oE
couples know about 'condom' and nine-tenth of them
are aware of 'abstinence.' As regards the source,
roughly eight-tenth of the respondents (either spontaneously or after !probing) dedured that they came
to know about family planning programme method
through friends and relatives. A bit above one-fourth
of them traced their source of information to. family
planning personnel.

The attitudinal aspect of the study indudedqueslions to ascertain the. tribes' attitude towards' family

(Contd. tram

p.

A little below two-third of the eligible couples

practice family -planning by one method or the other
and this is aJ.fairly good proportion. The male sterilisation acceptors outnumber other acceptors as they
constitute nearly half of the total acceptors of family
planning norm. However,' the higher level of acceptance in the male sterilisation is not necessarily due
to the favourable attitude towards it. Remarkably,
next to sterilisation the second priority goes to 'absti~
. nence' with one-third of eliFible couples casting their
preference for this method.

Conclusion
CCEPTANCE
AND
practice of family planning
. by the eligible couples .qepends to a very larg'i
extent on their .awareness, and knowledge regarding
fawly planning methods, availability of sefvIces and 1l
favourable a'ttitude towards family planning practices.
As majority of the Paniyas under study do not possess
any attitude towards family planning programme,
there is a. wider scope for the programme' implementers to create interest in the programme by utilising
appropriate strategies like
non-formal education,
mass-media personal contact etc.

18) .

There is also an urgent need for continued improvement in the technology of the production of village
industries .and in the skill of the village artisa!!s. Here
again the' Government have to playa positive role. by
laying down the policy framework for research organizations and for providing adequate. assistance to the
research institutes engaged in research for the promo.tion. of viIiage industries.
.

Conclusion
improve our economy is to
W utilise our wasted toresources
properly and fully
HAT

planning and the reasons for such an attitudc. Shock

ingl}' mOre than 70 per cellt of them do not possessany attitude. at all towards family planning and only
just abOve one-tenth of them expressed a favourablc
attitude, 'Leads to a happy living' is the .identified reason for the favourable attitude while the unfavourable attitude is based on' such fallacies as (i) reduction
in family income, (ii) interference' with sexual life,
and (iii) reduction in community strength.

WE REQUIRE

for which' labour-oriented rural industries need concessions and not capiial-oriented industries: The Govern.~ent should stop giving more concessions to the

KURUKSHETRA FebtUary 1, 1982

i~dustries secio~ and divert 90 percent of its p.rojeeted

expenditure to the agriculture. sector. One feels
confident that comprehensiye and well-integrated programme . of .rural eleetrificatjon, development and
extensjon credit and marketing' facilities, technical
research and assistance; supply of. improved ~achinery
and equipment, extension of training facilities, .etc.
surely assist the industrialisation of rural areas and
provide gainful opportunities for employment in the
rural .areas. At the same time such development will
also provide solutions to .other socio,economic problems, such as halting the exodus of rural population
to .urban centres, diversification of occupations and
rising incomes and, thus, standard of living in rural
commupitics.

2t

..
. \1"

..

Book
review
,
.

'.

BADARALAM
., .

..

. IQBAL

,
,

"

Dynamics of Rural Transformation : A stndy of Tamil

Nadu 1950.1975; CoT. Kurien; arient .Lorigu13n,(P)
Ltd" 3/$ Asaf Ali Road, New Delhi 110002; Pages
lSI,

'.

'

N.INDI~,integrated -rural development p~ograinme

has been,. accepted as'.ol)e of the most' important
aims and objectives of planning, hence, the significance
qf \'Urnl, transforination studi~s can never, be overemphasised" .', . '

. .n;i

,b90k',under r~~,e'Y90!ltii\l; six ch~pte~ : ,int~oduction, land, and as~ets, the agricultural transformation, ,the, ~cale_factor prices, wages, and: copsumption .
patterns and rural changes in Tamil Nadu; .. an interpretation as well as a~ 'index. J The center-piece of'
this small book is to highlight the transformation ,of
rural. economy of Tamil Nadu which includes the
changes that 'have taken p1'ace since 1950 upto 1975.
. The author (Prof.) Co.T. Kurien,. the Director of.
the 'Institute. of Development Studies, . Madras; has'
aimed
a systematic study. combining. both. empiri..
cal .and ..theoritical. approaches to. identify tlie, generalisatiOlI ;:egarding .rural transformation.
which has
emerged.'as.a new concept. CQyering.theperio& from
1950 to' 1975, i.e. a span of 25 years of planned economic' _development, -the 'book' attempts. to. make an analytical 'study, of .( 1) , the changes in land oW)lership'
in a period of radical reforin, '(2) the impact of,the,
. 'pumpset' and the green. revolution on .agricultural
modes and on the distribution, of assets. in .the T)Jral.
economy; (3) wages,.employment and, cpnsnrilption
patterns; and (4). the .role"of State Policy,in enlrancing'
output and bringing about institutional changes, in the
basic structure of the rural economy of Tainil Nadu.

aL

).

In the Preface of the bOok, the au'thor opines that

since 1976 many proposals have been put forward for
district and block levels planning ,to bring about rural

transfonnation on a large scale and the planners,

administrators and. scientists. have also been 'exhorted'
to turn their. attentio~' of-rural-areas. But' it is depres- .
sing. to note that no much headway has been achieved.
Pro!. 'Kiirien in the Introduction (Chapter I)' has
.rightly observed 'that the subsequent chapters are all
part onhe' effoit to underStand the :dynamics' o( ~ural
transformation.
Anyone turns to'
theme 'of this _
kind is irf]mediately confronied :~it~ 'a v~ri~!y"of pre>blems, 'The most importani of these is'to conceptua-'
lise that entity whose metainoqinosls. one is attempting
to trace. If one is to do justice to ihe theme. at 'all;
the entity to be studied must be. the rural .society': He .
is also of the view that the' present study,is a.modest,
attempt of that kind. and it includes essentially empirical documentation and an analysis of a variety of
aspects of the changes in the rural areas,

In Chapter II, the author deals 'with the changes in

the land and asset ownership as well as changes which
have taken place in the. operational. pattern of land
during the period under' reference,. AccordiDg (0 him
there. is very heavy concentratimi of assets, in ,the
hands of, the, wealthiest groups in ,the rural areas and,
their relative .share has :increased over ' the decade
w.hile that of the first nine decile groups taken together
has. deteriorated: This calls an immediate. attention of.
the Central and State Governments to take iinmediate
steps to narrowed down this tendency otherwis~ integrated rural development progra.mme will become
infructtiotis.
~
.
: .'
-,
~ Next chapter' has been devoted to highlight: the'
applied -aspect, .i.e. the 'transformation .that. has, come
Up' in ,agriculture, whic!J-is the main occ,!pation, of
the rural m'asses. This discussion' also includes
ihe discussion on production' process, the utilisation
of land, changes itl cropping pattern and the modes
of production, variation in production and producti>.-

22

KURUKSHETRA. February' 1,;1982

vlty.
Added to this, seven,major crops' ohhc State'
Irave also been examined at the state level as well as
.at the district. levels.
This chapte; is the backbone
of the whole study, worth reading, intcresting and
attempts to highlight some revealing facts about. the
rural economy of Tamil Nadu.
HE IMPACTOF fhescale factor on the agricultural
process is the subject-matter of Chapter IV,
which has been divided into two parts. The first
pari deals with. information available at the state
level whereas the'latter points out the findings of the
farm management studies in Thanjavoor and Coimbatore districts in relation to the, scal~ factor. Howcver,
the author admits that a major constraint in conducting
the study has been the scarcity of con:sistent information on the scale factor at different points of twe, this
, is why he has made use of whatever information is
available and has shown the impact of the scale of
operation on production process, on the nature and
consequences of the rural tmnsforrnation,
One of
the most' important findings is that the agricultural
operations are fairly uniform among the size groups,
but they differ in terms of the utilisation of the basic
factors owned labour and owned land.
This chapter
is also' an' extensi~n of the subject matter discussed
in Chapter III.

Changes in prices, wages and consumption pattern

have been discussed in Chapter V whose centfal
theme may be described as the 'welfare' aspect of these.
changes and do have three sub~sections, The major
merit of this chapter is that it confines only to descriptionand documentation, the choice of the areas of
enquiry has been done in such a good way as to can.
centrate attention on the weaker sections.

The main

findings of this endeavour are (a) 'the difference between retaU 'and farm prices docs not arise from. varia-

tions in produdion, (b) as against a more than doubling of money wag~s in most instances, rea~ wages
from 1951 to 1974 have not bmy declined in the
case of all categories, but have come down rather
substantially, (c) non-~dults of all categories show
better performance over time than adults, both men
. and women, (d) the women among field labourers
are slightly better off then the men, (e) women among
herdsmen and among other agricultural labourers did
not fare as well as the men in these categories though
the number under this category is very small (f) tjle
reduction .seen in the concentration ratios must also
be taken to be deceptive, and (g) the real' expendi. ture of the richer section has increased and the disparities in consumption pattern ha.ve also gone up.
Then, in the last 'chapter, a resume cif the findings
of' the study has been presented. . One 'of the 'most

KURUKSHETRA

February 1, 1982

rave"llng-findings is: that 'the dovelopment pro~s. of

the past il'ave generated growth and allluence for the
few and !poverty and insecurity for the many
and
these must' be taken as two sides of the same coin'.
The author further opines that these process have also'
created some' changes 'that., were not desired'. The
pressure on small and marginal farmers to leave their
I,md and to become agricultural labourers is one .of
them. Similarly, the decrease in the real wages of
t~e agricultnral labourers is another. Like wise.,' tht'
tendency of mass poverty to continue' and increase is
yet another, In the past many attempts have. been
made to change rural scene but. not much headway
was achieved.
AU'THORhas ri~ht1y observed that 'no claw
Asis THE
made that these bIts are adequate to dIScover
the dynamies of rural transformation iii Tamil Nadu
even from a limited economic. point of view. For'
one thing the data gaps and inadequacies even within
thesc.,somewhat wel1:defined areas are not negligi~le
as will be seen in the subsequent pages. Secondly
many important areas have been left out for want of
data and' because of the time constraints of the present study. The most glaring of these are the general
areas of manpower utilisation particui'arly in the nonagricultural occupations and .all the issues directly
related to the accumulatmn proeess'. 'He has rigbtly
'pointed out .that a study of economic change without
reference to these two, especially the latter, may appear
'to be. like Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark'.
Nevertheless Prof. Knrien ha developed an empirical framc:wo~k for rural transformation

wherein

wealth of data has been compressed. I am' 'of the

view, that the author by and large has confined himself to factual presentation avoiding being partisan and
making valuable jndgements. And yet, one can s;"
research-oriented. mind working here, having tl flair [or

figures and also a penetrative skill that looks through

data. The author hirnseif very rightly claims. two
things ..: Firstly it is as far. as one's knowledge about
this area can be relied upon, the first work of its kind
relating to Tamil N adu. Secondly, even at the all
India level, studies. of this kind which bring together
the diverse aspects of rural transformation are very
Tare indeed and one is yet to come across

major

effort to analyse the interactions among the different

COnipoilents of rural ehange.
The real' worth of this study can be judged from' fhe
faet th'at the Indian Council for Social Science and
Research (ICSSR) has accepted it as a model
for
similar studies commissioned for--otlier states. Hence,
this study is of pioneering nature and the author
deserves appreciation for the same.

23

the way' ....

They'show

This feature is based on success stories .viz. achievements gained in vqriqus

spheres of rural development by farmers, iJ1sti~utiol1S) experiments and individuals.

There is hardly all orglllnent over the fact that dedicatioll and zeal to put in hard
work can aehie,'c anything.

And one achievement

inspires 911d ShOll'S the way

to others!
WOe hope our esteemed readers will: send liS theit awn experiences ill thJ
field so that oihers can bellefit by them to Itsher ill a better life .for 0111'rural
people. (EOlTOR)

Better deal for the viJiage poor

DEVELOPMENT
PROGRAMME,
a
sponsored scheme has brough{ forth
various benefits to ."the Harijans, ,"vamen, marginal
fanners, farm workers ahd rural. artis~ns jiJ Thottiam
Block villages of Tiruchirapalli District during the
current financial year of 1981-82 ... Thottiam tops
'the list amongst 31 blocks of Tiruchy. District in the
implementation of IRDP. It has 'already exceeded this
vear's subsidv target of Rs. 6 lakhs with the four
;norc months" in hand. If the present achievement of
Rs. 7.52 lakhs subsidy is an indicator, the total cn,dit
outflow from the banks in the Thottiam Block willbe of the order of Rs. 30 lakhs and the total subsidy
amoun"t.accruing to the beneficiaries will exceed
Rs 10 lakhs through the outlets of Indian Overseas
B,;,k's Bran~h' at Tholliam and Theviltupalayam,'
Musiri Cooperative Land Development Bank and a
Scheduled Bank.

I Centrally

NTEGRATED RURAL

In all, 870 rural benefi~iaries have 'so far received

the loan amount of Rs. 20.82 lakhs; of which the
. subsidy' aI)1ount comes to the tune of Rs. 7.72 lakhs,
. under the IRDP in ThottiaI)1 Block. '. Of them, 341
Harijans were also benefited.
Animal.husbandry activities such as TaISmg Milch
.Animals,Sheep
units,. Goat units, Duckery units
and Piggery units were given higher priority. As
against the total loan amount of Rs. 20.81'lakhs,
. Rs. 18.95 lakhs were disbursed for the aforesaid
economic

activities.

Minor'lrrigation
(purchase ofoil'e~gine)
fetched
the loan amount of Rs. 85,000. Rs. 81,000 were
. loaned 'for agricultural .activities such as purchase of
power sp~ayer, bullock cart, tyre cart and p1?ugh
bullocks. Rural artisans such as' polters, tallors,
handloom -weavers and fishermen received Rs. 21,000
for improving their petty business activities .

./'
24

-F.

P.O.,

KURUKSHETRA

Tiruchira/!alli

February I, 1982.

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MSS MEDIA IN INDIA 1979.80
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OF INDIA, THE (Revised edition)

Gives basic information about lq.dia. its impor!ant

Profusely illustrated, contains a tourist map.
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A brief review of the important measures enacted by Parliament during the lasUwenty eight years.
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26

KU:RpKSH.ffiTRA'February

I, 1~S2

..

(Continued from Cover II)

t
I

- '.,

- ~-. '-

11 . Maximise power generation, improve the fnnctioning of elec-.

tricity authorities and electrify' ail' ';;i1iitges.

.I

12 Pursue vigorously programmes' of afforestation, social and

farm forestry'and the development of bio-gas and other alternative energy sources.

13 Promote famjJy planning on Ii volnntary basis as a people's

movement.

';

-,

" ;:'.

14 Substantially :tugment nniversal primary health care facilities,

and control of leprosy, T.B. and blindness.
/f'

15 Accelerate programmes of welfare for women and children and

nutrition programmes for' pregnant women, . nursing mothers
and children, specially in tribal, hill and backward :treas.

i)
);

16 Spread universa(elementary

education :forthe age-group 6-14

,with spelOial emphasis on' girls, .and simultaneously involve
students and. volnntary agencies in programmes for the removal .
of adult illiteracy.
.' ,

:'.
i:

,.

17 Expand the public ~istribuiion system through ,more fair price

shops, including mobile shopsin:far-f1nng areas and shops to
cater to industrial workers, students 'hostels, and make avail~
able to students text-books and 'exercise books .on a priority
basis. and.topromote.a. strong consumer' protection movement
. 18

Liberalise investment procedures. and streamline industrial

policies to ensure timely completion of projects. Give handicrafts, . handlooms, small and village industries all .facilities
to grow and to update their technology.

19

(!ontinue strict action against smugglers, hoarders and tax

evaders and check black money.'

20' Improve the working of the public eiIterprisesby increasing

efficiency; capacity utilisation and the generation of internal
resources.
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