Journal of Rural Development

Journal of Rural Development

Vol.32

July - Sept. 2013

No. 3

CONTENTS 1.

Contribution of Common Property Resources for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods in Odisha: Prospects and Constraints - Raghunath Sahoo and Mamata Swain

245

2.

Access, Use and Repayment of Micro-credit in Kerala – An Analysis - Santhosh Kumar S.

263

3.

Determinants of Market Supply of Vegetables: A Case of AKAKI-KALITY SUB- CITY, Ethiopia - Almaz Giziew

281

4.

Building Capacities of Rural Women Artisans : Case Studies of Women Empowerment from Thar Desert of Western Rajasthan - Jaya Kritika Ojha and Binod Mishra

291

5.

An Analysis of Knowledge Level of Farmers on Utilisation of ICT Tools for Farm Communication - K. P. Raghuprasad, Devaraja S.C and Gopala Y.M

301

6.

Resource Use Efficiency and Constraints in Farming in the Tank Commands : The Case of North Eastern Karnataka - Saikumar C. Bharamappanavara, Mundinamani S.M., Naik B.K. and Kiresur V.R.

311

7.

A Study of Micro-enterprises in Hajo Development Block, Kamrup (Assam) - Biswajit Das and Kandarpa Kr. Barman

321

8.

SHGs and Micro-finance : A Tale of Two Poor Women in Rural Tamil Nadu - Lakshmi Kumar and Jyoti Prasad Mukhopadhyay

333

BOOK REVIEWS 1.

Panchayats and Building of Model Villages, 2013 Edited by M. V. Rao and E. Venkatesu - Ramesh Kumar

341

2.

Rethinking Planning and Development – The Indian Context : Tribute to Tarlok Singh by Yogesh Atal - Dr. V. Suresh Babu

342

3.

Financial Engineering for Low-Income Households Edited by Bindu Ananth and Amit Shah - Dr. G.V.Krishna Lohi Das

343

4.

Those Who Did Not Die – Impact of the Agrarian Crisis on Women in Punjab by Ranjana Padhi - Dr. P. Kesava Rao

344

5.

HIV / AIDS Patients and Their Rehabilitation by Dr. Shekh Belal Ahmed - Dr.D.S. Manohar Paul

345

Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. (3) pp. 245 - 261 NIRD, Hyderabad.

CONTRIBUTION OF COMMON PROPERTY RESOURCES FOR SUSTAINABLE RURAL LIVELIHOODS IN ODISHA: PROSPECTS AND CONSTRAINTS

245

Raghunath Sahoo * and Mamata Swain **

ABSTRACT Common Property Resources (CPRs) play a significant role in the life and livelihood of rural poor, for whom income and employment generation opportunities from private land are limited. In this paper, an attempt has been made to determine the contributions of CPRs to rural household income and their fuelwood and fodder requirements in four villages in Keonjhar district of Odisha from 1 April, 2012 to 31 March, 2013. The study covered 200 households (120 poor households and 80 nonpoor households) comprising landless and agriculture labourers, marginal and small farmers (poor households), and medium and large farmers (non-poor households) from four villages of two different sample blocks. The study reveals that encroachment, implementation of various developmental programmes and overexploitation resulted in degradation of CPRs, leading to livelihood crisis situation for the rural poor. Even now apart from their shrinkage and degradation, CPRs meet substantially the total requirements of fuelwood and fodder of both poor and nonpoor households. It has been found that the income and employment opportunities from CPRs among poor households are more than non-poor households in the study area, but not in absolute terms. Measures are required to ensure retention, regeneration and sustainable utilisation of CPRs to provide livelihood security to the CPR-dependent rural communities. Introduction Every living being requires certain natural resources for his sustenance, such as land, water, atmosphere, light, forest, and biodiversity. Depletion of environmental resources (renewable and non-renewable) has received serious consideration from researchers, policy makers, scientists, and intellectuals since long time and has got impetus very recently. In this context, identification and preservation of

common property resources deserve serious consideration in so far as they can be highlighted as an instrument for poverty alleviation and economic development. Over the years, environmental resources have been categorised into four types based on the relationship between the resources and the resource user. They are: (a) private property resources, (b) state property resources, (c) open access resources, and (d) common property resources (CPRs).The present study is confined to common property resources.

*

Assistant Professor in Economics, Department of Management Studies, Apex Institute of Technology and Management , Pahala, Bhubaneswar-752101, Odisha. Email: [email protected]

**

Professor, P.G. Department of Economics, Ravenshaw University, Cuttack-753003, Odisha. Email: [email protected]

Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

246

On the basis of use right, property can be defined as private if only an individual or a family has use rights over resources, and it is common property resources (CPRs), if the use right is collective (Bromley 1989). Broadly speaking, common property resources (CPRs) are those resources that are accessible to the whole community in a village and to which no individual has an exclusive property right. In the context of Indian villages, common property resources include community forests, common grazing lands, wastelands, watershed drainages, village ponds, tanks, rivers/rivulets, riverbeds, etc., where well-defined property regime may not exist (Jodha 1986 ,1990; Nadkarani 1989, Arnold and Stewart 1991). Since the historical past, these resources have been contributing a lot to the village economies. Jodha (1986) has documented that the poor gained more than the non-poor households. About 84 to 100 per cent of the poor households gathered fuelwood, food, fodder and fibre from CPRs; in contrast just 10 to 20 per cent of the rich households depended on the CPRs for these items. A study (Chopra et al. 1990; Iyengar 1989) reveals that the poor gain from CPRs more than the rich in relation to their own income, but not in absolute terms. Despite their valuable contribution to rural economy in general and rural poor in particular, there is overall depletion and degradation of common property resources. This is due to pressure of population, encroachment, over-exploitation, commercialisation and deforestation. CPRs benefit the rural masses in providing them fuelwood, food, fodder, small timber, mulch and manure, fruits, medicinal herbs, etc. CPRs also help in maintaining the ecological balance by way of checking soil erosion, deforestation and siltation. Common property resource-based activity generates income and employment opportunities and is also complementary to agricultural activity, which is favourable to rural community (Beck 1994). In addition to this, the common property resources provide critical biomass services such as fuel, fodder and also help in performing some subsidiary occupations Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

Raghunath Sahoo and Mamata Swain like animal husbandry, dairying and minor forest product collection. Common property resources thus play a significant role for enhancing the livelihood of rural poor. In the context of Odisha so far no in-depth study has been undertaken to analyse the role of CPRs in the livelihood of poor and how with population growth there has been shrinkage of CPRs and environmental degradation causing hardship to the poor. In this study an attempt has been made to analyse the importance of CPRs in the life and livelihood of the rural poor in four villages in tribal dominated Keonjhar district of Odisha. The objectives of the study are (1) To examine the status and trends of common property resource area in the study villages; (2) To determine the contributions of common property resources to the livelihood of rural poor and non-poor; (3) To explore the causes of degradation of CPRs; (4) To suggest policy measures for sustainable utilisation of CPRs to provide secure livelihood to rural poor. Methodology The total geographical area of Odisha is about 15571 thousand hectares. In 1950-51, the area under common property land resources, including the forest land ( protected and unclassified), barren and uncultivable land, permanent pasture, cultivable waste and fallow land other than current fallow, in Odisha was 8519 thousand hectares, accounting for 54.7 per cent of the total geographical area of the State. By 2010-11, there has been substantial decline in common property land resources which is 5108 thousand hectares accounting for 32.8 per cent of the total geographical area of the State (Economic Survey, Government of Odisha, 196061, 2011-12). Odisha is rich in natural resources like forest, minerals, water and land. But these valuable natural resources are being degraded over time. Deforestation, soil erosion, water

Contribution of Common Property Resources for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods

pollution, intensive mining, etc., affected the environment as well as the poor adversely. The problem of environmental degradation is however not observed uniformly over the different districts in Odisha. Among the thirty districts of Odisha, Balangir,Kalahandi,Kandhamal, Keonjhar, Koraput, Malkangiri, Mayurbhanj, Nawarangapur, Rayagada and Sundergarh are the most dominated tribal districts inhabited by around 65 per cent of the total tribal population of the State. As per 2011 census, the scheduled tribe population in Keonjhar district accounts for 44.5 per cent which is (22.2 per cent) more than all- Odisha figure. Poverty is concentrated mainly in tribal concentrated areas of Keonjhar district in Odisha. Keonjhar district is selected for the study on the basis of high incidence of poverty and high degree of CPR degradation. Though CPR degradation is a major problem in Keonjhar, no in-depth study has yet been undertaken to examine the extent of degradation and explore the causes of such over-exploitation which created livelihood crisis for the rural poor. Anandapur and Ghasipura block in Keonjhar district were selected for the study because of high incidence of poverty, high degree of CPR degradation and too much of dependency on CPRs for their livelihood observed in this area. From these two blocks, two villages from each block were selected on the basis of largest percentage of land under CPR area from 198081 to 2010-11. Kantipal and Kolimati villages were selected from Anandpur block and Madanpur and Birgovindpur villages were chosen from Ghasipura block. Stratified random sampling technique is used to select sample households from the above


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four villages. The households are classified into two groups: poor and non-poor. The poor households include landless labourers, agricultural workers, artisans, small farmers (= 1.00 = 1.99 ha. of land) and marginal farmers (=0.99 ha. of land). The non-poor households include servicemen and small entrepreneurs, very large farmers (> 9.99 ha), large (= 5.00 = 9.99 ha.), upper middle (=3.00 = 4.99 ha.) and lower middle (=2.00 = 2.99 ha.) farmers. Sample households are then selected from each village after giving proper weightage to each category. The total number of households for intensive field survey is 200: 120 poor and 80 non-poor (Table 1). Among the poor households, the proportion of scheduled tribes is the highest at 40 per cent, followed by other backward castes (24.2 per cent), scheduled castes (19.1 per cent) and other castes (16.7 per cent) in that order. All the sample households belonging to different classes and castes are mainly dependent for their livelihood on collection of fuelwood, food, fodder, timber and non-timber forest product (NTFP) such as harida, bahada, mahula, kendu, sal leave, mango, jamu, jackfruit, sal seeds, medicinal and herbal plants for their domestic consumption and sale. They are selling these products to outside traders through middlemen who are mostly non-tribal. The villages are surrounded by forest from all sides. Besides collecting products from CPRs, the main occupation of villagers is encroachment on CPR land for cultivation purpose. During the lean agricultural season, when there is no agricultural work, they earn their livelihood as wage labourers on works of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and other poverty alleviation programmes.

248

Raghunath Sahoo and Mamata Swain Table 1: Distribution of the Sample Households by Caste and Class

Name of the Village

Category of Households

Madanpur

Poor Non-poor All Poor Non-poor All Poor Non-poor All Poor Non-poor All Poor %

Kolimati

Birgovindpur

Kantipal

All villages

Non-poor % All %

No. of Sample Households by Caste SC ST OBC OC 4 5 9 5 3 8 6 7 13 8 4 12 23 (19.1) 19 (23.7) 42 (21.0)

6 4 10 15 9 24 11 9 20 16 6 22 48 (40.0) 28 (35.0) 76 (38.0)

9 6 15 6 4 10 8 4 12 6 6 12 29 (24.2) 20 (25.0) 49 (24.5)

7 5 12 4 2 6 7 2 9 2 4 6 20 (16.7) 13 (16.3) 33 (16.5)

All 26 20 46 30 18 48 32 22 54 32 20 52 120 (100.0) 80 (100.0) 200 (100.0)

(Figures in parentheses are percentages of the total) Source: Field Survey. Primary data were collected from all sample households through personal interview method using the pre-tested schedules. Data were collected on individual household characteristics, particularly pertaining to demography, income-consumption pattern, dependence on CPRs as a source of income, use of forest land for fuelwood collection and other CPRs, types of benefit derived from CPRs and future prospects of CPR land. The primary data were related to the year from 1 April, 2012 to 31 March, 2013. Secondary data pertaining to CPR area, reserve forest and other land use classification were collected from the district statistical office, census abstracts, divisional forest office, tahasil office, gram panchayat office and local revenue offices.


Status and Trends of CPR Land CPR Land of a village includes area under barren and uncultivable land, cultivable wasteland including Gauchar and Groves, other fallow land and forest. Data on changes in land area under different categories of CPRs were collected from village level land records and are presented in Table 2.


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Table 2 : CPR Area in Study Villages (Area in Hectares) Area Total geographical area (a)CPR area (1980-81) (i) Forest land (ii) Barren and uncultivable land (iii) Cultivable wasteland including Gauchar and Groves Total CPR area (a) (i+ii+iii) CPR area as a percentage of total geographical area (b) CPR area( 2010-11) (i) Forest land (ii) Barren and uncultivable land (iii) Cultivable wasteland including Gauchar and Groves 7.00 Total CPR area (b) (i+ii+iii) CPR area as a percentage of total geographical area Decline in area of CPRs since 1980-81 (in per cent)

Kantipal 1,092.25

Kolimati 564.54

Birgovindpur Madanpur 644.85 889.9

All 3191.54

74.06 187.77

32.38 141.64

100.77 258.19

170.37 32.37

377.58 619.97

191.42 453.25

169.97 343.99

158.64 517.60

161.47 364.21

681.5 1679.05

41.4

60.9

80.2

40.9

52.6

64.23 11.52

58.21 102.84

108.81 312.24

105.30 192.53

336.55 619.13

154.32 82.75

21.33 315.37

34.75 442.38

217.40 332.58

1173.08

7.5

55.8

68.6

37.3

36.7

81.7

8.3

14.5

8.6

30.1

Source: Village land records, Census of India, 1981 and 2011. Data reveal that the share of CPR area in the study villages ranges between 41 per cent in Madanpur and 80 per cent in Birgovindpur in 1980-81 and 7 per cent in Kantipal and 68 per cent in Birgovindpur in 2010-11. In 1980-81, 1679 hectares of CPR land (which constitutes 52 per cent of the total geographical area of the villages) was available in the sample villages. But the area

declined to 1173 hectares (36 per cent of the total geographical area of sample villages) by 2010-11. Thus, there is substantial (30 per cent) decline in CPR area.The decline in CPR area varies between 28 hectares in Kolimati (8 per cent) and the maximum of 370 hectares (81 per cent) in Kantipal village (Tables 2 and 3).

Table 3: Distribution of Lost CPR Area in the Study Villages (Area in Hectares) Area

Kantipal

Kolimati

370.50 (100.0)

28.62 (100.0)

75.22 (100.0)

31.63 (100.0)

505.97 (100.0)

33.9 99.18 (26.8) 89.67 (24.2)

5.0 8.21 (28.7) 7.22 (25.2)

11.6 26.66 (35.3) 22.32 (30.1)

3.5 10.31 (32.6) 9.00 (28.5)

15.8 144.36 (28.5) 128.21 (25.3)

181.65 (49.0)

13.19 (46.1)

26.24 (34.6)

12.32 (38.9)

233.40 (46.2)

Total CPR area lost Lost on CPR area as a percentage of total geographical area CPRs encroached by the poor (private access)* CPRs distributed to the poor by the government (poverty alleviation programme) * CPRs encroached by the non-poor (no access by the poor)*

Birgovindpur Madanpur

(Figures in parentheses are percentages of the total CPR area lost) Source : Field Survey. Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

All

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The reduction in CPRs is mainly due to encroachments by rural households and the developmental programmes of the government. However, the area under forest land increased from 32 to 58 hectares in Kolimati and from 100 to 108 hectares in Birgovindpur village due to implementation of social forestry programme. There is significant decline in the area under forest land from 170 to 105 hectares in Madanpur village due to encroachments by rural households and distribution of CPR land to poor households. In all four sample villages taken together, forest area declined from 377 hectares in 1980-81 to 336 hectares in 2010-11. There is also significant decline in the area under cultivable wasteland including Gauchar and Groves from 681 hectares in 1980-81 to 217 hectares in 2010-11 in the four study villages. However, the area under barren and uncultivable land declined in Kantipal (187 to 11 hectares) and in Kolimati (141 hectares to 102 hectares) except in Birgovindpur and Madanpur villages. The area under barren and uncultivable land is almost same between 1980-81 and 2010-11 in all the selected villages. The total CPR area lost between 198081 and 2010-11 is 506 hectares which constitutes around 16 per cent of the total geographical area of the four sample villages as shown in Table 3. Out of the total 506 hectares of lost CPR area, 233 hectares ( 46 per cent) has been encroached by the rural non-poor. CPRs encroached by the non-poor is the highest in Kantipal village followed by Birgovindpur, Kolimati, and Madanpur in that order. The State Government tried to improve the access of rural poor by distributing the CPR lands to individuals for crop cultivation, housing and for social forestry which amounts to 128 hectares (25 per cent of the lost CPRs). This, of course, might have improved the economic status of some of the rural poor who have obtained such lands, but contributed very marginally in meeting their


Raghunath Sahoo and Mamata Swain biomass requirements. Apart from the grant of CPR land to the poor, the poor themselves managed to have complete access over a part of the CPRs by way of encroachments. This amounts to 144 hectares (28 per cent of the lost CPRs), awaiting regularisation by the government. In our study villages, 53 per cent of the total CPRs lost is under private access of the rural poor. This includes both CPRs encroached by the poor and land distributed to the individuals by the government under anti-poverty programmes (Table 3).With this one could expect their economic status to have improved. These beneficiaries neither crossed the poverty line nor are self-sufficient in their biomass requirements. Distributing this type of land seems to destroy the village economy. The type of land granted and /or encroached by them is very poor quality and non-viable. Also, the crops and method of cultivation adopted by them yield low output as well as low proportion of crop residues which are used as fodder and fuelwood. In this situation, these poor households transfer their lands to the non-poor. Jodha found in his study of dry villages in India that the CPR lands privatised by the poor had gone to the hands of non-poor. The CPR lands received by the poor were also given up by them as they did not have complementary resources to develop and use the newly-received lands (Jodha 1986). Dependence on CPR Land for Income In spite of the shrinkage and degradation of CPRs, their contribution to the rural economy continues to be significant, particularly in dry and drought-prone areas. Jodha found in his study that per household per year income derived from CPRs ranged between ` 530 and ` 830 in different areas of India, and this was higher than the income generated by a number of anti-poverty programmes in some areas (Jodha 1986). The present study also observed a similar trend in the sample villages.


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Table 4: Contribution of CPRs to Gross Income of Households Name of the Village

Category of households

Number of households

Average Gross Income per Household from All Sources (Rupees/Year)

Average Gross Income per Household from CPRs (Rupees/Year)

CRP Income as Per cent of Average Gross Income per household

Madanpur

Poor Non-poor All

34 12 46

15105 25689 18241

4432 6945 5176

29.3 27.0 28.3

Kolimati

Poor Non-poor All

30 18 48

20205 30286 23412

5775 7136 6208

28.5 23.5 26.5

Birgovindpur

Poor Non-poor All

32 22 54

13153 21493 15488

2892 4458 3338

21.9 20.8 21.5

Kantipal

Poor Non-poor All

32 20 52

10268 17831 12595

1829 2671 2088

17.8 14.9 16.5

All villages

Poor Non-poor All

120 80 200

14452 23687 17222

3655 5276 4141

25.3 22.2 24.0

Source: Field Survey. Table 4 shows that in the study villages both poor and non-poor depended to a large extent on CPRs. The source of income from CPRs is divided into two groups viz. (i) income from open grazing on CPRs and the value of food, fuelwood collection of different timber and non-timber forest products (NTFPs) for both consumption and selling purposes (ii) income from cultivation of encroached and government distributed CPR land. The important CPR products which are collected for both the purposes of domestic consumption and selling of timber, firewood, sal leaves, sal seeds, char seeds, kusum seeds, harida, bahada, panas, mango, jack fruits, etc. The share of income from CPR land for poor households to their total income is comparatively higher in Madanpur village followed by Kolimati, Birgovindpur and Kantipal village in that order. Because, they do not have sufficient private property through which they could maintain Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

their livelihood. Around 25 and 22 per cent of the gross income of poor and non-poor households, respectively come from CPRs. Though the available CPRs are degraded and are unable to meet the required biomass by the rural households, nevertheless, in their absence, rural households would have difficulty to pay heavily towards the purchase of such biomass. Since the cash income of the rural poor is hardly enough to provide two meals a day, spending on fuelwood and fodder could be suicidal for them. Though CPR plays a crucial role in the household economy of the rural poor, it is the non-poor who get more benefits from CPR in absolute terms. Nadakarni (1989) found in his study in the Western Ghats of Karnataka that income from the CPR was much greater for rich households than poor families, though in relative terms the poor obtained a greater proportion of their income from them. We obtain a similar

252

Raghunath Sahoo and Mamata Swain

picture in our study villages. It can be seen from Even in the case of the non-poor, the contribution Table 4 that poor households derive on an of CPR income as a proportion of gross income average gross income of ` 3,655 per household per household varies between 15 per cent in from CPRs while the non-poor households derive Kantipal and 27 per cent in Madanpur. Hence, on `5,276. Thus, the ratio of income derived from an average, one-fourth of the income of the poor the CPRs by poor and non-poor households are is derived from the CPRs whereas it is 22 per 1:1.44. The average gross annual income of the cent for the non-poor, and 24 per cent for the poor households from the CPRs ranges from entire household in the reference period. ` 1,829 to ` 5,775 in different study villages Fuelwood Collection from CPR Land during the reference period. The CPR income The most widespread use of CPR land is for the non-poor varies between ` 2,671 and ` 7,136. Though the poor households get much for collection of fuelwood for cooking. As the less average gross income per household from availability of fuelwood from CPRs declines, and CPRs as compared to the non-poor household, it the rural families income rises, these households is relatively more important in their household shift to new methods of fuel use and budget in all the study villages. However, despite consumption, i.e. to biogas, electricity, kerosene, the non-poor getting greater benefits in absolute fuel-efficient ‘choolas’ (hearths), etc. It observes terms, a greater proportion of the household that there seems to be a shift, though a marginal income of the poor is derived from CPRs. This one, in favour of other sources of cooking energy proportion varies between 17 per cent of the such as kerosene and biogas in the study villages. gross income per household in Kantipal village The percentage distribution of households by and 29 per cent in Madanpur village, and for all cooking media is presented in Table 5. the sample poor households it is 25 per cent. Table 5: Percentage Distribution of Households by Cooking Media Name of the Village


Cooking Media (Percentage) No. of FuelFuelFuelwood House- wood wood Dung cake holds and and crop Dung residue cake

Others

All

Madanpur

Poor Non-poor All

26 20 46

36.3 27.1

45.2 51.4 48.6

9.3 22.1 11.4

9.2 26.5 12.9

100 100 100

Kolimati

Poor Non-poor All

30 18 48

6.7 3.4

54.5 4.7 35.3

36.3 93.6 59.5

2.5 1.7 1.8

100 100 100

Birgovindpur

Poor Non-poor All

32 22 54

31.1 15.6 29.1

28.6 26.4 25.2

23.1 42.4 27.3

17.2 15.6 18.6

100 100 100

Kantipal

Poor Non-poor All

32 20 52

-

7.8 12.2 41.6

33.6 49.7 41.8

58.6 38.1 16.6

100 100 100

All villages

Poor Non-poor All

120 80 200

24.1 4.4 15.6

30.2 21.3 29.4

23.1 52.8 39.4

22.6 21.5 15.6

100 100 100

Source: Field Survey. Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013


Exclusive use of fuelwood is the highest (29 per cent) in Birgovindpur village followed by Madanpur (27 per cent) and Kolimati (3 per cent). The availability of CPR forest land is limited in Kolimati and Kantipal villages.The share (percentage) of exclusive use of fuelwood from CPRs to the total consumption is higher among the poor (24 per cent) as compared to the nonpoor (4 per cent), whereas the share (percentage) of the use of fuelwood, dung cake and crop residue from CPRs to the total consumption is higher among the non-poor (52 per cent) as compared to the poor (23 per cent). The non-poor households have managed to meet the requirements from their own lands. Further, in our study villages the poor households

253

depend on available CPRs for their fuelwood requirements, they do also purchase it from the market.This shows that the overall development of the village affected the poor much in terms of decreased availability of fuelwood from CPRs. Eventhough fuelwood is a dominant cooking medium, the exclusive use of fuelwood is very limited. Only 15 per cent of the total households used fuelwood, 29 per cent used fuelwood and dung cake, 39 per cent depended on fuelwood, dung cake and crop residue for their fuel needs and 16 per cent depended on other combinations of fuels.

Table 6: Fuel Use Pattern in Study Villages Cooking Media (Percentage) Name of the Village


No. of Households

Fuelwood

Dung cake

Biogas/ Kerosene

Crop residue

All

Madanpur

Poor Non-poor All

26 20 46

86.0 71.0 81.0

8.0 13.0 9.0

3.6 13.5 8.0

2.4 2.5 2.0

100 100 100

Kolimati

Poor Non-poor All

30 18 48

87.0 76.0 82.5

8.0 9.0 8.2

1.0 2.0 2.0

4.0 13.0 7.3

100 100 100

Birgovindpur

Poor Non-poor All

32 22 54

90.0 69.0 84.4

4.0 18.0 6.2

0.0 1.7 1.2

6.0 11.3 8.2

100 100 100

Kantipal

Poor Non-poor All

32 20 52

41.3 35.4 38.4

15.5 21.7 17.4

9.2 13.5 11.3

34.0 29.4 32.9

100 100 100

All villages

Poor Non-poor All

120 80 200

75.5 65.0 70.8

8.6 15.0 11.4

4.1 6.7 5.2

11.8 13.3 12.6

100 100 100

Source: Field Survey. Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

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Raghunath Sahoo and Mamata Swain

Fuelwood has been collected from the developed plantation (social forestry project) and reserve forest free of cost. Dung cake and crop residues are derived from both own fields as well as from other sources (other farmers’ fields and forests). Biogas and kerosene are exclusively derived from own sources and the cost has been borne by the people themselves. Table 6 shows

that on an average nearly 75 per cent of fuel requirements of the poor, 65 per cent of the non-poor and 70 per cent of all households are met through fuelwood. But at the village level, the share of fuelwood to total fuelwood requirements varies between 38 per cent in Kantipal and 84 per cent in Birgovindpur.

Table 7: Other Aspects of Fuelwood Collection Category of Households Name of the Village

No. Average Average Average Average Distance Accessiof Fuel-wood Value of Time Value of Total from bility House- ConsumFuelSpent Per Fuelwood Home to (Percenholds ption wood Collection Collected CPR tage of (Kg. Per Consu(Hours) Per Year (in km) People Who Week) med (` Per (in `) Felt CPR is Week) Open)

Madanpur

Poor Non-poor All

26 20 46

44.10 47.48 45.10

59.30 63.42 60.33

4.47 6.00 4.92

4014.63 4276.87 4092.33

3.02 3.12 3.05

62.1 61.5 61.9

Kolimati

Poor Non-poor All

30 18 48

51.25 47.31 48.31

67.32 63.50 66.10

6.06 6.71 6.27

4510.73 4304.42 4445.09

3.00 3.00 3.00

41.1 94.2 60.0

Birgovindpur

Poor Non-poor All

32 22 54

44.84 42.84 37.70

47.29 56.39 48.71

4.94 6.42 5.36

3455.16 3924.57 3586.60

2.88 3.57 3.08

71.2 41.8 62.1

Kantipal

Poor Non-poor All

32 20 52

17.60 26.70 20.40

19.98 34.81 26.62

5.77 6.62 6.03

2090.11 2601.25 2247.38

2.88 3.37 3.03

19.6 16.5 18.3

All villages

Poor Non-poor All

120 80 200

38.18 40.50 39.48

48.73 54.35 51.42

5.27 6.43 5.62

3482.20 3754.26 3563.82

2.95 3.26 3.04

47.5 56.3 51.2

Source: Field Survey. Some other aspects of fuelwood collection from CPRs that emerged during the survey are presented in Table 7. On an average, the poor used 38 kg, the non-poor used 40 kg and all households used 39 kg of fuelwood per Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

week. Between the villages the household consumption of fuelwood per week ranges from 48 kg in Kolimati to 20 kg in Kantipal.The average imputed money value of fuelwood consumed per week is almost ` 49 for the poor, ` 54 for


the non-poor, and ` 51 for all households. The market value of collected fuelwood from CPRs per year, on an average it works out to ` 3482, ` 3,754 and ` 3,563 for the poor, non-poor and all households, respectively. Generally, households in all the study villages regularly go for fuelwood collection. But in summer they collected fuelwood more intensively, to be stored for the rainy season, when fuelwood collection would be very difficult. Table 7 also shows that the distance between the place of dwelling (habitation) and source of fuelwood collection (forest) is around 3 km, but to collect fuelwood, people have to go deep into the forest due to degradation of forests and congestion of fuelwood collectors. It is observed in the study villages that women and children aged between 10 and 15 belonging to the poor households browse over three to four km on CPRs (including road sides) for dead and fallen wood, twigs, thorny bushes, dry leaves, roots etc. The average time spent per collection of fuelwood varies between a minimum of four hours and a maximum of seven hours. Villagers do not have total access to all types of forests. Forest authorities (the forest department) regulate accessibility to the forest area specially when these are under reserve forest or protected area category. About 47 per cent of the poor, 56 per cent of non-poor and 51 per cent of all households in the study villages


255

feel that the forest is open for fuelwood collection without any restriction. CPR Land as a Source of Fodder Fodder is another important derivative of the common property resource, 80 per cent of the sample households owned livestock. Table 8 reveals that 46 per cent of the total fodder uses by all livestock-holding households derive from CPRs. The corresponding percentage for the poor and non-poor is 51 and 42, respectively. Except Kantipal, in the other villages more than 50 per cent of the fodder derives from CPRs by poor households, which in absolute terms is lower than that of non-poor households.The nonpoor derive 46, 49, 31 and 37 per cent fodder from CPRs in Madanpur, Kolimati, Birgovindpur and Kantipal villages, respectively. The supplementary source of fodder through crop cultivation helps the non-poor to depend rather less on CPRs. Poor households do not depend fully on crop cultivation, as crop cultivation is risky and uncertain. Also, their average size of landholding is very small (0.1 hectare) and hence non-viable as compared with that of the nonpoor. At the aggregate level, both in absolute and relative terms, the non-poor derive a higher share of total fodder from own sources as compared to the poor. The non-poor derive 51 per cent and the poor derive 38 per cent of fodder from own sources.

256

Raghunath Sahoo and Mamata Swain Table 8: Sources of Animal Fodder Source of Animal Fodder (in ` )

Name of Village Madanpur

Kolimati

Birgovindpur

Kantipal

All villages

Category No. of of Households Households Poor

20

Non-poor

15

All

35

Poor

25

Non-poor

13

All

38

Poor

26

Non-poor

18

All

44

Poor

27

Non-poor

16

All

43

Poor

98

Non-poor

62

All

160

Own

Other Farms

Purchased

On CPRs

Total

969 (22.3) 4625 (45.5) 3014 (42.0)

213 (4.9) 338 (3.3) 243 (3.4)

208 (4.7) 528 (5.2) 324 (4.5)

2959 (68.1) 4676 (46.0) 3584 (50.1)

4349 (100) 10167 (100) 7165 (100)

2139(33.2) (33.2) 4369 (44.7) 2932 (38.5)

237 (3.7) 35 (0.3) 215 (2.8)

519 (8.0) 540 (5.5) 516 (6.7)

3544(55.1) (55.1) 4832 (49.5) 3958 (52.0)

6439 (100) 9776 (100) 7621 (100)

2018 (36.1) 6327 (65.4) 4108 (54.1)

347 (6.2) 40 (0.4) 249 (3.3)

304 (5.4) 275 (2.8) 258 (3.4)

2921 (52.3) 3038 (31.4) 2975 (39.2)

5590 (100) 9680 (100) 7590 (100)

2946 (50.2) 3536 (57.2) 3189 (52.6)

0 (0.0) 0 (0.00) 0 (0.0)

415 (7.1) 334 (5.4) 378 (6.2)

2499 (42.7) 2311 (37.4) 2492 (41.2)

5860 (100) 6181 (100) 6059 (100)

2439 (38.4) 4897 (51.4) 3761 (46.1)

267 (4.3) 195 (2.1) 231 (2.8)

391 (6.1) 457 (4.8) 392 (4.8)

3248 (51.2) 3972 (41.7) 3780 (46.3)

6345 (100) 9521 (100) 8164 (100)

(Figures in parentheses are percentages of total) Source: Field Survey. Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013


In all our study villages, we find both poor and non-poor households maintaining sheep and goats. Due to the degradation of CPRs, rural households try to concentrate on less risky animals (sheep and goats) which can be maintained on lower quality and lesser availability of herbages and forages from CPRs than in case of other types of animals. Similar changes in the composition of livestock due to the degradation of CPRs have been recorded by Jodha in his study of dry regions in India (Jodha 1990). Another study in a drought –prone region of Karnataka by Pasha also found that as the quality and quantity of CPRs decline, apart from the poor even the non-poor households concentrate on the rearing of sheep and goats (Pasha 1991). Prospects of CPRs in Study Villages The present analysis shows that there is abundant CPR land under forest, barren and uncultivable land, cultivable waste and other fallow land categories in the study villages. The forest land being under the direct control of the forest department, there is very limited scope for encroachment on forest CPR. Though there is very limited scope for depletion of CPRs in the study villages, degradation has been happening due to encroachment on barren and uncultivable land, grazing land, cultivable wasteland, fallow other than current fallow, and distribution of CPR land by the government to the poor for crop cultivation, housing and social forestry, and over-exploitation through collection of fuelwood, food, fodder, non-timber forest


257

products (NTFPs) for their domestic consumption and sale. Thus, over-exploitation of common property forest resources resulted in the degradation of CPRs with ultimate adverse effect on the rural community. The CPR-based activity of rural households itself is a cause for degradation. All the surveyed households are collecting fuelwood from the forest land and, therefore, it can be safely assumed that a majority of the households in the study villages are doing the same. The population of the villages multiplied over the years but the forest area remains constant, increasing the pressure on the existing forest resources through increased fuelwood collection. In addition, the administrative mechanism failed to popularise alternative fuels and efficient fuelwood - based chullas at affordable prices. In the study villages, all the sample livestock holding households are sending their animals to the forest CPR for open grazing. Both the poor and non-poor derive a substantial portion of total fodder requirements from forest CPR. Livestock is indispensable for small and marginal farmers, on which their subsistence farming is based, but fodder from own sources is insufficient to maintain their livestock, and they cannot afford to purchase fodder. Therefore, these households depend heavily on CPR forest for their fodder requirements. There are no restrictions of any kind on open grazing in forest lands, causing over-exploitation of forest resources.

258

Raghunath Sahoo and Mamata Swain Table 9: Participation of Sample Households on Joint Forest Management (JFM)

Name of the Village


No. of Households

JFM (VFC/VSS/ FPC) Households (No.)

Active Participation Households on JFM (No.)

Percentage of Active Participation Households to total Sample Households on JFM

Madanpur

Poor Non-poor All

26 20 46

12 11 23

7 5 12

26.9 25.0 26.0

Kolimati

Poor Non-poor All

30 18 48

18 8 26

12 6 18

40.0 33.3 37.5

Birgovindpur

Poor Non-poor All

32 22 54

21 13 34

14 7 21

43.7 31.8 38.8

Kantipal

Poor Non-poor All

32 20 52

15 7 22

8 4 12

25.0 20.0 23.0

All village

Poor Non-poor All

120 80 200

66 39 105

41 22 63

34.1 27.5 31.5

Source: Field Survey.

Table 9 reveals that around 31 per cent household members (63 out of 200 sample households) in all villages actively participated in Joint Forest Management (JFM). The active participation in JFM by the poor is 34 per cent whereas for the non-poor households it is 27 per cent, and from all households it is 31 per cent. The active participation in JFM among four sample villages varies between 23 per cent (in Kantipal village) to 39 per cent (in Birgovindpur village).There are village forest committees since 2000 in all the sample villages consisting of 105 members on paper, but work is being done by Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

the forest department with the involvement of only 63 members. There are various problems in all sample villages. First, Forest Protection Committees (FPCs) are set up in haste without adequate consultation with local community except with 63 members. Second, there is a conflict among different caste and tribal groups, for instance Juang and Bhuiyan, SCs (Pana) and OBCs (Teli, Gopala), sometimes leading to violence for protection of village forest area. Third, the forest dwellers are getting small timber and firewood


from the forest formally or informally. But they do not get any additional incentive in these items for their own use under JFM scheme. A Government of Odisha resolution in 1993 on JFM offered 50 per cent share in any major/final harvest and 100 per cent of intermediate products to forest protection committee, called Vana Sanrakhyan Samiti. Joint Forest Management seeks to involve and treat local communities as equal partners in the task of protection and management of forest. But the absence of good relation between forest department and local communities in all the sample villages makes this a remote reality. Local communities find JFM unacceptable since this tends to erode decision making at community level, and also disregards the traditional knowledge system of the community. The restriction on sale of gathered firewood or small timber is unrealistic as many of the poor forest dwellers depend on sale of these forest produce for their subsistence. Under JFM, Forest Department plays an important role in decisions relating to forest. Fourth, in the absence of a General Body, the Forest Protection Committee is not always representative of all sections of forest users of the village. Fifth, the rights and tenures of the community over forest patch are not specified. Only certain concessions for fulfilling the requirements are spelt out; there is no mention of any share in the intermediate or final harvest in the sample villages. Apart from protecting the CPRs from further degradation, participative management by all the rural households, particularly the rural poor, promotes the social bond across families at the village level. This will help both poor as well as the non-poor. In our study villages, though the development agencies have tried and succeeded in protecting and regenerating the degraded CPRs, and equitable distribution of benefits of all rural households, they have failed in involving all sections of the rural society in such developmental programmes. In addition to the increased availability of biomass from the Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

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protected CPRs, community-based use and management of these resources can also help in promoting sustainable development of agriculture and allied activities of the rural areas. Once all the rural households are involved in the management of CPRs, it may not be difficult even to have common irrigation equipment, tractors, tillers, grain hullers, etc., at the village level. If this happens, the overall development of the village, particularly of the poor families can be achieved. It appears that the share of poor households in the biomass from the CPRs may further decline as the quantity and quality of biomass from it increases. This is because it is the non-poor who have an absolute control over the use and management of such resources. Even in taking up the degraded CPRs for development it appears that all the households are not consulted or involved. The officials along with representatives of the rich seem to have persuaded one or two poor households to accept the scheme. The poor as a result of their socio-political and economic submission to the non-poor hardly express their views clearly. Keeping the poor in the background, a few representatives of the rich try to commercialise and gain from the CPRs. However, it may be interesting to understand how actually the rural poor perceive the CPRs. In other words, to what extent do they protect the CPRs by their participation in their use and management, if equal chance is given to them. We noticed through our own discussions with the poor households in the sample villages that, even these households largely prefer the available CPRs to be distributed among them as private property resources (PPRs) due to: (1) Unequal distribution of PPRs (land and livestock) among the rural poor families, (2) Lack of CPR-based PPRs among the poor, (3) Neglect of non-market forces in the rural economy, and (4) Lack of proper policy by the government about CPRs, particularly, regularisation of the encroached CPRs. Thus, in

260

such a situation promoting participation from all sections of the rural society in the use and management of CPRs seems to be a difficult task. If the present CPR use structure is allowed to continue unaltered, then the future for common property resources in the study villages appears bleak. Due to the degradation of CPRs, many households are already facing shortage of fuelwood and fodder. Many households therefore, started shifting towards other fuels such as dung cake and inferior fuels like crop residue for cooking. The degradation of CPR forest increased the time required for fuelwood collection and resulted in the neglect and overexploitation of forest CPRs. Thus, there has been a vicious circle of degradation and overexploitation of CPRs. If this vicious circle is not broken, then the ‘tragedy of common property resources’ is certain to occur. Conclusions CPRs play a very important role in the rural economy of Odisha. In absolute terms, the contribution from CPRs to the gross income of the rural non-poor is much more than in case of poor families. But in relative terms whatever the poor get from CPRs is very important and crucial in their household economies. Fuelwood collection from CPR meets more than two- thirds of the total energy requirements of the poor households. The share of exclusive use of fuelwood from CPRs to the total consumption is higher among the poor as compared to the non-


Raghunath Sahoo and Mamata Swain poor, whereas the share of the use of fuelwood, dung cake and crop residue from CPRs to the total consumption is higher among the non-poor as compared to the poor. Poor households derive a larger proportion of total fodder from CPRs as compared to the non-poor in relative terms. At the aggregate level, both in absolute and relative terms, the non-poor derive a higher share of total fodder from own sources compared with the poor. Even now apart from their shrinkage and degradation, CPRs meet substantially the total requirements of fuelwood and fodder of both poor and non-poor families. In the survey villages, a substantial proportion of the total geographical area is under common property resource category. There is a significant decline of CPR area between 1980-81 and 2010-11 due to encroachment, developmental programmes of the government and over-exploitation of CPR forest land in the selected villages. Encroachment of CPRs by the non-poor is more than the poor due to distribution of land by the government to the poor. Effective participation of local population and equitable distribution of benefits are not happening in the sample households, mainly due to institutional weaknesses.Thus, the pressure on the existing CPRs increases, which would result in their over-exploitation and degradation. Increasing the access of rural poor to CPRs by protecting and regenerating these resources as well as giving equal opportunity to the poor in the use and management of CPRs on a sustainable way seems to be the urgent need of the day.


261

References 1.

Arnold, J.E.M. and Stewart, W.C.(1991),‘Common Property Resource Management in India’, Tropical Forestry Papers, Oxford Forestry Institute, No. 24, University of Oxford, Oxford.

2.

Beck, T. (1994), ‘Common Property Resource Access by Poor and Class Conflict in West Bengal’, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol.29, No. 4, pp 187-197.

3.

Bromley, D.W. (1989), ‘Property Relation and Economic Development: The Other Land Reforms’, World Development, Vol.17, No.6, pp. 867-877.

4.

Chopra, K., Kadekodi, G.K. and Murty, M.N. (1990), ‘Peoples Participation and Common Property Resources’, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol.24, No. 51, pp A189-A195.

5.

Government of India (GoI),(1951,1961,1971,1981,1991,2001,2011):‘District Census Handbook’, Census of India, Record Structure: Village Directory.

6.

Government of Odisha (GoO), (1961), Economic Survey 1960-61 Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Bhubaneswar, Odisha.

7.

Government of Odisha (GoO), (2012), Economic Survey 2011-12 and Various Other Issues, Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Bhubaneswar, Odisha.

8.

Iyengar, S. (1989), ‘Common Property Resources in Gujarat: Some Findings About Their Size, Status and Use’, Economic and Political Weekly (Review of Agriculture), Vol.24, No. 25, pp. A67-A77.

9.

Jodha, N.S. (1986), ‘Common Property Resources and Rural Poor in Dry Regions of India’, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 21, No.27, pp. 1169-1181.

10.

Jodha, N.S. (1990), ‘Rural Common Property Resources: Contributions and Crisis’, Economic and Political Weekly (Review of Agriculture), Vol. 25, No. 26, pp. A65-A78.

11.

Nadkarni, M.V.(1989),‘Use and Management of Common Lands-Towards an Environmentally Sound Strategy’, Working Paper, Institute of Social and Economic Change, Bangalore.

12.

Pasha, S.A. (1991), ‘Sustainability and Viability of Small and Marginal Farmers: Animal Husbandry and Common Property Resources, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 26, No.3, pp. A27-A30.


262



263

ACCESS, USE AND REPAYMENT OF MICRO-CREDIT IN KERALA – AN ANALYSIS

Santhosh Kumar S.*

ABSTRACT Kerala is the South Asian leader in achievements in women’s education and health, especially reproductive health. Nine out of every ten women can read and write and the State produces the largest number of women post-graduates in India. But, Kerala is a society where patriarchal values are so deep-rooted restraining involvement of women in social and political spheres. Acute unemployment among women makes the matters worse. While the total work participation increased during the last decade (Census 2001) in both urban and rural areas of the State, in the case of women, a reverse trend has set in. The female work participation rate decreased from 15.9 per cent in 1991 to 15.3 per cent in 2001 (2001 census). Moreover, poverty has become a serious evil both in the rural and urban subsets of the population of Kerala. Micro-credit programmes targeting women have been a welcome corrective to the above neglect of women’s productive role. The present study can justify its significance on the ground that there is now mounting hope that micro-credit can be a large scale poverty alleviation tool and also an empowerment mechanism especially for the rural households. Moreover, in the present day specific situation of Kerala characterised by rampant unemployment, falling income from cultivation, agony experienced by the lease cultivators, escalating costs of health needs, increased education costs, and the steady withdrawal of State from public sphere, the entry of micro-credit was a safety valve in providing livelihood to the poor. Noticeably, banks and other financial institutions too are shedding their old reluctance to lend to the poor, and are looking to tap the expertise of micro-credit groups to create a new market. In this context, the present study is a pragmatic effort to review the characteristics of beneficiaries and to assess the access, use and repayment of micro-credit by them. Introduction The State of Kerala has achieved success in poverty reduction over the past thirty years, yet considerable number of people still live in poverty. It is an agricultural State with more than half of the rural households not owning land (63 per cent) compared to only 36 per cent of landless households in India. There is little industry (both large scale and small to medium size enterprises) and material production which *

contribute to a persistent unemployment crisis. Kerala is a food-deficient State and nearly 50 per cent of its grains are to be imported to feed the population. In short, the overall economy of Kerala can be characterised by insufficient production and high unemployment rates. The NSSO survey 2008-09 reveals that among the Indian States, Kerala has highest unemployment rate (16.7 per cent) followed by Nagaland (15 per cent). In Kerala, the unemployment rate among males was 12.7

Post Doctoral Fellow of ICSSR, Associate Professor, Post Graduate and Research Department of Commerce, St. Peter’s College, Kolenchery P.O., Kerala, 682 311. E mail: [email protected]


264

Santhosh Kumar S.

per cent and that of females 25.9 per cent. In the rural areas of the State, the rate is estimated at 17.3 per cent (males 12.9 per cent and females 27.4 per cent); whereas in urban areas it is estimated at 14.8 per cent (males 12.1 per cent and females 21.3 per cent). Kerala’s unemployment problem is not only a problem of educated unemployed but also a serious problem of lack of skilled workers. Noticeably, unemployment among women is acute than men. Women constituting 51.4 per cent of the total population of Kerala (2001) have a favourable sex ratio (1058 women compared to 933 for the country as a whole), higher life expectancy (76 years for women in Kerala while it is 61.8 years at the all India level) and lower infant mortality rate (14 per thousand for Kerala while it is 58 at the all India level). Despite these achievements, the system of patriarchy has conditioned the majority women of Kerala to play a secondary role to men in social, economic and political activities. As a result, they lag behind in empowerment despite their achievements in education and health (Government of Kerala, 2007). Right from the mid-eighties of the past century, micro-credit has become a key strategy for poverty alleviation and empowerment of women in Kerala. Formation of Neighbourhood Groups (NHGs) and Self-help Groups (SHGs), and availing of micro-credit through all possible channels to the members of the groups has become a very popular poverty alleviation and women empowerment model in Kerala.

macro-studies examining the matter in depth are almost rare. Among the available studies, studies examining the details of access, use and repayment of micro-credit especially relating to Kerala are also found to be a few in number and non-comprehensive in nature.The present study is an endeavour comprehensively examining the access, use and repayment of micro-credit by members of women groups. Methodology Objectives of the Study 1.

To observe the characteristics of existing micro-credit beneficiaries of Neighbour hood Groups (NHGs) and Self-Help Groups (SHGs) in Kerala.

2.

To examine the access, use and repayment of micro-credit by the women beneficiaries of Neighbourhood Groups (NHGs) and SelfHelp Groups (SHGs) in Kerala.

Hypotheses 1.

Micro-credit dispensation in the form of internal loans by the women groups in Kerala possesses moderate easiness to access by their members.

2.

Micro-credit dispensation to the members of the women groups by banks as part of their linkage with the groups possesses moderate easiness to access by their members.

Review of Related Literature

3.

Micro-credit dispensation targeting poverty alleviation and women empowerment is of hot debates especially during the era of globalisation characterised by inequality in income and wealth. Studies examining microcredit dispensation and its impact on empowerment of beneficiaries are plenty across the globe. Micro-studies examining the intricacies of micro-credit dispensation and its impact on the empowerment of women in Kerala are also plenty. However, full-fledged

Major chunk of the micro-credit availed of by the members of the women groups has been utilised for meeting household expenditure.

The study is descriptive in nature. Women groups of formal nature sponsored by the Government of Kerala (i.e. Neighbourhood Groups – NHGs) and registered NGOs (i.e. Selfhelp Groups – SHGs) are the sources of selection of women beneficiaries of micro-credit. A sample of 600 respondents is selected using multi-stage random selection process. First, out


Access, Use and Repayment of Micro-credit in Kerala – An Analysis

265

of the fourteen districts of the State, three on random basis from each women group to districts viz; Kollam (Southern region), Ernakulam constitute a final sample of 600 beneficiaries. (Central region) and Kozhikkode (Northern Women groups having at least three years of region) were randomly selected for the survey. continuous existence were included in the Then, two revenue blocks each were selected sample. The details of sample selection process on random basis from each of the selected are given in Table 1. A structured interview districts to constitute altogether six revenue schedule was administered among the blocks. Next, two panchayats each were selected respondents as part of collection of primary data. on random basis from each of the revenue blocks Field survey for the study was undertaken during to constitute altogether twelve panchayats.Then, the last six months of the year 2010. Simple tools ten women groups each were selected on such as percentage and average are primarily random basis from each of the panchayats to used to examine the data. One sample Student’s constitute altogether 120 women groups. Finally, t-test and Paired Sample Student’s t-test are used five women beneficiaries each were selected to test the hypotheses. Table 1: Sample Selection Process Random Selection Stages Stage 1 (3 districts out of the 14 districts) Kollam (Comprising 12 Blocks)

Ernakulam (Comprising 15 Blocks)

Kozhikode (Comprising 12 Blocks)

3 Districts

Stage 2

Stage 3

Stage 4

(2 blocks from each district)

(2 panchayats each from each block)

(10 WGs each from each panchayat)

(5 members from each women group)

Karunagappally (Comprising 4 panchayats)

Manayappally

10 WGs

50 WBs

Thodiyur

10 WGs

50 WBs

Anchal (Comprising 8 panchayats)

Edamulakkal

10 WGs

50 WBs

Themmala

10 WGs

50 WBs

Vadavukode (Comprising 6 panchayats) Mulamthuruthy (Comprising 6 panchayats)

Aikkaranadu

10 WGs

50 WBs

Thiruvaniyur

10 WGs

50 WBs

Amballoor

10 WGs

50 WBs

Edakkattuvayal

10 WGs

50 WBs

Eramala

10 WGs

50 WBs

Onchiyam

10 WGs

50 WBs

Balusseri (Comprising 6 panchayats)

Panangad

10 WGs

50 WBs

Ulliyeri

10 WGs

50 WBs

6 Blocks

12 Panchayats

120 Women Groups

600 Women Beneficiaries

Vadakara (Comprising 6 panchayats)

Note: WGs = Women Groups; WBs = Women Beneficiaries Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

Stage 5

266

Santhosh Kumar S.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The results and related discussion are presented in four parts. Part I deals with the nonfinancial and financial profile of the micro-credit beneficiaries. Parts II and III describe the access and use of micro-credit by the beneficiaries. Part

IV depicts the repayment details of micro-credit by the beneficiaries. Part I – Profile of Micro-credit Beneficiaries The non-financial and financial profiles of the beneficiaries follow in Tables 2 and 3, respectively.These are self-explanatory in nature.

Table 2 : Non-financial Profile of Respondents S.No.

Profile 2

1 1

Age of Respondents (Yrs)

2

Years of Association with NHG

3

Religion

4

Social Category

5

Education

6

Marital Status

20-30 31-40 41-50 Above 50 Total Less than 3 3-6 Above 6 Total Hindu Muslim Christian Total OBC SC General ST Total No Education LP UP HS +2 Graduation Total Married Single Widow Total

Frequency 3 33 259 213 95 600 35 256 309 600 461 54 85 600 336 115 116 33 600 25 94 115 247 93 26 600 544 10 46 600

Per cent 4 5.5 43.2 35.5 15.8 100 5.87 42.67 51.46 100 76.83 9.0 14.17 100 56.0 19.17 19.33 5.5 100 4.2 15.7 19.2 41.2 15.5 4.3 100 90.67 1.66 7.67 100 (Contd.)



267

Table 2 : (Contd.) 1

2

7

Number of Members in the Family

8

Family Headship

9

Main Occupation

10

Officiating Capacity

1 2 3 4 Above 5 Total Women Men Total Agriculture and allied Daily labour Salaried Self-employed House wife Total Volunteer Non- volunteer Total

Source : Primary Data (Author’s Collection).


3

4

15 34 105 180 266 600 61 539 600 54 205 27 13 301 600 83 517 600

2.5 5.67 17.5 30.0 44.33 100 10.2 89.8 100 9.00 34.14 4.5 2.1 50.2 100 13.83 86.17 100

268

Santhosh Kumar S.

Table 3: Financial Profile of Respondents S. No.

1

2

3

4

Profile

Frequency

Per cent

Less than 2000

13

2.2

2000 to 2500

28

4.7

2500 to 3000

73

12.2

3000 to 3500

81

13.5

3500 to 4000

119

19.8

4000 to 4500

190

31.7

More than 4500

96

16.0

Total

600

100

No Land

54

9.00

Less than 10

298

49.66

10 to 20

136

22.67

21 to 35

58

9.67

36 to 50

24

4.00

50 to 75

10

1.67

More than 75

20

3.33

Total

600

100

Yes

556

92.67

No

44

7.33

Total

600

100

Post Office Savings

476

79.33

Chits/Private Savings

162

27

Insurance

322

53.67

Others

22

3.67

Cum. Total

1582

163.67

Monthly Income (`)

Size of Landholdings (in cents)

Possession of Gold (Ownership)

Financial Investment

Source : Primary Data (Author’s Collection). Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013


Part II – Accessing Micro-credit Access Rate of Micro-credit and Reasons for Non-access : The access rate of micro-credit by the members of the women groups (Table 4) reveals that large majority of the members (86.5 per cent) availed of micro-credit direct from the groups or through groups using linkage with commercial banks. The non-borrowers (13.5 per cent of total) primarily comprise those who do not need money (65.4 per cent of non-

269

borrowers – see Table 5). While 4.9 per cent of non-borrowers were not able to contribute their share of margin to make them eligible to get loans, 6.2 per cent were found ineligible due to technical reasons. Another 3.7 per cent were targeting to begin enterprises, but they could not find a suitable venture to be financed. The rest 19.8 per cent of the respondents remain unexplained about the reasons for not availing of loans.

Table 4: Access to Micro-credit S. No.

Access to Micro-credit

Number

Percentage

1

Yes

519

86.5

2

No

81

13.5

3

Total

600

100.0

Source: Primary Data (Author’s Collection). Table 5: Reasons for Not Availing of Loans S. No.

Loan from SHGs/NHGs

Number

Percentage

1

Not needed

53

65.4

2

Not able to take my share

4

4.9

3

I can’t get a bank loan

5

6.2

4

Could not select suitable enterprise

3

3.7

5

Unexplained reasons

16

19.8

6

Total

81

100

Source: Primary Data (Author’s Collection). Magnitude of Micro-credit – Internal Loan : The amount of internal loans so far availed of by members out of the savings pooled from the members themselves (Table 6) discloses that among the 510 respondents who availed of internal loans, 89.8 per cent of the respondents availed up to ` 25,000, 4.9 per cent availed between ` 25,000 and ` 50,000, 0.6 per cent availed between ` 50,000 and ` 75,000, 1.9 per cent availed between ` 75,000 and ` 1,00,000, 0.6 per cent availed between `1,00,000 and Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

` 1,25,000 and the rest 2.2 per cent availed above ` 1,25,000.This is the total amount of loans availed of by the members during their entire period of association with the groups. The average amount of internal loan per member so far sanctioned amounts to ` 12,482.

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Santhosh Kumar S.

Table 6: Internal Loans Availed S. No.

Amount of Internal Loan (`)

Number

Percentage

1

Up to 25000

458

89.8

2

25001-50000

25

4.9

3

50001-75000

3

0.6

4

75001-100000

10

1.9

5

100001-125000

3

0.6

6

Above 125000

11

2.2

8

Total

510

100

9

Average Internal Loan

` 12482

Source : Primary Data (Author’s Collection). Magnitude of Micro-credit – Bank Loan : The details of bank loans so far availed of by the members through linkage with banks show that only 170 respondents availed of such facilities (Table 7). Out of those who availed of bank loans, 80 per cent availed of an amount less than ` 25000. While 8.2 per cent availed of between

` 25000 and ` 50000, loans ranging between ` 75001 and 100000 were availed of by 7.6 per cent of the respondents. Respondents aggregating 2.9 per cent took the bank loan ranging between ` 125000 and 150000. The average bank loan per member amounts to ` 22,734.

Table 7: Bank Loans Availed S. No.

Amount of Bank loan (`)

Number

Percentage

1

Up to 25,000

136

80

2

25,000-50,000

14

8.2

3

50,001-75,000

2

1.2

4

75001-100000

13

7.6

5

100001-125000

0

0

6

125001-150000

5

2.9

7

Total

170

100

8

Average ` 22,734

Source: Primary Data (Author’s Collection). Easiness in Accessing Micro-credit : The views of the 510 members of the women groups, who availed of internal loans, regarding the ease of accessing the internal loans from their respective groups (out of the savings of the Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

members) on the three variables on a three-point Likert-type scale are given in Table 8.The variables assessing the easiness of accessing micro-credit are; i.e., procedures for obtaining loans, terms and conditions for obtaining loans and


disbursement formalities of the obtained loans. It is quite evident that the ratings on the level of satisfaction on procedures (mean score 2.56), terms and conditions (mean score 2.49), and the disbursements (mean score 2.49) of micro-credit which decide the ease of accessing loans are exceptionally above the medium level (higher than central value of the scale i.e. 2).The Student’s t-test results (Table 9) confirm that the mean score of all of the variables indicating easiness

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of accessing micro-credit are significantly higher than the central value of the expected score i.e. 2. Therefore, the hypothesis set for the study “micro-credit dispensation in the form of internal loans by women groups in Kerala possesses moderate easiness to access by its members” stands accepted. It is also quite clear that the dispensation process of internal loans possesses above moderate easiness to access by members.

Table 8: Easiness in Accessing Internal Loans Variables

Satisfactory

Neutral

Not Satisfactory

Total

Procedures

379 (74.31)

36 (7.06)

95 (18.63)

510 (100)

Terms and Conditions

358 (70.19)

43 (8.44)

109 (21.37)

510 (100)

Disbursement

358 (70.19)

43 (8.44)

109 (21.37)

510 (100)

Note : Figures in parentheses are percentage to total. Source : Primary Data (Author’s Collection). Table 9 : Student’s t-Test Results - Easiness in Accessing Internal Loans Variables

Mean Score

t-value

P value

Procedures

2.56

15.913

0.000*


2.49

13.336

0.000*

Disbursement

2.49

13.336

0.000*

* Significant difference at 95 per cent confidence level. Source : Primary Data (Author’s Collection). Similarly, the views of the 170 members of the women groups who availed of bank loans, regarding the ease of accessing the bank loans through the groups’ linkage with banks on the three variables on a three-point Likert type scale are given in Table 10. It is quite evident from the Table that the ratings on the level of satisfaction of procedures (mean score 2.41), terms and conditions (mean score 2.29), and the disbursements (mean score 2.27) of micro-credit which decide the ease of accessing bank credit Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

are exceptionally above the medium level (higher than central value i.e. 2). The Student’s ttest results (Table 11) confirm that the mean score of all of the variables indicating easiness of accessing micro-credit are significantly higher than the central value of the expected score i.e. 2. Therefore, the hypothesis set for the study, “micro-credit dispensation to the members of women groups by the commercial banks as part of their linkage with women groups possesses moderate easiness to access by their members”

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Santhosh Kumar S.

stands accepted. It is fairly clear that the dispensation processes by banks possesses

above moderate easiness to access by the members of the women groups.

Table 10: Easiness in Accessing Bank Loans Variables

Satisfactory

Neutral

Not Satisfactory

Total

Procedures

96 (56.47)

49 (28.82)

25 (14.71)

170 (100)

85 (50)

50 (29.41)

35 (20.59)

170 (100)

83 (48.82)

51(30)

36 (21.18)

170 (100)

Terms and Conditions Disbursement

Note: Figures in parentheses are percentage to total. Source: Primary Data (Author’s Collection). Table 11: Student’s t-Test Results - Easiness in Accessing Bank Loans Variables

Mean Score

t-value

P value

Procedures

2.41

7.316

0.000*


2.29

4.772

0.000*

Disbursement

2.27

4.446

0.000*

* Significant difference at 95 per cent confidence level. Source: Primary Data (Author’s Collection). Part III – Use of Micro-credit Use of Micro-credit– Household Consumption : One of the leading purposes for which the microcredit has been availed of is for domestic consumption ( Table 12). Out of the 366 respondents availed of loans for household consumption, large majority of them (87.1 per

cent) availed of an amount up to ` 25000. While six per cent of the respondents availed of loans between ` 25001 and ` 50000, 2.8 per cent availed of between ` 50,000 and ` 1,00,000, and the rest 4.1 per cent availed of above ` 1,25,000 for household consumption.

Table 12: Use of Micro-credit – Household Consumption S. No.

Amount (`)

Number

Percentage

1

Up to 25000

319

87.1

2

25001-50000

22

6

3

50001-75000

5

1.4

4

75001-100000

5

1.4

5

100001-125000

0

0

6

Above 125000

15

4.1

11

Total

366

100

Average ` 17577 Source: Primary Data (Author’s Collection). Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013


Use of Micro-credit – Private Asset Creation : Out of the 100 respondents who availed of micro-credit for private assets creation, 76 per cent of them availed up to ` 25, 000, six per cent availed between ` 25001 and ` 50000. Another 6 per cent availed between ` 50,001 and

S. No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

273

` 75,000, again another 6 per cent availed of between ` 75,001 and ` 1,00,000 and the rest six per cent availed of above ` 1,00,000 (Table 13). The average micro-credit availed of per member for private asset creation amounts to ` 29,220.

Table 13 : Use of Micro-credit – Private Asset Creation Amount (`) Number Percentage Up to 25000 76 76 25001-50000 6 6 50001-75000 6 6 75001-100000 6 6 Above 100000 6 6 Total 100 100 Average ` 29,220

Source : Primary Data (Author’s Collection). Use of Micro-credit – Education of Children : The micro-credit availed of by members (183 respondents) for the education of their children is detailed in Table 14. It reveals that, 66.1 per

cent availed up to ` 10,000, 33.3 per cent between ` 10,001 and ` 25,000, and the rest, a meagre 0.6 per cent availed of above ` 50,000 (Table 14).

Table 14: Use of Micro-credit – Education of Children S. No. Amount (`) 1 Up to 10,000 2 10,001-25,000 3 Above 25000 4 Total 5 Average Source : Primary Data (Author’s Collection). Use of Micro-credit – Marriage of Children : The details of the ten respondents who availed of micro-credit for the marriage of their children are given in Table 15. While 60 per cent of such

Number 121 61 1 183 ` 5839

Percentage 66.1 33.3 0.6 100

loanees so far availed up to ` 25,000, the rest 40 per cent availed above ` 25000. The average amount of such loan amounts to ` 43,200.

Table 15: Use of Micro-credit – Marriage of Children S. No. Amount (`) Number Percentage 1 Up to 25000 6 60 2 Above 25000 4 40 3 Total 10 100 Average ` 43200 Source : Primary Data (Author’s Collection). Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

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Santhosh Kumar S.

Use of Micro-credit –Fixed Assets Creation for Income Generation : The details of micro-credit availed of by members as term loans for income generation activities are given in Table 16. A

meagre number of 15 members availed of fixed term loans for income generation activities. The average amount of such loans came to ` 22,667.

Table 16 : Use of Micro-credit –Fixed Assets Creation for Income Generation S. No.

Amount (`)

Number

1

Up to 25000

10

66.7

2

25001-50000

5

33.3

3

Total

15

100

4 Average Source : Primary Data (Author’s Collection). Use of Micro-credit – Current Assets Creation for Income Generation : The size of cash credit availed of by members for their group or individual micro-enterprises is given in Table 17. It is seen, only six members have availed of the

Percentage

` 22,667

cash credit facility for creation of current assets. While four of the six members availed of the facility up to ` 25000, the rest two members availed between ` 25001 and ` 50000.

Table 17 : Use of Micro-credit – Current Assets Creation for Income Generation S. No. 1 2 3 4

Cash Credit Amount (`) Up to 25000 25001-50000 Total Average

Number 4 2 6 ` 10,667

Percentage 66.7 33.3 100

Source : Primary Data (Author’s Collection). Use of Micro-credit among Members – Consolidated Position : A consolidated view of the use of micro-credit by the members of the women groups is given in Table 18. It shows that 57 per cent of the total micro-credit availed of by the members has been used for domestic consumption. Next to household consumption,


26 per cent of the credit availed of has been used for creation of private assets. Of the rest, 9 per cent utilised micro-credit for education of children, 4 per cent for marriage of children, 3 per cent for creation of fixed assets and 1 per cent for creation of current assets for their own micro-businesses.


275

Table 18 : Average Use of Micro-credit by Members Use-wise Average (1) `

Number of Members Availed (2)

Product (3) = (1*2)

Pooled Average (3/519*)

% to Pooled Average

1 Household Consumption

17577

366

6433182

12395.34

57

2 Private Asset Creation

29220

100

2922000

5630.05

26

3 Education of Children

5839

183

1068537

2058.83

9

4 Marriage of Children

43200

10

432000

832.369

4

5 Fixed Asset Creation for Business

22667

15

340005

655.116

3

6 Current Assets Creation for Business

10667

6

64002

123.31

1

-

-

11259726

21695

100

S. No.

Use of Micro-credit

7 Total

* Total number of members availed of micro-credit for different purposes i.e. 519. Source : Primary Data (Author’s Collection). In order to test the hypothesis, major chunk of the micro-credit availed of by the members of the women groups has been utilised for household expenditure, the average amount of micro-credit utilised for meeting household expenditure (Highest use – See Table 18) and the average amount of micro-credit utilised for creation of private assets (Second highest use –

See Table 18) have been used. The result of the Paired Samples Student’s t-Test (Table 19) confirms that there is significant difference between the averages of amount utilised for household consumption and creation of private assets. As such, the above hypothesis stands accepted (P value 0.000).

Table 19 : Paired Samples t-Test Result – Usage of Micro-credit

Pairs

Mean

Household Consumption and Private Asset Creation 6765.29

Std. Error Mean

1423.06

Paired Differences 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Upper

3327.86

* Significant difference at 95 per cent confidence level. Source : Primary Data (Author’s Collection).


8917.46

t

df

P value (2-tailed)

4.302

518

0.000*

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Santhosh Kumar S.

VI. (4). Part IV – Repayment of Micro-credit

micro-credit loans outstanding by the members Micro-credit Outstanding by Members : The against credit availed amounts to ` 11,448 amount of micro-credit outstanding by the against the average internal loans and bank loans members of the women groups, both internal of ` 12,482 and ` 22,734, respectively (See loans and bank loans, as on 31 March 2010 is Tables 6 and 7). Majority of the respondents (91.5 given in Table 20. It reveals that the average per cent) have a repayment obligation less than ` 10,000. Table 20: Micro-credit Outstanding by Members S. No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Outstanding Micro-credit (`) Up to 10,000 10,001- 25000 25001-50000 50001-75000 Above 75000 Total

Number 100 94 6 3 9 212 ` 11448

Average

Percentage 47.2 44.3 2.8 1.4 4.3 100

Source : Primary Data (Author’s Collection). Sources for Repayment : The different sources through which loan repayment was made by the respondents are depicted in Table 21. Out of the 519 respondents, 63.3 per cent made the repayment out of the income of other members in the family. While 12.2 per cent find their own

income generated (using the micro-credit) and income of others in the family as sources for repayment, 9.4 per cent made repayment out of their own other income. A meagre 3.1 per cent could make repayments solely out of the income generated using the micro-credit.

Table 21: Sources For Repayment of Micro-credit S. No.

Sources of repayment

Number

Percentage

1

Out of own income generated using loan

16

3.1

2

Out of others' income in family

329

63.3

3

Out of own other income

49

9.4

4

Out of other Loans

0

0

5

Out of (1) and (2)

63

12.2

6

Out of (3) and (4)

9

1.7

7

Out of (1), (2) and (3)

39

7.5

8

Out of (1), (2), (3) and (4)

14

2.8

9

Total

519

100



Default in Repayment : The default trends in repayment by the 519 respondents who availed of the micro-credit either as internal loans or as bank loan as part of linkages with commercial

277

banks reveal that 56.9 per cent never made any default in the repayment, 10.6 per cent very rarely made default, 31.2 rarely made default and 1.2 per cent often made default (Table 22).

Table 22: Frequency of Default in Repayment of Loan S. No. 1 2 3 4 5

Default in Repayment Never Very Rarely Rarely Often Total

Number 304 53 156 6 519

Percentage 56.9 10.6 31.2 1.2 100

Source : Primary Data (Author’s Collection). Magnitude of Default : Out of the 519 respondents who availed of micro-credit, 215 members have at present dues with their microcredit. While 89.3 per cent of the defaulted respondents made a default ranging up to

` 1000, 6 per cent made default between ` 1,000 and ` 2,000, 4.2 per cent made default between ` 2000 and ` 3000 and the rest 0.5 per cent made default exceeding ` 3,000.

Table 23: Magnitude of Default in Loans S. No.

Amount (`)

Number

Percentage

1 2 3 4

Up to 1000 1001-2000 2001-3000 Above 3000 Total

192 13 9 1 215

89.3 6.0 4.2 0.5 100

Average 3965 Source : Primary Data (Author’s Collection). Reasons for Default : Out of the 215 respondents who made default in the repayment of loans, a large majority (95.3 per cent) viewed that they

made the default due to lack of income and the rest 4.7 per cent had some other unexplained reasons (Table 24).

Table 24: Reasons for Defaulting Loans S. No. 1 2 3

Reasons Lack of income Unexplained Reasons Total


Number

Percentage

205 10 215

95.3 4.7 100

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Santhosh Kumar S.

Conclusion The analysis made above incorporating the details of access, use and repayment of microcredit by the members of the women groups in Kerala provided relevant information to conclude about the ease in accessing microcredit, different uses of micro-credit by the loanees and also the repayment behaviour of the micro-credit beneficiaries. Micro-credit dispensation through women groups aiming at poverty alleviation and women empowerment is, no doubt, hitting the target in Kerala. However, whether it is resulting in sustainable

improvement in the standard of living and empowerment of women is not clear? A lion's share of the micro-credit disbursed to the beneficiaries of the women groups is used for non-income generation purposes, generation of surplus income using the micro-credit which is an essential requisite for sustainable empowerment is a missing phenomenon. Though, credit dispensation for non-income generation purposes can make changes in the lives of the poor women, permanent income generation modes alone can bring sustainable positive changes in livelihood promotion.

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DETERMINANTS OF MARKET SUPPLY OF VEGETABLES: A CASE OF AKAKI-KALITY SUB-CITY, ETHIOPIA Almaz Giziew*

ABSTRACT Ethiopia has a variety of vegetable crops grown in different agro-ecological zones by small farmers, mainly as a source of income as well as for food. The production of vegetables varies from cultivating a few plants in the backyards for home consumption, to large-scale production for the domestic and home markets. To this end, the aim of this study was to empirically examine factors affecting marketable supply of potato and leafy vegetables in the study area. The analysis was made with the help of descriptive and econometric tools, both SPSS version 16 and stata11 software were employed. A total of 75 producer respondents drawn from Akaki-Kality sub-city were interviewed using structured questionnaires. Estimation of determinants of marketable supply with the help of logarithmic production function model revealed that out of 10 hypothesised explanatory variables for leafy vegetables, eight variables were found to determine marketable supply of leafy vegetables at farm level. Similar to leafy vegetables, 10 explanatory variables were hypothesised that were expected to affect marketable supply of potato. Only five variables were significant. In both cases except quantity produced, distance from the nearest market centre and sex of the respondent, all were not with expected signs as prior hypothesised. Capacity building for all actors in the value chain and strong extension service on product handling and marketing to producers should get focus. the Plan for Accelerated and Sustained Introduction Development to End Poverty (PASDEP). In the The current government of Ethiopia has preceding six to seven successive years, developed a number of very comprehensive Ethiopia’s economy in general and rural economy policies, strategies and programmes for in particular obtained remarkable achievements; accelerated and sustainable economic as a result of successful policies, strategies and development as poverty eradication is programmes (MoARD. 2005). Yet, this has not Ethiopia’s main development goal. Such policies been reflected in the area of urban agriculture and strategies consist of the Agricultural to any great extent. The reasons were one of Development Led-Industrialisation (ADLI) many including lack of consideration in research, Strategy, the Sustainable Development lack of awareness by policy makers and urban Programme to Reduce Poverty (SDPRP) and * Department of Rural Development, Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia. Email : [email protected]/[email protected]. Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

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Almaz Giziew

planners, lack of appropriate extension packages and production technologies, inappropriate land use policies, and biased health and environment concerns. The cultivation of vegetables in the public and private open spaces of cities is common but has not yet attracted the research and extension attention it deserves. Still with others such as policy makers and city planners, it has been and still is somewhat of an unknown or unacknowledged phenomenon. Despite its proven benefits to the poor, urban agriculture in general, urban vegetables in particular has been seriously under-estimated and still is considered by many as a temporary and part-time activity informally exercised by citizens. In Ethiopia, the cultivation of vegetables in the public and private open spaces of urban and pre-urban areas is very common but has not yet attracted the research attention it deserves. That means it has been somewhat of an unknown or unacknowledged phenomenon equally to researchers as it was to policy makers and city planners in general. Research institutes such as the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), the Institute of Biodiversity Conservation and Research (IBCR), the Ethiopian Health and Nutrition Research Institute (EHNRI) and several other Agricultural Universities and Colleges are doing a lot of horticulture related research activities but none of them are so far known to be active in the urban areas. Based on these, the study is proposed to find answers to the following research questions: what are the determinants of marketing supply of vegetables by the producers in the study area? And what are the major actors of value chain analysis of vegetables in the study area? Therefore, this research activity will be initiated to bridge the above mentioned information gaps by focusing on the value chain analysis of vegetables at Akaki-Kality sub-city. Hence the specific objective of this study is to identify factors affecting marketable supply of vegetables in the study area. Hypotheses 1.

Market supplies of vegetables are positively


and significantly affected by quantity produced, access to credit, market information, labour availability, educational level and sex of the household. 2.

Market supplies of vegetables are negatively and significantly affected by distance from the nearest market.

Research Methodology Sampling Procedure : Akaki Kality sub-city was selected purposively due to extensive coverage and production of vegetables. Comprehensive fresh lists of producers were prepared from the study sub-city to identify both potato and leafy vegetables growers in collaboration with administrators, key informants and development agents of the respective sub -city; and these serve as the sampling frame. Out of the total 301 producers, 75 representative producers were selected using simple random sampling methods. The determination of sample size is resolved by means of Slovin’s sampling formula with 90 per cent confidence level.

N n= 1 + N (e )

2

n= sample size for the research use N= total number of household heads producing potato and leafy vegetables e= margin of errors at 10% In addition, key informants representing; local leaders in the producing sub-city, development agents for crop production in the elected sub-city, sub-city urban agricultural office, and other relevant stakeholders were identified purposively in the exploratory research stage. Data Types and Source : The research used both primary and secondary data of qualitative and quantitative in nature. Primary data were

Determinants of Market Supply of Vegetables: Akaki-Kality Sub-city, Ethiopia

collected from multiple types of respondents involving producers, key informants, participants and FGDs. Secondary data were gathered from different documents, reports, papers of relevant stakeholders which were qualitative and quantitative in nature. Methods of Data Collection : Due to the complex nature of the subject, market supply and to avoid biases, mixed methods such as surveys, focus group discussions, observations, informal discussion with other community members and key informant interview were used to collect the primary data. Primary quantitative data collected was through a survey conducted using structured interview. Firstly, the interview schedule was tested at the farm level on 10 randomly selected farm households. In the light of pre-testing, essential amendments were made on such things as ordering and wording of questions and coverage of the interview schedule. Furthermore, the pre-test enabled to know whether respondents had clearly understood the interview schedule. As a result, some questions were deleted but those found important were incorporated in the final version of the interview schedule. Enumerators who were familiar to the existing social settings were recruited. Training was organised to enumerators on the content and interview techniques. Finally, survey was conducted under close supervision of the researcher. The qualitative data were generated through Key Informant interviews, FGD’s, transect walks and observations and informal interviews with different actors. Key Informants were interviewed using check lists, and FGD guides were used to conduct focused group discussions. FGDs were conducted in the relevant location with producers, with 6-12 participants in each group. Methods of Data Analysis : The quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation (SD), Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

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frequencies, and percentages. In addition, to fulfill the objective of identifying the determinants of marketable supply of the producers, multiple linear regression model was employed. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The General Characteristics of the Sampled Households I. Age of the Respondents : The mean age of sample households was 42.64 years with standard deviation of 11.86. The maximum age for the sample producers was 78 years while the minimum was 22 years. The survey on this major demographic factor, measured in years, provided a clue on working ages of households. The overall result has thus indicated that household heads are prone to use resources with expected positive effect on market participation and marketable surplus. II. Sex of the Respondents : Male respondents (76 per cent) take larger proportion than female respondents (24 per cent). In this study, majority of sample respondent households were found to be male. This clearly shows the existing gap between male headed and female headed households in terms of participation in vegetable production and value chain systems. Therefore, the result clearly shows that male headed households had high participation in vegetable production than female headed households. III. Educational Level of the Respondents : According to the survey result, majority of the respondents attended primary cycle (36.0 per cent) followed by respondents’ secondary cycle (30.7 per cent). This increased educational entitlement has supported the production and marketing of vegetables in the study area and has also improved the ability to acquire new idea in relation to market information and improved production of the households, due to that the educational background of the sample household head is believed to be an important feature that determines the readiness of household heads to accept new ideas and innovations.

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Table 1 : Educational Background of the Respondents Educational status of the Household Heads

Number of respondents

Per cent

No Education

18

24.0

Primary (1-6 grades)

27

36.0

Secondary (7-12 grades)

23

30.7

Higher

7

9.3

Total

75

100.0

Source : Own survey data (2012).

IV. Family Labour : Family labour was assumed to be the main source of labour required for farm operations such as land preparation, planting, weeding, and harvesting. Hence, information was

generated on labour availability of sample households in order to examine the influence of labour availability on vegetable production.

Table 2 : Labour Shortage Problems and Solutions Labour shortage problem

N

%

No

66

88.0

Yes

9

Total

75

Solution to labour shortage problem

N

%

No problem

66

88

12.0

Hiring

9

12

100.0

Total

75

100

Source : Own survey data (2012). The survey result presented in Table 2 reveals that 12 per cent of the respondents reported facing labour shortage during different farm operations. Moreover, it also shows that 12 per cent of respondents reported using hiring as solution to labour shortage problem.

deviation of 1.22 (Table 3). Larger family size requires larger amounts for consumption, reducing marketable surplus (Table 3). The size of labour force in the household is expected to have negative impact on market volume of vegetable sales.

The man equivalent (ME) family labour availability was calculated for the sample respondents. The survey result on labour availability in Table 5 shows that the average labour availability in terms of man equivalent for sample households was 2.72 with standard

V. Price of Vegetable : The result of this study indicated that price of potato of sample population ranges from 3.00 to 4.15 birr/quintal. The average price of potato of the sample population was 3.99 birr/quintal with standard deviation of 24.82 birr/quintal (Table 3).



As shown in Table 3, the price of leafy vegetables of sample population ranges from 2.50 to 4.60 birr/quintal. The average price of leafy vegetables of the sample population was 4.28 birr/quintal with standard deviation of 88.83 birr/quintal (Table 3). VI. Distance from Farm Area to Market Centre: This is a distance measured in kilometers to reach the nearest market. The study revealed that infrastructure is generally satisfactory and it is close to nearby vegetable markets (Table 3); which in turn has assisted farmers to lessen their transport cost and boost their market surplus and margins. The access has further assisted to increase vegetable production by the farming households. As provided in Table 3 the average distance travelled for sample households was 4.03 km.

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VII. Quantity Produced : The survey result as provided in Table 5 illustrated that the average quantity produced of potato for sample households were 1.6168E6 quintal/year with a standard deviation of 8.93676E6 quintal/year. Producers who produce more are expected to supply more vegetable to the market than those who produce less. Similarly, the average quantity produced of leafy vegetables for sample households were 2.1686E6 quintal/year with a standard deviation of 7.70527E6 quintal/year. VIII. Land Size : The survey results indicate that in the 2011/12 production year amount of landholding ranged from 0.0067 to 21.60 with a mean land size of 0.72 ha (Table 3).

Table 3 : Respondents’ Response to Situational and Socio-economic Variables Variable

N

Minimum Maximum

Mean

SD

Family labour

75

0.70

8.50

2.72

1.22

Land size

75

.0067

21.60

.73

2.77

Distance from farm area to market centre

75

1.00

20.00

4.03

2.95

Price of potato in birr per quintal

75

300.00

415.00

3.99 E2

24.82

Price of leafy vegetable in birr per quintal

75

250.00

460.00

4.27E2

88.83

Quantity produced of potato (quintal/ year) 75

19007.80

7.58E7

1.61E6

8.93E6

Quantity produced of leafy vegetable (quintal/ year)

14234.20

6.06E7

2.16E6

7.70E6

75

Source : Own survey data (2012). IX. Contact with Extension Agent : The result on sampled producers' contact with extension agent presented in Table 4 illustrated that of the total 75 sample respondents, 62 (82.7 per cent) producers reported having contact with development agents while 13 (17.3 per cent) producers reported having no contact with development agents (Table 4). This (17.3 per Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

cent) has a serious implication with respect to management of development agents (existing monitoring and evaluation, reward and punishment), particularly having at least two development agents per each urban Woreda.

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X. Access to Credit : Credit is important to facilitate the introduction of innovative technologies and for input and output marketing arrangements. Thus, the lack for the delivery has discouraged the financial capacity of producers to purchase the necessary input for the crops. For this reason informal credit system has come up as a prevailing feature where producers borrow money from wholesalers during slack seasons. And this condition affected farm gate prices since farmers are forced to sell their

produce at lower prices for their borrowers which ultimately triggered to lower returns. This study confirmed that 58 per cent of the respondents had access to credit while the rest had no access. XI. Access to Market Information : The main sources of market information are traders and brokers.The survey result shows that the majority (65.3 per cent) of producers are aware of the price before their arrival at the market place (Table 4).

Table 4 : Respondents’ Response to Situational and Socio-economic Variables Variables

Responses

Number of respondents

Per cent

Access to

Yes

39

52

Credit

No

36

48

Total

75

100

Market

Yes

49

65.3

Information

No

26

34.7

Total

75

100

Extension

Yes

62

82.7

Contact

No

13

17.3

Total

75

100

Source : Own survey data (2012). ANALYSIS OF ECONOMETRIC RESULTS The econometric analysis was planned to investigate factors affecting, volume of supply to the market. The analysis was undertaken for potato and leafy vegetables independently. Determinants of market supply volume : Sampled respondents indicated that 85.52 per cent potato and 97.04 per cent of leafy vegetables produced were marketed. Respondents also pointed out that the remaining percentage of total production was accounted for by spoilage and home consumption. Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

As observed from the econometric result in Table 7, out of 8 hypothesised explanatory variables for leafy vegetables, six were found to determine marketable supply of leafy vegetables at farm level. These are educational level, sex of the respondent, labour availability, quantity produced, access to market information and distance from the nearest market centre. Education of the Respondent : As hypothesised, the multiple linear regression result shows that, marketed surplus significantly affected leafy


vegetables quantity supplied at 5 per cent level. The negative and significant relation between the variables indicates that, when leafy vegetables producer gets educated by one per cent, the elasticity of leafy vegetables supplied to the market decreased by 0.83 per cent. This is contradicting to the hypothesis so; the probable reason might be when producers are getting educated they probably tend to shift to another business. The finding of this study is congruent with the findings of Gizachew (2006) who found a negative relationship of household education with dairy supply. Sex of the Household Head : This variable was found to influence the marketable supply positively and significantly, confirming the hypothesis at less than 5 per cent significant level towards maleness. The positive sign indicates that male-headed households were more likely to supply more than female-headed household heads. The result from this test in the model shows that, maleness was found to increases the elasticity of marketable supply of leafy vegetables by 1.14 per cent. The possible explanation might be that male-headed households have better access to information, agricultural inputs and resource endowments. Family Size : The result in Table 5 revealed that, labour availability was negatively related with marketable supply of leafy vegetables. And it was statistically significant at less than 5 per cent probability level. The negative and significant relation between the variables indicates that increase in one per cent of labour, decreases the elasticity of marketable supply of leafy vegetables by 0.369 per cent (Table 5) or as number of labour increase by one unit, elasticity of marketable supply of leafy vegetables changes by 0.369 factors.This result is well supported by Singh and Rai (1998) who found marketed surplus of buffalo milk to be negatively affected by family size. Similarly, a study conducted by Wolday (1994) showed that household size had negative Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

287

effect on quantity of maize marketed. Harris (1982) also verified empirically the relationship between marketed surplus and output and income. She obtained negative relationship between marketed surplus and variables like family size. Access to Market Information : As the multiple linear regression result indicates, access to market information had negative and significant influence on marketable supply of leafy vegetables at less than 5 per cent significant level. The negative association suggests that, the better information producers have, the more likely they decrease supply of leafy vegetables to the market. Hence, the variable indicates that, access to market information increased by one per cent, decreases the elasticity of marketable supply of leafy vegetables by 1.303 per cent (Table 5).The probable reason might be dynamic information such as consumer needs and market trends.This requires due attention to new market opportunities, changing needs of the consumer and how market trends influence buying. Distance from the Nearest Market Centre : Distance from nearest market centre was assumed to influence marketable supply of leafy vegetables. The finding in Table 5 agrees with the hypothesis that farm distance to the nearest market is negatively and significantly associated with the probability of marketable supply of leafy vegetables at less than 1 per cent significant level. As number of distance increased by one unit, elasticity of marketable supply of leafy vegetables changed by 0.182 factors. Quantity of Leafy Vegetables Produced : Quantity produced was expected to adversely affect the volume of total sales. As hypothesised, this variable is positively related to marketable surplus of leafy vegetables.The result shows that quantity produced significantly and positively affected marketable surplus at less than 1 per cent probability level. The result indicated that, quantity produced increased by one per cent

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Almaz Giziew

elasticity of marketable supply of leafy vegetables increased by 3.39e-07 per cent. This is in line with the hypothesis that households who produce more, likely to supply more. R2 value of the model is 0.64 and adjusted R2 value is 0.59 (Table 5). It was observed that the adjusted

coefficient of determination was almost 60 per cent in the marketable supply function. This implies that, near to 60 per cent of the variations in marketable supply of leafy vegetables were explained by the explanatory variables.

Table 5 : Logarithmic Estimation of Factors Affecting Farm Level Marketable Supply of Leafy Vegetables INLEAFSUP

Estimated Coefficients

Standard Error

t-ratio

P-value

AGEHHSQ

0 .0002219

.0001794

1.24

0.221

INEDUCAHH

-0.83060691

.3793566

-2.19**

0.032

.140262

.4308995

2.65**

0.010

FAMILYLAB

- 0.368909

.1631235

-2.26**

0.027

EXTENSIONC

-0.0026913

.4670894

-0.01

.0.995

MARETINFO

-1.3038

.5027363

-2.59**

0.012

DIATANT

-.1820444

0708045

-2.57**

0.012

QUANLEAY

3.39e-07

1.15e-07

2.95***

0.004

Constant

22.95702

2.867317

8.01

0.000

SEXHH

Source : Model output ***, **, represents 1% and 5% level of significance, respectively. N=75 R2 = 0.6443, 2 = 0.5887 The Influence of Explanatory Variables on the Marketable Supply of Potato Similar to leafy vegetables, eight explanatory variables, were hypothesised that were expected to affect marketable supply of potato. Only three variables were significant, that is, sex of the respondent, quantity of produce, and distance from the nearest market centre. Sex of the Respondent : This variable came up with positive sign as it did for marketable supply of leafy vegetables at 5 per cent probability level. The same logic explained for marketable supply of leafy vegetables also holds true here. As observed from Table 6, maleness was found to Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

increase the elasticity of marketable supply of potato by 0.971 per cent. Distance from the Nearest Market Centre : Distance from the nearest market centre was also another variable found significant to influence the marketable supply of potato at 10 per cent probability level. It came up with negative sign and it was as expected. As the distance from the nearest market centre increased by one per cent, elasticity of marketable supply of potato decreased by 0.113 per cent (Table 6). Quantity Potato Produced : The result showed significant effect at 1per cent significant level for marketable supply of potato with the


expected positive sign. Thus, the result implied that, quantity produced increased by one per cent, elasticity of marketable supply of potato increased by 2.48e-07 per cent.

289

that households who had produced more amount of mango and Avocado had also supplied more amount of mango and Avocado to market than those who had produced less amount of mango and Avocado.

The result of this study is in agreement with the findings of Ayelech, 2011 who reported

Conclusion

Table 6 : Logarithmic Estimation of Factors Affecting Farm Level Marketable Supply of Potato INPOTASUP

Estimated Coefficients

Standard Error

t-ratio

P-value

AGEHHSQ

-.0002328

.0001822

-1.28

0.206

INEDUCAHH

-.2827945

.3604895

-0.78

0.436

SEXHH

.9715697

.4042085

2.40 **

0.019

FAMILYLAB

-.2034955

.1480472

-1.37

0.174

EXTENSIONC

.3661333

.4418876

0.83

0.410

MARETINFO

-.5744419

.4630075

-1.24

0.219

DIATANT

-.1127067

.0667197

1.69*

0.096

QUANPOTA

2.48e-07

1.09e-07

2.27**

0.027

Constant

31.55391

4.076212

-7.74

0.000

Source: Model output ***, **,* represents 1%, 5% and 10% level of significance, respectively. N=75 R2 = 0.6388, 2 = 0.5823 Survey result indicated that an estimated volume of 85.52 per cent potato and 97.04 per cent of leafy vegetables produced were marketed. Respondents also pointed out that the remaining percentage of total production was accounted for by spoilage and home consumption. Producers’ average selling price for a kilogram of leafy vegetables was 4.28 Ethiopian birr and 3.99 Ethiopian birr (ETB) for potato. Generally, vegetable production has great contribution to households’ nutrition, income and food security is very high. It also provides Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

job opportunities particularly for youth, women and the landless poor. Regardless of its contribution, however, the emphasis given nationally to the sector is relatively low compared to other food crops. As a result of this, institutional support provided to this sector, such as research and extension was not to the expected level. These factors together with several household personal, demographic and socio-economic, communication and situational factors greatly affected the marketable supply of vegetables (potato and leafy vegetables).

290

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Policy Implications Based on the results of this study, the following recommendations are given so as to be considered in the future intervention strategies which are aimed at the promotion of vegetable market chain in the study area. Result of this study indicated that, marketable supply of potato and leafy vegetables of households was found to be influenced by different factors, among these sex differences is one of the prevailing factors. As a result, femaleheaded household heads supply less volume of the product than males. This might be due to lack of access to information sources. Accordingly, opportunities for equal access of women producers should be provided through provision of empowerment intervention. To this end, promotion of participatory research that helps address site-specific conditions, producers’ preferences and priorities should be given due attention. Similarly, extension service provision has to be strengthened so as to improve producers’ access to information and extension advices.

Education of the household was associated with marketable supply of leafy vegetables negatively. From the result of this study, it was realised that producers were not in a position to obtain better income as a result of exploitation by traders and middlemen due to poor bargaining power. As a result of this, they tend to shift to other business. Therefore, much emphasis has to be given to improvement of market and marketing system. Group organisations like producer cooperatives are assumed to play a significant role in improving the bargaining power of the producers and creating employment opportunities. During key informant interview, producers’ cooperative was under-structured so it has to be strengthened. Finally, further studies on market supply of vegetables in the urban and pre- urban should be conducted in all vegetable growing areas other than Akaki Kality sub-city so that a well organised regional and national vegetable production and marketing can be implemented.

References 1.

Ayelech Tadesse, (2011), Market Chain Analysis of Fruits for Gomma Woreda, Jimma Zone, Oromia National Regional State, Ethiopia, An MSc Thesis Presented to School of Graduate Studies of Haramaya University.

2.

Gizachew Getaneh, (2006), Dairy Marketing Patterns and Efficiency : A Case Study of Ada’a Liben District of Oromia Region, Ethiopia, An Msc Thesis Presented to the School of Graduate Studies of Alemaya University.

3.

Harris, B., (1982), The Marketed Surplus of Paddy in North Arcot District, Tamil Nadu: A Micro-Level Causal Model, Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, 37 (2): 145-158.

4.

MoARD (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), (2005), Vegetables and Fruits Production and Marketing Plan (Amharic Version), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

5.

Singh, V. and K.N. Rai, (1998), Economics of Production and Marketing of Buffalo Milk in Haryana, Indian Agricultural Economics, 53(1): 43-52.

6.

Wolday Amha, (1994), Food Grain Marketing Development in Ethiopia after Reform 1990, A Case Study of Alaba Siraro, The PhD Dissertation Presented to Verlag Koster University, Berlin 293 p.



291

BUILDING CAPACITIES OF RURAL WOMEN ARTISANS : CASE STUDIES OF WOMEN EMPOWERMENT FROM THAR DESERT OF WESTERN RAJASTHAN Jaya Kritika Ojha and Binod Mishra*

ABSTRACT The terrain of the desert of Rajasthan in India is harsh, arid and tough with shifting sand dunes, sparse population, extreme temperatures, and stunted vegetation. The Thar thus makes the lives of women even complex. Amidst this though, the journey of URMUL’s producer groups of women is quite remarkable and inspiring. Desert region has a high population of women engaged in hand-embroidery activities for income generation. They migrated with their families from Pakistan during the 1971 war. The middlemen from neighbouring districts exploited them by giving nominal wages. During 1991-92, URMUL Seemant, a non-governmental organisation, organised these artisan women in groups, trained them in quality improvement, contemporary designs, colours, latest fashion trends, through continuous capacity building training programmes. The initiative has proved as a platform for creating and enhancing sustainable livelihoods for rural women artisans to earn a better living with dignity in the drought-prone areas of western Rajasthan. Using five case studies of these women artisans, this paper presents the successful process of capacity building and inclusion of women in various aspects of empowerment through embroidery-based income generation project. The paper establishes the fact that if women get opportunities, exposure, support system and motivational trainings they can be the breadwinners, trendsetters, and change agents. This paper presents the success story of URMUL group of women artisans as an example of participatory, collective and organisational effort to accelerate women empowerment. They now speak against discrimination, inequalities and motivate themselves to have a greater participation in decision-making, access to information to develop life skills and confidence to inculcate leadership, self-respect and self-reliance.

*

Senior Research Scholar and Associate Professor, Respectively, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian I nstitute of Technology-Roorkee, Roorkee -247667 Uttarak hand (India). Email:[email protected]


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Introduction Women in India remain one of the most disadvantaged groups in society.Viewed against almost all the indicators of development, women continue to lag behind men. According to the 2011 census of India, women make an independent group constituting 48.46 per cent of the country’s total population. If we look at the sex ratio, there are only 940 women against 1,000 men in India. Women’s access to literacy and education is more limited. Women employment record shows more women in unorganised sector performing unskilled and lesser-paid jobs. UNDP (2008) suggests that the workforce participation for women is half than for men in India. There are evidences of higher rates of women working in informal and nonfarm sector (MWCD Report, 2007). The last decade of the 20th century was a period of tremendous transitions. The age-old discriminations based on gender - largely unacknowledged so far - were finally coming out of personal spaces to national numbers and indices.The 1991 census, for the first time, openly accepted the falling sex ratio and raised alarms for the policy levels to take substantial action. There were 927women to every 1000 men, with even wider gaps in the child-sex ratio in India. This was the time of shifting gears in India. New ideas, new experiments, new approaches and new excitement- all were seeing spaces opening up for women. There was a surge of women coming forth to command their spaces in public.This ‘New Indian Woman’ was educated, resilient, self-dependent and was establishing herself as an equal. Nonetheless, significant population living in the rural villages remained largely disconnected with this mass movement. This was largely a phenomenon centric to cities and towns. These ‘gender lenses’ were alien to rural India. Even the very idea of ‘issues of women’ was still waiting to sprout. The overall literacy Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

Jaya Kritika Ojha and Binod Mishra

rate of women in the country stood at only 39 per cent explicitly revealing the limited scope of this global ‘awakening’ (URMUL, 2013). In this growing India women are still facing inequality. People do not really care much about women’s decisions and their voices. The low status of women in the community is mostly due to the poor economic and social profile. In this regard, it is important to mention that the employment record of women shows the high contribution of women in unorganised sector and they have been considered as unskilled and low wagers. Although women are major contributors to the survival of the family and are vital and productive workers in India’s national economy, their contribution remains largely unrecognised. Most of the women lack choices and options.They are restricted by poverty, illiteracy, poor nutrition and health care. Moreover, domestic violence and fear are facts of their lives. Lack of access to reproductive health, education and services can often lead to vulnerability. They are also limited in their notions of gender roles and lack in the understanding of reasons behind gender discrimination. By accepting the lower status given to them, they also accept the stereotypes that often restrict to express themselves and confine to a role that stifles sensitivity and creativity. Diaz and Pillai (2004) reported that “India’s human development is marked by a paradox that has seen a systematic decline in women’s status despite recent advances in women’s education and economic status. It is indeed puzzling that economic development of women has not brought commensurate change in their social development. Women continue to labour under the brunt of oppressive traditions, exploitation, lack of self-worth or identity and are routinely subjected to violence even at home. It is clear now that women and society in general are in great need of self-introspection

Building Capacities of Rural Women Artisans: Case Studies of Women

to overcome the downslide in human values and justice and empower women.” Women empowerment issue is very compelling and a challenging national commitment and public agenda in many countries. Empowerment is not something which can be achieved easily. Though empowerment is a complex concept to understand, it is a process of awareness and capacity building, leading to greater participation, to greater decision-making power and control over transformative action. Empowerment is the phenomenon of ‘giving power to’ "creating power within and enabling’. Empowerment involves negotiation of the balance of power between the more and less powerful. It is a multidimensional process that enables one to realise one’s full identity and powers in all the spheres of life. Douglas (1996) viewed empowerment from the point of the individual and group/ community; several strategies may be employed to improve consciousness among people, at grassroots levels for improving their living conditions, and internal disposition to initiate action for enacting social change. Mayoux (1998) suggested, “Empowerment is a continuous process where powerless people become conscious of their situation and organise to improve it and access opportunities; an outcome where women take control over their lives; set their own agenda; gain skills; solve problems; develop self-reliance”. Empowerment is a process of negotiation where the subjects of the empowerment process define the main priorities and strategies. According to the development organisation ‘Pradan’, this process of negotiation, however, requires an appropriate forum and information to enable women to fully consider the possible options and potential consequences of choices. It is also likely to require explicit promotion of women’s interests at the macro-level to widen the scope of choice. Shivmurthy (1999) Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

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mentioned that collectivisation brings group of women together at a base to become an integral part of an economic activity, an important part of the strategy towards empowerment. Capacity building step is to enhance their capacity to work as a group and play different roles necessary for development and maintenance of group. Singh et al (2000) found empowerment of women as dynamic process enabling women to realise their full identify. Vaish (2004) reported that the empowerment of women leads to benefits not only to the individual woman but also to the families and community as a whole through collective action for development. Harper et al (1998) found in their study that women’s level of confidence, awareness and pride on themselves were substantially increased by virtue of their membership in income generating programmes. Similarly, Pandian and Eswaran (2002) found that over 95 per cent of women felt that income generating activities enhanced their status and participation in decision-making process. Rao and Appaji (2002) revealed that leadership abilities are positively and significantly related to income generation behaviour; also significantly related to behaviour of women. Aims and Objectives The research paper argues that if women get opportunities, exposure, support system and motivational capacity building trainings they can be the breadwinners, trendsetters, and change agents. The success story of URMUL group of women artisans is an example of participatory, collective and organisational support. The present research paper establishes the fact that the local and small level actions can also help in creating the platform of opportunities for poor rural women artisans towards sustainable livelihoods and better life options. Capacity building and inclusion of women in different areas leads to enhancement of various aspects of empowerment like developing their

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life skills, enhancing personality, confidence, inculcating leadership and decision making power and strengthening self-respect among them.

supportive mutual relationships, expanding their skills and access to resources, analysis of the situation, decisions making, leadership, problem solving and power to negotiate.

Using five case studies of rural women artisans from desert region, this paper presents the successful process of capacity building and inclusion of women in various aspects of empowerment through embroidery based income generation project.

There is a need to empower women through an informed approach whereby women become able to organise themselves to increase their self-reliance, to assert their independent rights to make choices and to control resources, which will assist in challenging and eliminating their own subordination. In order to ameliorate the conditions of rural women artisans, the nongovernmental and international organisations initiated various programmes. The need for empowerment of women and girls was also stressed in U.N. in the fourth world conference of women held in September 1995 in Beijing. Ensuring women’s equal access and full participation in the power structure and decision-making is a challenge for every single member of the society.

This paper will help developmental professionals, policy makers and planners in understanding the importance of building women’s capacities to improve their socioeconomical status, which can significantly improve their skills, personality, self-concept, leadership, self-esteem for empowerment and income. The objectives of the paper are : 1.

To understand the status of women in rural India.

2.

To develop and analyse case studies of five women artisans of desert region who joined URMUL’s embroidery initiative as a livelihood option, leading a better life, supporting their families and acting as change agents in the community.

3.

To emphasise the need for women empowerment through livelihood generation and regular capacity building for their socio-economic development and to become the breadwinners, trendsetters, and change agents.

Methodology

Significance of the Paper

The study was carried out in the selected villages of Bikaner district of Rajasthan State of the Thar Desert of India. The desert region is a challenging area to live and survive. The terrain of the desert of Rajasthan in India is harsh and tough; it is the driest region of the country. It is a vast, arid, unfriendly and tough terrain with shifting sand dunes, sparse population, extreme temperatures, stunted vegetation and very little arable land. Despite these tough conditions, the desert has approximately 12.8 million inhabitants. Desert people struggle to earn their bread, as the livelihoods options are very few in the region.

Women too have right to make choices to determine their future. Moreover, they can certainly develop the capabilities to make choices. They can learn to make their choices by gaining socio-economic stability, which will lead and ensure developing in them the realisation of self-respect and self-esteem, creating

The paper covers sample of five respondents. They were selected purposively. These women belong to remote villages of desert of Rajasthan in India.The criteria of sample selection were their basic profile, membership in self-help group (SHG), livelihood practices, leadership qualities and affiliation with URMUL’S embroidery initiative programme. They were



identified with the help of the records maintained by URMUL organisation. The tools adopted for the paper were personal interviews, observations, and area survey. For collection of primary data, a focused interview schedule was formulated and field tested prior to be administered on the respondents. The variables covered in the interview schedule and observation are background information of respondent, initiation into the craft, problems and difficulties encountered, overcoming strategies, collaboration with URMUL, respondent’s role as a member or leader in SHGs, income pattern, sociability, decision making, participation in community works, level of confidence, family life, future vision for herself, family and community. The respondents were interviewed individually to gather the information and the relevant data. The method used to satisfy the study’s objectives relies on qualitative analysis methods, leading to develop five case studies. The study used both primary and secondary data. Secondary data were collected from books, articles, journals, research papers, official documents and institutional websites. All the information and data collected were critically examined and described in order to answer the research objectives. Background of Women Embroidery Artisans in the Thar Desert of Rajasthan in India The tough terrain of Thar Desert of Rajasthan in India makes the life of women even tougher, but the journey of ‘URMUL producer group of women’ is quite remarkable and inspiring.This is the story of many Pakistan-oustee (Pak-oustee) women in the desert of Rajasthan. There are many Pak-oustee villages along the border area of Western Rajasthan in Thar Desert. The inhabitants of the villages were the refugees from Pakistan. After the third war between India and Pakistan, in between November 22 and December 17, 1971, lakh of people fled to Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

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different parts of the adjacent Indian states and they were called ‘refugees’. Many Pakistani oustees came to the harsh desert of Western Rajasthan too. As refugees these people were empty-handed and had no money, no assets and in the dry desert they also had no livelihood options. These refugees were forced to stay in refugee camps at Barmer and Jaisalmer for almost 17 years. Then the government of Rajasthan allotted land to them. Though it was virgin land and had never been cultivated, gradually Pak refugee’s rural households started doing agricultural works and they were dependent only on rainfed agriculture and animal husbandry. Almost every year failure of monsoon caused severe drought conditions resulting in scarcity of food, fodder and water. Frequent occurrence of drought made their lives very difficult. During these hard times they used to do labour works and some used to migrate to nearby cities to earn their livelihood. Apart from harsh climate and frequent occurrence of drought, poor quality of land and scarcity of water resources for irrigation were additional constraints. Thus, food security and subsistence were their primary concerns. For the refugee women, embroidery activities played a prime role by contributing significantly to the household income. As far as income generation is concerned, desert folks usually prefer to do off-farm and non-farm activities like weaving, embroidery, spinning, dying, block-printing, woodwork and other handicrafts. Similarly, the only skill these Pakrefugee women had was a special kind of embroidery or Kashida namely Sindhi Kadhai, Taanka Bharat and Soufe (types of embroideries). Initially, middlemen from neighbouring districts took advantage of their situation as these women were illiterate, unorganised and were in need of money.The middlemen exploited them for a very long time by giving nominal wages for their exquisite hand embroidery.

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In 1992, a developmental organisation URMUL Seemant working in the region of Western Rajasthan realised the skills of these Pakrefugee women and supported them in terms of mobilisation, skill upgradation, technical support, and national - international market linkages for their creative handicraft, also supported the women artisans from the exploitative middlemen. Women artisans started getting organised in small groups and started doing kashidakaari. Gradually these hands became skilled in their craft. Women themselves created many such groups and presently hundreds of women through their SHGs are doing embroidery work and on an average they are earning around 3000-5000 Indian Rupees (68 USD -115 USD) approximately in a month and have started getting recognition as a Kashida cluster in national and international market. It promotes an equitable distribution of income and contributes to the poverty alleviation. Handicraft provides modest livelihood to a large number of poor women and generates employment opportunities. Now, from 1992 till 2013 it’s been a long way for these Pak-refugee women. They are continuing with their traditional embroidery skills with the contemporary designs, colours and fashion. Today, the desert region has a high population of women engaged in embroidery activities for income generation. They are skilled, they embroider beautifully, and they know their traditional craft very well. They laugh, sing, and weave the threads of colours and designs simultaneously to create and produce beautiful hand embroidered garments and apparels. They work to earn money for food, fodder and fuel in order to meet the daily demands of the lives of their families. Case Studies of Women Embroidery Artisans Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013


Case I: Samu Bai Samu Bai is from the village 2DO. She is 35 years old. Samu Bai belongs to the family of Pak-refugees. She began working when she was ten years old. Her paternal aunt was a very good artisan. Samu as a child used to watch the neat stitches and artistic curves of the motives on the cloth. She admired the colourful patterns her aunt created on kurtas, duppattas, saris, cushions and bags. A favourite of her aunt, Samu tried to help her in whatever way it was possible. After the school hours, she used to explain and sometimes teach the meaning of those new words that her aunt heard whenever the cluster coordinator from URMUL office came to deliver or to collect the products. Samu Bai learnt embroidery at a quick pace by the time she was thirteen or fourteen years of age. Samu Bai became expert in embroidery under the apprenticeship of her aunt. Soon she was known as a skilled artisan in demand. She is SHG leader and her handwork and knowledge made her indispensable for the URMUL coordinator. She was made Vyavasthapak (team leader) for two villages and her monthly earning now is in between 3500-4000 INR. She now says “Kashida to hamare liye khet aur fasal hai”, (For us this embroidery work is like fields, crops and produce.) This is the only earning source for them. They are taking care of their families from the earnings of embroidery. Case II: Paaro Bai Paaro Bai hails from the village Dandkala. She is 48 years old. She was one among those refugees who were forced to migrate from Umarkot district of Pakistan in 1971 Indo-Pak war. Her family settled in Dandkala village of Kolayat block of Bikaner district. When they first came to this village they were shocked as there were no trees, no shrubs, no shade, and no water. It was difficult to settle there but they had learnt to be patient. They had to survive in whatever conditions were in front of them. Life in this new country was to be lived and they worked hard to make it their home.


The skill of kashida (embroidery) was the only means of survival though they were exploited from the middlemen from Barmer district who were at least kind to give them work to do even in this new place. When URMUL volunteers visited their village, they showed their handicraft to them and narrated the story of their exploitation and requested them to plan for some income generating activity. URMUL understood the need and responded accordingly by starting income-generating programme of embroidery. Paaro Bai took initiatives in motivating and organising women in self-help groups. Soon the collective efforts of URMUL personnel and Pak-oustee women artisans were supported by famous designers like Laila Tayabji and graduates from National Institute of Design and other organisations in India. Gradually, Paaro Bai organised her fellow workers in village and made them aware of health, plantation and childcare. She is the team leader of two SHGs (SelfHelp Groups) of her village. Paaro Bai and her group raised voices against liquor consumption and other evils exercised by men. Paaro Bai says “Hamara gaun aage badh raha hai” (our village is moving ahead, it is progressing). Case III: Ramku Bai Ramku Bai belongs to the village called Aduri. She is 42 years old. Like nearby villages, Ramku’s village also had high rate of migration due to lack of livelihood and employment opportunities. Years back, when Ramku came to know about the progress of the women of Dandkala village, she became motivated and talked to the women of her own village about the embroidery initiative of URMUL. Ramku led a small group of women and went to meet URMUL officials with a request to associate them in income generating projects. They showed their own skills to them, impressed them and became a working group of this income generating venture. Ramku is a founding member of her SHG. There are twenty five women in their group who Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

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earn INR 2500 - INR 4000. Ramku Bai says that the involvement in kashida (embroidery) work helps them to remain in their villages rather than migrating to the cities. The greatest satisfaction for Ramku and her group members is that they work in their homes. Their own homes are their work place and they earn with dignity. An exposure to the outer world, capacity building trainings, keeping their interaction with URMUL officials, designers and buyers enabled them to see the world in a wider perspective. This experience is very exciting for them. They have got opportunities to visit State capitals and national capitals like Jaipur and Delhi.The journey with URMUL transformed the lives of all the women of the village Aduri. Now, there is a school for children in the village, and also water course. Men-folk of their village do not sit idle now; they help the women-folk, take care of the children and families, listen to their women-folk and accept their importance and roles as breadearners. Case IV: Kely Kely is a 23-year old young woman. She is from the village 7AD of Pugal block. Her family migrated to India from Chachro of Pakistan with others. Her family came to Pugal because of the relatives who were allotted land there. Her father died in a road accident in 2000 when Kely was hardly ten years old. As her mother had to lookafter her younger siblings, Kely and her eight years old younger brother went to work in field and earned ten rupees each for the hard work of collecting peanuts or cotton from the fields. Kely could not study further. After a year, she began working along with her mother as a handembroiderer in URMUL’s embroidery project. As an artisan, Kely makes sample designs for new products. She creates new motifs, matches colours and develops new patterns, and earns INR 3500 approximately per month. She is now confident and keeps her earning in bank and proudly operates her account. Kely is not getting married, she wants to work for a couple of years,

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save more money and support her mother. She remembers the time sadly when her first earning was INR 20 only for making a khalichi (hand purse) but at least this money enabled her to provide them bellyful of food. She was low at work. She embroidered one kurta in two days for 30 rupees. Practice made her expert in embroidery and she could make three kurtas in a day. Every piece she embroiders is a complete artwork in itself. She loves the work she does and knows that the sample pieces she prepares are sent through courier to Delhi and other foreign cities to be accepted. She is not educated. Her formal education is only of second standard but she confidently uses words like sampling, courier, cash, design, payment, colour matching, bank, saving, road, city, cooler etc., with such ease that any listener will believe that she was educated up to atleast high school level. Kely is very particular about the education of her younger brothers and sisters and wants them to get higher education. She dreams about future of her family. Case V: Babri Bai Babri Bai is 45 years old and a native of 2AD village. Babri and her family had to take refuge in India after the 1971 Indo-Pak war. Babri still remembers the days of extreme poverty her family had faced for many years as a refugee. She mentioned that it took quite a long time for her to accept India as her home land. Babri says that as a refugee woman, she struggled very hard against the challenges and hardships to make a better life for herself and her family. Babri joined URMUL’s embroidery project after attending an awareness camp organised by the organisation. It has been years now as she continues to work in the project. Babri is a lead embroiderer now. She is also an active member of SHG. She is a very efficient team leader. She checks the quality of each embroidered piece. She is very particular and punctual as regards completing the work in time and getting the payments of her group. There has never been Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013


any incident of not completing the orders in time. It is quite exciting to see Babri Bai like a city woman, carrying a bag on her shoulders and shaking hands with everyone she meets. Babri Bai says the name and flag of the organisation should fly high because of their craftwork. Her commitment and dedication towards work is admirable. She feels that every girl should go to school and after the school young girls should attend the training sessions of embroidery conducted under her own supervision. She efficiently trains young girls and ensures the quality of produce prepared by the young trainees and future entrepreneurs. She also ensures proper vaccination of every child and proper care of older people of the village. She tries to inculcate self-respect as a value in every woman. She has become an excellent entrepreneur. She visits each household and inspects cleanliness and hygiene. Findings On the basis of five case studies of women artisans it is found that embroidery work has brought visible socio-economic changes in the lives of the poor women artisans. The major economical impact of the embroidery work is that it ensured continued work availability to the women artisans. They get timely payment of wages, thus financial security is there. Women artisans are the members of SHGs therefore, they are organised; they save small parts of their earnings and are protected from the exploitation of middleman. Women are now leading a better life; they have become independent and confident after becoming a major contributor to the household earnings and acting as change agents in the community. The social change in their communities, gender awareness and women’s equal status with men is quite visible. Heightened sense of awareness and confidence and the feeling of ownership with URMUL’s livelihood initiative in the women artisans can be realised. It is fascinating to see the women of the village


without (ghunghat) veil. It is wonderful to see that men of the families were equally supportive to them. Many men now work in the kitchen, as their wives are busy in embroidery work. In 2DO, 7AD, Dandkala, Aduri and in many other villages of Pak-oustee in Western Rajasthan in India, the livelihood activities have created platforms for women to move towards their empowerment, to speak for their betterment. On analysis of these women doing embroidery in many small groups, one can realise the meaning and importance of empowerment. They feel that they are also part of the process of income generation, they are also professionals and that they are part of the mainstream economic activity as a craft-producer. These women enjoy their freedom. This develops in them a capacity of leadership, negotiation, participation and decision making. It is clearly visible that the status of these women artisans increased in their families due to their major contribution in increasing the incomes of family and their exposure of the outer world and their capacity to deal with it with confidence. All women are members of different Self-Help Groups and doing regular savings from their income for a better future. Their small

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children are getting benefits of ‘Integrated Child Development Scheme’ for health, nutrition and early childhood education.Their girls are now studying in the village schools with boys which was restricted earlier. URMUL has not only revived the traditional craft and empowered women but also developed the area as an embroidery cluster in the last twenty years. The cases strongly advocate and emphasise the need of women empowerment through livelihood generation and regular capacity building for their socio-economic development and to become the breadwinners, trendsetters, and role models. Conclusion It could be concluded that these women artisans together with the facilitation of URMUL, have already entered in the ongoing process of empowerment leading to a better future. There is a poem expressing, “There is a serpent on your chest, open your eyes to reality, leave the false illusions”. The poor women artisans have identified their capabilities and experiencing self-reliance. They are becoming self-sufficient through their artisanal works.

References 1.

Beijing, (1995), The Draft Country Paper: India for the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, China.

2.

Diaz, H.L. & Pillai, V.K. (2004), Communication, Empowerment and Development of Women in India, In Kiran Prasad (Ed.), Communication and Empowerment of Women: Strategies and Policy Insights from India (Volume I), Delhi, The Women Press.

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Douglas, H. (1996), A Critique of Traditional Agriculture Credit Projects and Policies, In Eicher, C. & Staatz, J. M. (Ed.), Agricultural Development in the Third World, Johns Hopkins University Press.

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Harper, M. (1998), The New Middle Women: Profitable Banking Through on Lending Groups, Oxford and IBH Publishing, New Delhi.

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Mayoux, S. (1998), The Ethics of Development for Women, Development Bulletin, 30: 40-42.

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Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD), (2007), A Handbook of Statistical Indicators of Indian Women 2007, Government of India, Accessed on 29 March 2010. http://wcd.nic.in/


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Pandian, P. & Eswaran, R. (2002), SHGs Mobilising Women at the Grassroots, Social Welfare, 49(7):18-19.

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Rao, M.S., & Appaji, C., (2002), Dimensions of Entrepreneurial Behaviour, Proceedings of National Seminar on Entrepreneurship Development in Agriculture, Marathwada Agricultural University, Parbhani, Maharashtra Society of Extension Education.

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Shivmurthy, M., (1999), Empowerment of Rural Women, Compendium of Lectures of Summer School on Human Resource Development and Management in Extension Organization at University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, July (1-30).

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Singh, P. Jhamtani., & Bhadauria, A.C., (2000), Self-Help Groups: Farm Women’s Perceptions about Advantages and Problems.

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UNDP (2008), Country Programme for India (2008-2012), Retrieved on 17 May 2008 from http:// data.undp.org.in/prodoc/CP_IND_2008-2012.pdf.

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URMUL (2013), Beyond Novella, Ahmedabad, Print Vision.

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Vaish, S. (2004), Performance Assessment of Women Self-Help Groups (SHGs): A Study in Udham Singh Nagar, Uttaranchal, Ph.D. Thesis on Development Communication, G.B.Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar. www.pradan.net/



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AN ANALYSIS OF KNOWLEDGE LEVEL OF FARMERS ON UTILISATION OF ICT TOOLS FOR FARM COMMUNICATION

K. P. Raghuprasad, Devaraja S.C and Gopala Y. M*

ABSTRACT The study was conducted in Karnataka State during 2011 to assess the knowledge level of farmers towards utilisation of ICT tools in farm communication and to find out the relationship with socio-economic characteristics of farmers using these tools. Bangalore rural, Chikkaballapura and Kolar districts were selected purposefully because these districts are nearer to Bangalore which is the hub of IT and most of farmers of these three districts are receiving Multi Message Services (MMS). The respondents selected for the study include 120 farmers from 12 villages of three districts. The findings of the study revealed that nearly 70 per cent of farmers had high to medium level of knowledge about utilisation of ICT tools and 30.83 per cent had low level of knowledge about ICT tools. Variables such as material possession, social participation, extension participation, mass media exposure and cosmopoliteness had positive and significant relationship with knowledge of farmers about ICT tools at one per cent level of significance whereas; education and annual income had positive and significant relationship at five per cent level of significance. As the study revealed, most of the farmers had knowledge about the utility of ICT tools for farm communication, only limitation is the availability. The arrangement for availability of ICT tools could make huge difference in the agriculture sector of the country. Introduction Information Communication Technology (ICT) is a term which is currently used to denote a wide range of services, applications and technologies, using various types of equipment and software. ICT tools are emerging as an important tool for the economic development of the country. The ICTs are no more confined to the research and development, instead the tools are being extensively used for extension services all over the world.The services that ICT tools could offer have made significant impact on the *

economic development of the country like India being the world's fastest growing economy. One of the major advantages of using ICT tools for farm communication is the efficiency which has gone very high in the recent days. New businesses like Banking and Insurance, the entertainment industry and other industries and organisations, are all taking maximum advantage of the ICT. India has not lagged behind in use of ICT to provide required information to the farmers. A beginning was made in the use of ICT with

Associate Professor, Research Scholar and Ph. D Scholar, Respectively, Agril. Extn, Directorate of Extension, UAS, Hebbal, Bangalore – 24.


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the designing of Financial Accounting Information System in 1971 by Jute Corporation of India (Quasi sector) covering seven States viz., Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Meghalaya, Odisha, Tripura and West Bengal. Later many projects like Information village centre, Gyanadoot project, e-choupal, e-grama etc., came into existence. Information village centre project started by M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation in 1998 covered 12 villages in Pondicherry region serving rural families, particularly marginal farmers, fishermen and assetless. Gyanadoot is a community-owned, self-sustainable and low cost rural intranet project, initiated on 1 January, 2000, at Dhar district. Eleven centres were started on a pilot basis and they were called ‘soochanalayas’ (information kiosks), which provided usercharge-based services to the rural people. Warana wired project, started by NIC (National informatics centre) and Maharashtra Government covers 70 villages in Kolhapur and Sangli districts. Ten public service centres have been induced to facilitate sugarcane procurement and to provide market information. Lex (1995) observed that modernisation of agriculture will be greatly influenced by new gadgets like CD-ROM, internet etc., specially by integrating information systems in a single tool which can be used in the same way as any other farm input. Richardson (1997) reported that in Bangladesh, ICT have transformed the lives of rural people and village women. Women have started small-scale enterprises through small loans from the grameen bank to buy mobile cell phone that have been used to provide telephone services and earn them good income. Much of the voice traffic over the cell phones is commerce directed-access to agricultural market prices, access to agricultural trade information, facilitation of remittances from foreign workers, information on work opportunities using the phone to reduce substantial travel costs.


K. P. Raghuprasad, Devaraja S.C and Gopala Y.M

For more than a decade, information and communication technologies (ICT) have been attributed a key role in both economic growth and poverty reduction. They increase efficiency, provide access to new markets or services, create new opportunities for income generation and give poor people a voice. In spite of continous efforts of various functionaries, there are still areas where improvement is needed to be able to take advantage of the benefits of ICT. Many of the farmers may depend on extension personnel to get information on cultivation practice. However, the ICT will serve complementary to the services that an extension worker could provide and it is gaining momentum.The various types of information that the ICT tools can provide includes, information related to different schemes, crops, technologies, seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, availability of fertilisers, seedlings, biopesticides, soil fertility, pest and disease diagnosis, the agricultural marketing information, weather forecasting helps the farmers to take right decision at right time.Tavernier et al (1996) felt that information communication technologies are offering new ways for extension personnel to reach wider audience. Internet plays a vital role in exchanging information through e-mail, chat etc. Farmers can get the improved information services through creative use of information technology. In a developed country like USA, most of the big farmers are using internet to get information, to communicate and for buying inputs or selling outputs. The past decade has witnessed a revolution in the use of ICT in developing countries. Many people and offices as well as rural farmers own ICT facilities such as personal computers and mobile phones. The largest increases in the use of ICT has been in mobile telephony where subscriptions in developing countries increased from about 30 per cent of the world total in 2000 to more than 50 per cent in 2004 and to almost 70 per cent in 2007, while internet use has not increased as rapidly as mobile communication.

An Analysis of Knowledge Level of Farmers on Utilisation of ICT Tools

The newly developed Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a vital tool to form a bridge between the information society and the knowledge society, and has supported a quiet revolution in education over the past decades. The use of distance learning is a primary example of ICT in education. As a communication measure, internet technology played a great role in facilitating interaction between teaching and learning. One of the studies conducted by Bell et al (2004) reveals that in both rural and urban areas, middle and upper income people are more likely to use ICTs. What really matters is availability of ICT tools to the farmers. The policy makers should take up issues which need some serious concern for the development of the agrarian community, encompassing a lack of opportunity, empowerment and security. ICT access can have powerful impact in addressing these constraints (OECD, 2007). Bhatnagar and Vyas (2001) are of the opinion that introducing ICT in poor rural areas can be a catalyst for change. However, some prerequisites are needed to make this introduction cost-effective and sustainable, such as stable electric and software. If these essential factors are not present, it may be better to search for more appropriate and low-tech solutions. In the case of Gyanadoot, for instance, why not use the radio- which is cost-effective and has a very large reach in rural areas-to inform farmers about prices of agricultural commodities. The strong linkage complimented by flawless information flow enhanced by the effective use of ICT by the extension services will significantly boost agricultural production and improve rural livelihoods in developing countries. Front line extension workers, who are the direct link between farmer and other actors in the agricultural knowledge and information system, are well positioned to make use of ICT to access expert knowledge or other types of information that could facilitate the accomplishment of their Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

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day-to-day activities. Knowledge sharing, exchanging and dissemination are elements in a broader theme which is knowledge management.The central purpose of knowledge management is to transform information and intellectual assets into enduring value. With this background, the study was undertaken to know the knowledge level of farmers about ICT tools utilisation for farm communication and relationship between knowledge of farmers about ICT tools and their socio-economic characteristics. Methodology The study was conducted using “Ex-postfacto” research design in Bangalore rural, Chikkaballapura and Kolar districts of Karnataka State during 2011. These districts were selected purposefully because; these are nearer to Bangalore which is known as the hub of IT. Many farmers of these three districts are getting MultiMessage Services (MMS) and also they are using other ICT tools. Doddaballapurar, Chintamani and Srinivasapura taluks were selected from Bangalore rural, Chikkaballapura and Kolar districts, respectively. From each taluk four villages were selected which are nearer to the respective KVKs. The villages selected for the study were Hadonahalli, Tapsahalli, Gejjegaranahalli and Lakshmidevapura from Doddaballapura taluk, Kurtahalli, Muniganahalli, Kallahalli and Kachalli from Chintamani taluk and Shettihalli, Chowdanalli, Dosandra and Vardanahalli from Srinivasapura taluk. In each of the selected villages, initially a list of 25 farmers was prepared based on the farmers getting multi-message services, attended video conference programmes and using one or more ICT tools in getting farm information. From this list 10 farmers were selected randomly from each village, which constituted a sample of 120 respondents for the study. The statements for knowledge measurement were developed based on review of literature, in consultation with

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specialists in the field of ICT in agriculture, field extension personnel and farmers utilising the ICT tools for communication of farm information. The procedure followed by Narayana Swamy (1994) was used to measure the knowledge level of farmers about ICT tools. The statements were further pretested for reliability and validity to obtain comprehensive responses from the respondents. The items which had difficulty index ranging from 20-80 per cent and the discrimination index ranging from 0.20 to 0.80 were selected for measuring the knowledge level of the respondents. Based on consultation with different sources as mentioned above, seventeen statements were developed and used for collecting the data.

Results and Discussion Knowledge Level of the Respondents About ICT Tools : The results of the study indicated that (Table 1) almost 70 per cent of the respondents had medium and high level of knowledge. The present epoch of globalisation and liberalisation has brought in the competitiveness in agriculture production through adoption of improved technologies by the farmers. A considerable percentage of the respondents knew that it is possible to get timely information through ICT tools, specially information needed at critical stages of production and marketing information.

Table 1 : Overall Knowledge of the Respondents About ICT Tools (N=120) Category

Score

Frequency

Low

15.85

41

34.17

Total

120

100.00

Table 2 presents data regarding knowledge of farmers about services that individual ICT tool can offer. Predominant number (85 per cent) of the respondents knew that T V provides information regarding agriculture. The television has become an integral part of rural India. Most of the farmers have knowledge that the TV is one of the sources of agriculture information because TV medium has grown to such an extent that most of the farm families have TV in their house. It can be said that, a house without a television in rural areas is hardly seen. Communication of farm information through television will be the most prioritised source of communication. As indicated in this particular study, it is possible to reach more number of farmers in the shortest possible time with television as an extension tool. Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

Per cent

More than three-fourths (80 per cent) of respondents knew that mobile provides agricultural information. A source says that mobile has become a basic requirement in all the spheres of life. Data like market information, weather forecasting and emergency situations like flood, drought and weather extremities can be quickly communicated to farmers through mobile. Since most of the farmers are aware of farm communication through mobiles it will be a supreme choice for the extension functionaries. The study reveals that 41.67 per cent of the respondents knew that agricultural information can be obtained through telephone. The Kissan Call Centre (KCC) is making some difference in the farming community by one of the sources that a farmer can easily access. However, there is a need to equip this sector further.


16 17

12 13 14 15

10 11

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

S. No.

Television provides multimedia agricultural information Mobile provides agricultural information Radio provides agricultural information Internet provides agricultural information Video conference provides agricultural information DVDs/CDs provide agricultural information Telephone provides agricultural information Video conferencing is a two-way communication DVD’s/CD’s / documentaries provide detailed information with audio and video ICT tools provide retrievable information ICT tools provide information regarding crop production, protection, post-harvest technologies and other allied activities ICT tools provide marketing and storage information of agriculture ICT is the quick mode of communication ICT provides weather information ICT tools provide information on crop insurance and other government programmes ICT tools are user-friendly To use ICT tools minimum knowledge is required

Statements

23.33 23.33 76.67 76.67 76.67 56.67 55.83 54.17 68.33

28 28 92 92 92 68 67 65 82

% 85.00 80.00 33.33 3.33 41.67 23.33 41.67 41.67

Know 102 96 40 4 50 28 50 50

No.

Table 2 : Statement-wise Analysis of Knowledge of Farmers About ICT Tools

53 55 38

28 28 28 52

92 92

18 24 80 116 70 92 70 70

44.17 45.83 31.67

23.33 23.33 23.33 43.33

76.67 76.67

15.00 20.00 66.67 96.67 58.33 76.67 58.33 58.33

Don’t know No. %

(N=120)

An Analysis of Knowledge Level of Farmers on Utilisation of ICT Tools 305

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It is observed that many (66.67 per cent) of the respondents did not know that agricultural information is broadcast through radio. Farm communication through radio is hardly known to 30 per cent of the respondents. The cost and maintenance of radio equipment is simple and of low cost. Further, one of the important observations made during the study was, majority (96.75 per cent) of the respondents did not know about internet and its utility. Internet plays an important role as it is possible to get multimedia information which includes text, photograph and video and many more. The services a farmer can get from internet includes weather related information, plant disease related information, pests related to different crops, arrivals and pricing in different markets around the country . It is appropriate to remember that Warren and Stone (1999) indicated that internet was used for commercial farming than subsistence farming in England. Internet has not reached the rural India as expected hence, it is necessary to educate farmers regarding the usage of internet for agriculture information. The results of the study show that 58.33 per cent of respondents did not know that video conferencing provides agricultural information and 41.67 per cent of respondents knew about it. It is one of the new techniques emerging in recent days and it is yet to gain momentum. The farmers can see the expert, talk and exchange information with them. Video conferencing has the potential of covering all aspects of agriculture, natural resource, and food system, enable farmers to locate needed information to improve yields, plan for weather contingencies, access research, calculate treatments and runoff, stimulate the growing season, visualise precision data, and manage finances, buy inputs and sell outputs, and monitor prices in local as well as world markets. Of course, much remains to be done to ensure that farmers worldwide can access and locate reliable web resources.



More than half (58.33 per cent) of the respondents did not know that video conferencing is a two-way communication and 41.67 per cent of the respondents knew about it. Since video conferencing in agriculture is in infant stage having great potentiality of growth, most of the farmers do not know video conferencing as a method of farm communication. A great majority (76.66 per cent) of respondents did not know that DVD’s/CD’s/ documentaries provide detailed information along with audio and video and 23.33 per cent of the respondents knew about it. The DVD/CD method of farm communication has great scope since about two-thirds farmers knew that information can be obtained through them. A large number (76.67 per cent) of respondents did not know that ICT tools provide retrievable information and about 23.33 per cent of the respondents knew the reality. The ICT tools like Internet, KIOSK have the potentiality of providing the retrievable information as many of the farmers knew that it can be exploited for providing information to farmers. Majority (76.67 per cent) of the respondents knew that ICT tools provide information regarding crop production, protection, post -harvest technologies and other allied activities and 23.33 per cent of the respondents did not know. More than threefourths (76.67 per cent) of the respondents knew that ICT tools provide marketing and storage information of agriculture and 23.33 per cent of the respondents did not know about it. There are website, online information portals, mobile services and TV news through which farmers can get hold of marketing information in view of the fact the ICT tools are well known to the farmers for their marketing information. Majority (76.6 per cent) of the respondents knew that ICT is the quick mode of communication and 23.33 per cent of the respondents did not know. The high-speed


information transport is one of the proven advantages of the ICT tools, hence most of the farmers feel that ICT is a quick mode of communication. More than half (56.67 per cent) of the respondents knew that ICT provides weather information and 43.33 per cent of the respondents did not know about it. Some of the farmers are receiving weather information through mobile, internet and through phone also. More than half (55.83 per cent) of the respondents knew that ICT tools provide information on crop insurance and other government programmes and 44.17 per cent of the respondents did not know. Nearly, half of the respondents have the knowledge about the fact. This particular advantage of the ICT tool is yet to get familiarised in the farming community. Considerable percentage (54.17) of the respondents knew that ICT tools are user friendly and 45.83 per cent of the respondents did not know. ICT tools require a general knowledge of operating it and it is not at all necessary to be a specialist in using them. Nearly half of the respondents had the knowledge, Relationship Between Personal, Socioeconomic,Psychological Characteristics of the Farmers and Their Knowledge About ICT Tools : The relationship between personal, socioeconomic and psychological characteristics of the farmers and their knowledge about ICT tools is depicted in Table 3. It could be observed from the Table that the variables such as material possession, social participation, extension participation, mass media exposure and cosmopoliteness had positive and significant relationship with knowledge of farmers at one per cent level of significance whereas, education and income had positive and significant relationship with knowledge of farmers at five per cent level of significance. The social participation, extension participation and mass media exposure have significant relationship with the farmers since these things will expose farmers to different Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

307

sources of information where farmers start learning about the ICT tools and techniques. Farmers who have invested more on the purchase of agricultural implements, TV, radio, communication gadgets, inputs and machineries will efficiently utilise them in the field regularly which necessitates them to know or acquire more about the ICT tools. Participation in different extension programmes can expose them to ICT tools used by extension personnel for communication which will lead to higher level of knowledge among farmers. Advent of mass media provides enormous opportunities for repeated exposure of farmers to new technology and motivating them to action. Further, few of the ICT tools are part of the mass media used by the farmers. A farmer who has more mass media exposure becomes innovative, develops risk taking ability, motivation and high aspiration and will try to know more about the existing things and acquire more knowledge on ICT tools. It is believed that the more farmers visit nearest city or town, more will be the exposure to ICT tools and also they can get knowledge from their friends, input dealers and officials about ICT tools. Conclusion Agriculture information resources should be significantly organised and processed to disseminate right information to the right user at the right time. The study revealed that nearly 70 per cent of the respondents had medium to high level of knowledge about ICT tools. This means extension through ICT tools could be a feasible option for the extension service providers. Most of the farmers depended on TV and mobile for getting wide range of information because of its accessibility. Dissemination of information like marketing information, package of practices through mobile and the television could create a positive impact on the production system of the country. The major challenges inhibiting the use of ICT in disseminating agricultural knowledge

308


Table 3 : Correlation Between the Selected Personal, Socio-economic and Psychological Characteristics of the Respondents and Their Knowledge About ICT Tools (N=120) S.No.

Variables

Correlation co-efficient

1

Age

0.014 NS

2

Education

0.246*

3

Landholding

0.076 NS

4

Family type

0.053 NS

5

Farming experience

0.042 NS

6

Material possession

0.257**

7

Annual income

0.352*

8

Innovativeness

0.008 NS

9

Social participation

0.282**

10

Extension participation

0.324**

11

Mass media exposure

0.253**

12

Economic motivation

0.062 NS

13

Risk orientation

0.091 NS

14

Scientific orientation

0.084 NS

15

Cosmopoliteness

0.351**

** - Significant at 0.01 level. * - Significant at 0.05 level. NS- Non-Significant



and information are the low level of access to ICT infrastructure and services which need to be addressed. The existing potential for extending the current ICT infrastructure to reach rural farmers, coupled by the presence of wide area radio service coverage across the country, should

309

be exploited to implement ICT-based knowledge and information dissemination in the short-term. Government and its partners should consider policy and investment priorities in order to promote cost-effective knowledge management in agriculture.

References 1.

Bhatnagar S. and Vyas N., (2001), Gyandoot:Community-Owned Rural Internet Kiosks, EGovernment Case Studies, World Bank, Washington, DC. Retrieved from www.worldbank.org/ publicsector/egov/gyandootcs.htm.

2.

Bell, P., Reddy, P. and Rainies, L. (2004), “Rural Areas and the Internet. Rural Americans’ Internet use has grown, but they continue to lag behind others”, Pee Internet & American Life Project, Retrieved http://www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_detail.aspx? Id=17062.

3.

LEX, J., (1995), Virtual Agriculture in the information society Zeitschrift-fur grarininformatik,3:6 pp: 125-130.

4.

Narayana Swamy B.K., (1994), Management Services for Small Farmers Development, Ph.D Thesis, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore.

5.

OECD (2007), Promoting Pro-poor Growth - Policy Guidance for Donors, DAC Guidelines and Reference Series, Paris: OECD.

6.

Richardson D., (1997), The Internet and The Rural Development: An Integrated Approach, FAO, Rome, Italy, pp: 77.

7.

Tavernier E.M., Adelaja A.O., Hartley M.P. and Schiling B., (1996), Information Technologies and the Delivery of Extension Programmes. Journal of Agricultural and Food Information, 3:4 pp: 75-86.

8.

UNESCO., (2003), Communication: from Information Society and Knowledge Societies, The New Courier, 3, Retrieved January 25, 2007, from http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.phpURL_ID=14339&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC& URL _SE TION=201.html.

9.

Warren and Stone (1999), Uptake to Internet Service by Farmers, World Agriculture Economics and Rural Sociology Abstracts, 43(6):466. www.kisancallcentre.net


310



311

RESOURCE USE EFFICIENCY AND CONSTRAINTS IN FARMING IN THE TANK COMMANDS : THE CASE OF NORTH EASTERN KARNATAKA

Saikumar C. Bharamappanavara*, Mundinamani S.M.**, Naik B.K.*** and Kiresur V.R.*** *

ABSTRACT The study was conducted in three districts namely Bidar, Bellary and Raichur of north-eastern Karnataka in the selected tank commands rejuvenated by JalaSamvardhaneYojanaSangha, Government of Karnataka with an objective of studying the resource use efficiency and to identify the constraints faced by farmers in farming activities. Multi-stage proportionate random sampling is adopted in selecting the respondents. Majority of the farmers in the study area were practising only animal husbandry as subsidiary enterprise, field crops were the major enterprises. Results revealed that the inputs like feeds + concentrates were over-utilised and number of cows and seeds were under-utilised in Bidar district. The resources like land, number of cows, fertiliser + FYM were over-utilised and labour, PPC + veterinary charges were under-utilised in Bellary districts. In Raichur, fertiliser + FYM and labour were under-utilised. Results indicate the scope for reorganisation of resources to optimise their use to enhance returns. In all the districts, the use of resources that are showing negative production elasticity should be decreased to achieve the optimality in the resource use and the use of resources showing more than one elasticity should be encouraged to enhance the profitability condition. There are several problems associated which are grouped under two heads namely production constraints and marketing constraints. For safeguarding the farmers' interest to enhance farm efficiency, arrangements should be made to avail timely and adequately the credit and storage, inputs and market information. Introduction Tank irrigation is one of the age old established practices in most of the semi-arid tropical parts of India. Tanks were used for domestic purpose from time immemorial and they also serve as an important source of groundwater recharge. Tanks are historical innovation to mitigate the monsoon irregularities *

and reduce the risk of uncertainties in water availability in the dry zones. The tank irrigation system has a special significance to marginal and small farmers who depend on the tank irrigation. In the face of multi-dimensional challenges only way out to achieve/increase productivity and to improve standard

Corresponding Author, Ph.D Student, Division of Cooperative Sciences, Department of Agricultural Economics, Humboldt University, Berlin (Germany), [email protected]. ** Professor and Head, Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, Karnataka, India. *** Professor, Department of Agribusiness Management, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, Karnataka, India. **** Professor and Head, Department of Agricultural Economics, College of Agriculture, Bijapur, Karnataka, India.


312

Saikumar C. Bharamappanavara, Mundinamani S.M., Naik B.K. and Kiresur V.R.

of living of the farm families in the tank commands is to diversify the economic activities in an inter-dependent and integrated manner at micro level by balanced allocation of the available resources. It is important to consider farmers' conditions specifically according to the availability of resources to sustain and satisfy many necessities of the farmer on a continuous basis in a manner that may ensure increased production with stability, ecological sustainability and equitability. North-eastern Karnataka comprises three major districts namely, Bidar, Bellary and Raichur falling under north-eastern transitional zone, northern dry zone and north-eastern dry zones of Karnataka accordingly. These districts are suitable for growing all types of field crops and also equally for growing sugarcane, paddy and horticultural crops, if irrigation is available. Other occupations like cross-bred cow rearing, poultry and fish farming are potential areas of development. All these enterprises together are incorporated in the farming explicitly using the resources to raise the overall production and income of farmers in these districts. Keeping all these aspects in view, present study has been undertaken to study the socio-economic profile of the tank command farmers and analyse the resource use efficiency and constraints faced by farmers in the tank commands of Jala Samvardhane Yojana Sangha-managed tanks in north-eastern Karnataka. Methodology Farmers served as the primary source of data for the present study and data were collected through personal interview method using pre-tested and well-structured questionnaires. The study area and sample respondents were selected using multi-stage proportionate random sampling. In the first stage

based on all variabilities of agro-climatic conditions, three districts viz.,Bidar, Bellary and Raichur were selected from north-eastern part of Karnataka where Jala Samvardhane Yojana Sangha* (JSYS) is managing the tanks. Based on number of JSYS tanks in each district, 3 (Bidar), 4 (Bellary) and 2 (Raichur) tanks were selected. Further, from each tank command fifteen farmer respondents were randomly considered for collecting the data. Thus, in all, 135 farmers were selected for the study. Salient Features of the Study District Bidar District : Bidar district falls under the northeastern transitional zone of Karnataka.The district has total geographical area of 5,41,765 hectares, of which 3,72,202 hectares is under cultivation, accounting for 68.70 per cent of the total area of the district (District at a Glance, 2004). Of total agricultural holdings, share of marginal and small farmers’ holdings together was 60.52 per cent. The average annual rainfall of this district is 847 mm, of which about 70 per cent is received in the normal monsoon season (June to September). The mean temperature of the area varies from 31°C to 21°C. The major crops grown in the district are jowar, redgram, blackgram, greengram, sunflower, safflower and sugarcane. According to the 2001 census, total population of the district was 12.55 lakhs with 6.43 lakh males and females 6.12 lakh with a literacy rate of 45.11, 58.97 and 30.53 per cent, respectively. Bellary District : The district is located in the northern dry zones of Karnataka State.The district has a total geographical area of 8,13,196 hectares with a total cultivated area of 4,14,288 hectares accounting for 50.94 per cent to the total geographical area of the district (ibid). The total population of the district was 20.27 lakhs comprising male and female population of 10.29 and 9.97 lakhs, respectively. Marginal and small

* The Government of Karnataka has launched Karnataka Community Based Tank Management Project (KCBTMP) under World Bank assistance coordinated by “Jala SamvardhaneYojanaSangha” (JSYS). This project operates in about 2,000 selected tanks located in 9 districts of Karnataka State, of which 6 are in northern Karnataka by covering about 512 tanks with an objective of instituting the sustainable tank management system through enhancing the productivity in the tank commands to improve the standard of living of community who are directly or indirectly depending on tank commands for their livelihood. Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

Resource Use Efficiency and Constraints in Farming in the Tank Commands

holdings together accounted for 62.14 per cent of total agricultural holdings.The average annual normal rainfall of the district is 633.40 mm, received from both the south west and northeast monsoons. The temperature of the area varies from 15°C to 44°C. Paddy, jowar, maize, groundnut, bengalgram, cotton and sunflower are the important crops grown in the district. Raichur District : Raichur district is situated in north-eastern dry and northern dry zones of Karnataka State. Total geographical area of the district is 8,35,843 hectares of which 5,22,093 hectares was under cultivation, accounting for about 62.46 per cent (ibid). Out of total agricultural holdings marginal and small holdings together form a share of 54.16 per cent.The average annual rainfall of the district is 621 mm. The mean temperature of the area varies from 29.6°C to 44°C. Paddy, jowar, bengalgram and cotton are the major crops of the district. Analytical Tools Data were subjected to tabular analysis involving the computation of means, percentages to present the data regarding the socio-economic profile.The regression technique was used for analysing the resource allocation in the tank commands. In order to maximise the profits from an enterprise, the optimum use of resources is imperative. Hence, considering the production activities taken up by the sample respondents, productivity of resources are analysed to measure the resource use efficiency and allocative efficiency of resources in the tank commands using CobbDougla(C-D) production function technique.This technique estimates the functional relationship between the dependent variable and independent variables. Heady and Dillon (1964) indicated that the Cobb-Douglas type function has been the most popular of all possible algebraic forms in the farm firm analysis. They further indicated that C-D function has the greatest use in diagnostic analysis, reflecting the marginal productivities at mean levels of returns. Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

313

The general form of the function is y=ax i bi where, ‘x i ’ is the variable resource measures,‘y’ is the output,‘a’ is a constant and ‘bi’ estimates extent of relationship between x and y and when x is at different magnitudes. The ‘b’ coefficient also represents the elasticity of production; the equation is in log linear form by the method of ordinary least squares. This type of function allows for either constant or increasing or decreasing return to scale. It does not allow for total product curve embracing all the three scales simultaneously. The returns to scale can be estimated directly by getting the sum of ‘bi’ coefficients.The return will be increasing, constant and decreasing based on the summation of ‘bi’ is greater or equal or less than unity, respectively. Test was conducted to see that the sum of b coefficients were significantly different from unity. Y = ax 1 b1 bn u ………………..xn .e

.

x 2 b2 .

x 3b3

On linearisation it becomes, logy = loga + b1logx1 + b2logx2 + b3logx3 + …………+ bnlogxn + u log e Production function for the resources used as a whole, logy = loga + b1logx1 + b2logx2 + b3logx3 + b4logx4 + b5logx5 + b6logx6 + b7logx7 + ei Where, Y = Gross returns in rupees a = Intercept x1 = Land in acres x2 = Number of cows x3 = Cost of fertiliser + cost of Farm Yard Manure (FYM) x4 = Bullock labour and human labour cost x5 = Cost of PPC + veterinary charges

314


x6 = Cost of feeds and concentrates x7 = Cost of seeds bi = Elasticities of production (i=1 to 7) ei = Stochastic term The marginal value product of each explanatory variable was also computed and compared with its marginal factor cost to know the resource use efficiency of farmers. This was done with a view to determining the extent to which the important resources have been quantified, to explain the variability in the gross returns of the farming systems and to determine whether the resources are optimally used in these tank commands. The marginal analysis of input utilisation using the MVP’s to MFC ratio of individual resources were used to estimate the allocative efficiencies in the tank commands. The computed Marginal Value Product (MVP) was compared with the Marginal Factor Cost (MFC) or opportunity cost of the resource to draw inferences (Alimi, 2000). The ratios of the MVP’s to MFC’s of individual resources were used to judge the allocative efficiencies. Further, a resource is said to be optimally allocated when it’s MVP = MFC. The marginal value products (MVP’s) were calculated at the geometric mean levels of the variables using the formula, ___

y MVP of xith = bi___ xi Where, y = Geometric mean of gross returns in tank commands xi =

Geometric mean of ith independent variable

bi = Regression coefficient, elasticity of production ith dependent variable This analysis was carried out in order to identify the possibilities of increasing gross Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

returns under a given farm situation. In imputing the marginal cost of the selected inputs the average per acre value of land, average per animal value of cows, were taken as its marginal cost. The marginal cost of all other inputs was considered as one, since those inputs have been measured in value terms in regression analysis. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Socio-economic Characteristics of the Sample Farmers Age, education level, family size, occupational pattern and size of landholding were the variables considered to assess the socio-economic status of the sample respondents and have been depicted in Table 1. It was observed that most of the sample farmers are of middle age group.The family composition revealed that the proportion of children per family was large group in all the districts ranging between 35-40 per cent indicating dominance of nuclear family with two or more children. This was followed by proportion of male, which accounted for 28.36 and 33.57 per cent in Bidar and Raichur district, however the proportion of male and female was observed to be almost equal (27.12 per cent) in the family composition of Bellary district.The educational level of the respondents indicated that more than 50 per cent of the farmers were literates in all the districts. Literate sample respondents possessing education ranged from primary to college level. This indicated that literacy level in the study area was higher than the State level literacy. Therefore, there may not be any problem for the extension workers to educate the farmers regarding recent developments in agriculture and other enterprises to increase their level of income and productivity in the farm. Further, the farmers' receptive capacity may ease the process and adoption of technology.The occupational pattern of the sample respondents revealed that, proportion of sample respondents who were


315

expected. The size of landholding revealed that, the study area belongs to typical dry agroclimatic zone. Table 1: Socio-economic Characteristics of the Sample Respondents

involved mainly on agriculture and allied activities was the highest in all the districts as

S. No.

Particulars

1

Average age (years)

2

Family size (%)

4

5

Bidar

Bellary

Raichur

42.98

42.96

40.8

i.

Adult male

28.36

27.12

33.57

ii.

Adult female

26.86

27.12

30.95

iii.

Children

44.78

45.76

35.48

6.03

6.12

7.3

Average size of the family (No.) 3

District

Education level (%)

46.70

a.

Illiterate

26.66

20.00

16.70

b.

Primary

2.20

16.72

6.60

c.

Secondary

6.70

13.30

20.00

d.

High school

35.54

23.38

10.00

e.

College

28.90

26.60

Occupational pattern (%) a.

Agri. & allied activities

82.20

86.70

73.30

b.

Agri. & allied activities + Business

17.80

13.30

26.70

Average size of landholding(ha)

2.43

3.08

2.29

i.

Rainfed (%)

63.78

72.73

79.47

ii.

Irrigated (%)

36.22

27.27

20.53

Resource Use Efficiency in the Tank Commands Basically, resource use efficiency was calculated to determine whether resources were under-utilised or over-utilised (Taru et al., 2010). The results of efficiency in the use and allocation


of resources in the tank commands of study district were presented in Table 2. The predictor variables used in the model are land, number of cows, fertiliser + FYM cost, labour cost, PPC + veterinary charges, cost of feeds and cost of seeds.


Land (in acres)

Cows (No.)

Fertiliser + FYM cost (`)

Labour cost (`)

PPC + veterinary charges (`)

Cost of feeds (`)

Cost of seeds (`)

R2

Returns to Scale

F- value

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

b7

b6

b5

b4

b3

b2

b1

a

Parameters

0.960 4.896

0.177** (0.081) 0.180**(0.057)

18.039*

0.87

0.768

-1.77

0.211

0.05214 (0.120)

-0.0379 (0.130)

1.19

0.102 (0.088)

2.23

0.422* (0.097)

-0.0445 (0.131)

0.03513 (0.105)

0.414*** (0.212)

0.692* (0.175)

-0.285** (0.140)

0.130* (0.131)

0.228*** (0.114)

-0.0323

-0.0205(0.600)

11.656*

1.16

0.589

Regression Coefficients 1.650

MVP: MFC

2.780

Regression Coefficients

Bellary

-1.52

0.1956

23.74

5.58

-3.671

0.355

0.368

MVP: MFC

-1.39

-0.29

3.96

1.71

1.62

2.12

-0.052

MVP: MFC

4.130***

0.604

0.549

-0.0698 (0.300)

-0.0480 (0.155)

0.8063 (0.105)

0.352* (.159)

0.210* (.094)

0.334 (1.189)

-0.254 (.168)

2.713

Regression Coefficients

Raichur

Note: Figures in parentheses indicate the respective Standard error. *, ** and *** denote significant level at 1, 5 and 10 per cent, respectively.

Intercept

1

S.No. Particulars

Bidar

Table 2: Estimated Production Function for Resource Use Efficiency in the Tank Commands

316 Saikumar C. Bharamappanavara, Mundinamani S.M., Naik B.K. and Kiresur V.R.


Bidar District : The production function analysis fitted for resource use in the tank commands of Bidar district ( Table 2) revealed that the regression coefficients of all the resources were positive except for land (-0.0205) and PPC+ veterinary charges (-0.0379). The cost of feeds + concentrates (0.177) and cost of seeds (0.180) coefficients were found to be statistically significant at 5 per cent level.Whereas number of cows (0.422) has positive and significant at 1 per cent level and for all other resources coefficients were non-significant indicating that expenditure on these inputs were of not much influence on total gross returns.This implied that one per cent increase in number of cows would increase gross income by 0.42 per cent. Every five per cent increase in feeds + concentrates and seeds would increase gross return by 0.17 and 0.18 per cent, respectively. Similar results were obtained by Sharma and Singh (1996).The summation of regression coefficients worked out to be 0.87, which indicated decreasing returns to scale. Similar returns to scale were observed by Sani et al (2010) in their resource use efficiency study. The adjusted coefficient of multiple determinations (R2) worked out to be 0.768 for the model. Thus, indicating the seven variables included in the function explained 76.8 per cent variation in the total returns which is dependent variable. The function was found to be a good fit to the data as revealed by the high value of F statistic. The cost of feeds + concentrates (0.960) was nearing unity and the ratios of MVP to MFC were less than unity for PPC+ veterinary charges (-1.77), land (-0.0323) and labour cost (0.211).For other resources such as number of cows (2.23), cost of fertiliser + FYM (1.19) and cost of seeds (4.896) the ratios were greater than unity. It was due to use of various PPC above the recommended levels. So these inputs were to be minimised to get the optimum level of output. The labour cost ratio was positive and less than unity, indicating its under-utilisation.Whereas, the ratios of MVP to MFC for number of cows, Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

317

fertiliser + FYM and cost of seeds were more than unity. This indicated that at their average levels these resources were under-utilised in the production process. There was ample scope of greater exploitation of these resources to maximise the production and to increase the gross returns. However, the ratio of MVP to MFC for feeds + concentrates was very close to the unity. This indicated that it was profitable to use additional unit of these resources. Bellary District : In case of Bellary district tank commands (Table 2), the regression coefficients for all the resources were positive, except for fertilisers + FYM (-0.285) and cost of seeds (0.0445). But, the regression coefficients for land (0.228), number of cows (0.130), labour cost (0.692), PPC+ veterinary charges (0.414) and cost of feeds + concentrates (0.03513) were positive. Among these variables, the coefficient for number of cows and labour cost was significant at one per cent level. While the elasticity coefficient for expenses on fertiliser + FYM exerted significant negative influence to the total gross returns at five per cent level, which means every five per cent increase in the expense on fertiliser + FYM would result in 0.285 per cent decrease in the gross returns. The amount spent on land and cost of PPC + veterinary charges put forth positive influence on total gross returns only at 10 per cent level. Similar results were observed by Muralidharan (1987). All other resources were found to be non-significant. The ratio of MVP to MFC was negative and less than one for fertiliser+FYM (-3.671) and cost of seeds (-1.52), indicating over-utilisation of resources. The MVP to MFC ratio observed to be positive and more than unity in case of labour cost (5.58) and PPC+ veterinary charges (23.74), exerting under-utilisation of these resources in the production process. The production can be enhanced by using more of these resources to enhance the profitability condition. Other resources found to be positive with less than unity like land (0.368), number of cows (0.355) and cost of feeds + concentrates (0.196) which

318


indicated that resources were excessively used. So these inputs were to be minimised to get the optimum level of output. It could be observed that the fitted production function was found to be a good fit to the data as revealed by ‘F’ value of 11.656. The R2 was 0.58 and found significant by F value at one per cent level. The sum of regression coefficients was 1.16. Raichur District : The estimated coefficients for the resources used in the tank commands of Raichur district (Table 2) revealed that the land (-0.254), cost of feeds + concentrates (-0.0480) and cost of seeds (-0.0698) were found to be negative. On the contrary, the regression coefficients for number of cows (0.334), cost of fertiliser + FYM (0.210), PPC+ veterinary charges (0.80) and labour cost (0.352) were positive. Among these variables the coefficient for fertilisers + FYM and labour cost were significant at five per cent and one per cent level, respectively exerting significant positive contributor to the total returns. That means additional expenditure on labour would influence on the total returns. However, the estimated coefficients for all other variables such as expenditure on land, cows, PPC+ veterinary charges, feeds + concentrates, seeds were found to be statistically non- significant with low regression coefficients, implying that variation in the levels of these inputs will not have much significant impact on the total returns generated. The R2 was 0.54 for the selected variables. The summation of regression coefficients indicated less than unity (0.604) indicating decreasing returns to scale. The C-D function observed to be significant only at 10 per cent level with ‘F’ value of 4.130.The ratios of MVP to MFC were lesser than unity and showed negative values for land (-0.052), cost of feeds + concentrates (-0.29) and the cost of seeds MVP to MFC ratio is -1.39. This implies that these resources were excessively used. So use of these inputs needs to be reduced as revealed by negative regression coefficient. Whereas these ratios were greater than one with respect to number of cows (2.12), Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

cost of fertiliser + FYM (1.62), labour cost (1.71) and PPC+ veterinary charges (3.96), indicating that resources are under-utilised and there was lot of scope for curtailment of these resources to some extent to increase the profitability in the production process. In gist it is observed that, the inputs such as feeds + concentrates was over-utilised in production, whereas number of cows reared are less than the optimum level leaving scope for increasing the number of cows under rearing and seeds were under-utilised in Bidar district. The resources like land, number of cows, fertiliser + FYM were over-utilised and labour, PPC + veterinary charges were under-utilised in Bellary districts. Whereas in Raichur district, fertiliser + FYM, labour were under-utilised. Therefore, there is scope for reorganisation of resources to optimise the resource allocation and to enhance returns in the study area. Constraints Associated in the Tank Commands The problems associated in the tank commands of selected districts are grouped under two heads, namely, production constraints and marketing constraints which are presented in Table 3. Production Constraints : In the study area, almost all the sample respondents in all the districts encountered exogenous factors like drought and irregularities of rainfall affecting the crop production, which are beyond their control. The farmers are facing problem of tiny landholdings due to fragmentation and subdivision of landholding, which is uneconomical for cultivation. Non-availability of adequate water was also experienced by majority of the farmers. However, use of tank water for other purposes other than agriculture and allied activities were observed to be meagre in all the districts. Due to drought condition, nonavailability of alternative source of irrigation was highlighted by majority of the farmers. Most of the farmers’ opined lack of awareness of


recommended cropping sequences. Educating farmers on the cropping patterns which are remunerative and suitable for that region was needed to increase the crop yield levels and cropping intensity. Lack of availability of quality seeds, high cost of inputs used in production together influenced negatively on the yield in the farmers’ fields. Lack of credit availability and technical guidance were observed to be crucial in the study area. Low income generations created scarcity of owned fund are also main reasons claimed by majority of farmers. Low yield of local breeds indicates poor milk productivity and less income from dairy enterprise in the study

319

area. High cost of production was observed in the study area. Marketing Constraints : Low price for the produce was encountered by more than 50 per cent of farmers in Bellary and Raichur and 48.85 per cent in Bidar district, indicating hurdles to the process of capital formation. Lack of market information was encountered as a major problem in the study area, which resulted in low price for the produce due to glut in market during sale. Lack of transportation was not much severe. Lack of storage facility was observed to be a major constraint to store the produce after harvest till marketing that resulted in distress sale of the produce by the farmers.

Table 3: Constraints Faced by Farmers in the Tank Commands (Per cent) S. No. Particulars

Bidar

Bellary

Raichur

I. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Production Constraints Exogenous factors 100.00 Tiny landholding 68.88 Non-availability of adequate water 91.11 Use of the tank water other than agri. and allied activities 22.22 Non-availability of alternative source of irrigation 82.22 Lack of awareness of recommended cropping patterns 91.11 Non-availability of quality seeds 26.66 High cost of inputs 53.33 Lack of credit availability 40.00 Scarcity of owned funds 86.66 Lack of technical guidance 68.88 Low yield of local breeds and seeds 13.33 High cost of production 73.33 Scarcity of family labour 51.11 Poor maintenance of tanks 17.77

100.00 65.00 91.66 20.00 55.00 86.66 33.33 45.00 48.33 86.66 81.66 26.66 55.00 46.60 8.83

100.00 63.33 93.33 13.33 80.00 83.33 10.00 60.00 43.33 93.33 76.66 3.33 80.00 53.33 0.00

II. 1 2 3 4 5

Marketing constraints Lack of market information High marketing cost Low price for the produce Lack of transportation Lack of storage facility

75.00 41.66 61.66 45.00 95.00

80.00 16.66 50.00 33.33 76.66


51.11 22.22 48.88 8.88 82.22

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Conclusion The results of production function analysis revealed that there is scope for reorganisation of resources to optimise their use to enhance returns in the study area. In all the districts, the use of resources which are showing negative production elasticity’s should be decreased to achieve the optimality in the resource use and the use of resources showing more than unity production elasticity’s should

be encouraged to enhance the profitability condition.The analysis of constraints encountered by the sample farmers in the tank commands revealed that they are grouped under two heads, namely production constraints and marketing constraints. To safeguard the interest of the farmers and to enhance farming efficiency, arrangements should be made to avail of the credit and storage facilities, inputs and market information timely and adequately.

References 1.

Alimi, T., (2000), Resource Use Efficiency in Food Crop Production in Ozo State of Nigeria, Journal of Agriculture and Environment, 1(1): 1-7.

2.

District at a Glance, (2004), Directorate of Economics And Statistics, Government of Karnataka, Bangalore.

3.

Heady, E. O. and Dillon, J. L. , (1964), Agricultural Production Functions, Iowa State University Press, Iowa, pp. 108-141.

4.

Muralidharan, P.K., (1987), Resource Use Efficiency in Kole Lands in Trichur District, Kerala, Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, 42(4): 578-586.

5.

Sani, A., Yakubu, A.A. and Bello, H.M., (2010), Resource Use Efficiency in Rice Production under Small Scale Irrigation in Bunkure Local Government Area of Kano State, Nigerian Journal of Basic and Applied Science, 18 (2): 292-296.

6.

Sharma, V.P. and Singh, R.V., (1996), Economic Evaluation of Hill Cattle Development Programme in Himachal Pradesh, Agricultural Economics Research Review, 9 (1): 1-12.

7.

Taru, V.B., Nkwi, G.E., Medugu, A.I., and Reuben, J. , (2010), Economics of Broiler Production in Memo Division of Cameroon, Journal of Agriculture Science,1(2): 83-87.



A STUDY OF MICRO-ENTERPRISES IN HAJO DEVELOPMENT BLOCK, KAMRUP (ASSAM)

321

Biswajit Das* and Kandarpa Kr. Barman**

ABSTRACT Micro-enterprise is fast growing in our country and plays a pivotal role in the overall industrial economy of the country. This sector signifies not only its highest number of units but also in respect of employment, investment, production and linkage effects. In India, about seventy per cent of the rural working population is engaged in agriculture sector where micro-enterprises are not getting adequate attention due to excessive focus on the growth of formal sector. Therefore, in recent years the burden of providing additional employment to growing labour force has fallen upon non-farm sector (Chadha 1993). The study is based on the primary objectives to examine the status of select microenterprises functioning in the Hajo development block and to identify the constraints, if any, relating to the growth of micro-enterprises in the backward block. The study is based on primary data collected from field survey from Hajo development block of Kamrup district (Assam). The collected data have been analysed using simple statistical tools to fulfil the objectives. Introduction Micro-enterprise is fast growing in our country. In Assam too, the micro-enterprises play a pivotal role in the overall industrial economy of the country. This sector signifies not only its highest number of units but also in respect of employment, investment, production and linkage effects. In India about seventy per cent of the rural working population is engaged in agriculture sector where micro-enterprises are not getting adequate attention due to excessive focus on the growth of formal sector. Therefore, in recent years the burden of providing additional employment to growing labour force has fallen upon non-farm sector (Chadha 1993). * **

Agriculture continues to be the mainstay of nearly three-fourths of the population. There has been persistent decline of land-man ratio causing tremendous pressure on non-farm sector for generation of employment opportunities. A vast network of non-farm activities suitable to the skills, resources and socio-economic set up of the villages, if dispersed widely over rural areas, would meet the exigencies of the future and lead the country towards the attainment of its avowed objectives (Doshi 1983). In Bihar, Prasad and Prasad (1983) made an empirical study of village industries in the Fatwah block of Patna district and found that output in the industries can be increased by increasing either

Asst. Prof., Kamrup College, Chamata-781306, Nalbari (Assam) and Research Scholar, Department Of Economics, Gauhati University. Professor of Economics and Former Dean, Faculty of Arts, Gauhati University-781014.


322

labour input or capital input or both. Somayajula et al (1983) analysed changes in the structure of khadi and village industries by way of comparative analysis of growth rates in development indicators and in structural ratios of individual industries in Andhra Pradesh during 1956-80 and observed that decreasing returns to scale is a normal feature of all the 18 industries under investigation. Nam Hoang et al (2010) explored the development process of a rapidly growing village based garment cluster in North Vietnam and found that both the human capital and social capital of the proprietors facilitated their innovative entry into new export markets. General human capitals acquired by schooling and specific human capital acquired by management experience are found to have contributed to the adoption of a vertically integrated production system, which in turn, contributed to enhance enterprise performance. Rahman and Day (2010) studied the problems and prospects of micro and small enterprises in North East India with reference to Karbi Anglong district in Assam and found that Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) of Assam hills are suffering from several inherent problems like inadequate infrastructure facilities, lack of entrepreneurial class and unfavourable socio-economic condition which stand in the way of spontaneous growth.They suggested making potential survey of MSEs on the basis of available resources in different parts of the hills region through the District Industries Centre (DICs). The study was area-specific and did not highlight the role of other national, State or district level institutions like Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) etc. for the growth of MSEs in the region. In Assam during 2008-09, there were around 31,298 registered Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). In the same year, the total number of newly registered units was around 1,631, where 1,467 (89.94 per cent) of them were micro, 153 (9.38 per cent) were small Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

Biswajit Das and Kandarpa Kr. Barman and 11 (0.68 per cent) were medium enterprises. According to the district industries centre, Guwahati there are 251 micro, 74 small and 11 medium enterprises registered in the district in the same year. These micro-enterprises may become an alternative mode of selfemployment for the landless and small marginal farmers in the district. Definition of Micro-enterprise Micro-enterprise does not have universally accepted definition and it differs from country to country or time to time. It is an enterprise of production or service provider or trading, which may be in farm sector or nonfarm sector. According to KVIC (1994), any industry located in a rural area, village or town, with population not exceeding 20,000 and the per capita investment in fixed assets not exceeding ` 50,000 is considered a rural microenterprise for coverage under the KVIC programme. Micro-enterprises, defined as an entity employing less than five persons and generating income from non- farm production services and trade encompasses a wide range of activities filling all the gaps left by the agriculture sector (Nowak 1998). Mali (2005) suggested two sets of definitions: one for microenterprise prompted under poverty alleviation and income generating programmes, and another for self-employment programmes. Under poverty alleviation programmes, microenterprises may be extremely small units in industry: service and business organised, owned and managed by a person for survival, growth and profit. Under self-employment programmes, micro-enterprise may be defined where total investment is not more than ` 2 lakh in case of individual units, and not more than ` 10 lakh in case of partnership units. In India, the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development (MSMED) Act, 2006 introduced the concept ‘enterprises’ as opposed to the earlier concept of industry and defined micro-enterprise as an enterprise which does not exceed investment in plants and

A Study of Micro-enterprises in Hajo Development Block, Kamrup (Assam)

machinery of ` 25 lakh in manufacturing sector, and `10 lakh in the service sector. Objectives Against the background, this paper is mainly addressed to examine the i) status of select micro-enterprises functioning in the Hajo development block and ii) to identify the constraints, if any, relating to the growth of micro-enterprises in the backward block. Methodology The study is mainly based on field level investigation. However, secondary data were collected from the District Industries Centre (DIC) Guwahati, Census report 2001, and Statistical handbook, 2009. The primary data were collected from field survey by using structured research questionnaire. Hajo is one of the 17 development blocks in the district and located to the east of the Guwahati sub-division with administrative office at Guwahati. The road distance from Hajo development block to Guwahati is about 25 kilometers towards east. The block covers 94 villages spreading over about 269.44 square kilometers with 91 inhabitants and 3 uninhabitants. The total population in the block is 163943 having 85103 males and 78840 females. Out of 163943 total populations, 28601 persons (17 per cent) belong


323

to Scheduled Caste (SC) and 1031persons belong to Scheduled Tribe categories (ST). There are around 2079 micro-enterprises with ten major types of enterprises namely carpentry (1159), blacksmithy (220), tailoring (375), pottery (230), cane and bamboo (35), brass metal (32), bee keeping (18), oil extraction (6), tiles making (2) and khadi (2) providing employment to more than seven thousand people (Census Report 2001). For the purpose of the study, out of 94 villages three villages namely Kalitakuchi, Bharalitola and Muslimpatty were selected purposively in the first stage. In the second stage, six different types of industries or enterprises thickly concentrated in the sample villages were identified. The six types of industries selected for our study are brass metal, bakery, rice and ghani, steel fabrication and grill making, weaving and silk rearing, and tailoring and preparation of readymade garments. In the third stage from a list of registered enterprises collected from DIC, at least one type of registered enterprises were purposively selected from at least two sample villages. Thus, totally 21 micro -enterprises were selected and surveyed through pre-tested research questionnaire and analysed by using simple statistical tools like percentages, averages, etc. The list of select units of enterprises is presented in Table 1.

324

Biswajit Das and Kandarpa Kr. Barman Table 1 : List of Select Units of Micro-enterprises Name of Enterprises

Location ( villages) Kalitakuchi

Muslimpatty

Bharalitola

Total Number of units selected

Brass metal

Nil

04

02

06

Bakery

02

Nil

01

03

Rice & Ghani Steel fabrication & Grill making

02

Nil

01

03

01

01

02

04

Weaving & silk rearing

Nil

01

02

03

Tailoring and preparation of readymade garments

01

Nil

01

02

Total No. of enterprises selected

06

06

09

21

Findings and Discussion The analysis and interpretation of the data pertaining to the micro-enterprises in Hajo block obtained from field investigation is discussed under the following heads. Socio-economic Set Up of Entrepreneurs : It has been found that out of 21 enterprises, 17 of them (80 per cent) are owned by male and the remaining 4 enterprises (20 per cent) are owned by females. Thus, enterprises are mostly dominated by males and female entrepreneurs are mostly involved in weaving and silk rearing, and tailoring and preparation of readymade garments. Regarding their educational achievements of 21 enterprises, 5 owners (24 per cent) are graduates, 12 owners (57 per cent) are matriculates and the remaining 4 owners (19 per cent) have educational qualification of primary level. It has also been found in the study, no owner of the select enterprises has got any Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

training from any institutional agencies for running the enterprises. Most of them started their enterprises with their own skill and expertise. Out of 21 enterprises, 13 enterprises (62 per cent) are located within their own land, and the remaining 8 enterprises (38 per cent) are running the businesses in rented premises. Reasons for the Choice of Microentrepreneurship : A study on 21 microenterprises regarding the choice of the activity of micro-entrepreneurship revealed that four brass metal enterprises (67 per cent) out of six enterprises showed that their failure to find better alternative job in the market and to uphold family tradition is the choice of such activities. The rest two enterprises (33 per cent) were started to supplement family income from the main activity, while, foreseeing business prospect and expectation of higher income in future is the basic factor for the starting of bakery,

325


and ghani and rice enterprise. In case of steel fabrication and grill making enterprises, three enterprises (75 per cent) out of four in the sample reported that their expectation of higher income and profit is the reason behind setting up of enterprises and the one enterprise was unable to specify any reason. Nowadays, weaving and silk rearing enterprises is becoming another dominant form of enterprises in the block and all the three surveyed units pointed out the easy accessibility of enough formal and informal

training and business prospect for choosing such enterprises. Similarly, all the two surveyed units of tailoring and preparation of readymade garments expressed the reason to supplement family income from main activity as the reason for choosing the activities. Employment of Labour and Investment : The study reveals that altogether 155 workers were engaged in 21 surveyed micro-enterprises and average number of workers is around seven.This is shown in Table 2.

Table 2 : Employment Generation and Investment in Micro-enterprises Name of enterprises

Male

Female

Total employment

Average Employment

Total Investment (In `)

Brass metal (6)

21

3

24

4

1,50,000

30,000

Bakery (3)

44

4

48

16

2,30,000

76,667

Rice & Ghani (3)

14

1

15

5

4,70,000

1,56,667

Steel & Grill making (4)

40

Nil

40

10

7,05,000

1,76,250

Weaving & Silk Rearing (3)

8

10

18

6

1,29,000

43,000

Tailoring & preparation of garments (2)

2

8

10

5

1,37,000

68,500

129(83) 26 (17)

155 (100)

46

18,21,000

55,1084

Total =21

Average Investment (in `)

Source : Field Survey. Note : Average employment and investment is derived by dividing total employment and investment by respective numbers of units. Figures in the brackets show the percentages. It was found that 83 per cent of the workers employed in micro-enterprises are males and 17 per cent are females. Female participation in entrepreneurial activities is not encouraging, found to be only 17 per cent. The highest number of employment providing Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

enterprises are bakery (31 per cent) followed by steel fabrication and grill making (26 per cent) industry and brass metal industry (15 per cent). The employment provided by rice and ghani, tailoring and readymade garments, and weaving and silk rearing enterprises are 10, 6 and 12 per

326

Biswajit Das and Kandarpa Kr. Barman

cent, respectively. Thus, share of labour employed in these enterprises is not impressive. Total investment is found to be higher in steel and grill making, and rice and ghani industries, which is ` 7, 05,000 and ` 4, 70,000, respectively. However, investment is very low in case of weaving and silk rearing, tailoring and preparation of readymade garments, brass metal and bakery enterprises as shown in Table 2.

Similarly, average investment is ` 1, 76,250 and ` 1, 56,667 for steel and grill making, and rice and ghani industries. Remaining enterprises show very low investment. Workers in different enterprises are classified into two categories viz. family workers and hired workers. The percentage distribution of workers is presented in Table 3.

Table 3 : Distribution of Labourers Hired Labourers Name of enterprises Male

Female

Family Labourers

Total Hired Labourers

Male

Total Family Female Labourers

Total Number of Labourers

Brass metal (6)

17

1

18

4

2

6

24

Bakery (3)

42

2

44

2

2

4

48

Rice & Ghani (3)

8

Nil

8

5

2

7

15


30

Nil

30

8

2

10

40


10

4

14

3

1

4

18


01

8

9

Nil

1

1

10

Total

108

15

123 (79)

22

10

32(21)

155 (100)

Source : Field Survey. Note : Figures in the brackets show the percentages. It is clear from Table 3 that distribution of labourers is highly unequal. The percentage of hired labour in enterprises is 79 as compared to family labourers i.e. 21. Similarly, there is wide discrimination of labourers regarding males and females both in case of hired and family. Male Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

workers' percentage is 84 against female workers i.e. 16. The study also reveals that workers engaged in rice and ghani, and weaving and silk rearing enterprises are partially seasonal and remaining workers work throughout the year.

327


Out of 155 workers only 21 per cent are seasonal and rest 79 per cent are engaged for the whole year. The inputs used by the enterprises like brass sheets used in brass metal enterprises imported from Pakistan and remaining enterprises collect raw materials from local market. It is quite pathetic that there are no such government

agencies or private agencies to provide raw materials or other kinds of marketing or technical supports in the study area. The average annual income of the enterprises is found to be `1, 16,862 and return per investment is ` 1.34 as shown in Table 4.

Table 4 : Average Income and Return per Investment Name of enterprises

Total Income (In `.)

Average Income

Total Investment (In `)

Return per Investment ( `)

Brass metal (6)

3,20,000

53,3341

1,50,000

2.14

Bakery (3)

3,91,000

1,30,334

2,30,000

1.7

Rice& Ghani (3)

5,62,000

1,87,334

4,70,000

1.9


9,00,100

2,25,025

7,05,000

1.27


1,29,000

43,000

1,29,000

1.0


1,52,000

76,000

1,37,000

1.10

Total (N=21)

24,54,100

1,16,862

18,21,000

1.34

Source : Field Survey. Note : Average Income, 24, 54,100 / 21 = `1, 16,862; Return per Investment, 24, 54,100 / 18, 21,000 = `1.34. Similarly, highest return per investment is generated by brass metal industries followed by rice and ghani industry, and bakery industry and remaining industries generated lowest return per investment. Mode of Selling : So far as mode of selling is concerned, it was found that there are prearrangements between traders and enterprises after knowing the price, quality and demand for the products by the traders in the markets. The pre-arrangement is more common in brass metal Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

enterprises and rice and ghani as compared to other enterprises. Sometimes, entrepreneurs sold their products outside their place by middleman especially in social festivals, cultural function, exhibitions etc. Not only the middleman takes the advantages but also entrepreneurs face tough competition with the imported articles in the market. As far as mode of selling of finished products is concerned, it was found that four brass metal industries (67 per cent) out of six surveyed units, sold them through traders because selling of articles by

328


traders becomes a simple and less costlier method as reported by the entrepreneurs. Remaining only two enterprises (33 per cent) sold their articles through their own retail shop. Regarding bakery enterprises, their mode of selling of products is confined to nearby urban centre and outside the district. It is reported that they are exploring markets outside the local economy. As far as rice mill and ghani enterprises are concerned their mode of selling is in haats or melas and also sometimes by traders. The output of rice and ghani enterprises comprises rice flour, turmeric powder, mustard oil, etc. This is the most traditional type of enterprise especially concentrated in the rural areas of the block. The steel fabrication and grill making entrepreneurs used to sell their articles directly from home to customers inside and outside the district. Again out of three weaving and silk rearing industries, two (67 per cent) of them sold

in nearby urban centre inside and outside the State and only one (33 per cent) entrepreneur sold products through traders. But all the tailoring and preparation of readymade garments enterprises sold their garments in nearby urban centre within the district. Out of total 21 entrepreneurs, 11 of them (52 per cent) benefited from government schemes and training facilities and 10 entrepreneurs (48 per cent) did not access any benefits or training from the government. Similarly, in case of technological upgradation only six enterprises (29 per cent) partially adopted new upgraded technology, remaining 15 (71 per cent) were unable to cope with the adoption of technology due to lack of capital. Sources of Fund : The fund used by the entrepreneurs came from three sources, viz.

Table 5 : Sources of Fund for Enterprises Name of enterprises

Own sources

Institutional sources

Non-institutional MoneyFriends & lenders relatives

Brass metal (6)

01

04

01

Nil

Bakery (3)

02

01

Nil

Nil

Rice and ghani (3)

01

02

Nil

Nil

Steel fabrication & grill making (4)

01

01

02

Nil

Weaving & silk (3)

01

Nil

Nil

02

Tailoring & preparation of readymade garments (2)

01

Nil

01

Nil

Total =21

07 (34%)

08 (38%)

04 (19%)

02(9%)

Source : Field Survey. Note : Figures in the brackets in first column show the total number of enterprises and the figures in the brackets in the last row show the percentages from the total number of enterprises. Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

329


own, institutional and non-institutional. Table 5 reveals that majority of them used fund from institutional sources like Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), North East Development Finance Corporations (NEDFI), Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), public sector banks etc., which constituted 38 per cent, 34 per cent of the enterprises used their own fund, 28 per cent used funds from non-institutional sources (19 per cent from money-lenders and 9 per cent from friends and relatives).

Technology and Sources of Raw Materials : One of the important factors that determine cost of production and quality of the product is the adoption of the nature technology whether it is traditional or modern and sources of raw materials whether it is indigenous or imported used as shown in Table 6. Study reveals that majority of the enterprises adopted traditional technology because of the lack of adequate finance and inaccessibility of the suitable technology in the production process. It was

Table 6 : Technology Used and Sources of Raw Materials Technology used Traditional Modern

Name of enterprises

Raw materials used indigenous Imported

Brass metal (6)

05

01

01

04

Bakery (3)

02

01

03

Nil

Rice and ghani (3)

03

Nil

04

Nil

Steel fabrication & Grill making (4)

02

02

Nil

04

Weaving & silk Rearing (3)

02

01

01

02

Tailoring & preparation of readymade garments (2)

02

Nil

02

Nil

5 (24%)

11 (52%)

10 (48%)

Total =21

16 (76%)

Source : Field Survey. Note : Figures in the brackets in first column show the total number of enterprises and the figures in the brackets in the last row show the percentages from the total number of enterprises. found that 76 per cent of the enterprises use traditional technology and only 24 per cent use modern technology. As far as source of raw materials is concerned, it was found that 52 per cent of the enterprises used indigenous raw Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

materials and 48 per cent used imported raw materials. It is clear that outdated technology and indigenous costly raw materials hindered the enterprises to compete with other more sophisticated enterprises.

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Marketing and Physical Constraints : The marketing problems faced by the entrepreneurs are dissimilar and it was found that five brass metal (83 per cent) units out of six faced the problem of price competition from large producers, while remaining one enterprise (17 per cent) reported the problem of road connectivity. While two of the three bakery units (67 per cent) reported the problem of inability to maintain stock as the major problem and remaining one (33 per cent) reported other problems like irregular labour supply and high cost of inputs. All the rice milling and ghani enterprises faced the problem of inability of holding capacity for better price to sell their products and lack of adequate agro-based raw materials like paddy, pulses, oilseeds etc. Similarly, three out of the four steel fabrication and grill making (75 per cent) enterprises faced the problem of road linkages and price competition with imported articles, while all the weaving and silk industries expressed the problem of price competition with products that come from outside States and inability to wait for better price. The tailoring and preparation of readymade garments also showed the same reasons of marketing their products as faced by weaving and silk enterprises. Thus, out of 21 enterprises, 13 of them (62 per cent) faced the problems of irregular input inflow, five of them (24 per cent) having the problem of infrastructure like power supply, water supply, road connectivity, transportation etc., and traditional techniques of production and remaining three enterprises (14 per cent) highlighted the problem of exploitation by traders. Policy Suggestions Although the problems faced by the enterprises are multi-dimensional in nature, there is immense scope for establishing many resources and demand-based micro-enterprises in the block which can provide employment opportunities to a large number of prospective Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

Biswajit Das and Kandarpa Kr. Barman entrepreneurs. The study suggests the following measures for growth and development of microenterprises as well as entrepreneurial development in the block. 1.

The institutional support from the government is very important for the well balanced growth of micro-enterprises in the block. The government should launch special support for the existing entrepreneurs through provision of cheap capital, easy market accessibility and input support. The study carried out by Rahman and Day (2010) also suggested institutional support for the smoother growth of micro, small and medium enterprises as well as entrepreneurship development.

2.

Most of the entrepreneurs are adopting traditional technology in the process of production, that is why their cost of production and prices are high. In this regard the government should provide adequate energy sources and technical instruments at subsidised price specially the newly growing industries. Bhalla and Reddy (1994) suggested for technological transformation of rural enterprises in India for sustained growth of micro, small and medium enterprises.

3.

The infrastructural development is a part and parcel for rapid industrialisation in a region. In this direction, rural road transportation, rural electrification, expansion of banks networks in rural areas, proper cold storage facility, warehouse facility etc., should be developed adequately. Chawla (1983) found the positive effects of rural infrastructure like rural electrification, expenditure on health and sanitation, expenditure on technical training and number of bank branches for rapid growth of rural industrialisation in Punjab. Thus, rural electrification not only


encouraged the establishment of new industries but also increase the production of the existing industries (Chowdry et al 1983). 4.

The problem of marketing is one of the reasons for poor performance of the entrepreneurs. The planning and marketing constraints should be eliminated for healthy growth of rural enterprises because proper planning and congenial market structure would help in bringing about a phenomenal impact of rural industrialisation on the rural economy (Satyanarayana 1983).

5.

So far as investment is concerned, the government would have to supply shortterm loan to the existing enterprises to fulfill immediate requirements. In this regard, Malla (2009) suggested for an integrated flow of credit to meet the shortterm and long-term credit requirements for the micro, small and medium enterprises.

6.

In order to solve the problem of price competition from big producers the entrepreneurs must try to improve the quality standard of the products as far as possible to capture outside markets. Similarly, road connectivity problem should be mitigated by the government through developing alternative mode of transportation.

7.

To enhance the entrepreneurial skill of the entrepreneurs, special training programmes should be extended to the


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entrepreneurs regularly so that they can acquire the capacity of time management, technology management, marketing management, product management etc. For strengthening entrepreneurial motives, developing skills, capabilities and competence among small enterprises, integrated efforts in the form of entrepreneurship development programmes have been devised by the government departments, foreign aid agencies and the institution of higher education (Midha and Sikka 2004) and these should be vigorously pursued in rural areas. Conclusion The micro and small enterprises have been considered as a powerful instrument for realising the twin objectives i.e., ‘accelerating industrial growth’ and ‘creating productive employment’ potential in the backward areas. The development of the most of facilities essential for industrial growth like power supply, raw material, marketing of products, adequate capital and supply of labour, technical know-how etc., have not yet crossed the minimum threshold especially in the block, which is still a major obstacle in the development of microenterprises. These industries not only provide employment opportunities with relatively small capital investment but are also a subsidiary source of employment in the block. Keeping in view the role of micro-enterprises, provision of institutional support towards a proper training in acquiring the necessary skill in running enterprises and infrastructure facilities should be the first priority for the government.

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References 1.

Bhalla, A.S and Reddy, A.K.N (1994), “The Technological Transformation for Rural India”, Oxford University Press, Bombay.

2.

Census Report, 2001.

3.

Chawla, J.S (1983), “Infrastructure and Rural Industralization in Punjab”, Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol.XXXVIII, No.3, pp.378.

4.

Chowdry, K.R et al (1983), “The Impact of Electrification on Rural Industralization- A Micro level Analysis”, Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol.XXXVIII, No.3, pp.377.

5.

Chadha, G.K (1993), “Non farm Employment for Rural Households in India: Evidence and Progress”, The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Vol.36, No.3.

6.

Doshi, R. R (1983), “Rural Industries: Their Potential and Constraints”, Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol.XXXVIII, No.3, pp.383.

7.

Mali, D.D (2005), “Promoting Entrepreneurship-Lesson from India’s North East” , A Speed Publication, Guwahati, pp.69.

8.

Malla, R. M (2009), “Financing of MSMEs-Issues and Concerns” Yojana, (November), Vol-53, pp.40-43.

9.

Midha, V. K and Sikka, M (2004), “Entrepreneurship Development in India: Challenge and Opportunities”, Prestige Journal of Management and Research, Vol.8, No. 1-2, pp. 119-125.

10.

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Government of India, Annual Report, 2009.

11.

Nam Hoang et al, (2010), “An Inquiry into the Process of Village Industries: The Case of Knitwear Cluster in Northern Vietnam” , The Journal of Development Studies, Vol.46, Issue 2, pp.312-330.

12.

Nowak, M (1998), “The Role of Micro Enterprises in Rural Development in Africa” , Micro Enterprises in Developing Countries, edited by Levitsky, J. Intermediate Technology Publication, London.

13.

Prasad, J and Prasad, R (1983), “Rural Industralization in Bihar : An Analysis of Employment Productivity Relationship Between Inter Industry Units”, Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics , Vol.XXXVIII, No.3, pp.361-367.

14.

Quarterly Journal on MSMEs in North Eastern Region (2009-2010), Published by North East Development Finance Corporation Limited (NEDFi).

15.

Rahman, M and Day, N.B (2010), “Micro and Small Enterprises in North East India: Problems and Prospect”, EBI Publishers (India), 136, M-L Nehru Road, Ghy-1.

16.

Report of Khadi and Village Industries Commission, 1994.

17.

Statistical Hand Book, 2009.

18.

Somayajula, V.V. N et al (1983), “Econometric Analysis of Changing Structures of KVIs in Andhra Pradesh, 1956-80” , Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol.XXXVIII, No.3, pp.379.

19.

Satyanarayana, T (1983), “Planning and Marketing in Promoting Rural Industries- A Case Study”, Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol.XXXVIII, No.3, pp.372.



333

SHGs AND MICRO-FINANCE : A TALE OF TWO POOR WOMEN IN RURAL TAMIL NADU

Lakshmi Kumar and Jyoti Prasad Mukhopadhyay*

ABSTRACT Poor households suffer from the problems of low and volatile income, appalling health, and limited access to healthcare services. This makes them highly vulnerable to health shocks whose effect could be devastating. Hefty medical expenses virtually erode out whatever little financial and physical assets poor households accumulate over time through hard toil. Also lack of awareness about health insurance makes the situation even worse. Poverty-stricken households tend to prioritise savings over insurance without realising the need for both. Moreover, as far as critical diseases are concerned, existing health insurance schemes also fail to provide adequate coverage. The stories of Savitha and Suvarna, two poor women from rural Tamil Nadu, are narratives of these crude realities.

Introduction Poor households not only suffer from income poverty but also lack access to education, finance, healthcare services, etc. The Government of India launched different programmes and schemes to address deprivations in terms of aforementioned dimensions of human well-being. For example, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA) - was launched in the year 2001 to make elementary education *

for children aged 6-14 years old accessible to all households; Self-Help Group (SHG) - led bank linkage programme was introduced for greater financial inclusion through provisioning of deposits and credit by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) . The SHG Bank Linkage Programme was started as an Action Research Project in 1989 which was the offshoot of at NABARD initiative during 1987 through sanctioning `10 lakh to MYRADA as

Assistant Professor and Ph.D. Scholar, Respectively, Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR), 24, Kothari Road, Chennai-600034, India. E-mail: [email protected]

This case study was prepared as part of an empirical study, “Evaluation of Savings Strategies Between the Urban and Rural Ultra Poor: A Study in Tamil Nadu, India” funded by The Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion (IMTFI) at the University of California, Irvine. The authors are grateful to Ravi Shankar for providing excellent research support. They are also thankful to Saanando Das for helping with photography. Usual disclaimers apply. Names of the protagonists and all other names have been changed to protect their identity. Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

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Lakshmi Kumar and Jyoti Prasad Mukhopadhyay

seed money assistance for experimenting Credit Management Groupsa. National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) was implemented in 2005 to improve the health status and access to basic health services of the poor households in rural India.

conducted by NSSO, Shahrawat and Rao (2011) find that out-of-pocket (OOP) health expenses worsens poverty headcount ratio by 3.5 per cent and more so in rural India (3.8 per cent) than in urban India (2.7 per cent)*. Thus at times, health shocks could be so devastating that it can completely jeopardise the future of the poor households.

A quick look at the range of various State and Central government sponsored social and development programmes reveals that little attention has been paid to address the vulnerability of poor households to health shocks. Most of the health insurance schemes rolled out earlier at the State level or national level had several pitfalls and limitations in terms of design and implementation and hence failed to achieve their desired objectives. To address this at a national level, Government of India initiated Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) for the poor households in 2008. At a State-level, below poverty line (BPL) households in Tamil Nadu (Tamil Nadu Health Insurance) and Andhra Pradesh (Rajiv Aarogyasri), two of the southern States of India, are given access to health insurance through a State government sponsored scheme. Lack of health awareness together with low and volatile incomes makes poor households more susceptible to frequent illness and critical diseases some of which often become life threatening. For poor households health shocks bring several adversities. On the one hand, they end up spending money earned through hard work for meeting medical costs and on the other, those poor households, whose breadwinners mostly earn their living from daily labour lose livelihood for not being able to work due to sickness. Many a time, a medical emergency may lead to distress sale of assets created through years of hard toil and small savings. In other words, financial risk from “catastrophic health expenditures” continues to be high (Fan et al., 2011; Selvaraj and Karan, 2012). Using data from the 61st round (July 2004June 2005) of Consumer Expenditure Survey *

The Promise of Micro-finance Despite phenomenal growth of microfinance in India, financial inclusion remains a distant dream. Poor households still lack access to dependable savings products, credit and insurance. High transaction cost is the biggest challenge practitioners’ face in reaching out to the poor. Moreover, poor households and their financial needs are not homogenous across urban and rural India. Starting from the SHG movement to the present micro-finance movement, micro-finance aims to meet only the credit needs of the poor-of course an important need- without offering a holistic solution to their other financial problems. The main objective of micro-finance movement is to create livelihood opportunities for poor women through provisioning of cheaper credit. Access to credit is also expected to empower the women and thereby raise the overall well-being of the poor households. Has this promise been realised? While these are the questions often addressed rigorously in empirical research, the following cases narrate how Savitha and Suvarna, two poor yet ambitious women who had borrowed from MFIs (micro-finance institutions) with a hope to secure a brighter future failed to do so. This could be any poor woman’s story who aspires and strives hard despite all odds to emancipate her family from the clutches of poverty. The Cases The Story of Savitha : Driving down 45 km from Chennai in early January 2011, we found a sharp

However, the methodology of this study has some serious limitations due to which such findings may not be very robust.


SHGs and Micro-finance : A Tale of Two Poor Women in Rural Tamil Nadu

cut to the right on the main Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR) that connects Chennai to several cities down South. Mud tracks amidst deceptively green fields with no sign of urbanisation led us to Savitha’s dwelling. She had been allotted this small piece of land with a house about four years back by the government of Tamil Nadu as she was identified as a ‘below poverty line’ (BPL) beneficiary. Savitha recollected that she had migrated to this village, S V Chataram about 17 years back from another interior village in Tamil Nadu. Till about five years back, she used to work as a coolie or as a housemaid but the employment was irregular and her income was abysmally low. She could never meet both ends as her husband never worked or felt the need to contribute to the household’s income. Her husband was virtually jobless. Unlike other men of the locality, he was not an alcoholic but used to demand money from her to meet his personal expenses. He never felt a sense of responsibility towards their two children, a boy and a girl. Their son worked as a coolie and earned about ` 3,000 per month and their daughter lived away from them after marriage. So, all the responsibilities starting from feeding the family or meeting emergency expenses fell entirely on Savitha. The arrival of Lalita five years’ back, the local person responsible for forming SHGs under the aegis of a local NGO, intrigued Savitha who watched other members in the village forming groups and their gradual progression towards self-employment. Initially she perceived her illiteracy an impediment to joining such groups but the success of some of her peers coupled with an improvement in their families’ living standard prompted her to join an SHG three years after micro-finance activities started in her village. Her first loan from the NGO was of ` 5,000. She decided to start a petty shop with the help of the loan outside her house. Using a bulk of the loaned money she bought initial inventories for the shop. Savitha hoped to sell Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

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these items to her neighbours’ as the goods were day-to-day items. However, to her dismay, most of her customers started buying goods on credit! Competition posed by other petty shops and having no unique selling strategy, and her benevolent nature were some apparent reasons for the failure of her business. However, her failure in business could not quell her penchant for success in life. Hence she took the second loan of ` 10,000 and bought a few goats. Typically a good breed goat costs about ` 2,500. She used the loan to buy four goats and sold the baby goats every six months. This she found rather profitable. This business picked up steadily and she felt somewhat comfortable at the smell of her first success. Additionally, she also worked under the MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme - a scheme that guarantees 100 days of work to the poor). Wages received from MGNREGA work and profits from goat rearing together with access to low cost foodgrains supplied through fair price shops (another government scheme for the ultra poor) enabled Savitha to provide at least two square meals to her family regularly. Did Savitha save anything for the future? Yes, she did. She compulsorily saved with the NGO. Savitha’s son worked as a coolie on a daily wage. So his income was highly irregular. So far so good! The crisis in her life began in 2009 when her husband was diagnosed with cancer. She ran from pillar to post to arrange a sum of ` 50,000 for his treatment. Later on, she was told about the State Chief Minister’s Scheme which allowed families like her to get funds up to rupees one lakh for lifestyle diseases. She availed of the same and got her husband admitted in a premier hospital in Chennai but the insurance amount got exhausted very soon. Later on in this financial tyranny, she ended up mortgaging her house for getting a loan of ` 1,75,000 at three per cent interest per month. With the help of her and her son’s

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income, she managed to just pay the interest while the principal amount remained unpaid. Despite all adversitites, Savitha continued treatment of her husband. Thus, a family member’s sudden sickness pushed the entire family into a quagmire of poverty, loans and mortgages. How did Savitha then manage her finances?

objective of universal healthcare, to provide quality healthcare and easy access to the multispeciality hospitals by the members of the scheme this priviously provided services for only the highly affordable society. The scheme seeks to provide hospitalisation facility for certain specified ailments / procedures. It privides a coverage up to ` 1,00,000 per family per year on a floater basis for the ailments and procedures covered and specified. The coverage amount seems a limitation of the scheme though it is possible to take slightly enhanced coverage amounts too.b

Having struggled for 17 years with extreme volatilities in income, loan from SHG as well as the government health insurance schemes did not make much of a difference in Savitha’s life. When she was about to achieve financial stability, her husband’s sudden sickness made it quite arduous for her to achieve that. Savitha was facing the possibility of losing almost everything that she had saved and she was highly likely to fall into a debt trap. The probability of critical illness could be low but when it afflicts one of the family members, the effect is devastating. The only practical solution to this is critical illness insurance. The question that arises now is: can the poor afford the premium of such insurance policy? In this context, it must be noted that the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu (M.K Karunanidhi) started an innovative scheme for the BPL households, which in the present form is modified by the present Chief Minister Dr. J. Jayalalitha. The modified Insurance Scheme was launched by the Tamil Nadu Government in 2011 through the United India Insurance Company Ltd (a Public Sector Insurer headquartered at (Chennai) to provide free medical and surgical treatment in government and private hospitals to the members of any family whose annual family income is less than ` 72,000 (as certified by the Village Administrative Officers). The Scheme provides coverage for meeting all expenses relating to hospitalisation of beneficiary as defined in the Scope of the Scheme. The main objective of the Scheme is to provide free medical and surgical treatment and quality care in government and private hospitals to the members of eligible families. To achieve the Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

However, such scheme seems insufficient for Savitha’s needs. Is it a limitation of the scheme or of the way it is being utilised? There are many poor households like that of Savitha’s struggling to utilise schemes to save the lives of their near and dear ones. The Story of Suvarna : Our next stop was Ms Suvarna at Sriperambudur, about 20 km. from Savitha’s house. Her house was situated in a rural location, congested and with very poor amenities. Her home was located in a narrow lane without any proper sanitation facility, drinking water, etc. Although everyone was given a colour television by the government, supply of electricity was intermittent. Suvarna lived in a house with concrete roof and walls. Her mother had migrated to that village about 21 years back from another distant village with Suvarna and her brother and had started a flower business. The flower business was doing well. Over the years, she took an active interest in the flower business and with the help of small loans she was able to expand the business. Suvarna told us with great pride that she was able to reap a profit of ` 100-150 per day from the flower business. She was one of the first persons to join a group when SHGs were being formed about seven years back by an NGO. Her reasons for joining the group were simple. She said that being a semi-literate woman with no assets to mortgage as collateral,


her only source of credit was the local moneylender with whom she had minimal bargaining power. Suvarna also added that her SHG membership had helped her to graduate from small loans to large loans at reasonable rates facilitated by the person at the SHG. Her first savings account started as compulsory deposits with the SHG and that was the first time when she realised that she could save and accomplish what she wanted. This led her to save small sums in a recurring deposit scheme at a nearby branch of State Bank of India, a nationalised bank having largest presence in India. She also started saving money with a post office as well. Suvarna invested the second SHG loan to set up a fruit business for her son. She was quite candid to tell us that she had refused to take the optional health insurance scheme offered by the MFI as she had felt the premium was a waste of money and the benefits to her seemed only marginal. She however had taken a life insurance policy. With her savings, she could make some down payment and took another loan to buy a house worth ` 500,000. From penury to asset building, the sky seemed the limit to her then! However, in 2010, her mother started getting a recurring stomach pain. What started as a routine visit to the doctor followed by tests seemed a never ending affair. Her mother’s condition showed no improvement. Suvarna borrowed a sum of ` 2,50,000 from friends, moneylenders as well as the SHG to meet her mother’s treatment costs. Unfortunately, Suvarna did not receive the Chief Minister’s Insurance Scheme card. What made her more worried was the fact that her mother’s illness remained undetected in spite of all the hefty expenditure she had incurred. As we talked to her we realised in her voice the imminent pall of gloom and her worry that all the assets she had built up carefully might get eroded completely. With her sick mother, Suvarna was directionless with no health insurance. She had accumulated small sums of money in several forms: with the SHG, banks, post office etc. Though she had Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

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been very successful in her business, its expansion, diversification (through her son's fruit business) and in asset building (construction of the house single-handedly) she failed to realise the need for mitigating health shocks by taking appropriate insurance cover. Policy Implications The health ministry of Government of India is aiming to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) during the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-2017). From the above narrated cases, it is clear that existing health insurance schemes for the poor and other financial tools are far from being adequate to mitigate financial risks from catastrophic health events. Thus, the need of the hour is not just to universalise healthcare services but to strengthen and improve primary healthcare services for the poor and linking it effectively with secondary healthcare services. This kind of linkage will expedite detection and treatment of catastrophic diseases for the poor households. Early and accurate detection of ailments is not only beneficial for healing but cost-effective as well. As Selvaraj and Karan (2012, p 67) rightly argued, in the current service delivery model “[h]ealthcare is not viewed as a continuum of care, rather seen as a compartmentalised care”. The report of the High Level Expert Group (2011, p 111) on UHC also recommend that the “secondary and tertiary care that is provided should be well integrated with primary care to ensure careful management of the long-term well-being of the patient.” Building public-private-partnership (PPP) can be a means to achieve effective service delivery as highlighted in a report titled, ‘India Healthcare: Inspiring Possibilities, Challenging Journey’ released by McKinsey and Company in December 2012. Secondly, government-run insurance schemes must be linked with UHC system. Thirdly, beside generating health awareness and promoting preventive healthcare services, it is also imperative to create greater awareness about the need for health insurance among the poor households.

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Conclusion

amount they could in different forms. It is evident that opportunities in terms of income and savings were more for Suvarna. Was it the choice of her business that made her better off than Savitha? Or was it the market conditions? Could market linkages play a part by the NGO catalysing the process of their income rise? Whatever be the case, Suvarna could save and build her asset (house); however a single medical emergency eroded fruits of her years of hard toil. For many other poor women like Savitha, who mostly work as daily labour, sickness leads to loss of income. What kind of insurance can mitigate this kind of risks that may potentially erode all little savings poor households build over a period of time?

The narratives of Savitha and Suvarna raise some important questions. One may ask: why did not they opt for health insurance? Suvarna told us that she had felt life insurance gives some assured return whilst health insurance gives no return per se. This finding is perfectly in line with what Collins et al (2010; p 93) found elsewhere in India:“poor households may feel that, given their very small resources, they are better off using general-purpose tools. After all, the insured risk may never occur, in which case insurance premiums give no return…whereas savings become available for other uses.” Therefore, steps should be taken to create awareness about preventive healthcare which will attenuate poor households’ likelihood of getting afflicted by many common diseases. Another pertinent question to ask at this juncture is the following: can own savings be a substitute for insurance? Our cases show that the answer is no. Both Savitha and Suvarna tried hard against all odds and had made use of the resources provided by the government as well as the NGO (micro-finance) to try to first smooth their consumption and then save whatever

Should poor households diversify between savings and insurance? Or is there a trade-off between them: more savings means lesser money available for buying insurance and vice-versa? Finally, what kind of insurance policy will suit their needs so that the MFI can help them in selecting the right health insurance policy with affordable premium that can minimise their risk from health shocks? These are questions that need to be answered through further research.

Notes a. http:/www.nabard.org/pdf/report _financial/Chap_VII.pdf b. http:/www.cmchistn.com/



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References 1.

Collins. D., Morduch. J., Rutherford. S., and Ruthven. O, (2010), Portfolios of the Poor: How the World’s Poor Live On $2 a Day, Permanent Black, Ranikhet, India.

2.

Fan,Y Victoria, Anup Karan and Ajay Mahal, (2011),“The Impacts of Aarogyasri Health Insurance in Andhra Pradesh, India”, Paper Presented at“Global Health Metrics and Evaluation Conference” held at Seattle between 13-17 June, Abstract Published in the Lancet 2011; Published Online 14 March, DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(11) 60169-64.

3.

High Level Expert Group Report on Universal Health Coverage for India, Planning Commission of India, Government of India, 2011.

4.

Mckinsey Report, (2012), “India Healthcare: Inspiring Possibilities, Challenging Journey”available at http://www.mckinsey.com/locations/india/mckinseyonindia/pdf Executive_ Summary_India_Healthcare_Inspiring_pssibilities_and_challenging_journey.pdf accessed on Feb 2, 2013.

5.

Selvaraj, S. and Karan, A.K., (2012), “Why Publicly-Financed Health Insurance Schemes Are Ineffective in Providing Financial Risk Protection”, Economic and Political Weekly, 47 (11), 6068.

6.

Shahrawat and Krishna D Rao, (2011), “Insured Yet Vulnerable: Out-of-Pocket Payments and India’s Poor”, Health Policy and Planning, doi:10.1093/heapol/csr029, 12 April, pp 1-9.


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Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. (3), pp. 341- 346

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BOOK REVIEWS Panchayats and Building of Model Villages, 2013, Edited by M.V. Rao and E. Venkatesu, Published by Rawat Publications: Jaipur, pp. 336, Price: ` 950. The book under review is an edited version of the papers which were presented in a national seminar held at National Institute of Rural Development, Hyderabad. It deals with the idea of model village and various approaches or strategies of transforming this idea into reality. The book contains 27 chapters (including the editors’ introduction). In the introductory chapter the editors discuss five approaches to building of model villages, namely, Panchayati Raj Institutions Model (PRI Model), Prime Minister Adarsh Gaon Yojana Model (PMAGY Model), Provision of Urban Facilities in Rural Areas Model (PURA Model), Spiritual Model [Art of Living Model], and Non-Governmental Organisation Model [NGO Model). In the light of these models, the remaining 26 chapters deal with the problems and prospects of building model villages in India. Most chapters of the book deal with the PRI model where the challenges of empowering Gram Panchayats and Gram Sabhas remain central concern of the contributors. For instance, the second chapter by Mahi Pal and the 26th Chapter by Aditi Jha et al deal with the problems and promises of Gram Sabha. The fourth chapter by E. Venkatesu highlights some achievements in the areas of sanitation, poverty reduction, drinking water facilities etc., under the PRI model. The chapters 5, 7, 9, 10, 16 and 19 highlight Gram Panchayats’ best practices under the same model. The third chapter by Neelam Yadava and the 22 nd chapter by R.R. Prasad deal with conceptual aspect of model village and then discuss the PRI model and the PAMGY model, respectively. Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

The 13 th chapter by Sindhu Thulaseedharan discusses how the Gram Panchayat of Cheriyanad in Kerala was transformed into the first litigation-controlled and legally literate Panchayat in India. This case highlights the fact that syncronisation of conventional wisdom with ‘modern’ legal knowledge can produce satisfactory service delivery results in the area of justice at village level. The case of Cheriyanad is instructive to the followers of khap Panchayats in Haryana who have been struggling to cope with the problems posed by the gap between the principles of ‘modern’ laws and conventional wisdom. The sixth chapter by Yatindra Singh Sisodiya is a comparative analysis of implementation of PESA in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat. The chapters 8, 14 and 15 highlight best practices of participatory mode of community development. The chapters 11, 17 and 18 are concerned with the issue of improving Panchayat Service delivery. The chapters 20 and 21 focus on some best practices of public-private partnership aimed at village development. The chapters 23, 24, and 25 highlight the benefits of PURA model, the Art of Living model and the NGO model, respectively. The last chapter deals with the issue of cooperation and coordination among NGOs, PRIs, Self-help Groups etc., in building an ‘informational and data infrastructure’ in order to inform the local decision-making leadership. The book brings together various practices of participatory development and democratic governance at village level. There is an agreement among the supporters of various models regarding the idea of a model village. Accordingly, a model village is the one the people of which have the capability of making use of indigenous as well as technological

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knowledge and resources at hand, and have opportunities of equal access to basic material and spiritual needs. Capability of the people of such a village includes their skills of transforming formal institutions such as Gram Panchayats and Gram Sabhas as well as other informal institutions of self-governance into enabling institutions of democracy at local level. While sailing through the papers the reader comes across a commonality in various approaches to building model villages: Model villagers’ collective awareness about selfresponsible and accountable citizenship and their willingness to initiate—and participate in— various practices of village development. From this it follows that it is possible to build model villages through community led programmes and that heterogeneous or homogenous identity of a village can be utilised in evolving diversified ways of democratic village life. The idea of model villages that emerges from this book successfully appears to be free from the trap of tradition-modernity dichotomy—the contributors do not find tradition and modernity inconsistent with the idea of model villages. Given, model villages can be seen as a trend of synchronising traditional and modern technology in order to deepen democratic village life. Anticipated by scholars such as Rajni Kothari such trends represent a paradigm shift in the discourse on development and democracy at grassroots level. The trend of building model villages by synchronising traditions with technology is consistent with the demands for “larger citizen involvement in new variants of old institutions like the gaon sabha which can combine older forms of informal consensus-making mechanisms with the more formal, institutionalised and legal forms decreed by legislation” in order to maximise the responsibility and accountability of formal institutions of self-governance and to minimise the politician-bureaucrat nexus (Rajni Kothari 1988:196). The book is a significant attempt in Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

Book Reviews

bringing together the people who are actively engaged in improving living conditions of human beings in rural areas in order to bridge the gap between rural and urban India. Ramesh Kumar University of Hyderabad Reference Kothari, Rajni, (1988), State Against Democracy : In Search of Humane Governance, Delhi Ajanta Publications, p.196. Rethinking Planning and Development – The Indian Context : Tribute to Tarlok Singh by Yogesh Atal, 2013 Published by Indian Association of Social Science Institutions, IIPA, Indra Prastha Estate, Delhi – 110 002 in association with MANAK Publications Pvt Ltd. B-7, Saraswati Complex, Laxmi Nagar, New Delhi – 110 092, pp. 260, ` 1200 (Hardback). This volume is a tribute to Shri Tarlok Singh – a distinguished Civil Servant (ICS of the British times) and the founder Chairman of the Indian Association of Social Science Institutions (IASSI)who worked closely with India’s first Prime Minister, in promoting planned development of the Indian Economy. IASSI has decided to institute a Series of Tarlok Singh Memorial Lectures to Commemorate and pay tributes for his contributions in social sciences. This volume comprises two parts. The first part carries a selection from the tributes paid by his friends and admirers. Second part reproduces the first six memorial lectures delivered in his honour. First chapter signifies the contributions and achievements of Shri Tarlok Singh. Author Jaideep Singh has brought out every event of his father and his vision in building social sciences as an institution. Shri Tarlok Singh has built two institutions, the first institution was Committee on studies for Cooperation in Development in South Asia (CSCD) in 1978 and second institution that he has conceived and actualised is Indian Association of Social Science Institutions (IASSI).

Book Reviews

Authors quote that Shri Tarlok Singh will go down in history as one of the builders of modern India. A K Dasputa contributed second chapter with a title “Farewell to Nehruvian Era”. Author has emphasised on the book “Poverty and Social Change” contributed by Shri Tarlok Singh which contained a structure of a plan document focused on eradication of poverty. Sachchidanada emphasised on the classic documentation of the draft First Five Year Plan 1951 by Shri Tarlok Singh in the third chapter on Planner, Researcher, Institution Builder. Rajeshwar Prasad states that Shri Tarlok Singh was one of the distinguished personalities who received Padma Shri (1954), Padma Bhushan (1962) and Padma Vibhushan (2000) and had innumerable academic laurels to his credit. He was humble academically, devoid of any academic aura and ‘intellectual arrogance’, encouraging inter-disciplinary research and teaching of social science. CT Kurien has shared his experiences with Shri Tarlok Singh in the fifth chapter of the volume – “Shri Tarlok Singh as I knew him”. S P Ahuja admired Shri Tarlok Singh as Guide, Philosopher and Friend and Bhupinder Singh praised him as the Tallest Civil Servant. While Debabar Banerji shared his association and experiences with Shri Tarlok Singh as a Rare Combination of Social Commitment and Unrelenting Determination for Action and B. G. Verghese adored him as a Firm Believer in Regional Cooperation. The Executive Committee members of IASSA unanimously resolved that a special programme i.e., Tarlok Singh Memorial Lecture series was initiated to keep his memory alive. The six memorial lectures delivered by the eminent scholars have been included as six individual chapters as Part – two of the volume. Shri Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission delivered the first lecture on “Role of Planning – A New Perspective”. He has discussed on past, present and future challenges and perspectives of Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, July - Sept. : 2013

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planning and its relevance in growth and poverty alleviation. Second lecture on Changing Agrarian Structure in India : 1953 – 54 to 2003 – increasing Marginalisation with limited resources and extreme inequality has posed the institutional challenges in India. How would these farmers be able to benefit from crop diversification or export possibilities in the context of globalisation, which remained unanswered? Prof. Y.K. Alagh presented on “Energy Sector in India – performance, opportunities and promises to keep”. The challenge of better performance of energy sector on a PPP mode involves international investments for which progress in India is slow but improving gradually. Decentralised options for renewable energy need greater emphasis. The fourth lecture was delivered by G.K. Chand on Envisioning India as a Knowledge Economy, fifth lecture by Yogesh Atal on Combating Poverty and the last memorial lecture on Challenges of Transforming Indian Agriculture by V.S. Vyas was to pay homage to Tarlok Singh. This book is recommended for students and researchers. Dr. V. Suresh Babu Financial Engineering for LowIncome Households, Edited by Bindu Ananth and Amit Shah, Sage Publication 2013; Pages 226, Price ` 595. Finance has the power to help households manage several risks and give them the tools with which to plan their lives; maximise their growth potential; and offer them protection against large unexpected shocks as well as longer term changes in prices of their financial and physical assets. A household’s financial life can be seen as a combination of exposure to time and contingent states. Financial wealth can be seen as a combination of assets that are currently owned and present value of future income discounted at an appropriate risk-adjusted rate.

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Financial services are very unlike physical products in their potential for customisation and malleability. Financial services must help a household to manage and increase its consumption smoothly and fully utilise its human capital, financial capital and other resources to improve its well-being. Inter-temporal consumption smoothing can be provided either through savings or loans, with or without collateral. A loan can involve weekly repayment or bullet repayment; a loan when combined with rainfall insurance can allow for skipping a payment when the monsoon fails; a remittance inflow can be swept instantaneously as an account balance into a money market mutual fund. This malleable feature of financial services is what makes them so important for enabling people, particularly those who have low income, to be financially included in formal systems.

The third section with the title ‘Applications of Financial Engineering’ has eight chapters and discusses the basic risk types that need to be understood in order to develop financial products and to provide wealth management advice to low-income individuals and households.The focus was on understanding the basic ideas and on working through simulations and problem sets in order to develop a full understanding of the nature of the underlying risks that individuals, households, and enterprises face.The chapters in this section also explore the different types of products that could be offered to individuals and households as a part of an integrated wealth management service. A discussion has also been offered on where and how, on a stand-alone basis the products could be offered to the low income communities.

This book is a collection of essays contributed by colleagues and key partners of the editors. The authors have successfully assembled the ideas from a vast variety of sources into one cogent and accessible volume. Chapterisation of the book and sequencing of the articles is very apt. The book has 14 chapters that have been segregated into four separate sections. The first section has a lone chapter which highlights key conceptual issues in providing universal access to finance. It gives a good background to appreciate the idea of Financial Engineering for Low-Income Households (FELIH) which is believed to be building expertise for providers of financial services.

The last section of the edition presented a case study of a household along with a comprehensive financial plan that could help professionals working in domains as diverse as banking, insurance, pensions and mutual funds.

The second section titled ‘Building Blocks of Financial Engineering’ consists of four chapters. Some of the chapters in the second section have reviewed the essentials of financial engineering so as to develop necessary background to appreciate more application oriented sections. The treatment of each of the topics is at a basic-to-intermediate level with references provided for those who want to access more advanced treatments of the topics.

We are learning to live in the midst of many harsh realities, each unique in its own way, of untold human suffering and indignity. Perhaps the most bizarre is how this country’s food producers are seeking pesticides or the noose to end their own lives. They are the producers of the food we daily consume.The spate of suicides by small and marginal farmers in several states of India reflects the crisis in Indian agriculture, unprecedented in post - Independence India.


This book will be invaluable for students, researchers and practitioners interested in the design and delivery of financial services to lowincome households. Dr. G.V.Krishna Lohi Das Those Who Did Not Die – Impact of the Agrarian Crisis on Women in Punjab by Ranjana Padhi, Sage Publication 2012; Pages 183, Price ` 650.

Book Reviews

The quarter million suicides recorded so far call serious attention to the reality of lakhs more peasantry, especially agricultural labourers, on the brink of devastation in this country. The suicides of agricultural labourers continue to go unreported in almost all studies or news reports on peasant suicides. Studies on peasant suicides and indebtedness continue to render invisible the family and the household, with the agricultural labourer or farmer viewed solely as a producer of food, selling his or her labour or produce.Yet a peasant – male or female – does not enter debt for the sake of agricultural inputs alone. Those dependent on agriculture depend on it to fulfill several needs even as they produce food for society at large – food for their own families, education or jobs for their children, marriage expenses, health care, along with dreams of a more dignified life for their near and dear ones. This book is an attempt to bring to the fore the subjectivities of the survivors of “suicide families”, as they are called in the Punjab. The tyranny of statistical data, of realities depicted in tabular format, renders individuals invisible, while the fetish of narratives, images and voices that soars high in popularity often obliterates socioeconomic contexts. The author has successfully sequenced the facts from a vast variety of sources into one cogent and accessible volume.The book has six chapters and chapterisation of the book and sequencing of the articles is very apt. The author’s analysis manages to capture the subjective experiences of women and thereby refuses to turn the suicides into mere statistics erasing the realities of lived experiences. So, among the many strengths of the book is its powerful documenting of women’s lives, its incredible archival value for history, even as its own stated focus is to find way to struggle against the agrarian crisis in the Punjab where too many have killed themselves and others desperately try and resist death.


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This book will be invaluable for students, researchers and journalists interested in probing the genesis of the peasant misery in Punjab and other similar States. Dr. P. Kesava Rao HIV / AIDS Patients and Their Rehabilitation by Dr. Shekh Belal Ahmed, Department of Sociology & Social Work, AMU, Aligarh, Published by Serials Publications, 4830/ 24, Ansari Road, Darya Ganj, New Delhi – 110 002. Price ` 495. The author makes a very profound statement in the preface that 95 per cent new HIV cases occur in developing countries which are least equipped to cope with. In the past we have seen celebrities like Rock Hudson (Hollywood Actor) and Magic Johnson (Basket Ball Star) contracting this. But now good awareness of this disease is preventing new cases in the West. The author must be congratulated for writing this book. The author is very correct that this problem is not the responsibility of Health Sector alone but it should be tackled by a multi-sectorial approach. The authors’ statement on gender inequality is true that the women are supposed to be innocent, passive and economically dependent which makes them vulnerable. The author's opinion on Poverty and Aids needs more authentication. Also he says that the school enrolment has fallen 365 per cent in Switzerland, I think it should have been Swaziland, an African Country where AIDS is rampant. The author correctly pointed out the impact of economic burden for AIDS as it not only puts more burden on the government to treat the opportune infections but also reduces the working force as many would die by 40. The write-up on AIDS impact on health care workforce is very neatly done (P 24). The increased risk for women in African countries who sell beer to male customers who may be

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coerced to have sex makes an interesting reading (P 27).

Many African countries are using medicines manufactured in India.

The author did a good job in enumerating the Policy Actions for HIV prevention (P 37).

The author wrote nicely on discrimination and about stigma of HIV and AIDS patients. He should have mentioned about celebrities like Shabana Azmi who used to come on TV holding HIV kids to dispel the myth that HIV spreads by touch. Gender inequality is quite informative and made a very interesting reading. Very effectively pictured the plight of women who are at the receiving end. The author should be appreciated for this topic. He correctly mentioned about the high risk behaviour of migrant workers and youth working in call centres and misses out another important group, truck drivers who visit different places.

Delhi : Mother to fetus transmission of infection is almost twice the national average and also of contaminated blood shows the failure of system (P 44). The write-up on rehabilitation was good – 45. A challenge for us. Involvement of private sector should have been dealt with more. MNC and many big business houses can do a lot. Failed to mention the role of Bill Gates foundation and their contribution. A word of appreciation for the Indian Pharma who are making ART drugs at a lower price is missing.

Lot of spelling mistakes and errors in grammar in case studies. Too much of use of the word “her” was confusing. An Indian face is missing on the cover photo. Dr.D.S. Manohar Paul NIRD Health Centre


Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, NIRD, Hyderabad.


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Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, NIRD, Hyderabad. 348


Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. 3, NIRD, Hyderabad.


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Journal of Rural Development (Quarterly Journal of NIRD)

INSTR UC TIONS TO AUTHORS INSTRUC UCTIONS Procedure Communication : The National Institute of Rural Development welcomes articles of interest representing original work, analytical papers and papers based on review of extensive literature on economic, sociological, psychological, political and administrative aspects of rural development for publication in its quarterly Journal of Rural Development (JRD). All communication should be addressed to the Editor, Journal of Rural Development. National Institute of Rural Development, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad – 500 030, India (e-mail: [email protected]). The Editor will correspond with the main author. Declaration : Each article should be accompanied with a declaration by all the authors that (1) they are authors of the article in the order in which listed; and (2) the article is original, has not been published and has not been submitted for publication elsewhere. If you have quoted more than 500 words/a table/a figure from a published work, in the article, enclose a copy of permission obtained from the respective copyright holder. It is the author’s responsibility to obtain permission in writing for the use of all previously published material, not that of the editor or publisher. Authors are responsible for payment of any permission fees. Manuscript : Each manuscript should be submitted in triplicate with a letter of transmittal. Article should be double spaced typewritten on one side of quarto size (A4) paper. The length of the article may not exceed 10,000 words (40 typed pages approximately). The margin kept should be 11/2" on the left side and 1" on the other three sides. Softcopy Submission : If you send your article in a CD it should be entered in MS Word 2007. The CD should be sent in a CD container to protect it from likely damage. Soft copies can also be sent by e-mail: [email protected], [email protected]. Review System : Every article will be reviewed by a masked peer view by two referees. The criteria used for acceptance of articles are contemporary relevance, contribution to knowledge, clear and logical analysis, fairly good English and sound methodology of research articles. The Editor reserves the right to reject any manuscript as unsuitable in topic, style or form without requesting external review. Editing : Every accepted article will be edited. If the author wishes to see the edited copy he/ she should make this request at the time of sending the article. Since this involves a minimum of an additional four weeks time, in the production process, we will assume your concurrence to our editing unless specified by you. Copyright : The author owns the copyright of the article until the article is accepted by the JRD for publication. After the acceptance communication, the copyright of the article is owned by the National Institute of Rural Development and should not be reproduced elsewhere without the written permission of the editor and the authors of the article.

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