Research & Publications
Research & Publications
Year : MAR-2010
The condition of the Dalits (depressed castes, former Untouchables), diverse at the time of independence, remains heterogeneous, with both positive changes and setbacks. While focusing on the Dalits, one must necessarily also describe briefly the economic environment of each area and the level of its development. In districts where the Green Revolution has taken place, agricultural wages have been and remain roughly double, if not more, of what they are in backward districts. In addition, rapidly developing districts offer more job opportunities. A number of Dalits, who are often landless, do benefit from such development; their living conditions improve and they begin to assert themselves vis-? -vis the higher castes. In slow-growing areas, the reduction of poverty, if any, is much less striking. In addition, in Bihar and in parts of Uttar Pradesh (UP), semi-feudal caste relations can lead to all kinds of dabao (pressure) on Dalits, or, even worse, to violent clashes and death. The slowdown of agriculture during the past twenty to twenty-five years, resulting from a lack of official attention to rural India, together with the fall in public funds for agriculture and infrastructure, irrigation, electricity, roads development, is a matter of growing concern among villagers, both rich and poor. The various anti-poverty schemes (loans-cum-subsidies for wells, cattle, housing, and rural works) present a mixed picture. While some are undoubtedly successful, there are also instances of leakages, corruption, theft, pilferage, and money being channelled to the rich instead of the poor. There are also Dalits who, like some of the most sophisticated officers and experts, demand a better balancing between productive public investments in the rural sector, on the one hand, and anti poverty programmes on the other hand. The leakages may be the same in both areas, but the benefits from productive investments are likely to be more fruitful and far-reaching in their effects. One must also refer to the Adivasis (aborigines of India). A number of tribes have been in contact with Indian civilisation for a long time and have adopted the agricultural practices of Hindus. These tribes do not need special measures of government assistance. The tribes who have been isolated for ages in hilly jungles deserve particular attention. A number of these tribes live in acute poverty and deprivation. The economic progress of a number of Dalits contributes to the improvement of their social status. But as Ratan Watal told me, a??Negative connotations associated with the Dalits cannot be ironed out by economic uplift only.a?? Many caste cleavagesa??which also occur among the four varnasa??remain alive in villages . The practice of arranged marriage within the same caste has hardly changed in the past fifty years. Even among the urban upper castes and classes, prejudice against the Dalits, particularly in regard to inter-marriage, will take time to disappear. Since 2004, the government has been much more conscious of the need to hasten rural development, a trend confirmed after the elections of 2009. Is the emphasis on establishing many new agencies and institutions focusing on poor people the safest way of achieving this goal? Or should one make major efforts at improving irrigation, extending watershed development, supporting agricultural research and development, bolstering extension services, and expanding rural infrastructure, while also strengthening the district administration instead of the village panchayat? There is considerable scope for the rural economy to progress further, but one cannot refer to a??a second Green Revolutiona??, because the next steps in the agricultural sector will be much more complex and costly than those introduced during the Green Revolution in the late 1960s. Finally, it is no less obvious that the impact of the very severe drought in 2009 would have been substantially reduced if the irrigation policy and the supply of electricity had been more adequate and reliable.