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available in the fields that can engage the rural population on a sustained basis.
Gupta (2005) argues that:
“----it is sheer inertia of the agrarian economy that hardly allows
for any optimism, which is forcing people to look elsewhere for both
livelihood and respect”. He further asserts that “(R)arely would a villager
today want to be a farmer if given an opportunity elsewhere” (p.752).
A revised version of this article was published in Ray (2007). For this
new article on
“How Rural is Rural India?: Rethinking Options for Farming
and Farmers”.
Prof. Gupta interviewed 26 social notables and opinion makers.
He came to the conclusion thus: “The Indian Village still lives, but it is not well.
It has not yet vanished, but is vanishing as an agricultural entity, or even as
an imagined rural arcadia”, Gupta (2007, p.230). Earlier, Gupta (2005) had
opined that “Agriculture is an economic residence that generally accommodates
non-achievers resigned to a life of sad satisfaction .......... from rich to poor, the
trend is to leave the village................” (p.757).
Interestingly, the NSSO’s
Situation Assessment Survey of Farmers
conducted in 2003 provides empirical evidence on the above sociological
phenomenon. At an all-India level, out of 89.4 million farmer households, only
53.1 million households (59.4%) were willing to work in farms; a huge 35.9
million households or 40.1%, if given a chance, would have liked to work in
some other profession. Out of the latter, 26.5% was of the opinion that farming
was not profitable and 8.3% felt farming was more risky. Lack of social status
figured as a cause for not liking farming though only 2% said so.
A state-wise analysis reveals that, in almost all the states, a substantial
proportion of farmers wants to come out of the farming profession
(Table 2.13). But, the situation was worse among 8 major states out of 27. This
was as strikingly true of underdeveloped states of central and eastern India
as it is true of West Bengal which has seen some successful tenancy reforms;
in all of these states, more than 45% of the farmers did not like the farming
profession; the most tangible cause for this lay in farming not being profitable.
