-Shubham
Verma
India
was the richest country in the world till 1,700 century AD. India's share of
world income was 22.6 % till 1700 AD.[i]
The main reason behind India’s growth was its primary sector i.e. Agriculture
and its allied industries. At that time, India was the largest producer of
spices, textiles and other food materials. These all things are produced by
primary sector or agriculture and in return, we received a lot of gold from
Roman Empire and other countries of the world. It was continued even at the
time of Mughal Empire and we became ‘Golden Bird’. But, when Britisher’s came,
they destroyed the primary sector completely by making draconian laws like Cow
slaughter, High taxation, new labor policies etc. Still, Indian farmers fought
back and survived till independence because of their expertise in the field of
agriculture and their traditional knowledge base.
Only because of Indian
farmers and their hard work, India survived after Independence in worst
conditions. The main reason behind survival of Indian families after
Independence was agriculture because most of the population at that time was
indulged in farming - “They eat what they grow and, they grow what they eat”.
So, even without jobs they all survived. But I am not concerned about the Golden
history of India; I am more worried about the condition of farmers in 2016.
“India has a productive economy with high
growth rates. It is developing into an open-market economy, yet traces of its
past autarkic policies still remain. In 2014, slightly less than half of
India's workforce (49%) was in agriculture.[ii]
The meaning of 49 % in India means more than 50 Crore people. The condition of
farming in India is getting worsen day by day. The condition of farmers is even
worse. According to The Hindu: 14 Jan, 2016:[iii]
“Suicides by farmers
touched a grim high in 2015. The year that had recorded 2,590 suicides until
October -- the higher ever since 2001 -- went on to register 610 more deaths in
just the last two months. The death toll on December 31, 2015 stood at 3,228,
indicating that the slew of measures the government undertook through the year
failed to arrest the disturbing trend.”
Maharashtra itself has recorded 20,504 farmer suicides since 2001. At least 3,000 farmers have killed themselves in Bundelkhand over five years.[iv] The table shows the data of states with more farmer suicides (2013) :
The situation is
alarming, if farmers continued committing suicides with this rate, than after
few years, there will be no farmer left in this country. The reason behind it
is not only poverty or drought but it is also social. We as a society are
neglecting farmers since independence. We do talk about them, consume the food
grown by farmers, make movies and write books about farmers but we do not do
anything to help them. No middle class or high class family wanted to make their
child, a farmer. Most of the children studying in schools and colleges do not
want to take farming as a carrier. In buses or trains, if some MBA or engineer
comes and sit near you, you will easily provide him seat but if some smelly
farmer came, then no one wants to left seat or sit with him. Not only this, the
way of talking also changes when we talk to farmers. Farmers are not getting love
and respect from the society which they got earlier. In our ancient texts it
has been written that:
“Uttam Kheti Madhyam
Ban, Karat chakri Kukar Nidan”
Meaning
– Farming is the best occupation for a man, than comes business, and doing job
under someone is similar to dog.
By reading this we can
easily understand that – What was the position of farmers in ancient Indian
society? It was the time when India was
one of the best economies of the world. But, now instead of giving respect to
farmers, we are participating in a rat race of globalization. We have started
following west in each and everything. We adopted their education system,
clothing, laws and even eating habits. We have to understand the simple
principle of society that- “Like every person has its own strengths and
weaknesses, in the same way every country has its own strength and weaknesses”.
For example if your country is full of desert, you cannot copy the model of
country which is full of water. Similarly, if India has good agricultural land
and maximum number of climatic zones, it means agriculture is the strength of
India. But, if India does not rely on its own strengths and started following
other countries than it can never win the rat race.
We cannot compete with
others in their Game. For example- You cannot win Cricket match against Sachin
Tendulkar but you could win the chess. Similarly instead of beating a singer in
singing, you should compete in other thing in which you are perfect. India is
not a manufacturing Hub like China or Robotics expert like Japan, We are not
weapon expert like Israel or USA then Why we are competing with them in these
fields?
I am not against these
all things. These all technologies are needed but before that, first we need to
understand our strength and make our country self reliant and powerful on our
strength, than only we can sit on table with world powers at same level. A
weaker country can never participate in world economics with power. We are
following rules and regulations of WTO and we have seen draconian drafts like
Dunkal Draft, TRIPS etc which were totally against India. In current world
politics, America and China are dominating because they are playing the game
with their own terms. We need to create our own indigenous self dependent
system based on our strengths, and our strength is farming and primary sector.
Primary sector is also getting raw material from agriculture, so we should
focus more on farming and agriculture.
Saving farmers and
agriculture is not only important because of our economy, but also to feed our
130 Crore population that is increasing day by day. According to a news report
published in India times, 16 May 2016:
“With 35% of the
agricultural households having less than 1 acre of land, another 35% holding
between 1 and 2.5 acres, and only 30% households with land more than 2.5 acres,
the shrinking of agricultural land holdings in India is indeed a cause of
concern. Since 1995-96, the average size land holding has decreased from 1.41
hectares to 1.15 hectares which accounts for the decrease of 30,000 hectares of
cultivable land each year.”[v]
Big cities like
Banglore, Delhi, Mumbai, Gurgaon, Hyderabad etc are acquiring more and more
land of nearby villages. But, we should understand that –
“We cannot eat Computers, Mobiles, and
Laptops. We need food and vegetables to survive”
Packages will no longer
work for farmers and the government seems to be missing this point completely.
There is a need of farmer oriented policy and not packages. Giving packages is
an approach of social work, and distributing food though PDS is Social welfare,
but both approaches are not working. The reason behind the failure of these
approaches is - “In these approaches ( Social work and Social welfare)
government is in the role of ‘Giver’ and they considered farmers as ‘Begger’ or
poor people who needs help. In this kind of an approach, the relation between
farmers and government is not at the same level. One is ‘giver’ and one is
‘taker’. Similar kind of relationship is – India’s relationship with World Bank
or Rich countries. They are giving us loans and we think they are helping us.
We felt very bad about India in that world situation but we are doing exactly
the same with farmers in our own nation. If we can find out the solution of
farmers problem, we can also find out the solution of worlds problem. It is
similar to Vedas saying:
“Yatha pinde, tatha
brahmande”
Meaning:
Universe is same as our body or cell. If we understand the smallest, we can
also understand the largest.
In the end, I just
wanted to conclude by saying that instead of teaching the farmers and tribal
people, we need to learn from them that- What they were doing from 1000’s of
years? They have great knowledge of natural farming and family based
industries. India needs to learn from its own civilization and people rather
than going towards those civilizations which comes after Indian civilization.
Shubham
Verma
09713760660
theshubhamhindi@gmail.com
[i] http://www.thehindu.com/2005/07/10/stories/2005071002301000.htm
[ii] https://principles-of-economics-and-business.blogspot.in/2015/09/indian-economy-at-glance.html
[iii] http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/maharashtra-saw-3228-farmer-suicides-in-2015/article8103696.ece
[iv] http://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/as-farmers-commit-suicide-uttar-pradesh-hides-their-deaths-115040300328_1.html
[v] http://www.indiatimes.com/news/india/with-population-on-the-rise-and-agricultural-land-shrinking-india-might-become-food-deficient-254964.html
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