Changing face of Village

Changing face of Village

(By Aadesh Sharma ) 

Image By:- Shrut Kapadia

Recent socio-economic development has changed the picture of rural India.  The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) survey (2016-17) says a lot about this.

According to this survey conducted every third year, the average income of rural agricultural families is now more than daily wages than agriculture.

The average annual income of a rural household dependent on agriculture is Rs 1 lakh 7 thousand 172, while the average annual income of rural families associated with non-agricultural activities is Rs 87 thousand 228.

According  to the report, agriculture accounts for 19 percent of the monthly income, while the daily wage share in the average income is more than 40 percent.  Mobile has now come in 87 percent of rural households while 88.1 percent of households have savings accounts.  Today 58 percent of the households have TV, while 34 percent of the families have a motorcycle and 3 percent of the households have a car.  Apart from this, 2 percent of the households are equipped with laptop and AC.  26 per cent of agricultural farmers and 25 per cent of non-agricultural households are covered by insurance.  Only 20.1 per cent of the agricultural families have taken pension scheme whereas only 18.9 per cent of non-agricultural families have pension scheme.

Some farmers associations have raised questions on this survey.  According to him, the data has been collected by changing the definition of farmers in the survey.  The data for 2012-13 were collected in the NSSO or National Sample Survey, when that family was considered as a farming family, which could earn up to Rs 3 thousand only from farming.  At the same time, compared to 2015-16 figures, those earning 5 thousand from farming have been given the status of farming family.  So this time the income is more visible.

However, this survey also worries on many levels.  It said that 47 percent of the rural households have a debt burden.  Obviously, there is no expected profit from farming.  This is the reason that farmers are also forced to pay wages.  Secondly, the income level is also uneven.  The average income of a rural household of Punjab is Rs 16 thousand 20 while that of a rural household in Andhra Pradesh is just Rs 5 thousand 842.  However, the highest income is also much lower than the income of the cities.

It is clear that the prosperity in the village is limited.  It needs to be increased and spread evenly.  After globalization, all the attention has been focused on the development of big industries.  In such a situation, small industries of villages are weak.  Today, there is a need to increase investment in agriculture and to promote small and cottage industries in the villages so that the income of the villagers can increase.

The availability of large-scale secondary data has not diminished the role of village surveys but, in fact, has helped in improving our understanding of the process of change. At a time when there are conflicting trends emerging from the national accounts on the state of the economy, it is interesting to look at the village surveys to understand the changing nature of villages and rural India. An important caveat is in order here.

 

 

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