Land survey in Seventh Plan

SO.5 MILLION. HECTARES of land is proposed to be surveyedduring the Seventh Five-Year Plan. Out of this, detailed soil surveys will beundertaken on 25 lakh hectares, priority delineation surveys on 400 lakh hectaresand reconnisance surveys on. 80 lakh hectares. In addition, sample soil surveyswill be conducted in 6,000 blocks at an estimated cost of Rs. 10 crore.

Till 1983-84, priority delineation surveys had been accomplished on 54.43million hectares and detailed soil surveys on 7.2 million hectares. Sample soilsurveys had also been completed in 4,710 blocks. In the financial year 1984-85,50 lakhs hectares would be covered by priority delineation surveys and 3.67 lakhhectares by detailed soil surveys. Sample surveys would also be undertaken in980 blocks of 64 hectares each. The expenditure on the project is estimated atRs. 97 lakh.

The major responsibility of the All India' Soil and Land Use Survey,which functions through four regional centres and three sub-centres, is to carryout priority delineation surveys !n the 36 catchments of river valley projects andflood-prone rivers covered by two Centrally-sponsored schemes. Theorganisation has established a Remote. Sensing Centre in collaboration with.UNDP/FA'O. It also collaborates with the Indian Space Research Organisation,the Space Application Centre and the National Remote Sensing Agency.

During the Seventh Plan, the scheme for creating new soil surveyorganisations and strengthening the existing ones, initiated during the Fifth Planbut transferred to the State sector during 1979-80 on the recommendation ofthe National Development Council, is also proposed to be revived and extended tothe States with 50 : 50 matching allocation between the Centre and the States.An outlay of Rs. 3 crore has been proposed in the Plan for this purpose. 0

YOJ'ANAVolume .291Number 6 •

April I-IS, 19851Chaitra 11-25, 1907

\

DR. V.R.M. DESAI 4 How economy performed ,underMrs. Indira Gandhi

HARBHAJAN SINGH 7 Why urban economic ineq1,1ality?

" .;

K. D. NAUTIYAL AND 10 What price this development?G N. PANDEY

•

SREELEKHA BASU 13 Floods and water management

H. SEETHARAMA RAO

VASANT SATIIE

18

20

Devolution of more funds toStates

The alternative'

. G. NARAYANA REDDY 25 Youth in rural developme?t

..G. RAVINDRAN NAIR

---~

30 Why non-formal edufation !

Chief Editor-R. Thukral . Editor- B. K. Dhusiar. AssistantEditor-KamleshMackreU' : Correspondent-M. Yunus Siddi-qui: Suh-Editor-Mangal Sen, Senior Corresponden~lAhmedabad. V. G. Deshpande, Bombay :Smt. V. M. JOShi,Calcutta . B: K. Chakravarty, Hyderabad : S. V. Sripati Rao,Madras: 'D. Janak, Trivandrum : N. Kesavan Nair, Gauooti:Biraj Dass : Business Manager; L R. Batra.

Yojana seeks to carry the mess'lge of the plan to .all sectionsof the people and promote a more earnest diScussion' onproblems of social and economic development. Althoughpublished by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting,"\ OjlOi'& is not restricted to expressing the official point of. v:ew. YG;~na is issued. every fortnight in Assamese, B(>ngali,English, (iujarati, Hindi, Malyalam.l\faralhi. Tamil, Tdug1.1and Urdu.

Editorial Office : Yojana Bhavan Parliament Street, NewDelhi-llOOOI, Telegraphic Address: Yojana New Delhi.Telephone : 383655, 387910, 385481 (extension 402 and373). .For new subscriptions. renewals, enquiries please contact :The Business Manager, Publications DivisioD,Patiala House,New Delhi-IlOOOl.

Our conpibutors'

Dr. V. R. M. Desai-Freelance -Journalist, Bom-bay; Harbbajan Singh-Lecturer, Khalsa College,Dellii University, Delhi; K. D: Nautiyal and G. N.Pandey..,.-Joint Director and Senior ,Research Officerrespectively, State Planning Institute, Luckriow (UP);Sreelekha Rasu-Director, Statistics, Central WaterCommission, New :Qelhi;....H. Seetharama Rao--Spe-cial Correspondent, PTI, New Delhi; Vasant Satbe-Union Minister of Steel, Mines and Coal, New Delhi;G. Narayana. Reddy-Asstt. Director, National Insti-tute of Rural Development, Hyderabad; and G.Ravindran Nair-Freel8,nce Journalist, New Delhi.

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•

..

.How economy performed underMrs. Indira Gand.hi

Dr~ V.R.M. Desai

Mrs. Indira Gandhi's regime witnessed atremendous leap of economic developmentthrough a ptanned economy, says'the author.The full impact of her various programmes'can be ~een in bringing a large portion ofpeople above the pove!'ty line. The authorobserves that the IRDP Programme is thegreatest contribution of Mrs. Gandhi inmitigating the sufferings of the poorestamong the poor.

THE FORMER .PRIME MINISTER, Mrs IndiraGandhi dominated the Indian scene .for nearlytwo decades. Her . contributions to theIndian eco;llOmy are significant and remark-able. An enquiry into the impact she made onIndian economy is, therefore, both natural and fruit-ful. A thorough: investigation of the subject will haveto concern itself with various facets of the nationallife, economic, polltkal social, cultural and scienti-fic.

Mrs. Indira Gandhi took over reigns of Govern-ment on January 24, 1966 as the third Prime Minis-ter of India consequent to the sudden death ofLal Bahadur Shastri at Tashkent. When :Mrs. IndiraGandhi. b,ecame Prime Minister the times werejust trying. The economy was in shambles, Faminestalked the land. Under her stewardship,India becameself-sufficient in foodgrains. Significant advances weremad~'in nuclear enef'gy, oil production, space and polarexploration.

4

,Economy gets new direction

On the economic front, she was instrun:.ental in in-troducing social control on banks in 1968. It wasshe who gave a new direction to the Indian econol~yin moulding the financial institutions as catalytIc~gents for promoting economic development for thewelfare of the masses. In 1969, the major 14 banksin India were nationalized with a view to milingthe banking industry' an instrurnent in bringing socialand econorrdc change.

It was the policy guidelines issued by the Gbvern-ment of India under the able leadership of Mrs.Indira Gandhi that has enabled most of the banks toplay an effective role. in mitigating the pangs of pov-erty in India. Six commercial b&n.1<,swith depositsover Rs. 200 crores and 'above were nationalized byan Ordinance in 1980. She was the architect of the 10Point Progranune to help the weaker sections of thesociety.

Real incomes up

The average Indian is certainly better off noW thanin 1966. His real in<;ome today is 40 per cent maretban in 1966. Per capita consumption of cereals,edible oils and vanaspati and milk grew rapidly dur-ing her_period. Social indicators in regard to healthshowed substantial improvement.- Literacy went upfrom 24 per cent to 36 per cent. The 'consumptionof electricity in the a.verage household hao; trebledfrom 24 to 75 miits. '''hat is more, television hasmade a very rapid headway after 1968-69. In fact,the country made an entry into an electronic andcomputer age. All this in spite of an unchecked risein lXlpulation from less t11an 500 million to around72 5 million!

YajS1!l3, Apri11-15, 1985

High lights* During the 16 years of Indira Gandhi's periodof Prime Ministership, real gross nationalproduct w~nt up at an annual average rate(compound) of 4.4 per cent. Currently, theIndian economy is definitely witnessing agrowth rate of 5.0 per cent per annum. Thestep-up in the annual average growth rate isthe mOst important economic gain during theIndira Gandhi era. .

* Though it began with Q: severe drought in food-grams production, but ended with a sequence;of record bumper harvest~. DUling the threeyears from 1982-83 to 1984.-85 per capitafOod supplies would be above 470 graunnesas compared with 450 grammes from 1962-63 to 1964-65. -

* The gross irrigated area went up du'ring theIndira Gandhi period from 31 mIllion hectaresin' 1965-66 to 63 million hectares by 1984-85

- ..:--~ lOOper cent increase in 19 years, thebulk of the increase occuring'during 1974-75to 1984-85.

• Fertilizer consumption (NPK) was barely /80,000 tonnes in 1950-1951 and by 1965-66,it bas gone up to about 8lakh tonnes. By 1984-85; it bad risen to about 7.8 million tonnes, anearly ten-fold increase in 19 years.

* Nearly 52 million hectares were under the-, high yielding varieties in 1984-85.'" In industry, the annual rate of growth WtSabout 5 per c:ent. Industrial capacity growthseems to be higher at 5.5 per cent. While, coalproduction went up by 117 per cent, cem~nt.production increased by threefold, finishedsteel went-up by two-fold, electricity increasedby fivefold and production of crude oil

increased.'" In transport, the rate of annual growth wasat 3 per cent, road transport and air trans-port witnessed acceleration. '

* Nominal interest rates moved up significant-ly and numerous tax concession came to beaccorded to the savers.-

* The eXternal assistance in 1966-1967 was 4.5Ref cent of GNP and external debt by i967-1968 formed 27 per cent ot the GNP. By1983-84 the former had come down to 1.5

, me, whidl is unique in its nature in attempting to, solve the problems at the family level, is the greatest'contributiOn she made fu mitigating the sufferings ofthe poorest among the poor.

In conclusion, the Indira Gandhi era had witnesseda tremendous leap and surge of economic develop-me,nt through a planned economy. of which the pub-lic sector is a keynote. This in itself is a tribute tothe wisdom of Indira Gandhi.

The number of. small industries multiplied moretillin six-fold during this period and this has proveda dynamic and vibrant sector of industry; contribut-ing more tfu¥1Rs. 2,000 crores to exports, and pro-viding more employment than large industries. Mrs.Gandhi has left the economy with enough wind tokeep running, indeed to pick up pace in the peIiodahead. .

Food _productiqn upFoodgrains production more than doubled from

72.3 million tonnes to 152 million toD.I.les.The pcrhectare yield of major crops showed substantial im-provement. Net irrigated area rose from 26.3 millionhectares to 41.5 million hectares. Following theadoption of new agricultural strategy in the' 1966 .kharif, there has been revolution ill inputs in Indian'agriculture, which increased much more rapidly thanoutput. Between 1965-66 and 1984-85, the annualrate of increase in the area under high yielding varie-ties and pesticides were phenomenal. Fertilizerg, oilengines and electric pumpsets and tubewells alsoea,me to be widely used. The public sector expendi-tUre on agricultural research and education rose sub~stantial1y at the annual rate of 29:4 per cent, com- ~pared to only 14.7 per cent iJ! the ,first period(1950-51 to 1965-66). Industrial production register-ed an annual growth of 5 per cent. Industries sUchas chemical and chemical products, petroleum pro-du~ machine tools, non-electrical machinery show- .ed i much higher growth than the average growth for ~all industries. On the other hand; the trade deficit ~gone up by about nine' times. The external value of,l)1pee depreciated considerably. While, wholesaleprice index increased by 8.9 per cent, the consumerprice index rose by 7.9 per. cent per annum.

Majoribanks!nationalisedBank nationalization also resulted in the funda-

mental shift fro~ class banking to mass banking. The .banking network reached out to' the poor and into thehinterland. Of the 36,261 branches o~ned by the .commercial .banks since July 19, 1969,. upto end-March 1984, 22,766 offices or 62.8 per cent were,located in unbanked centres. The proportion of bankoffices in rural/areas stood at 55.6 per cent of totalbank offices in India. Deposit growth gathered mo-mentum and grew at all annual growth of 18.2 percent. And, ordinary farmers, road transport opera-tors, small industrialists and the self-employed trebl-ed their share in total bank loan& tc;>38 per cent.The small scale industries and 'agriculture are im-portant components of the priority sector, constitut-ing about 70 per cent of priority sector advl'..nces.Thisrapid transform~tion of a primary economic institu-tion must rate as front-ranking achievement.

The leadership given by Mr. Indira Gandhi has, really strengthened the banks and motivated them to. go in. a big way in helping the most unfortunate sec-tions of people in this country. The IRDP Program-

Yojana, April 1-15, 1985 5

Growtb rates: key indicators

per cent of GNP and latter to 16.9 per centof the GNP. ~In 1967-1968, debt servicingcharges were 18 per cent of "current ~~ccountreceipts and by 1983-84, they constitutedabout 7.6 per cent of the receipts.

* Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, Andhra Pra-desh, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, have been show-ing higher growth rates h~gher thc..n popu-lation growth rate. .

.* Inflation too showed an upward trend dur-ing the period despite fiscal discipline.

* The special emphasis in policy during Mrs.Indira Gandhi's period seems to have been~n social justice. Tliis was sought to be imple-mented through a number of anti-poverty pro-grammes, special schemes and me€~sures fortribals and the scheduled castes, discrimina-tory bank .loans based on the criteria of low-size, the self-employed, neglected sectors etc.Since during the past decade food supplieshave been rising the national rural employ-ment scheme has been formulated. Minimumneeds progr~mmes have been brought in. To-gether the full i!TIpact of all this has to beseen in the movement of the proportion ofpeople below the poverty line.

/

Selected Indicators

Area.Irrigation. . . .Area under High Yield variety

. Furtiliser Consumption .Pesticides Consumption

FARM MECHANISATIONTractors .Oil EnginesElectric Pumpset , . .Electricity Consumption in agricultureFoodgrains production • .Per hectare yield. .Industrial Production .ExportsImports

BANKINGBranchesDeposits .CreditPriority Sector

PRICESWholesale Prices .Consumer Price Index .'NATIONAL INCOMEReal National Income.Per Capita Income .Gross Capital FonnationGross Domestic SavingsNet Savings

6

Average AnnualGrowth between

1950-51 1965-66& &1965-66 1984-85

1.3 0.62.1 2.8

20.717.6 13.57.0 14.1

12.7 15.2. 13.9 11.823.7 12.9.16.0 13.31.8 4.01.3 3.47.6 4.52.0 14.85 3 14.0

3.6 10.88.4 18.29.8 17.4

37.2 '

2.9 8.93.6 7.9

3.3 3.91.2 l,.6

.10.7 13.89.5 14.29.6 14.5

, Record production by RashtriyaChemical Fertilizers

THE RASHTRIYA CHEMICALS AND FERTI-LIZERS (ReF), a public undertaking under theMinistry of Chemjcals and Fertilizers, has achievedproduction and t:xceeded the production targets recordduring April 1984-January 1985. -

During'this period, the total production of Nitrogenat 247164 metric tonnes exceeded the target by 5per cent.

The production of phosphate at 83486 metric ton-neS and potash at 35145 metric tonnes were 4 .per cent.and 6 per cent higher than the targets fixed for thesomonths.

The company produced 32919 'metric tonnes ofmethanol during this period exceeding the target by11.4 per cent. .

Another significant achievement of the companyhas been the cap'acity utilisation of 91 per cent dnutrients during the period. In the case of methanol1he capacity utilisation has been 109.7 per cent.

The production records during these 10 monthshave been a considerable increase over the corres-ponding period last year. In the case of nitrogen theincrease has been 2.6 per cent, phosphate. 7.6 percent and potash 6.4 per cent. .

The ThaI Super Fertilizer Project of the RCF, con-sisting of two ammonia plants of 1350 metric to'nnesper day each and three urea plants of 1500 metrict(mnes per day each is already completed. The trialproduction from the first ammonia plant has alreadyst~rted. The plants have been commissioned in re-COl'dtime and without any cost over-run. 0

Working group on 20-point programmeMINISTRY OF PLANNING has set up a 20-

Member Working Group' to study the development ofindicator~lindices for tracking the progress of new20-point programme. Dr. K. C. Seal, :Qirector..General,Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) will be theChairman and Dr. P. P. Sangal, Additional Director,CSO th~ Member Secretary of the Working Group.

The Working Group will take stock of the presentwork being undertaken by the State Governments andCentral Ministries and would make conc....rete recom-mendations for development of suitable indicators Iindices relating to the 20-Point Programme..

The Working Group has been set up in pUr8.uanceof the recommendations of the Sixth Conference ofCentral and State Statistical .Organisation (CSSO).O

Yajana, April 1-15, 1985

•

There is a greater need to understand thevarious force$ strengthening the economicdrift to grapple with the ever widening in':equality of income of the people. It seemsthe firtn commitment by the governmentregarding 'Justice. social. economic andpolitical Equality of status. opportunity"and income " are not only convenientlyforgotten Qut even the honest protestationsare hardly made. laments the author.

ECONOMIC INEQUALITY IS .ONE of the moststriking features" of our pattern 'cf living-unequaldistribution of wealth and income being it.s two broadfacets. The inequality once g~nerated tends to perpe-tuate and widen itself. Consequently, a vast majorityof people just manage to survive in conditions of ab-ject poverty, a few privileged ones wallow in the lapof extravagance.

Magnitude inequality..,The development economists suggest that the in-'

equality continues to increase until the weight of non-agricultural sector reaches 60 to 70 per cent of thetotal labour force. The leaders of fudependent Indiawere alreadY aware of this socio-economic challenge.They percei~edthe consequences of the increase in C1Cmagnitude ot econon:ic inequality as a result of thecombin~d effects of the proposed organisational struc-tural and institutional changes. They, therefore, soughtto give dear directions in the Constitution of India it-s~lf. The preamble sets before us an ideal of social jus-tice. The pirective Principles of State Policy enjoinupon Parliament to pursue a clearly demarcated

Why urban economicinequality?

Harbhajan Singh

course that would be conducive to social and econo:.mic uplift of the country as a whole.

When the framer,s of national development prioritiesembarked upon the experiment of democratic planningin the early fifties, they were clear about the goals.They aptly formulated, am(mg others; the two mainobjectives of the planning, that is (1) to increase pro-duction in oroer to achieve higher levels of living and(2) to reduce inequalities in wealth and income so that"the operation of the economic system does not resultin concentration of wealth and means of productionto the common detrimerit." It was envisaged that thedevelopment in agriculture and indu,strialisation of theeconomy would lay a firm base for future increase inproductivity and the emerging reward structure wouldbe largely equitable and, thus, based on social justice.In this connection it was thought that the 150 years'experience of industrially advanced econdmies regard-ing economic development and equitable distributionwould be of immense help and guidance. Alas, thisdream stands shattered on both the counts.

". ) Slow and misconceived growthThe pace of economic growth in India has been slow

and rather misconstrued. The comprehensive land re- "-forms have not been rigorously implemented. This wor-sened the situation for the rapidly growing poor. Thosewho do not have 'natural' access to work on land orother productive as,Setsare either forced to migrate tourban areas in s.earch of jobs or reconcile themselvegas landless workers. The gap between the owner far-mers and the share-croppers has suddenly startedwidening with the introduction of technological inno-vation,S by the former. rise in population pressureamong the latter and the phenmr.cnal inflation affect-ing both in sharp contrast.

Rural to urban migration largely takes place throughthe migrants' entry into the informal urban sector

Yojana, April 1-15, 198529 DPD/84-c2

••

7

because a very large proportion of these distress mig-rants are unskilled, illiterate and devoid of achievement- motivation. The bulk: of the urba,n population consti-tutiS the ignorant, illiterate, downtrodden, supersti-tiou,s and extremely poor people. Extreme poverty ac-companied by high incidence of unemployment andlack of any social security provision whats'oever, oftenconverts their poverty into a state of complete desti-tution._i:~~;li~.~The competitive characteristic of the urban infor-

mal sector provides more equitable distribution of in-come within the sector at an inadequate and stagnantstandard of living. On the other hand, the oligopolisticand privileged modern sector exhibits a very largemagnitude of economic inequality within it; The widen-ipg income differentials between the urban informalsector and the modem sector continues to cause adeterioration in the distribution of personal incomes.Moreover, the rules and the institutions which deter-mine how the people constituting the urban infomlalsector get work, are hardly operative. Largely throughthe efforts of their inmates they get em~loyed in man-ml, unskilled, irregular and casual jobs. Tn the lattercase, they work on daily-wage basis wherein neither thetenure nor the place of work is fixed and generallythey move from place to place, from jobs to jobs andfrom one employer to another in search of jobs. Beingmostly unorganised they face unstable' working condi-tions and are often discriminated against. The workoffered involves little on-tne-jobs training and, there-fme, even after years of experience these workers re-main totally unskilled-and, therefore, their future pros-pects remain bleak.

Inadequate employment statistics ofthe unskilled

Besides, in large scale manufacturing units, a nefa-rious practice has ~ome to ,c;tayin a very big way, that,is, a large proportion of the jobs in these factories areaccomplished through contractors who bring their Ownlabour. Although these workers may have continuous-. ly served the premises for long, they are never repeftedto. be. on the rolls -of ~he factory. Thus, the statisticalreturns submitted to the government departments, par-ticularly the Annual Survey 'OfIndnstrie~, remain gros-sly inadequate as far as employment statistics of the.unskilled labour arc concerned. Any accident, minoror fatal, befalling these unfortuna~e victims is none ofthe responsibilities of the managements of these units.Since these units deal with the contractors direct, theyrefuse to be accountable for such misllaps. Thus, theartefact to cover the day-to-da~ accidents and subse-quent legal-cum-laboUr complications thereof, spellsan inescapable doom far those whose precarious econo-mic conditions entrap them into this inhuman capti-vity. The situation gets further tangled on these labou-rers' accepting advance from the contractor in order totemporarily relieve themselves of tlle distress situationwhich are so frequent among these miserables of theurban informal sector.

s••

A little close to the gro,c;slyinadequate and stagnant,Jiving conditions of the urban informal sector startsthe lowest among the lower middle category beginningwith wayside vegetables and fruit hawkers and unskil-led employees working in the private corporate sector,government departments and public undertaking's. Theyare fcrlIowed by petty shopkeepers, small producers,primary school teachers, technicians, repairers, par~-engineering personnel, para-medical personnel, retaI-lers and small manufacturers,. A fairly large numberof these are self-employed. One dominant character-istic of these self-employed is that their earnings arean amalgam of the reward,s accruing to their labourand capital invested by them. They too are hardnp ascompared to the privileged category.

The state of privileged ones,The privilege category includes big entrepreneurs

and s'enior administartive, higher technical and pro-fessional employeees. They generally possess markedlysuperior education, training and experience. Most ofthem have undergone such training in the 'moderntechniques of production as are scarce and hencehighly rewarding. In the process of education andtraining at prestigious educational institutions andthrough mass communication media exposures athomes, most of them acquire scientific out-look, getsocialised and imbibe cultural refinements ..Because oftheir superior qualities, both of 'nature' as well as'nurture', they either engage themse1ve3 in or getselected for the top jobs. These jobs are not onlyhighly rewarding at the initial entry points but, alsooffer bright promotional a,:enues, better working condi-tions and more of security orten being reinforced bystronO' professional associations. By virtue C1f theirstatu~, wealth and political power they dominate inevery sphere of life. i •

In this category the entrepreneurs engaged in trade,commerce and m:mufacturing need special mention.Their continuous' prosperity dates back to the shortagesin the consumers' good during the days of the secondworld war and the partition of the country. Price con-trols were reinforced to combat these acute short-

, ages. The shortage gave birth to new shortages whichled to new price controls. Inflation stOod ;nmpant."''hile the controls stimulated large scale blackmar-ketinO' the inflation resulted in a direct transfer of in-comefrom the working class to the entrepreneurs andthe self-employed. Thus, economic inequality increased:The development programmes initiated durinQ the fiveyear plan aggravated economic inequality. The pr<1-cess of economic development entailing iduced COn-sumption and induced investment has widenedthe economic inequ'ality. In order to meet this addi-tional demand for goods and services, the cntrepre-'ncnrs who were able to undertake initial investmentreceived facilities and incentives to expano their unitsand thlus grew rich. Such as' did not possess the re-quisite capita! or did not do so slided back. Thus,the gap _between the rich and the poor furt.her wi-dened with the passage of time. '

Y0'lana, April 1-15. 1985

••Moreover the demand for goods and services creat-

ed by the flow of strikingly uequal incomes has drawnresources away from the production of essential con-sumers' goods to the prestigious luxury items. Theproduction of these items obviously requii'ed a higherdegree of mechanisation leading to a higher ~atio ofprofits to wages and a consonant pattern in the ratioof executive salaries to workers' wages. And thishas resulted in the creation of fewer jobs wih a givenmagnitude of investment.' Also the increased demandfor conspicuous consumption has resulted in, thecontinuous profitability of low priority invcstn:ent.

Ineffective controlsThe controls are generally not properly enforced.

This leads to new avenues for corruption, smugglingand blackmarketing. By bribing politicians, immunityfrom law is claimed. Tl1e entrepreneurs have beenevading taxes and excise du~y in a big way. Theyobtain licences, credit facilities and large number ofother, favl;)urs by bribing the bureaucrats and themembers of the mling parties at centre and states.The government policies have systematically andcontinuously favoured these and other professionalentrepreneurs. The black marketeers, sm~~glers,hoarders and other criminals have their politicalpatrons. So much so that they are received as impor-tant chief guests at the most prestigious social andreligious functions. There is no stigma, whatsoever,against these people. Thi,s is how the growing eco-nomic power is being captured to subvert politicalpower at all the levels-centre, states and local bodies.The entire economy thus. presents an ugly pictureof gross IrJsrule and miscons trued economic. planning.

Inst~ad of rapid and systematic agricultural deve-lopmentand rural reconstruction calling for suitableor~nisational, stmctural and institutional changes,substantial industrialisation by comI]Jissioning inter-mediate technology, the development strategy hasremained highly capital intensive' and urban-industryoriented, notwithstanding some ad-hoc and piecemealmeasures for poverty eradication, rural. reconstmctionemployment generation, etc. These measures leftmuch tb be desired. Moreover, import substitutionsyndrome, relative neglect of agriculture, llfphazardrural development programmes and colo.ssal wastageor' skilled human resources .led to further deteriora~tion in the system. The gradually expanding publicsector rcmained highly centralised and it has donelittle to change the distribution of income. On theother hand, it has been used by the vested intereststo reinforce their positions, and, thus aggravated -theincome inequality.

Ever growing inequality of incomeDespite significant growth in some sectors of the

economy during the post-Independence period, thereis little controversy ab0ut the existence, perpetuationand widening of economic inequality in the country,particularly in ,urban areas. It is here that the dyna-mics of change has most vividly been felt, The Report

- Yojana, April 1-15, 1985

of the ColliIcittee on Distribution of Income andLev~~ of Living remarks, "The Wide range of vari~-tion that one finds between the top and the bottomtenths of the population clearly reveals the existenceof concentration of economic power in the countryin its most' generalised form". The Fourth Five Year-Draft outline also admits, "Another area where oureffort has so far been feeble and halting; is in narro-wing the disparities in income and property owner-ship". A study conducted by the National Council ofApplied Economic Research ob.serves that the bottom50 percent of the h,ouseholds in India accounted for

. a mere 21 percent of income in 1975-76. In the sameyear the top 10 percent of the households receivedas much as 34 per cent of the incom'C.A World BankStudy based on the data collected from 66 countriesduring the period 1950~1971 corr:.pared the sharesof income accruing to the bottom 50 percent andthe top 5 per cent of the households. In India it was1~ per cent and 25 per cent l~~~ectively. The corres-'

- ponding figureI' for Pakistan were 28 percent and 18percent; for Bangladesh these were 27 percent and17 per cent and for Sri Lanka, these were 25 per centand 19 per cent. Hence, it appears that income ineqqa-lity in India is more acute than in the nei,ghbouriI)gcountries and the imbalance within. the country has,perhaps, steeply deteriorated during the last fewyears. Be~des, the earlier firm commitme~ts by thegovernment regardinp; "Justice, social, eeonomic andpolitical.. ... Equality of status and opportu~nity..: ... "are not only conveniently forgotton but even thehonest protestations about redistributive .lntentionsarc hardly made.

Econon:ic inequality is a complex phenomenon.There is the Gospel that .the economic inequality ispreordained and hence inevitable. Aceordipg to thisfatalist belief any autonomous reduction in it willbe short-lived. Others inclicate that the people canimprove their lots and social action can significantlychange their relatiVe economic positions. They believethat income inequalities are largely a consequence ofvoluntary choice under organisational, structural andinstitutional constraints within which an economicsystem operates. They, therefore, suggest tnat theeconomic inequality can be reduced only by changing.the social order. ,Nevertheless. the problem defies adirect scientific explanation. Factor~ governing thedistribution of wealth, income; and earnings varyconsiderably. Ability, chance, inheritance, education,screening of productive potential and the role oforganisational, institutional and technological varia-bles have been found to be related tQ earnipgs differ-entials in' the available literature on the subje<;t. Des-pite multiplicity of approaches adopted to examinethe causes underlying economic inequality, a reliable,systematic and comprehensiv.e exposition is yd toeC11l1eby.

The problem is so complicated that even if theattention is foeussedon income from work only,

(Contd. on page 29)

A case study of Mirzapur area

•

What price this develqpnlent ?

K.D. Nautiyal 'and G.N. Pandey

•

..

Many projects are being executed in ourcountry for the development of certainareas. The authors point out that thefamilies uprooted from the project areas arenot getting a' fair deal. They suggest thatall efforts should be made to see that the- ousted families are settled economically asw.e11as socially.

DEVELOPMENTAL EFFORTS being made invarious' regions of the country have both right anddark aspects. Bright aspects of the development relateto additional production, rise in incomes and higherconsumption patterns of people, while dark shadespertains to sacrifices made by displaced persons. Theyhave to change their occupational pattern and theircustoms and culture start changing too. Thf-se' in-tangible costs are hardly taken intO account while for-mulating projects and plans. S&'crificesl11adeby theinhabitants are also not compensated even after achi-eving a higher level of development and incomes be-cause of trade oirs in the economy in wbich strongerelements (sections of people) apportion major shareof development.

In the district of Mirzapur, which h&'s the distin-ction of locating prestigious high capital intensiveprojects like Rihand, Dam, Obra Thermal powerproject, HINDALCO, Churk and Dala Cement

10

Factories, etc. not only the people were uprooted but. also cultural thread was threatened. Interestingly, thearea is rich ih the av~ability of minerals, minorforest produce and other natural resources but theimpact of development on local people has not b.eento the desired extent and the local inhabitants conti- 'nue to remain. backward.

This is because overall per~pective of the econon~ydoes not give due attenHon to the sections of comnlU-nities and areas which are going to be adverselyaffected due to the development process. .

AdivasisThe present analysis is based on afield study of

adivasi area of the Mirzapur district. As many •.s 13Adivasis .communiti~s are found in the district, whoare (1) Kols; (2) Maghwars; (3) Kharwars; (4) Che-ros;. (5) Panikas; (6) Bhuiyas; (7) Dhangars; (S)Aga-rias; (9) Pahris; (10) Kirwas; (11) Patharia;(12) Ghasias; and (13) Parahiyas.--Although, these tribes have their own specialities in

respect of their traditional skills, social cHstoms,etc. and therefore should have been included ~.s--'scheduled tribes, have however beea. included onlyas scheduled castes in the censuses.

. Safeguarding local interestsThe authors of this paper on the basis of observa-

tions and interaction with the people; have come to (the c~ncIusion that the development that is taking'plaCe m the area did not take into consideration thespecific requirements of tbe people .. Theseadivasis

~ J

Y-<1jaJ1a,April 1-15, 1985

•

11

Unemployed (as a result of displacement) 22

NB : Figures1n parenthesis irtdicate percentages to the respectivetotals.

TableChanges in tile occupational pattern of adivasis in the

pr6ject areas

before. This situati9n can be corroborated from thefollowing table wlJ,en shows that the occupationalstructure has unde,rgone a serious change to the detri-ment of Adivasis in the Marzapur area.

• lOS (100.00) 83 (100.00)Total workers •

~Sl. Activity EmploymentNo.

Past Present

2 3 4

L Cultivator 62 (59.05)2. Agricultural labour 13 (12.38)3. casual wage e,arners in non-

30 (28.57) 74 (89.16)farm activities ; .4. Self-employed 3(3.61).5. Regular salaried 6 (7.23)

The table shows that agriculture sector has compk-tely vanished from the scene and the erstwhile culti-vators have now been reduced us casu&l labourers.The location of the project, interestingly, has madeabout 22 per cent of the working persons wholly un-employed. The Adivasis are now obliged to give uptheir professions and are left at the mercy of con-tractors for jobs. It was revealed that so far in thetwo projects, only a few persons could be providedjobs.

These people are illiterate, non-pushing and donot fit. in the comPetitive world because of historical,economic and social reas aus , Hence, they are alsonot wanted because they do not possess the skills are''required in the projects. In the casual 'employmentalso, mostly outsiders are provided jobs and the localAdivasis stand as mute observers of their plight. Un-less, the development takes into ac:count the socio-~onomic requirements 8f the displaced persons, newdevelopments may prove inimical to their interests.Advasis are free children of forests. They feel thejUngles as their own estate ane). rightly, therefore, .they feel that they have a right to the use of theforest products.

Forest produce like Tendu leaves, Choronji, Mahua,honey etc. _abound iIi the area. In a reccQt study, itwas found thd there is some exploitation of the Adi-vasis who were involved in the conection of tenduleaves. This is a seasonal operation spreadir:g overtwo months. An adivasi family gets around Rs. 6 aday for collecting Tandu leaves. The leaf which isused for making bidi is sold at a: very high cost leav-ing a wide margin of profit to the cODtractorlprodGc_

Yojana, April 1-15, 198529 DPD/84-3

have not only to compete with <1therpeople for theirliving but have also lost their value possessions suchas land, social harmony and peaceful environment.Two aspects must find attention while formulatingany schemes for ,'Uly cOlnmunityltri1x:.

1. The natives h~'ve their Qwn culture and customs.New developmental efforts should therefore be con-sistent with the customs and culture of the people.

2. The development programmes that may betaken up for the area should not dislocate the lifestructure 9f the people and lead to harmful" changesin their pattern of living and occupations.

The present study wa's conducted in two projectMeas of Mirzapur, viz the Anpara Thermal PowerProject set up by the V.P. State Electricity Board(UPSEB) and Singraul Thermal Power Project setup by the National Thermal Power Corporation(NTPC). These are big power projects with installedCapacities of 3130 MW and 2000 MW. respective}y.The land acquisition in these two projects was about53000 hectares involving 18 villages affecting 1281families :~

Adivasis dilemmaThe land was acquired at the rate of Rs. 4500

per acre. However. a plot of land was to be providedto every oustee for construction of a houlie. In thematter of providing employment to the displaced per-sons the provision was thus in th~ V.P. SEB projectthose who had lost more than 50 percent of landwere to be given priority in employment while in thecase of the NTPC the priority 'was to be given tothose who had lost more than one acre land and re-ceived compensation of less than Rs. 50,000.During the course of the study, it was found that

, in the NTPCprojeGt, out of the 24 displaced adi-vasi households. 13 families had no land w~~le ninefamilies had land b~lcw 1 ac..Te. Only 2 families hadland holdings between 2 and 5 acres. It means thataccording to the projects rules about 90 per Cent ?fthe displaced families in the NTPC project would notbe benefited from the recruitment policy of the NTPCproject. In the UPSEB project area also more or lessthe same story is repeated. Here, of ~he 22 Adivasidisplaced famili~s,. 9 had no land while 6 had land le5sthan 1 acre. Broadly this depicts the situation ofpoverty of adivasis. Due to the secluded life and nearsubsistence level conditions it is difficult to imagine thatthey will pull out. themselves from the quagmire ofpoverty. .

One cause leads to another. Poverty, diffidence,fatalism and illiteracy go. side by side. Even today,the Adivasis are mostly illiterate. Among the displac-ed persons of the selected families in the two pro-jects it was found th:lt as many as 95 per cent wereillitero.'te.

In such a situation, compensation would not pro-duce the same socio-economic situation as existed

. -- "

eer. The same degree, 6£ ~xploit::llion occurs in thecase of other minor forest prodllce also like Chironji,Anwala etc. These are purchased at a throwawayprices in the villages and sold at a high prices in themarket. .

Suggestion sOne of the main cause of exploitation is that the

illiteracy is so 'videspread among advisasis that alarge' number of them cannot even C9unt the small.amount of money they get in exchange of their lab-our. This exposes them to furthe( expl{)itation andmalpractices. In this smr.ll paper, however, it is- notpossible to discuss all aspects 0: the tribal economybut we hope soree suggestions would be relevant.

First, while formulating a project there should beadequate and clear cut provision for providing landto the displaced persons at suitable sites. Second,when weaker sections like Adivasis are displacf'd theproject should have schemes to educat~ and upgradethe people so that they may also be. benefited fromthe schemes of the project. The project authoritiesshould provide employment to all able bodied per-sons in their projects so tllat the displacej personsfe'e~that the project belong to them. It would not in-crease the cost much but the social benefits wouldbe very high.

Third, in the =a~~of minor forest produce. theprocessing plr.nts should be set up in the area itselfso that employment opportunities may be generated.in the area. It will also reduce economic costs ofthe' produce. Bidi making may also be ~ncouragedare()ng adivasls as a cottage industry. 'There is amplescope for processing the local minor forest produceon the cottage industry basis.

, Historical and religious places of these areas sllouldbe developed fndependently.

Fifth, thet'e is also need for stndyin~ the socio-economic fabric of different tribes of Adivasis withrespect to their traditional skills, soope. for resourCl'"based industries and the potentia1itie; for manpowerdevelopment of the tribes.. .Lastly, the terrain of Mirzapur and adjoining areas

call for specific researches for agricultural. and 'ani-mal husbandry operations.

Higher LTC businessTHE LIFE INSURANCE CORPORATION of

India Introduc;ed a new business of Rs. 3649.86 croreunder 18,72,604 proposals in individual assurancebusiness dunng April 1984 to January 1985. Thismarked an increase. of 20.3 in sum proposed over thatof the cO'Iresponding period of last year. .,The Southern Zone with an inttochiced business of

. Rs. 1142.88 crore and 6,27,394 proposals emerged12

,

on top, followed by the Westeln Zone with a businessof Rs. 818.25 Cfore and 4,12,511 proposals. TheEastern, Central and Northern Zones introduced anew business of Rs. 597.49 crore, 566.27 crore andRs. 524.97 crore respectively. The numqer of propo-sals introduced by these Zones stood at 3,32,832,2,73,567 and 2,26,300 respectively.

. Amongst the Divisions of rhe Corporation, BombayDivision stood first with a sum proposed at Rs. 351.08crore, followed by Calcutta and Delhi with sums pro-posed of Rs. 184.83 and Rs. 165.27 crore resp.:ctively.

In respect of number of proposals, Bombay Divi-&ionstood first having introduced 1,52,870 proposals"followed by Calcutta and Bn.ngalore with 1,03,987and 74,681 respectively.

Hyderabad Division has registered the highestgrowth rate in sum proposed with an increase of 42.6per cent over that of last year followed by Indore andAhmedabad Divisions with percentage increase of35:1 and 34.6 respectively. 0

/

Action against bla~kmarketers in 1984FOLLOWING SUSTAINED DRIVE against black

marketing and hoarding by unscrupulous personsindulging in malpractices in trade of essential com-modities such as wheat, rice, sugar, edible oils, cook.. jog coal, contrO'lled cloth etc. during the year 1984,8,677 persons were arrested, 4,8?4 persons prose cut-.ed and 1,072 perso~ . .convicted and punished bycourts under the Essential Commodities' Act, 1955which provides for the regulation of production anddistribution of 67 essential commodities.

According to the latest information available withthe Union Department of Civil Supplies, which co-ordinates and monitors action taken by tIle Statesunder this Act, over 2,58,230 raids were made in tllepremises of alleged unscrupulous traders, and essen-tial commodities worth Rs. 972.46 Jakhseized duringthe year 1984.

The Essential Commodities (Special Provisions)Act, 1981 bas. plugged the loopholes in the law andmade the penal provisions of the Essential Commodi-ties Act more stringc:.lt to provide, ~mong other things,for summary trials for all offences under the Act, ~tup Special Courts for this purpose and made alloffences non-bailable. • ..

Besides, in order to prevent unethidll trade prac":tices like hoarding, blackmarketing, profiteering etc.Prevention of Blackmarketing 'and Maintenance ofSupplies of Essential Commodities Ordinance was pro-mulgated in' October, 1979 which was later on con-verted inte an Act of Parliament in Fcbr;uary 1980.Since the enforcement of this Act, 774 'persons wereordered to be detained by various State Governmentstill December 31, 1984.

Yajana, April 1-15, 1985

,

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Floods and watermanagem~nt

Sreelekha Basu

More thim a tenth of our total area is proneto floods. To reduce the havoc caused byflood, water management has to be improvedwith the help of a sound data base, efficientdata communication system etc. The authoren:zphasises that we, cannot afford to staybehind in this crucial area w)zichis the key toaccelerated growth and self-sufficiency.

IN INDIA, WE HA VE to live with flood and 'drought. More than a tenth of our total area is proneto floods. The Central Government has been spend-ing Rs. 1000 crores on' flood relief. The average an-nual quantifiable monetary losses suffered due tofloods in India, have been estimated at Rs. 1200crores. The strategies needed to meet 'the deficiencieS!(in quantum and time) or to tackle the excess .ofwater availability during monsoon in different -regions,are different. But for ..•.both, it is necessary to assessthe water resources available (expectedl anticipat~d)and water balance' studies carried out for effectivewater management in the region.

Beneficial uses of our water and soil resources arethe most important aspects of co'mprehensiveriver-basin-planning, which leads to assessment of waterresources potential in the basin and creation of faci-lities for flood water storage, for irrigation reservoirs Ichannels, for generation of electricity, for meeting- thescarcity of wat~r in drought prone area.s! districts (byexploration in the area and by importing from sur-plus basins), etc. These would 'necessitate services ofwater m;magement exI1erts, for a-cpordinated-approacbin sortibg out problems relating to needs for flood pre-

.Views expessed are author's.

Yojana, April 1-15, 1985

vention, water conservation, drainage, irrigation de-mand, non-agricultural water requirement.. damagesdue to erosion, sedimentation, etc. for ' the deve-lopment, ~tilisation and disposal of water in the mosteconomically feas~ble manner.

It has been suggested by experts that a nationalwater grid. is the only answer to this and the .surpluswater of different basins should be used to augmentsupplies to the deficit areas. This would need properplanning, funds, organisation and a base information

,system (DBIS).

- Irrigation requirements.India has the largest irrigation system in the world

and the second largest irrigated land, next only toChina. Irrigated area prior to independence coveredo~~ 22 milli<ilnha, . compared to the present 60million ha. Our foodgralDS: production has gone upby about three times since independence. Croppingpattern has dive~sified and area under cash crops has 'recorded, s.teep lDcre~s~ at the cost of foodgrains.Av~ra~e .YIeld for lITIgated wheat and ,rice, (ourmam IrrIgated food -crops), are still very conserva-tive. -

!fthe total water resources available in our coun-~ry.is properly managed, we can irrigate mpst'of burIrngable 'land and also meet other water demands.Tbe total surface water resources in India has been~stimated at about 1500 MHFT, of which only aJittle~ver a third can be beneficially utilised, for consump-tive use. Presently, storage facilities of only about atenth of our surface water resources are availablewithin the country. Limited storage facilities for mosto.four riv~r-fl()ws, and particularly in two of our rnajar •n:ver baslDs (Ganga and Brahmaputra), inter-StatedIsputes. on water-sharingldam-heights e'tc. utter lackof d!scipline in th~ effective implementation ,of major,medtum .and n;ultipurpose (irrigation) projects, haveresulted lD avolda\:lle increase in the total cost of our

13

,\

•irrigation projects by three to five times. These havealso deprived us of an enormous quantity of agricul-tural products every year, which could have beenachieved if at least some of our internal disputeswere sorted out in time and impor1t.nt projects cOm-pleted within reasonable time limits.

National water gridThe concept of a "National Water Grid", envisag-

ing Ganga-Cauvery link was put fonvard by Dr.K. L. Rao in the early Seventies. It was then decidedthat drought-prone area~ needing water on a longterm basis should be idt:ntified along with the water-surplus areas, and a scheme for transfer of water todrought areas might be evolved. Later, Dr. Rao sug-gested that surplus waters of Ganga and Brahmaputramust be used to augment supplies to deficit basins, sothat semi-arid zones could b~ converted into food-yielding land, by providing irrigation water. He alsorecommended flood water detention in reservoirs,particularly in the river basim of U.P. ancl Orissa,as also increased drainage facilities in West Bengalto save crops from recurring floods.

r

Providing irrigation water to searcit" areas in theGanga basin exploitation of the Narrrmda basin inM. P. and Gujarat, providing storage facilities onSarda and Ghagra-Rapti-Gandak to save eastern' U. P.from floods and for conserving water,. water con-servation projects such as Tehri, Rajghat, Kisl:!an,etc. were a few of his plans to meet the growing de-mand of cereals and cash crops in ID-dla. _

Several other. compr.::hcnsive water resource deve-lopment projects had sinc~ been presented. The Gar-land and Himalayan Canal Project of Shri Dasturand several variations of that Scheme had. been putforward, by other Expert Groups. The gc;neral con-census had been that a national plan for the controlof rivers for irrigation and flood control should beevolved, for the beneficial uses of our water resources.The erstwhile Ministry of Energy and Irrigati9n(Deptt. of Irrigation), followed it up and prepareda comprehensive study on the availability of waterand feasibility of creating enough storage. A Na-tional Pers'pectivc df Conservation of Water and In~terlinking Various River Systems was chalked out.It was claimed that the National Plan (as proposed),was die most feasible and would confer the largestbenefits at most economic costs, as compared . to ,other _alternatives su~gested by expert groups.

Toe "National Plan" had aimed at mu1til?urposeand multi-objective d~vclopment of our water re-sources, keeping in vkw the benefits, of irrigation, landreclamation, flood control, hydro-power gen~ration,navigation, pollution control, fisheries developm~nt,etc. Domestic and industrial uses-of water as wen asuse of water for irrigation were given high priority.Inter-b'asill and int~r-stat.) transfer of wateI;.s wereenvisaged, k~epillg in view t1J~ needs of tn.e basins)States. In drought prone areas, water wns as~uff.d atleast for one crop, and while providing irrigtttion faci-

lilies to water-sc::trci~yar(.as maximum production perUilit of water was aimed at while fixing the w'"sterde-

.m~nd~ per h~. FlooJ control was acct:pted ~s ~ majorobjective. Soil.conservation, catchment protection andafforestation were envisaged as an iIitegral part ofwater development in upper catchments.

Subject to making necessary provi';ions for mini-mum needs of irrigation (consistent with efficientwater utilisation), where conflict between h••.dro-,power generation and imgal ion would arise: the' Planhad also aimed at maxh1UlU pow~r generation. TheNational Perspective mvisaged orily additional waterdevclo~ment and ase, beyond \vhat was already ffusi-ble within tbe ul)cLilal framewo{\ of all existing agree-ments betwcen ,.nj among the States. as also of theexisting treaties with the neighbouring countries.

The main aim was to increase tlle benefits to oneand all beyond th;:><;eprovid.:d by the existing agree-ments or treaties. Detailed outlines of the develop-ment of peninsular rivers were also prepared" suggest-ing ways and means of diversion of west-flowing riversin Kerala, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu,diversion of surplus water of Mahanadi and Godavari

. to water1short rivers (i.e. Krishna, Pennar aDd Cau-very) .and for irrigating coastal areas in Orissa, inter-linking of a few other west-flowing river ~ nQrth' ofBombay and south of Tapi (viz Ulhas, Vaitami,Puma, Ambia, Auranga, Dan;tanganga an.d 9th~rs)and interlinking of Ken -;yith Chambal (tributaries ofYamuna). ~

.Technical committeeIn 1976, the Government of India had set up a Te-

chnical Committee to examine the feasibility of east-ward diversion of the west flowing rivers .of Kerala

-and Karnataka, to Tamil Nadu and drought-proneareas of Karnataka. Assessment of surplus wat~r avai-lability was carried out in the four souther,.n mostriver basins of Kerala (Vamanapuram, bcpencoil,Kallada and Karamana), and in four river basins inKaranataka (Netravathy, Varahi, Mahadayi andBarapole). Ground water potentia~ for these. basinswere also assessed, along with water available fromregeneration flow. Simultaneous studi~s were c.QnQ!.Ict-ed to estimate the purrent water utilisation and new ,uses planned, together with anticipated deman4. in tbeforeseable future, both for consumptive and non-consumptive uses. .

Based on thes,c investigations, recommendationswere made by the Technical Committc~ about the sur-plus water available for diversion from Vamamipuram,Achencoil and Kallada basins of Kerala "and fromNetravathy, Barapole and Aghanasbi~i basigs .qf Ka;-nataka (the last one as indicated by Karnata~). TbeCommittee made various recommcndati0l1S 'on thediversion of surplus water, and ~nstructcd TamiJ Naduand Kamataka to frame suitao1e proposals for harnes~sing the surplus available for irrigating areas in theirdrought prone districts, to the cast of the Western

Ydjana, April 1" 1\ 198~

...

... Ghats. For Mabadayi basin, the Committee suggestedinstallation of two units of hydel power pl!int, of 70MW each, and irrigation of 500 ha in Mabadayi basinand further divert the surplus water to Malaprabhabasin to irrigate drought prone areas in Be!ga:~.

Thus for a few west tlowing rivers" the Qommitt~erecommended diversion of a limited quantity of waterto the east, as on account of the very short distancetraversed by these rivers (from origin to the coast),and the nature of the terrain, potential avai)al\1e weJenot being fully Ultilised. For other rivers, the Com-mittee suggested detailed studies to be conducted ona tin:e bound schedule by the concerned States. It wasal~ recommended that Tamil Nndu should .initiatedialogue with Kerala on a biIat~nl basis for,di~ersionof Kerala's surplus water to Tamil Nadu. ,T~s wasinitiated and some progress has already been achei-eved in 'this direction.

NWDANational Water Development Agency (NWDA)

was set up in. Jully, 1982 to give shape to' the outlineof National.Perspective for Water Resources Develop-ment. The NWDA follows up the work of implement-ing optimal utilisation of water resources in the Pen-insular Rivers, through constru:::tion of con-servation storage reservoirS of optimal capacityand transfer of water by a network of interlinks fromsurplus areas to water-short and drought-prone areasof south India. !

The scheme, when implemented is expected tocreate about 15 million ha of additionalirrigation potential in the Peninsula over and abovethe present assessment of 113 million ha in the coun-try, by increased utilisation of surface and groundwater resources. During the last two 'and half years,'the NWDA prepared yield studies at few sites inMahanadi and Godavari b~sins, llndertook studies onassessment of, surface and ground water potential invaridus sub basins,' collected detailed hydro, hydro-met, landuse and soil ,statistics from Mahanadi,Godavari, Krishna, Cauvery, Pennar, Vaigai, South-ern tributaries of Yamuna and from west-flowing ofrivers of Kerala, Mabarashtra, Gujarat and Kar-nataka.

Water resources, utHisatio;l and water balance stu":dies. have been conducted in the drought-prone areasof Telengana, Madhya-Maharashtra and Marathawadaregion, and in Rayalseema area and on a few sub":basins of Godavari. Surveys of west-flowing rivers,south of Tapi and nQrth of Bombay, as also of a fewtributaries of Yamuna and Ma:hanadi have 'also beenconducted. The main obiectivesare to locate po!>si-ble reservoir sites and inter-connecting links fa,raugmentation of water conservation, with special re-'ference to flood waters "and to transfer the surplusto water-short and drought areas. Detailed water m.an-.agement studies relating to quantum of watcr avail-.able in our Peninsular River Systems, which can betransferred to other basinsIStat,is, (after meeting rea":sonable needs of ~he concerned basinslStates), in the

Yoiana. Apri11-15, 1985Z9 DPDj84-4

foreseeable future, have been conducted by theNWDA.

.Flood studyFlood plain zoning in various flood prone sites- of

different river basins is very important for water. re-sources studies. Indentification of areas expo~ toflooding and determination of inundated land throughdata collected from various sources, including thosefrom remoty sensing' techniques along with determi-nation of areas under various land uses, to understandrelMion between precipitation and the resultant run-off, are integral parts of such studies. Flood proneareas undergo changes continuQusly, with every flood,'and. to understand these processes it is essential tomonitor the flood plains and record the changes overtime. Aerial photographs are the best tools for bring-ing out various aspects of flooding and for such moni":toring work. Flood menace can he reduced to a greatextent 'and the surplus water diverted for use duringdry -season (or to water-scarcity areas), if such moni-toring with the help .of a network of aerial- photo~graphsjdigital-data and data~ollected through con-ventional means are introduced on a routine basis. I

In any flood study it is essential to know the volumeof flood that has to be reguhted and diverted forstorage, to determine courses of flood control. Areainformation data obtained thro'lgh landsat along withwater depth data collected on ground will furnish thevolume information, with re'asonable degree of accu-racy. Remedial measures for water-logging of floodwaters. in depression areas can be initiated, mainlythrough betUer maintenance of existing drain'age s;yS-:terns and constructing additional link drains, culverts,etc. and also by impou~ding the excess water anddiverting it to water-short areas for beneficial use. I

Some experimental studies were initiated by theDeptt. of Science and Technology, under their Schemeon Natural Resources Data Management- System(NRDMS), in 1981, to make an assessment of themagnitude and reliability of our natural resourcesdata and for a timely access of an integrated 'andevaluated resource data base to our planners and de":cision m'akers. It also aimed to determine the rela..:tionship between ~ound features and their responseto remote sensing besides .selecton of effective samplesets for classification, for remote sensing data. Vari-'ous pilot studies were undertaken. One such study was'carried out in an intensive test area between R'aptiand Gandak in the eastern U. P. to assess the feasj..'bility of the application of remote sensed data b'ases.and others to planning problems like flood plain zon~inl!, land-use planning. surface and ground wa~eidevelopment monitoring of water 10gginQand salinitynroblems, air and water pollutio!l problems. estima-'tion of vegetal .covers, etc. along with evolving me-thodologies' for handling multiple data bases. 1

The studY on flood plain zoning- in the b'asins ofGha{ITaand Gandak was undertaken bv the Centre ofStudies in Resource Engineering (CSRE) of the lIT,

15

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Storapce reservoirs are the. best solution" for floodwater c(lnservation. But for. their high cost, reservoirsare usu2'lly not planned for :flood control only. Mostof our reservoir projects, do not lend themselves toearmarbd flood storage, and only some flood cushion.ing is aUowed. No provisions are usually made fOfantiwater10gging and drainage facilities in such pro.jects Only DVC, Baigul apd few other resrvoirs hadmade snme exclusiVe provffiion for flood control stor.age Rt"servoirs at Govind Sagar; Hirakud, RengalLUkal, ~fanchenbela, etc. are cases where moderationhas been achieved by suitablenreans;

, "Usually flood oontrol forms a part of our multi.

purpos~ projects, where it is only one. of the benefi.ciaries, However, multiple use of a reservoir implieswme compromise between the. interests of various(.Omponents, which are occassionally at variance withon~ arother. Multiple use of a reservoir inevitably re-sults i?l less ,benefits for any single use, but it reoalises maximum benefit for the project as a whole.Any moderated flood outflow must take into accountd1e saYetyof the downstream area as well.Reservoirs by themselves are seldom a complete,

.measure of floOd control. Inspite of their high costsand long gestation periods, if~reservoirs are taken upas p~ckage programmes, with other direct benefitsalong with flood 'control work •.•they would be eeono-mka1Jv viable and also ensure oPtimal utilisation ofwater ~hich otherwise goes w'aste.-Acquisition of landfor storage reservoirs is rather difficult. but the stor.age of :flood waters is also very important. Possible

A mechanism of communication of informationfrom the.source agencies in the field to the authorities,has also to be established. For communication, eithera radio network or a satellite network may be adopt-ed. Occassionally, a combinat1on of UHFlVHF andPost and Telegraph Leased network is preferred. How-ever, the choice sho:~ld depend on the nature of com-munication .required by the water management ex-perts, and the topology of the region. Transfer ofhydro-met data from field to the data cqntrol offic~,(usually locatdi at a major city), is done by surfacemail and through the telephone!telegraph systein.

BambIX)'. An' eleven channel Modular Multispectral These are n0t suitahle for effective management ofScanner (MMS) and an aerial camera were used for. water resourr.es and some sophisticate~ transmissioncollection of relevant. data and "ground'truths" were' network shol'ld be set up by the authorities handlingcollected in synchronisation, to correlate actual in- flood contro! J;lrojects.formation on ground with its response to remote •sensing by MMS and MSS. NCFGround truths were also collected before and after The Nati(mal Commission of Floods (NCF) had

the flight to study the drainage. systenis aud to ob:. sugge~ted 0.980) that me'as~res, primarily I for c~m-~erve hydrological behaviour of the various streams servatlOn (H:e small, medmm and large .reservoIrs, -m the. basins of Rapti and Ghagra. Computeri~d natural detf'lltion basins, ground water storage, etc.),-analysIs of the data were taken up and valuable in. which help m moderating run-otIs depending on theirterpretations drawn. Other pilot studies were also un- capacity, s10uld be the first to be considered, fordertaken (in the coastal and offshore areas in Goa and. :floodmana,?~ment in any basin. It had also been saidVisa~hapatnam, in some semi-arid regions of n. P that to the eKtent feasible (technically and economi.and m a few backward and tribal areas ill Purulia. cally), na1ur~l aetention basins and reservoirs mustKoraput, etc.) which have completed major portiol1' be considererl. as an important component in anyof !heir field surveys I investigations and are preparing, package of flood management, as it would ensure'theIr reports. The findings would be of imm~nse help maximum utilisation of the water. However, it hasfor developing networks of natural resources data been pointed, out that the intensity and' duration 'ofneeded for planning and monitoring of w~t7:rresource the rain a~d the runoff, and the resulting volume 9fprojects and other schemes. floods wonlrl play the most important part in deeid:

, \ , ing upon jf the , n'atural detention basins would serveWater management' the purpol1e of flood mOQeration, or special measures

,Floods mainly result from intense and heavy rain.. like emba''lkments, emergency f!oodways, river diver.fall du~g m<?nsoon,cloud-bursts, cyclones (m~inly in sions and' inter-basin transfers would have to be ad.the coastal areas), from landslides blocking stream opted. UI"regulated :floodwater goes' waste and causes-flows, and inadequate drainage systems. In ninety per .!mvoc at d miseries; ,cent cases, :floods occur when there is heavy precipita. Reservoirtion and the river overspills its banks m; the linkingchannels cannot c6pe with the water flows, or due tosome obstruction on the river bed' (siltation, laric;lslides,etc.). Drainage 'conSfstion, resulting from heavy rainsof some blockages, 'also cause devastating flood~.Erosion of river banks, defcrestation, sedimentation.water 10'gging, high seatides, inadequate waterwaysat rail and road crossings, encrolM:hments in floodplains etc. are some other causes of floods in India.The task of water m~~gemeni; in flood pro~e areas, ,basins needs in-depth investigations, data coliectionand validation, data ,analysis with the help of analyti-cal tools to facilitate quantitative modelling throughuse of data stored in the Information System. with aview to arriving at some optimal solution, which wouldprescribe some form of diversion and storage (byvario~s means). 'fhis would be adopted to even oui:the flow and also tet conserve Our precious water re-50urce for use in water-short regions and 'durir,g drySeasons. .

..•

16 Yetjana, April 1-15, 1985

storage sites, specially around water scarcity areas arenecessary to harness our water resources for beneficialuse. f\. sound data base and an efficient communica-tion system would be necessary for effective and timeefficient handling of our water resource planning pro-cess and for the follow-up scheduling, and monitor-ing activities. If the NRDMS project"pn multiple database approach to micro-level planning is successfullyimplemented, it would go a long way to sort dut ourdata gapsldeficiencies, as also in evolving 'methodolo-gies for handling such data bases.' ,

In this connection, a mention should be made of theCWCjDanish-Hydraulic-Inst (DHI) cooperation indeveloping, real time flood forecasting model (NAM),for accounting the runoff from rainfal). by computersimulation of hydrometeorological events, and rout-ing the -runoff by hydraulic model. DVC riv('T systemhas been taken up for field testing of the model..Another real time forecasting system has been install~ed in the Yamuna catchment area under a UNDPScheme, with the help of data on rainfall, tempera-tureand river stage. data. A master teleprocessor isprogrammed to coo["dinat~ the activities of remotestations. SSAR model used by the US Army Engineerand HEC- IF model developed by Hydrologic El1gi-neering Centre (California) are being studied fortheir calibration to suit the mini-computer (HP-1000), installed at Delhi for this work. With the imp-

. lementation of computerised telemetry system, newtechniques in remote sensing and automatic data ac-quisition procedures, river forecasting services wouldimprove considerably and wo'uld provide a tool forflood routing and rainfall runoff predictions.

Ground water studies"

A number ~ ground water studies undertaken bythe United Nations, the SIDA and the CGWB in ourvarious river basins hav'e made valuable recommenda-tions for wateJ\ resources planning, where artifichllrecharge of acquifers with flood waters has been look-ed into. !thas been observed that as a result of floodsand water-logging from seepage of e,xisting irrigationsystems, many areas in our river basins becomewater-logged,. permanently or seasonally. The reme-dial measures recommended include pump age and useof ground water in these are'as,lining of canals, bettermaintenance of existing draiqs and construction oflink channels, link drains and culverts. The UNgrQund water study in the Ghaggar river basin hadobserved that water-lOgging in the Suratgarh-Baropaldepression area could be controlled 'by reducing theGhaggqr flood water inflow into the diversion canalor by using the impounded water ~or irrigation. TheStudy suggested diversion of the excess flood water tothe sandy tracts in west Rajasthan and used therefor artificial recharge' of the phreatk acquifers. :Re-covery of diverted water, however, could be' startedonly within 5 to 10 years after the recharge scheme istaken up, TIS this time period was necessary to allow

Yojana, April 1-15, 1985

a significant fresh water layer to build up over thesalinated acquifers. The Study also sug~sted highefficiency irrigation methods (sprinkler and drip),in combination with lining of canals in certain 'areasfor higher crop productivity with small quantity ofwater. 0 (to be continued)

JI ..Home Computers for ~sians in U ,K.. .A PROJECT TO PROVIDE multi-language ver.

sions of home computers i.s being sponsored by Brad-ford Metropolitan Council in the north of England toserve the city's 62,000-strong Asian Community. Theproject, aims to provide computer programmes andkeyboards adapted to Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Bengaliand Gujarat! users.

The scheme is being run by Mr. Harnak Singh, Oneof the Council's computer Programmers, Faiz Nasir,a linguist and Urdu specialist. The council is fund-ing and co-ordinating the Project, but the actual workof producing the programmes has been delegated toinformation technology centres in Bradford andnearby Halifax, and, a computer firm in Lqndon .

Work has alreidy begun, On the Urdu and Punjabiword processors and a Urdu version of the Basiccomputer language.

•Mr. Harnak Singh said: "Urdu has not been typesetbefore, and we had to find out wh&t was acceptableto the consumers in Bradford, we intend to' producea word processing package, with basic standard faci-lities, for schools as well as for the home."

The programmes will be geared to the standardschools computer, the BBC Micro, so that childrenin the city's 200 schools can be given the opportunityto learn basic computer skills.

. ,.0'

Acorn Computers of Cambridge, Eastern England,say that work is underway in India to provide locallanguage programmes for the BBC Acorn computerswhich are expected tobe manufactured shortly underlicep.ce in India and supplied to a number of schools.

oMechanical ~cart helps farmers

MECHANICAL MULTI-PURPOSE cart called"Krishimitra" devised by the Director of ResearchFoundation in the Department of Science and Tech-nology, Government of India" is a blessing for theIndian f,,"rmers; This mechanical cart can diO' Dvehectar~ of land in a day and it can be used in all.other farm activities also. The price of this cart isapproxima'te1y Rs. 18,000. 0

17•

FJghth Finance Commission Report

Under the award of the Eighth FinanceCommission for 1984-89, the States will.receive Rs. 38,SOO crores from the :Centraldivisible pool of rr;venueby way of taxes,duties and grants-in-aid to help remove im-balances among them. This is Rs. 17,500crores more than the amount transferred tothe States under the Seventh Finance Com-mission during 1979-84. The Commissionhas done a fairly good job of its task whichwill ultimately help remove the imbalancesamong the States, sqys the author.

. THE EIGHTH FINANCE COl\tIMISSION hasmade an earnest effort to help deficit States with in-creased share from the Union excise duties. Theaward of the Commission which has been acceptedby the Government will benefit the States to theextent of Rs. 38,500 crores by way of taxes, dutiesand grants in aid during 1984-89. This isRs. 17,500 crores more than the amount transterr-ed to States under the Se, enth Finance Commissionaward for 1979-84

Modes of devoluti.on, The Government while announcing its .decisionOn the recommendation of the Commission in Parlia-ment has made it clear that it will co'ntinue with theinterim report recommendations for 1984-85 financialyear but will accept the final recommendations' for fouryears from 1985.

.The fiscal transfer .scheme accepted by the Gov-ernment confers on twelve States surplus of overRs. 26,000 crores. The States' share on Union ex-

18

Devolution of morefunds to. States

H. Seetbarama Rao

cise duties is being enhanced to 45 per cent from-40 per cent while the sqa~~ in income-tax h~ beenretained at 85 per cep.t. FIVe per .cent o! .exclse hasbeen earmarked for deficit States In addItiOn to thefive per cent annual growth in the revenue gap'grants of these States.

The decision pro\1des for substantial debt relief. including Write-off. Under the revised scheme,grants worth Rs. 808 crores will be given to 17States for upgradation of standards of administra-tion and to meet special problems. The Centrewill provide half of the annual margin money toStates for financing of relief expenditure. ,TheCentre's contribution to margin money will beRS'.A.81.50 crores. The annual comp-ensatory grantin lieu of tax on railway passenger..fares has beenenhanced from RS.~3 crores to Rs. 95 crores.

The recommendations of the Commission, as ex-pected, have drawn mixed reaction from States.While most of the States have welcomed the recom-mendations, some of them felt' that the Commissionhas not been fair to their demands. But the factremains that the Commission has tried to bridgethe gap between the chronically defk:':, States 3ndtnt; fairly better (',ff States.

Most of the recommendations suggested by theCommission have been accepted by th~ Governmentexcept a few that have to be still considered. Theyincluded suggestions to merge surcharge with basicincome tax from 1985-86, setting up an expertcommittee for~the allocation of cost collection, bet-ween incometax and corporation tax and tQ imposepenalties and interest on 3lTearS in the divisible poolof incometax. ' . .

Benefit to States:'Ten States will benefit through the Con:mission's'

recommendations that grants in aid to deficit Statesafter devolution should escalate at the rate of fiveper cent per annum. These deficit States are Assam,

Yajana, April 1-15, 1985

Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur,Meghalaya, Nagaland, Orissa, Sikkim, Tripura andWest Bengal. Rajasthan has been assessed to bein deficit for 1984-85 and 1985-86,.. th~reafter goinginto surplus. On the other hand, six States will be insurplus before devobtl'Jn. 'Ihey arc Gujarat. Haryana,Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab and Tamil Nadu.The remaining five States-Andhra Pradesh, Bihar,Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh-willcome into surplus after devolution,

The grants contemplated for the deficit Statesare for them to cover their non-plan revenue gapssuch as for the payment pf Additional DearnefsSAllowance instalments to bring the DA of StateGovernment employees on par with that of theCentral Go\ernment employees.

Taking into account the additional DA liabilityand the annual escalation the deficit States will be-come eligible for a grant of Rs. 1,555.83 croresduring 1985-89 as a result of the recommendations.

The Cominission also recommended grants for theupgradation of standards in administration in nineareas. They are police, education, jail, tribal ad~ministration, health, judicial administrCition, districtand revenue administration, training and treasuryand accounts administration; Grants aggregatingRs. 914.55 crores for this purpose will go to 16States, barring' those in surplus. before devolution.Of this amount Rs. 808.08 crores will be distribut-ed in the period from 1985 to 1989.

Debt reliefThe Commission recommended debt relief to the

States varying from 20 per cent to 85. per cent ofthe non-plan capital gap as assessed by it. •Thequantum of money as debt relief recommended - isRl;. 2,285.39 crores through the consolidation aridres~heduling of outstanding loans and by way ofWrIte off.

This debt relief is in addition to a relief ofRs. 117.08 crores involved in the non-paymeBt ofsmall savings loans in 1984-85 recommended in theinteriin report and reit~raled once again.

The Finance Commission award will result inuniform formula for distribution of States' share ofexcise diuties and income-tax. The Centre willcontinue to contribute half of the annual marginmoney to States for financing of relief expenditure.

Linking devolution to deficitsThe Commission has recommended that five per

cent of the net proceeds of Union duties of exciseshould be set aside and distributed. to those Stateswhich ha\c deficit after taking into account theirshares from the devolution of taxes and duties asp~oposed .by. it. This iJ;ltroduces a new principle ofduectly Imkmg devolutIon to deficits rather thande~ling with them only through grants' in aid underartIcle 275 of the Constitution. While recognising

Yojana, April 1-15, 1985

that there could be different views on the merits ofthis principle, the government has decided to acceIJ'tthis recommendation without creating a precedent.

,The Commission has- provided a five per cent

annual growth in the deficit grants purportedly tomake them buoyant. The Finance Commissionfound theexis!ing financing arran,gements of reliefeXIJ'enditureto b.e basically sound.

At present, 85 per cent of incdme-tax except the .portion representing the proceeds attributable toUnion Territories and the Union e)D,oluments,is dis-t,ributed among the States. TIle share of the Statesis retained at tbe same ievel. The inter se distri-bution among the States is partially altered by dis-tribution of 90 per cent of the States' share on acommon formula for income-tax and excise duties.Ten per cent of the States'. share 'is distributed as atpresent on the basis of contribution measured byincome-tax assessments attributable to a State.

Excise duty on electricity was abolished fromOctober 1, 1984. - The Commission has recom-mended that the share of each State should be equalto collection in or attributed to State.

., Additional excise diltiesThe entire net proceeds of the additional excise

duties on sugar, textiles and tobacco excluding theportion attributable to Union Territories, accrue tothe States. The Commission has recommended thatthe additional excise duties be distributed amongStates on the basis of equal weightage to State do-mestic product and its population.

The Commission estimated the gross non-plancapital gap at Rs. 6806.19 crares. It has not re-commended any relief for the repayment liability ofRs. 1992.90 crores arising during 1984-89 -out of~he me,rlium-term overdraft clearance loans aggregat-mg to'Rs. 2242.12 crores.

The -Commission has left them outside the schemeof debt relief. It has recommended that during1985-89, the small savings loans should be repaidb:f .the States as per the prescribed terms and con-d1tIonS. . Excluding small sa,,:jngs loans and over-draf~ loans, the Commission has estimated the netnon-plan capital gap of the States at Rs. 3852.64crores.

In making its rec')mmendations., the Commissionwas directed to have regard to the consideration suchas the resources of the Central Government and thede:nands there~n on accoilnt of civil administration,derence and border security debt servinO"and other~ommitted liabilities. The' Commission 'bhad madeIts recom.mendations within the parameters and haddone a fatrly good j?b ()f its task which will ultimatelyhelp to remove the Imbalances among the States in thecountry. 0

(Courtesy : All India Radio)

19

•

TOWARDS SOCIAL REVOLUTIONa Case lor Economic Democracy ~VASANT SATHE

\

A Serialisation 15

The Alternativeof the policies and programmes announced by thejrgovernment. It would be the duty of the representativeor repre~entatives of the financing institution to ensurethe proper utilisation of the 'tinances advanced orinvested.

The remaining o'ne-third would be representativesof the entreprenem, i.e., the conceiver of the industryand also its organiser. The entire working force wouldbe organised on a pattern in which there are managingcommittees from the top level to t~e shoe-floor leveland persons are assigned tasks for which they areaccountable.

Although the basic structure of salaries and wageswould be fixed, other benefits, which would be substan-tial, would be linked entirely to prOductivity. Sin~ethe entire labour force would know that there is noqluestion of anyone manipulating the real surplus orch~ating in any other manner and all its memberswould have a full stake, they would evince ,interestand confidence in the succes~ful working of a plantor industry on which' their livelihOod as well as better-ment would depend.

The market mechanism of demand and supply andthe resultbJg pricing system form one of the greatest

In our model, there would be no employer-employee inventions of mankind. A just and equitable economicrelationship because everyone who puts. in la,bour organisation and policY should take advantage of it.would be a shareholding partner in the organised But what tends to mak~ the market and pricing systemindustrial or trading sector .. The shareholders would, unjust and greatly iniquitous are two major deviationsannually elect their representatives' from among them- from ideal and democratic economic norn:s. One devia-selves to the board of management who would re- tion; on the demand si<re,is the serious' maldistributio'llpresent the three basic categories, l}amely, managerial, of income and the lack of purchasing power on thetechnical and non-technical. part of millions of people, who, therefore; cannot,

express their real needs in terms 'Of market demandand cannot caus~ or provoke the supply mechanism toproduce and supply those real needs. The otherserious deviation, on the s'upply side, whic.h distortsthe market mechanism and nearly makes a totalnonsenSe of it, is the emergence of monopoly (a singlesupplier of a particular ,item) or oligopoly (or fewmarket-dominant suppliers ot that item). Such mono-polistic or oligopo1istic suppliers can and do lJo!cl,thesociety to ransO'm by restricting the supplies, charging

•THE BROAD PICTURE of the national'economic

scene that would emerge from our model in the pro-ductive arid distributive fields would be of onehomogeneo'us national sector. The artificial division ofthe entire national economy into the public sector andthe private sector would be abolished. The O'nly twonatuLal sectors would be the organised sector and theself-employed sector. .

The number of representatives of labour .would beo'nc-third of the total number of the memhers onthe board of management.

The other one-third would be the nominees of thefinand'al institution, the party in power at the Nationallevel and the party in power at the State level. inequal proportion. Thus, thl': representatives 'of thepeople wou1cl be involved in every organised industryto participate in and to overs'ee the implementation

In the economic model proposed heie, the presump-tio'n is that the entire labour~in the form of (1)entrepreneurship and organising capability, (2) anintelligent studi,ed contribution by the scientific,engineering and technological experts, (3) managerialskills developed by some members of society and(4) technical, clerical and unskilled potential of theother members-would work cohesively as equal part-ners and, in the very process of production, the surplusgenerated would be paid eq'uitably, though not equally,to each category. The chief criteria would be to meetthe minimum requirements of a decent living for thelowest category and then to determine w.hat bettercomforts anc~, to s'ome extent, even luxuries, can beoffered to those whose labour is more skillr-d or re-quires higher qualificatio'ns On their part.

•

20 Yojana, April 1-15, 1985

The. author has been in the trade union movementfor mo;e than 30 years and has throughout believedthat the workers can play a positive and responsiblerole in management, because they have the real .andthe highest stake in the success. of the industry to •which they belong. A well-known 'offset printing pressin the priv,ate sector can be cited as an example. ThisU'Ilitwas closed down for mO're than 15 months due toa quarrel between the partners'. When it was takenover under the Industries (Development and Regula-tion) Act, 1951, the workers not only accepted a cutin their wages in the form of reduced dearnessallowance, but alsC1cooperated with the managementin bringing up the unit to the trading profit. level withina period of less than six months.

and effective representation in the board of manage-ment at the highest level has not been accepted, evenmentally, by the authorities concerned .•

In India, although we talk of the objective of haviiH;a socialistic pattern through planning and althoughthis was spelt out in the first 20-Point Programme. inthe form of allowing participation of workers in themanagement, in effect, throughout the entire processof production there has been hardly any effort to give The author's next experience was with a majorreal and effective participation to the wcrrkers in public sector undertaking, the Durgapur Fertilisermanagement. Some half-hearted efforts have been made Plant. Again, this plant had been closed down in 1982in the nationil1ised banking sector in the form of, due to a labdur-management dispute lastin!! over eightnominated members' from amongst employees on the, months, causing a monthly production loss wO'rthboard Jt management, but the concept that the workers imillions of rupees. This unit had two maior unions,should be treated as partners and should have equal one belonging td the Marxist school of thought and

, With these two major corrections for oligopoly andmaldistribution of income,' the just market forces willcome into their own and then the markets can bebetter trusted to settle prices and costs at equitableand fair levels-with demands more corrctly represen-ting genuine needs and 'Supplies more responsive todemands, rather than being restrictive. With thetripartite arrangement in the n:arketing and productivefields, it should be easily possible to intrdduce anyfurther corrections or improvements in the price-and-cost structure in order that essential commodities arewithin the means' and purchasing power of the lowerand the middle strata of workers and income-earners,

prices totally out of line with costs and reasonableprofits, colluding with # each other to allocate marketsto each other and use other foul means of reducingconsumer welfare and increasing their own. Whenever this topic has been discussed, one alwaysHence, the maldistribution of income and the exis- finds a reservation at the back 0'£ the minds of those

tence of monoPQly-oligopoly are the chief enemies of . in authority. They somehow believe that the managerialan equitable market mechailism. But in the economic class is essentially a, superior variety consisting ofdemocratic system that is being advocated here, both people who are born and bred in higher culture, edu-these evils can be taken care of. As the representative cated mostly in public schools and preferably haveof the Government, financial institutions, workers as had their higher education abrO'ad. It is felt that it iswell as entrepreneurs will sit on the board of directors this class' which must essentially be at the highestand the various committees, it will not be possible for echelo~s of management in the public sector. In theany vested interest to take decisions to restrict prO'duc- private sector the same feeling prevails among the in-tion, step up prices unfairly, enter into black money dustrial class. Unfortunately, this seems to influencetransactions, purchase inputs as more than market pri- even the politicians in power. Everyone seems to feelces from friends, relatives and other colluding parties, that the wO'rking class' is somehow inferior, both insell the product to such colluding interests at more than' quality and understanding, and, therefore, does notwarranted prices (thus accumulating black earnings), deserve to have a place in the board of management,underinvoice or overinvoice exports and impO'fts and It is felt that if the ,workers are given such a position,indulge in other such malpractices. In particular, the instead of .being helpful, they would be a hindrance tokey oligopolistic. practices restricting production and decision-making, particularly when decisions have tocharging unduly high prices. will be ruled out. One be taken on buying equipment or setting up projectsmajor imperfection of the market will disappear. involving millions of rupees.. .

Secondly, it will not be possible in Such a f~Ily re- It is !)'urprisingthat these very people usually agreepresentative and democratic organisation to pay unduly to give a p&"ticipatory role to the workers in sick units,low and exploitative wages and salaries', On the other which are not making profits, because they feel thathand, workers' unions need nO't demand wages and by giving the workers a share in the management itsalarIes out of line with productivity, as that, while it will make them more responsible and even goad themwill raise their wage momentarily, wilIcut the com- to make sacrifices in their own interes,t to pull thepany's profitability and reduce their own profit in their .industry up and bring it dot of the red. But thecapacity as shareholde,rs. Income distribution and moment a unit becomes profit-making and viable, the •. purchasing power will certainly be equitable and this ,very peO'ple revert to the belief that the workers mustwill take care of the other imperfections of the market not have any voice in the management, particularly atmechanis'm. . the highest level.. Somehow, this hangover. of the

capitalist culture of economics, maintaining the basicdistinction of employer and emplO'yed as separateclasses, .is accepted as a basic premise.

Yojana, April 1-15, 1985 21

, another belonging to INTUC,which has. the sameideology as that of the Congress party. Bo~ unionswere at loggerheads with e.ach other, but both wereagainst the management. Hence, the deadlock and thestalemate. This author held consultations with themanagement, with officers of his Ministry, with theleaders of both the unions ~nd ultimately went to theplant personally and called a joint meeting of all theworkers and made a p~oposition to both the unions tohave two of their representatives on the managingcetmmittee of the plant and told them that this manag-

. ing committee had full and final authority in allmatters relating to the working at the plant. Both themanagement and .the workers were told to take up thischallenge and run the plant as a joint effort. Seriousapp.ehensions were felt abo'ut the success of this ex-periment by many people, particularly at the top levelof the management. However, it has been a matter ofgreat gratification that the plant not only r.esumedfunctioning, but started showing record pro'duction intermS' of capacity utilisation within a period of threemonths from the date of its commencement and topro'Ve that this was not just a matter of initial exube-rance. this trend has -been sustained for nearly a yearnow. During this period, the plant whic)1 even at itsbest, prior to September 1982, had never reached acapacity lutilis'ation of more than 40 per cent, hadachieved capacity utilisation exceeding 90 per centduring some mo~ths and O'll an average pf about 80per cent till now. Moreover, during this period therehave been no ins'tances of disputes or clashes either-inter se tbe workers or between the management' andthe workers. Thus, if ever pr<1ofwas needed of whatparticipatory Tole of workers can achieve, this is it.But if there is no will and if faults have to be foundbecause somewhere the ve~ted interests get affected,then the:e at"e numerous ways' to hinder the much-needed change. .

A major and catastr<1phic instance in recent timeshas been that of the textile industry of Bombay, whichhad been closed down for over two years renderingabout 200,000 employees idle and ca\1Singa produr-tio'll

)oss running into billions of rupees during this period.The main reas'on for the showdown in the textileindustry has been the insistence on the part of themanag~ment, unfortunately supported by the govern-ment, that only a particular union will be treated asthe recognised union. This union is not willing to haveits membership or its credibility and support amo'ng theemployees judged On any democratic criteria. moreparticularly that of an election by secret ballot. . Itins'ists that it should be recognised by some s<1rtofverification dl1ring which it expects to be favoured bythe government because of its political allegiance.

It is this which has been die bane of the entire ~m-player-employee relatio'nship in thi" country. As longas this union had some credibility among tbeemployees, the relatiO'nship between the employers andthe employeeS' did not come to a crisis. But when theso'~called recognised union lost .its credibility and was

22

not willing to establish itself by any d~mocratic method,'the matter came to a serious break. As a result thewhole industry was thrown in turmoil by a prolcngedstrike. It is therefore imperative to decide thin in thepresent pattern of employer-employee relation, theonly rational way of establishing a bargaining agentfor the employees must be in the forll]. of electing thatbargaining agent periodically, say, every two years, byseciet ballot among the employees of the concern. TheIndustrlafDisputes Act will have to be suitably amen-ded to achieve this objective. There cannot be anyconvenient alternative to circumvent or by-pass thisfundamental need. However, in the model envisaged inthis thesis a'll economic democracy, the entire workingclass force will be partners in the form, of shareholders,each holding a nominal shal e and they would annuallyelect, from the respective categories of employees be-longing 1<j managerial, technical and non-technicalclasses, their representatives on the board of manage-ment (IS partners. Hence, there would be no cause orneed for having tr~de unions !under this stlucture andit will obviate the need for having a bargaining [LgentHad this philosophy been accepted and adopted in thetextile industry or even if the bargaining agent hadbeen deciaed by way of secret ballot, this author isconfident that there would have been no textile strike.

Even now, when we are thinking of a sO'lution, anda taKeover of the closed mills has been ordeled, Iwou1d sincerely suggest that the units should adoptthe proposed model wherein the workers will betreated as shareholders and partners in the new units'and will have an effective voice in their management,so that where necessary they will have to ag'ee to makesacrifices in the form of rationalisation, reductio'n inthe complement as well as improvement in productivityand modernisation of the plant. This can be achievedonly creating a total feeling af belonging and participa-tion among the working force. Unfortuantely what iscalled nationalis'ation often only means either bureau-cratisation <1r statism, where the personnel of themanagement are nominated ~y the government and the.exvloitory philosophy of employer-emvloyee relation-ship based on mutual distrust co'ntinues to prevail andplague the industry, as indeed has been witnessed in theentire nationalised textile sector and many other. so-callea nationalised units.

The suggested model gives full scope for the indivi-dual initiative of the entrepreneurs. It would providethem with attractive returns, bo'th for their skill andtheir investment. The financing institution would alsoget a fair return. However, the net surplus generatedwould always belO'ngto the State, which represents thepeople as a whole. Hence, there would be no likelihO<1dof a few individuals amassing the surplus and con-trolling it themselves. Since the surplus in the organisedsectOr would automatically belong to the State, therewould be no question of taxing the organis'ed sector.Thus, most of the sources <1fgeneration of unaccountedmoney would disappea: at the root itself.:

Yojana, April 1-15, 1985

In the unorganiscd or self-employed sector, thedistributlve mecnamsm orgamsed tllIo'ugn tile nanonalmaIKetlllg orgall1sation would enabl~ th~ ~tate to konwat ali POllltS01 time tne exact margJJi 01 prout ana tneincome that a prIvate producer 0'1:.trao~{ may l1~vemade in a particular economic actiVIty. 111CrelO~e,bycolleCting indirect taxes the State c~~ take a share irOlil ,the surpl~s generated by the seil-empl?yed or un-olganised sector. Once the members of tJlls secto'1:havebeen provided with adequate purchaslllg Po.WeIto mee,tat least their basic reqwrements and 11 they reach alevel where they can produce better goods and contfl-bute in the form of better ~rvices, they can be en-couraoed t<>save a portion ot their surplus or ttle samecan b: collected indiiectly in other forms.

The producers and distribUtors ~ougli the nationalorganisations would annually .fixP~IceSof ~ cons~merg<>odsbringing about a proper panty of pnces betweenthe raw material and the end-products. Care can betaken in this regard to deliberately remove the im-balanpe by increasing the pri~es of, ~griculturlli. lawmaterial and at the same time, ~UbsIdIsethe p.nces ofessential co~er products like foodgrains andediblaoils by pegging goods <>fcomfort and .luxury at hIgherprices. _. ."

It is fundamentally wrong to think and treat theentire private sector as consistin& of exploite~s ~ndanti-social elements and the public sector as havmgall God's g<>odmen. This attitu~e has an. overa:ldemoralising effect on the entire SOCIa-economIcfabncof society.

On the other hand, if the entire economic sector is _treated as a nation~l sector and an in-bluilt mechanismof self-discipline introduced, tbis would not only ins~il ,a sense of national patriotism and self-confidence Inthe entire people but would also galvanise the nationaleconomic activity.

With widespread productive activity. and with fasterand larger resource generation, we would be able toundertake even gigantic projects like the linking ofnational rivers by employing millions of young p~rsonson a semi-voluntary basis with a national patriotIc zealfor a nation-building crusade.

Once large-scale employment opportunities. arecreated in ail regions of the cottntrj, this' would enthuseyoung people in the national endeavour fo~ ~~onomicswaraj and they would turn away from dIVISIvean?fissiparous tendencies which today threaten to endangerboth unity and democracy. .

Then there is the problem of regional imbalance .tl1at.bas t<1be tackled under a.llY ecOnomic system. In theproposed system, there would be an automatic econo-mic growth in the countryside, affecting beneficiallythe entire rural population. This, CO'mbinedwith posi-tive efforts, can be made to encourage the setting upof industries in regions where there has been no indl.ts-trial growth. This can be done by applying article

Yojana, April 1-15, 1985

371 of the Constitution to all Statcsin the country.The emphasis here need not be only on big industriesbut a.J.so llldeed mOle so, on labour-mtenslVC, smaH-scale and cottage industries capable ~f pr<>vidinglaig~remployment. Thcre are some produc~ like m~atureelectronic ooods, watches, electncal applIances,bicycles, ma;h1ne tools, drugs.' cO~1I1.eticsa~d chemicalswhich have no int.~mal 10catlOnal constralllts and canbe located practically anywhere. TheJ:. ,are also notdependent on heavy supplies of e~ectncIty or .water:Positive incentives can be given for the locatIOn 01such industries in 'no'-industry' regions right down tothe village level in the form of (1) duty and taxrelief, (2J training to the local pe_ople in technology,(3) supply of raw material at preferential rates and(4) organising the malketing of the products. TheCentral Government or State Governments canprovide incentives in the form of a moratorium fortwo or three years by not questioning the source <>finvestment, provided it is made in setting up newindmtdal ventures in these 'no-industry' regions. Alittle unorthodox but more p.<>sitiveincentives' wouldhave to be deliberately devised if people have to bepersuaded to set up industries. in these regions, Th~State Governments and the Centre can provide infra-structure facilities, proper transpdlt links with urbancentres' alld entertainment and recreation facilities(e.g., TV and playgrounds) to attract the entrepre-neurs. With a sufficiently powerful and positive drive.it sh0uld not be difficult to develop these regions. Andonce industries have b'een established, they w<>uldgenerate a cumulative effect of circular causation inopening these areas' fOr further development

A positive effort must also be made to divert indus-tries from indusL ial metrop<>lises where they arcconcentrated at present. Again, this can be done bygiving incentives to industries' to shift to underdevelop-ed and backward regions. The most important factor,dr coUrse, is marketing of the goods produced, and itshould be eff<frt, which is the whole object of thisthesis, to develop the dispersed population as the icalmarket hy coverting thi needs into econO'mic demandthrough proper purchasing power.

Every person enga&ed in economic activ!ty must bedeemed to be engaged in national activity and cannot"claim to be divorced from national interest. Hence,although. individuals would have full freedom to engagein economic activity of their choice, they would baveto work in harmony ~th <>therforces engaged in. thateconomic activity as well as in harmony with the:interest of the whole s'ociety.. This harmony would bewoven inta the economic structure itself and wouldnot be imposed from above.

Very often, in developing countries like India. nmis-conceived concept of s<>cialismhas crept in. Atone time it was thought, for instance, that nationalisa-tion of a partic'ular industry and placing it in the handsof civil servants would eliminate its exploitativecharacter and thus achieve a socialist objective. How-ever, in practice, it has been experienccQ tl1at the so-

23

called ,nationalised sector, known broadly as th~ publicsector, has provided greater scope for economic in-efficiency. heavy losses and a drain on public reSources.The simplistic d~nunciation <1f the entire private sectoras exploitative, anti-national and capitalist andculogising the publi:; sector managed by paid servantsin the name of socialism and therefore sacrosanct, haveproved to be a highly disastrous feature which hassomehow cast a spell <1n 'the. entire economic system..' \

The original concept that a mixed economy wouldlead to the growth of both the infrastructure industliesin the public sector (requiring heavy investment) andthe industries in the private sectOr dealing with end-products has unfO'rtunately been belied. This isbecause in the so-called public sector, there was atotal lack of' accOuntability and even elementaryprinciples of economic management were, not followed.The public sector was dominated by men brought upin a file-oriented bureaucratic culture as against th"result-oriented industrial culture. As the public moneywhich was 'invested in this sector was no one's moneyin particular, there was no anxiety about its loss.

While overall inefficiency has been the chief ailmentafflicting the public sector, the private secto"r's recordhas been even more dismal and has done the countrydamage. The private sector's growth has been reflectedin a fe~ large busines's houses taking away the majorshare and many small and medium industries develop.ing in the ancillary field, most of them catering to theneed of the comparatively small, .urban-o'rientedmarket, emulating' the pattern of the consumeristsociety in the West. It is here that, due largely to theimpractical concept of taxation and also because of thegrowing constraints imposed on the economic activities"in the form of tules, regulations and orders which haveproliferated, probably a thousand fold since Indepen-dence, the temptation to evade a taxable income grew.Unfortunately, this result~d in a various circle of tempt-ing the government to put more constraints,which leadto the creation of greater avenues of corruption.

The scheme of treating every economic sector as anatio'llal sector and binding it within the framework ofeconomic democracy is therefore envisaged to pull theeconomy 'out of the stagnating and suffocating clutches

, of the present economi<?pattern. There cannot be anyhalf-hearted measures, and very citen we deceiveourselves when the same machinery suggests somecominittees or commissions which come up with somewindow-dressing pr?posals, but, in effect, nobody reallywants to bring about a structural change. The vesteuinterests in the present system are so powerful and sowell entrenched that it is virtually impos"siblefor evenwell-meaning popular bodies to bring about any real~an~. .

Theoretically, the scheme of economic democracyshould be welcomed by all those who believe in freetm,terprise as under this system there would be hardlyany constraints placed by tne government and theeconomic activity would be practically free frO'm the

24

quagn:t1re of ru1es and regulations. The policies andprogrammes wauIa b~ ~volv~d mainly by people en-gag"'ti ill, and knowledgeable about, theIr .respecuvelleJ~ in inuustrialof commercial activIty. 'ful? ec~no-nllC activity w~uld b~ free fr()ID regular bureaucraticconstraints Qr inteIference., The structw:al change,brought about by this pattern would ensure the balanc-ed growth of the whol~ country by providing pIO'ductiv~employment!O the entire wOlk-worthy pop~ation andby creating adequate purchasing power as well asmarketing facilities. Everyone engaged in prodluctiveOr distributive activity would be ass'UIed of a tairreturn by proper pricing policies annually formulatedby tIle representatives of the producers, distributorsand the consumers as represented by the government.

To formulate policy guidelines would be' the mainjob of the gO'Velnment as the representative of thepeople. But the actual implementation would be left •to those who know the job and who have the necessaryexpertise.

This concept of economic demo'cr~cy ih which tlleentire economic a{;tivity would be under one nationalsector, therefore, envisages a peaceful economic revo-lutio'n wherein the unemployed manpower of thecountry would be harnessed for productive pUlposesusing the rich available natural resources of the coun-try. The whole concept of the growt~ rate calculat,~by the financial and budgetary monetarists would ~underio' a substantial change and the grow,th rate ofthe entire national product can be greatly in~reased,which, in turn, would generate much greater surplusand capital, ensuring further speedier g:owth of theentire country .. It is' unfortunate that while' we haveplanned for a 5. per cent growth rate, in effect, thegrowth rate has been only 2.5' to 3 per cent. Routinefiscal and monetary' metho'ds have been t: ied, andalthoughtl},ey may serve at times as palliatives, thebasic problem of the growing imbalance and gap bet-ween the rich and the poor 'cannot be plugged by theseclassical methods.

The one drastic solution could have been a totalCo'mmunist revolution, but ~ society steeped in tradi-tion and religion cannot eas'ily go in for this revolution,and although such a revolution may solve some econo-mic prO'blems, yet, it would also mean the loss ofindividual freedom.

. 'f!1e situation has been summed up by Raul Prebisch1D hIS learned work, "Towards a Theorv of Change", inthe following words : •

.....•.. there is every justification for this an'xiety toexplore new paths" in peripheral development.

"\Ve have made a decided break with ned-classicalteachings; nor do we find the key to our process ofchange in Marxist theory. For the former, the problemof accumulation resolves itself of its own acco'rdthrough the unrestricted play of market forces. And forMarx, accumulation was a spontanedus and systematicresult of capitalist development. The peripllery had noplace <1nhis intellectual horizon.

, YC1jana, April 1--15, 1985

International Yonth Year---_.--

Youth .In RuraldevelopmcntG. Narayana Reddy

Rural youth lack. opportuniti~s for organi-sational activities and guidance for parti-cipation in developmental tasks, says theauthor. He feels, at the moment what isneeded is the formation of a National YouthPolicy. Due recognition should be given toyouth activities at the national planning levelas an effective instrument in translating thepolicy provisions into concrete developmentaltasks. .

THE UNITED NATIONS have designated theyear 1985 as the The International Youth Y~ar(I.Y.Y.). Its theme is "Participation, Developmentand Peace". 111 response to the U.N. cail, the Govern-ment of India is already in the process of constitutinga National Coordination (.;ommittee which will COn-sist of representatives of Mate Governments, CentralMiuistries and ,voluntary Organizations. In' thiscontext. it was felt desirable to review the extent ofyouth involvement In .rural development. This willfacilitate wider discussion on some of the cmcialissues of olanning and programming for effectiveinvolvement of rural youth in the development pro-celIS.

Rural Youth constitute a numerically dominant,potentially resourceful and adventurous segment ofthe population. Unlike urban youth who are mostlyeducated. organized in many forms and have accessto facilities and institutions meant for youth seA/icesmral youth are mostly illiterate and are controlled bythe heads of their. families. They lack opportunities

r for organizational activities and also lack guidance forparticipation in de~eIopmental actildties. Youth from

Yojana, April 1-15, 1985

. .

larger villages (not to speak of smaller J.mes) have. more scope to organize youth clubs; but in theprocess, these cluhs turn out to be either socio-cultural organizations or political party units. Various

. reports indicat~ that the youth clubs, Which wereconceived on the pattern of 4 H clubs of westerncountries, have either failed to duplicate the valuesand activities of their western counter-parts or theywere proved incapable of designing the indigenoustype of clubs in India (Allibanda, 1980). Though ruralyouth ha~e various fields of activities, they have notbeen involved and mobilized to contribute their mio-httoto the development process. This was due to variousreasons such as,~ackof nation-wide youth programme,lack of appropnate network for youth organizationslack of training and guidance, lack of inter-dep'art~mental or sectoral coordination and lack .of adequateyouth organizations and programmes in mraI sector.There are two possibilities for a total mobilizationof rural youth for development: (1) to formulate aNational Policy for Youth and build up a mitionwidenetwork. of youth organi~ations and. training centres ;(2) to lDvolve Voluntary Organizations in a largescale to organize rural youth, and they be fundedtotally ITom thy Union and State budget allocations!or you.th acthljtfes. This ,article deals with the aboveIssues and suggests a radical approach to involverural youth in various developmental activities.~

Socio-economic Features of Youth

In inaia, the youth pOf7ulatio~in the ao-e-groupof1~-35 is about O'l1e-thirdof the total po;ulation. OfthI~age-group, nearly 20 per cent are urban youth'whIle the remaining 80 per cent are roraI youth~If we take the income distribution of the families~?e youth represent the .same highly skewed distribu:hon pattern of opportunities as of general population "for education, health, housing, employment and other

.25

••TRYSEM : PHYSICAL PROGRESS (1979-82)

sour~e: R~ral Development Statistics, N.I.R.D., Hyderabad1983, p. 7.

The major training centres fOr youth include GramSevaklSevika Training centres, Farmers'. TrainingCentre, Krishi Vigyan Kendras, Agricultural and

by the Central and Stale Governments in' India arebia~ed in favour of the urban youth. The variousvoluntary youth organizations that have come upin the last few decades cater mostly to the needs ofthe urban youth. For example, the Y.M.C.A..Y.W.C.A., various units of University Studentsassociati<1Ds',youth hostels associations, boys apd girlsscouts, etc., all cater to' the urban-educated youth.Even the schemes such as N.C.C., N .S.S. and SportsCouncils have educated urban youth in large numbersas their beneficiaries. On the other hand; in ruralaxeas, the only organizations that exist are youthclubs or the yo'ung farmers' clubs which are scatteredand lack communi~tion channels and proper gui-dance in their activities. The Department of YouthServices, in charge of youth activities in rural areas,seems to have made no impact whatsoever,' though

. it has a sizable amount at its disposal. Eve~ some oftlie officials confess that they don't have proper.programmes for rural youth except funding youthclubs for furniture and buildings. They have not come.up with any sort of projects that can be nm on asustained ,basis by the youth clubs. Taking the advan-tage, many political parties are making use of theyouth power in villages to further their own interests.The most neglected lot are 'the rural young girls whohave only the vision of getting married at anearlier age.

.,. Realizing these weaknesse~ in youth programmes,.the Government of India. has formulated a massh::eprogramme for Rural Youth called as TRYSEM'(Training Rural Youth for Self Employment), whichis intended to mitigate the rigours of unemploymentamong the rural youth. It is intended to train atleast2,00,000 youth in a year covering -2,600 blocks. Inan average about 40 to 50 youth were expected to becovered in every block under TRYSEM. Aftertraining they are given credit through nationalised,banK<; and are supfX'rted periodically through gui-da"nee and advice for their units of production. Thefollowing table ghes an idea of the physical progress.made in TRYSEM between 1979 and 1982 :

34.131.146.1

13.745.682.6

No. of persons

40.2122.6179.0

Trained Self SelfEmployed employed

as % tototaltrained

Year

1979-801980-811981-82

SI. No.

1.2.3.

services (Mathur, 1981). The widespread illiteracy,specially in rural areas, un~mploYlllent u1ll0ng educatedyouth, crisis of ideology, lack of proper guidance,lack of access to organizatiom and services meantfor youth, "brain drain" of educated rural youth tourban areas, wastage of time in'delinquent acth'ities,are .some of the major problems faced by the ruralyouth. Added to -this are the early age of marriagefmd dowry system, especially affecting young girls inmral areas-t -

A study on activities of rural youth conducted bySalvi and Rade (1967) reported thus: (1) One outof four youth was an -illiterate; (2) most of the ruralyouth were engaged in farming; (3) reading andradio-listening were the main leisure-time activitiesof majority of youth; and (4) educated-unemployedrural youth had more leisure-time than lHiterate farmworkers. Similarly some rural studies have reportedthe early age of marriage as a serious problem forgirls, leading young girls into adult responsibilitieswithout prepar~tion. Chitta Ranjan (1974) hasreported, that: (1) the youth of the present timeare losing moral calibr~ and personal integrity;(2) they are interested in acquisition of power andwealth; (3) they are easily' prone to violence androwdyism; and (4) they are misused by the vestedinterests, especially the political party leaders. These.are in general some of the problems faced by ruralyouth today. .

Youth in the National MovementLooking at the historical antecedents, we find very

interesting facts abouj: the imblvement of youth inthe national affairs. In the pre-independence era, youth.played a' very dynamic role in the national strugglefor freedom. Realising the potential resources amongyouth, Gandhiji had trained and mobilized educatedyouth to move into villages and spend at lea-st two tothr4".e hours in literacy campaign which was prescribedas l'l duty for them. The youth also undertook social:"ervices. campaigned against untouchability, freelymixed with tbe down-trodden and even cleaned theirsettlements to teach them the importance of cleansurrounding for maintaining better health. However,most of these youth whom Gandhiji had invohied inrural services were urban educated and rural youthinvolvement was negligible. Similarly, Nehru en-couraged youth activities to a large extent. Thiswas followed by the emergence of Sanjay Gandhi asa national youth leader in India. However, the youthwork took political oolourin the years after Gandhiji'sdemise. To a large extent at present youth areleaderless, divided and are without any ideology fortheinsehbs.

Urban-biased youth programmesAlthough the urban youth constitute only 20 per

cent of the total youth population in India, thevarious youth programmes developed and supported

26 Y~ana, April 1-15, 1985'-

other Universities, industrial Training'" Institutes,State institutes of Rural Development and the selectedVoluntary Organizations. However, this prograJPmeis yet to make an impact in rural areas. It IS reportedthat faulty identificatlon of beneficiaries, lack of equip-ment and te~lillical support in the Training Centres,elaborate credit granting system in Banks andcorruption, are some of the major reasons for theretarded progress of the scheme in rural areas.

Need for massive mobilizationin the light of the abundant potential resources

that youth possess, the absence of necessary organiza-tions and 'channels to tap these resources prompt usto think of a better means of utilizing the availablemanpower resources. At the moment what is neededis a nationwide youth programme and not a palchwork here and there. The first and foremost thingthat the planners and decision-makers ha,'e t~ do isto formulate the National Youth Policy and set upa National Youth Council. The absence of thesehas been the ground for many a convincing and con-venient excuses fbr all the weaknesses, -loopholes,manipulations, inadequacies and half-hearted attemptsthat have been spearheading the youth progran:mes inour country. The National Policy on Youth shouldemphasize"for a due recognitiqn of youth activities atthe national planning level to combat the accumula-ted deficiencies and should bean effective instrumentin the process of tran~lating the' policy provisionsinto concrete de'f'elopmental tasks.

The present top-down approach does not seem "todeliver the goods. Hence there is an acute need tochange the approach and strategies for mobilizingrural youth. Some experiments made by Voluntary"Organizations as well a:> youth groups reveal thatthe youth at the gross-roots level should first bemobilized" and then broaden the movement to coverthe whole youth population. Ther'e are variousreasons tbat may be envisaged for organizing the localyouth groups first: (1) programmes at village levelare less costly, involves les~; administrative expendi-ture and needs -less complex organization; (2) localprogrammes facilitate many youth to participate;(3) an inventory of local talents and use of localr~sourccs pro~Tjdesself-confidence for youth; (4) thelocal bodies can become training centres for thefuture leadership to support the development pro-o• grammes; (5) these qctivities not only help youthto utilise their leisure tjme in a better way, but alsocan become tools of 'sociai change (Chakraborthy,1978; Allibanda, 1980). " ,

To support and ad\1ce the local level' youthorganizations, there should be Youth Training Centresin every block with necessary equipment. and per-sonnel, apart from the already existing trajningcentres. A cadre of Youth Service Officers may betrained and deployed at each block to further facili-tate the training and organization of the rural youth.

Yojana, April 1-15, 1985

"

They can also work as liaison officer to coordinatethe youth programmes of various development depart-ments. Sonie of the Voluntary Organizations whichhave tried iliis approach have reported" tremendoussuccess in organizing youth and motivating them toparticipate in various developmental aspects. Thisindicates that there should be a massive involvementof the existing Voluntary Organi~ations as well asencourage new Voluntary groups to supplement theGovernment programmes f~r youth.

The review Group set up by the Government ofIndia in order to prepare for the International YoutllYear, should examine these aspects and advise theGovernment On making the programmes more mean-ingful. The National Coordination Committee andthe Advisory Committee on' International YouthYear must examine and plan the programmes keepingin view the needs, priorities and aspirations of differ-ent categories of youth.

Role of youth todayRural Youth at present are no more stagnant and

isolated as they use to be in the past. Now they areemerging as a big force in every walk of life. Startingfrom universities to the national political affairs,youth are becoming a dominant and powerful lobby.Various factors work towards facilitating theemer-gence of rural youth in the modern context. Thesemay be envisaged as (l) Penetration of politicalparties and greater politicization of rural youth;(2) increase in the use or mass media and the deve-lopment communication infrastructure in rural areas;(3) increase of educational institutions and educatedyouth in rural areas; (4) influences of urbanizationand industrialisation; and (5) increasing attentionpaid to youth groups as a result of tJlleir physical_strength in sports and cultural activities (Chakra-borthy. 1978; Sinha, .1967).

Viewing this situation in the light of the "SocialMobilization Through Institutionalization Moder'; putforward by Deutsch, Huntington and others (citedin Reddy, 1983), one can visualise the crisis that thetaral youth are undergoing at present. Rapidmodernization and social mobilization tend to pro-duce social, economic and psychological dislocations,'distortions, rising exp~ctations and a sense of depri-vation. To tackle these problems, creation of newinstitutions is a must .and "if a government" fails tomeet the increasing bvrdens put upon it by the pro-cess of social mobiyzation, a growing population islikely "to become alienated and disaffected from the

" State" (cited in Sigelmall, 1979: 208). In a situa-tion which is characterised by weak institutionalisa-tion, the complex interaction between social frustra-tion and lack of mobility opportu1]lties result inviolent and disorderly participation; while in caseof strong institutionalisation, the Qutcome will beorderly participation of youth in developmental activi-ties (~~ddy, 1983). Hence it is necessary that we

27

vocational training, improved nutrition and healthcare, new employment, opportunities, social andrecreational activities, forums on village and arealevel problems, leadership and character develop-ment, etC. Youth clubs can also invite importantextension otlicials and have regular discussions withthem apart from involving them in- educating therural masses. The club can also run a mini rurallibrary as a means of maintaining their own intellcctualstimulation. Keeping up with current events it can~lso subscribe for a newspaper. These are in practicelD some of the youth clubs.

Socio-cultural activities:Youth clubs in most villages are involved in socio-

cultural activities in a better way than in otheractivities. The youth club centres are becoming placesfor rest and relaxing. They are the congregation~entres for many youth in villages. Apart from taking. lllterest to celebrate religious processions and festi-vals, they can also take greater interest in sportsmeets, social work and community action for removalof social problems in villages.

TRYSEM activities:Along with proper identification of beneficiaries,

youth clubs can sponsor youth for acquiring skillsrequired for setting up self-employment units, invillages. They may, as a community project, alsotake up income-generating schemes WhICh can befinanced by the Banks. They can help in the inven-tory of local needs and can act as a link betweenthe patrons and the beneficiaries, thus helping thescheme and the youth to progress.

Leadership d~velopmcntPerhaps creation or development .of. responsible

young men and women, who <lre ready to accept thechallenge <lnd r~sponsibility of leadership, may bethe most pertinent task today. In view of thedeteriorating situation of. leadership values ancIshortage of charismatic leaders in many local institu-tions, it is very imperatiVe to develop a cadre of youthleaders who can replace the selfish, power greedyold junk in village organintions. The new breed ofleaders should be trained in group work and publicrelations and they should bl;: kept away fromfactionalis'm and self-seeking interests. Tn realisethese ideals, the clubs can bc the starting points andsc1ected youth may be given extensive training incommunity work, leadership training .camp~, karning-by-doing projects and through discussions <lod expo-sure to new areas of youth <lctivities. In order topromote leadership training among youth, it is neces-sary to have effective organization and supportstructures for youth clubs as suggested above.

create social institutions which can serve as instru-ments to provide emotional continuity and stability,entertainment, economic fulfilment and offer a kindof conviction to youth to take steps to ensure theirpresent standard of living and to possibly increasetheir prosperity (Allibanda, 1980).

Without some significant and regular youth pro-grammes at the village level, it is diffLcult to expectan orderly Farticipation of youth in the developmentprocess. Many scholars have pointed out the variousroles that the rural youth can undertake throughYouth Clubs in villages. These can be classified intosix categories as follows : (1) Agriculture and alliedactivities, (2) Education, (3) Socio-cultural, (4)TRYSEM, (5) Leadership development, and (6)Social action and Crisis management. Various rolesthat youth. can assume under each of these categoriesare _ discussed below: 'I

Agriculture and allied activitiesThe rural youth, male and female, because of their

family and community background in farming, areactive partners in various agricultural activities. Sinceyouth are recognised as effective "agents of change",tbey .can help in the process of dissemination andadoption of modern techniques and methods ofagriculture and can take active part in the removil1of resistance to innovations among rural people.Youth clubs and their members can take active rolesin agriculture and related activities such as adoptinginnovatiO'ns by thems'elves either in a community farmsite or in theIr individual farms, holding demonstra-tion camps, training farmers in crop protection,giving a helping hand for extension. officials, takingpart in soil conservation, and' tree plantation orsocial forestry and developing rural industries' suchas bee-keeping, sericulture, poultry, animal husbandry,pisciculture, etc. As. a community project, tbe .clilbmembers can grow cash crops. in its communitybased plot, either contributed by, the members oracquired through the Block Develop.ment Office, anclmake nioney for other socio-cultural activities. Someyouth clubs in Karnataka have successfully adoptedthis scheme. They are also involved in maintainingservice equipment such as sprayer to be hired forneedy farmers. These activities not only serve thefarming community but also can improve clubs' fundfor community activities.

Educational activitiesYouth clubs could be a means of har.nessing

literacy and skills of the young people. Since oneamong four rural youth is found as anil1iterate, itis time to concentrate on improving literacy rale

• among the youth. The educated unemployed youth,who are found wasting their time in villages, maybe drawn into the adult literacy scheme. The youtheducation and training is very important in ruralhuman resource development. Such an improvementmay be made in many fields sU,chas basic education,

28

CrisisRural vouth

recognized by a

managemenCand social actioninvolvement at present may bepassivity i~ which effort is 'either

Ycrjana, April 1-15, 1985

youth groups withutilization of . local

totally absent Of is unable to produce a course ofaction. Not in a position to move with the socialtide, there i~ a collective drift among youth at present.Hence, there is a .need to direct youth for a purpose-ful striving with specific goals for accomplishm~nt.It is necessary to create awareness of the relatIvedistance between the present state and the ideal amongyouth. They must be mobilized -and purposefullydirected along a conscious path toward a specifiedend; oniy such concentration can inspire the fullnessof performance and intensified action.

Youth when mobilized collectively can be aneffective force for disaster management. In calamities.like floods, droughts, cyclones, fire and road acci-dents, d?mage o( water tank and bunds, etc., youthcan take active role. They, as a social force, canactivel" work for eradication of social evils such as

J '.alcoholism, dowry system, etc. In fact, as a collectIveforce. youth can put a check on arbitrary and anti-social actions of vested interests in Panchayats aswell as government machinery. Many youth clubsare reported to have undertak?l1 this kind of workand succeeded in checking the prejudices and corrup-tion among the official machinery.

In conclusion, it may be said that th~ momentumof youth participation is gaining imFortance with thedeclaration of International Youth Year-1985. Butthe effective participation of rural youth may notbe possible unless the following factors are consi-dered seriously while planning future programmes:

Formulation of National Youth Policy anda National Youth Coordination Committ~e ;

Creation of nation-wide rural youth pro-grammes;

. Mobilization of localgreater emphasis onresources;

Creation of a cadre of youth officers. andprofessional staff to train YOllthand to work

•.in rural areas;

Establishment of a net-work of youth train-ing centres all OV0r the country and bringabout effective coordi'nation among variousdepartinents and institutions concernedwith .youth work; and

Involvement of voluntary organisations. ina massive way in the youth programmes.

~---------- .(COJltd. from page 9)

that is, earnings, the intricacies of the phenomenoncannot be accommodated in a pic1tlsihle invesHgativeprocedure. Entrepreneurial incomes, income of theself-employed, earnings of the salaried employees andworkers'. wages are not only different from one an-'

Yojana, April 1-15, 1985

other by their very nature but are also generallyaccompanied by a varieties of mon-etary and non-monetary perquisites and fringe beneftts, other com-pensations and psychic returns. A suitable measure:of all these are required to be taken into account forany meaningful analysis. All this' is easier said tbandone.

No proper official data of personal -income

. A major reason for there. being no study dealingwith the causes of. income inequality appears to bethat hardly any official statistics -about personal in-

'come distribution are complied in India. The decennialcensus are quite indifferent in this' respect. TheNational Sample Survey do not usually collect thisinformation. They, in their 17th round and 32ndround in the block entitled "Employment and Unem-ployment", have attempted to do so. However, theearnings vary from region .to region . largely beca~seof the labour n:arket customs and practices of payingu~equally in the form of pay and allowances forexactly. this same job performance. Moreover, theirsample of households for one single region is so smalland heterogenous that hardly any meaningful analy-sis pertaining to a casual study covering the mainsources of income inequality is possible. Though SomeUseful studies are available regarding the pattern ofincome distribution in the country as a whole littleattention has so far been paid to such a topical issueof primary human interest as caUSes of the distri-butioI). of unequal rewards in spaces where theyhappen to be aciutely unequal, that. is, the urban areas.

The nature and the magnitude of the problem isthus, apparent; the need is to understand the variousforces strengthening the economic drift. Formulationof a suitable income policy with some sort of socialsecurity measures, cannot be postpon~d inde-finitely. A detailed analysis of the structure of en- .•trepreneurial income, professional and occupationalearnings, incomes of the self-employed and rewardsfor those operating in the lower middle class andurban infonnal sector, in whatever cnpacity, meritsa detailed jnvestigaton fpr allowing the system togenerate and maintain such magnitudes of economicinequality as are conducive to reasonably rapid pac~of economic developrr:ent under democratic planningarid for offecting social justice.

'------_ .._---._--- -- ---_.-

(Continued/rom page 24)

But by raising the bogey of Communism, are wegoing to allow the continuance of an economic patternwhich would perpetuate the stranglehold of a capitalistsystem Or a structure where a few alO'ne continue toperpetually exploit the many ?

Next issue : The alternative (continued)

29

•

Why non-formal education!G. Ravindran Nair

If the formal education system as nowprevailing cannot meet the needs of all thesegments of population, then some othermethod has to he devised so that the '[eft-outs are not denied education which is soessential for human develop'I1ent. Non-formal education is one such system that canmeet the requirement. This is non-tradi-,tional, non-hierarchical and non-elite-preser-ving method says the author.

IF LEARNING WERE DEEMED to take placepurely within the milieu of schools, it might wellfollow th::rt well over half at the world's presentpopulation knew nothing at all. No doubt childrenreceiving formal education will, constitute an in-creasing majority of the under 17-population, butthe absolute numbers of out-of-school children and

• youth ,vill continue to expand as' in the past. Thebasic question rcmmns: will the formal educationdispensed according to determined curricula over agiven period within a stmctured educatonal esta-blishment like school. college or university meet theneeds of, all the segments of population ?The Union Ministry of Education has launched a

countrywide system of non-formal education tocombat the high rate of' drop out in elementaryand middle schools. About 63.1 ocr cent of child-ren in the primary stage and' 77,' per cent at the. middle stage have dropped out of schools. in recent. years.

What does it o~er?In the non-formal system of education, both .the

non-sta'fters and drop('uts are offered the same pri~mary and middle level courses on a condensed andgraded form with tlX/O'to three hours' daily instruc-tion at places and timings suitable to their conveni-ences. This non-formal education offers enoughflexibility in the curricul~m: the stress would be ~n

30

developing comPetence rather than on theoreticaland academic propositions. The curriculam is basedon national needs such as population education, na-tional integration and inculcation of moral values.

Major ThrustThe majo~. thrust of non-formal education has

been given in the nine educational!y backwardStates of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Jammu &Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, UttarPradesh and West Benga-l which account for eightyper cent of non-enrolled children in the country. TheUnion Ministry of Education has been extendingCentral assistance to these States on a 50 :'50 basisunder a Centrally-sponsored scheme fOr non-formaleducation programmes.' Grants' have also been.made available to other States and Union Ten-ito-ries to innovate experiments and projects in non-formal education.In the broader perspective, what should be the

scope of non-formal . education? In view of thehigh rate of illiteracy, the agrarian state of the econo-my and persistent rural unemployment and under-employment, coupled with the non-im'olvement ofthe people in the socia-economic development acti.-vities, it is quite possible to enlarge the dimensionsof non-formal education. In. f::ret, non-formal educa-tion, like family planning, could assume the forma people's movement that would change the entirelifestyle of the mass of people s1.i1lgroping in thedarkness of ignorand. Apart from providing secondchange of learning to those who have missed formalschooling, non-formal education sho.uld enable therural puor, within the programmes of integrateddevelopment, to acquire useful knowledge, attitudesand skills. It can take the form of functional literacy,vocaotional training, recurrent education, lifelongeducation and instmction via the media. .

Target groupsTaking into consideration the experience of other

devclQping countries. the target' groups of non-formal education could be enlarged to include (a)children in school who require cO'nsolidation of their. education; (b) women; (c) children and male adults

YC1jana,April I-IS, 198~

•

•

Power industry well equipped

Why education 1People need education to acquire a broad base.

of knowledge, attidudes, ~:alues and skills on whichthey can. build in later life, even if they do not re-ceive further formal education or instruction. Sucheducation provides the people with the potential tolearn, respond to new opportunities, to adjust tosocial and cultural changes, and to \ participate inpolitical, cultural and social activities .. As societiesdevelop, education becomes a necessary conditionfor the ability of the individual to identify with theprevailing culture.

A developing country like Guatemala is utilisingnon-formal education for the promotion of primaryhealth care. Rural health technicians, graduates ofthe technical high schools are training volunteervillage health workers.

To perform their jobs these volunteers need edu-cational techniques and materials that they can usein. theh.'communities. With the help of technicalauthorities they hm;e developed village-level healtheducational materials like visual aids, games andskits that present issues and knowledge abouthealth. To encourage villagers to improve theirdiets, they have drawn up a series of c11arts thatgive nutrition information using pictures of locallyavailable fooPs and food preparation methods. .

~--------------_._------------

THE POWER SUPPLY INDUSTRY in the coun-try hall achieved the capability to have annmil addi-tion in installed capacity to the tune of 3,000 MWwill be required during the, Seventh' Plan.

'While the capacity addition in the Sixth Plan periodwas 3,000 MW a year it was 2,000 MW in the FifthPlan period. An additiOn of over 4,000 MW wasachieved in 1983-84.

who have never been to school besides dropouts.Non-formal education would. be treated as a boon

by the large mass of illiterate people if it tenqs tosharpen the skills of the lay people, making them,economically self-reliant and helping them contributeto welfare of the society as well.

An overall education system helps learners tomove within it, both horizontally and vertically,and widens the range of choice available to them.Tms underscores the need for non-formal educationwhich must be integrat.::d as part of the overall edu-cation process, providing learning opportunitieswhere formal' education i" not yet available, andcomplementing education and enriching it at alllevels wher~ it is provided. Non-formal educationshould provide basic functional education andshould remove the educational deficiencies of drop-outs from formal education and place them in themainstream of further education.

Finally, it is nectssary to ensure that every indi-vidual is motivated to keep learning throughout hisor her life if he or she is to continue to contributeto the progress and development of a changing EO-dety.

Complementary or alternativeShould non-formal education be complementary to

formal education or should it be an alternative ? Ananswer to this question lies in a deeper analysis ofthe merits of both the systems. First, the basicmatter of formal education-literacy and numer-acy-ean be equally well dispensed under a non- • Educating girls thrt'ugh the non-formal educa-'formal system which, in addition, is geared more tion process may be one of the best investments afully to the needs of society and of the individual cquntry can make in future economic growth andtrying to find his place therein, Thus by adding non- welfare-even if the girls never enter the labourformal education t9 the existing formal stnlcture, the market. Most girls l.pecome mothers and theirlatter's efficacy (particulary costwise) and goals are influence on their children is crucial. Studies showin no way question even though they haVe often \ that children are less likely to 'die, the lIiore educatedbeen described as, respectively, low and inappro- their mothers are. Families are better fed in termspriate (elite-oriented). of nutrition where mother is educated: Education

delays marriage for women. partly bv increasingAs a complementary system, non-formal educa- their chances of employment; and educated womention is a poor man's education in the sense it pre-pares participants mainly for low-status manual jobs know about family planning. O'and that those participants come away from theleast privileged sector of the population.. It doesnothing to remedy the relative privilege ,acquired bythose who manage to remain in tae formal system.

Therefore, non-formal education could indeed pro-fitably be seem and operated as an alternative system,both in the sense that it constitute a different way,at least potentially, of passing on the same educa-tional matter arid in that it is n(,}n-traditionaI, non-hierarchical and non-elite-presenting method.

ID many ways non formal education would pavethe way for the realisation of the basic objective ofeducational development. Although considerable prog-ress has been achieved in the realm of education,educational growth has failed to achieve a moreequitable distribution of income and social services,and an equilibrium between the productiv~ capacityof the education system and the absorbing capacityof the laboUr market,.

Yojana, April 1....-.15, 1985 31

ESTIMATES PREPARED BY the Central Statisti-cal 'Organisation (CSO) based on the data collectedin the Annual Survey <1£ Industries (ASI), 1981-82show that the performance of the industrial sectorjudged in terms of capital invested, value of outputand value added by manufacture had been laudableduring the year 1981-82. There was a 20.6 per centrise in the value of output and 22.0 per cent advancein the value added by manufacture as compared to1980-81. Consistent with the overall improvement invalue of output and value added the manufacturingindustries registered 'better investment, higher by16.1 per cent in fixed assets ill 1981-82. However,in that year employment rose only fractionally by0.8 per cent as compared to the previous year.

1/The Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) is the prin-

cipal SOl,ll'ceof industrial statistics in India. It is toprovide adequate statistics. on manufacturing activi-ties ih the country and to establish a sound reportingsystem to maintain these data on a current basis.The ASI is conducted under the authority ofCollec-tion of Statistics Act, 1953 which empowers thegovernment to collect statistics and other informa-tion from industrial units. It covers all units comingunder the Factories Act, 1948, Le., factories employ-ing 10 or more workers and operating with power and20 or more workers without power

Main resultsThe ASI 1981-82 revealed that in that year there

were 105 thousand registered factories, falling underthe purview of the ASI which utilised a fixed capitalof Rs. 34702 crore, produced Rs. 73672 croreworth of goods and services valued at ex-factory pricesand contributed by way of value added by manufac-ture Rs. 14554 crore to tbe national income of thecountry. These factories employed 7.78 million per-sons and paid Rs. 6777 crore as en:oluments to theemployees. Judged from these important charactc-risti&S there was an overall improvement in the in-dustrial activities during 1981-82 compared- with that

32

.Anrrual survey ofindllstries,1981-82

in 1980-81 in which year the total number of regis-tered factories was around 97 thousand, fixed capita!invested was Rs.299oo crares, output RS.61084crares and value added Rs. 11929 crores. Highergrowth in value based characteristic3 like fixed capi-tal, output and value added was partly because of in-flationary. trends in the economy. . /

Structural positionCompared to previous year every value based

characteristic of an average factory showed 'an im-provement in 1981-82. Thus, a factory on an averagehad a fixed capital of Rs. 33.03 lakhs and employed74 persons. The output and value added per factorywere Rs. 70.11 and Rs. 13.85 lakhs respectively. Alsothe per capita output increased tdRs. 94730, emolu-ments to Rs. 8715, :fixedcapital Rs. 44620 and his con-tribution to national income as measured by valueadded to Rs. 18715. i

Another important fact that is evident from theresults of the ASI 1981-82 WlfS, that the fixed capi-tal required to produce one unit of output has dec- i

lined from 0.49 in 1980-81 to 0.47 in 1981-82. Fur-ther, comparatively less capital was required to gene-rate each unit of value added, 2.51 in 1980-81 to2.38 in 1981-82. The ratio of value :ldded to outputremained more or less constant at 0.20. The share ofemoluments in the value added declined from 0.51in 1980-81 to 0.47 in '19~1-82.

: Distribution of factories b~T employmenFrom the criterion of employment, as many as 80

per cent of the 105 thousand factories employed lessthan 50 persons each; these units accounted for 15per cent of the total employment, 13 per cent of out-put and 8 per cent of value. added in all the factories.Another important fact1hat is evident from the re-sults of the survey was that mpre than half of thetotal employment and output and more than .two-thirds of the valUe added were in factories each em":

(Contd. on page 34)

Ycrjallu, April 1-15, 1985

AN INCREASE IN THE REAL national incomeand per capita income of 7.6 per cent and 5.2 per centrespectively and a steep fall of lWer 20 per cent inthe savings of the public s'ector are among the majorfeatures of the quick estimates of national incomeand consUll1ption for the year 1983-84.,Other highlights inClude a 5.9 per cent lnc!'case in

the real per capita consumption, lmplyrng a higherrate of growth of C<1:nsumptionthan income. The rate,of net savings and net capital formation changed vel")little as compared to the previous year. The estimateswere released by the Central Statistical Organisation.

National income at currenfprices showed an increaseof 20.5 per cent-frctm Rs. 1,32,470 crore in 1982-83to Rs. 1,59,598 crore. At constant prices (with base1970-71), national income was Rs'. 50,276 crareagainst Rs. 50,437 crore in 1982-83. TIus implies animplicit rate of inflation of 12 per cent during theyear, much higher than the rate of. inflation of about8 per cent in the previous ye~.

Rise in per capita incomeThe per capita incctme ih real terms has been esti-

mated at Rs. 749 for 1983-84 against Rs. 711 in1982-83, showing a rise of 5.2 per cent over t.heperiod.The rise is slightly smaller which compar~d to theper capital income during 1981-82, the rise between1981-82 and 1983-84 being about 4.9 per cent. Pcrcapita income at current prices moved up fromRs. 1868 in 1982-83 to Rs. 2,201 during 1983-84.

As compared to the rise of 5.2 per cent. in the percapita incO'me, per capita expenditure showed a largerincrease in real terms of 5.9 per cent. This is againstan increase of 0.4 per cent between 1981-82 and1982-83. 11le total consumption expenditure at ClYr-.rent prices worked out to Rs. 1,33,694, craTe in1983-84 accounting for 68.3 per cent of the grossdomestic product at market prices. National per capitalfinal consumption expenditure during the year was.Rs. 1,844 against Rs .. 1,557 in the previous year. Pcr

Yojana. April 1--15, 1985

National inc()me up in1983.84

capita real expenditure rose by Rs. 44 from Rs'. 600to Rs. 644 during the same period.

The drop in per capita expenditure On food by 1.3per cent between 1981-82 and 1982-83 was reversedin 1983-84 when food consumption,increaSed by 8.9per cent. Against the sharp decline in the consumptionof cereal and cereal substitutes in the previous yearof about 5.4 per cent, in the last financial year, therewas an increase of 16 per cent. The other item whichshowed a substantial rise in per capita expenditure isedible oil, of 10 per cent compared to a decline of I

6.6 per cent in the previous year.

Domestic savings upNet domestic saving showed an increase from

Rs. 26,080 crare in 1982-83 to Rs. 31,031 crore lastyear. However, there was _a marginal decline in theratio of net domestic saving from 17.1 per cent of thenet domestic product t<117 per cent during the period.

'f4e major contnbutor to this increase in savings'was the honsehold sector whose savings rose fromRs, 19,848 crare to Rs. 25,876 crore between 1982-83and 1983-84. Financial savings of this sectorincreased by 24.5 per cent while household physicalass'ets rose by 38.4 per cent. However, the increasein the savings of this sector was offset considerably bya fall in the savings' of the corporate sector by Rs. 48cror~, implying a decline of roughly four per cent anda much'steeper decline of over 20 per cent (Rs'.1,029crore) in the public sector. The sharp decline inpublic sector savings has been attributed to a fall inthe savings of the adIDinistrative departments of thegovernment.

Capital formation above savingsThe rate of net capital formation continues' to be

much above the rate of saving. In 1983-84, itamounted to 18.4 per cent, slightly lower than thatduring the previous year when it was 18.8 per cent.The higher rate of capital formation CfVcrtbe savings

(

33

rate has been attributed to inflow of capital fromabroad, though the level of inflow did not increasebetween the two' years, In real terms, .the rate ofinvestment fell marginally to 14.8 per' cent 'from 15 perce~t in 1982-83. 0 •

Of the gross domestic capital formation, fixedcapital formation showed an increase of ~ 7.3 per cent.All the three institutional sectors contributed to therise-the increase in tiie public sector was 12.5 percent, in the private sectOr 17.3 per cent. The house-hold sector registered the largest rise of nearly 25 percent in fixed assets'.

The rise in ~focks during the year was much higherthan the increase in fixed capital formation for theprivate sector though, the increase in the public sectorwas lower by Rs'. 1,383 crore as compared to theincrease of Rs. 1,660 crore in the previous year. Theprivate sector's holdings C1f stock rose by nearly 25per cent during the. period, from Rs 4,101 crOTe toRs. 5,327 crore.

The real investment in agriculture, though it showedan increase from the level in 1982-83, still remainedlower than the investment in 1981-82. It deClined by11.3 per cent 'as compared to the investment in1980-B1. .

The fall in the real investment in registered n:anu-facturing which was evident during 1981-82 and1982-83 showed a .slight improvement with investmentof Rs. 2,599 crore in 1983-84. Against this, theinvestment was Rs. 2,493 crore in 1982-83, Rs.2,590 crore in 1981-82 andRs. 2,593 crore in 1980-81. There has been a significant increase in invegt-me:mtin two sectors between 1980-81 and 1983-84-communication from Rs. 146 crore to Rs. 197 croreand the category of others from Rs. 6,010 crore toRs. 6,912 crore. 0

(Continued from page 32)

ploying 500 or more persons, which accounted foronly 2 per cent of the total factories.

Distribution of factories by capitalSmall scale factories, i.e., factories with an inv}:st-

ment in plant and machinery not exceeding Rs. 20lakh, accounted for nearly 93 per cent of the ,totalfactories, their share in 0 the total employment being39 per cent. They accounted for as rp.w;h as 24 refcent of the total'value of out1Jut and 17 pc~ cent ofthe total value added by manu~acture.

Distribution of factories by organisationCorporate sector factories ~ad the dommant shar~

in all the kev characteristics. They accounted for 60per cent of tIle total employment, 73 per cent of thetotal output and 76 per cent of the total value added,their share In the total nUT-ber of factories was onlyone fifth.

I

Distribution of factories by ownershipPrivate sector faqtcrries, though very large, over

80 per cent of the taltal number of .factories, sharedamong themselves 66 pcr cent of the total employees,64 per cent of the total output and 59 per centof the total value added.

Relati"e importance of industriesThe contribution to national income was the highest

from electricity, gas and water supply undertakingsat 15.5 per cent, follmr,redby basic metal and alloY$industries 12.1 per cent, chemical and chemical pro-'ducts 11.9 per cent, cotton textiles 8.3 per cent,'transport equipment 7.6 per cent, non-electrical ma- /.chinery 7.2 per cent, food products 6.4 per cent andelectrical machinery 6.2 per cent. All other industrygroups contributed less than -5 per cent. These eightindustries together accounted for about three-fourthsof the total value added in all industries. I

!ood products led the ind_ustries in providing em-'ployment with 16.7 per cent, followed by cottontextiles (l3.1 per' cent), electrIcity, gas and water(9.4 per cent), basic metals (7.6 per cent), transportequipment (6A.per cent), chemicals and chemicalproducts (6.2 per cent),. beverage." tobacco and to-bacco products (5.5 per cent)- and non-electric,almachinery (5.3 per cent). These eight industries to..;gether gar'nered Jbollt 70 per cent of the total eill-

o ployment in all industries covered by the ASI.

Improvement in Jute goods' expor~sCurrent trends indicate th@.texports of jute' goods

are likely to cross the Rs. 300 crore mark by the endof 1984-85 as against an e."port figure of Rs. 163.71crore (provisional) achieved quring the last financialyear.

This performance in reversing successfully thedownward trend of exports in jute, goods has beenmade possible d1n to a d),lal strategy adopted by theGovernment. On the one ha'ld. intensive export pro':'motion measures were undertaken and on the otherthe internal market demand was stimulated .•

The Government has set up a perm:ment sfeeringCommittee on jute fondjute industry unier the chair-manship of the Secretary, Textiles, for evolving inter-departmental coordination on jute matters and tack-:ling other maladies affecting the industry.

There are 69 jute mills (including six' nationalisedunits) in the CO~l1trytoday with around 44375 loon:sand 609,600 spindles providing employment to around2.50 lakh workers in the factory. The cultivationof jute provides livelihood to nearly 40 lakhs agri-cultural labourers in the rural cotnn:unity. Themarketing of jute and jute products and other ancil-lary activities also generate ~mploymel1t fer severalJakhs of people. . '

•The jute industry, is highly labour-inten~ive rondaccounts for about 25 per cent of fhe world produc-tion and export of jute goods. 0

YO'jana, April 1-15. 1985

•

ISome of the programmes a,Iready under implementation include providing

house sites to the landless rural ifamilies, giving construction assistance, sitesand services schemes, improvement in the enviromnent of slums and squattersettlements and construction of Imore houses for the economically weakersections.

III

More shelters for homelessin the Seventh Plan

1

II

THE SCHEMES for shelter and dwelling units for the homeless in theSeventh Plan will receive -greater attkntion in view of the action plans for theUnited Nations International Year ofl Shelter for the Homeless (1987). As thetask involved is colossal, institutional. financing will have to be strengthened andalso new technology adopted for lor cost construction.

India may have to seek greater involveillent of the internationalorganisations and bilateral aids for the purpose.

iIndia stands committed to the goal of providing a shelter to all thehomeless by the year A.D. 2000. .ndia is determined to achieve the maximum.within its limited resources during the 1987 United Nations International Year ofShelter for the Homeless. I

The provision of shelter wJs a burning problem for, the millions ofshelterless people living in the developing countries. The shortage of dwellingunits in both urban and rural areaJ is colossal. The situation is worsening byunplanned and unregulated urban I growth. India's present housing shortagewas that of 24.7 million housing units-18 .8 million in rural areas and5.9 million in urban areas. The temoval of this shortage needs attention ofGovernmental agencies, the public isector and the individual efforts.

A National Focal Point has been identified and a national Apex Body has'I

started functioning to devise and i,mplement shelter programmes for the IYSHaction plans. The State Focal poinfs have also been designated and the process ofidentification of target groups has started. The schemes for increasing theprovision of shelter and improvin~ the neighbourhoods are being implemented.These will be extended and outl~ys increased during the Seventh Five Year

I

Plan.

At least 17 million additiomH houses would be needed during the SewnthFive Year Plan for the increasing population. Along with that will be neededthe growth of infrastructure for Iproviding basic facilities of electricity, watersupply, roads, sewerage and garbage collection.

I

IYSH-1987 was meant for generating consciousness for the need fortaking up a massive programme f6r providing shelter to the homeless. A lot ofimportant work has got to be done before and after the year 1987. EJ

I

I

IRegd. No. RN 949J 571

. P & T Regd. D. (DN) 1521

Licensed U (D)-52 to post without pre-payment at Civil Lines post Office, Delhij

Postal expansion duringSeventh Plan

DURING THE SEVENTH PLAN, the Postal Department has 'proposedto open 12,000 Post Offices. For improving the delivery in rural areas, it isproposed to appoint 4,000 extra departmental delivery agents during the Planperiod. For 1985-86, the target is the appointment of 800 extra-departm~ntaldelivery agents. Ten thousand letter boxes will be installed during the Planperiod. The target for 1985-86 is the installation of 2,000 letter boxes.

It is proposed to provide counter-facilities in 15,000 villages not havingPost Offices. Such facilities will be provided in 3,000 villages in the year1985-86. To monitor' the implementation of the expansion of Postal Services inthe rural areas, particularly In backward and tribal areas, it is proposed tostrengthen the Plan Monitoring Organization by appointing 50 Plan MonitoringInspectors during the Plan period. Ten Plan Monitoring Inspectors will beappointed in 1985-86.

The Department has hiken a decision to .construct 1,600 Post Officebuildings, 100 RMS buildings, 75 administrative office buildings and 25 PostalStock Depots and Stamp Depot buildings during the Seventh Plan period. Thetarget for 1985-86 would be 86 Post Office buildings, 17 RMS buildings, 23Administrative buildings and 23 Postal Stock and Stamp Depot buildings. It is .also decided to acquire sufficient number of suitable sites for constructingproper work facilities. at important places.

In respect of staff quarters, the Department will construct 27,000 staffquarters during the Seventh Plan period~ -3,500 staff quarters will be constructedduring the year 1985-86. 0,

Printed by the Manager, Govt. of India Press, Ring Road, New Dcihi-ll0064 andPublished by the Director, Publications Division, Patiala House, New Delhi-l 10001.

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