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State of Rural
Economy of
Punjab
Ishwinder Singh
 A
day-long conference on State of Rural Economy of Punjab was
organized by Institute of Sikh Studies, Chandigarh on 23rd
January, 2010
at its headquarters in Gurudwara Singh Sabha, Kanthala, Indl. Area
Phase II, Chandigarh. Dr. Amarjit Singh Khehra, former Vice
Chancellor of
Punjab
Agricultural University,
Ludhiana
presided over the same.
In the welcome address S. Pritam Singh Kohli, President IOSS briefly
touched upon the main issues relating to the rural economy of Punjab
to be discussed at the conference i.e. Agriculture development,
Rural education, Rural health, Rural indebtedness, unemployment and
underemployment. He hoped that the interactions amongst scholars and
leaders of farmers’ organizations would help in formulating concrete
recommendations to effectively address some of the issues and
concerns to be highlighted during the conference.
The
inaugural address was by Dr. G.S.Kalkat, Padma Vibhushan (Chairman-
Punjab State Farmers Commission). He summarized the history of
agricultural development of Punjab and how self-sufficiency was
attained in food grain production to overcome the food crisis facing
the nation. He explained that agricultural yield in Punjab is
amongst the highest in the world and it might not be possible to
further increase it using current technology. Even though income per
acre has increased a lot, the income per household had gone down due
to breakdown of the joint family system and fragmentation of
agricultural holdings.
He then elaborated on the problems of depletion of water table and
other environmental hazards which have arisen due to the wheat-rice
cycle of cultivation currently being undertaken by the Punjab
farmers. This cycle of cultivation was being promoted by the
Government of India by providing marketing support for the produce
to ensure food security of the country. However, for protecting the
ecological balance of the state it was incumbent to start
cultivating alternative crops like maize.
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According to a survey in two districts of the
Punjab
from 2000 to 2008, it was found that out of 2890 suicides in
Punjab during this period, 1751 were farmers. And out of these
79% of farmers were owners of less than 5 acres land and 38% of
these were in the age group 20-30 years. Indebtedness was the
main cause of 60% of the cases who committed suicide. |
He also spoke about the problem of rural indebtedness. He felt that
due to faulty qualifying criteria, agricultural loans were being
advanced to farmers with small and marginal holdings. These holdings
are economically unviable and the loans taken are often misused. He
also stressed upon the need for social reform and the need to cut
down ostentatious expenditure. He felt that religious preachers
having large following in rural areas can play an important role in
this regard.
During his stint as VC of Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana a
study which he got conducted revealed that hardly any students from
rural areas were studying in the University. The primary education
system in rural areas of Punjab was is a mess and as a result rural
youth were unable to get admission for higher education courses.
People from rural areas thus did not get to play a proper role in
the policy making of the state. There was an urgent need to improve
the system of rural education in
Punjab.
S. Karam Singh, Formerly Director, Agro Economics Centre,
PAU, Ludhiana
furnished detailed statistics and charts highlighting the over
exploitation and depletion of ground water resources in the state.
He cautioned that it would be suicidal if agricultural development
is allowed to end due to mismanagement of the state’s water
resources. He said that even though some steps had been taken
through the Punjab Preservation of sub-soil water Act, 2009 -these
were still insufficient to tackle the problem. The need of the hour
was to use new technologies available such as laser levelers,
ridgers/ trenchers and happy seeders to yield more crop per drop.
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Rural institutions are starved of essential medicines, test
facilities, first aid kits and are reduced to be mere
consultation clinics. Emergency and Hospitalization services are
almost non-existent in most of rural areas. It results in poor
people being deprived of any medical care and also quacks
thriving and charging them frivolously. Rich people and
emerging middle class of people may have access to private
nursing homes but there is no provision for the poor. |
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Dr. Sukhwinder Singh, Professor of Economics, Punjabi University,
Patiala spoke on the subject of Rural Health in Punjab. He
highlighted that fact that
Punjab spends a mere 1% of its budget on Rural Health Schemes which
is far less than other states which average about 3% of their total
public expenditure. Rural institutions are starved of essential
medicines, test facilities, first aid kits and are reduced to be
mere consultation clinics. Emergency and Hospitalization services
are almost non-existent in most of rural areas. It results in poor
people being deprived of any medical care and also quacks thriving
and charging them frivolously. Rich people and emerging middle
class of people may have access to private nursing homes but there
is no provision for the poor. There has not been any regulatory
policy and effort at fixing fair fees for services rendered by
private doctors. He suggested that Punjab should urgently take a
long range view of the health sector and integrate it to the other
components of rural development strategy by a) raising the demand
for ‘improved health’ b) improving the quality of public health
services and c) controlling the ever-growing reliance on private
health sector.
 Dr. Ranjit Singh Ghuman,
Professor and Head, Department of Economics, Punjabi University,
Patiala spoke on the subject of Higher Education scenario in
Punjab. He stated that
education is a key growth driver but during the last about three
decades it was being consistently ignored by the successive
governments in Punjab. In 1980, about 22 per cent of the Punjab
budget was allocated to education which had now shrunk to about 12
per cent. This has led to the collapse of education, particularly
rural education, and emergence of commercially oriented private
players in education. At the present level of costs, nearly 45 per
cent of rural people cannot afford the cost of general higher
education. The proportion of rural population in Punjab is 66 per
cent but the share of rural students in the universities of Punjab
is around 4 per cent and that in the higher professional education
their share is only 3.7 per cent. There is thus a clear cut
exclusion of rural students from higher education in
Punjab.
Nearly 70 per cent of rural households and 90 per cent of the rural
agricultural labour-households do not have even one person with
matric qualification. The solution to this lies in mobilizing
additional resources and substantial allocation of funds to
education sector. The Government and publicly aided educational
institutions must be strengthened.
Dr Sukhpal Singh, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
highlighted the various social and financial reasons for suicides by
the farmers in Punjab. According to a survey in two districts of
the Punjab from 2000 to 2008, it was found that out of 2890 suicides
in Punjab during this period, 1751 were farmers. And out of these
79% of farmers were owners of less than 5 acres land and 38% of
these were in the age group 20-30 years. Indebtedness was the main
cause of 60% of the cases who committed suicide.
Others who spoke
on the occasion included Dalvir Singh Rajowal of Bharti Kissan
Union, Lt. Gen. Kartar Singh Gill of the International Sikh
Confederation, S. Inderjit Singh Jaijee and Dr. Gopal Aiyer.
27January 2010
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