The writer must apologise for the sudden non-publication of this column over the last two weeks on account of an unscheduled sabbatical. The only condoning factor is that there have been some weeks in the past when this column has appeared more than once during a week. The credit for that indulgence needs to be noticed. The friendly thin-line whip of the Editor is to be thanked for such events.
One is continuing to be disturbed with the repetitive news reports on the economic distress of the farming community, and in many cases, debt traps driving some of them to be unbalanced enough to kill themselves. It was cruel to hear probably the bitterest truth that “life” under certain conditions is less rewarding to the family compared to the eventualities of “death”.
The immediate future does not also appear to be very hopeful. The State received almost 10 per cent less rainfall during the recent monsoon. Nine districts received deficit rainfall. These are Angul (19.1 per cent), Balangir (19.7 per cent), Mayurbhanj (21.6 per cent), Kandhamal (21.9 per cent), Khordha (23.2 per cent), Bargarh (24.2 per cent), Subarnapur (25.8 per cent), Dhenkanal (26.2 per cent), Boudh (29.1 per cent) and Keonjhar (30.2 per cent). A total of 26 blocks in 14 districts have sustained severe deficit in rainfall above the range of 40 per cent to 60 per cent. One block each in Balangir, Keonjhar and Sambalpur districts received 59 per cent deficit rainfall. The agricultural sector already being in the doldrums, it is a matter of concern that greater economic distress shall be caused to the farming community in the months ahead. Ironically, it looks like organised mismanagement and exploitation, especially when some form of calamity is an annual feature.
While the scenario is such, the State Government and the International Rice Research Institute have signed an MoU to boost rice production. Potato and onion have had their own gory stories to narrate. The Central Rice Research Institute at Cuttack is the pioneering unit of the ICAR, which has carried out very rewarding research on developing new varieties of rice, both weather-resistant and less fragile. It is also asserted by many that Odisha is the land where rice was first noticed as a staple food item. We are professing to go on to implement the National Food Security Act. So far, an appropriate machinery of rules is yet to be in position. The producers of food, i.e., the farming community, being in a most vulnerable situation is not conducive to the requirements of food security.
When one turns to the inputs related to the agro sector, they have also not been comprehensively evaluated so as to cause any augmentation of the economic status of more than 70 per cent of the population of the State that relies on agriculture as an avocation. One is also reminded of the well-known book Everybody loves a Good Drought written by P Sainath. A time has come for us to realise that we are deliberately keeping the farming sector poor. Concentration on land is uneconomic and, therefore, there are periodic large-scale migrations. Productivity-oriented strategic changes, so as to involve the entire farming community in different rural based profitable operations, are to be devised and the era of subsidy, which does not reach the rural farmer, has to undergo a reorientation. Production and processing of food are yet to be given due importance in our State. We are still looking down upon our farming community and suffer from over-dominance of the ‘Babu’ culture. This is an inheritance from the feudal days till we do not pull ourselves out of the cobweb of poverty in the rural sector. Glossy urban roads and flashy cars will finally bring back the bicycles to the road. Very recent experiences in Gurgaon have already amply demonstrated this.
The treatment meted out to the sugarcane growers, who stand denied of their legitimate dues in Nayagarh, is quite well known. The economic staying power of the farming community is generally low. This leads to distress sales often at lower prices and that too on the assurance of a mirage of future payment. This in turn provides the modality for economic exploitation. When the food bowl is not taken care of, other avenues of growth are also bound to suffer. Increased reliance on the mining and other related activities has their own vagaries of business cycles. Recent experiences in this sector teach us a lot. It is elementary that the inflationary trend in the food sector adversely affects all other sectors. It is on this chessboard of economics that politics of all hues are played out. Sincerity of cause has to give way to populist propaganda.
* The undercurrent of discontentment in our society was quite crudely displayed itself in the ugly conduct of the visitors to the T-20 match on October 5 at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack. Public anger could be justified in the context of many socioeconomic causes and events. Unfortunately, they received sectarian support of the vested interest. The opiate of the colonial gift of “cricket” assumes greater significance than anything else. This “industry” has flourished when many others have faltered. There is “food for thought” in the prevalent situation. Symbolic tokenism must give way to real, substantive and fundamental changes. But that calls for a leadership that can cause radical structural changes in the given social fabric. Quantity must yield to quality in this significant activity.
* There are other symptoms, especially amongst the youth, that are matters of great concern for all of us. The electoral process of the Students’ Unions demonstrates the manner in which the so-called student leaders are exploited for limited political purposes. The statements and speeches do not talk of the future of the youth and that of the State. The reforms suggested by Mr lyngdoh gather dust in quiet solitude while ugly muscle and money power parades around with overconfidence of arithmetic majority. In the alternate, there are gloomy destructive tendencies of a frustrated minority. Both are dangerous and decontrolled trends. We would be fooling ourselves if we think that this malady does not require immediate focused attention. Surely, this matter is not limited to any sectarian concern but involves and concerns all of us!!
(The writer, a Senior Advocate, is a former All India Service officer, a former diplomat, a former editor, a former President of Orissa High Court Bar Association and a former Advocate General of Odisha. jayantdas@hotmail.com)