The Palkhivala Foundation held a 2-hour lecture at the Rani Seethai Hall on the very sensitive topic of 'Agrarian crisis in India'. The key speaker was Mr. P. Sainath, the Rural Affairs Editor of The Hindu, who according to Mr. Amartya Sen is a 'great expert on famine and hunger'.

Sainath threw light on the growing agrarian crisis in India, the rise in farmer suicides all over the country and the gradual decline in the number of people opting for farming as a profession, as well as the loan waiver scheme announced by the Government of India on February 29, 2008.

According to Sainath, "Between the years 1991 and 2001, almost 8 million people quit farming, and around the same time, the indebtedness of the Indian peasants also doubled. And since 2001, this has only further intensified and will deteriorate more."

The major problem being faced by the rural population today is the springing up of new forms of input dealers who give the farmers informal credit

Mr. Sainath was very forthright in his criticism of the loan waiver scheme announced by the Finance Minister Mr. P. Chidambaram in February 2008. This scheme touched upon the bank debt of the farmers alone, but did not focus on their money lender debts. Also, the written-off accounts were being made a part of the loan waiver. The end result being that the written-off accounts were more in number than the accounts covered by the loan waiver scheme.

"The loan waiver is just a relief, not a solution; it is just a tool, not a policy. The agrarian crisis could have been dealt with and can be dealt with, but it won't be dealt with!" Sainath reiterated.

By
Rashmi Kumar