Landless Labourers

One of the assumptions of the High Yielding Varieties that they will generate more employment could also not be achieved. Undoubtedly, the wages of the unorganised agricultural workers have risen by about 20 times. In the areas where Green Revolution is a success, the labourers are finding employment throughout the year, while in many areas the rural employment has declined. The main cause of decline in labour employment is the natural growth of labour and mainly because of the mechanisation of agriculture by the big farmers which displaces labour.

The impact of Green Revolution has been shown in Table 9.14. It may be observed from this Table that the large farmers who have better risk taking capacity adopted High Yielding Varieties quickly. They installed tube-wells and pumping sets in their fields and purchased tractors, threshers and harvesters, etc. from the loans they got from the funding agencies and co-operative societies. Consequently, their production and productivity went up substantially. Better income helped them in improving their food and nutrition. Improvements also occurred in their housing. Realising the importance of education, many of them sent their children to the English medium schools of the neighbouring towns and cities. The economic prosperity also made them increasingly conscious about health and sanitation. It was at this stage that some of the big farmers started desiring small families. These steps led to a decline in the fertility rate of big farmers which ultimately reduced their dependency ratio.

Moreover, the economic prosperity and interaction with the well-off urban people inspired them to construct elegant and spacious pucca houses. They started consuming more comfort and luxury goods, which in a sense, brought consumerism in the rural society of the regions of successful green revolution.

The traditional farmer became economic farmer who stated thinking all the time in terms of optimising his profit. Being too busy and conscious of the value of his Lime, he started ignoring the interest of the neighbours and small farmers. On the other hand, he started purchasing the agricultural land of the small and marginal farmers. This broke the well establish reciprocal aid system and bhai-chara (brotherhood) in the village community. With better agricultural income, the standard of living of the farmers went up, their longevity increased and life became more enjoyable.

Contrary to this, the small and marginal farmers, having less risk-taking capacity, could not adopt the High Yielding Varieties rapidly as they did not like to mortgage their lands for obtaining loans from the funding agencies and the money lenders. Their production and productivity increased only marginally.

Consequently, there was no improvement in their food, nutrition, education, sanitation and health. Being poor, they could not afford to bear the expenses of school education and thought it better to engage their children in agriculture. Realising the importance of additional hands, these farmers have no desire of small families and did not adopt family planning. Being under debt, poor nutrition, and menial stress they could not maintain their health and many of them, unfortunately, committed suicide.

Under the changer! socioeconomic conditions, the income gap between the big and small farmers increased. This broke the traditional rural society and divided them into the rich and the poor. The social tension increased leading to the polarisation of the society. The social implications of Green Revolution has been given in a tabular form in Table 9.14:

Table 9.14 Impact of Green Revolution on Big and Small Farmers

Source: Fieldwork by the author, 1962-63 and 2011-12.