Two weeks ago I wrote about the poverty that persists on a massive scale in Amethi and Andipatti, the favoured Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu constituencies of Rahul Gandhi and Jayalalithaa respectively (March 20). Add to this, the underdevelopment of Orissa’s Ganjam district, home to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s constituency of Hinjilikatu, and it is readily clear that very little of rural India is ‘shining’. Most of it is gripped by multiple crises, including poverty, distress migration, farmer suicides, and ever-stronger support for ‘Naxalites’. All in all, despite 60 years of independence, the vast majority of rural Indians — whether in Amethi, Andipatti, Ganjam or non-VIP areas — continue to live in conditions of desperate want and insecurity.

Consider Ganjam district. Ganjam derives from the Persian for ‘granary of the world’. At independence, the district began with the advantages of the ryotwari system of land tenure, rather than the burdens of zamindari. But today, agriculture is so poor here that the majority of farmers get just one rain-fed paddy crop and a meagre second crop of dal. The failure to expand irrigation — and to preserve the abundance of existing tanks and local canals — is to blame. Equally to blame is the utter neglect of efforts to modernise agriculture through diversifying crops, boosting yields, or storage and marketing.

The tragic upshot in Ganjam is that there is virtually no work to be had locally. Agricultural labourers can find employment for just two months or so, earning only about Rs 25 for a long day. Families with unirrigated land have roughly four months of income. There are few jobs in the towns even for young people who have completed secondary school. Not surprisingly, child labour is common.

... contd.