The information contained in the report of the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC), released by the government on Friday, makes for dismal reading. The findings legitimately make us wonder how effective policy interventions have been in the last six decades to overcome poverty, especially in rural areas.
It is clear that a high percentage of rural Indians own no assets. The national average of rural households without land is about 56 per cent, while in most states, especially larger ones, the proportion is actually 10 to 15 per cent higher, including in Kerala and West Bengal, states that saw extensive land reforms under Left governments over an extended period.
If an overwhelming bulk of the nearly 18 crore rural households in the country don’t possess land, it is unlikely they own assets in any other form, if all the other information available alongside is taken into account.
It is evident from some of the other data presented in the report, for which information was collected between 2011 and 2013 — making it very contemporaneous — that members of households without assets have to subsist in villages because they are clearly not in a position to embark on urban migration. While the overall economy has expanded relatively rapidly in the past decade or so, it appears it would have to grow at an even higher rate to absorb outflow from the countryside.
About 51 per cent of our rural households have to depend on casual, manual work for survival. Even at a cursory glance, it is possible to see a one-to-one correspondence between folks without assets having nothing but their bare hands to depend on to earn some kind of livelihood, since regular work is just not forthcoming. In this bleak scenario, it is hard to see how state intervention on a significant scale can be avoided as we try to lay greater emphasis on the market economy.
A policy framework such as NREGA was designed to cater to just those who depend on manual work in rural areas. Even this was opposed by many. In order to make a lasting dent in poverty, we need to move beyond 100 days of assured employment under schemes like NREGA, to policies that can create assets for rural households.
We hope that in Parliament and in state Assemblies, political parties will look at the new data with sympathy, instead of pointing fingers at one another. In the light of the kind of poverty data that has been thrown up, quibbling about individuals and households above and below the poverty line just won’t do any longer.
