A New Form of Credit and the Farmers in a North Indian Village: A Sociological Study
Author: Kumar, Sudhir , sudhirsocio@gmail.com
Department: Sociology
University: Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut, India
Supervisor: J.K. Pundir
Year of completion: 2013
Language of dissertation: English
Keywords:
Credit
, Farmers
, Society
Areas of Research:
Economy and Society
, Stratification
, Theory
Abstract
This research examines how globalization represents the most recent trends in the creation of one world. In this context, New Economic Policy was initiated by the government of India in 1991. Specific issues related to awareness, utilization and consequences for farmers, problems faced by them need to be studied in depth. Thus, the present study focuses upon the following specific questions: 1. What is the socio-economic background of farmers in the rural setting? 2. How aware are the farmers of new forms of credit, namely credit cards and crop insurance? 3. How much have farmers utilized these new forms of credit, namely credit cards and crop insurance? 4. Why have some farmers not utilized these facilities? 5. What are the consequences of these new forms of credit (Kisan Credit cards and Crop Insurance) for farmers?
For this purpose, all farmers have been purposely selected which constituted the universe. They include the total number of beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries farmers through the new form of the credit.
The farmers got the information about the Kisan Credit Card Scheme from the bank manager, first beneficiaries, person of the same caste and also person of others castes. Thus caste remains important for communication in the rural area even for a new credit facilities.
To take advantage of Kisan Credit Cards, the farmers need two guarantors each. Thus, support from the social structure is required. Big farmers have used the credit for land improvement and lending money to others and thus to earn more money. For these big farmers, credit has been used as a form of capital. The empirical data indicate that the higher the caste, the bigger the landholding and the more effectively the farmer's use of the new credit institution for their further economic betterment and capital formation. Thus the new credit institution, which was aimed at betterment for a change in the condition of ordinary small farmers, appears to have further strengthened the position of rich farmers. Thus the stronger section of society has further been strengthened even though the goal for the credit program was to improve the lives of those at the lower segments of the social structure.
The farmers, who expressed no interest in getting a Kisan Credit Card, felt superior to those who did. Thus value laden social reputation also comes in the way for not accepting the new credit facility. This entails the role of subjective-value-laden factors in development.
It was found that farmers with stronger socio-economic-political power have better access to formal sources of credit. The emerging nexus of credit with local politics is a rather complex issue. There was sufficient evidence to suggest that the credit dependencies of small/marginal farmers on moneylenders helped the latter in still establishing their domination over the small farmers. The relationship appears to be of subordination and domination. Thus, it was aimed to reveal the change in small farmers appears to have latently reinforced the traditional social structure.
