The average farmer of this country wants to move away from farming and does not see farming as a future for his children. Let them move ahead, let them challenge the world and contribute to it.
“I am going to Bali next week”, I told a friend.
“Do stay at Ubud for a day or two”, he said.
“What for”?
“You can stay very close to the paddy fields, close to nature”.
“I came to Singapore to escape the paddy fields and you want to send me back”?
I said it only half-jokingly. That was the end of the conversation, but it made me think about how some urban elite have a romantic view of agrarian life as being “Close to Nature”. I have a feeling that this elite romanticism of land and a life close to nature is what fuels part of political rage towards the Land Bill. Of course, the political game of appeasing the voters is at work too.
My life story tells me how pointless this romanticism is. I have first-hand experience in this topic. Before coming to Singapore, before attending IIM Calcutta, and before going to IIT Roorkee — before all of this, I was born in a small village in district Muzaffarnagar. Hospital births weren’t too common then in my village, and I too was born at home. As a side note, the house I was born in is still exactly the same, after 32 years! So much for the economics of farming.
My father had moved to Roorkee, another small town known for its Aquaduct and to IIT Roorkee for his government job, and I used to spend my summer vacations in my native village. If I were to recall one single most powerful idea inculcated in me about my future since my childhood, it was this – farming has no future and the only future I would have has to be built through education. It was not just my parents who had this rather pessimistic view on farming, it was all around me — in the 20-25 villages around and the hundreds of extended relatives that I visited, every single person was trying only one thing for their children — how to educate them and enable them to move out of farming and out of the village.
It is not a hyperbole to again conclude from all that I have said above — most farmers DO NOT want their children to become farmers. In other words, most farmers don’t see any future in farming. Put that yet another way, farmers should be willing to exit given a fair deal. Interpreting that with pragmatism would mean farmers should not be opposing a land bill that entails proper compensation. Left on their own, away from the machinations of elite politicians (for whom paddy farms is a utopian concept of life ‘close to nature’, even if they can’t tell their paddy farm from their wheat farm).
Coming back to the point of education and its importance in transforming the outlook in villages. Prominent journalist Vinod Dua once said that in India, a citizen could have three types of power — the power of vote, the power of money and if you don’t have power of money, you try to get it through power of education.
Farmers, like everyone in the typical urban middle class, have understood the importance of education as a way out of dismal farm economics. A few things on dismal farm economics may be handy here. A small data point may dispel the doubts — as highlighted by BJP MP Hukum Singh in the Lok Sabha, the count of landless labourers has moved up to 144mn in 2011 from 106mn in 2001, as per census data. People wouldn’t become landless labourers if farming were such a great vocation. From personal experience, we have enough land to own two tractors but even with that much land we have not been able to upgrade those tractors for last two decades. Consider that again – A full twenty years and we could not generate enough surplus to buy a new tractor! Imagine the plight of very small farmers who are ploughing the field with bullocks and then ask yourself – who would want to remain in this profession?
The desperation to get out through education is seen in numbers. ASER studies consistently show a dramatic rise in private-school registrations in rural India. Imagine…in rural India, people are shunning cheap government schools in favour of expensive private schools – the willingness to take that much financial burden itself shows the desperation to get out of the village and to become part of the new economy being scripted in towns and cities of India. I have seen many such private schools opening up 4-5 km outside a town and cater to villages in 15-20 km radius through a fleet of school buses. There is ample demand. In my own extended family, all the kids who live(d) in villages have been educated and are being educated at such schools.
I would very clearly conclude that this pattern of excessive focus on education with a single aim to get to a city is not consistent with the view that farmers are keen on farming and have a romantic view of their land.
In addition, it is not just money that is the challenge about a village life. Compared to an urban life, every day is a challenge in the village — even basic things like cooking fuel can be a hassle. The earthen chulhas that use wood and cow dung as fuel produce a plumes of smoke every time one cooks something. Who wouldn’t trade a clean LPG for a smoke guzzling chulha? Or who would not trade a running tap for a laborious hand pump? Or daily market visits for monthly market visit, that too after only a half hour trip either side? Or who wouldn’t want to give up the daily chore of bathing cattle, milking cows, feeding them three times a day? Most city dwellers don’t realise that cows and buffaloes don’t eat on their own when they are tied up all day. One has to work to give them food. One has to pick up their faeces as well, as many as 5-6 times a day if my memory serves me well. I can count scores of such chores. Who would want this hard life with little rewards?
Anyone who has seen and lived a village life does not irrationally romanticise it. I believe it is only elite politicians, who travel to a place like Ubud to be near paddy farms, who harbour such notions. Make them bathe cows and buffaloes in a farmer’s home for a week instead of hosting them for a tasty fish dish and they might realize the real grind of a farmer’s life.
This grind with little financial rewards is the precise reason I have seen farmers wanting out and educating their children. Whoever (including me and my father) has moved out has absolutely no regrets and absolutely no nostalgic longing to go back and plough the fields.
Specifically regarding industrialization and land bill, my belief is that farmers do understand the value of industrialization and the opportunities it can create. My relatives in Uttarakhand presents interesting first-hand case studies for this idea — due to the tax-friendly policies of the state government,manufacturing took off really well in the state and I have many young people being employed in semi-skilled roles in these factories. This economic upliftment is for all to see and people do understand that if not for these factories, these youth would have been struggling to make ends meet. The factories and the peripheral services that come up to serve them (small establishments like colleges, hospitals, banquet halls) need land and help create land wealth for the sellers. At least in my experience, almost every farmer knows the direct indirect and direct benefits of industrialization.
To sum up, what I have learnt from my unique experiences, farmers of this country want to move away from farming and don’t see farming as a future for their children. They are looking at education and want to send their sons and daughters to live in the city, to work for private companies and build a bright future for themselves. They understand the value of industry and have no irrational romance for the land. Let them move ahead, let them realize their potential, let them challenge and world and contribute to it. Do not keep this mass of people with tremendous potential shackled in a 100-year-old world just because some petty politicians want to play these farmers as vote banks or just because some politicians have an irrational romance of the land and believe that the farmer is happier being close to the nature.
The farmer of this country deserves to move ahead. Empower them. Set them free.
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