Homestead mailing list

["Lynda" <lurine AT softcom.net>]

If one is looking for a lot of land for not too many U.S. dollars, the
exchange rate is pretty good.  Some of these places are going for Rs 300,000
to Rs 600,000.  The rupee to dollar exchange means a price of $7,000 to
$14,000 U.S.

Then again, it is the same old story about the small farmer.  Seems it is
happening everywhere!

Lynda
----- Original Message -----

> Whole villages up for sale in Punjab
>
> By Rashme Sehgal <http://www.infochangeindia.org/aboutus.jsp#rashmes>
>
> 1,000 acres of land in Bhutal Kulan village in Sangrur district of
> Punjab are up for sale. In neighbouring Bhutal Khor, 1,200 acres are
> going a-begging. With crops failing and mounting debts, farmers in
> Punjab have no option but to sell their lands dirt-cheap. This is the
> first of a special series on Punjab's agricultural crisis
> ---------
>
> Village after village in Punjab is up for sale. Rural indebtedness has
> reached such alarming proportions that entire communities are being forced
> to 'distress-sell' their lands.
>
> Bhutal Kulan, a village in Sangrur district, comprising around 1,000 acres
> of land, is up for sale. Local farmers, heavily indebted to
> moneylenders and
> corporate banks, are selling their land holdings at a pittance. It's the
> same story in neighbouring Bhutal Khor which has over 1,200 acres of land.
> Practically the entire village is up for sale.
>
> So too in Bhutal Khurd, located near the city of Jhakar on the Haryana
> border. Surjit Singh, a farmer who owns four acres of land here points
> out:
> "Eighty per cent of the land in our village has been mortgaged to
> banks and
> moneylenders. Since we are not in a position to repay these loans, and
> have
> been driven to a state of complete impoverishment, we are being forced to
> sell our only asset which has come down to us from our dadas and pardadas
> (forefathers)."
>
> The result of such sales is that a once-proud community of self-sufficient
> farmers now finds itself having to eke out a living as daily wagers.
>
> Hardayal Singh, sarpanch of Govindpura Jawaharwala village, is
> horrified by
> what's happening. "The situation has become alarming. If the
> government does
> not intervene to stop this trend, we will all end up becoming destitute."
>
> Farmers across Punjab insist that of the distress sales are taking place
> because local moneylenders are in a position to put inordinate pressure on
> them. Surjit Singh says: "The local artiyas (moneylenders) know our plight
> and are able to purchase our lands dirt-cheap. The going rate for this
> land
> is around Rs 100,000 per acre. Unfortunately, the majority of farmers are
> uneducated. In the past they had borrowed small amounts of money from
> these
> moneylenders. The moneylenders affixed their thumb impressions onto blank
> pieces of paper and are now demanding three to four times what they had
> originally given."
>
> A local artiya, Lala Charan Das, reportedly bought 80 acres of land in the
> village. "How come no land ceiling act is applicable to him?" asks Singh.
>
> Sunshe Singh and his wife, also from Govindpura Jawaharwala, borrowed Rs
> 200,000 from Amar Prakash, a moneylender, 13 years ago. Prakash is now
> insisting that the amount has tripled to almost Rs 600,000. The shocked
> couple turned to the panchayat for help. "The panchayat has summoned the
> moneylender twice but he has refused to heed them. He has told them that
> they can do what they like especially since they have no power to arrest
> him," says Gajo Kaur.
>
> The pressure on the old couple has been so intense that their only son
> committed suicide by consuming pesticide.
>
> Two elderly farmers, Harinder Singh and Lab Singh, mortgaged six acres of
> land in order to take a Rs 300,000 loan from the Oriental Bank of
> India and
> the Punjab Land Mortgage Bank. Repeated crop failures, however, saw them
> unable to return the loan and they were forced to sell their land.
> "Unfortunately, the interest on the loan has increased so much that even
> though we have sold all our land we are still not able to pay off our
> debt.
> The banks are putting so much pressure on us that last March my eldest
> son,
> Angrez Singh, committed suicide," says Harinder Singh.
>
> Harinder went into a deep depression after his son's death and has
> remained
> bedridden ever since. His brother Lab Singh explains: "Since we have
> no land
> left, we are trying to make ends meet by doing farming on a theka
> (contract)
> basis. But even here, we have to pay the landowners money up front for the
> entire year. If the crop does not do well we are left to face the
> consequences."
>
> Malkit Kaur, the woman sarpanch of Malkait village, points out that
> it's not
> just men who are committing suicide. Women-headed households are also
> being
> forced to sell off their lands cheap. "With nothing to fall back on
> and with
> young children to feed, women are also taking their own lives," says
> Malkit
> Kaur. She cites the example of Sukhpal Kaur who belonged to Nangla village
> and was related to her. Her husband was bedridden and she had to take care
> of four children. She had a debt of Rs 70,000 to repay. Unable to
> repay it,
> and under pressure from all sides, she ended her life by consuming
> pesticide.
>
> Just two months ago, Jang Singh and nine members of his family disappeared
> from village Chhapa in Raikot. Ten years ago, Jang Singh owned 40 acres of
> land and two dairy farms. But during the last few years, they suffered
> successive crop failures. Finding himself caught in a debt trap, Jang
> Singh
> and his family committed suicide, according to an FIR lodged by his close
> friend Bilaur Singh. Bilaur Singh says: "The police invariably side
> with the
> moneylenders and the banks. Surely the government should be sensitive
> to our
> plight and adopt a more humanitarian stance?"
>
> Inderjit Singh Jaijee, chairperson of an organisation called Movement
> against State Repression (MSR), has been tabulating statistics on the
> increasing impoverishment of farmers from Lehra and Andana blocks in
> Punjab's Sangrur and Mansa districts. Jaijee, who was earlier an elected
> state representative from Sangrur and whose MSR has been tabulating farmer
> suicides in Punjab since 1998, points out: "Conservative estimates
> indicate
> that an average of 50 suicides take place in the Lehra and Andana blocks
> every year. If we were to even halve this number, the number of
> suicides in
> Punjab's 100 districts works out to over 2,500 per year.According to MSR
> estimates, during the present chief minister Amrinder Singh's tenure,
> already more than 325 farmers have (committed) suicide. Villagers are
> selling off thousands of acres of land and the government is doing nothing
> to help them."
>
> Dr Ranjit Singh Ghuman, professor of economics, Punjab University,
> Patiala,
> concedes that a large number of land transactions are taking place. He
> believes the situation can be altered only if the government takes quick,
> remedial measures. "Eight per cent of the land holdings in Punjab are
> marginal and therefore uneconomical. In order to make these economical the
> government needs to persuade farmers to set up cooperatives along the
> lines
> of those functioning in Maharashtra. Only if farmers get involved in
> marketing their own products will the situation improve," says Ghuman.
>
> Ghuman believes things have reached a flash point because the government's
> investment in agriculture has decreased substantially. He says: "In
> 1975-79,
> agricultural investment was 3.98% of GDP. Today, it is down to 1.5%." The
> government's withdrawal from this crucial area has also resulted in
> large-scale disengagement of the workforce. Ghuman points out how the
> rural
> agricultural workforce has dropped from 55% to 39.4%. Unfortunately, this
> workforce has not been absorbed into non-farm activities. On the contrary,
> poverty figures have risen by 6% in the area.
>
> Agricultural experts express concern at the impoverishment and increasing
> landlessness of farmers. Professor H S Shergill, from the department of
> economics at Punjab University in Chandigarh, believes that as long as
> farmers are being forced to take non-institutional credit at 60% interest,
> they will not be able to break out of the debt trap. Shergill, who
> authored
> a study on the increasing indebtedness of the Punjabi farmer a decade ago,
> indicated that farmers' debts had reached Rs 135 crore. "Today," he
> claims, "that figure has doubled."
>
> Shergill maintains that unless the government changes land ownership
> patterns and takes a determined stand to fight rural indebtedness, the
> Punjabi peasantry will become completely impoverished.
>
> InfoChange News & Features, April 2005
>
http://www.infochangeindia.org/features265.jsp