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The book is a compilation of papers examining women's role in rural production systems in India. The book is divided into six sections that explore conceptual, theoretical, and methodological issues; primary and secondary data; and historical perspectives.
This book is the outcome of a two-year research project undertaken by the Foundation for Agrarian Studies and supported by the Rosa Luxemberg Stiftung (New Delhi). The objective of the project was to examine the socioeconomic characteristics and viability of small producers in different agro-ecological regions of India, locating them in the broader context of the capitalist development of Indian agriculture. This book seeks to address some key questions concerning small farms and small farmers in the context of contemporary India, drawing on empirical material of exceptional quality collected through carefully designed and conducted household and farm economy surveys in seventeen villages located in nine major states of India. Chapters based on household data examine issues such as the productivity of small farms, the economic viability of small farming, the multiple sources of household income of small farmers, the patterns of input use, and the extent of labor performed by small farmers on their own holdings. While not romanticizing the role of small farmers, the book brings out the need for strong state support to enable small farmers to meet the challenges they face.
The Development and Planning Department of the Government of West Bengal held an international conference in Kolkata in 2002, which provided a forum for debate and discussion on new research in the field of agrarian relations in less-developed countries. The papers brought together in this volume were first presented at this conference, and cover a wide range of theoretical issues and empirical experiences. Some address land reform, and others focus on liberalized trade and mobile financial flows. Country case studies concerned with changes in agrarian relations include Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Cuba, China, and Bangladesh; others on South Africa, the Philippines, and sub-Saharan Africa identify land reforms in the contemporary period.
Study undertaken as a part of Project on Agrarian Relations in India, by the Foundation for Agrarian Studies.
Caste is an institution of oppression and social discrimination specific to South Asia, more so to India. Central to the caste system were the status assigned to the Dalit people and the criminal practice of untouchability. Caste is embedded in production relations. It is an impediment to the growth of the productive forces, and a bulwark against the revolutionary overthrow of the ruling classes. Although there have been, in recent years, new scholarship and new attempts to understand the socio-economic conditions of life of Dalit people and households in India, it is still true, as a leading scholar in the field has written, that 'very few empirical studies have tried to study the phenomeno...
Weakening Welfare is a powerful argument for expanding and strengthening the public distribution system (PDS) in a country where hunger, poverty and malnutrition are as endemic as in India. The reigning orthodoxy of structural adjustment, however, preaches exactly the opposite. This book is a sharp indictment of food policies of the liberalization era. It demonstrates how these policies will worsen food and nutrition security among the vast majority of the Indian people. Looking at the effects of targeting of food subsidies on other countries, it marshals arguments in favour of making PDS universal. There is little doubt that PDS, as it functions today, has failed by and large to provide nutritional support to the people and requires genuine reform. The exception is Kerala, the only state in India where PDS has been near universal. This book discusses alternative proposals for making PDS an effective measure of food security. Written in a lucid, non-technical style, the book presents a wealth of recent data that will be as handy for the expert as for the interested layperson.
Study undertaken as part of the Foundation's Project on Agrarian Relations in India.
Study undertaken as part of the Foundation's Project on Agrarian Relations in India.
This volume critically examines the notion of a ‘new’ India by acknowledging that India is changing remarkably and by indicating that in the overzealous enthusiasm about the new India, there is collective amnesia about the other, older India. The book argues that the increasing consolidation of capitalist markets of commodity production and consumption has unleashed not only economic growth and social change, but has also introduced new contradictions associated with market dynamics in the material and social as well as intellectual spheres.
Study undertaken as part of the Foundation's Project on Agrarian Relations in India.