Abstract:
Deep rooted distress in rural India, an imminent yet conveniently ignored issue in the
policy space, has been suggested different explanations by the studies underscored it.
Visible symptoms of the crisis prevalent in the rural economy – suicides,
unemployment resulting from depeasentisation, and losing land assets, poor prices
etc. have been afflicting the sector for years and the present COVID crisis is
seemingly aggravating the scenario. Known for symptomatically dealing with issues,
Indian government, both state and national, has devised policy interventions to tackle
these symptoms and in the name of developing the sector and increasing productivity,
with whopping budgetary allocations. Despite such efforts, the crisis in the sector is
continuing. In this context, interventions that are solely aimed at enhancing the
productivity as a way of increasing the incomes of rural households are proven to be
inadequate. Complementing them, people-centric approaches that focus on the social
protection aspect against the precarity of farm livelihoods, are the need of the hour.
This study is aimed at understanding the impact of agricultural interventions
in convergence with social protection mechanisms on alleviating the risk and
vulnerability of small and marginal agricultural households. For this purpose,
Telangana is chosen as the area of study as the state is leading in terms of the
agricultural and social protection interventions introduced after the state formation.
Particularly, its Rythu Bandhu scheme is highly lauded and adopted by other states
and national policies and it is considered to be satisfying the criteria of both
agricultural and social protection instruments. Findings of this study substantiate the
prominence of examining agrarian distress from a standpoint cutting across social
relations of production, caste relations and ecological conditions. In addition, the
study points at the multifaceted gaps and shortcomings of the existing policy
landscape in addressing the question of agrarian distress. To address these issues, this
study recommends specific policy interventions for small and marginal farmers to
ensure equality of opportunities, if not equity, as with the medium and large farmers.
