LIFE: A SINE WAVE

LIFE: A SINE WAVE

   November 04, 2021       Ankur Jangra

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LIFE- One can think of n number of definitions for it, and here I am to discuss my definition of life. I am not a professional philosopher/psychologist, it's just a piece of words from my experiences. 

So, as the topic suggests, it has something to deal with a sine wave. A sine wave is a trigonometric concept of mathematics that somewhat resembles this: 

If you observe clearly, the graph is never straight. Sometimes it accelerates upwards and sometimes it comes down. So how can a philosophical discussion of life be related to this simple graph?

For our convenience let's just turn the curve a little to make sense for our topic.

So how can this curvy graph help us relate with our lives? It's simple! Our life begins at zero where we actually are zero. Slowly and steadily, our life progresses having our parents as the best companion in most cases. Well, life is awesome when it starts at point 0, you are a cute kid, you have people to care for you, you have all the attention you could ever get in your life and all you need to do is sleep. Then you are a little grown-up, you have learned to walk, maybe even talk. Gradually you grow in your life by learning new things about the world every day. Once you have a sense of competition in this tiny world, your hard work begins. Lucky ones go to the schools whereas some work hard to fulfill the empty stomachs first. This varies from individual to individual. One can agree that luck/destiny plays a major role here but one thing that could help you relate better is the keyword HARD WORK. Every human needs to do it irrespective of the situation he/she is into given that the level of hard work might differ. 

One question that might arise here is that what kind of hard work are we talking about. Honestly, it could be anything. Yes, anything! From learning how to walk in childhood to earning a penny for sake of empty stomachs to buying a duplex house. Think of as many situations you can, and everything you put in an effort will count as hard work. Following are some instances of what could count in as hard work.

1. Learning the multiplication table of two, three, four, etc.

2. Following a strict routine like Akshay Kumar by going early to bed and waking up by 4am.

3. A student studying the whole night to complete assignments or succeed in an examination.

4. Earning more money day by day, month by month, year by year.

5. Hitting gym workouts to build big muscles.

6. Saving your pocket money to take your girlfriend/boyfriend to the movie dates.

7. A mother/father waking up early to make delicious breakfast for their toddlers to carry to school.

And trust me the list goes on. The reason behind explicitly mentioning a few instances is to help you understand that everything counts in as hard work. So everybody works hard every day to achieve some goals someday. At times, we are able to achieve some, at times we are not. When we achieve some, we are happy and feel like the king/queen of this world and when we fail well, it is exactly the opposite. 

THE HIGHS:

If you observe the graph clearly, all the peak points i.e the odd ones(1,3,5,7,9), are those I like to call the happy points. They are the points when we achieve our goals, are delighted, highly motivated and everybody around us tends to love us the most. 

THE LOWS:

But just like we are a part of nature where nothing is constant, the downturn begins i.e slowly we travel to the even points(2,4,6,8). So why do we travel to these low points? Is it mandatory? Can't this be skipped? 

Those who are aware of share markets might know that no matter how much over/under-valued the market is, a correction always awaits. So these peak points are the corrections of our life. Corrections help us understand that nothing is permanent in this life, no one can always be on the top and everybody needs to work hard every day to better themselves every day. 

Key Deductions:

The lows are the points at which people go through depressions. These are the points where we start questioning our decisions/capabilities and unfortunately, some might also come across a few suicidal thoughts. But are these low points that much fatal/dangerous as we think?

The answer to this is a big NO! How? Let's get back to the graph. Assume you are at point 8 and you feel the worst has happened to you. Now observe point 6 where you were actually stood sometime back, again look at point 4 and then point 2. At all these points, you might have felt that you have failed. But was it really a failure? It's clear that point 4 is still higher than point 2, point 6 is still higher than point 4, and lastly point 8( where you currently are) is still higher than your previous low i.e 6. So no matter what you feel, you have actually succeeded since you are still above your previous lows because you have gained new knowledge and above all a different experience. So eventually you are in a net profit. You are standing at point 8 because you had survived all the previous lows. 

This journey from lows to highs is what we call the "MOVE ON" period. And how did you do it? You surely gave thought to your mistakes and tried to work over them further. Maybe, you might not be able to correct all your mistakes at once but someday you definitely will.

Well, that's life. If you ever feel that everything has gone wrong and there is no way out, just close your eyes and plot your own sine wave of past experiences. There is always a nice time waiting for you. Work hard to reach that high point and once you have reached it, don't panic that now again you might travel back to a new low. Be happy, be confident and be ready to fight. We may not achieve everything but keeping big goals would definitely help us become a better version of ourselves irrespective of the result. And in case you believe in Dhoni, always remember what he said, "We got to trust and focus the process more than the result since the result is something that's not in our hand but the process is", also few of my like to call it as "Karvahi Par Dhyan De". And life is all about the process of learning and growing. 

Lastly, quoting a few words of Ronny Bhaiya from Chacha vidhayak hai humare in a slightly different way... "Apan Jab Bhi khelte hain, apan ya to Jeet te hain ya to Seekhte hain, lekin apan Harte Kabhi Nahi hain". So keep winning and keep learning and still if this sine wave doesn't help, go to your parents and tell them how you feel, they would either slap you or hug you tight and trust me either of it would definitely give you are a clear perspective of your life.😊

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SUBHASH DADA: TALE OF A REVOLUTIONARY

SUBHASH DADA: TALE OF A REVOLUTIONARY

   May 29, 2021       Ankur Jangra

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"ONE INDIVIDUAL MAY DIE FOR AN IDEA, BUT THAT IDEA WILL, AFTER HIS/HER DEATH, INCARNATE ITSELF IN A THOUSAND LIVES"

Way back in 1897 when Indians were preparing to step into the 20th century to rewrite the books of history, on the 23rd of January a soul in form of Subhash Chandra Bose was born in Cuttack city of Bengal Province. We all know that he has been one of the most important freedom fighters of our nation. Bengal had always been the hotspot of the revolution for a long time. Especially during the struggle for our independence, it served a very important role. Even when we turn the pages of history, we would find that many of our freedom fighters came from the great land of Bengal.

Since childhood, Subhash Dada was keen on how and why things happened just like every other kid. At the age of 10, the deadly partition of Bengal(1907) proved to be the starting point where he was introduced and somewhat got to know about what the people were protesting for. Supposedly, that was a turning point in his life. If you might have read about Bhagat Singh, you might even relate that both these personalities are somewhat similar in many aspects. Bhagat Singh was also driven towards the struggle of freedom during the post Jallianwala bagh massacre- non-cooperation movement when he was around 12-13 years old. 

Subhash dada was an intelligent person since childhood. His motivation towards the country was such that he cleared the Indian Civil Services exam, but refused to join the service. Back then, it was not expected by an Indian to clear the ICS exam as we were assumed/portrayed as illiterate and backward who cannot excel in academics. Thereafter, he wanted to step into the mainstream revolution. There was a wave of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi which was flowing all over the country back then. Bose dada was highly influenced by Gandhiji and was later guided by him to work under Chittaranjan Das, a well-known Bengal politician. 

Bose and Gandhi: 

During the early years of the struggle, Bose dada worked under the guidance and believed in the philosophies of Gandhiji. He followed and believed in the Truth and Satyagraha principles of him but had somewhat different views with respect to the non-violence strategy. Bose worked actively with Congress and was elected as the president in the Haripura Session of INC, 1938, and again in the Tripuri Session of 1939. This is a point where many historians have debated a lot whether who was right, Gandhi or Bose. But if we see the bigger picture, India might not have got independence if either of them haven't been a part of the struggle. Here's an example for the same. In 1939 when India was taken for granted to be part of the allied powers in the second world war, everyone in the country was shocked. It came as a shock because we were not consulted or asked before naming us on their side. And India in 1939 was not the same as it was in 1915 during WW1, a lot had changed, because now there was also an elected government in the provinces too. 

Congress at this stage was actually divided into two halves one who were aligned with Gandhiji and one who visioned Dada's methods as hope to actual independence. The Bose camp believed that Indians must use this time as an opportunity and take help from the Germans to overthrow the Raj whereas the Gandhian camp believed that it wasn't right to exploit this ill time and it could turn out to be a disaster delaying the process of independence. This was known as one of the biggest rifts between Gandhi and Bose. But thereafter, Bose resigned from the President post of Congress and created his own All India Forward Block and eventually led to the setting up of the famous Azad Hind Fauj. 

Here, both the factions contributed equally. On the one side, the Gandhian camp was building pressure on the government to agree for complete independence from the Indian soil whereas the Azad Hind Fauj(AHF) had captured the Andaman and Nicobar islands and was building international pressure too. The axis powers were actually winning the war but then pearl harbor happened and the rest is history. The troops of AHF were captured and Netaji had to escape. But these sequence of parallel events had developed a huge pressure and eventually the things peddeled towards the process of independence. 

Even after separating from congress, Dada never disrespected Gandhiji. During his all-India radio broadcast from Rangoon, he even stated him as a symbol of Indian nationalism and addressed him as Father of our Nation. 

What can one learn from Bose Dada?

1. Self Belief: Dada's life teaches us to believe in our principles and act confidently over them. 

2. Respecting other's opinions and thoughts: Even though he had few idealogical differences with Gandhiji, he never devalued his principles or him as a personality.

3. Fearless and Risk-taking attitude: Every human works hard to achieve his/her aspirations but on the top of that, the fearless attitude acts as a booster and help us achieve a little more than what we had actually thought of. 

4. Everything can be achieved but at a certain cost: His famous slogan "TUM MUJHE KHOON DO, MAIN TUMHE AZAADI DUNGA" means that nothing comes for free, you have to put in all that you can in whichever form to achieve what you want.

5. Gender Equality: Dada's Azad Hind Fauj had a RANI LAKSHMI BAI Regiment which was lead by Lakshmi Swaminathan. He believed that when it comes to blood, its color is the same be it male or female.

6. Non-Communal: One of the most vital aspect of the AHF was the diversity it had within itself. Dada had united Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and Christians in his army. He never believed that the nation needs to be divided on the communal basis.

7. Leadership: Every organization or group is represented by a leader and we are also part of it in some way or the other. So one can actually look for the qualities as those of Netaji while choosing their leaders among themselves.

Subash Dada is one such person, I can admire and relate at almost every instance. It's not that he did not have any weaknesses. Just like every human does, he too had a few. But there's still a lot to learn from him. How to be a true patriot, how to serve the people, how to bond with others, etc. He was such a personality that many historians have marked him as a perfect blend of Gandhi and Hitler. 

Today we as a country owe a lot to him. It has been more than a year and we are still fighting covid and have a long way to go. All we need to do is stick together just the way Dada had dreamt of. I would like to end with Bose Dada's one famous quote. "ONE INDIVIDUAL MAY DIE FOR AN IDEA, BUT THAT IDEA WILL, AFTER HIS/HER DEATH, INCARNATE ITSELF IN A THOUSAND LIVES". We, especially the youth can apply this in our lives so that we work hard and with full dedication to convert all our ideas into realities so that "HUM RAHEIN YA NA RAHEIN, HUMARA IDEA SABME KAHI NA KAHI BAKI RAHEGA".😊😊

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WOH STREE HAI, WOH KUCH BHI KAR SAKTI HAI

WOH STREE HAI, WOH KUCH BHI KAR SAKTI HAI

   March 29, 2021       Ankur Jangra

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Women empowerment: the two words which we have been hearing for many years. Everyone might know what, why, and how of it but are we doing our best to mark those words into the actions or convert them into reality? Let's see.

Starting from history as we always do. What do you think, the type of patriarchal society we live in today, was it the same since the beginning? Here's a little chronological structure to understand the position of women and the type of society since ancient times.

Era/Time Period	Society	Status
Stone Age	Egalitarian	=
Indus Valley Civilization	Matriarchal	↑↑↑
Early Vedic Era	Egalitarian	↑↑
Later Vedic Era	Patriarchal	↓
Mauryas & Guptas	Patriarchal	↓↓
Delhi Sultanate & Mughals	Patriarchal	↓↓↓
Europeans	Patriarchal	↓↓↓↓
Post Independence	Patriarchal	↓↓↓↓↓

The position of women was not the same as is today. Different archeological evidence shows that during the Harappan civilization, it was the mother goddess who people worshiped. But gradually if we observe, the tables were turned, the fall of women's status started to begin. Major reasons that can be observed were lowering the age of marriages, education was also restricted, and slowly, the importance of their wishes, opinions, and thoughts in multiple aspects began to reduce. 

Moving from history to contemporary times, even today, women lack empowerment in various aspects of life may it be education, freedom of speech and expression, financial literacy, equal wages, political representation, and the list goes on to infinity. Why is it that even today a girl has to think thrice before traveling late at night or going to late-night parties, why is it that a parent always has to think that his/her daughter is safer if she has some known male guy with her, why is it that many places of worship/even houses still discriminate on the basis of menstrual age group of a girl, and why is it that in spite of having so many provisions for equal representation at many places, still, the women are under-represented? 

I am sure there are many more points which each of us can think and add to the list of questions above and probably it will keep on growing. The reason behind this is that we are still lacking/missing the will for a lower level of execution. By lower level of execution I mean starting everything from the scratch i.e start from the day one a baby is born. A parent must nurture his/her child either a boy or a girl equally because that eventually is going to result in the type of a person he/she becomes. May it be brooming of the room, watering the plants, bringing grocery from the stores, playing any type of sport, learning to cook, studying, or any such other activity, a child must be aware that it's not just the responsibility of a particular gender to perform that particular type of a task. Well, I obviously have zero experience in the art of parenting, yet these are a few of the things that the current and coming generation could try to imbibe so that change might pace up.

Keeping the current scenario in mind wherein the cases of sexual abuse, domestic violence, and rape are on the rise, it is important that we do talk about women's safety. The most important pillar in women's safety is the women themselves. Apart from teaching the boys to protect women, it is also important that we empower our women for their own safety too. Women also have the same number of hands and legs just like everyone does, so what's needed is to strengthen her from day one. Nourishment plays a vital role in the developmental process. Phogat sisters might not have won the dangal if they wouldn't have been nourished adequately. And unfortunately even today, most of the females aren't fed adequately in comparison to the males which affects their overall strength and development. 

Some might even argue that why should women learn to fight, why must a woman be responsible to take care of herself, why can't the provisions of government help or why can't the boys be taught to behave in an adequate manner? Unfortunately, today the place where we stand, it is not an individual effort that can help in eliminating the ills in this aspect. A collective effort is eventually needed and if we talk about equality then we must also not forget that the same equality means whatever a boy does so can a girl too. Nevertheless, that collective effort is something we must keep a check on.

Having an individual financial status is also an important pillar for women's empowerment. It is odd and sad that homemaking which is done majorly by women is not considered as an economic activity. So basically a person who is a homemaker is formally having zero income. This is something which we need to get into topics of our discussion. Also, it is important that the participation of women in the labour and working force must increase for which an eventual answer is a good quality education, which would lead to the economic growth of women and eventually that of the nation. 

Lastly, it is also important that we as a society must realize that it's our collective responsibility to support the women around us and make them feel that you are not just a woman, but a Wonderwoman who can fight all odds of society and yet cherish with flying colors, who can juggle the menstrual cycles yet manage to complete all the tasks efficiently, who can stand at the border to protect the citizens of the nation, who can bring Olympic medals in one shot, who can be the CEO of a MNC, who can run a country in times of war or a pandemic, and most importantly one who can nurture a life in her womb for nine long months. Let us come together and work for a society wherein the discrimination between a man and a woman is no more, women are adequately represented in all sectors of our economy and society, women are traveling without any thought of fear, and lastly, our current words turning into the reality that "WOH STREE HAI, WOH KUCH BHI KAR SAKTI HAI😉". Rest the poem sums up everything.

Wo aag bhi h..wo pani bhi hai...

Tum chaho to wo tumhare chote jahan ki rani bhi h...

Wo shanti bhi h..wo aatank bhi h..

Bas sambhalke rakhna wo ghar ki Lakshmi bhi h...

Wo beti bhi h..wo bahu bhi hai..

Wo aurat hai to bhul mat jana wo insaan bhi hai...

Mana ki thodi bholi hai...auro ki tarah kuch chizo me kacchi bhi hai...

Bas yaad dilana use ki uski ek alag jindgi bhi h...

Tum kehte ho wo badal gayi...

Kyuki ab muskan tumhare chehre pr hi nai, uske chehre pr bhi jaruri h...

  ~Tejal Rajput

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FARM LAWS: LETS FACE THE REALITY

FARM LAWS: LETS FACE THE REALITY

   March 05, 2021       Ankur Jangra

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In the previous part, we have already discussed the history of our agriculture. I would request in case you haven't read the previous part yet, please have a look because the things you will come across in this blog won't make any sense unless you have a fair idea about the history of our agriculture.

Part1: FARM LAWS: PROLOGUE- HISTORY OF INDIAN AGRICULTURE

Before we move on to the analysis of these laws, a few questions and concepts are needed to be addressed.

Contract Farming

It is a type of farming wherein two parties form an agreement contract with each other for carrying out the business. One party is obviously the farmer(or Farmer Producer Organizations)  and the other is a private company. So before the start of business few aspects would be talked about like what will the amount of procurement, the quality of the produce, the time period for the procurement, what if the quality is compromised, what type of material/grain to use, and many more such. For example, when you move into a rented apartment, there is execution of an agreement between you and the owner, and the contract has details about the rent, deposit, furniture(if any), the tenure of the contract, etc. The same is the scenario in all the business contracts too, just the parameters keep varying. 

Farmer, Middlemen, and the APMC triad

In the previous part we read about the middlemen, who they are, and what do they do. We even read that in the states of Haryana and Punjab they range fairly from 30-35 in percentage, and have also contributed to the agricultural development of the two states. But we do have some questions unanswered:

1. Have the middlemen contributed to the development of agriculture in PN & HR?
   The answer is Yes. The reason they were born was due to the failure of the government to provide certain services and infrastructure requirements needed throughout the stage of production and procurement. When there was no formal source of agricultural credit, it was they who had lent money to the poor farmers. Even today when we have so many branches of the banks present in villages, yet a poor farmer prefers a moneylender who in this case is usually the middlemen. There are many reasons for it as well which I would cover in a different blog on banking.
   
   

2. Are there any shortcomings of the middlemen system?
   The answer is Yes. Knowing the huge population of middlemen in the agricultural system of HR & PN, they are actually one of the (not only) reasons for the protests.  The middlemen had an upper hand since they acted as the source of finance for produce as well as the source of sale of the produce. There were occasions when the crops had failed due to multiple reasons like drought, heavy flooding, etc, and remember who was the source of credit? The one who finances also charges a rate of interest for the same too. So in this case the poor farmer is trapped in the vicious cycle of debt and poverty because the crop produce is the only way the farmer can repay the debts. 

Why are the farmers of only northern states protesting? There are few parameters on which the answer depends:

• The number of people employed in other states in comparison to PN & HR is quite low since many alternate employment options do exist. For example, in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Karnataka, sectors other than agriculture like Services(IT, Banking), Manufacturing, etc exist. Whereas in states of HR & PN, most of the people are employed in agriculture only.
  
  

• The agricultural pattern/system of other states is quite different than PN & HR. The number of middlemen in rest of the states in comparison to PN & HR is quite less making the APMC system is not that functional and famous(it doesn't mean it doesn't exist).

So, the following are the laws about which the story is all about:

1. Farmer's Produce Trade and Commerce( Promotion and Facilitation) bill, 2020: The bill permits the farmers to carry out inter as well as intra state trade for their produce beyond the physical premises of APMC mandis. Earlier, the farmer couldn't trade or sell his/her produce in APMC markets of other states, but now that won't be a constraint. Remember we talked about a tax that was charged on selling the produce at the APMC, well now if a farmer is say trading with some other buyer(not the government) then, the tax amount won't be charged this time. Farmers could now trade throughout the geography of the country and not restricted to the native states.
   
   But some fear that these provisions are a threat to the existing MSP system. Its true that if the farmer will get an opportunity to trade with other buyers and save the tax and the debt trap of middlemen then but obvious, he/she won't prefer the APMC yards to sell the produce. This would hurt the pockets of the middlemen as well as the state governments too.
   
   

2. Farmer's (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services bill, 2020: The bill introduces a framework of contract farming through an agreement between the farmer and the buyer before the beginning of the business. It enlist all the details that would be listed in the contract which both the parties would sign.
   
   The farmers fear that this bill  would eventually cost them their lands and huge amount of exploitation by the big private players. But why do they think so? Reason being, there's a provision that under the circumstance of any dispute between both the parties post execution of the agreement, either of the parties can move at max to SDM i.e Sub-Divisional Magistrate( a government official) for resolution of the dispute. There is no provision for moving to the courts.
   
   They also fear that incase the quality/quantity of the produce is not matched as per the provisions agreed during signing of contract, the buyer might not either purchase or pay them less as than what expected. But that's actually not true. The bill clearly specifies that during the execution of the agreement, a clause of minimum amount at which the buyer will have to buy the produce does exist for cases like this only.
   
   

3. Essential Commodities( Amendment) Bill, 2020: As per the bill, the government has listed certain essential commodities like cereals, potato, pulses, onion, edible oil seeds, and oil, whose supply and prices would be regulated by itself only during times of war, famines, extra-ordinary price rise, or natural calamities. This amendment has been brought to attract the private investment into the farming sector. As the government would only interfere during extreme times, this gives the private companies a chance to increase the stock of grains or in other terms hoard them.
   
   Now a very strong argument has been put forward by the farmers in this regard, that this might distort the trade if big private firms enter into picture. The big private companies have capital and infrastructure to store the grains for long durations that too in good conditions, so eventually, if they just keep on increasing the stocks and not release/sell them into the markets, it would lead to shortage of products in the market which eventually would lead to inflation of the prices of products. And rest is the pure economics, one who controls the supply, can control the demand, and monopoly in this aspect would harm not just farmers but also the consumers who would eventually have to buy the products at high rates.
   
   

Now that we have a fair idea about these farm laws, the question still remains,do we need them? The answer is YES. We do need them but with some modifications. Giving a confidence and assurance to the farmers that MSP won't be done away with and it would be farmers choice to sell the crop either to the private companies incase they get a better price there or else, a system of APMC will always be present with MSP attached. Role of Juidiciary in Dispute Resolution between the parties should be added. It is right of every citizen to move to courts to get resolution of their disputes and this should also be added to the bill related to the contract farming. Government should act as a Regulator and the hoarding levels could be relooked into by the parliamentary committees, so that over hoarding by a particular private entity doesn't take place. 

One of the major reason that the laws have created a havoc in country is that they weren't duely scrutinized by the parliamentary committees and they were passed in a haste, when there was no opposition to oppose. The parliamentary committees play a major role in development of a law, they take adivces from the unions and civil societies for whom the law has been made. Its very important to do a ground level analysis and take into confidence the parties(not talking about political party) that are going to get affected. Its not that government hadn't done any research before passing of these bills, but it seems they lacked in taking into confidence the beneficiaries. 

Given that few changes are taken care off, the laws should remain to exist because these are once in a decade reforms. Many governments have been trying to pass these changes since decades but couldn't due to political constraints. The government should focus on promoting more and more Farmer Producer Organizations so that their bargaining power increase during contract farming. Just like the financial advisor(brokers) cannot be neglected in functioning of the stock markets, so can't the middlemen/Arhatiyas/Intermediaries/Bicholias be. They have shown they have good service providing skills and government should use them as potential resources. From years, our governments have been procuring wheat and rice exceeding the stock limits and now they are just rotting away in godowns. Government knows that it has been unsuccessful in improving the state of our agriculture( corruption being a major reason) and now private has been given a chance to work for the same. Private companies have huge capital which they can invest for development of the state of our agriculture. For those who think private companies just exploit and think of their profits, then just think where most of us are employed today. There are multiple sectors where the entrance of private sector has worked in favour too. Nevertheless, government should also make sure the farmers being poor aren't exploited and create a fair business environment that favours both the parties and eventually the nation.

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Farm Laws: Prologue- History of Indian agriculture

Farm Laws: Prologue- History of Indian agriculture

   February 28, 2021       Ankur Jangra

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In the month of September 2020, three major bills were passed in the parliament which are very much in news apparently. This blog aims to critically analyze the three farmer laws in and out, and a way ahead that could be possible to resolve the deadlock. This one is going to be a little long and in multiple parts, so hold on until the end.

Following were the bills that were passed related to the farmers and our agriculture system: 

1. Farmer's Produce Trade and Commerce( Promotion and Facilitation) bill, 2020

2. Farmer's (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services bill, 2020

3. Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020

But, directly getting to know about these bills won't make any sense until and unless one has a clear picture about the history of the Indian agriculture system. So let's begin from the scratch...

State of our Agriculture System until now

Agriculture in India started way back around 9000 BCE. As humanity evolved, so did agriculture. Multiple crops came into existence gradually. Until the Europeans came, India was one of the biggest exporters of many food crops and was also known as the land of spices. But, things changed after the debut of European players. They destroyed the Indian agriculture system tactically. One such instance was when our farmers were forced to grow crops like indigo on most of their land, which eventually reduced the fertility of the soil. The exploitation was such that from being an exporter of the best cotton in the world, we became a net importer of the same by the time of our independence. And similar was the case for most of the crops which our farmers grew.

We all are aware that an economy is based on few sectors say Primary, secondary, tertiary, and a few more. And agriculture covers a major part of the primary sector. When we got our independence, approximately 76% of our population was employed in agriculture, wherein the state of our agriculture was not good. So basically, back then we were a poor agrarian economy. While we were trying hard to uplift our people during the early years of our democracy, we didn't know that we also have 3 big wars waiting ahead. The Indo-Pak war of 1947, Indo-Sino war of 1962, the Indo-Pak war of 1965, and few added famines impacted us severely. There was a time when we were in such a position that we just had few weeks of grain stocks left to feed our people. Eventually, the government had to import a huge amount of food grains from the US. It's not that we imported for the first time, but the amount in which we did, reflected the grave situation we were into. We usually borrow money for fulfilling our secondary shortages but imagine a situation when you actually have to borrow for feeding yourself and your family. Well, it was the same feel our government had back then. India has had a history that whenever something goes wrong a  wave of change runs through, and something sort of this was lying ahead- the GREEN REVOLUTION.

GREEN REVOLUTION

The humiliation India faced at the international level led to the role out of the GREEN REVOLUTION backed by Mr. M.S Swaminathan(also called the father of the Indian green revolution).  Under it, farmers were given High Yielding Variety(HYV) seeds for Rice and Wheat. Parallelly, the fertilizers were also brought into the picture for better and quick results for intensive production. The Ganga Yamuna belt of North and Northwest India was put onto focus as an experimental first phase of the green revolution. 

The pivot of the green revolution was the system of Minimum Support Price(MSP), the acronym which has been buzzing around for some time now. The government knew that nobody would participate actively until some monetary guarantee is also promised to them. That's where MSP helped. MSPs are an assurance that the government will intervene if market rates fall below that threshold, thereby helping avoid distress sales. It is nothing but a minimum assured price which the farmer would get for its crop no matter what. Farmers could avail MSP, only when they sold their crops at the Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs) where a particular amount of tax was also charged for the sell-off. The first crop for which MSP was fixed was wheat at Rs. 54 per quintal. Gradually, more crops were added to the list of MSP. Few years down the line, the government got the results that it expected. The production went up and stocks were starting to rise. The income of the farmers which had been poor for ages now saw a quick rise. 

But was that rise in income uniform in every part of our country? Obviously Not. The fruits of the green revolution were not replicated in other parts of the country. Therefore a divide was generated between the GR belt and the rest of the Indian states. This divide also affected the economic capacity of farmers of our country. Later on, MSP was also given on multiple crops but it wasn't that much in comparison to wheat and rice. This is a major reason that farmers of the GR belt grew rice and wheat majorly. 

The Game of Fertilizers

Another ill effect that later came into realization was that the fertilizers were used more than needed. Fertilizers were a combination of NPK(Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium) in a ratio of 4:2:1 as per the requirement of Indian soil. A down-to-earth report stated that presently, the NPK ratio is 6.7:2.4:1 for most of the states whereas for Haryana and Punjab the ratio is 27.7:6.1:1 and 31.4:8:1 respectively which is very huge in comparison to the required one. The fertilizers are meant to be used in a required ratio and if they aren't, it can lead to multiple ill effects. Apparently, the states of Haryana and Punjab are on the verge of depleting their groundwater table, the soil structure has been disrupted and the soil salinity is at its peak. Yes, the fertilizers did help the farmers to grow the crops at a good rate and make themselves financially stable but not in the long run due to a lot of environmental impacts.

The MiddleMen

Whenever the farmer has harvested his/her produce, they could sell it off in the APMC system where they could avail MSP for their crop. But the system in the past few years hasn't been as simple as it looks. Most of the farmers in India are poor and marginal having landholdings less than 1-2 hectares. These poor farmers aren't able to fulfill all the infrastructure/capital requirements needed for farming (say a tractor, financing, cold storages, etc). This was the reason there came up a section of people called Middlemen AKA Intermediaries AKA Bicholiyas AKA Arhatiyas. Middlemen did the job of helping the farmer sell his/her produce in the APMC market. They would provide services to the farmers in multiple forms. Because most of the farmers were poor, they couldn't afford to buy their own tractors, trolleys, etc. 

So are these middlemen illegal? 

No. They are completely legal and are registered by the state government for individual APMCs. They facilitate the transaction between the farmer and the actual buyer(which could be government or even a private player). 

What is the scale at which arhatiyas exist?

The middlemen exist in all the states but vary in numbers. Say if 100 people are employed in agriculture in each state, then for most of the states, middlemen range from 8-15 out of those 100 approximately whereas for haryana  and Punjab, they range from 30-35.

States	Middlemen
Punjab & Haryana	30-35%
Other states	8-15%

                                                         

Therefore, a significant share of agricultural income goes to the middlemen as well. 

By now, you might have got a raw idea about the agriculture system in our country. Explicit focus has been given to the system of Haryana and Punjab to understand the controversy related to the farms laws. The green revolution was a boon to the indian economy, if it hadn't happened, our people would have actually starved to death. Some lacunaes did exist like the huge price parity on MSP (Rice/wheat and other crops), usage of fertilizers in inadequate ratios, etc, but one must not forget that a poor person won't think about the consequences but rather would focus on feeding the starving stomach first. Thats exactly what our government had done by kickstarting the green revolution. A system of APMCs was established which was actually needed back then. Today if the government of India has plenty of stocks of wheat and rice, it is courtsey the green revolution. Also, if the middlemen wouldn't have existed, the poor farmers produce couldn't have got the due recognition. Now, there might be more such questions like 

1. Why the farmers of only northern states are protesting majorly?

2. Did middlemen destroy or enhance the mandi system?

3. For some, are the farm laws good? For some, are the farm laws bad? 

4. What exactly are the provisions of the farm bills?

5. What is contract farming? 

6. Where are the private players?

We will understand in detail about all the above questions in next part of the blog. Explicit focus now would be on the three laws, enough of beating around the bush. Incase, there are some other points you want the light to be thrown upon, just mention in the comment or in the contact form.  Part 2 to be out soon. Until then stay tuned.

 

 

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