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Every Farmer Household in the country on all India basis and on an average owes Rs.12,585. Punjab farmer tops the list with Rs.41,576/- and the Meghalaya kisan only Rs.72/-. Punjab is followed by Kerala with Rs.33,907/-, Haryana Rs.26,007/-, Andhra Pradesh Rs.23,965/- and Tamilnadu Rs.23,963/-. Almost all the State Farmer Households barring those of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Orissa, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttranchal, West Bengal etc. owe nearly Rs.10,000/- or above. This information is revealed in a Survey on “Indebtedness of Farmer Households” by the National Sample Survey Organisation, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
Going by different social groups of farmer households on all India basis, kisans belonging to the Scheduled Tribe owed below Rs.6,000/-, while that of the Scheduled Castes below Rs.8,000/-. Farmer Households belonging to the other backward classes were burdened by just below Rs.14,000/-, while farmer households of other categories were indebted to the level of Rs.18,000/- and above.
Another notable feature in case of Punjab was that Farmer Households belonging to Scheduled Tribes were really over burdened with outstanding loans amounting to Rs.1,18,495/-, while the Scheduled Castes Rs.10,399/-, OBCs Rs.21,862/- and others Rs.66,147/-. Punjab is the only State in the country, where scheduled tribe farmer households owed rupees one lakh and above, which also tops in other respects. Another interesting aspect thrown up by the 59th Round of the National Sample Survey pertains to Mizoram, where the scheduled tribes alone had outstanding loans of Rs.1,937/- while no other social group including the Others’ category owed Nothing.
VKS/SR
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