|
The incidence of indebtedness among rural labour households in the country has declined by more than 10%. It went down from 35.1% in 1993-94 to 25% in 1999-2000. However, the average debt per rural labour household has almost doubled. It has recorded an increase of 90.9 per cent over the level of debt of Rs. 3169 in 1993-94 to Rs. 6049 in 1999-2000.
This has been revealed in a Report on Indebtedness among Rural Labour Households (1999-2000) released by the Labour Bureau of the Ministry of Labour and Employment.
Although the incidence of indebtedness was higher among households belonging to Scheduled Castes (25.3%) but the average debt per such households was lower. It stood at Rs. 5077 in 1999-2000. Comparatively the incidence of indebtedness among rural labour households belonging to Scheduled Tribes was lower 22.9% and the average debt per household was also lower at Rs. 4781. The backward classes rural households reported an average higher debt of Rs. 7731.
An analysis of the data revealed that 98.1% of the debt was contracted by households while a very small proportion of 1.9% was inherited. The significant portion of the total debt was taken for unproductive purposes such as household consumption 27.6%, marriages and other ceremonies 24% and repayment of debt 1%. The debt for productive purposes constituted only 18.5%. As usual moneylenders continued to be major source of debt (31.7%), though banks also have caught up with them (17.19%). Other significant contributors constituted friends and relatives (15.14%), cooperative societies (13.09%) and shopkeepers (7.13%).
There are an estimated 137.1 billion rural households in the country. A total of 3,74,856 persons spread over 71,385 rural households in 6046 sample villages across 32 states and Union Territories were surveyed for the study. The incidence of indebtedness was highest in Dadar and Nagar Haveli (80.3%) and the lowest in Nagaland (3.1%) for all classes of households. Forty per cent of them belong to rural labour households.
|
