Caste Hierarchies and Substantive Discrimination through NREGA

It has been argued that caste hierarchies in India have been influenced by Social Sector Investment. Access to better education, health, income and in decision making in village democracy is, perhaps, a significant change that resulted in empowering the vulnerable section of rural society. More recently, the implementation of demand driven employment guarantee scheme has tried to positively influence access to employment and income of the deprived section of the society. Added cash in hand of the households from marginalised section also means economic transformation. The employment guarantee scheme, NREGA, intends to positively discriminate for the disadvantaged groups like scheduled tribes and scheduled caste in rural India. It would be worth analysing if the intended bias in favour of socially disadvantaged group remains positive during implementation of this programme. Or the emerging dominant case, specifically belonging to OBC or other castes have emerged as main beneficiaries of the substantive discrimination in the form of NREGA. This paper, using data from 12044 households located in 400 villages of 16 districts of Madhya Pradesh, analyses awareness about the prerequisites of getting work in NREGA, demand for work, employed days and wages received, delay in payments, mode of payment, reasons for not getting work, attitude towards NREGA, and impact perceived by different social groups in rural Madhya Pradesh. In doing this, the paper argues that emerging realities in rural Madhya Pradesh are indicating of a abolition of old hierarchies through this positive discrimination. The most vulnerable in society are too pre-occupied with migration- based-livelihood struggles to take advantage of NREGA. In the process, the not-so-vulnerable from the old hierarchies are being equally benefited

Chronic Poverty in South West Madhya Pradesh: A Multidimensional Analysis of its Extent and Causes

The structuralist perspective envisages poverty, especially in rural India, as a long duration phenomenon. Over time, most of the structural features of poverty have remained more or less intact. As a result, a large proportion of the poor in India are also chronically poor in terms of duration as well as severity (Mehta and Shah, 2002). Economic growth achieved through the processes of planned development since the early fifties, have made a significant dent in the incidence of poverty measured in terms of average expenditure of the households. Thus, incidence of poverty in India declined from 52 per cent in 1977-78 to 39 per cent in 1987-88 and further to 36 percent in 1993-94 and 27 per cent in 1999-2000 (Hirway and Dev, 2000). This suggests a substantial impact in terms of poverty reduction at an aggregate level. The impact, however has been fairly varied across regions and households. Three different trajectories can be visualized for those who were poor in the initial period. These are: (i) crossing over the poverty barrier on a sustained basis, (ii) moving above and below the poverty line, and (iii) always remaining below the poverty line. The households experiencing different trajectories represent non-poor, transient poor, and chronically poor (in duration sense). A fourth category consists of households that have never been poor. URL:[http://www.chronicpoverty.org/uploads/publication_files/CPRC-IIPA_5.pdf].south west, Madhya Pradesh, chronic poverty, NSSO, India, Green revolution, country, agricultural growth, development, agricultural infrastructure, primary data, villages, poverty,

Spatial distribution of soil nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium contents and stocks in humid subtropical North-eastern India

Not AvailableSoil nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) are important macronutrients for crop production and productivity. Assessment of spatial distribution and stock of N, P and K in soil are the need of the hour for judicious nutrient management through precision agriculture. An attempt was made to prepare the spatial distribution map of available macronutrients in soil using geostatistical techniques. In total 150 georeferenced surface soil samples (0-25 cm depth) were collected at 1 km × 1 km grid interval in three major land use systems viz., crop, plantation and agroforestry (like Mangifera indica, Syzigium cumini, Shorea robusta, Tectona grandis, Acacia auriculiformis and Bambusa sp.) from Bishalgarh block, Sepahijala district, Tripura of North-eastern India. Data indicates that soil bulk density (BD), and available N, P and K varied from 1.10 to 1.82 g cm-3, 0.01 to 0.29 g kg-1, 0.001 to 0.02 g kg-1 and 0.02 to 0.24 g kg-1, respectively. Stock of N, P and K in these soils varied from 0.33 to 8.71, 0.02 to 0.69 and 0.72 to 8.52 Mg ha-1, respectively. Perusal of dataset under different land use systems revealed that stock of available N, P and K in surface soil followed the order of plantation land > agroforestry land > cropland. Geostatistical analyses indicated that spherical model was best fitted for N and P content in soil, while exponential model was best fitted for K content. Similarly, stocks of N, P and K in soil could be best fitted by exponential model. The nugget/sill ratio indicates a strong dependence for N (5%), a weak spatial dependence for K stock (81%) and moderate spatial dependence for all other soil variables (51-69%). The spatial distribution maps of macronutrients in soil exhibited differential distribution pattern indicate the need of differential soil application rates in respect of N, P and K. Such study is of practical significance in managing soil resources through judicious application of fertilizers under precision agriculture.Not Availabl

Profile Distribution of Soil Organic Carbon in Major Land Use Systems in Bishalgarh Block, Tripura

Not AvailableNot AvailableNot Availabl