Author: Ranjit Singh Ghuman
Publication: The Tribune
Date: February 3, 2008
URL: http://www.tribuneindia.com/2008/20080203/edit.htm#5
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, while addressing
the chief ministers' meeting on internal security in New Delhi on December
20, 2007, underlined that left-wing extremism (Naxalism) is the single biggest
challenge to the Indian state. He emphasised that "we need to cripple
the hold of the Naxalite forces with all the means at our command" and
urged the chief ministers that precise and actionable intelligence was the
key to fight the Naxals.
On the same day, Chief Minister Parkash Singh
Badal pointed out that militancy and extremism were socio-economic problems
and not merely law and order issues. Widespread poverty, inequality and unemployment
are the socio-economic reasons for the emerging militancy in various regions
of the country.
The answer to this challenge would thus be
in removing the conditions that bred lawlessness and militancy. As such, the
tendency to use the police as the only instrument to curb such emerging movements
was fundamentally flawed.
On the same day, speaking at the 102nd annual
session of the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Editor-in-Chief of
The Tribune, Mr H.K. Dua, attributed the appalling state of affairs to the
failure of politics, the bureaucracy and the judiciary. Elaborating his point,
he said that "we have not been governed properly by politicians and bureaucrats."
The judiciary has ceased to become the last
resort of the people. The benefits of economic growth have not trickled down.
Unemployment, illiteracy and the caste system still remain the basic problems
of the people.
Each of them has diagnosed the problem from
a different perspective. The biggest question, however, remains that: is the
emerging Naxalism an illness or a symptom of some deep-rooted illness? To
me, it seems that it is a symptom and not an illness. If it is so, then curing
symptoms will not treat the illness and that too with a wrong prescription.
The roots of illness lie in social, economic
and political disparities and deprivations at the intra- and inter-personal
and at the intra-and inter-regional levels. Poverty, unemployment, inequality
and illiteracy are the root cause of the disparities and deprivation.
A recent report on "conditions of work
and promotion of livelihood in the unorganised sector" by the National
Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector highlighted that the
per capita daily earnings of 77 per cent workers in the unorganized sector
is below Rs 12. Such a level of earnings is below the poverty line.
In view of the fact that nearly 91 per cent
of the workforce in India is in the unorganised sector, it is something very
serious. It is disappointing to note that in a developed state like Punjab
the per capita daily income of nearly 68 per cent agricultural labourers is
less than Rs 10.
The rural-urban socio-economic divide is another
serious problem. Education and the health services are going beyond the reach
of most of the rural households. In Punjab 40 per cent of the rural households
and 31 per cent of the urban households cannot afford to pay the fee of liberal
college education, not to talk of engineering, medical and other professional
education.
Out of the 66 per cent rural population in
Punjab the share of rural students in its universities is just 4 per cent.
About 69 per cent rural households and 91 per cent agricultural labour households
in Punjab do not have even a single member with a qualification up to matric.
According to the National Farmers' Commission,
about 1.5 lakh farmers have committed suicide during the last about one and
a half decade. According to the National Sample Survey Organisation, about
48.6 per cent farmer-households in India are under debt.
The proportion is as high as 82 per cent in
Andhra, 74.5 per cent in Tamil Nadu, 65.4 per cent in Punjab, 64.4 per cent
in Kerala and 61.6 per cent in Karnataka. The per household outstanding loans
range from Rs 18,000 to Rs 41,576.
It is significant to note that nearly 62 per
cent operational holdings in India are less than 2.5 acres. Another about
19 per cent are between 2.5 and 5 acres. Their economic viability is under
a question mark.
Employment opportunities in agriculture are
shrinking. A very high proportion of cultivators and agricultural labourers
is disguisedly employed. According to a recent NSSO report, 40 per cent Indian
farmers have expressed their desire to opt out of agriculture but there is
no alternative for them.
Any failure of the state to address the issues
of the common man would lend strength to Naxalites and extremists. And in
the absence of any redressal and a social movement, it may take a serious
turn.
It is in this context that "left-wing
extremism" is not simple a law and problem. Its legitimacy is deep-rooted
in the socio-economic problems of people. As such the solution does not simply
lie in curbing Naxalism with an iron-hand.
The Indian state would have to address the
deepening socio-economic problems of the people. In the absence of that it
would tantamount to cure illness with a wrong prescription. The state would
have to set its priorities right.n
The writer is a Professor of Economics, Punjabi University, Patiala
