I/III. http://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/NewsDetail/index/2/9253/Demonetisation-Rural-India-Hit-Hard-Farmers-Skip-Season-No-Work-for-Daily-Wagers-in-Orissa
Demonetisation: Rural India Hit Hard, Farmers Skip Season, No Work for Daily Wagers in Orissa BASUDEV MAHAPATRA Tuesday, November 22,2016 Editor’s Note: The distress in rural areas after the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is acute. The report below from Orissa captures the farmers distress. The accompanying videos from the rural hinterland in the northern states of India also highlight not just the chaos, but the desperation of small wage earners and what is going to be clearly a long term impact on them of this move by the government. BHUBANESHWAR: With the sowing season for the winter (Ravi) crop in full swing, Nabarathi Kuanr, 60, of Sudrukumpa village of Kandhamal district in Odisha has no option but to skip a cropping season as he is unable to get seeds and fertilisers from the government and the cooperatives because of the scarcity of lower denomination notes after the Indian government on November 8 declared that Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 banknotes have been demonetized. “They say the situation will improve in few days,” Kuanr said. “But, is the soil condition going to be the same and conducive for sowing till that time?” The situation with farmers who have sold their Kharif (autumn) harvest is all the more dire because they all have invalid Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in cash, which is not accepted by private businesses and even at government-run facilities. “They are not able to avail the limited exchange facility because the banks ask the farmers for documents like Aadhaar or PAN card, which most of the tribal and backward farmers of Kandhamal district do not have,” said Panchanan Mishra, a development activist of Phulbani who works for the welfare of farmers in Kandhamal district. Local cooperative societies and the district cooperative banks do not accept the old currency notes. And many of the farmers do not have accounts with nationalised banks to deposit the cash available with them. So farmers having cash with them are in a helpless state, Mishra said. As somebody’s misery is an opportunity for the cunning others, middlemen have emerged to take advantage of the farmers’ helplessness. “Because farmers living in remote villages face huge problem to walking long distances and reach a bank to exchange their higher denomination notes, some middlemen take their notes at a value discounted by 20 to 30 per cent,” says Udit Sahu, in-charge of a Customer Service Point in Dungriput village of Koraput district. Farmers and poor people living in the rural Odisha and tribal hinterland have been severely affected by the demonetization drive because coming to the banks and getting their cash is a huge challenge for them. Small businesses in rural Odisha are also in distress because consumers do not have the capacity to purchase even essential items due to non-availability of appropriate currency notes. “Transactions have dropped by more than 60 per cent and it has been difficult to make our livelihood,” Kalia Behera of Bhanjanagar village in the south Odisha district of Ganjam said. The situation is even worse for people who live on daily wages. Demonetization has badly hit Basanti Marandi, who hails from the northern district of Mayurbhanj in Odisha and makes a living as a daily wage laborer. “I don’t know if I am to get work today because labor contractors don’t hire many laborers for their work since the government has decided to scrap 500 and 1,000 rupee notes. Even if I go to work, getting wages is again uncertain because the contractors also are short of 100 rupee notes to pay the wages,” says Basanti while waiting for someone who can hire her for a day’s work. At least 3,000 laborers gathered at Bhubaneswar’s Nayapali labor point are passing through similar uncertain fate. Migrated from almost all parts of rural Odisha for survival, the state of these laborers is symptomatic of the situation with poor people across the state. “Only half of us get work these days because there are only selected takers and the demand of laborers has fallen due to restricted availability of lower denomination notes,” Maheswar Pradhan, another laborer hailing from Bhanjanagar village of the southern district of Ganjam, said. Most construction work has slowed since announcement of demonetization. Real estate and infrastructure builders and contractors are unable to accommodate more daily wage laborers in their projects because of the scarcity of lower denomination currencies. “Making payments to laborers is a big issue. While getting enough amount of 100 rupee notes is still not possible, the laborers are not interested in higher denomination notes of 2,000 rupees because some of them needs to stand in the queue for a day to get 100 rupee notes against it,” said Brundaban Dalbehera, a Bhubaneswar-based real estate developer. “If the government claims that the intent behind demonetization drive is good, it required more preparedness on the part of the government to manage the post-demonetization situation,” said Ashok Parida, a development activist from Kandhamal. (Basudev Mahapatra is a Bhubaneshwar-based journalist. This is being carried as part of an arrangement with VillageSquare.in, a communications initiative focused on rural India.) [Videos] II/III. http://indianexpress.com/article/business/business-others/demonetisation-woes-farmers-short-of-cash-west-bengal-stares-at-13-paddy-wastage-4392310/ Farmers short of cash, West Bengal stares at 1/3 paddy wastage The problem is particularly pronounced in Bardhaman district — known as the rice bowl of Bengal. Written by Aniruddha Ghosal | Kolkata | Updated: November 24, 2016 7:58 am West Bengal is India’s largest producer of rice at 158 lakh tonnes a year. (Representational photo, Reuters) West Bengal’s agriculture department has estimated that 35 per cent of the monsoon paddy might go waste if not harvested in time, an exercise that has been badly hit with farmers lacking the cash to pay for labour. The estimate is part of an agriculture department report, commissioned to assess the impact of demonetisation on monsoon paddy. West Bengal is India’s largest producer of rice at 158 lakh tonnes a year. Of this, nearly 110 lakh tonnes is harvested during the kharif season. Going by the agriculture department’s estimate, an official said, the kharif output would come down by some 38 lakh tonnes, reducing the annual output to 120 lakh tonnes. The report says not harvesting the rice produced in the kharif season would mean that the crop would rot in the fields in changing weather conditions. “The kharif crop needs to be harvested by end-November. If this isn’t done, a large portion of the grain will fall off with the cold setting in. It will result in massive crop loss.” The problem is particularly pronounced in Bardhaman district — known as the rice bowl of Bengal. According to Bardhaman district magistrate Soumitra Mohan, “Massive problems are being faced by farmers and labourers, who depend on cash for harvesting the monsoon paddy and then sowing potatoes for the winters. Many farmers aren’t being able to harvest their crops because they don’t have the money to pay labourers.” Further complicating the issue is the severe liquidity crunch being faced by cooperative banks in rural areas. Farmers in Bengal traditionally sell their boro (winter) crop before Durga Puja in October to meet festival expenses and to ensure the cost of harvesting the kharif crop. This money is now useless, officials said. “Most farmers in rural Bengal have accounts in small cooperative banks. After the demonetisation announcement, many withdrew whatever little money they had and as a result these cooperative banks have almost no liquid currency,” said a senior official. “If farmers cannot harvest their paddy, they won’t be able to prepare their fields to sow potatoes. The sowing of potatoes must be completed by mid-December to ensure that there is healthy production,” added an official of Bardhaman district administration. III. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/agra/demonetisation-lakhs-of-daily-wagers-begin-losing-jobs-in-up/articleshow/55588110.cms Demonetisation: Lakhs of daily labourers losing jobs in UP Anuja Jaiswal | TNN | Updated: Nov 24, 2016, 12.26 PM IST AGRA: Lakhs of daily labourers in Uttar Pradesh are losing jobs as their employers are not able to pay them in cash after demonetisation of currency. Agra, home to one of the country's largest shoe-making industries - it accounts for major exports as well as almost 70% of all shoes purchased within India - has been particularly hit hard. Close to 2 lakh daily labourers, half of the over 3.5 lakh employed in 150 organised and over 5,000 unorganised shoe-making units, have gone out of work as their employers are not able to pay them in cash. Most don't have bank accounts. A similar scenario haunts daily wagers in the city's petha-making units, another major source of income for the district's 44 lakh population. Almost 90% of over 50,000 daily workers employed in petha units have lost their jobs. More than 1,500 petha-making units operate in the city, with a combined capacity of 700-800 metric tonnes per day. With manufacturers short on orders and very few customers at sweet shops, the turnover has fallen by 75% from the normal Rs 1.5 crore per day. Large quantities of pethas are supplied on a regular basis to Delhi, Jaipur, Ajmer, Ghaziabad, Panipat, Faridabad, Gwalior and many other cities in different states. "But after demonetisation, demand has fallen from all centres," said Rajesh Agarwal, convener of Agra petha-makers' association. In neighbouring Firozabad, hundreds of labourers have been rendered jobless in as 90 out of the 300-odd glass factories, including small-scale bangle-making units, have downed shutters because of the cash crunch. Rajkumar Mittal, president of UP Glass Manufacturing Syndicate, said, "Demonetisation has hit the glass industry hard. We need at least Rs 2 lakh to run a factory every day. With a Rs 50,000 weekly withdrawal limit, we cannot run them." The situation is so grim that even chief minister Akhilesh Yadav took note of it and recently shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In the letter, the CM drew Modi's attention to the plight of this massive workforce and requested him to relax rules to let them get their wages. Rakesh Garg, national executive president of Laghu Udyog Bhartiya, India's largest MSME industry network, told TOI that some 30% of the 30 lakh workforce of daily wagers is out of job, as manufactures have no orders and no money to pay them. "We can't do anything about it as we, too, are at the receiving end," he said. Garg said companies are permitted to withdraw cash of up to only Rs 50,000 every week, "which is less than what even the smallest of the units need". He said the government should immediately relax the cash withdrawal limit from business accounts, "as all such transactions are accounted for and can be tracked by the Income Tax department." -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
