Indian Rural Entrepreneurship and Industrial Development in Tribal Belt

With special reference to Bastar District of Chhattisgarh

Dr. Syed Saleem Aquil¹, Dr. Dongare Shivprasad Vaijnath²

¹Assistant Professor, Kalyan P. G. College, Bhilai (C. G.)

²Assistant Professor, Mahatma Basweshwar College Latur, Maharashtra

*Corresponding Author E-mail:

ABSTRACT:

Villages in India have spending power, but they also have some unique problems. What this combination has done is to stoke entrepreneurship among professionals aiming to offer solutions and tap into the rural opportunity. Tweaking technology is also making it possible for startups to offer new applications that suit rural consumers. It is the scale of the opportunity that is drawing scores of entrepreneurs to rural India. Bastar, the tribal district, before splitting into three districts, was one of the largest district in India, with an area of 39114 sq k.m, which was even greater than the Kerala state and some other countries like Belgium, Israel etc. In the year 1999, the district Bastar has been divided into 3 districts namely Bastar, Kanker and Dantewada. All these 3 districts come under Bastar Division with the divisional head quarter at Jagdalpur, which is the district head quarter of Bastar district. The beauty of Bastar district lies in its natural forest area and various types of tribals. The total forest area is 7112 sq k.m which is more than 75 % of the total area of the district of the total population more than 70 % are tribals like Gonds, Abhuj Maria, Darda Maria, Bison Horn Maria, Munia Doria, Dhruva, Bhatra, Halba etc.

I. INTRODUCTION:

Bastar district is a district of Chhattisgarh state in central India. Jagdalpur is the district headquarter of this district. The district has an area of 10755.79 km. [2] Bastar District is bounded on the northwest by Rajnandgaon District, on the north by Kondagaon District, on the east by Nabarangpur and Koraput districts of Odisha state, on the south and southwest by Dantewada District, and on the west by Gadchiroli District of Maharashtra state.

If we want to analyze the latest position of Indian Rural Development so Bastar presents a good example for studying. This paper reveals the condition of development and rural entrepreneurship of one of the most backward areas in India.

The Economic Conditions of Bastar

The pattern of livelihood in Bastar continues to be dictated by tradition. Even today, agricultural practices are traditional. Use of wooden ploughs is overwhelming while the number of iron ploughs is negligible. The same is true of bullock carts. The number of tractors is negligible while the bullock carts are all pervasive. The usage of traditional agricultural implements has lowered the production of agriculture.

The kharif crops grown here are paddy, urad, arhar, jowar and maize. The rabi crops include til, alsi, moong, mustard and gram. Collection and sale of forest produce and other forest-related work supplements meager agricultural incomes.

Most people do not find employment all year round. The cycle of floods and droughts makes livelihoods extremely vulnerable. The people are often forced to resort to moneylenders in times of crisis, which usually means a life of continued indebtedness. The absence of alternate employment opportunities is responsible for the high incidence of poverty in the area. In the Bastar plateau, irrigation coverage is only 1.2 percent. [3]

Exceptionally fortunate in its water resources, the region has good rainfall and rapid run off due to the undulating terrain. There is potential for rainwater harvesting.

Agriculture and Forest

Forests play an important role in the lives of the people, providing food security and livelihood through the collection of minor forest produce, and employment (as casual labour) in the Forest Department. The forests provide for people’s consumption needs — fuel and firewood, medicines, food and drink, implements and housing materials. Rice is grown predominantly during kharif season as rain fed crop having 2.389 lakh hectare area but the productivity of this crop is low 08.53 qt/ha in Bastar region of Chhattisgarh. The irrigated area (1.67%) and fertilizer use (4.6 kg/ha.) in the Bastar district are very less, which is insufficient to supply adequate nutrient to the crop. [4]

Entrepreneurial Development in Bastar

Arts and Crafts

An area where Handicraft is most widely practiced in Bastar is Kondagaon. Many products are made from such art such as vessels, jewellery and the images of the local deities and some decorative. The method of preparation of the products is quite simple and also called as the lost wax technique that happens to be perfect for the tribal settings. The Bastar district specializes in the preparation of items from the Dhokra Handicraft. This process calls for a great deal of precision and skill. The artifacts prepared from Dhokra technique of this art use the cow dung, paddy husk and red soil in the preparation, beeswax being the most important one[5]. Apart from contouring, wax wires are also used for decoration purpose and for giving a finishing touch to artifacts. From the Bell Metal Handicraft of Chhattisgarh in India, the real genius and creative faculty of the artisans come into picture and thus make for some of the most wonderful pieces of art.

Industrial Scenario of Bastar

Bastar district is industrially developing. However it is not as developed as compared to other industrially developed districts of the state. Agro-based and mineral-based industries are the main industries of the district. [6]

Problems in Entrepreneurship and Industrialization

Naxal Movement in the Area

Naxal Movement is the biggest threat and hurdle in between of development in the tribal dominated areas of the Chhattisgarh especially adjacent to the other states. Naxali movement has grown dramatically in all over Chhattisgarh; Red zone in the map beside beside clearly shows that how naxal movement has affected the state and specially Bastar District is affected very badly.

Existing Status of Industrial Areas in the District Bastar

S. No.	Name of Ind. Area	Land acquired (In hectare)	Land developed (In hectare)	Prevailing Rate Per Sqm (In Rs.)	No of Plots	No of Vacant Plots	No. of Units in Production
1	Frezerpur, Jagdalpur.	12.612	12.612	-	-	-	49
2	Gidam Road, Jagdalpur.	13.50	13.50	-	-	-	26
3	Kurandi	73.852	73.852	-	-	-	07
4	Total	104.784	104.784	-	-	-	83

Source:- DIC, Jagdalpur

Industry at a Glance

Sr No	Head	Unit	Particulars
1.	Registered industrial unit	NO.	436
2.	Total industrial unit	NO.	436
3.	Registered medium and large unit	NO.	02
4.	Estimated avg. no. of daily worker employed in small scale industries	NO.	06
5.	Employment in Large and medium industries	NO.	150
6.	No. of industrial area	NO.	04
7.	Turnover of small scale ind.	IN LACS	10251.24
8.	Turnover of medium and large scale industries	IN LACS	4920.00

Phenomenon of Migration

The present scenario of Chhattisgarh is quite paradoxical where majority of the rural population is striving hard for survival with no option but to migrate in search of jobs to far away destinations. The rural urban divide has become more distinct in the drought conditions, which is yet to have a significant impact on urban centres. Despite the provision of employment guarantee scheme (EGS) of the government the flow of peasants and rural labourers till now goes unabated in the region.

Development induced displacement

The government has created number of sanctuaries in the name of protection of wild life in Chhattisgarh. In this process many tribals are forced to leave their villages falling inside the sanctuaries. This has affected livelihood, identity, human rights and nature and human relationship.

Indebtedness

In absence of adequate livelihood support, employment, credit support and income in order to meet the basic necessities of food, cloth, medicine and other social and agricultural needs, the poor are caught in the vicious circle of indebtedness. The high rate of interest for loans from money lenders is a major setback for the poor. Once people are caught in this trap it is difficult to get rid of the loan. In many cases this continues throughout the life and also leads to different kinds of exploitation of the whole family from generation to generation. [7]

Majority of the families in the area are indebted. Due to ignorance and illiteracy they are cheated and exploited by manipulating the records and mortgaging valuable goods against the low amount of loan. This has also become an instrument for transfer of land from tribals to non tribals which is prohibited by the law.

CONCLUSION:

There has been a tradition of voluntarism in Chhattisgarh. Resentment and Rebellion is in the blood of the people. Political dynamics was high even during the ancient and mediaeval time. During the modern time, people took active part in freedom struggle in an organized way. In the beginning of 20th century as mining and industrial activities grew Trade Union movement took strong roots. Trade Unions in the area are generally influenced by Gandhiji and Congress movement, JP movement and radical communist (leftist) ideologies. Movements are also based on issues of rural people and Bharat Jan Andolan is an excellent example in this regard. The development of rural entrepreneurs is a complex problem which can be tackled by the social, political and economic institutions.

REFERENCES:

1. "83 districts under the Security Related Expenditure Scheme". IntelliBriefs. 2009-12-11. Retrieved 2011-09-17.

2. "District Census 2011". Census2011.co.in. 2011. Retrieved 2011-09-30.

3. US Directorate of Intelligence. "Country Comparison: Population". Retrieved 2011-10-01. "Swaziland 1,370,424"

4. "2010 Resident Population Data". U. S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 2011-09-30. "Hawaii 1,360,301"

5. Gell, Simeran Man Singh. The Ghotul in Muria Society (Singapore: Hardwood Academic Publishers, 1992) p. 1

6. M. Paul Lewis, ed. (2009). "Bhatri: A language of India". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (16th edition ed.). Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Retrieved 2011-09-28.

7. http://plantarchives.org/paper/Plant%20Archive%20vol%20(11-1)%20351-354.

Received on 25.01.2014 Modified on 31.01.2014

Asian J. Management 5(2): April-June, 2014 page 159-161