O J’s Corner

Happiness level of the nation can be gauged from
the happiness level of the farmers

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has told Parliament that he would find a way-out to help farmers who have availed of loans from private lenders. In fact, the most hapless farmers are those who have fallen prey to private financiers. In Kerala, these firms are known as “blade companies”. In other States, there would be similar nomenclatures. Blade is the instrument intended to kill the victim by cutting the vein. Such financiers dole out money with minimal or no collateral security. Title-deeds of lands would be cornered by them. In the end the property would fall into the hands of the financier. Take a cursory look of properties along the roadsides, there would be a lot of indicatory boards saying the property is hypothecated to such and such blade companies.

If Chidambaram finds a mechanism by which the farmers’ debts from blade companies or individuals can be arranged to be paid off, it would really be a boon for the ryots. Let the announcement be not a publicity gimmick. He has referred to an existing scheme by which the farmers can take loan from the banks to pay off the private financiers. But the scheme has not been even marginally successful. It is estimated that 1.05 crore farmers have taken loans from private financiers. Of this, only 36,000 farmers have been successful in taking loans from banks to pay off blade companies. Chidambaram says his intention is to simplify the process and make it efficacious. Fair enough, let us hope the farmers would be benefited.

But I can vouchsafe it for a fact that it is not easy for an average farmer to secure such loans because of inherent flaws. The attitude of the bank employees should assume a sea-change. It was not long ago that a small account holder had to wait for a long time at the bank counter to get his cheque paid. That is, the amount which is a deposit in the bank. Now thousands of ATMs have sprung up in all nooks and crannies. The bankmen’s haughty behaviour has given place to orderly dispensation of currency notes by the ATMs. This is not to say that all bankmen have mind-blocks to help customers. They have their own problems. I served The Indian Express/The New Indian Express from 1984 to 2004, in Kerala, New Delhi and Mumbai, in various echelons of being a reporter, ending as Special Correspondent. While I was in Thrissur in 1989, an SBI bank officer had chanced to visit me at the office-cum-residence where there was no television set. Even as I was not appreciative of taking a loan because of the rigmarole involved, he took the initiative and arranged a television set with a loan from the bank within a single day! That means things are possible and there are helpful bankmen.

Our farmers do not know the nitty-gritty of farm loans. They can be helped by grassroots- level political workers, social workers, NGOs and even bank employees associations. The bankmen know it for a fact that the assistance being given to farmers are a pittance compared to thousands of crores of rupees cornered by powerful individuals and firms. A lot of the money would be written off as non-performing assets. So why not help the farmers? This one-time debt-waiver will not be perennially helpful for the farmers. Loans at nominal rates of interest, remunerative price for their produce, crop insurance, proper facilities for marketing etc.

It is not clear whether the loans of dairy farmers and fishermen would be written off. There is persistent demand for broadbasing the acreage of farmers whose debts are being cleared. We know that happiness level of the country can be gauged by the happiness level of the farmers, who form more than 60 per cent of the population.