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POVERTY, CLASS AND
HEALTH CULTURE
IN INDIA

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Volume One

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Debabar Banerji

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prafeasban
NEW DELHI INDIA

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Dedicated to my sister Meera Banerji and
my daughters Disha, Anisha and Ipsita

PRACHI PRAKASHAN
Post Box 3537, (L-3 Lajpat Nagar-III)
New Delhi-110 024, INDIA

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First published in 1982
© Debabar Banerji
No part of this book can be reproduced
for commercial use without the prior
written permission of the publishers

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Published by A.K. Dash
Prachi Prakashan, New Delhi and
printed at GRAFIQDE, New Delhi
c

No. HE: 25: 3: 82

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Preface
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This report is a study of health behaviour of rural populations
in India in the context of various health institutions available
and accessible to them and their cultural perceptions and cul­
tural meanings of various health problems. All these considera­
tions are studied together because they form an integrated whole:
an interacting sub-cultural complex which has been called “health
culture”. This concept has made it possible to study diffusion of
health culture, introduction of various health programmes from
outside as purposive interventions with a view to bringing about
a desired change in the health culture of a community. As it is a
sub-culture, health culture is also affected by changes in the over­
all culture of a community, which are mediated by various
ecological, social, demographic, economic and political forces.
Nineteen villages have been chosen for this study. They are
from Gujarat (two), Haryana (one), Karnataka (three) Rajasthan
(two), Tamil Nadu (one), Kerala (two), western Uttar Pradesh
(two), central Uttar Pradesh (two) and West Bengal (Four).
Primary Health Centres are located within eleven of these villages;
one has a sub-centre of a Primary Health Centre and eight have
no Primary Health Centre. The study commenced in May 1972
and field work of the first round was completed in all the nine­
teen villages by February 1975. For each of these villages con­
siderable amount of data were collected, covering a very wide
range of issues. On the basis of this experience, it was decided
to pay revisits to villages and because of this it was possible
to obtain data on crucial areas in a time dimension and also to
study the impact of some social and political upheavals that
took place in the country during this study. Over 144 revisits
have been paid to the villages, with the last one taking place
on 28 March 1981.

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

Presumably because of the methodological approach adopted
for collection of data concerning the influence of social, econo­
mic and political forces in the shaping of rural life in the study
villages and because of some of the far-reaching changes that
took place during the study, the author had before him so much
of data, of such a rich variety, on so many facets of rural life in
India, that it was felt that their significance lay much beyond
providing a mere backdrop for studying health culture. It was
decided to devote an entire volume to the presentation, analysis
and interpretation of these data, with a second volume dealing
with details concerning health culture. In spite of devoting an
entire volume to the overall social, economic and political back­
ground of the study villages through time, very special efforts
had to be made to ensure that the report does not become too
bulky.
Presentation of the data starts with quantitative data tabulat­
ed in Chapter 3, drawing profiles of the study villages in terms
of social, economic and political parameters. This provides a
backdrop for presentation of qualitative data. In Chapter 4, an
attempt has been made to bring together the main issues
concerning the study villages and their various forms of institu­
tions. Chapter 5 presents data on relationship between poverty,
power and class. Chapter 6 contains a number of “close up”
portraits of the poor, along with portraits of other economic
segments. Chapter 7 extends the discussions of Chapters 5 and
6 to link up some social dimensions of caste and other religions
with issues of class, power and poverty. The pattern of leader­
ship in the villages which exercise informal and formal social
and economic control, the various political institutions and
political parties are discussed in Chapter 8. Discussions con­
tained in Chapters 5, 6, 7 and 8 are again provided with
quantitative dimensions in Chapter 9 in the form of profiles
of eight selected groups, along with the total population in terms
of the parameters which were employed in the presentation of
quantitative data in Chapter 3.
The voluminous data which had been collected in the course
of the several revisits have bave been brought together in
Chapter 10. The first part of this Chapter deals with the major
social changes broadly related to the entire study population. The

PREFACE

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ix

second half deals more specifically with the changes that have
taken place in each of the nineteen villages. After presenting the
summary and conclusion in Chapter 11, the implications of this
study to social sciences in India and to the concept of health
culture of rural populations of India are discussed in Chapter 12.
I would like to pay a special tribute to Dr A. Moarefi
of the World Health Organisation Headquarters, Geneva. Due
to my preoccupation with the development of the newly
established Centre for Social Medicine and Community Health,
School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, I had
not been very enthusiastic when Dr Moarefi first mooted the
idea of a research project early in 1972.
Dr Moarefi, however, clinched the issue by offering a virtual
blank cheque in the form of free choice of the subject for re­
search to fit in with the research perspective of the then budding
Centre. Dr Moarefi’s efforts had active backing from the
higher echelon: Dr A. Helen Martikainen, the then Chief of
Health Education Unit, Dr A. Zahra, then Director of the
Division of Family Health and Dr H. Mahler, then Assistant
Director-General of WHO. While giving the credits to WHO,
this organisation cannot in any way be identified with the views
expressed in this report for the simple reason that nobody from
WHO has ever made even the slightest effort to influence this
study.
My gratitude to my university is deeper still. Jawaharlal
Nehru University not only enabled me to have complete aca­
demic freedom and all the time I needed to devote to the
research, but also helped with funds and administrative support.
But for this, I would not have been able to present this report.
I am thankful to the investigators : Dr V.S. Bhooma Devi,
M.A., ph.d., Shrimati Kalpana Majumdar (nee Dutta), M.A., Shri
R.N. Lahiri, b.sc., Shri N.P. Sankaranarayana Rao, m.a., Shri
R.P. Singh, m.a., Shri Bharat Singh Rathore, m.a., Kumari
M.A. Seetha, m.a., m.c.h., Dr Lakhan Singh, m.a., ph.d. and
Dr S.P. Srivastava, m.a., ph.d. Apart from satisfactorily doing
the work assigned to them, most of them had shown considerable
courage and dedication in carrying out their work, cheerfully
facing the many trying conditions. They have carried out their
work in torrential rains and stiflingly humid climate of West

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

Bengal and Kerala and in the severe winters and summers of
north India; they had to travel in public transport vehicles
under almost impossible conditions and put up with acute
problems of boarding and lodging in the villages.
The nine-year-long study virtually grew up with the Centre of
Social Medicine and Community Health of Jawaharlal Nehru
University I would therefore like to thank every member of
the Centre, past and present, for their association with it, in one
form or another. Dr Santosh Kumar Sahu has used the concept
of health culture for his doctoral studies to examine how far
the health culture of Oraon tribals of Orissa changes with changes
in access to health services. Dr Sahu has provided considerable
assistance in the production of this book. Dr Imrana Qadeer
came to my rescue when I was having difficulties in finding
facilities for processing the quantitative data. Dr Dipankar
Gupta, who has joined the Centre recently, offered comments on
the last draft. Dr Prabha Ramalingaswami offered her comments
and suggestions. Kumari Muni Devi Gupta, Documentation
Officer of the Centre, helped with documentation work.

DEBABAR BANERJI
Centre of Social Medicine
and Community Health
Jawaharlal Nehru University
New Delhi-110067

10 April 1981

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Contents

Preface

vii

Chapter One
Introduction

1-3

Chapter Two
The Study

4-23

Chapter Three
Quantitative Data on
Social and Economic Profiles

24-35

Chapter Four
The Villages and Their Institutions

36-53

Chapter Five
Poverty, Power and
Social Structure

54-70

Chapter Six
Portraits of the Village
Poor and Others

71-82

Chapter Seven
Caste, Religious Groups and Class

83-95

Chapter Eight
Leadership, Political Parties and
Social and Economic Control

96-122

Chapter Nine
Quantitative Data on Social and
Economic Profiles of Special Categories

123-135

Chapter Ten
Social Change in the Villages
During 1972-81

136-207

is

Chapter Eleven
Conclusions
Chapter Twelve
Implications of the Study

213-227

Tables

229-285

Appendices

287-306

Index

307-310

208-212
CHAPTER ONE

Up-date and Corrigenda
p 181, footnote : Kerala Government fell again on 17 March 1982.
For Haringhata village read Barajaguli throughout the text.
Read ‘long’ for ong (p. 4 line 5); ‘Arun Maity’ for Arun Maitry (p. 51 1.13);
‘Rohat’ for Rohota (p. 52 Is. 14-15); ‘infestation’ for infection (p. 56 1. 7);
‘leaks’ for locks (p. 63 1. 9); ‘Pando Kayastha’ for Pande Kayastha (p. 90
1. 16); ‘deterioration’ for determination (p. Ill 1. 10); ‘a village Panchayat’
for the village Panchayats (p. 121 1. 30); ‘apart’ for a part (p. 128 1. 1);
‘the lower classes’ for classes (p. 138 1. 8); ‘structural’ for structured (p. 141
1. 9) and ‘the’ for their (p. 141 1. 24); ‘October 1976’ for October 97 (p. 146
1. 17); ‘precipitately’ for precipitate (p. 152 1.2); ‘Dakshin Duttapara’ for
Haringhata (p. 154 1.2);‘not’for that (p. 156 1.38); ‘overall’ for yverall
(p. 208 1. 14).
Omit ‘one side’ in line 18 and ‘the other side’ in line 19 at page 118.

Introduction

This study has two components. One aspect deals with health
culture of rural populations of India. The other deals with
poverty, power, class and related issues which profoundly influ­
ence the health culture of a population. The second component
forms the subject matter of this volume.
All the three terms, “poverty”, “class” and “health culture”,
which constitute the title of the book, have been used in the
widest sense. It is not intended to enter into any debate on the
semantics or into any controversy over the meaning, interpre­
tation or scope of these terms. They have been used merely as
vehicles to describe and discuss certain well specified aspects of
the social reality.
As will be discussed in later chapters, the poverty status of a
population is defined in terms of the period when an individual
is unable to satisfy his hunger, the degrees of poverty being
signified by the levels of hunger satisfaction. A population able
to get two square meals through eleven months of the year would
be classified as less poor than one which is able to get it for only
nine months. Poverty is also described taking into consideration
its various facets which include the factors which determine it
and the various implications that flow from a condition of po­
verty. Thus a study of poverty covers a wide range of areas,
which involve relevant aspects of different ecological, biological,
economic, demographic, epidemiological, social, political and
cultural factors.
Similarly, the term “class” has not been used within a rigid
framework. While its use might sometimes conform to the
parameters laid down by Marx, special care has been taken
to avoid putting it within a straitjacket. Class categories have
been used in terms of degree of poverty, caste and religion and
this categorization has been used to study the power structure.

INTRODUCTION

leaderships, political and bureaucratic forces, processes and ins-

2. Use of concepts and methods from the concerned discip­
lines to obtain data on different components of the system
as well as on the nature of interaction among them within
the boundaries of the system.
3. Developing an understanding of the working of the system
as a whole, under different conditions obtainable, both in
time and in space.

titutions.
Study of poverty and class in the context of health culture
of a population covers a wide range of disciplines. It involves
use of concepts and methods of cultural anthropology, socio­
logy, economics, political science, public administration, demo­
graphy, human ecology and human biology.
The concept of “health culture” has been specifically deve­
loped for this study to cover an equally wide range of conside­
rations, which intimately interact with one another to form a
sub-cultural complex. Cultural perception of health problems, their
cultural meanings and the cultural response to these problems,
both in terms of formation of various institutions to deal
with various health problems and actual (health) behaviour
of individuals or groups, form this sub-cultural complex.
Because of its cultural connotation, health culture is subjected
to change as a result of cultural innovations, cultural diffusions
and purposive interventions from outside to bring about a desir­
ed change in health culture. Such a connotation also links it
closely with the overall way of life of the community-its over­
all culture. Health culture also undergoes change with change
in the overall culture and any change within it has repercussions
on the overall culture. Further, as health problems of a popu­
lation are usually a function of the latter’s ecological bac ground, cultural, economic and social setting and the pohtica
structure, it is possible to link once again the entire spectrum of
health culture to these issues because health problems form a
key factor in the shaping of the health culture of a population.
Because of these very wide and complex discussions of health
culture, both in terms of its internal structure and external link­
ages this study had to cover a very wide area. It worked out to
be a formidable task not only in terms of the study design, but
also in terms of data collection, organization, analysis, interpre­
tation, integration and conceptualisation of the issues thrown
H

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

2

The study provided new insights into many of the compo­
nents covering the entire range of the system—the various
facets of health culture, poverty, class, caste, religion, power,
leadership, political institutions and social and economic con­
trol, and so on.
The significance of the data was evident in that they called in­
to question, some of the basic tenets of conventional wisdom held
by scholars belonging to different disciplines of social sciences in
India in such key areas as poverty, caste, religion, power and
political behaviour and social change. By providing additional
information on the nature of interaction among such factors in
a time dimension of about nine years, it has also been possible
to provide considerable depth and some additional perspectives
to such key areas.
In view of the above considerations the findings of this study
are being presented in two separate volumes. Volume-I is devot­
ed entirely to presentation of socio-cultual, economic and poli­
tical aspects of poverty and class and their linkages with health
and health culture. Volume-II will deal with the different ele­
ments of health culture as a subcultural complex.

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up by this elaborate process.
Designing this study of a complex system raised three major

categories of methodological issues.
1. Definition of the boundaries of the system and its contents.

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THE STUDY

CHAPTER TWO

The Study

Selection of the Study Population
Variables like rural power structure, nature of the health institu­
tions, response to diseases of various kinds, perception of var­
ious aspects of the family planning programme etc. needed to be
studied comprehensively and in considerable depth, spanning
fairly ong periods. While ensuring that vigorous efforts were
made to see that the data collected were authentic and in con­
formity with the requirements of the problem in question, addit­
ional efforts were made, within two major constraints of availa­
bility of investigators and availability of time, to cover as many
villages as possible. Very often insights obtained from a single
village reflected the condition of the majority of Indian villages
because of the many well-known common denominators like
poverty, social inequity, caste structure, poor health services and
insanitary living conditions. Nineteen villages chosen from diffe­
rent areas were covered in the study also with a view to obtain
data on variations in terms of state, region, quality, quantity,
availability and accessibility of health services.
As a Primary Health Centre (PHC) forms the pivot of the
government-sponsored rural health service system, location of
PHCs was taken as the key determining factor in selection of
villages. One category of the villages was those in which a PHC
has been in existence for a considerable time. Villages situated
5-10 kilometres away from a PHC formed another. The third
category consisted of villages in which there was a sub-centre
of a PHC. As a special category, a village was selected for its
being among the villages located farthest from a PHC.
Another set of criterion for selection of the villages concern­
ed certain organisational features of the PHC. Only those PHCs
which conformed to the standard patterns in terms of population

5

coverage, number of sub-centres, placement of most of the sanc­
tioned staff* and availability of accomodation and transport
facilities for the staff, were considered for inclusion in the study.
A large proportion of the PHC villages had to be eliminated
from consideration, as they did not meet these requirements.
Again, from the villages which had an “eligible” PHC were
excluded: (a) those villages which are very close to towns or
cities; (b) those covered by a municipality with health services
of its own; (c) those markedly different from the rest of the rural
population in terms of distribution of caste, religion and occu­
pation; and (d) those which have too large a population say, of
5,000 or above, for conducting such an elaborate study.
There was constraint also on account of the research inves­
tigator’s inability to communicate with villagers from all areas.
The study could include only the villages falling within the lin­
guistic zones of Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam
and Tamil. Together, these six languages cover about 85 per
cent of the population of the country.
Having given due consideration to the criteria mentioned
above, research investigators were allowed to choose villages
which were more favourable for their work from logistic stand­
points, such as their boards and lodging, transport and com­
munication.
Investigators initially visited the respective state directorates
of health services to obtain permission to do the field work and
to seek their co-operation to locate the PHC villages which could
possibly fulfil the criteria set for this study. They then visited a
number of these villages to make an on-the-spot study and col­
lect relevant information. In consultation with the project direc­
tor, selections were finally made. In most cases, the choice was
extremely restricted. Tables 1-3 give a brief description of the
selected villages.
These villages cover eight major states—Karnataka, Kerala
and Tamil Nadu in the south, Haryana and western and cent­
ral Uttar Pradesh in the north, Rajasthan and Gujarat in the
west, and West Bengal in the east. Eleven out of the nineteen
are PHC villages; one is a village with a sub-centre; six are
within 5-8 kilometres of the respective PHCs; and one is situ­
ated as far as 18 kilometres from the PHC.

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

THE STUDY

Together these nineteen villages present a wide panorama of
Indian rural life lived in different geographical, climatic and
economic, political and cultural conditions, with different crop­
ping patterns, activities of trade and industry, transport and
communication services and sources of drinking water. There is
divergence not only in political organization, political linkages
of the villages at higher levels, their social structure, but also in
quality of work of the primary health centres and other govern­
ment agencies, availability and accessibility of government re­
ferral health agencies and availability of other health agencies
located within the village and outside.
Because of the very nature of the criteria for selection, most
of the villages are from the districts which going by Planning
Commission criteria, are relatively more “developed”.1 Again, as
the PHC villages are situated at block headquarters, they are
certainly among the more “developed” of the 100-150 villages of
the block. Thus they provided an opportunity for studying the
more advanced sections of the rural population, which have
much greater access to services provided by the PHC. In some
cases, the inability to meet each and every requirement of the
study unwittingly provided valuable additional insights into de­
tails relevant to health culture under special circumstances. For
example the village Amdanga happened to have five times the
average population of Muslims. Arnavali had two and a half
times the average proportion of Harijans; the village Pullambadi had a substantial percentage (about 30 per cent) of Chris­
tians, mainly Catholic converts from Harijan pockets; and four
of them have a relatively high percentage of what are designated
as backward castes. In Dakshin Duttapara, Gambhoi, Jadigenhalli and Coyalmannam the backward castes constitute respect­
ively as much as 65 per cent, 57 per cent, 47 per cent and 41 per
cent of the population, while the average proportion for the
study villages as a whole is 20.8 per cent (Table 8).
One village Yelwal, though situated well in the rural area,
is only 16 kilometres away from Mysore city. Proximity of in­
dustrial establishments has also influenced the social and econo­
mic life of some of these villages. The Haringhata Dairy Farm

in the case of Haringhata, a spun pipe factory and a match
fatory in the case of Yelwal and a sugar mill and cement factory
in the case of Pullambadi have had such an influence.
One village Pazhambalakode has a major co-operative society
for weavers. Another village Jadigenhalli has taken to cultiva­
tion of grapes as a cash crop, which has greatly affected its
economic and social structure.
One PHC village Rohat has, in addition to the PHC, a gov­
ernment-run Unani dispensary. Another non-PHC village,
Gambhoi has a government-run Ayurvedic dispensary.
In the Gujarat village Rupal, the investigator had a first
hand opportunity to make direct observations on the mobilisa­
tion of villagers for a Lok Sabha by-election. This village also
provided an opportunity of making a close observation of the
Gujarat Navnirman Samiti movement in a village context.
In Yelwal, there was a Harijan doctor-in-charge of the PHC,
who was also exceptionally hard working and popular; Rupal
had a PHC doctor who had similarly gained popularity among
the villagers.
The village of Kamdevpur was found to have earned wide re­
putation for being the home of a famous mystic faith-healer,
drawing clients from urban upper and middle classes, even from
far-off Calcutta.
Pullambadi has one privately-run maternity home, a hospi­
tal and a leprosy ward run by Catholic missionaries. Another
village Coyalmannam has one private homeopathic hospital
and a missionary hospital run by Syrian Christians.
In five villages (Kachhona, Sunni, Rohota, Arnavali and Pu­
llambadi), investigators got opportunities for studying in detail
the mechanism of mobilising family planning acceptors for mass
vasectomy camps.
Outbreak of epidemics, diphtheria in Jadigenhalli and cho­
lera in Pullambadi and Pazhambalakode provided opportunities
for collecting data on health behaviour in relation to these
epidemics.
In Rohota and Rampura, guinea worm infestation was
prevalent in almost an epidemic form. These villages also
happen to have a number of opium addicts.
A comparatively high rate of occurrence of certain specific

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'Ashok Mitra, India—Levels of Regional Development in India, Delhi,
Manager of Publication, 1955.

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THE STUDY

problems in certain villages, such as leprosy in Pullambadi, in­
duced abortions in Coyalmannam, snake bites and suicide by
consuming the pesticide Follidol in Haringhata, Dakshin Duttapara, Amdanga and Kamdevpur, provided opportunities for
obtaining interesting details.

cross-checking with them the data on community response to
various health problems.
The above categorisations of the data that are required to
be collected provides an indication of the work that had to be
done in each of the nineteen villages. Indeed, for many of the
above categories data had to be collected in terms of individual
social and economic strata like caste, class and religion.

Data Required

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

8

This study required data collection on a very wide range of
variables including the following:
Physical aspects of the village, its location, climate, settlement
pattern, housing, environmental sanitation, water supply, trans­
portation and communication system, cropping pattern, trade
and industries;
Organization of the village population, its historical back­
ground, population and its distribution, households, castes,
religion, class, occupation, literacy and political and social insti­
tutions;
Cultural background and social relations: e.g. beliefs, cus­
toms, kinship, social perceptions, communication network,
mechanism of decision making, power structure, social change,
and economic and political structures and devices to enforce
social conformism;
Perceptions and responses of the people and the cultural
meanings of (i) specific conditions of illness—major, minor,
acute or chronic; childhood disorders, pre and postnatal care,
communicable diseases, non-communicable diseases, injuries and
nutritional disorders; (ii) family size; and (iii) prevention of ill­
ness and promotion of health;
Agencies for providing health services to the villagers , e.g.
the PHC, the sub-centre of PHC, other goverment and non­
government health and family planning agencies and workers,
private practitioners of various kinds—qualified professionals
of various systems of medicine and non-professional healers
of various kinds, medicine shops, various referral services out­
side the village, etc.;
Interaction of the personnel of the various health agencies
with different segments of the village population;
Interviews of health personnel and their supervisors and

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Data Collection—Methods
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Bibliographical method and interview of the elderly were
used to obtain a very broad sketch of the history of a village. An
initial survey was conducted to get a census—total population,
households and their composition, caste and, as far as possi­
ble, some indications of class. Details concerning the caste and
class groups, formal and informal leaders and informants were
obtained by supplementing the survey data with selective inter­
views. Systematic, intensive, probing interviews, direct observa­
tions and recording of specific case reports were the techniques
used on an extensive scale to collect bulk of the data for the
study.
As will be pointed out in the next section of this chapter,
considerable efforts have been made to standardize and repeat­
edly cross-check the qualitative methods used in this investi­
gation. Over and above, an attempt was made to provide a
quantitative dimension to the qualitative data. This was done
by identifying specific issues that needed to be quantified on
the basis of study of the qualitative data already collected and
developing a suitable open-ended interview schedule. This
schedule (listed under Appendix-II) was administered to a strati­
fied random sample of the households (a 20 per cent sample in
13 villages, 40-50 per cent in three and 8-12 per cent in three
villages). The stratification was done in terms of economic
status, caste and religion. Abjectly poor, poor, not so poor,
well-off, Harijans, backward castes, agricultural castes, Brahm­
ins and trading castes and Muslims were the different heads
under which representative samples were collected from indivi­
dual villages for obtaining quantitative data. These are defined
further in subsequent chapters.

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

Data Collection—The Process

*

Preparation of Documents
Detailed documents were prepared to ensure that a uniform
approach is adopted by every one involved in data collection
for the study. While individual investigators had consider­
able latitude in working out the sequences of data collection
according to special conditions prevailing in the different
villages, these documents provided specific directions con­
cerning data that must be collected and recorded before a
village study could be considered complete. The documents
that were prepared to provide the background information
and guidelines to investigators are listed under Appendix-I.
Research Investigators
A Master’s degree in cultural anthropology, sociology or
social psychology, aptitude and readiness to work in rural
conditions, ability to win the confidence of the rural population
were the criteria set for selecting the investigators. The pre­
sumption that it was a man’s job proved incorrect when two of
the women candidates vindicated the Selection Committee’s
judgement of their ability to do the job. Their study of nine
villages—four in West Bengal by Miss Kalpana Dutta and two
each in Karnataka and Kerala and one in Tamil Nadu by Miss
Bhooma Devi—turned out to be of a very high quality. The
remaining ten villages were studied by the four male investi­
gators, two by Shri Shankar Prasad Srivastava, two by Shri
R.P. Singh, five by Shri Bharat Singh Rathore and one by
Shri N.P. Shankara Narayana Rao. All the six investigators
belonged to the upper castes and classes—two Brahmins, two
Rajputs and two Kayasthas. Two of them have doctorate
degrees and one was then doing his doctoral research.

The Pilot Study, Orientation and Training of Investigators
The pilot study was started in May 1972 in the village
Kachhona to work out a detailed procedure for data collection.
Experience gathered from this village provided the material for
running a week-long special training session for the investi­
gators. The investigators made a detailed study of the docu­
ments and held intensive discussions with the project director

the study

11

and other members of the faculty of the Centre of Social
Medicine and Community Health of Jawaharlal Nehru Univer­
sity and among themselves. The training included visits to
villages where work had already started and discussions with
the concerned investigator. Later on, as the work developed,
investigators were encouraged to visit villages that were being
studied by their other colleagues.
The project director provided continuous supervision and
training to the investigators by giving feedback to them on the
weekly reports sent by them. This helped in solving problems
they encountered in their field work, and ensured that they
collected all the required data in their villages. The weekly
reports from the villages proved to be of immense value to the
project director himself when he visited the villages to supervise
the work of the investigators. The field visits enabled him to
get a “feel” of the data that were being sent to him by the
investigators. He could also cross-check these data and, wher­
ever needed, personally collect additional data from the con­
cerned villages. Investigators were individually invited to visit
New Delhi to have final review of their work before they went
to another village. There was also a mid-term get-together of
all the investigators and they were encouraged to exchange
their experiences.

Settling Down in the Village and Building Rapport
Particular care was taken by the investigators to avoid
getting identified with the upper classes of the village popu­
lation. They were specifically asked to marshal all their human
relations skills to thankfully decline offers of help from them,
particularly in the form of board and lodging facilities. This
meant that investigators had to stay and work under conditions
where the source of drinking water was often contaminated,
available food was not very wholesome or even hygienic and
environmental sanitation was very poor. It is a tribute to their
dedication and stamina that they could withstand the addi­
tional hazards and discomforts and carry out the work assigned

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to them.
Establishing rapport with the village population in the
diverse setting of different villages was another critically impor­
tant and very difficult task for the investigators. As the so-called

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

THE STUDY

village leaders, both of the formal and the informal types,
were chiefly from the upper classes and were relatively better
“educated and modernized”, it was comparatively easy for the
investigators to gain their confidence, tell them about the study
and obtain the required data from them. It was clear that
co-operation of these leaders was vital to the success of the
research work. The task before the investigators was that after
having obtained their co-operation, they had to convince these
leaders of the need for obtaining data directly from other
sections of the population involved, particularly the weaker and
downtrodden ones. There was considerable reluctance and
even active resistance on their part to such a proposal. “Why
do you have to talk to them?” “We [the leaders] can tell all
about them that is needed by you, after all, we have known
them so intimately for such a long time” went their arguments.
Therefore, the investigators had to exercise considerable per­
suasive skill with the leaders to bring them round to their
proposal of studying all sections of the people for a systematic
analysis.

also welcomed their visits with considerable warmth and willingly
gave of their time. Because of this confidence in the investi­
gators, the project director could easily approach the different
sections of the population and get responses from them on such
sensitive issues as how the mass vasectomy camps were run and
how they (i.e. the villagers) “cheated” the organizers of mass
camps, the economic, social and political relations of some of the
respondents with other sections of the community and with their
own “leaders”, and their voting behaviour. Such a good rapport
turned out to be a very great asset in the collection of quanti­
tative data and in building up good interview situations for
obtaining data from respondents on the questions listed in the
interview schedule.

Even after overcoming the reluctance and resistance of
village leaders, the investigators had to make special efforts to
overcome the communication barriers between them and the
weaker sections. And, then, there was the still lingering fear
among these sections that their free communication with inves­
tigators might invite sanctions against them from the leaders
after the investigator left the village. The degree of the difficulty
in rapport-building varied from one investigator to another and
from village to village. As this formed a most critical requirement,
investigators were not permitted to start collecting data till the
project director judged them to have acquired “minimum per­
missible” rapport with the village population as a whole. Some
of them had to struggle hard and long to allay the suspicions
of different sections of their study populations. Interestingly,
investigators were frequently suspected to be family planning
people who were out to catch persons for vasectomy camps.
That all the investigators had succeeded in establishing a
good rapport with the population was clearly discernible when
the project director visited the different villages. The villagers
were not only found to be familiar with the investigators, but

13

Data Collection—Sequence
Investigators were not required to strictly follow any given
sequence of steps for data collection. Priority attention was
given to any major event in the village which brought out
aspects of interest to the study. Organization of a mass vasec­
tomy camp, a by-election to the Lok Sabha in a constituency
which included a study village, activities in connection with a
Panchayat Samiti election in a village, impact of severe famine
and large-scale implementation of famine relief and the Navnirman Samiti movement at the village level, are examples of such
events. Similarly, investigators set aside their routine work to
collect data concerning outbreak of epidemics or other major
medical catastrophies occurring in the village or when they got
a particularly good chance of getting an informant or a group
of villagers in a position to provide important data relevant to
the study.
However, generally, after settling down in the village the
investigators set about gathering details of the topography of
the village and drawing up the village map. General house
to house survey of the village was conducted, interviewing village
informants, social workers and persons belonging to different
religious, caste or class groups, making direct observation of
health behaviour and observation of the response of the villagers
to visits of health personnel and the visits of villagers to health
institutions. The work also included the formation of unstruc­
tured interview schedule and their administration to the random

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

sample, interviewing the PHC staff and concerned officials at
the village, block, district, state and central levels.
Techniques of observation, depth interview and case report
were used to study the different segments of the population.
Included among the respondents were, apart from informants,
well-informed about their group or stratum, some “common”
members as well. When required, data on a segment as a whole
were cross-checked with “common” members and informants
of other segments, with village informants or with health
workers.
This study of a village population in terms of discrete groups
has been a very important feature of the study design. Investi­
gators had to spend considerable time and effort in identifying
the different segments within a population; describing their
health cultures; relating a segment and its health culture to the
wider social and economic relations of the village population as
a whole; and linking the segment and its health culture to the
wider forces operating from outside the village which control
the political and administrative systems (which include the
health administrative system).
Whenever village households were visited by a health worker
—say a basic health worker, an auxiliary nurse-midwife or a
family planning health assistant—the investigator visited these
households to record the responses of members of the house­
holds to the activities of the health workers. Unfortunately, as
the visits of the health workers fell far too short of what is pre­
scribed, the data on this aspect were correspondingly limited.
After completion of data collection at the village and PHC
levels, the project director drew up a check list of the principal
findings and visited the corresponding state headquarters—
namely, Calcutta, Lucknow, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh,
Bangalore, Madras and Trivandrum—to cross-check the findings
with the concerned officials. The visit was extended to Bombay
and Poona, Hyderabad and Patna in order to ascertain the
relevance of the findings to the states of Maharashtra, Andhra
Pradesh and Bihar, which were not covered in the study. Later
the project director had similar interviews with the then Addi­
tional Director-General of Health Services and Commissioner
for Rural Health, Government of India and his colleagues.

THE STUDY

15

^^While collecting the qualitative data, investigators kept four
types of records: field notes, daily diary, weekly reports and
village reports. The daily diary was written on the basis of field
notes and weekly reports were prepared from the daily diary
These weekly reports were regularly sent to the project directo_
With the field notes, daily diary and weekly reports, along with
the additional data collected on the basis of suggestions coming
as “feedback” from the project director, each investigat
prepared a consolidated report on his/her village covering all

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the areas demarcated for the field woik.
Investigators were encouraged to use the respective regiona
languages, not only to record the responses verbatim but also
to express themselves more effectively. Five of the village re­
ports were made exclusively in Hindi, four in Bengali; both
Hindi and English were used in four reports and two were in
English. As the project director knew all the three languages i
has been possible to avoid any possible distortions through

translation of the reports.

""te
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»>• ». -Wentire range of information collected in the course of the study
within a single mental canvas, put them m an orderly form and
then interpret them and draw conclusions. His ^imate in­
volvement at every stage of the work and his own field visits
and interviews proved valuable for performmg this task.
The analysis of the qualitative data was made in a parti
cular sequence. First, each variable (e.g. child birth practices,
power structure, and seeking Ayurvedic remedies) wasgiven. a
code number. In all, 94 such codes were identified. These^cod
are listed under Appendix-IV. Then, m the course of careful
study of qualitative data for each of the nineteen villages, the
corresponding code number was placed wherever there was a
reference to any of the 94 parameters. After this, all the refe
nls t each one of the 94 code numbers for each village were
brought together at a single place. The next stage consisted of
careftl study of each reference on each of the parameters with
a view to having a coherent account of that parameter for eac
one of the nineteen villages and putting them together in

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THE STUDY

single place—in the form of a single file for each parameter
(bearing a code number). Thus, there were 94 files, each file
containing all the references concerning a parameter separately
for all the nineteen villages for the entire duration of the study.
Finally, the data concerning each parameter for each village
were further refined in the framework: (a) data on the indivi­
dual village as a whole; (b) data specific to different segments of
the village population; and (c) data on the response of the
villagers to visits of health personnel and villagers’ visits to
various health institutions.
In turn, each one of the above three categories of data was
further classified in terms of: (a) case reports; (b) direct ob­
servations; and (c) response to probing interviews.
However, the conventional methods of analysis were found
adequate in respect of the analysis of the quantitative data.
From a study of the schedule, 93 parameters were identified. A
code list was prepared for each of the parameters. The list of
the parameters for analysis of quantitative data is given as
Appendix-Ill. After coding, the responses were then analysed,
tabulated and cross-tabulated with the help of a computer.

the segments, with members of other segments with which
that segment interacts, with village level informants, with
health institutions at the village level, PHC level and dis­
trict, state and national levels.
iv. The qualitative data collected during the study are subjected
to additional scrutiny by collecting quantitative data by
administering a suitably constructed interview schedule to a
stratified, representative sample of households of population
of every village.

Objectivity, Value Positions and Biases

Two considerations have guided the entire course of this re­
search study. Considerable care has been taken to ensure that
the data collected for this study are as objective as possible,
and whenever such objective data have been collected, they have
formed the basis for interpretation of the phenomena observed
and for drawing conclusions.
Efforts made in this study to obtain reliable and valid data
can be summarised as follows:
i. The study covers nineteen villages which provide very widely
diverse situations for testing validity of certain data.
ii. Care has been taken to standardize the qualitative data by
preparing suitable documents to ensure uniform guidelines,
by providing suitable training and orientation by weekly
monitoring of work and direct supervision in the field.
iii. There has been a built-in system of checking and cross­
checking of the data obtained from a segment of a popula­
tion, with informants and other “common” persons within

17

However, it is also true that in dealing with social and poli­
tical issues, it is not possible to have objective data on all the
facets and that it will be a grave error in social research to wish
them away simply because they may not be amenable to object­
ive data collection. The researcher owes it to his discipline to
identify the facets for which he can have only subjective data
and then based on his own value biases and assumptions, he
must come forward with his interpretation and conclusions.
Often the assumptions and forecasts can be objectively tested,
say under actual operational conditions—if this assumption is
correct, then such and such things should happen under actual
operational conditions. If objective data are presented to show
what has indeed happened, then the objective data in fact vali­
date not only the subjective data but also the assumptions and
“biases” on which the conclusions have been drawn.
Based on these considerations, whenever he found that there
was not strong enough data base to draw conclusions regard­
ing any important issue, the author made forecasts on the basis
of his own assumptions and biases in the expectation that these
assumptions and biases will be put to test as the actual events
unfold in the future.

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Duration of Field Work and Preliminary Communications

Fieldwork was started in May 1972 and within one year it
was completed in 13 villages, which covered the states of Karna­
taka, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Even a very
preliminary study of the data collected led to certain conclu­
sions which had far-reaching implications for development of
rural health services in India. A committee of Government of

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THE STUDY

India, Ministry of Health and Family Planning, headed by the
then Additional Director General of Health Services, took note
of these findings and requested us to prepare a preliminary report
for consideration of the committee. The preliminary report
was prepared in August 1973 and published in December
1973.2 An abstract of this preliminary report is given as
Appendix-V. Subsequently, data obtained from the study have
also been presented in the form of four communications.3

iii. The rapport that was built with various segments of the
population of each of the nineteen villages had considerably
facilitated data collection and so the needed data could be
collected with relative ease, economy and speed.

Further Expansions of the Study
The study was further expanded by the inclusion of six more
villages to cover the states of Gujarat (Rupal and Gambhoi),
Haryana (Bilaspur), Kerala (Coyalmannam and Pazhambalakode) and Tamil Nadu (Pullambadi), and the field work was
completed in February 1975. While data were being analysed,
three considerations led the project director to make revisits to
the study villages:

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

18

i. Response of villagers to the family planning programme
formed an important component of the study. Declaration of
a state of Emergency in June 1975, followed by extensive use
of coercion to compel people to undergo sterilization made
the earlier data on family planning somewhat outdated. It
was also felt that a description of this massive drive and get­
ting an account of community’s eye-view of the intensified
family planning drive would considerably enrich this study.
ii. A revisit to a village also enabled the author to get certain
data on a time dimension: what has happened to a pheno­
menon during this time gap? It also provided an oppor­
tunity to recheck some of the key findings observed during
the first round.

3D. Banerji: “Impact of Rural Health Services on the Health Behaviour
of Rural Population in India: A Preliminary Communication,” Economic
and Political Weekly, vol. 8, 22 December 1973, pp. 2261-68.
3D. Banerji: “Social and Cultural Foundations of Health Services Systems
of India,” Inquiry, vol. 12, No. 2 (Supple.), 1975, pp. 70-85; “Will
Forcible Sterilization be Effective?” EPW, vol. 11 No. 18, 1 May 1976,
pp. 665-68; “Health Services and Population Policies,” EPW, vol. 12,
Nos- 31-33, 1976, pp. 1247-52; “Community Response to the Intensified
Family Planning Programme,” EPW, vol. 12, Nos- 6-8 (Annual), 1977,
pp. 261-66.

i

Bharat Singh Rathore, who had collected data for the five
villages of Gujarat, Haryana and Rajasthan in the first round,
was available for covering an additional four villages of
Uttar Pradesh on his revisits. Two more investigators were train­
ed to cover the remaining ten villages. M.A. Seetha covered the
six south Indian villages of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Shri Ramendra Nath Lahiri covered the four West Bengal
villages.
Each revisit lasted for four to six days. Investigators were
instructed to obtain as detailed an account of the intensified
family planning programme and other activities which were
specific to the Emergency and as detailed an account of the
impact of such programmes on different segments of the village
population, as could be possible within the time constraints.
They were also asked to make a report on the major changes
(in health and other fields) that have taken place in the village
since the last visit, and do a follow-up of some of the important
case reports which were recorded at that time. Besides they
could cross-check some of the key observations made earlier.
The revisits turned out to be a very valuable experience.
Not only was it possible to obtain a vivid account of the inten­
sified family planning programme and its impact on the activi­
ties of the PHC, but it was also possible to make a first hand
study of the social and political implications of pushing through
this and other Emergency-related programmes. Indeed, the
first revisit to many villages revealed a virtual mass upsurge
against the Emergency excesses. This upsurge was associated
with major shifts in the power structure, social relations, poli­
tical alignments and perception of the government machinery.
The rather detailed data collected during the first round on the
social, cultural, economic and political background of the vil­
lages gave additional significance to these findings. Indeed, these
social, economic and political findings turned out to be so
significant that, on their own, they became a major, if not the
more dominant, component of this study.

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THE STUDY
20

POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

When the revisits proved to be so useful in getting such a
valuable portrait of the turmoil generated by the Emergency
excesses within the study population, including a portrait ol
the social ferment which precipitated the Emergency it was
considered very much worthwhile to expand this study and
make series of revisits to the very same villages to record the
dynamics of the major changes that have taken place due to
the social and political backlash of the Emergency and the
events that followed that backlash. Sheer compulsion of events
have thus converted the proposed one-time, intensive study of
health culture of nineteen villages into a long-term study,
spanning the period 1972 to 1981, in which the intensive study
of the first round provided the springboard for examining ow
some wider changes at the national level influenced the health
culture of the study villages and, perhaps, much more importantly, what have been the cultural, social, economic and political
repercussions of these changes at the village level.
The next series of revisits to the selected villages were made
to study how the turmoil generated by the Emergency excesses
influenced the response of different segments of populations of
the study villages to the Lok Sabha elections of January 1977.
How people in these villages perceived the issues in the elec­
tion'’ What efforts were made by the different candidates be­
longing to different political parties to mobilize their support?
How were these efforts related to poverty, to the social structure
and the power structure? How did people vote in the elections?
What were the main factors which influenced the voting be­
haviour of the electorate? In all the revisits, data were also
collected about the major changes in the villages since the last
visit, follow-up of important observations and case reports an
cross-checking of the key data.
The series of subsequent revisits to the villages went i e
thl Nine villages of Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar

Pradesh were visited in April-May 1977 to study the impac
of changes in the health and family planning (welfare) services
and other fields . following policy changes initiated by the new

Union Government.
In June-July 1977 the investigators visited thirteen villages

21

of Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal
(where elections were held to the respective state legislatures)
to collect data on lines similar to what was done for the 1977
Lok Sabha elections. These thirteen villages were visited again
to study the changes in health and other services following
policy changes initiated by the new governments of the corres­
ponding states.
Four villages of West Bengal were visited in December 1978
to study the elections to the Panchayats.
Revisits to all the nineteen villages in the eight states were
made at the time of elections to the 1980 Lok Sabha.
Fourteen villages of Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Rajasthan,
Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh were visited at the time of
elections to the state legislatures in 1980.
Dr Lakhan Singh was given training to take over the study
of the nine villages assigned to Shri Bharat Singh Rathore who
was no longer available. The project director also paid thirtyfive visits covering sixteen villages during this period. He had
paid special visits to the two Kerala villages in October 1980
and the four West Bengal villages in February 1981 to study
the working of the village Panchayats in the context of (a) the
village health culture; (b) the social and economic background
of these villages; and (c) the alleged unhelpful attitude of the
Union Government towards the state governments in Kerala and
West Bengal. To complete collection of up-to-date data on all
the nineteen villages, Dr Lakhan Singh was specifically sent to
nine villages of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana
in the latter half of March 1981; Miss M.A. Seetha had covered
the three Karnataka villages later in 1980.

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Compulsion of Data Collection
In the original study design, it was intended to collect data
on cultural, social, economic and political conditions of the
study villages only to provide a background to the study of the
health cultures of the study populations. However, data obtain­
ed even from the first round of the study turned out to be of
much greater significance than originally anticipated, providing
valuable insights into social, economic and political issues of
considerable significances: aspects of caste and religion, poverty,

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

THE STUDY

power and social structure and how these aspects influenced the
leadership, political activities and social and economic control
within village populations. By using detailed data on these
aspects, it was also possible to see all of them in dynamic
interaction. Such a study also revealed considerable instability
in these interactions.
Collection of data on such a scale was not simply a case of
serendipity; because of its far-reaching significance, the data on
social, economic and political aspects have given an entirely
different direction to this study.
It so happened that at that time, a shift in the dynamics of
the interactions at the national level created a crisis within the
country and a state of Emergency was declared in June 1975.
This, in turn, led to major social and political changes which
precipitated elections to the Lok Sabha and to many state
legislatures in 1977, and again in 1980 and to elections to many
of the village Panchayats between 1977 and 1980.
As pointed out earlier, these profound changes led to re­
peated revisits and the original study evolved into a long-term
one covering a period of about nine years providing an oppor­
tunity for studying these social changes in a time dimension.
It provided an opportunity also to observe these changes in
terms of the specific communities of the nineteen villages. And
the data on dynamics of social, economic, demographic and
political changes yielded insights into the processes of five
election campaigns within the study villages.
Thus, apart from their undoubted relevance to the study of
health culture, these data came to acquire an independent im­
portance of their own. It was, therefore, decided to present the
findings of this research in two separate volumes. The first
volume will deal with the findings relating to the cultural, social,
economic and political conditions of the study villages. Informa­
tion on health cultures of the villages, including data on cultural,
social, economic and political factors which have influenced
these health cultures, will be presented in the second volume.
Further, as this study has yielded voluminous data, very
special efforts have been made to subject it to rigorous prun­
ing through very careful analysis and interpretation. It was
felt that for presenting the findings of a long-term study of

nineteen villages, belonging to eight states, covering so many
aspects of village life in India, utmost care be taken to present
only those data which are of direct relevance; the author has
taken special pains to resist the temptation of elaborating on
conclusions drawn.

22

Organization and Presentation of the Data
We have as background, quantitative data on twenty-three
social and economic parameters for each of the nineteen study
villages. This is followed by a discussion of the ecological back­
ground, the settlement pattern and various institutions within
the study villages. Qualitative data to discuss in depth the
nature of poverty, the power-structure, social stratification in
terms of castes and religions are then presented to project the
social and economic relations which have influenced the pattern
of leadership, political organisation and instruments of social
and economic control. Finally, presentation of the qualitative
data on various aspects of life in the villages is followed by
presentation and analysis of quantitative data to describe the
profiles of eight special social and economic groups within the
village populations which have contributed to the shaping of
the way of life of the study population.
The variety and the quantum of the data collected during
the revisits, combined with the reasonably strong data base
built up during the first round of the study have gone a long
way in overcoming the constraints imposed on data collection
during these revisits.
In the final analysis these data have been consolidated and
there emerges from it an overview of the changes in the villages
during the period of investigation: impact of the major social
and political events; political consequences of the two Lok
Sabha elections and elections to various state legislatures and
Panchayats; and social and economic changes that are specific
to each one of the nineteen villages individually.

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SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROFILES

CHAPTER THREE

Quantitative Data on Social and
Economic Profiles

Limitations of the Data

Selected quantitative data are being presented here as a frame­
work for analysis and interpretation of the qualitative data
that are being given in the subsequent chapters. Apart from
being a framework for the qualitative data, these also provide
valuable quantitative dimensions: Who are the poor? How
many of them are there? What is the pattern of land-holding
in the village and how is this related to the extent of poverty?
And so on. This helps provide a better perspective for analysis
and interpretation of the qualitative data.
Despite the many precautions taken in schedule construc­
tion and in the collection of data, and despite the fact that the
investigators had the considerable advantage of already having
a very good rapport with almost each one of the selected
households, it is simply not possible to avoid certain errors
inherent in collection of data through schedule.
Furthermore, the error might vary from question to ques­
tion, from one interviewer to another and from respondent to
respondent. For instance, the reliability of responses to ques­
tions on nature of the house, existence of a latrine or availabi­
lity of electricity will be quite different from that to questions
concerning landholding or to questions on ability of a family
to get two square meals a day through the year. Response to
a question on consumption of alcohol asked by a woman in­
vestigator to a woman of a household may be quite different
from that obtained by a male investigator from male respon­
dent in the same family. Similarly, responses from the villages
Rupal and Gambhoi in Sabarkantha where prohibition is en­
forced, cannot be compared with those from other villages
(Table 21).

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The fact that many respondents in Rupal and Gambhoi
admitted that they have been consuming alcohol shows the
degree of their confidence in the investigator. It is also encour­
aging that the same investigator, employing the same approach,
obtained different degrees of response from different villages.
This gives an indication of the sensitivity of the tool. For in­
stance, the investigator, Kalpana Dutta, obtained 38.8 and
41.0 as percentages of those who do not get two square meals
a day throughout the year for the villages Haringhata in Nadia
and Amdanga in 24-Parganas (Table 10), but she also obtained
percentages of 77.8 and 59.5 for the villages Dakshin Duttapara
in Nadia and Kamdevpur in 24-Parganas. On the same para­
meter, the investigator Ram Pratap Singh obtained 70.8 per
cent of Rohota in Meerut while for the village Arnavali in
Meerut it was only 47.4; the investigator Shankar Prasad Srivastava obtained 55.1 per cent for Kachhona and 61.1 percent
for Sunni in Hardoi. Further evidence concerning reliability of
the data is obtained from the fact that there happens to be
good correlation in the data on similar parameters, both
village-wise and in terms of special social and economic cate­
gories of respondents. For example, villages which report a
high percentage of those unable to get square meals, also have
a high proportion of landless labourers and a higher propor­
tion of deaths among children.
Also, when data are compared village-wise, or in terms of
special categories, because the standard errors and non-sampl­
ing errors often form common denominators, these errors
occasionally get cancelled out and, therefore, reliability of
data increases when they are compared with one another.
It must also be noted that because of the very nature of
selection of the nineteen villages for this study, each of them
is essentially an unique entity and the data concerning each one
of them should be considered mostly as unique and distinctive.
Because of this, addition of the data of all villages or their
addition in terms of PHC and non-PHC villages or their pre­
sentation in terms of state or region (e.g. north, south, east
and west) are of very limited value.
However, as will be evident in Chapter 9, such additions
become meaningful in drawing up profiles of various kinds for

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROFILES

special categories of respondents: as for example, groups who do
not get two square meals for various durations, landholding,
caste and occupation.
In order to obtain data for making analysis of each village
individually of the two villages which are with smaller popula­
tion—Dakshin Duttapara in Nadia and Jadigenhalli in Ban­
galore—the sample had to be enlarged from the general norm of
about 20 per cent stratified random sample to 50 per cent for
Dakshin Duttapara and 37.6 per cent for Jadigenhalli. Simi­
larly, to reduce the work load, sample had to be reduced for
Pazhambalakode in Palghat to 8.5 per cent, for Pullambadi in
Trichy to 10 per cent, for Rohota in Meerut to 10.4 per cent and
for Arnavali in Meerut to 15 per cent, as these villages had very
large populations.
However, when the data are required to be added together,
e.g. to analyse the data in terms of states, regions or PHC and
non-PHC villages or in terms of different social and economic
categories, suitable corrections had to be made to bring all the
village samples to the 20 per cent level.
The sample from the village Haringhata presented a special
problem. To the original 20 per cent stratified random sample
(40 households), an equal number of households, all designat­
ed as “poor” or “very poor”, were added to get a better profile
of the poor in that village. This addition did not affect drawing
up of profiles of various categories of respondents from all the
villages. But in studying Haringhata as an individual village, by
mistake, the entire group of 80 respondents had been analysed.
This gave greater weightage to the poor and very poor in Harin­
ghata. However, as the proportions of these categories were
already rather high for this village as compared to many other
villages, it was not considered worth the cost, time and effort
needed to seek time from the hardpressed computer centre for
necessary corrections.
Tables (at the end of the text) are meant to provide an over­
view of some of the social, economic and demographic aspects
of the study villages. Apart from presenting distribution of
different variables of different parameters in individual villages,
presentation of data concerning all the study villages related to
a parameter provides a perspective of variations in the data

within the villages. The first eleven villages in the tables are the
PHC villages. The next village, i.e. Kalur is a sub-centre village.
The remaining seven villages are non-PHC villages. Presenta­
tion of the villages in this sequence enables comparison of data
on PHC villages with the villages belonging to the other two
categories. Particular parameters and variables of a particular
village of these tables can also be referred to get elaboration of
aspects of qualitative data presented in subsequent chapters.

26

Data are presented both in the form of percentages and as
frequencies, with the latter being placed in brackets adjacent to
the percentages. The total of the responses was not exactly the
same in all cases, because in some rare ones investigators had
not been able to obtain answers to certain questions.
After presentation of the qualitative data on social, eco­
nomic and political aspects, cross-tabulated quantitative data
will again be presented to provide profiles of certain special
groups, again, to give quantitative dimensions to issues emerg­
ing from analysis and interpretation of the qualitative data.

Housing, Latrines, Electricity Connection and Radios
The six villages in south India—Yelwal, Kalur, Coyalmannam, Jadigenhalli, Pazhambalakode and Pullambadi—have
very few houses made of mud and thatch; in contrast, in all the
four West Bengal villages, the two Rajasthan villages and the
Gajarat village Rupal, over three-fourths of the houses are
in this category. In the two villages from the Mysore district—
Yelwal and Kalur, the two Palghat villages—Coyalmannam
and Pazhambalakode, the two Hardoi villages—Kachhona and
Sunni, and in the Meerut village Rohota, more than one-third of
the houses are brick-built (Table 4).
An overwhelming percentage of houses in the study villages
have no latrine. It will, however, not be entirely correct to see
these findings in terms of hygiene or the inconvenience
caused to womenfolk. For example, availability of a badly
maintained, scavenging type of latrine, cleaned once in three to
six months, certainly does not materially improve the hygiene
of residents; nor does it even add to the comfort or conveni­
ence of womenfolk of the household. Absence of latrines is to

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROFILES

be seen in the context of the overall setting of the village—its
layout, size and nature of construction and design of houses,
size and quality of the roads and lanes, source of drinking
water and drainage of waste water, disposal of human and ani­
mal waste and household garbage, etc. While latrines will be of
considerable importance in an integrated plan to improve the
ecological conditions of a village, mere setting up of latrines,
without improving other environmental hazards will have at
most a marginal influence in improving ecology of the village.
The West Bengal village Haringhata stands out from the
rest, having latrines in as many as 45 per cent of the houses,
26.3 per cent scavenging type, 10.0 per cent bore-hole type and
8.8 per cent flush type.
Six of the villages—Amdanga (24-Parganas), Dakshin Duttapara (Nadia), Rohat (Pali), Haringhata (Nadia), Rampura
(Pali) and Sunni (Hardoi)—have virtually no supply of electricity
(Table 6). Among the remaining thirteen villages, Coyalman­
nam (Palghat), Rupal (Sabarkantha) and Yelwal (Mysore) have
much higher percentages of houses with supply of electricity
than the others.
There is no correlation between availability of electricity
and availability of a radio set. The West Bengal villages
Amdanga, Kamdevpur, Haringhata and Dakshin Duttapara are
among those having the largest proportion of radio set owners
(Table 7), even though three of these villages have no electricity
supply at all and in the fourth village Kamdevpur, a mere 9.5
per cent houses have an electricity connection. Rohota and
Arnavali in Meerut district come very close to those of West
Bengal in number of radio set owners.

Parganas), Rohat (Pali), Kachhona (Hardoi) and Pazhambalakode (Palghat) have larger percentages of Muslims. Dakshin
Duttapara (Nadia), Gambhoi (Sabarkantha), Kalur (Mysore) and
Coyalmannam (Palghat) are dominated by the backward castes,
while Banias and other trading castes are prominent in Pazhambalakode (Palghat), Rupal (Sabarkantha) and Kachhona
(Hardoi). As will be discussed in Chapters 7 and 8 this distribu­
tion of castes is of relevance in understanding the power struc­
ture of different villages.

28

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Caste and Occupation
In terms of caste distribution, while the average for the nine­
teen villages comes quite near to the national averages, virtually
none of the individual villages has that level of distribution
(Table 8). Variations from the average are substantial. Amavali (Meerut), Rampura (Pali), Sunni (Hardoi) and Rohota
(Meerut) have a much higher percentage of Harijans. Bilaspur
(Karnal), along with Coyalmannam (Palghat) and Arnavali
(Meerut) have larger percentage of Brahmins. Amdanga (24-

29

The occupational pattern of households (Table 9) throws
light on another facet of the wide variations in the study vill­
ages. Only in two villages Rampura (Pali) and Dakshin Dutta­
para (Nadia), agricultural occupations (which include agricul­
tural labourers) are truly dominant. In Yelwal (Mysore),
Kamdevpur (24-Parganas), Gambhoi (Sabarkantha), Bilaspur
(Karnal), Kalur (Mysore) and Amdanga (24-Parganas), 50 to
60 per cent of households are involved in agriculture and the per­
centages are between 40 and 50 in Jadigenhalli (Bangalore),
Kachhona (Hardoi), Pullambadi (Trichy) and Haringhata (24Parganas). Haringhata is conspicuous in having as much as 32.5
per cent households engaged in service (mostly in the Haringhata
Dairy Farm), while the market village of Kachhona stands out
with 33.3 per cent of the households engaged in trade and busi­
ness. Pullambadi, Dakshin Duttapara and Arnavali have a
high percentage of irregular, non-agricultural wage earners or
unemployed. This is a reflection of poverty.

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Hunger Satisfaction, Landholding,
Child Births and Child Deaths
The study revealed that a very substantial proportion of the
population in the villages are so poor that they do not get two
square meals a day throughout the year to satisfy their hunger
and that the proportion of the households having virtually no
land is also very high. Tables 10, 11, 12 and 13 present the
most important data of this series. Table 13 gives the stagger­
ing figures about child deaths. Significantly, there is a good
correlation between the degree of satisfaction of hunger, the
extent of landholdings among the village households and in the
number of child deaths.

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SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROFILES

The six villages, where 77 to 97 per cent of the households
are landless, namely, Haringhata, Amdanga, Pazhambalakode,
Jadigenhalli, Yelwal, Dakshin Duttapara, also have a much
higher proportion of those unable to satisfy their hunger. Simi­
larly, the proportion of the hungry is much less in those villages
which have fewer landless and which have a larger number of
those who possess wet land, with or without extra dry land.
Rampura, Bilaspur, Rohota, Arnavali, Rupal and Rohat fall in
this category. The remaining eight villages fall in the middle
category, i.e. just as the pattern of landholding falls between
the two extremes, so does the degree of satisfaction of hunger
in the village.

in terms of the duration for which people have to remain hun­
gry. A more elaborate analysis of the quantitative data will be
presented in Chapter 9, where profiles will be drawn up in
terms of special groups referred to above.

30

The Green Revolution villages of Rohota and Arnavali
(Meerut) and Bilaspur (Karnal) are distinguished by a much
sharper polarisation in the distribution of land. There are those
who own large areas of wet land, those who are landless with
very few falling in between these two extremes. Similar polari­
sations, though not so acute, are also present in Rampura and
Rohat (Pali) and Rupal (Sabarkantha). In Kalur (Mysore) the
polarisation is only between holders of dry land and the land­
less. Sunni, Gambhoi and Coyalmannam are the only villages
with a substantial proportion of those having between one to
three acres of wet land with or without dry land. In the six
villages mentioned above, where the landless predominate,
there is very little land to go round and the prevalence of
hunger is extensive.
Arnavali, Kachhona, Sunni, Rampura, Bilaspur and Jadi­
genhalli are the villages with a conspicuously large number of
child deaths. On the other hand, three south Indian villages—
Kalur, Pullambadi and Yelwal—have comparatively lower per­
centages of child deaths. However, it may be noted that while
Arnavali has such a high rate of child deaths, it is relatively
much lower in another Green Revolution village, namely Rohota,
within the same district. The higher proportion of Harijans in
Arnavali may be a major determining factor. The data on child
deaths need to be examined further when the rates are presented
in terms of individual groups—the hungry, the landless,
Harijans, large landholders, etc.
Table 10 presents details concerning the degree of hunger

Mass Media, Mobility, Co-operatives and
the Community Development Programme
The villages present a variegated picture in terms of use of
newspapers (Table 14) and radio sets (Fable 15). Three widely
different villages, located at three corners of the country—
Rupal (Sabarkantha), Jadigenhalli (Bangalore) and Haringhata
(Nadia)—stand out sharply from the rest in newspaper reading
with 46.5, 43.7 and 35.0 per cent of the households respectively
having at least one newspaper reader. These three villages also
have a relatively high percentage of those who read a news­
paper regularly.
At the other extreme are as many as 11 villages—Bilaspur,
Rampura, Rohat, Dakshin Duttapara, Kamdevpur, Sunni,
Kalur, Pullambadi, Amdanga, Rohota and Arnavali—with
readership of less than 10 per cent, with five of them—Bilaspur,
Rampura, Rohat, Kamdevpur and Dakshin Duttapara—having
virtually no readership. In four villages—Kachhona, Gambhoi,
Pazhambalakode and Yelwal—it is less than 20 per cent;
Coyalmannam having a percentage of 25.5. It is worth noting
that the Kerala villages—Coyalmannam and Pazhambalakode
—do not fall among the villages with high rankings in news­
paper readership.
Again, the pattern is quite different in terms of radio listen­
ing. Topping the list are: Dakshin Duttapara, Kamdevpur,
Arnavali, Haringhata, Rupal and Rohota with percentages of
listeners ranging from 33.9 to 25. It is significant that while
Haringhata and Rupal have also high newspaper readership, the
remaining four belong to the category with very low readership.
The pattern is again different for the villagers visiting a
city (Table 16), markets (Table 17) and other villages (Table 18).
Three villages—Kamdevpur (24-Parganas), Pazhambalakode
(Palghat) and Amdanga (24-Parganas)—had 71.4, 63.8 and
56.4 per cent respectively who had never visited a city. At
the other extreme, virtually everybody has visited a city in

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

Gambhoi (Sabarkantba), Jadigenhalli (Bangalore), Rohota and
Arnavali (Meerut). In Gambhoi, Yelwal and Arnavali as many
as 35.7, 23.7 and 21.1 per cent respectively visit a city daily
or very frequently.
While in five villages—Yelwal, Kalur, Arnavali, Pazhambalakode and Pullambadi—a substantial proportion has never
visited a market, in most of the others almost everybody has
been to a village market (Table 17).

In the five villages of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu—
Pazhambalakode, Coyalmannam, Kalur, Pullambadi and Yelwal
respectively, 82.8, 76.5, 58.8, 49.0 and 45.5 percent have not
visited other villages (Table 18). The percentage is much lower
for Rohat (30.6) and Gambhoi (21.4). In the other villages
almost everybody has been to other villages.

'ic i

Respondents in all the nineteen villages did not have even
the most basic knowledge about the Community Development
Programme (Table 19). In seven villages Rupal, Yelwal, Arna­
vali, Rohat, Haringhata, Jadigenhalli and Gambhoi between
32.7 and 14.3 per cent had some knowledge about the organi­
sation; in twelve villages, even this limited knowledge was
extremely low or non-existent.

There are six villages Kalur, Rohat, Yelwal, Rampura, Bilaspur and Dakshin Duttapara where participation in any form of
co-operative activities ranged from 76.5 per cent to 50 per cent;
the participation is 20 per cent or less in Pazhambalakode,
Gambhoi, Coyalmannam, Rohota, Pullambadi and Rupal
(Table 20).
Consumption of Alcohol
Even after making allowance concerning reliability of the
data, three of the six villages in south India—Pazhambalakode,
Pullambadi and Coyalmannam stand out sharply among the
villages with respectively as many as 72.4, 69.1 and 62.7 per
cent mentioning consumption of alcohol, and a very high
percentage who drink daily in these villages—Pazhambalakode
(45.5), Pullambadi (15.5) and Coyalmannam (25.5). At the
other extreme there are 11 villages where four-fifths or more
stated that they have never taken an alcoholic drink.

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROFILES

33

I

Knowledge About Elected Representatives
and Voting Preferences

I

Except for the conspicuously low percentage for the Kerala
villages of Pazhambalakode (25.9) and Coyalmannam (35.3),
members of the village Panchayats were known almost univer­
sally in the remaining villages (Table 22). This may be because
the Panchayat elections were held long ago in Kerala and/or
that these institutions were non-functional.
Pazhambalakode and Coyalmannam also had very low per­
centages of those who could name the Member of the Legisla­
tive Assembly and Member of Parliament from their constitu­
encies (Tables 23 and 24). Knowledge about MLA was also
somewhat lower in Dakshin Duttapara, Sunni and Kamdevpur
and very high in the cases of Gambhoi, Kalur, Kachhona,
Rupal, Rohat and Jadigenhalli.
In terms of knowledge about the MPs, besides the Kerala
villages of Pazhambalakode and Coyalmannam, Amdanga and
Kamdevpur (Nadia), Dakshin Duttapara and Haringhata (24Parganas) came very low, while Jadigenhalli (Bangalore), Rohat
(Pali), Rohota (Meerut), Rupal (Sabarkantha), Kachhona
(Hardoi) and Rampura (Pali) occupied very high positions on
this parameter.
Affiliation with political parties was not discernible in the
responses on Panchayat elections obtained in 1972-74 (Table
25). However, Rampura, Rupal and Rohat are conspicuous with
a relatively large percentage of those who did not care to vote.
Voting for state legislatures has some interesting facets of
behaviour (Table 26). In Gambhoi (Sabarkantha), Bilaspur (Karnal) and Yelwal (Mysore), a significant proportion refused to
divulge whom they voted for. A substantial proportion did not
vote in Pullambadi (Trichy), Rupal (Sabarkantha), Bilaspur
(Karnal) and Kalur (Mysore). “Acquaintances” or “voted as
told” accounted for significant proportions in Haringhata (24Parganas), Rohota (Meerut) and Gambhoi (Sabarkantha).
Except for Gambhoi, Pazhambalakode, Dakshin Duttapara
and Bilaspur the Congress party was dominant in the other
sample villages. In Arnavali, Sunni, Jadigenhalli, Rohat and
Kachhona, the dominance of the party was overwhelming. The
Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) was a force to

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

reckon ■ with in Pazhambalakode, Coyalmannam and Dakshin
Duttapara. The only other villages where the party was men­
tioned were Haringhata, Amdanga and Kamdevpur. Still smal­
ler parties were even more scattered—the Jana Sangh in Kachhona and the Communist Party of India (CPI) in Kamdevpur
and Haringhata and the Forward Block (FB) in Kamdevpur.
Main Findings from the Quantitative Data on Social and
Economic Profiles of the Study Villages

Twenty-nine variables have been identified from Tables 4-26
to summarise the data presented. Table 27 provides a general
background of the study villages by presenting data on per­
centage of brick houses, houses with a latrine, supply of electri­
city, persons owning a radio set, listening to the radio, reading
newspapers and those with a minimum knowledge of the Com­
munity Development Programme.
Table 28 refers to percentages of Harijans and Muslims, to
those who are engaged as labourers in non-agricultural fields
or are unemployed, to those who are employed in some service
and to those who are engaged in some trade. The percentage of
those who do not take any alcoholic drink provides another
aspect of social background of the population of the study
villages.
The variables that are related to economic and demographic
background of the study population are presented in Table 29.
Percentage of those who are able to fully satisfy their hunger
form a major economic variable. Percentage of those with over
three acres of wet land, those with no land or virtually no land,
those having more than three children, those who have lost one
or more children in the family, those participating in co-opera­
tive institutions and those who have visited a city, a market or
another village, constitute the other variables.
Table 30 provides a broad picture of political behaviour of
the villages in forms of voting behaviour, participation in
Panchayat and state elections, knowledge about local Panchayat
members, the MLA and MP.
Data on all twenty-nine variables have been presented as
percentages of the total of all the variables of the parameters

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROFILES

35

given in Tables 4-26. With this presentation it is possible to
compare them with each other, within a given Table or even
with variables presented in the other three Tables. For instance,
a relatively high prevalence of newspaper readership in a vil­
lage can be studied in relation to radio listening habit or know­
ledge about Community Development Programme (Table 27).
Or newspaper reading habit can be studied in the context of
specific castes and occupation groups (Table 28), or, in the
context of degree of hunger satisfaction, child deaths or land­
holding (Table 29), or, in the context of voting behaviour or
knowledge about their representatives. Such profiles drawn up
around each one of the twenty-nine variables and examined
singly or in clusters provide an enormous panorama of quanti­
tative data which along with the other twenty-six Tables, gives
a valuable backdrop to the presentation, analysis and interpre­
tation of qualitative data.

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THE VILLAGES AND THEIR INSTITUTIONS

CHAPTER FOUR

The Villages and Their Institutions

Villages, Towns and Cities

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Compared to urban living, living in villages has major dis­
advantages. A big city enjoys many social, economic and politi­
cal benefits available to a population of corresponding size in
rural areas. The dependence of villagers on cities makes them
more vulnerable to exploitation and control by city-based poli­
tical leaders, industrialists, traders, bureaucrats and intellectuals.
When, for instance, a person living in a non-PHC village,
becomes seriously ill, at most he has access to a PHC, situated
some ten or fifteen kilometres away, on an average. The PHC
facilities being rather limited, often he may have to be taken to
a nearby town or city to avail of more sophisticated investiga­
tions and treatment. Even when physicians at the PHC are able
to handle a patient with reasonable confidence, relatives might
have to rush to the city to get special medicines that might be
prescribed by the PHC physicians. For relatives of the patient,
this means their having to spend the time, effort and money
needed to undertake the journey, interact with people of a
different culture and suffer much greater hazards of being
cheated by the medicine sellers in terms of price and/or quality
of medicine.
In contrast, a well-off city dweller will have relatively easier
access to sophisticated medical institutions and good quality
medicines with much less expense and effort. Significantly a
rickshaw-puller in the same city though not able to derive the
same degree of benefits enjoys distinct advantages over a villag­
er with the same means.
The same differences apply to all amenities and opportuni­
ties. Villagers have to go to cities for marketing facilities, to
get quotas and permits for essential goods from government

37

offices, to look for jobs, to fight out legal battles in higher
courts, for entertainment, for higher education, to get transpor­
tation and communication facilities, and so on. The focal points
which control political activities in rural areas are also located
in cities.
Contaminated source of drinking water, dust, dirt and
infestations by various kinds of insects and other pests and
parasites, extensive poverty, grossly substandard housing, poor
drainage and fecal contamination of the soil and extremely poor
personal hygiene, are some of the major factors in the village
setting. They create an ecological condition highly conducive to
widespread prevalence of various kinds of communicable dise­
ases, undernutrition and malnutrition and high rates of morbi­
dity and mortality among children and mothers. Obviously, the
health hazards in villages are much greater than what is found in
the cities. Also, unlike cities, where the more privileged classes
acquire more hygienic living conditions and civic amenities,
the gulf in ecological conditions between the privileged and the
underprivileged classes in villages is much less wide.

The abject dependence of villages on cities and the hazar­
dous conditions of village Jife have had a profound influence on
the culture, including the health culture, of rural populations.
This influence is more pronounced amongst the poorer sections
in the village. They have to additionally suffer deprivations
because they are poor, because they have lower rates of literacy,
lower educational levels and because they are abjectly dependent
on the richer sections of the village community. This denial of
social justice and political rights restricts opportunities and
facilities needed to bring about cultural changes and to cope
more effectively with various problems. Often, this sheer weight
of the prevailing adverse conditions of the poor (just as excess
wealth of the rich) makes them cling to ideas and practices
which are patently obscurantist. Thus, the geographical, social,
economic and political conditions under which a community
lives greatly influence its growth and development. It must be
noted that these determinants of culture are quite different

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

from what are generally included under “culture of poverty.”1
For a proper understanding of the cultural practices of a com­
munity, including its health practices, it is, therefore, necessary
to relate its culture to the social, economic and political forces
which maintain the ecological settings. In this study an attempt
has been made to adopt this approach.
Village Schools
Observations from mothers belonging to the very poor group
of families, which will be referred to again in Chapter 5, pro­
vide very relevantjdata on education in rural India. A mother
in the village Amdanga (24-Parganas) observed:
...How can we send them (the children) to school? They are
often hungry and they move around searching for food. We
cannot buy them books. Moreover, they do not want to go to
school because the teacher beats them. And, then, how is their
schooling for a few yearsjgoing to improve their lot...?
The wife of Suryakanta Mukherjee of village Haringhata
(Nadia) observed:
...I would very much like to educate my children. Although
education is free up to Class IV, we need money to buy books
and stationery. When we do not get money to buy food,
where can we get money to buy books and stationery? This
girl has gotinto Class II. She is very eager to continue her
studies. I have made it very clear to her that I have no
money so she will not be allowed to buy any books. She
weeps. But what can I do? You tell me. Education is meant
for rich people. This girl does not understand this...
In the village Dakshin Duttapara (Nadia) a housewife told
the woman investigator:
...It is so good that you come to the village. You sit in our
houses and listen to us. Everybody here likes you very much.
We very much like to get education. We want to travel all
round the country. I would very much like to see Calcutta. I

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1C. A. Valentine, Culture and Poverty: Critique and Counter Proposals,
Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1972; Oscar Lewis, La Vida: A
Puerto Rican Family in the Culture of Poverty: San Juan and New York, New
York, Randam House, 1966; N. Glazer and D. P. Moynihan, Beyond the
Melting Pot: the Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Italians, and Irish of New York
City, Cambridge, M. I. T. Press and Harvard University Press, 1963.

THE VILLAGES AND THEIR. INSTITUTIONS

39

have heard so much about it. Can you take me to Calcutta
just for a day? I will be able to get the money for the bus fare.
What have I done since I came here after my marriage at the
age of 10-11? The same routine of cooking food in the morn­
ings and evenings and frequently quarrelling with my hus­
band when he returns from work in the evening! I bear
children year after year. What is this life I am living? I want
to see the world around me...
When asked how many of his pupils came to school after a
full meal, the sole school teacher of the primary school of about
120 pupils in village Pullambadi (Thiruchirapalli or Trichy) re­
marked that there were very few such pupils and if more food
was offered almost all of them would be glad to have it.
In the Green Revolution village—Bilaspur of Karnal district,
a moth-eaten blackboard and two rickety chairs for the two tea­
chers were the only pieces of furniture in the primary school.
The building badly needed repair. The window panes were mis­
sing and bitter winds of January-February came in from the
open fields. The children had to sit on the bare floor and they
brought straw from outside to cover the cold floor. Despite the
prosperity of the village, very £ew of the children had enough
woollens. The surroundings of the school were patently unhy­
gienic with no toilets, or drinking water facilities. Even the socalled trained teacher was of a very low level of competence. He
frequently resorted to corporal punishment and struck terror in
the hearts of pupils. He was not punctual and he managed to
absent himself for days together without formal permission. He
openly asked his pupils to bring vegetables and fruits for him
from their homes. Supervision of government primary schools
was grossly inadequate.
Corruption in the appointment of teachers in both govern­
ment and privately run government-aided schools has become
an accepted fact of life. In one state, teachers’ appointments
to government primary schools are an openly accepted way of
rewarding legislators in return for political favours. The legis­
lator “auctions” an appointment and the highest bidder is
given the job. The Director of Public Instruction or any other
official of the state education department has virtually no say in
this matter.

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THE VILLAGES AND THEIR INSTITUTIONS

A study of the privately managed and government-aided
high school in Arnavali (Meerut) revealed the nepotism and
corruption in the appointment of teachers. As the management
committee was controlled by Jats, people of this caste, who
weie often related to members of the management committee,
were chosen as teachers. It is also rumoured that many of them
offered bribes, often running to four or five figures, to get an
appointment. Of the ten permissible posts of peons, only two
weie actually filled in. The remaining eight, being relatives of
key persons in the management committee, got a share of their
salary, while attending to their agricultural work. Similar shar­
ing of the salary was done when a teacher went on earned leave.
In their turn, the teachers had developed a regular system of
extracting money from pupils at the time of admission and exa­
mination. It was stated that there were definite price tags for
different “favours” obtainable from certain teachers in acade­
mic assessment of pupils. Political links of management com­
mittee personnel were used to ensure that the government
(which paid the bulk of the expenses) did not interfere with
this elaborate money-spinning network. If necessary, government supervisors were silenced with bribes.
This school had also become an instrument for aggravating
casteism. Teachers looked down upon Harijan pupils and humi­
liated them in many ways. Very few Harijans were allowed to
pass their examination and reach the School Leaving Certificate
(matriculation) examination stage and in this way they were
kept at their “right” places in the society. This also ensured that
they were available to the rich farmers as agricultural labourers.
In another privately managed high school in Pazhambalakode
(Kerala) though caste discrimination and nepotism were not
present in such a blatant form, widespread prevalence of corrup­
tion was alleged. As in the case of the Arnavali (Meerut) school
this corruption was mostly in relation to the appointment of
teachers and payment of salary to staff. Bribes were also being
extracted for promoting students.
It is significant that relatively speaking, village high schools
get more grants and are obviously better off than the primary
schools in terms of cost per pupil. This is reflected in the size,
construction, furniture, equipment and maintenance of school

buildings and the teacher-pupil ratio. The beneficiaries of this
extra “generosity” are mostly pupils belonging to the more
privileged classes, as the poorer pupils rapidly “drop out” at
the primary stage.
However, as pointed out earlier, village high schools are
inferior in almost every respect to their city counterparts. This
completes the picture of stratification in access to educational
opportunities to pupils from among the very poor who never bo­
ther to go to school, to drop-outs of the village primary schools,
to pupils of village middle and high schools, to pupils of govern­
ment-financed or government-aided city schools, to pupils of
Central schools, to pupils of convent or other privately financ­
ed exclusive schools, and the schools “super exclusive” as the
Doon school, American International School, Lawrence-Lovedale etc. for the very specially privileged children. The weigh­
tage given to English in higher education and employment pits
the villager against greater odds. As will be discussed subse­
quently in Chapter 8, -a prominent leader of the village Arnavali who claims to belong to a party (Socialist Party) that was
bitterly opposed to the use of English in government work,
sends his own children all the“ way to the convent schools,
located 18 kilometres away in Meerut city.
Some of those who pass high school examination from
village schools seek admission in degree colleges in nearby
towns. The parents of Biplab Biswas of village Amdanga
(Nadia), who, as will be mentioned later in Chapter 8, became
a Naxalite, had to put up with considerable hardships in send­
ing him to a college in the nearby town of Barasat. Biplab
Biswas was able to get a job in a co-operative bank in Calcutta
because he had a bright academic record.

41

Religious Institutions
Among Hindus, the temple plays a very marginal role in
their social and economic life. The three major temples in the
areas under study are one in Amdanga (Nadia), a more than
350-years old Karunamayee Temple, an equally ancient
Mariamma Temple in Yelwal (Mysore), and a Shiva Temple in
Pullambadi (Trichy). These attract devotees from outside the
village. After the enactment of the land reform acts, financial

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

THE VILLAGES AND THEIR INSTITUTIONS

position of all the three temples has deteriorated sharply.
These, as other smaller temples, apart from subserving the
religious needs of individuals, do not have any significant
influence on the secular activities of the Hindu community.
Interestingly, in the village Amdanga (Nadia), because of her
social and political work for the Forward Block Party, the
wife of the priest of the Karunamayee Temple has much greater
influence on the Hindu community than her husband.
In village Bilaspur (Karnal), about 20 out of 90 families
are followers of the Arya Samaj sect of Hindus. Arya Samaj
has much greater influence on the social lives of its followers.
Followers are required to get together regularly at specific
places of worship. They have wholetime workers who pro­
pagate the religion and often get involved in political activities.
They reject social discrimination on grounds of caste. As the
Arya Samaj families of Bilaspur had considerable social,
economic and political influence in the village, caste discrimi­
nation was much less there in comparison with the nearby
villages of Rohota and Arnavali of Meerut district. There is
also no temple for idol worship in the village. Those who wish
to perform puja usually do so on the banks of the river Yamuna
flowing close by.
The mosques clearly have much greater influence on the
social, economic and political lives of Muslims. There are two
mosques in Amdanga (Nadia) and a mosque each in Yelwal
(Mysore), Coyalmannam and Pazhambalakode (Palghat). They
have Islamic schools (madrasas) attached to them. Besides,
Muslims gathered as a community more frequently and regularly
in the mosques and these gatherings are often used by commu­
nity leaders to influence opinions and attitudes on various
issues.
The hold of the church on its followers is by far the
strongest. It is imperative for Christians to attend church
regularly. Besides, the church has a number of dedicated
clergy and resources flowing in from outside. It also exploits
its political leverage. For example, the authorities in the village
Pullambadi (Trichy) got land allocated from the Dravida
Munnetra Kazhagam to build a church-financed housing colony
for the “Harijan” Christians in return for political support. In

the same village, free distribution of CARE-supplied milk to
Christians from the poor classes was made conditional on their
attending church regularly.

The Block Development Administration

Development of various aspects of agriculture, animal hus­
bandry, administration of Panchayats, setting up of public
distribution systems for supply of essential articles, promotion
of co-operatives and cottage industries and carrying out rural
public works, are some of the major activities of a block
development organisation.
All the PHC villages also have the headquarters of the block
development organisation. The most striking aspect of work of
this organisation is that activities of community development,
which formed its very soul, have become virtually non-existent
(see Table 19). There is little of working with the community
in the fields of social and adult education, women’s programmes
and youth clubs; there is very little effort to help the community
as a whole to solve its own problems. Having thus given up
even the pretence of community development, the Block Deve­
lopment Officer (BDO), the executive head of the block develop­
ment organisation, has now become an unabashed appendage
of the district development bureaucracy. He now carries out
the orders and instructions handed down from above by the
state government, the office of the Commissioner and the Collec­
tor to “develop” the villages.
The work of the BDO, both in terms of the range of activi­
ties as well as the intensity in their implementation varied from
state to state. Furthermore, while in the states of Gujarat and
Tamil Nadu, the block development organisations work within
the framework of Panchayti Raj (Zilla Parishads in Gujarat
and Panchayat Unions in Tamil Nadu) and Panchayat Samitis
of some form existed in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, block
administration was directly under the bureaucratic control of
the district administration in West Bengal, Haryana, Karnataka
and Kerala.
Observations of the working of the block development ad­
ministration in the Gujarat villages of Rupal and Gambhoi and

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POVERTY. CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

in the Tamil Nadu village of Pullambadi revealed that despite
involvement of elected representatives in the execution of the
development programmes at district and block levels, the masses
of the rural population, particularly the weaker sections,
remained largely unaffected.
As wifl be discussed later in Chapters 5 and 8, the commu­
nity power structure in rural India subjugates the democratic
process to serve the interests of the privileged classes. In other
states, without elected representatives for development program­
mes, bureaucrats and political leaders use the garb of demo­
cratic institutions, (described later as a “mummified corpus”)
to project the facade of community participation and community
. involvement in “development”. In the absence of this garb, the
local bodies are legally superceded and their control handed
over to government-appointed administrators and it is not
difficult for leaders belonging to the privileged classes to exercise
almost the same degree of influence on development administra­
tion, either directly as “community leaders” or through the
intervention of the political leaders at higher levels. Even under
conditions of President’s Rule in a state, the interests of the
village elite are fairly well looked after by the caretaker ad­
ministration and very little of developmental resources trickle
down to the underprivileged. In fact, it is the poor who become
even more vulnerable to exploitation when political rights are
further abridged and the entire task of development is left in the
hands of bureaucrats at all levels. For instance, it becomes eas­
ier for a policeman to walk into a village and pick up a poor
villager on some trumped up charges and make some money in
return for setting him free.
Family planning has become a major activity of the block
administration in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. Not only are block
development workers encouraged to procure cases for family
planning and to r"
use resources meant for various development
activities, but theyj are also given additional cash incentives by
Panchayat Unions and Zilla Parishads for “motivating” cases
for family planning. Similarly, in Tamil Nadu, the work of
Auxiliary Nurse Midwives is supervised by the Commissioner
(i.e. the administrator) of Panchayat Unions.
However, taken as a whole, there were very wide variations

THE VILLAGES AND THEIR INSTITUTIONS

5

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45

in developmental activities of the twelve blocks of the eight states
under study. These were largely due to variation in resource
allocation, effectiveness of government machinery and the social
structure, economic status and the political strength of the local
population. But whatever the range and the intensity of the
activities in rural development, in all the nineteen villages these
were mostly mediated by the privileged classes. These people
derived considerable profits and political leverage by controlling
the public distribution system for commodities such as food­
grains, sugar, kerosene and cement, fertiliser, high yielding
seeds, credit facilities, relief works in the form of construction
of roads and strengthening of irrigation systems which helped
improve their agricultural production and marketing, and, im­
plementation of housing and other construction programmes
which got them remunerative contracts.

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Shops, Markets, Moneylenders and Trade
Village shops, dealing in such essential commodities as
foodgrains, groceries and cloth, form an important component
of village life. The transaction between shopkeepers and their
customers is conditioned by the nature of life the village com­
munities live. As most of the villagers are very poor, they buy
commodities in very small quantities. Also customers are often
allowed to make purchase on deferred payment during the lean
season. Some of these shopkeepers, who have resources, take
to moneylending as a major activity and advance mortgage
loans to villagers in distress. Quite often villagers are advanced
loans to make purchase from the shop of the moneylender.
The rate of interest is usually much higher than the prevailing
market rates, sometimes touching as high as 120 per cent per
year. The borrower pays it back either in cash or in kind at
harvest time or by working for the moneylenders. When times
are particularly bad, he is forced to part with his land or any
other article against which he obtained the loan.

The shopkeepers (Banias) of the market centre in village
Kachhona (Hardoi) have been able to acquire substantial politi­
cal and economic power by lending money to villagers on an
extensive scale. This, in turn, has enabled them to have power

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

THE VILLAGES AND THEIR INSTITUTIONS

over banks and co-operatives. In Rupal (Sabarkantha) the trad­
ing community has prospered to such an extent that quite a few
families have lucrative business in Bombay, Ahmedabad and
other far-off centres. They live in palatial mansions in Rupal
though many of them remain permanently locked as their
families settle down in cities. One of these families has donated
money for constructing the building that houses the child
nutrition programme in Rupal. Many others have made con­
tributions to the village temple, the Kirtan Mandali and other
religious and social institutions.
Four of the big villages—Haringhata (Nadia), Kachhona
(Hardoi), Pullambadi (Trichy) and Coyalmannam (Palghat) have
permanent shopping centres which serve many surrounding
villages. Most of the villages hold periodic (usually bi-weekly)
markets, some—Kamdevpur (Nadia) and Kachhona (Hardoi)—
attract people from many distant villages. Such big markets
also offer means of livelihood to a number of petty traders and
hawkers in these villages. The majority of the Muslims of Kach­
hona fall in this category. They sell vegetables, seasonal fruits,
bangles and trinkets on the four market days of the week and
for the remaining days sell their wares in the surrounding
villages. It is interesting that while most of the landless labour­
ers and small farmers of Kachhona are heavily under debt, very
few of these Muslim petty traders fall in this category.
All the villages (except Rupal and Gambhoi of the prohibi­
tion state of Gujarat) have one or more licensed toddy shops.
Many villagers spend their very limited earnings here thus fur­
ther adding to the miseries of their wives and children. These
toddy shops are also foci for drunken brawls and meeting places
for anti-social elements of the villages. Quite a few village tea
shops are known to sell illegally brewed country liquor.
The village Rampura (Pali) is well known for heavy traffic in
opium which is sold to the villagers by tribals from the interior
of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. The local member of the
state legislature is alleged to be involved in this trade and he
uses his position to deter police interference. Opium consump­
tion is considered almost a social norm in this village. Because
of this extensive trafficking the villagers were deeply suspicious
of the investigator initially. He was thought to be a police

agent and had to make very special efforts to gain their confi­
dence. But once this was won the investigator was even allowed
to be present in the opium “parties” held daily at the house of
an influential villager. He also joined a marriage party in which
large quantities of opium were consumed according to the so­
cially prescribed custom. This drug was also being freely
consumed, though to a much lesser extent, in the other village of
Pali district—Rohat.
Commercial Farms and Industries
The village Jadigenhalli of Bangalore district provides an
instance of commercial crop cultivation. Some enterprising
Vanhikula andNagartha rich farmers invested money in cultiva­
ting grapes in this dry agricultural region and raised very good
crops. They have also built up good communication and
transport systems for marketing this perishable commodity.
They have telephones and keep track of the price trends in
markets as far away as Bangalore, Tiruchirapalli and Hyderabad
and have a fleet of trucks to immediately transport their
produce to the highest profit market. A large number of land­
less labourers from Jadigenhalli and from surrounding villages
have been able to get employment on their farms.
With the location of the Haringhata Dairy Farm some three
kilometres away from Haringhata, a large proportion of the
residents of this village have become wage labourers on this
farm and actively participate in trade union activities, and
village politics. Similarly, a significant proportion of families in
the village Yelwal (Mysore) are employed in factories. Within
the village itself, there is a cement spun pipe factory, employing
in all 30 unskilled, permanent and temporary labourers, with
Rs 3 as wages of permanent labourers and Rs 2.50 or Rs 2 as
wages of temporary labourers. There is also a match factory
which employs 16 adult skilled workers at Rs 60 per month for
man and Rs 50 for a woman. Another 24 girls, 18 of them being
below 12 years of age, are also employed in this factory. A
girl gets a wage of Rs 5 to Rs 6 per week.
The Mandya Paper Mills and the plant of the Mysore Ferti­
lisers are located in Belagola, six kilometres from Yelwal. A

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

plywood factory is located at Hinkul, nine kilometres from
Yelwal. Eleven residents of Yelwal are employed in factories at
Belagola and seven in the factory at Hinkul. From the other
Mysore village, Kalur, which is situated about eight kilometres
from Belagola, five workers are employed in the fertilizer factory,
while one person is a clerk in the paper mill.
Over 90 persons from Pullambadi (Trichy) get seasonal emp­
loyment in the Kothari Sugar Mills at Kattur, four kilometres
away and another 30-40 in the Dalmia Cement Factory in the
nearby town of Dalmia Nagar. The workers of Kothari Sugar
Mills successfully resorted to strike action to wrest a wage of
Rs 4 for men and Rs 3 for women. Within the village itself,
there is a furniture factory which employs 10 to 15 persons’
This factory provides furniture to government offices and
government schools around Pullambadi.
The Green Revolution villages—Rohota and Arnavali
(Meerut) and Bilaspur (Karnal) and the bigger villages such as
Kachhona (Hardoi), Rohat (Pali), Rupal (Sabarkantha) and
Pullambadi (Trichy) have workshops for repairing tractors and
other agricultural machinery. Rohota and Arnavali are milk
collection centres, where villagers sell their milk to the Delhi
Milk Scheme.
White Collar and Skilled Jobs

There has been a steady increase in the
the number
number of
of persons
persons
commuting to nearby cities as white collar workers. Most of
them have a college education and some special skills. But, as
was the case of Biplab Biswas of Amdanga, they were firmly
rooted to the village community. The tendency to acquire white
collar jobs and jobs requiring special skills in the nearby city
was particularly noticeable in Yelwal from where people move
to Mysore city and in Amdanga where people move to Calcutta.
The Brahmins are conspicuous among those who have secured
employment in industries and offices of various kinds. While
the conditions of some of the elderly Brahmins of Coyalmannam
(Palghat), who lost their land as a result of land reform, was
indeed very bad, there were many others who had acquired
considerable wealth and status by adopting scientific methods

the villages AND THEIR INSTITUTIONS

b

49

in agriculture, as in Rohota and Arnavali (Meerut) and Yelwal
(Mysore) or getting jobs in cities after education. A relative of
an Ayyangar in Yelwal was a senior official in the World Bank
m Washington, while a brother of the Panchayat Pradhan of
Rohota was a railway officer in nearby Meerut. Quite a few
Brahmins in the village Yelwal have set up bakeries in Mysore
city and in Bangalore. The Banias too provided an “enlightened”
group, keen to educate their children, including the girls. The
Banias of Kachhona (Hardoi) had white collar jobs in the near­
by cities of Lucknow, Hardoi and Sandila. One of the influ­
ential persons in Kachhona, Radheshyam, has acquired a
master’s degree in commerce and a bachelor’s degree in law to
become the Assistant Deputy Registrar of Co-operatives of the
Government of Uttar Pradesh.
Cottage Industries, Banks and Co-operatives

Thei_,K,hadl Gramodyog Commission has been instrumental
m establishing a cotton spinning centre for women in Haringhata (Nadia). Even though the daily earning amounted to a
meagie Rs 1.50, women from distant villages walked to Haring ata carrying their babies, to take this opportunity of becom­
ing independent earners. Thirty women were employed in this
centre. The Khadi Gramodyog Commission had also set up
a tannery for Chamars at Rohota (Meerut). The weavers’
co-operative m Pazhambalakode (Palghat) played an important
role not only in somehow sustaining over 300 weavers’ families
but also providing them basic requirements at a fair price
Seven of the 11 PHC villages (but none of the non-PHC
VI lages) had branches of a nationalised bank. Most of the
nineteen villages had co-operative organisations. Financially
some of these co-operatives were in a sound position, while
others could be called sick, a few of them in virtually comatose
condition. In weighing credit-worthiness of borrowers the
banks effectively excluded bulk of the population. Similarly
the viable co-operatives were mostly controlled by the richer
sections who also had greater access to co-operative credits and
supply of scarce commodities through co-operatives
For instance when the branch of a nationalised bank
m Kachhona (Hardoi) came forward to offer special soft

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THE VILLAGES AND THEIR INSTITUTIONS

agricultural loans to small and medium farmers, moneylenders
helped these farmers to obtain the loan so that they could pay
the interest on loans they had earlier taken from the money­
lenders. Recognising these loopholes, the bank began extending
loans in the form of agricultural inputs, fertilisers and pesti­
cides. The moneylenders reacted by accepting payment of
interest from the indebted farmers in the form of fertilisers and
pesticides and sold them off to affluent farmers at a premium.

support between village bosses and politicians at higher
levels. An example is the case of Mohammad Hussain of
Coyalmannam (Palghat). The origin of his affluence was his
large landholding. With this he acquired a position of leader­
ship among the Muslims and controlled the mosque and the
village madrasa which in turn led to his striking a bargain with
the ruling political party. In return for his political support,
the leaders of this party agreed to help him get permits to set
up a rice mill, run a bus service from Coyalmannam to Palghat
and get a petrol agency. His powers of patronage and increas­
ing affluence have enabled him make a larger number of vil­
lagers politically subservient to him.
A more straightforward case is that of Arun Maitry of the
village Kamdevpur (24-Parganas). Arun Maitry has acquired
wide reputation as a faith healer and soothsayer and his fol­
lowers include many affluent persons from Calcutta. He became
very rich, owned a large fleet of cars and built a palatial resi­
dence where he performed his miracles and treated his patients.
As will be discussed in the other volume, this affluence, rather
than his attributed supernatural powers, have given him a more
dominant influence on almost every facet of village life.

50

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Transport and Communication

Barring Rampura (Pali), Rupal (Sabarkantha), Bilaspur
(Karnal), Jadigenhalli (Bangalore) and Kalur (Mysore), the rest
of the study villages are well connected to nearby towns and cities
with public transport service having a frequency of six or more
daily. Rupal and Jadigenhalli are also connected with bus
services of a lesser frequency—around four times a day. Kalur
has no bus connection either from Belagola or from Mysore
city. A twice daily train service to Mysore city is the only means
of public transport. Again, while there is no public bus service
to Bilaspur village, the 16-kilometre stretch from Smalkha to
Hathwala is served by frequent trips of more than 300 per cent
over-loaded “tempo-taxis” or by horse carts (Tongas). Bilas­
pur is three kilometres from Hathwala and it can be reached on
foot or in private transport. Village Rampura can be reached
only by covering the distance of 3 kilometres fromRohat by foot.
All the villages have post offices and barring five (Sunni,
Rohat, Rampura, Bilaspur and Kalur) all have telephone and
telegraph facilities as well.

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Fairs and Festivals

State-Licensed Agencies
Cane crushers operated with electricity or diesel, rice mills,
petrol pumps, bus services or fair price shops are examples of
the newer ventures in rural areas. These outlets are very re­
munerative and access to these increases the capacity of the
village bosses to keep and extend their hold on the poor classes.
These resources are, therefore, becoming increasingly important
factors in the transactions of “sale” and “purchase” of political >;’

51

•

Deepavali, Ramlila, Pongal, Onam, St. Anthony’s Day, Holi,
Durga Puja, Kali Puja and Ramnavami are the major occasions
that bring festivities to these villages after months of toil. These
festivals are usually linked with the harvest and combine pure
and simple entertainment with religious or agricultural ritual
in the form of prayers and thanksgiving. Almost all the mem­
bers of the community participate. However, to those who are
very poor and to their children in particular, festivals have more
pain to offer than joy. When the rest of the village is engaged
in celebration, the deprivation and destitution of the poor
become even more poignant. The poor have no money to buy
new clothes or shoes for their children or to have special feasts
on such occasions.
Major religious functions and festivals are held in Jadigenftjhalli, Yelwal and Amdanga to mark the special occasions for

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

worship of the deities of the famous temples located in these
villages. People of Pazhambalakode participate in the annual
religious functions of the nearby Ayyappan Temple, located on
the hill top.
Rupal and Gambhoi (Sabarkantha district) have the Garba
dance for nine days preceding Ramnavami. Each day the Garba
groups dance till early hours of the morning. Such traditional
dances are patronised by village elders who not only sit through
these sessions, but at times participate to provide encourage­
ment to young folk.
Major fairs come up near Karunamayee Temple in Amdanga
on special religious occasions. Similarly a major fair is also held
on the occasion of Ganghore to worship Shiva and Parvati in
Rohota (Pali). The Ganghore Mela was held when field work
was going on in Rohota. On this occasion married women
pray for the welfare of their families, while unmarried girls
pray for good husbands. Over 5,000 people participated. There
were 25 shops of glass bangles, a tea shop, two shops of
sweatmeats, two vegetable shops, a shop for cane juice and a
trolley of ice-candy. A cycle race, a 3400-metre race, a pro­
gramme of community dancing and singing were the highlights
of these festivals.
Cinemas and Jatras

Cinema shows have become quite popular in villages. Pullam­
badi (Trichy), Coyalmannam and Pazhambalakode (Palghat)
have “permanent” cinema houses, made of bamboo and
thatch. Other villages are served by travelling cinema units.
Special charity shows are held to raise funds for various causes.
More than a thousand rupees were raised in Rupal (Sabarkantha)
from such shows to promote child welfare activities in the
village. Clubs in the West Bengal villages also raise money in
the same way. In the Rajasthan villiages of Rohat and Rampura, puppet shows depicting the story of the legendary Amar
Singh Rathore are very popular.
Jatras have been very popular in the West Bengal villages—
Haringhata, Dakshin Duttapara. Amdanga and Kamdevpur.
Apart from the traditional mythological and historical themes,

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THE VILLAGES AND THEIR INSTITUTIONS

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they are often used to carry political and social messages.
Jatras thus become not only a medium of entertainment
but also a medium of community education and mobilisation.
Ami Subhash Bolchi (This is Subhash speaking), Bekar (Unemp­
loyed) and Abu Sham’s Bengali are some of the titles of Jatras
held in the villages at the time of field work. A Jatra with the
title of Lenin was held in Haringhata to commemorate the
Lenin centenary. Usually, Jatra troupes are hired from out­
side. But so much was the enthusiasm for Jatra among youth
in the small village Dakshin Duttapara that, to cut down the
cost, they themselves staged Ami Subhash Bolchi. As the village
is not yet ready to have its womenfolk play the women’s roles
in Jatras, they had to hire two Baijis (hired women) from outside
to play these roles.

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The National Days

In sharp contrast to mass participation in festivals and fairs,
the national festivals—Independence Day (August 15), Republic
Day (January 26) and Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday (October 2)
—go almost unnoticed. The greater majority of villagers do
not have the foggiest notion of the significance of August 15 or
January 26. Celebrations on these days are usually limited to
participation of a few school children in some schools in the flag­
hoisting ceremonies. Many, particularly those belonging to the
younger age-groups, do not know who Mahatma Gandhi was,
leave aside the ideals that he stood for. In many villages, more
particularly in the Tamil Nadu village of Pullambadi, heroes
and heroines of the film world were the most popular figures,
exercising considerable influence on social and political life.

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POVERTY, POWER AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE

CHAPTER FIVE

Poverty, Power and Social Structure

The Data
This study provides enough qualitative and quantitative data
to draw a detailed portrait of poverty in rural India—what it
means to an individual, to a family and to different social, eco­
nomic and occupational strata of the population. The data also
provide a backdrop for developing an understanding of:

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(a) the power structure and the political system of the
village;
(b) the generation of certain (poverty related) health problems;
and villagers’ perceptions and attitudes towards health
problems;
(c) attitude of various health agencies towards different strata
of the population and vice-versa.
For the purpose of this study certain subjective sets of cri­
teria were found sufficient for obtaining both qualitative and
quantitative information on poverty. It is, therefore, not neces­
sary to enter into the raging debate on criteria for measuring
poverty.1 Whether a family gets enough food to have two full
meals (whatever the composition) all round the year was used
as the broad yardstick for demarcating the poor from the rest.
]V. M. Dandeker and N. Rath, Poverty in India, Poona, Indian School of
Political Economy, 1971; P.V. Sukhatme, “Assessment of Adequacy of
Diets at Different Income Levels,” Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 12,
Nos. 31-33, Special No. 1978, pp. 1373-84; Central Statistical Organisation,
Poverty, Concept and Measurement, Proceedings of the First National Con­
ference on Social Science Research and the Problem of Poverty, New Delhi,
Indian Association of Social Science Institutions, 1981; S. Sengupta and
P.D. Joshi : On the Concept of Poverty Line and the Estimates of Poverty
at the Regional Level in India, Proceedings of the First National Con­
ference on’ Social Science Research and the Problem of Poverty, New Delhi,
Indian Association ofSocial Science Institutions, 1981.

55

Those poor who did not get enough to eat for more than six
months in a year were called “abjectly poor” or “very poor”.
Of those who got two square meals all round the year, those
whose diet contained substantial amounts of additional nourish­
ment in the form of milk, butter, ghee, curd, meat, fish and eggs,
etc., were designated as “well-off”. The population was thus
divided into four categories: “well-off”, “not poor”, “poor” and
“very poor” or “abjectly poor”. The investigator’s long stay in the
village and good rapport with the villagers was of great help in
cross-checking the information given by the respondents on their
economic status. Standards of housing, clothing, household
furniture and other gadgets, cooking utensils, and fuel, land­
holdings, occupation, wealth in cattle, and consumption of
specific food articles like cereals, pulses, milk and other animal
proteins, were often checked with the economic status of an indi­
vidual as assessed by his/her response to the question concerning
two square meals. Table 10, providing quantitative data on
poverty allowed more detailed analysis of this condition and it
was possible to correlate these data with those related to varia­
bles of other parameters (see Chapter 9).
Although the data have revealed wide variations in the po­
verty prevalent in the nineteen villages (see Table 10), in each
one of them poverty was so pervasive as to not require any
profound sociological or anthropological study to discover. An
outsider to a village would be surrounded by a number of chil­
dren—many of them unwashed, pale, with expressionless faces,
running noses and sore eyes, as also discoloured hair, dry skins,
bulging bellies and emaciated limbs, often suffering from sores
and ulcers. Even in the severe winter of north India, their
clothing often consists of only a tattered rag or two. Many of
them are of school-going age, but have not gone to school. Then
there are girls, 5-10 years of age, taking care of younger bro­
thers and sisters while the mother has gone to work.
These children are in fact the battle-scarred “surviving sol­
diers” of the grim struggle for existence that begin at birth. And
they will have to continue this struggle for the rest of their lives.

Life Cycle of the Poor

The struggle begins in the womb when the child suffers the

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

consequences of malnutrition in the mother. Birth exposes it
to the additional hazards of inadequately attended delivery, the
diarrhoeas and bronchopneumonias of infancy and soon after
infancy, weaning diarrhoeas. Then come the life-long hazards
of communicable diseases—diarrhoeas and dysenteries, enteric
fevers, tuberculosis, malaria, leprosy, trachoma, filariasis, teta­
nus, diphtheria, whooping cough, measles, worm infections,
and so on. The child has also to face a host of other ecology
ielated disoiders. If lucky enough to survive all these onslaughts,
it grows to adulthood and struggles through the rest of its
badly battered life exactly as its parents did producing their own
progeny to continue the cycle of life.

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In the lean months children simply jump with joy when they
learn that rice will be cooked in the house. No, nothing
along with rice—they eat it with just some salt. They con­
sider themselves lucky when we get some dal or some small
fish to eat with it. When they do not have any food, they
move about here and there in search of it. They eat wild
roots and leaves in a desperate bid to reduce the pangs of
hunger. At night, when the pangs of hunger become intoler­
able, they pester me to give them some food. Feeling utterly
helpless and desperate, I start beating them. They cry. And
then they fall asleep . . . How can we send them to school?
They are often hungry and they search for food. We cannot
buy them the books. Moreover, they do not want to go to
school because the teacher beats them. And then, how
is their schooling for a few years going to improve our
lot? ... We really do not do much when children fall sick—
even when they are very sick. But do you know, even ill­
ness refuses to release them from the bondage of suffering
and somehow they manage to recover to continue to suffer
the pangs and agonies of deprivation?

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These observations were recorded from a particularly forth­
coming mother in village Amdanga (24-Parganas) where as
much as 59 per cent of the households go without food for at
least some time in the year (Table 10).
It soon became clear from further observations and inter­
views in each one of the nineteen villages that the plight of the
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POVERTY, POWER AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE

57

children who gather round the visitor to a village reflects the
life of a large number of the villagers. Being biologically more
vulnerable, ecological hazards damage the child most. Because
of these hazards some are weeded out outright and the rest
suffer serious handicaps in their growth and development.

Poverty and Power

Furthermore the very social, economic and political forces
responsible for the creation of ecological hazards also hurt the
poor more directly by creating hurdles in the way of their rea­
lising the full potential of whatever capacity is left in them.
This is done in various ways: limiting access to the poor of
educational facilities, learning skills and employment opportu­
nities as well as denying them their human rights and demo­
cratic prerogatives. Exploitation is heightened because the
affluent classes control the forces of production and distribu­
tion and apply various forms of pressure to extract labour as
cheaply as they can. The poor are left with bare subsistence
wages to keep body and soul together without hope of improv­
ing either their own or their children’s lives.
This powerful grip of the affluent classes over almost all
facets of the lives of a substantial section of the population is
by far the most out standing feature in the life of people in rural
India. As this exploitative relationship is of considerable value
to the political leadership at higher levels, the latter lend active
political, administrative, “legal” and economic support towards
maintaining this.
Respondents from the poorer sections in the Hardoi (UP)
villages of Kachhona and Sunni complained to the investigator
repeatedly that the people of the upper classes kept a constant
watch over the activities of those of the lower classes. At the
earliest hint of any organised effort on the part of the poor to
demand a better deal, the ring leader is identified and hired
toughs are let loose on him. Exemplary torture is used to strike
terror in the hearts of the other members of the group and the
lesson sinks in very well. The police are on the side of the
upper classes and will not even report on such events. Even
when such reports are made, witnesses will not be forthcoming
to testify, while there will be plenty of hired witnesses to testify

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

POVERTY, POWER AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE

to the contrary. Finally, even when evidence is available and
the judge happens to be fair and convicts the guilty, the rich
still have avenues open for referring appeals at higher courts.
Curiously, only in village Kachhona the Harijans (and no
other castes) steadfastly maintain the custom of having elaborate
feasts on occasions of marriages, births and deaths. They often
have no money to pay for the feasts but moneylenders readily
come forth with mortgage loans. This ensures that most of the
Harijans are practically mortgaged to these moneylenders. They
mortgage everything they have: their land, their capital, their
houses, their future earnings and even the earnings of their wives
and children.
Thus enriched, both economically and politically, money­
lenders in these villages have become politically ambitious.
They have come out openly to use their control over a large
number of the poor to gather votes for elections. Not only have
they captured the Panchayat of the village but during elections
to the state legislature or the Lok Sabha, they are also able to
bargain with politicians at higher levels on the strength of the
votes which they “commanded”. Issue of licences of various
types, from fair price shops to fire arms and influence with the
local police, judiciary and other government agencies are often
the commodities that are bartered against the delivery of votes.
Traders have also come out openly to grab political power in
the village Rupal of Sabarkantha district. Study of the village
Rohat of Pali district through time has provided very significant
data (see Chapter 10) on the actual process by which the trader
class in this village joined their kinsmen at higher levels to wrest
political control in the region from the hands of the Kshatriyas,
who traditionally exercised it.

In the West Bengal village, Amdanga, an agricultural labourer
gets a wage as low as Rs 2 to Rs 2.50 which falls far short of
meeting even the basic calorie requirements of his family. So,
when he goes for work the next day, he lacks the energy to
work. The landowner feels justified in giving him poor wages
and threatens to throw him out for his poor work output. The
threat of losing his work makes him even more frustrated and
desperate. While his wife and children are anxiously awaiting
his return from work with the rice for their meals, he goes in­
stead to the toddy shop to drown his sorrows and frustrations.
Finally, when he returns home late at night and his wife remons­
trates with him for wasting away the money, he gives her a
sound thrashing.
In the Rajasthan villages—Rohat and Rampura, when 25 bags
each of coarse grains were received for distribution as scracity
relief, most of it was cornered by the affluent. The needy did not
venture to protest.
The situation is similar in the villages of Gujarat, Karnataka
and Tamil Nadu. It is, however, distinctly different in the two
villages—Coyalmannam and Pazhambalakode of Palghat dis­
trict in Kerala. Here, the agricultural labourers have organized
themselves politically and made remarkable gains. They have
wrested the statutory minimum wage of Rs 6 per day (prevalent
in 1974) from their employers and got land for their homesteads.
They send their children to school and the children get free mid­
day meals and uniform allowances.
But during off-seasons or in times of distress, they have to
depend on the rich landowners. Those belonging to the sche­
duled castes have also to put up with segregation in housing.
Again, in the village Pazhambalakode, the plight of the weaver
community is notable. In spite of having a very active weavers
co-operative, they are unable to get enough to eat even after
working on their looms for as long as 12-14 hours a day because
of the low returns.
Alongside the poverty stricken there are quite a few rich
landowners in these two villages—one owning two Ambassador
cars and two tractors. Because of their influence at higher
levels many of them could get substantial additional income by
setting up rice mills, lending money, getting an agency for a

The landowners of Rohota and Arnavali villages in Meerut
district and Bilaspur in Karnal adopt a more direct method of
ensuring compliance of the poor. During elections, for instance,
they sat near the polling booths with their long sticks (lathis)
and simply ordered any labourer, who turned up at the booth,
to return home, as “their votes have already been cast.” These
timid men dared not disobey lest they be turned away from the
fields when they go to seek work, or are beaten up or asked by
the moneylender to pay back the loans they had taken.

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

POVERTY, POWER AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE

petrol pump or acquiring a licence to run a fair price shop, or
merely by opening a shop of general merchandise. There were
also rumours that some of them made smuggling a very lucra­
tive business. It was also alleged that some policemen, govern­
ment officials and politicians were actively involved in their
smuggling activities.
However, there have also been instances where the masses
have fought back. The upsurge against forcible sterilisation
during the Emergency provides a most significant example.2
Reference will also be made later in Chapters 7 and 8 to similar
instances of militant action by downtrodden sections against
injustice and exploitation in the villages of West Bengal, Gujarat,
western Uttar Pradesh and Kerala.
The very unjust nature of social relations has also compelled
the exploiting classes to offer some concessions, admittedly,
very often mere “paper” concessions. These concessions are in
the form of land reforms, legal abolition of caste discrimina­
tion, special privileges for scheduled castes and tribes, program­
mes of community development and Panchayati Raj, rural
health services, and so on.
Social scientists have also been commissioned to rescue the
social order by bringing in such issues as culture of poverty3
and hordes of social workers and extension workers have been
given employment to bring about “modernisation” among the
so-called tradition bound, illiterate, superstition-ridden masses.4

were made to find ways to make the poor people limit their
family size.5 This was done first by launching an extensive
campaign of mass communication and extension education,
then by offering various incentives and disincentives and, finally
by exerting varying degrees of pressure and coercion through
the government machinery.
So intense has been their concern about the rapid growth of
population in the ccuntry that all earlier pretences of family
planning as a welfare movement based on persuasion were cast
aside and Emergency powers were used to let loose a massive
campaign of sterilizing millions of people by force.6 In effect
this was a declaration of class war against the poorer sections
who were accused of threatening the very existence of the system
by maintaining an “intolerably” high rate of population
growth7 (which in itself is an untrue premise). The fact that
this blatant onslaught on the peer could not be maintained and
that the family planning atrocities during the Emergency were
one of the major issues on which the Union Government and the
many state governments in north India were overthrown (see
Chapter 10) is of considerable significance in understanding the
dynamics of class relations in rural India.

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Power Structure and the Social Equilibrium

Power, Population Growth and Family Planning

But it was rapid population growth which was perceived by
the ruling classes as the most ominous threat to the system.
This threat was recognised at quite an early stage and attempts
2D. Banerji, “Community Response to the Intensified Family Planning
Programme,” EPW, vol. 12, Nos. 6, 7 and 8, Annual No. 1977, pp. 261-66.
C.A. Valentine, Culture and Poverty; Critique and Counter Proposals,
Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1972.
•*D. Banerji, “Social and Cultural Foundations of Health Services Systems
of India,”vol. 12, No. 2 (supple.H975, pp. 70-85; Family Plan­
ning in India'. A Critique and a Perspective, New Delhi, People’s Publishing
House, 1972; G. M. Foster, Problems of Intercultural Health Programmes,
New York, Social Science Research Council, 1958.

I

Apart from the two gross categories, namely, those who ex­
ploit others because they enjoy certain advantages and those who
are exploited there is the third category of those who are able
to earn their living without exploiting the labour of others.
Members of this category have to strive hard to retain their
positions in the social hierarchy, and to withstand economic
pressures caused by natural calamities, health disasters, untimely
death of the bread-winners, and social obligations concerning
5D. Banerji, “Political Economy of Population Control in India,” in
L. Bondestam and S. Bergstrom (ed), Poverty and Population Control,
London? Academic Press, 1980, pp. 83-101.
6M. Minkler, “Thinking the Unthinkable: The Prospect of Compulsory
Sterilization in India,” International Journal of Health Services, vol. 7,
No.2, 1973, pp. 237-48.
7D. Banerji, Family Planning in India: A Critique and a Perspective, New
Delhi, People’s Publishing House, 1971.

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

marriages, deaths, etc. When the pressure is too strong for them,
they are forced to slide down to the category of the exploited
and become more dependent on the exploiters. Much less fre­
quently, members of this category manage to acquire additional
economic advantages which enable them to“ climb up” to become
members of the exploiting category.
The social structure was manifest in all the nineteen villages.
In each case the population appeared to be in a state of flux—
a dynamic equilibrium. This equilibrium was reached by the
inter-dependent relationship of the three principal categories and
it registered movements corresponding to the shifts in the inter­
actions among these three categories. Various economic, politi­
cal and social forces mediated these shifts in the equilibrium.
The case of Suryakanta Mukherjee of village Haringhata
(West Bengal) illustrates certain aspects of this social equilibrium
in rural India. Suryakanta Mukherjee belonged to a respected
Brahmin family and was able to secure a job in the nearby
Haringhata Dairy Farm. As he had a secure income he was
quite an eligible bachelor. And match-makers began to search
a bride for him. Meanwhile, problems arose for Suryakanta
Mukherjee. His association with a trade union incurred the dis­
pleasure of the local political leadership which had emereged in
1971 as a result of overthrow of the United Front Government
of the state. They managed to get him discharged from service
for his alleged political activities. The rest of the story has been
narrated by the wife of Suryakanta Mukherjee:

We are very poor. My father’s family is not poor. We
managed to carry on reasonably well. Suddenly a match­
maker brought the proposal. I was then only 14 years old.
What could I understand? The match-maker presented such
a glowing picture that my father liked the match. Further­
more, my father was ill then. He trusted this match-maker
because I was the third of three sisters and he was in a hurry
to marry me off. 1 got married within a month. Father gave
me a gold necklace, two pairs of gold bangles and a pair of
gold earrings.
Then, a few days after my marriage, some people came
and took away the corrugated sheets of the roof of our house.
Nobody protested. I came to know that my husband’s people

POVERTY, POWER AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE

63

had not been able to repay their debt, so they were taking
away the sheets. I was flabbergasted and terrified. I still re­
member that my hands and feet became cold and clammy. I
understood what was in store for me. Subsequently, we lost
the land that we had, and he also lost his job which was fetch­
ing him Rs 60-65 per month. I never learnt why we lost all
these. But I dared not ask anything. I just watched the
events, dumb-founded.
Now we have a room which locks badly and when it rains I
collect my children together and we shiver in the cold. I have
mere tatters to cover myself, apart from one sari which I
use for going out.
I come from a respectable Biahmin family, but what didn’t
we do to earn some money? My husband ran from place to
place to find a job, but without success. Then, I, daughter of
a Brahmin, went from door to door to seek the job of a maid.
I have washed utensils and I am even prepared to clean night
soil from others’ latrines. But I could not get even that job.
My husband carries loads and works in others’ houses and
whatever he brings I feed my children with that. We go with­
out food more than half of the days. Where can we get food?
Leave aside the question of milk, the children do not even
get vegetables. Rice is enough for them; they eat it with a
little bit of salt. There is no place even to cook the rice when
we get some. I somehow make some space for the cooking.
In winter children have nothing to wear. I manage to get
some torn clothes from the people in the surrounding villages.
The six-month old child is fed with sago water, as I do not
have enough milk in my breast. How could I get that when I
do not get food to eat? Unfortunately, the children do not
even die. I will feel relieved if they die. I will weep for two or
three days and after that everything will be alright. At least
I will not have to worry about their hunger and about some
food to satisfy it.
We do not depend on our neighbours. Even if we do not
have salt when we get some rice, we do not go out to get
some salt from our neighbours.
1 had heard that if we plead with the officials we might be
able to get a job. I have done that with the officials of the

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

Farm [Haringhata Farm] too. But they do not even
allow us to get into the room. We usually do not vote. Why
do we vote, you tell me? What will the winner do for us?
Everybody is selfish. Who cares for us? But this time
[1971 elections] some young men told us, “If you vote for
CPM [Communist Party of India-Marxist] then you will get
a job in the Farm.” So we voted this time. But, unfortunately,
the Congress scoundrels won; so the question of job does
not arise.
1 would very much like to educate my children. Although
education is free up to Class IV, we need money to buy
books and stationery. When we do not get money to buy
food, where can we get money for books and stationery?
This girl has got into Class II. I have made it very clear to
her that I do not have money so she will not be allowed to
buy any books. The girl is very interested in studying. She
weeps. But what can 1 do, you tell me? Education is meant
for rich people. This girl does not understand this.
Children keep on getting ill with ailments like fever, cold
and stomach upsets. First we try our own medicines—leaves
of this or that tree, bark of another tree, etc. My motherin-law knows a great deal of these. She is also an exorcist.
When this does not work, we go to the hospital [the
PHC].

Just a few days back I had a disease like cholera. How
terrible was the vomiting and purging! I could not even
move out. My mother came over and gave medicines but to
no avail. 1 was so weak that I could not go to the hospital
even. 1 went on vomiting all around me while the child clung
to my breast. That night my husband called in Shanti
Doctor [an unqualified, allopathic Registered Medical Prac­
titioner]. He gave me some medicines and injections and
towards the morning I felt much better. We have not yet
paid him his fees. I heard that if we undergo operation
they will pay Rs 48. I feel very much tempted by the
money but I also know that after the operation I will
have to spend many times the 48 rupees because he will not
have strength in his body and, as a result he will not be able
to work. We will go from the frying pan to the fire. And

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POVERTY, POWER AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE

65

then, there are those things which have to be used inside.
Less said about them the better. So many people have worn
the loop but they have conceived. Many have got it re­
moved. People who have used Nirodh also have got children.
Whom to.believe, you tell me? Actually, whatever is to happen
shall happen. The palmist has told me that I will have seven
children, out of which three will die and four will remain.
If that is ordained, let that happen.
You can see that poverty, destitution and sorrow are our
constant companions. When a day passes I think that some­
how at least one day has passed. The children grow up in
dust, eating dust. Only God will take care of them since
their mother and father do not have the capacity to look
after them.
There was a sequel to the life story of Suryakanta when the
author revisited this village along with the investigator in the
second follow-up visit in June 1977. The wife of Suryakanta
was pot there and his brother’s wife informed us that she had
run away with one Promode Vyapari (of a “low” caste) one
year ergo. She informed us that Suryakanta did not have a job
for a long time and they went through a very bad time. His
wife had pawned her jewellery to Promode Vyapari and that is
how they got to know each other. Promode Vyapari used to
help her off and on with some money. He is married and has
children. Still, one day Suryakanta’s wife ran away with
him taking with her only the child which she was nursing. He
now keeps her in a hired house. In the course of further inter­
views around the household it turned out that even before she
had her affair with Promode Vyapari, she had been going out
with men to get some money for food.
The life story of Suryakanta and his family in fact summar­
ises some of the most outstanding findings of this entire study—
the destitution and degradation that people have to undergo.
Parts of his story were repeated again and again in all the
nineteen villages. These related to the decline of families
because of economic compulsions, their attitude towards
children, sickness, Primary Health Centre, their attitude towards
children’s education and towards the family planning pro­
gramme.

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POVERTY, POWER AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE

When seen in a time perspective, with the help of data from
follow-up studies as well as the retrospective data collected
from various respondents, it was found that, taken as a whole,
because of deepening poverty, people are becoming even more
vulnerable to control and exploitation by the ruling classes.
Even those who were earlier economically independent are
now being compelled into a dependent state. The acquisition of
more political and economic power by the ruling classes has in
turn enabled them to get a “better price” for their political
support from higher levels. In other words, deterioration in
the conditions of the down-trodden people enabled their exploit­
ers to control a larger number of votes, and further strengthen
their economic (and therefore political) position.

system with the requisite authority and expected to bring
about “development” of various aspects of village life.
5. This ascribed task of bringing about social change in the
village is inimical to the cultural background of the change
agents. Their urban and privileged class world-view colours
their approach to social and economic problems of the rural
population, both in formulating rural development pro­
grammes and in implementing them. Because of this they, in
turn, are considered by the villagers as “outsiders” not
interested in the villagers’ problems and not capable of
understanding them. Also the villagers feel that many of
these officials have a tendency to get personal gains through
misusing their positions; they are regarded as corrupt people.
6. While many of the government functionaries are required to
work closely with the village population most of them are
unable to do so. The most significant aspect of this relation­
ship is that when the political and administrative pressure
can no longer be eluded, these officials develop links with
the group which is to them politically most important,
economically most rewarding and socially least undesirable,
namely, the privileged classes of the village population. In
their turn, the privileged classes get further strengthened by
such links with government functionaries.

66

Public Administrators and the Rural Power Structure
In eleven out of the nineteen villages personnel belonging
to various government departments form another significant
group which interacted with the rural population. Taken as a
whole and compared to their counterparts living in urban areas,
there are obvious signs of change and adaptation among
members of this community. Some of them have also developed
bonds with villages. However, compared with the rest of the
population in the village, these groups are conspicuous in a
number of ways:
1. They appear as “urban grafts” on rural areas with the mem­
bers of the grafted communities making greater efforts to keep
up their urban sub-culture and maintaining their urban
linkages—by living in secluded “civil lines”, by having much
greater access to mass media, through frequent visits to
cities and by mostly confining their social interactions within
the residents of “civil lines”.
2. Most of them came to live in the villages because they
could not avoid doing so and they continue to make efforts
to get themselves transferred to urban areas.
3. Apart from the significant cultural differences due to their
socialisation in urban culture, they are much “superior” to
their rural counterparts in terms of their economic and
educational status.
4. They have been invested by the political (and administrative)
■

67

An observation made in the course of this study provides sig­
nificant insights into the course of the power equations between
public administration and the rural population. The investigator
recorded the following conversation between a group of Harijan mothers in the village of Kachhona in central UP where a
PHC has been in operation for over 10 years:

Investigator : Whom do you call when you give birth?
Respondents : Why, we call the Dai.
Investigator : Don’t you have visits from women workers
to help you in pregnancy, childbirth and child
rearing?
Respondents : No, nobody visits us.
Investigator : Nobody from the Prathamik Swasthya Ken­
dra [Primary Health Centre]?
Respondents : What is that?

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POVERTY, POWER AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE
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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

Investigator : The persons who work in that building ac­
ross the road.
Respondents: O, you mean the hospital! No, nobody
makes any visit to us from that hospital.
Investigator : Doesn’t any lady health worker from that
‘hospital’ visit you? Some nurse?
Respondents : O, you mean the Mem. How can she visit us?
We are poor. We cannot pay her fees. She
visits the rich people and spends considerable
time in their houses. We pay her fees and call
her only when the Dai is unable to manage
the case. And, when even the Mem fails, and
if we can find the money, we take the case to
the lady doctor in Hardoi or in Lucknow.
Despite its functioning for over 10 years, a PHC is still lookedhipon as a hospital; its village level functionary—the lowest
level—the Auxiliary Nurse Midwife, is perceived as a “Mem
Saab”; this Mem (quite illegally) charges money for her services;
she ignores the poorer sectons and pays special attention to the
key persons of the ruling classes; and despite the enormous
cultural gap between even the lowly placed ANM of the govern­
ment agency and themselves, when the need is acute, they act­
ively seek her out and pay for her assistance; and when the
need is even more desperate and if they can get the money,
they actively seek out a lady doctor in the city.
The upper classes, particularly those who occupy key posi­
tions in the village, specially attract the ANMs due to a variety
of reasons. In these households the ANM gets a reward for
her services; she gets good “company” to talk to; she gets much
better conditions to work in; and, perhaps, through influential
people in the village, she is able to create a good impression on
her supervisors—the Lady Health Visitors, the PHC doctors
and the district officials—who will come to these key persons
not only to enjoy their hospitality but also to find out from
them as/‘village leaders” what the “village community” feels
about the work of the ANMs and other health workers.

Power Structure and Community Development Activities
Three other observations, one in the same village (i.e.
Kachhona) and the other two in the villages of Rohota (Meerut)

and Pullambadi (Trichy), demonstrate how “community” actions
that emanate from power relationships within the rural popula­
tion csm create hazards for the exploited classes. Tn the village
Kachhona, which is an important market centre of the tehsil,
the traders, who form the dominating class, decided to invoke
community participation through the local club (Gram Vikas
Sangh) to build a covered drainage system particularly on the
main street where the shops are visited by customers. Participa­
tion of the neighbourhood was available in the construction of
the drain through the main street. But problems arose because
a part of the drain had to pass through a neighbourhood domi­
nated by medium landowning farmers, before it ended in the
village pond. The residents of this area were not only disinclin­
ed to participate but they also insisted that the discharge from
the covered drain should not pass through their street even
though that was the shortest route to the pond. As a result, the
trading community had to release the discharge through the
much longer and circuitous route passing through the streets of
neighbourhoods inhabited by poor people, mostly Muslims,
Chamars and Bhangis. There was then, of course, no question
of covering the drains. Sanitary conditions in these neighbour­
hoods are usually much worse than those prevailing elsewhere.
Additional discharge of sewage from the houses lining the main
street further worsened the sanitary conditions. In the rainy
season, when the discharge from the drain is much more, the
entire network of streets in this poor neighbourhood is con­
verted into an extensive, insect breeding, foul smelling, swamp.
This makes it extremely difficult for anybody, including the in­
vestigator, to make his way to the houses located there without
wading through ankle-deep slush. The residents deeply resented
this action of the trading community and they complained bit­
terly about it to the investigator. But they also felt, that any
confrontation on this issue would be counterproductive and that
it would be better to give in to the demands of the powerful
Banias and later on submit petitions to them for redress of
grievances.
The second observation relates to the village Pullambadi
which was the only one among the nineteen study villages to
have a piped water supply system. However, not only were the

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

poor sections of the village population given proportionately
fewer taps to get their water supply, but these taps were also
located at the tail end of the system and, therefore, had much
poorer outflow. As these communities were not allowed to get
water from other taps, there were even longer queues at these
taps, leading to frequent quarrels and fights. These taps were
the first to go dry when the overall supply was limited and people
had to get water from old wells which had been lying unused
and uncared for, thus exposing themselves to even greater health
hazards than when the wells were routinely used. Establish­
ment of community piped water supply system in this village
thus often led to exposure to greater health hazards, and also
generated increased social tensions among the poor and the weak.
The third village Rohota had the largest proportion of Harijan population among the nineteen villages. Responding to this
situation a section of the Jat landlords “became” exponents of
socialism preaching of a casteless society and by this method
captured the leadership of the village from their rival JatBrahmin group with the support of the Harijans. However,
when it came to finding a place for dumping organic wastes, it
had to be located in the colony inhabited by Bhangis, as no
other group was willing to have such a nuisance in their locality.
As in the village Kachhona, the Bhangis expressed their strong
resentment against this unjust infliction of environmental hazard
on them, but inspite of their key role in the making of the
village leadership, they did not have enough leverage to resist
the action. Again, as in the case of Kachhona, in order to
maintain its position, having compelled the people to put up
with an obviously unjust action, the leadership had gone on
giving assurances to the aggrieved people that steps would be
taken to redress their grievances, without any intention of doing
something concrete.

I
CHAPTER SIX
:■

Portraits of the Village Poor and Others
i
Not Poor But Not Well-off

Those who are able to have enough grain during the lean
agricultural season, get rice or chapatis, with some salt, onions,
chillies or tamarind, to satisfy their hunger are not categorized
as poor. The children of these people do not get milk. These
people wear garments made of coarse cloth and they may have
one or two sets to change. They live in mud and thatched huts
and have no capacity to pay for electricity and water even when
these facilities happen to be available in the village. They have
no latrines and sometimes lack money to buy bathing soaps.
They cannot give higher education to their children. At times
they have to depend on the moneylender to tide over periods
of extreme distress. When this is the profile of those who are
categorized as “not poor”,-it is not difficult to imagine the ex­
treme deprivation of those categorised as “poor”.
However, those who are categorised as “not poor” but “not
well-off” are able to repay the loan when they reap the harvest.
Harvest time also ushers in a period of relative prosperity for
them. The quality of their diet improves and they are able to
add to it vegetables or pulses, maybe even ghee, milk and milk
products and, in the case of non-vegetarians, an occasional dish
of meat, poultry, fish or eggs. These people joyfully participate
in festivals and fairs during harvest time, with their women
wearing new sets of clothes and jewellery. Houses are repaired
and decorated. They are also able to spend money for various
kinds of entertainments and rituals. With the help of their
savings and by borrowings from moneylenders, they are able
to hold functions related to marriages, births and deaths within
the family.

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

PORTRAITS OF THE VILLAGE POOR AND OTHERS

The Well-off

senses. What is the fault of this poor creature? She is so ema­
ciated. She is so helpless. She suffers even more than I do.
Thinking of all these, I start reproaching myself for my action.”
Similarly, at first the mother tries to console her hungry
children; but as the pangs of hunger become severe and the
mother’s consolations prove to be of no avail, in sheer frustra­
tion, she starts beating the children. They weep but after some
time fall asleep. Hunger has driven many persons, particu­
larly young women, to take their own lives usually by swallow­
ing the pesticide, Foilidol.
A school teacher remarked, “Realising that the child might
not have had any food this morning, yesterday or even for
several days, I control my impulse to beat him up for not pre­
paring his lessons. I often fear that he may even die if I beat
him.”
These observations show the degree to which poverty affects
the lives of a significant section of the population of a village.
By having such a profound influence on their lives, poverty
becomes a major element in the way of life of the village as a
whole. It generates tensions in the community. Rows after rows
of dilapidated, thatched huts; uncleaned, unwashed, emaciated
children; tense and harassed parents and the resigned look of
the elderly—form an almost finished portrait of an Indian
village.
As is apparent from Table 10, hunger and destitution are all­
pervading in each of the study villages while they are different
in so many other ways : a fragile, a dilapidated, unventilated,
small, thatched hut with virtually no furniture, a few worn-out
pots and pans, the emaciated mother with the two-year old
child desperately trying to suck milk out of her wrinkled, pen­
dulous breasts and Ue hungry looking children always on the
look out for food. One mother of the village Dakshin Duttapara
(Nadia) observed:
“Leave aside the question of the education, housing, health,
etc. How to get food twice a day keeps us worried day and
night. The children are always moving about here and there in
search of food, like stray dogs and cattle. Whenever I am able
to gather some food somehow, the children pounce on it, leav­
ing nothing for us. When they grow up to an age of 12 or 13

Only a small section of those who are getting enough to eat
throughout the year can be called “well-off”. They have large
landholdings often with irrigation facilities. They own a number
of cattle. They also have income from other sources and can
get considerable credits at much lower rates of interest. They
employ labourers to work in their fields and in their houses.
They often own tractors or get them on hire. They live in large
cement plastered houses, often with mosaic flooring and roofs
of reinforced concrete, electricity connections, private water
taps and well furnished with sofas, tube lights, radios, etc.
They have latrines. The well-off get all the food they need all
the year round. Children get milk daily. Ghee, milk, milk pro­
ducts, meat, poultry, fish or eggs form a part of their diet al­
most every day of the year. The women of these houses have
expensive clothings and they have jewellery of gold, diamond
and silver. They employ private tutors for their children and
can send them to nearby towns and cities for higher education.
When the need arises, people belonging to this section go to
cities to get sophisticated medical services.
The Poor

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Biologically, those who are compelled by circumstances to go
without food for some period in the year represent a group
which has been pushed to an extreme phase in the struggle for
existence. This is obviously a very extreme way of defining “the
poor”. The fact (see Table 10) that even with such a severe defi­
nition as much as half of the population in the study villages
taken together are categorised as “poor” or worse (i.e. “abjectly
poor”) provides an indication of the day-to-day life in Indian
villages.
“You cannot imagine what it means to go without food for
four or five days in a row”, exclaimed one of the respondents.
“The agony of hunger drives me literally mad. In a fit of rage,
I catch hold of my wife and start cursing her, saying that she
is the root cause of all the problems as she had brought out so
many children and then I start raining blows on her. She cries
and sobs. Only when I have let off the steam do I come to my

73

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

PORTRAITS OF THE VILLAGE POOR AND OTHERS

years, we send them to work in other people’s houses, shops,
etc. But sometimes even these jobs are not available. Wherever
we go they say: ‘No Vacancy’. There are as many as 10-12
persons lined up for a job of part-time maid-servant. The days
are particularly bad when agricultural work is slack—the months
of Baisakh, Jaishtha, Asharh and Sravan [April 15 to August
M].”
The wife of Hiralal Jana of Kamdevpur (24-Parganas) has
drawn a vivid portrait of hunger and destitution:
“Do you know that we have not eaten rice for the last six
months? We eat green leaves after boiling them in water. We
do not have money even to buy salt or cooking oil. All this is due
to this good-for-nothing government which has opened up the
toddy shop in the village. Whatever he earns, he spends in this
shop. He does not think of his wife and children. He even asks
for food on returning home. And, when he does not get food,
starts beating me.

“With what great difficulties we pass our days! What hard­
ships my children put up with to earn something to buy food
for us! My young son of eight years brings in 50 paise every
day as a labourer. The elder brother, who is 12, brings in one
rupee per day as a labourer. Usually, the father does not bring
anything. But both these boys hand over their entire earnings
to me. They do not spend even a paisa on their own. You can
understand how we manage with this income. Even the oat flour
is so expensive these days [May 1973]. The children are most
considerate. This is very touching. Knowing the situation they
do not pester me. On the contrary, they insist on my sharing
with them whatever we prepare. That day, in the afternoon,
everybody got two chapatis as their share. But that left nothing
for me. Seeing this, my eight year old son said, ‘Mother, what
will you eat?’ The father remarked that I could do with some
boiled leaves. But the son insisted that I should have one
chapati from his share. But the youngest child has not yet learnt
to be so reasonable. He keeps on moaning, ‘Mother, they have
cooked rice in their house, won’t you cook rice today? It is also
so long since we had rice last!’
“Even in the severest winter, the children have a single tatter­
ed cotton rag to wear. I cover myself with a piece of cloth. I
do not have a single saree. The days of Pujas are particularly
painful. While others show off their new clothes, I am unable to
give any to my children. I sew up their old clothes and try to
wash them clean.
“I have now one daughter left. I simply shudder when I
think of the money needed to marry her off. That will require
at least 602 to 700 rupees. Where will I get that money?
“I cook sitting on the doorway. I have no utensils—neither
hanrhi [a pot], nor a hatta [a long spoon], nor a khunti [scrapper].
I have some small containers and I somehow manage to cook
in them. We have no furniture. We have no bedding. We have
no clothing. We have virtually nothing.”
Another mother from Amdanga (24-Parganas) observed:
“In earlier days people could at least get some rice. Now
we do not get even that. Because of repeated bouts of prolonged
hunger and destitution, we are losing all sense of discrimination
and values. All round people are making pathetic entreaties for

“Khagen Ghosh lives near our house. They are rich. They
eat rice twice every day. My daughter was not very good in put­
ting up with hunger. She used to say, ‘Mother, these people get
rice twice a day. When will we also be eating rice twice every
day? Mother, we are of the same government as Khagen Ghosh.
Then why don’t we also get food like them?’ Unable to stand
the pangs of hunger, she ended her life by swallowing poison
oil [Follidol].
“I had put up with tremendous hardships to marry off my
eldest daughter. I had brought her up by denying food to my­
self. We sold our land and still we have to pay off a loan of
400 rupees. But what a cruel fate! At her husband’s place also
she has to suffer pangs of hunger.

“I want to destroy this government! We have not voted and
we will not vote in future also. We do not get food to eat. Even
if we vote our conditions will not change. Our government has
done enough to torture us in this way. Why don’t they come
and finish me by throttling me with their feet. It is better to die
that way than this dying by inches. But, then, what will happen
to the children? And what will the neighbours say about the cruel,
selfish mother who merrily made her escape, leaving a pack of
children to fend for themselves by begging from door to door?

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PORTRAITS OF THE VILLAGE POOR AND OTHERS

a mere handful of rice. He earns one rupee seventy paise a day.
How can we six manage with that income? He sets out for work
early in the morning after taking a little puffed rice. I pick up
some leaves from here and there and boil them with some salt.
I will prepare rootis (chapatis) only when he returns with his
earnings of the day. The young child clings on to my breasts,
even when they are almost dry. I have no money to buy sago
for him. He cannot chew rooti at all. So I give him a piece of
rooti after chewing it in my mouth. The children have no clothes
to wear. We do not have money to send them to school. They
will remain uneducated, but what can I do? You can see the
state of the saree I am wearing. Because of this 1 stay indoors.
What crimes have we committed that peace and happiness have
altogether vanished from our lives? It is because of the unen­
durable pangs of hunger that the other day the wife of Pramanik ran away with a lorry driver, deserting her husband and
two children. The husband is now managing his house by
stealing things from here and there.”
Bishnu Mondol, another respondent of the village Amdanga,
presents yet another portrait of poverty:
“When my son grew up I thought he would be of help. But
soon after getting married, he set up a separate household. I
earn two rupees a day by working in a rice mill and I have to
spend one rupee to meet my travel expenses and the cost of my
tiffin. So, we have to pass our days depending on leaves and
tubers. I had married off my eldest daughter but on her deve­
loping a most painful inflammation of the eye, the son-in-law
has deposited her in our house. I told him about the desperate
condition we live in. But he did not listen and went away. The
girl cries out in agony. She will rot go to the hospital because
she thinks that even if one shouts oneself to death, nobody cares
in the hospital. But what are we to do? Wc ourselves have so
little to eat and the mother has to be by the side of the daughter
constantly trying to alleviate the intense pain.
“As utensils, we have a frying pan without a handle and a
brimless pot. We do not have even a tumbler to drink water.
We drink water in tin cans. The question of education of the
children does not arise at all. The youngest child of 6-7 years
goes out early in the morning to pick up fuel for cooking. He

77

understands the agony of his father. His 9-10 years old
sister works as a maid in the house of the B.D.O. [Block
Development Officer]. She is paid five rupees per month and
she gets a handful of puffed rice to eat in the morning. They
[i.e. the B.D.O. family] cannot even feed her on two occasions
in return for all the work she does for them! And do you know
that even the land on which this crumbling house stands is
mortgaged? What to speak of repaying the principal, I am al­
ready in arrears of 300 rupees in paying the interest. In another five years and two months we will have to hand it over
to the moneylender.”
In the village Haringhata (Nadia) another woman observed:
“My husband is a daily-wage labourer. He also beats drums
during marriages and during Pujas. Sometimes he is also called
to catch fish from ponds owned by others. His wage is around
Rs 2.25. This too he does not get every day. You can imagine
how we manage to live on this income. Over and above, his
deaf and dumb sister has been abandoned by her husband after
she gave birth to two daughters. They now live with us. She
goes from house to house, begging for food. My ailing motherin-law also lives in our house. Despite her crippling ailment,
she somehow drags her body around to find customers who
might hire her son as a drummer.”
In the village Amdanga, a Muslim housewife, Rajia Khatum
observed:
“The boy and the girl have had nothing to eat for the last
three days. They simply go on saying: ‘Mother I am hungry.
Give me something to eat. I want to eat rooti: My husband
is a patient of asthma. Moreover, since he underwent vasectomy
operation some seven years back, he has been feeling very weak.
Even now some bleeding takes place at the site of the opeiation.
He has sold off his land to get treatment for his illness. He can
earn only if he is able to work as a daily-wage labourer. But
who is going to hire such a sick person? I go out to beg for
food. Very few oblige. Most often I return empty-handed. But
by then the children fall asleep, may be because of sheet
exhaustion.”
A large number of similar observations have been recorded
from all the nineteen study villages. When the lady investigator

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

walked into the hut ot a poor family in Haringhata, she found
two of the children lying on the floor, fast asleep. They were
stark naked. The mother had just a small dirty piece of rag on
her body. She was roasting some small rotten potatoes which had
been thrown away by the shopkeeper. That was the meal for the
entire family. Even the little child will live on these potatoes.
The mother’s hair was matted due to neglect and dirt. She had
no comb or sindoor (vermillion) to apply on her forehead. She
will lie down a bit in the afternoon. They will again go to sleep
soon after sunset. There is no question of having any bedding
of any kind. There is no money for buying kerosene oil. There
is nothing to eat in the evening. So the best thing is to fall as­
leep as soon as possible.
Among the Muslims of Amdanga, there are pockets where
poverty is so abject that they are unable to meet the expenses of
calling the Dai at the time of childbirth. The mothershave
learnt to take care of their own childbirths and themselves cut
the cord of their children. There was a mother who had cut
the cord of four of her own babies.
One mother observed:
“Eating boiled vegetable leaves and tubers has become a
way of life to us. When we have some money, we buy wheat
flour. Rice has become a luxury which we enjoy on rare occa­
sions. When rice is cooked in the family the children literally
dance with joy. ‘Father! the rice tastes so sweet! Doesn’t it?’
they exclaim.”

A particularly bitter labourer remarked:
“God is unfair. A few people are sitting idly by and getting
everything they want. What crime have we committed that even
after working so hard in the hot sun we do not get enough to
satisfy our hunger? Are we also not children of God?”
Giving an account of the breakdown of expenditure of the
day’s income (in 1974), a farmer explained that out of an earn­
ing of Rs 1.60, they spend 50 paise on wheat flour sold at
Rs 1.40 a kilogramme, 15 paise for gur (jaggery) and the
remaining 95 paise for purchase of rice.
There are pockets of abject poverty in the village Amdanga
where in house after house one can see women with dire destitu­
tion and suffering writ large on their faces. The children too

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PORTRAITS OF THE VILLAGE POOR AND OTHERS

79

look crestfallen. They move about restlessly here and there and
keep pestering their mother for food. One of the mothers told
the investigator, “If you come in the evening, you will find that
there is no fire in the hearths of a majority of the households of
this locality.”
Munuswamy is an Adikarnataka [Harijan] residing in village
Jadigenhalli of Bangalore district. He earns his living as a
labourer, loading firewood in a lorry. Often he does not get any
work and then the family starves. A brass tumbler and brass
pot constitute his utensils. One mat serves as the bedding of the
family. Old rags of bed sheets are all they have to protect them­
selves against the cold. The wife has one full saree and two
small pieces with which to manage to cover herself.
The poor in Jadigenhalli eat stale and tasteless food, mainly
ragi. Rice is a luxury to them. When rice is cooked on rare
occasions, there is generally a fight among the children about
their share. They somehow manage to swallow ragi balls made
by pouring ragi flour in boiling water. They cannot afford to
have any sambar made out of pulses. Chillies with some salt
and tamarind and an occasional onion is ground into a paste.
They dip the ragi balls in this mixture and swallow them.
Even when they make sambar they can afford only ten paise
worth of pulses. The Adikarnatakas eat beef. They even eat
meat of dead animals to satisfy their hunger.
The poor in the village Yelwal in Mysore district, eat left­
overs from the previous day and cook one single meal in the
evening. Usually, the food consists of ragi flour made into a
thick paste and saru [pepper water with horsegram]. They earn
on an average Rs 2.25 when both the husband and the wife get
work. Then the earning is just enough to buy a kilogramme of
ragi or maize. They go to bed hungry or eat leftovers when they
are unable to get work.
In the Rajasthan villages of Rohat and Rampura, chronic
drought conditions have resulted in a state of chronic famine.
Only when the drought becomes very acute does the govern­
ment declare a state of famine in these regions and launch famine
operations. Ironically, exacerbation of a chronic scarcity con­
dition, comes as a welcome relief to the poor sections of the
villages. They then at least have a chance of earning some

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

money by working in famine relief works. One such famine
relief work was going on in the summer of 1973, when the field
work was in progress and the author was on a visit to Rohat.
The work was to dig a reservoir to store rain water. The site
was about 2 kilometres from Rohat. At a temperature of 46-47°
Centigrade, the afternoon sun was beating down on the wor­
kers. The mothers had brought their infants along with them.
As there were no trees in the vast desert expanse, they had con­
structed improvised hammocks to keep their children. A
piece of cloth was stretched over the hammocks to provide some
protection to the child against the sun. Wages are so low that
after all the hard work under those trying conditions they could
have just thick rotis (chapatis) of coarse grain, along with some
salt and chillies. One reason given for this low wage was that
the works supervisors usually took a cut for themselves before
a labourer was given the wage for the day. They could not
afford enough of even this type of food to fully satisfy their
hunger. The situation is much worse in the evening as hardly
any grain flour would remain for the evening meal. They
supplement it by making a sort of porridge mixing whey with a
paste made from whole corn cobs. Conditions get more grim
when even such relief is not available. Then people start eating
seeds of wild grass, knowing fully well that these seeds are
poisonous and can sometimes cause deafness and blindness.

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Gradation of Poverty in Rural India
Conditions of extreme destitution so widespread in the villa­
ges reflect the nature of economic, political and social relations
in rural India. Many of these destitutes die of hunger, and to
cover such deaths, they are labelled as caused due to “pneumo­
nia’’, “diarrhoea”, “dysentery”, “heart failure”, or simply, “old
age”. Some commit suicide to rid themselves of the agony of
hunger. Some take to “crimes”. Some wives run away with
other men who are able to feed them. Some starving young
women are enticed to take to prostitution. Extreme destitution
disrupts the family structure and has profound influence on the
socialisation of children.
However, most of them somehow manage to keep alive duling the lean season. They are able to get better income during

■

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PORTRAITS OF THE VILLAGE POOR AND OTHERS

81

the busy agricultural season. This enables them to have more
food, at times even food of better quality and greater variety.
With this they are able to build up “reserves” so that they can
face privations of the lean months.
The poor in the villages are constantly engaged in a balan­
cing act to counter various negative forces threatening their very
biological survival. They have long abandoned any hope of
living a reasonably decent life. Such a decent life means getting
enough of wholesome food, adequate housing to provide protec­
tion against the elements of nature and minimum space for living,
adequate clothing for protection against climatic conditions and
to meet the minimum socially prescribed requirements, healthy
environmental conditions and clean, potable water supply,
capacity to provide adequate education to the children and so
on. To them such a decent life remains a dream and they are
under constant pressure of adverse conditions which push them
deeper and deeper into destitution. With each downward
step they attempt to attain a new balance—a new equilibrium.
As a result of the cumulative effect of deprivation and
degeneration of a number of years, many of the poor have slid
down to a level where the very survival of the individual has
become exceedingly difficult. One of the most striking features
of this life, as observed in the present study, is the extent to
which they have managed to cling to life under most unfavour­
able biological conditions. However, while they might have
managed to ward off death under conditions which were earlier
considered to distinctly fall short of the basic minimum require­
ments to keep alive, they seem to have in the process of achiev­
ing this feat, created a new biological stratum of human beings
with an even lower capacity to struggle against social injustice
and exploitation. They are thus nearer to a vegetative existence
than have been those who had somehow managed to keep them­
selves alive in the earlier years. This new development in the
biology of man suits the expoliters very well. On the one hand,
they can claim credit for fall in mortality rates and on the other
they have a category of human beings who are weaker and
more abjectly dependent on them.
It may be appropriate to emphasize here that reference is be­
ing made to the possibility of having an even more dependent

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

stratum of persons in a poverty-stricken society as a result of
lowering of the floor of biological requirements to speculate on
possible explanations to some findings of the study. This is not
intended as a new theory. Nevertheless, findings concerning
survival potentials of the body cannot be brushed aside casually
and deserve more attention from concerned scientists.
To avoid controversies regarding definitions of the poor for
this study, very rigorous criteria were adopted to do the same.
The percentage of poor in the population would increase sharply
if instead of adopting the criterion of “two square meals all
round the year” to identify them, we used that of “two square
wholesome meals all round the year” including in it a minimum
quantity of protein, fats, oil and iron for adults and milk for pre­
school children. The extent of poverty would go up still further
if minimum norms of housing in terms of space and hygiene
were also included. If a minimum standard of environmental
sanitation and quality of drinking water were taken into account,
very few people would escape being labelled “poor”. This once
again underlines the fact that not only is there extensive poverty
in villages, but considered as a whole, the villages themselves
are also very poor. This study also provided data which have
demonstrated that both these types of poverty are closely in­
tertwined with the power structure which shapes economic,
social and political life of the country as a whole.

CHAPTER SEVEN

I
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Caste, Religious Groups and Class

Data on Caste and Religious Groups
Caste and religious groups were studied in the context of
their relevance as factors influencing health culture. Interestingly,
this angle has provided a refreshingly different perspective on the
role of caste and religion in rural India and brought out a num­
ber of important considerations inadequately attended to by
social anthropologists. Instead of getting preoccupied with
digging out obscure and often not so relevant or non-existent
“data” on purity and pollution aspects of social interaction, or
being overwhelmed by the virtually impossible task of ascribing
positions to myriads of caste and sub-castes in different regions,
the effort here was to assess the role of caste and religion in terms
of specific behaviour of individual groups in the power structure
and relate this to their health culture.
The Harijans

fl

The influence of caste in the social and cultural dynamics
of rural populations varied widely from one region to another,
state to state and village to village. In the four West Bengal
villages—Haringhata, Dakshin Duttapara, Amdanga and Kamdevpur, for instance, it was a problem just to identify and map
out the households on the basis of caste, because they lay so
scattered and caste as such did not play a very significant role
in social and economic interaction within the communities. A
very remarkable feature of these villages was that even the ex­
ploitation of Harijans as a caste group did not figure as a
basic factor in their social and economic relations.
As will be seen later on in this chapter, the role of caste
also varied considerably in the other fifteen villages of central

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

CASTE, RELIGIOUS GROUPS AND CLASS

and western Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat,
Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. But in each of these vil­
lages the place of Harijans stood out very sharply both in
physical terms of the settlement pattern, and economically and
politically.
It was found that economic forces, rather than the social
and cultural forces in the form of caste hierarchy, purity,
pollution, power of the priests, rituals, religion, customs and
beliefs, were more important in perpetuating the gulf between
Harijans and the rest. Cultural and social aspects of the caste
system have been exploited by the privileged and the econo­
mically dominant classes to subserve their class interests.
Variations in the use of Harijans as captive and cheap lab­
our by the rich farmers were considerable though they were
much wider in the social relationships of the Harijans with the
rest of the community. Wherever there was a clash between
economic and political interests on the one hand and ritualistic
demands of purity and pollution on the other, almost invari­
ably, the economic and political interests prevailed.
In one of the villages of Meerut where Harijans predomi­
nate, a rich Jat landholder, Pramode Bharati, who is also a
follower of Ram Manohar Lohia’s concept of casteless society,
allowed Harijans free access to his house, ate his meals with
them and involved them in social and religious functions with­
in the village. This gave him political control over them and
also over the village Panchayat. But in terms of economic re­
lations, the fate of the Harijans in Arnavali was no better than
their brethren elsewhere. This Jat leader, who preached a caste­
less society, looked the other way when, at the instance of the
rich farmers, the revenue authorities did not implement the
Panchayat resolution to allocate land for house sites to
Harijans.

displayed open bias in assessing the academic performance of
their Harijan pupils and they saw to it that very few of them
got to the matriculation stage.
However, in this very village, the rich landowning Brahmin
village chief did not have any inhibition in sending his wife to
accompany women investigators and students of the Centre of
Social Medicine and Community Health (Jawaharlal Nehru
University) who visited Bhangi households for interviews. While
the Bhangi Harijans showed considerable surprise, the wife of
the village chief showed no embarrassment in sitting down with
other visitors on the cots offered by them and she participated
freely in the discussions.
Similarly, in the Haryana village of Bilaspur, which has a
number of followers of the Arya Samaj, which preaches caste
abolition, Harijans do not suffer from overt social discrimi­
nation and they freely draw water from wells and hand-pumps in
non-Harijan localities. However, economic relations remained
as rigid and exploitative as in other villages in the region.
There have been many instances of gross social discrimi­
nation within groups of Harijans themselves. The Chamars in
Rohota as well as in Arnavali keep a strict social distance from
the Bhangis. When the State Harijan Welfare Department of
Uttar Pradesh constructed twenty houses for Harijans in Rohota
and allocated four of them to Bhangis, the Chamars, in the
true style of the Jats, physically obstructed them from coming
to their “colony”.
One of the most significant findings of this study is that the
Brahmins are fast leaving behind their elaborate rituals per­
taining to purity and pollution much trumpeted by social
anthropologists. And the Ayyangar Brahmins of Yelwal
in Karnataka provided such a specimen. Significantly, they
could “afford” to stick to the rituals precisely because they
were economically very well-placed with large holdings of fertile
land. They were enterprising enough to considerably increase
production from it. They had economic linkages with Mysore
city through kinsmen. Through an “efficient” money-lending
business they gained the confidence of the Harijans and the socalled backward castes by their conduct as a more “just” and
“fair-minded” caste group.

In the nearby PHC village Rohota in the same district, four
kilometres away from Arnavali, where economic interests did
not clash, the Harijans were subjected to all sorts of social dis­
crimination. They were not allowed to draw water from “nonHarijan” wells; even if they could afford, they were forbidden
from playing band music in a wedding procession. The Jat
teachers of the government-aided but privately managed school

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

CASTE, RELIGIOUS GROUPS AND CLASS

Apart from observing the strictest rituals in cooking they
have a well exclusively for their use and entry into their houses
is governed by their ritualistic caste norms. While they did
‘‘allow” the Ph. D. Ayyangar female investigator the privileges
of her Ayyangar caste, they did not conceal their disapproval
of her interaction with other caste groups of the village com­
munity.
But then, despite all the rigidity and orthodoxy, the social
response of these Ayyangar families was different towards the
Harijan PHC doctor. He was allowed free access into their
houses, entertained with food and refreshments when he visited
them, and entreated to examine sick members of the family by
touching them!
In the two Gujarat villages Rupal and Gambhoi, while the
Harijans were allowed to hold at least some public posts in the
villages reserved for them as a constitutional right, social dis­
crimination against them was more conspicuous and deliberate.
They had jobs in the primary school, the Primary Health Centre
and elsewhere, but all were forced to stay in separate Harijan
colonics with segregated wells and were not allowed entry into
houses belonging to non-Harijans. They were made to wait
outside the gate when making purchases from shops. Again,
there was a Harijan member of the Panchayat as required by the
law who had to sit with the rest during formal meetings of the
Panchayat. But the member himself as well as other Harijans
stated that he dared not say or do anything which would be
against the wishes of the dominant Patels and Banias. The
Harijans’ resentment against this social discrimination was quite
palpable. As expected, the educated amongst them were the
most vociferous in their condemnation of the behaviour of the
caste Hindus.
The Emergency provided on opportunity to them to rise in
open revolt against certain discriminatory practices. Two such
actions were noted by the investigator when he carried out
follow-up studies of the village Rupal. One related to the prac­
tice of keeping separate cups for Harijans outside the village
tea shop which they had to wash and leave in the same place
after use. Taking advantage of the Emergency, when the
Harijans threatened legal actions against this practice under the

Prevention of Untouchability Act, the tea-shop owner had to
relent.
In another case when a barber refused to cut a Harijan’s
hair he was taken to the District Court at Himmatnagar,
arrested and because of the Emergency, could come out on
bail with great difficulty. When his lawyer informed him that
he faced the prospect of a fine of a thousand rupees and im­
prisonment for six months, he broke down completely and sued
for out-of-court settlement. But the Harijans would not relent
as the barber did not have the financial capacity to meet their
terms. The prospect of his children starving during his imprison­
ment caused him so much anxiety, that he collapsed and died
a few days before the judgement was to be delivered. There
were bitter reactions among non-Harijan castes to the death of
the barber. They complained of the gross misuse of authority
during Emergency and pointed out that Chamars were not
prosecuted similarly for their discrimination against the Bhangis.
The pharmacist of the PHC, who got the job as he was a Harijan
Chamar, for instance, will not drink water brought by the PHC
sweeper, a Bhangi by caste. This sweeper, as was the case in
Rohota, Meerut, was forced to live in a hut quite some distance
away from the Chamar colony.

86

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Non-Harijan Caste Groups

t

Three findings stand out sharply in the study of the social
and economic relations among non-Harijan castes:
The number of caste groups in individual villages is not
only very large, but of such a bewildering variety that it
would have been virtually impossible to make a comparative
caste ranking and a systematic and detailed comparison of
the caste structure of the different villages, even if one want­
ed to and had the time.
ii. Economic position and numerical strength, rather than the
caste ascribed position in the social hierarchy of the commu­
nity, count more in the power relations within the villages.

i.

iii. Even when the economic influence of a caste group is
neutralised by social legislation, it does not necessarily lead
to changes in class relations. Indeed, often caste relations

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CASTE, RELIGIOUS GROUPS AND CLASS

POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

are brought through the “backdoor” to create a new pattern
of class relations which are equally, if not more, exploitative
and oppressive.

In the village Sunni (UP), for instance, with 139 households,
apart from three houses of Muslims, the households were distri­
buted among as many as 16 caste groups:
1.
Pasi
23
2.
Brahmin
22
20
3.
Chamar
4.
Murao
16
5.
Bania
10
6.
Dhobi
9
7.
Kumhar
8
8.
Gadaria
6
9.
Nai
6
10.
Kahar
5
11.
Teli
3
12.
Barhai
3
13.
Lohar
2
14.
Bhurji
2
15.
Ahir
1
16.
Dhanuk
1
The 87 households in the Gujarat village of Gambhoi had
ten caste groups, apart from five Muslim households:
1.
Thakkara
(Ravan Rajputs) 30
2.
Rajput
20
3.
Raval
8
4.
Mochi
7
5.
Nai
4
6.
Tholi
4
7.
Darji
3
8.
Bagri
3
Mahajan
9.
2
10.
Patel
1
Similarly, the 197 households in the Karnataka village
of Jadigenhalli had 13 caste groups, besides four Muslim
households:

t’

60

Vanhikula
48
Vokkaliga
17
Nagartha
12
Brahmin
4
Bhaganthri
4
Agase
3
Akkasati
3
Lingayat
2
Reddy
1
Kamma Naidu
10.
1
Maratha
11.
1
Ganga Matha
12.
1
Komati
13.
1
Ediga
14.
The distribution of the caste groups even in the smaller
three of the nineteen villages show: (a) a wide scattering of the
caste groups and of their numerical strength; (b) the problem of
comparing caste structure of one village with that of the others;
and (c) the problem of assigning these groups ranks in the
social hierarchy.
Aspects of caste structure are further elaborated from a
presentation of the politically, socially, economically and nu­
merically important non-Harijan caste groups in these villages.
1.

R

89

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2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

1. Haringhata: 171 Kayastha and 25 Brahmin out of 201
households.
2. Dakshin Duttapra: 70 Pando Kayastha and 25 Goala out
of 108 households.
3. Amdanga: 99 Muslims and 86 Hindus (33 Mahishya) out of
185 households.
4. Kanidevpur: 157 Mahishya out of 210 households.
5. Kachhona: 62 Bania out of 348 households.
6. Rohota: 350 Jat and 82 Brahmin out of 1,121 households.
7. Sunni: 23 Pasi, 21 Brahmin and 16 Murao out of 139
households.
8. Arnavali: 46 Brahmin and 27 Jat out of 257 households.
9. Bilaspur: 28 Jat and 15 Brahmin out of 88 households.
10. Rohat: 46 Bania, 43 Brahmin, 38 Ravan Rajput and 34
Chowdhari out of 372 households.

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

CASTE, RELIGIOUS GROUPS AND CLASS

11. Rampnra: 36 Chowdhari out of 89 households
12. Rupal: 67Tatel, 44 Bania, 23 Rajput and 19 Ravan Rajput
out of 345 households.
JP
13. Gambhoi: 30 Thakkara and 20 Rajput out of 87 households.
on?7 or n
ya"hikuIa’ 48 Vokkaliga and 17 Nagartha
out oi 197 households.
15. Yelwak 87 Gowda, 52 Parivar

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formed for the purpose of computer analysis of the so-called
caste and religious factors:

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1. Harijans (Chamar, Jatao, Bhangi, Dorn, Adikarnataka,
Adidravida)
2. Backward Castes (Nai, Dhewar, Kumhar, Jogi, Dhobi,
Malba, Lohar, Bhoe, Raval, Julah, Vanhikula, Akkashali,
Ediga and Thakkara)
3. Cultivators (Jat, Vokkaliga, Patel, Ahir, Gadaria, Lingayat, Thakur, Kayastha, Kshatriya)
4. Trading Castes (Bania, Soni, Nagartha, Darji, Kansara)

of 287

16. Kalur: 36 Kumhar and 32 Gowda
out of 87 households.
17. Pullambadi: 453 Odyar
and 153
--- Sarvai,90 “Non-Harijan”
Chustians of various “castes” out of 968 households.
18. Coyalmannarn
Coyalmannarn:: 153 Ezhava, 82 Mopla, 72 Brahmin and 52
Nair out of 502 households.
19' P^mba,akode: 71 Mopla, 58 Ezhava and 44 Nair out of
286 households (excluding 394 Tamil weaver households).
1- I

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5. Brahmin
6. Muslim

How to determine the hierarchical position of the Pande
Kayastha, Mahishya, Goala, Murao, Pasi, Kumhar, Gadaria,
Thakkara, Raval and Darji of the north Indian villages? What
is their ascribed social position according to the norms of
pollution and purity? How much are they allowed to move up
oi down by virtue of their economic and political power and
how is this social mobility related to “Sanskritisation”? Similary, ta ing the south Indian villages, how does one determine
the hierarchical positions of the Odyar, Sarvai, Parivar Vanhikulas, Ezhava, Nagartha, Kumhar and the various sects of
he Gowda and Vokkaliga, taking into account their socially
ascribed pollution and purity status and their politically and
economically acquired social positions? And then, to get a
national overview-how do the south Indian caste groups com­
pare with those of north India?
It is also quite evident from the data that the existing posi­
tion of the well established castes such as the Brahmins Ksha­
triyas and the Vaishyas in the social hierarchy are quite different
from those traditionally ascribed to them on the basis of norms
of purity and pollution.
However, while no attempts are made to rank all the various
caste groups, for the purpose of making analysis of the quanti­
tative data, an effort has been made to form clusters of caste
groups having some common traits. Six such clusters were

J

1

The impact of implementation of the Kerala land reform
laws on the social and political positions of the various caste
groups within the two Palghat villages—Coyalmannarn and Pazhambalakode, provide some valuable insights into the caste rela­
tions among non-Harijans. The Brahmins and the Nairs were the
losers while the Ezhavas were the gainers from these land re­
forms. The loss among the Brahmins was more extensive and it
caused far-reaching changes in the lives of the individuals and
the group as a whole. It gave a big spurt to out-migration among
them. The once flourishing Brahmin Grama (settlement) now
acquired a ghostly appearance, with more than half the houses
permanently locked. The condition of some of those unable to
get additional economic support from outside (most of them
elderly persons) deteriorated sharply as they ran out of whatever
resources they had and finally had to put up with the humilia­
tion of depending on the charity of their former tenants, the
Ezhavas.
There was also some deterioration in the economic position
and out-migration among Nairs. However, as the extent of land­
renting was much less in their case they suffered lesser hardships.
The Ezhavas gained with improvement in their economic status
giving them political power, as rich Ezhava landholders who
could keep the landless labour (mostly Harijans and poor Ezha­
vas) in their “proper” places. Significantly, when the rich
Ezhava landholders were compelled to make concessions, the
poor Ezhavas received a relatively favourable dispensation from

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

them. This enabled the rich Ezhavas to use caste affiliation to
strengthen their class positions (a phenomenon observed in all
the other eighteen villages). Thus, while the land reforms were
of undoubted benefit to the toiling share-croppers of Coyalman­
nam, they virtually wiped out the Brahmins from the village
power structure and considerably weakened the Nairs. As far as
the weaker and the exploited classes were concerned, it made
little impact on them. Indeed, many of them perceived the new
Ezhava landowners as more crafty, devious and untrustworthy
than earlier Brahmin and Nair landowners. Data from the
Tnchy village, Pullambadi, where again the dominance of the
Brahmins has been replaced by that of the Odyars, also under­
line the conclusion that changes in caste relations do not neces­
sarily cause corresponding changes in the relation among the
economic classes.

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93

Hindu groups in the same village. The polarisation in econo­
mic terms is even more pronounced among the Muslims in the
West Bengal village Amdanga, where they form a majority and
control the village Panchayat but where they are an economi­
cally much weaker group. Again, in the other Palghat village Pazhambalakode, although numerically stronger than they are in
Coyalmannam, both proportionately and in absolute terms, they
have much less political influence within the village community
because of their economic backwardness.

The Christians

The Muslims
The data on the place of Muslims in Indian rural life pro­
vide interesting insights into the relationships of caste, class and
religion. Muslims are not only numerically small, but even when
considered proportionately, they are distinctly worse off than
most Hindus in economic and political terms. Significantly
despite the absence of caste stratification, class polarisation
among the Muslims is more pronounced. Invoking religious
solidarity, a few well-off persons among them, strengthened their
economic positions by making political use of religion to swell
their following. Because of their much weaker bargaining posi­
tion within the group, the masses of Muslims are able to get an
even smaller share of the political and economic power from
their leaders than is the case among the non-Harijan Hindus
They are, however, distinctly better off than the Harijans, eco­
nomically, socially as well as politically.
The Palghat village, Coyalmannam, provides very interesting
facts. Even though Muslims are not a majority, their group
exercises considerable influence on the community life of the
village, because of its economically strong position. However, it
is remarkable that even when as a group they are strong, the
ratio of the number of the better off to that of the poor is even
more unfavourable than what is obtained among other caste

CASTE, RELIGIOUS GROUPS AND CLASS

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The Christian community in the Tiruchirapally village Pullambadi, constitute about 30 per cent of the population. The
study of this group provided data on another aspect of the
relationship of caste, class, another religion (Christianity) and
power. The Christian missionaries, a Roman Catholic Mission
and the Tamil Nadu Evangelical Lutheran Church, have been
active in this village since 1865. Apart from their concerted
evangelical efforts made with a true missionary zeal, these mis­
sionaries received several indirect benefits from the British rulers
and monetary and other institutional support from Christian
organisations, within the country and outside. These significant •
factors make it an entirely different type of a religious move­
ment as compared, say, to the Arya Samaj movement
in the village Bilaspur. The activities of the Christian
missionaries can be put under three categories: (a) social, edu­
cational and relief activities which are available to all; (b)
social and economic activities which are accessible only to
Christians; and (c) activities relating to the Christian faith.
The Roman Catholics run a higher elementary school (the
oldest school in the village) and another primary school for the
“Harijan” Christians, which allows admission to Hindu Harijans too. They also run an orphanage for girls from among
the Burma evacuees and handle the CARE milk distribution
programme. They have launched an ambitious housing pro­
gramme to build 300 houses for Harijan Christians by getting
10 acres of land for Rs 5000 from the government in 1956 in
return for political support to the DMK. They also run a
big hospital, the Sahaya Mata Hospital with 70 medical, 45

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

CASTE, RELIGIOUS GROUPS AND CLASS

maternity and 24 leprosy indoor beds and a big and busy out­
patient department. Besides, there is the pivot of all the
activities of the Catholic Christian community—the dominating
St. Anthony’s Church.
Compared to the Roman Catholic establishment (280
households), the Lutheran Church has a very modest following
of 10 households of converts. They are mostly teachers (in
the primary school run by their church) or other white collar
workers. They have a small church in which a service is con­
ducted every Sunday by a priest who comes from Tiruchirapally.
Carving a Christian community out of the old Hindu village
community is the outcome of the efforts of more than 110
years. Opportunities for education and training, health care,
employment, food supplies, persistent proselytising, and
probably a reaction against the discrimination inbuilt in the
Hindu social order, rather than a position towards the Christian
faith and casteless social order advocated by Christianity, seem
to have played a very decisive role in the vast majority of con­
versions. This is evident from the fact that while conversion
to Christianity improved the economic positions of some of the
converts, it did not have much impact on the social structure,
illustrated by the fact that even the third generation converts
from among Harijan, Servai and the Odyar keep as much social
distance among themselves as their caste counterparts among
the Hindus. There is a separate school for Harijan Christians
and each Christian “caste” group is endogamous. Barring a
few devout Christians, the converts, even the third generation
ones, take as casual and ritualistic a view of their religion as
their Hindu counterparts.
Indeed, the Church authorities find it very difficult to get
them to church services regularly. As many as 90 per cent
of the “Harijan Christians” are defaulters, inspite of threats
of cutting off CARE food supplements and house allotments.
While festivals like Christmas and Easter are celebrated by
them as laid down by their preachers, it is St. Anthony’s Day
(17 January) which is celebrated with all the gusto of the Hindu
festival Pongal, with new pots, preparation and consumption
of Pongal cooked according to the Hindu custom and fulfilling
of vows taken in connection with sickness or any such calamity.

Thus Christianity had a limited impact on the caste and class
structure within the Christians themselves, not to speak of any
diffusion of such class reconstruction from the Christians to
the Hindus, as, for instance, happened with the formation of
the Brahmo Samaj. Apart from obtaining some spiritual solace,
Christian religion offered some villagers a convenient ladder to
climb up economically and socially without materially affecting
the basic social structure. These findings about the Christians
in Pullambadi are very strikingly similar to those of what
Djurfeldt and Lindberg1 found with regard to Thaiyur—
another village in Tamil Nadu.

94

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Conversion to Christianity has occurred among the
Thaiyur Harijans during the last century .... The material
rather than spiritual, grow out of the Harijan poor, the
growth of the capitalist mode of production, and the conse­
quent decline of the pre colonial mode of production .... The
Christian Churches have had resources to give contribu­
tions of charity to Harijans in need, in times of drought
and flood, or in old age, when many . . . who have no sons to
care for them face starvation.
With a few exceptions, conversion has not brought any
revolution in the religious world view of those converted.
For many people, Christ is an ishta-daivam, among others,
a saviour-god comparable to the Hindu Krishna. The
Christians have also retained some of their old religious
beliefs and practices ....

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'G. Djurfeldt and S. Lindberg, Pills Against Poverty, A Study of the
Introduction of Western Medicine in a Tamil Village, (Scandinavian Insti­
tute of Asian Studies, Monograph Series No. 23), New Delhi, Oxford and
IBH Publishers, 1975.

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SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONTROL

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CHAPTER EIGHT

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Leadership, Political Parties, Social and
Economic Control

The Data

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Data on political parties and social and economic control
were collected from each of the nineteen villages to have an
understanding of (a) the growth and development of village
health institutions, more particularly Government-sponsored
health and family planning institutions; (b) their influence on
the personnel of these institutions; and (c) their role in the
shaping of the response of village population to the activities
of these institutions.
The nature of leadership and its control on the social and
economic life of the population of the study villages show
varying patterns. Even through the first round of the study
(May 1972 - May 1975) it was possible to observe a considerable
degree of stress and strain within the power structures which
sustain the leadership in the villages. Direct observation of
activities of the leadership to mobilize people in the Gujarat
villages of Rupal and Gambhoi for the Lok Sabha by-election
to the Sabarkantha constituency in 1974, and for the Navnirman Samiti Movement and Panchayat Samiti election at a
block level in Meerut district of U.P. (1973), threw valuable
light on the dynamics of the forces which shape the power
structure and the leadership. Additional data on this aspect
were obtained from a study of: (a) clubs and other formal and
informal social and religious institutions in the study villages;
(b) interaction of the newly emerging social and political forces
with the established leadership in some of the villages; (c) work­
ing of the Panchayat! Raj institutions; and (d) the response of
the leadership and of the village community to certain specific

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contingencies, such as a devastating fire, famine conditions,
epidemics and organisation of mass vasectomy camps.
The many revisits to the villages gave a clearer understand­
ing of how the leadership structure works over a period of
time. The revisits also made it possible to study political
parties and village leaderships in the context of some far-reach­
ing events which took place during these years.

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Unstable Leadership

11

Even in the most neglected and backward villages (e.g.
Rohat, Rampura, Kalur and Sunni), the iniquitous character of
the social, economic and political relations seemed to generate
enough pressure on the leadership for it to respond “less un­
favourably” to the needs and aspirations of the neglected sec­
tions. As this pressure continuously mounted, the leadership in
these villages could no longer be described as “stable” and
“well-entrenched”. The major factors found to be threatening
this stability can be enumerated as follows:
(a) There are distinctly discernible signs of internally gene­
rated restiveness among the neglected sections against the pre­
vailing social order.
(b) Repeated opportunities of voting in elections to village
Panchayat, Panchayat Samitis, Zila Parishads, state legislatures
and the Lok Sabha have contributed to the generation of at
least some political consciousness among the neglected sections.
This has helped them to articulate grievances and bargain for
a better life. (At election times, leaders of different parties and
factions vie with one another to win electoral favours from them,
particularly Harijans, Muslims and the backward castes. In
this process of being made to feel their importance within the
community, a much larger proportion of them exercise their
franchise).
(c) Internal conflicts of interests among the privileged classes
within the village, block, district, region, state and the nation
have somewhat eroded the power bases of existing leadership.
(d) Inability of the leadership to stem the tide of mounting
problems of hunger, ill-health, unemployment and rapidly
growing corruption and nepotism in public life had led to con­
siderable erosion of the credibility of the political leadership.

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

As pointed out earlier, “development” activities have turned
out to be a major source of political power. Political leaders
have tended to strengthen themselves by grabbing the bulk of
subsidized facilities and programmes. They are also the major
beneficiaries from state investments to improve transport and
marketing, improved communication, education, health and
veterinary services.
However, at the same time, the neglected sections have also
become more aware of their rights and more strident in claim­
ing their due share of the “development resources”, better
wages for their labour, house sites, allocation of the surplus
land and other community resources; they have also started to
seek legal remedies to ensure social justice. This increase in the
forces working in diametrically opposite directions, has led to
significant increase in social tensions.
Even the data that were collected from the pre-Emergency
period of May 1972 - May 1975 have amply demonstrated that
the use of coercive tactics to make persons belonging to the
weaker sections accept sterilisation had generated considerable
resentment against the government and against the political
leadership heading it.1 The drive to forcibly sterilise many of
them and the extensive misuse of administrative machinery
during the Emergency antagonised them further against the
then ruling political party. Many of them actively participated
in the national and state elections in 1977 and enthusiastically
joined persons belonging to some other sections of the commu­
nity in overthrowing the leadership of the then ruling political
party.
Significantly, instead of creating a more equitable and, there­
fore, a relatively more stable equation of power within the
community, the post-Emergency leadership dealt yet another
rude jolt to the weaker sections when even their very modest
gains of the past, for example, allocation of some surplus land,
land for house sites, abolition of bonded labour and writing-

2D. Banerji, “Impact of Rural Health Services on the Health Behaviour
of Rural Populations in India : A Preliminary Communication,” fPJK,
vol. 8, 22 December 1973, pp. 2261-68; A Preliminary Communication on a
Study of Health Behaviour of Rural Population in India, New Delhi, Centre
of Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru
University, 1973.

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SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONTROL

99

off the debts, were snatched away from them by the rich far­
mers, traders and moneylenders who had acquired powei in
the political change. Thus, without an alternative, in sheei
desperation, the poor classes had to fall back on what they had
so firmly rejected during the Emergency. However, while they
found themselves “back to square one”, these very live and
personal encounters of these people with the hitherto inexperi­
enced “evil” faces of the two types of leadership had been a
valuable political education for them. It gave them an oppor­
tunity to see for themselves the sharp clash ot interests of the
two exploiting parties. They could also realise how they could
use this conflict among the rulers to wrest more concessions
from them. This experience also sensitised them to the need
for an alternative political organisation more sympathetic to
their cause.
For instance, after voting Janata in the March 1977 Lok
Sabha election, the bulk of the Harijans of Rohota and Arnavali shifted their support back to the Congress in the elections
to the UP state legislature, in June 1977. When interviewed by
the author on this issue, groups of Harijans of Rohota and
Arnavali responded by countering: “What other choice do we
have? Can you tell us of any other party which can really help
downtrodden people like us?”
More detailed data will be presented later in this chapter to
underline the fact that there is a ferment within rural popula­
tions which poses a constant threat to the “stability” of the
leadership. The degree of the ferment and its impact on the
leadership is determined by a very large number of rather
complex factors which cannot always be foreseen, forecast or
quantified. No effort has, therefore, been made here to make
more definitive assertions concerning social, economic and
political consequences of this ferment amongst the exploited
segments of rural populations.

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Profiles of Leadership

The leadership structure, its functioning, strength and the
degree of its control over the community varied from one vil­
lage to another and from time to time, reflecting the dynamics
of the power structure prevailing in the different villages. It

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONTROL

can, however, be safely asserted that the old order comprising
of absolute dominance of the landlords has been wiped out
from all the villages. The vestigial remnants of that order are
observed in almost all the villages. The crumbling, desolate
mansions in the villages Haringhata (Nadia), Kamdevpur (24Parganas) and Rupal (Sabarkantha) in which the descendants
of the once despotic lords live in utter destitution, provide a
vivid picture of the death and decay of the old order. '

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In sharp contrast with these three dilapidated mansions was
the shining high-walled fortress-palace at the very heart of the
village Rohat (Pali). Rohat is a desert village, falling very low
in terms of civic amenities among the nineteen study villages.
But this palace has its own power-generating unit, supply of
potable water and many other modern amenities. It belongs to
Raghvendra Singh, a former local Jagirdar (chieftain) who
managed to change his leadership style with the winds of change.
Cashing in on feudal and caste loyalties and his power of patro­
nage he not only captured the village Panchayat but also the
local Panchayat Samiti of about 100 villages. In turn, this de­
mocratically acquired power enabled him to strengthen his
power base. In the early sixties, he also joined a political party,
the Swatantra Party, not simply because it advocated conser­
vatism, but also because it was then the ruling party in the state
of Rajasthan. Later, when the Congress Party came to power
in the state, he joined it. When the 1967 split came, he gambled
in favour of the Congress (O). And when this gamble snowbal­
led, he shifted his loyalty to Congress (R). In the wake of
Emergency excesses, there was a Janata wave when he re-discovered his links with Congress (O) and the Swatantra Party, both
of which had merged with the Janata Party. However, from
then onwards he began facing rough weather, because a number
of social changes had already taken place in Rohat. His position
as a leader had become unstable. The trading castes had acquired
considerable economic power. Earlier, they had never thought
of challenging the authority of Raghvendra Singh, but now
they openly asserted themselves. Raghvendra Singh got the
Janata nomination for the Pali constituency of the state legis­
lature from the state branch of the Janata Party for the 1977
elections to the Rajasthan State Legislature. But at the national

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level of the party, this was reversed in favour of another candi­
date who was backed by the traders, at the instance of the local
Lok Sabha member beholden to the traders’ lobby for his own
election. When, in sheer desperation, Raghvendra Singh sound­
ed the community of the village Rohat itself on the possibility
of his standing as an independent candidate, even the traders’
community in his own village, who were earlier so submissive
and meek, openly expressed their opposition. Raghvendra Singh
stood as an independent candidate and suffered a humiliating
defeat.
As a Jagirdar, Raghvendra Singh owned large tracts of
land around Rohat. However, to establish his democratic and
progressive credentials during the Congress rule, he had orga­
nised a grand public function to distribute land deeds to the
tillers of his land. After having extracted all the political and
public relations mileage from the show, he took back the papers
from the farmers “to be kept in his safe custody”. Raghvendra
Singh was educated at Mayo College, Ajmer. With his link with
the Jodhpur Palace, he had managed to attain enough popularity
among the social celebrities of Jodhpur city to get elected as the
president of the local Rotary Club. His children were studying
in exclusive(public) schools in Mount Abu, Ajmer and Delhi.
An account of Pramode Bharati of the village Arnavali pre­
sents a profile of the New Men in village leadership. His father,
though belonging to rich landed Jat gentry, was a local pioneer
in the fight against untouchability as an active member of the
Socialist Party. This had once earned him a seat in the Lok
Sabha. Bharati, in keeping with this tradition, had been on very
cordial terms with the Harijans, constituting 44 per cent of the
village population. Harijans had free access to his house, where
they flocked to watch television. In 1974 Bharati happened to be
the only one in the village to own a television set. The support
of the Harijans earned him control over the village Panchayat.
But all his socialistic assertions and identifications with the
underdogs did not come in the way of his owning large areas
of irrigated land and dodging compulsory levy on his produce
during the scarcity years of 1973 and 1974. While he claimed
to be a follower of the ‘Angrezi Hatao’ movement of the Socia­
list Party, he employed a Harijan to take his children daily on

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

a bicycle all the way to their exclusive English medium public
schools in Meerut and bring them back.
As has been pointed out during the discussion of caste and
power in Chapter 5, only in the case of Harijans does caste
become a major handicap in coming to leadership positions in
the community. Among the non-Harijans, the most important
factors are money and numbers. Applying these criteria, it is
possible to place the leadership in the nineteen villages under
three broad categories.
In the first category there are villages led, both at the formal
and informal levels, by persons who are not only economically
strong, but belong to a caste or religion which forms the numeri­
cal majority in the village. Eight villages—Dakshin Duttapara,
Kamdevpur, Bilaspur, Rohat, Rampura, Rupal, Kalur and Pullambadi—have this type of leadership. The case of Raghvendra
Singh of village Rohat, discussed above, falls in this category.
There are other villages that do not have a numerical majority
of any non-Harijan group and where the leadership is formed
by a group or groups on the basis of mobilisation of Harijan or
other caste groups as a result of economic pressure and/or poli­
tical concessions. Seven villages—Haringhata, Sunni, Rohota,
Arnavali, Pazhambalakode and Coyalmannam—fall under this
category. The case of Pramode Bharati of village Arnavali, dis­
cussed above, provides an instance of this. Leaders in these
villages are required to have much higher political skills than
their counterparts in the other group. The Bania leader Radhakrishna of the village Kachhona (Hardoi) for instance, has
acquired a Master’s degree in commerce and a law degree, to
rise to the post of Deputy Registrar, Co-operatives, of the Govern­
ment of D.P., at a fairly young age. He then resigned his
government job for an important position in the trading com­
munity of the village. He used his business connections to
build up a sizable following among the poor, mostly the Hari­
jans and the backward castes, by advancing loans in times of
need. Similarly, the Brahmin leader of Rohota (Meerut) gained
the confidence of the big Chamar and Bhangi groups of Hari­
jans by his political skills in showing sympathy for them. He
also earned the respect of the entire village by increasing the
productivity of his land through innovative agricultural methods

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONTROL

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and by participating in rural programmes of the All-India Radio
to communicate these ideas to other farmers and projecting an
image of honesty and rectitude to all sections of the community.
The affluent Ezhava and Mopla castes of Coyalmannam and
Pazhambalakode in Palghat district have got together using
their economic strength to mobilize their respective groups to
gain political control over the two villages. In turn, this political
control enabled them to extract substantial economic and politi­
cal concessions from the leadership at the district and state levels.
Thirdly, there are villages where the majority community
happens to be economically not so strong and the leadership
usually weak and amenable to pulls and pressures from the
minority groups which are in an economically stronger position.
Four villages belong to this group—Amdanga, Gambhoi, Jadigenhalli and Yelwal. In Amdanga (24-Parganas), the wife of the
village priest, who happens to be an active worker of the For­
ward Bloc Party, mobilised the Hindus, more particularly the
Hindu women, to influence the Muslim dominated Panchayat
of which she is a member. The Thakkara head of the Panchayat
of the Gambhoi (Sabarkantha) is a mere figurehead and leans
heavily for advice and directions on the influential Rajput
minority. The Vokkaliga dominated Panchayat of Jadigenhalli
is subjected to pressure from the economically influential
Nagartha and Vanhikula castes. In Yelwal (Mysore), the affluent
and economically powerful Brahmins have mobilised the Hari­
jans and other backward classes to act as a significant counter­
balance to the power of the numerically superior and modera­
tely prosperous Gowdas.
Political Consciousness

A degree of tension and restiveness with regard to the pre­
vailing social order is present in almost every society. However,
as has been pointed out earlier, presumably as a result of the
high concentration of power in the hands of more prosperous
sections, widespread acute poverty, and social discrimination
against Harijans, in all the study villages, social tension was
found to be more pronounced and palpable. The atrocities
committed during the Emergency and the resulting political
backlash had created conditions which intensified the pressure

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SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONTROL

for bringing about greater democratisation of the political
system.

in the last rites of the dead. These clubs are actively related to
different political parties—CPI-I, Congress (R), Forward Bloc,
etc. They organise processions, complete with placards and
banners, lusty shouting of slogans and demonstrations within
the village on various political issues. They also send delegates
to participate in political activities at district, state and even
national levels.
Thirdly, apart from the very live existence of political par­
ties of different ideologies and pretensions, there is considerable
interaction and heated discussions amongst villagers on specific
political and social issues including those transcending the
village level or even rural and state level problems. For instance,
Nripen Byapari, a barely literate CP.I-M activist in Haringhata
in late 1977 spoke about the organisational response to oppres­
sive actions of the state government. “We avoided the mistakes
of the Indonesian comrades and we sent most of our activists
underground.” Even if this/.urns out to be a stray, isolated
remark, it has considerable significance.
Fourthly, the overthrow of the United Front Government
through blatant rigging of the polls in 1971, use of police and
professional toughs to liquidate activists of the CPI-M, very high
rates of unemployment, rising prices, rampant political corrup­
tion, etc., have contributed to the politicisation of the popula­
tion. Another CPI-M activist, on the subject of 1971 elections
to the state legislatures, observed, “When I went to the booth to
cast my vote, a tough-looking fellow told me menacingly, ‘Your
vote has already been cast and if you do not want any trouble,
go home.’ As I turned to go back, he added, ‘Your wife’s vote
has been cast.’ Ts that so?’ 1 asked, and added, ‘She had died
two years ago.’ ”

104

Reference has also been made in Chapter 7 to the actions
mounted by the Chamar section of the Harijans of Rupal
(Sabarkantha) against some discriminatory practices. Even in
villages, some of them quite remote, possibilities of having
Shri Jagjivan Ram as the Prime Minister of India was a con­
sideration among the Chamars of Rohota in making their vot­
ing decision for the Lok Sabha elections of March 1977. This
indicates development of some political consciousness among
them. The Harijans of Yelwal had organised themselves around
their caste headman—Hejman—to get redressal of some of
their pressing grievances. The Harijans of Pullambadi (Trichy),
both Christian and Hindu, and the Harijans of the Palghat
villages—Coyalmannam and Pazhambalakode, have been openly
expressing their bitterness against the oppression and injustice
of the ruling classes.
The organised actions by the landless peasants of the Pal­
ghat villages—Coyalmannam and Pazhambalakode,—under the
leadership of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M),
with A.K. Gopalan as a symbol of their aspirations, represent
a distinctly higher level of political consciousness and organi­
sation among the exploited sections of a rural population.
These are the only villages where the landless have formed a
labour union.
In terms of social ferment leading to political consciousness
and political action, the four villages of West Bengal—Haring­
hata, Dakshin Duttapara, Amdanga and Kamdevpur—stand
out. Four major factors distinguish them from the rest.
Perhaps the most striking feature is the political conscious­
ness and mobilisation among the youth. This has eroded the
power of the older generation of leaders more than in the other
fifteen villages.
Secondly, as a sequel to the ferment among the youth, each
one of the villages has one or more youth clubs. These are very
active organisations which involve the youth not simply in
recreation and sports, but also in such social activities as rush­
ing patients to hospitals, organising the annual DurgaPujaand
other festivals, arranging Jatras and cinema shows and helping

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Village Political and Administrative System
The political and administrative system of a village has
three major components: (a) Traditional institutions encapsu­
lating the village culture, for example, caste Panchayats, coun­
cil of village elders, village arbitrators, etc., (b) Statutory instit­
utions for localself-government at the village, block and
district levels; and (c) The machinery of the government at the
village and at higher levels which provides the administrative

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONTROL

framework for bulk of village level adtivities, administration of
judiciary and various services
in a wide variety of social and
--------- ..i
economic fields.

to acquire the services, making enormous efforts needed in
transporting the patient and her attendants, bribing officials to
obtain “favours” of various kinds, etc).

Since independence, there have been some fundamental
changes in the administration at the village level. The overtly
coercive, extortative, exploitative and repressive laws and prac­
tices of the colonial and pre-colonial days have been toned
down or abandoned altogether. Alongside, there has been an
almost exponential growth in administrative activities to pro­
mote welfare of the people in social and economic fields.
The very expansion of these activities has brought about a
sharper clash of the two cultures, the value systems and the
economic and social interests of the providers of the services
and the recipients of the services in the village. How compe­
tent and committed are those entrusted with the task of
improving village life in India? How relevant are innovations to
the ways of the villagers? What are the perceptions of the ad­
ministrators of the people they are to serve? How far have they
succeeded in winning the confidence of the different sections of
the village population? Answers to such questions have been
obtained in the course of this study and they have an important
bearing on the political and social systems at the village level.
The perception of the lowest ranking functionary of the
health services—the Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM) by
Harijan women in the village Kachhona (see Chapter 4), as a
“Mem” vividly shows the yawning gulf between the two worlds.
To these Harijans the local Dai is a part of their own commu­
nity, she talks in the same dialect, is available whenever requir­
ed, disposes of the placenta, cleans the soiled clothes, massages
the mother and takes care of the infant, etc. The ANM, on
the other hand, is perceived as an alien person. It is also signi­
ficant that, on their own initiative, these very Harijans have
learnt to actively seek out assistance from the ANM, the PHC
lady doctors or even specialists in bigger hospitals in far away
towns and cities when they realise that the competence of the
Dai is not adequate to cope with some specially complicated
problems of childbirth. This study has brought out numerous
cases which show that to acquire these special services, villagers
make great sacrifices (getting loans at exorbitant interest rates

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Distrust of Outsiders

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Based on their cumulative past experience of outsiders,
both as promoters of “development” as well as those active y
sought out by them! to get assistance in times of dire
need, many of the villagers have developed a deep-seated
distrust, fear, cynicism and even hostility towards out­
siders. Such a feeling was discernible in varying degrees in each
of the nineteen villages of the study. There is a tendency among
many of them to shun interaction with outsiders and as far as
possible, try to find solutions to their problems within the cul­
tural framework of the village community. Compared to all the
harassment, corruption, manoeuvring, manipulation, deception,
etc., that are involved in seeking redressal of grievances from
the police, revenue officials and the judiciary, a solution at the
local community level is preferred, particularly by the poorer
and oppressed sections of the village population. The poor are
fully aware that even within the cultural framework of the
village community, the scales of justice are heavily tilted against
them. However, having experienced the evil ways of the “out‘
siders”, they tend to choose the lesser evil, the “known evil”.
Because of this inclination a number of instances of active
suppression of information regarding crimes was observed in
the study villages. In such situations the entire village commu­
nity presents a united front to keep out the police. In the first
place, they try to see that the police do not get any information
on the crime. Otherwise, they make it virtually impossible for
the police to proceed with the case by withholding evidence and
clues relating to a crime.
While she was carrying out field work in the village Dakshin Duttapara (Nadia), the investigator got news that the
young girl, Sushila, aged 12 years, whom she (i.e. the investi­
gator) had known well, had committed suicide by hanging her­
self, following an argument with her father. Deeply distressed,
the investigator rushed to her hut. By that time the body had

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONTROL

already been taken away by the family and the neighbours, and
cremated The investigator could, however, still see the noose
hanging from the roof of the hut which nobody thought of re­
moving in then anxiety to dispose of the body as soon as pos­
sible so as to avoid harassment by the police. Five more ins­
tances of suicide by consumption of Follidol were recorded
during the investigator’s stay in Haringhata, Amdanga and
one in Kamdevpur. They were similarly hushed up.
While working in the village Jadigenhalli (Bangalore), the
investigator could get enough evidence to establish that some­
body had murdered a cowherd by beating him up severely and
throwing the body in the tank. That it was a case of murder was
quite apparent to the villagers. However, instead of seeking help
rom the police to track down the murderer, both the family
members as well as the villagers at large, took most expeditious
steps to dispose the body and saw to it that the police kept out
of the case. They wanted to avoid harassment in getting the
body released after the post-mortem examination and of going
through the cumbersome and expensive judicial processes.

up the wife of Nag, causing considerable injuries, for which she
had to be taken to the PHC at Haringhata for treatment. As the
head of the council was away, the accused was kept locked up
in a room. When the council met the next day, Shyam Mondol
and his son were severell/ rebuked and reprimanded in public.
Mondol was ordered to meet all the expenses for the treatment
of the victim and pay a fine. As Mondol was extremely poor,
it was ordered that the quantum of the fine would be decided
after the victim had recovered fully.

Traditional Political Institutions

Because of this lack of trust in outside agencies, villagers
have not entirely given up their traditional institutions to settle
many legal issues like thefts, land disputes, disputes connected
with digging of wells, and decisions concerning community road
construction or running of the village temple. The traditional
institution of Council of Elders was particularly prominent in
Dakshin Duttapara (Nadia). When a dispute is brought before
the council, the village chowkidar informs the other members of
council and the village populace. The case is discussed in detail
and finally the head of the council pronounces the verdict. As
punishment, the accused party may be fined Rs 5 or be made to
rub his nose on the ground before the gathering. Only when
the matter is too complicated and the Council is unable to arrive
at a verdict, they advise the party to take the matter to the
police.
There was the case of a serious quarrel between the sister of
Shyam Mondol and the wife of Jyoti Nag of the village Dakshin
Duttapara. The son of Mondol joined in this and severely beat

109

The village Yelwal (Mysore) has a “two tier” council. Dis­
putes within a caste group are sought to be solved by the caste
headman—the Hejman. In case that is not possible or when
inter-caste disputes are involved, they all go to Gopal
Ayyangar, who has a reputation of being very wise, just and
even-handed in pronouncing his verdicts.
It is significant that it is mostly the privileged sections who
invoke the help of outside agencies for resolution of disputes.
Many such disputes arise as a result of conflicts within their
own class over land, irrigation facilities or grazing rights. They
also use these agencies as a weapon to harass and punish recal­
citrant villagers from the poorer sections who dare displease
them by their actions.

Statutory Panchayats
It has to be noted that the statutory organisations of local
self-government—the Panchayati Raj institutions—have come
into existence as a result of the interplay of complex forces.
Cultural tradition of village administration, shifts in the village
power structure, power interests of the bureaucracy and political
commitment at higher levels to democratic decentralisation of
power, can be cited as the major factors. However, these concess­
ions are made by political leaders at higher levels with utmost
reluctance. The bureaucracy has tried to see that the actual de­
legation of power to Panchayati Raj institutions is kept to the
minimum. They have done this with tacit if not active support
of the political leadership. Also, while doing so, the bureau­
crats keep up the facade of democratic decentralisation.
Further, the nature of the power structure at the village,
block and district levels is such that the villagers have not been

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SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONTROL

able to evolve a suitable leadership which can make effective
use of whatever power is delegated to them.

immunisation, adult literacy, programmes for uplift of women,
land reforms, social education and so on.
As has been pointed out above, only in the two Gujarat
villages Rupal and Gambhoi and in the Tamil Nadu village
Pullambadi, was the control of the administration in the hands
of elected representatives. However, this has made little impact
on the lives of the villagers, particularly of the weaker sections.
For instance, in Pullambadi, the ANM was under the adminis­
trative control of the Panchayat Union (equivalent to Panchayat
Samities in North India) which led to further determination of
the services provided by her. Again, in the same village, the
Panchayat Union was under the control of the DMK, while
the village Panchayat was controlled by the Congress (O). This
caused numerous conflicts to the detriment of the interests of
the population.
In Gujarat, the personnel of the Primary Health Centre
were under the control of the elected Zila Parishad. Again, this
innovation did not bring about any improvement in the func­
tioning of the PHC at Rupal to distinguish it from the other
ten PHCs included in the study. The members of the village
Panchayats of Rupal and Gambhoi had virtually nothing to do
with the functioning of the PHC. The Zila Parishad exercised
all power.
Rajasthan was the state which inaugurated the experiment
of democratic decentralisation through Panchayat! Raj with
considerable fanfare in 1959. By 1973, when field work started
in the village Rohat and Rampura in Rajasthan, it was not
possible to find any trace of the philosophy of Panchayati Raj.
Official circles and politicians now project the states of Gujarat
and Tamil Nadu (besides Maharashtra) as show pieces of suc­
cessful implementation of the Panchayati Raj Programme.
Zila Parishads in Gujarat and Panchayat Unions in Tamil
Nadu are considered focal points for democratisation of rural
development programmes. As the present study was confined
to villages in these two states, functioning of the institutions at
the block and district levels was not observed. However, from
observations at the village level it can be asserted that if demo­
cratisation means people’s involvement in the planning, formu­
lation, implementation and monitoring of various development

110

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Contradictions within the village community are too sharp
to allow Panchayats to function as democratic institutions (see
Chapter 4). This provides additional excuses to the combine
of politicians and bureaucrats at higher levels to withhold any
further delegation of power to the people.

I

At the time of the first round of the study (1972-75), village
Panchayats were virtually paralysed in all the villages. In as
many as sixteen out of nineteen villages the state governments
had repeatedly put off holding Panchayat elections for ten years
or more on various patently unconvincing and untenable
pretexts. In many instances, the rival power factions of the
villages raised various legal questions on elections and obtained
stay orders from courts. In all the villages it was observed that
the work of the old Panchayat was grossly mismanaged with
total neglect of such basic functions as environmental sanitation,
provision of potable water supply and reporting of births and
deaths. Electricity supply to the village streets are often disconected for defaults in payment.
One of the most significant findings of the study of the Pan­
chayats is that after the combine of politicians and bureaucrats
ensured a virtual demise of these institutions, they used the
mummified “corpus” of the Panchayats to promote their own
brand of “developmental” activities. After all, the members of
the old Panchayat are also “community leaders” and they play
a crucial role in promoting political interests of the leadership
at higher levels.

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This mummified corpus comes very handy to the combine to
distribute patronge to those who count politically in the village.
This patronage is in the form of providing supply agencies for
distribution of essential goods, contracts for rural public works,
positions of directors of co-operatives and advisers to commer­
cial banks for giving rural credit, and other such lucrative
assignments. In addition, various kinds of government function­
aries find in the mummified corpus a most convenient instru­
ment for “mobilisation” of the rural population for launch­
ing such “social movements” as family planning, mass

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONTROL

programmes, Rupal, Gambhoi and Pullambadi did not in any
way appear more remarkable than the other sixteen villages.
That it is indeed possible to have much greater participation
of people at the village level was demonstrated in the four West
Bengal villages in the course of revisits. When these villages
elected new Panchayats in 1978, after a lapse of fifteen years,
they demonstrated how by effectively mobilising the population
they could more effectively implement the Food for Work Pro­
grammes, the Integrated Rural Development Scheme, flood
relief and rehabilitation programmes, movement to improve
the social and economic status of women, environmental sani­
tation, medical care, co-operatives, and so on. The newly elected
Panchayats (in 1981) in the Kerala villages Coyalmannam and
Pazhambalakode have also showed promising signs of getting
greater community mobilisation for developmental programmes.
Similar enthusiasm was also observed (in 1980 and 1981) in
Jadigenhalli.

(a) allowing the bureaucracy much greater freedom to make
“use” of the authority that has been allowed to remain
with it; and
(b) by increasing the size of the cake by clamouring for greater
decentralisation of power and more intensive “develop­
mental” efforts i.e. more contracts, more money for credit
distribution, greater opportunities for getting people
appointed in the public services, etc.
In this way, instead of reflecting the aspirations of the
people more faithfully and giving primacy to their interests,
the process of the so-called democratic decentralisation and rural
development has resulted in a much closer adjustment of the
interests of the newly emerging political leaders and the bureau­
crats at various levels. This serves the interests of those who
control the political and economic life of the nation very well.
By strengthening this combine of local political bosses and the
bureaucrats, they are able to stifle or at least bypass the major
thrust of demccratic forces in rural areas. This also simplifies
the task of those among the emerging ruling elites who aspire
to get a berth in the ruling combine. When they are able to
demonstrate their ability to control enough votes by virtue of
their economic and political “strength”, they are “rewarded”
with a place in the combine. This ensures that the masses are
kept at their “proper place”, while the cleverer and wilier among
the younger members of the ruling classes get an opportunity
of moving upward in the leadership scale.
However, this link-up between the rural elites and the bureau­
crats has also provoked reactions among the masses. As has
been repeatedly discussed earlier, this study has revealed that
while there is a great deal of frustration, sullenness and cynicism
and even a feeling of fatalism among the exploited sections of
the population, there is also considerable discontent and anger
—admittedly, very often impotent anger—among some
components of the exploited sections of the population. These
people have made use of whatever democratic and administra­
tive devices they have, to give vent to their feelings. This was
dramatically demonstrated during the Lok Sabha poll of 1977.
When these devices have been blocked or when such channels
are found to be inadequate, these people have actively created

It will not be too far-fetched to conclude on the basis of a
comparison of data from these three villages of Gujarat and
Tamil Nadu (i.e. Rupal, Gambhoi and Pullambadi) with those
from sixteen other villages, that substitution of a political boss
for a bureaucratic boss has been the main achievement
where the programme for democratic decentralisation has been
allowed to function. Within the existing social and political
setting, this substitution has not brought about any perceptible
improvement in the efficiency of the administration. Nor has
it inspired any community involvement in development pro­
grammes. To the poverty-stricken villages, it means replacement
of one evil by another.

Study of the role of politicians and bureaucrats in the socalled programme of democratic decentralisation has brought
out interesting data on readjustment of the relationship between
the two. Understandably after independence the bureaucrats did
not relish the shift of power from them to political leaders. In
their turn, the political leaders at higher levels did not want the
power to be shared by those at lower level. Data from this
study has shown that, having acquired the power from the
bureaucracy, the political leaders at various levels have managed
to mollify the latter by:

113

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

alternative channels. Extension of the Naxalbari movement
within the four West Bengal villages—Haringhata, Dakshin
Duttapara, Amdanga and Kamdevpur—is an example. While
this is not intended as a detailed study of the confrontation of
the Naxalites with the established authorities, the very existence
of such a movement in the villages is an indication of the res­
ponse of the exploited people.

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Biplab Biswas had been an active member of the Kohinoor
Club of Amdanga (24 Parganas), working as its secretary. He
was politically quite active and deeply resented the exploitation
of the poor by the rich. Quite suddenly one day, he absconded
to evade arrest by the police. Only then the family learnt that
he had been a Naxalite. Nothing has been heard of him since he
disappeared on 26 December 1972. He had been a bright stu­
dent and had got a good job in a co-operative bank in Calcutta
after studies. His financial contribution was of great help to his
ailing father, who is a railway employee and has to support a
family of ten. Biswas was also a great source of inspiration to
his brothers and sisters. They had also to forego the financial
support which they needed so desperately. Over and above,
the entire family was under constant police surveillance. To be
on the safe side, people in the village started avoiding them
and the entire family was socially ostracised.
The four West Bengal villages also provide several other
instances of the revolt of the youth against traditional leader­
ship. This revolt has been a part of the state-wide political
movement which brought in the United Front ministry in West
Bengal in 1967 and again in 1969. As a counter move, these
villages also experienced the terror that was let loose on the
young activists following the overthrow of that government
in 1971.2 They also witnessed the open rigging of the election
of 1971 to the state legislature. They also saw how1 two counter
youth organisations—the Chhatra Parishad and Youth Con­
gress—were brought into being overnight by the old leadership
and local anti-social elements were employed by these organisa­
tions to liquidate the revolt of the youth. Many youth
leaders and active political workers were severely beaten up

2A. Mitra, The Hoodlum Years, New Delhi, Orient Longman, 1979.

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SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONTROL

115

and a few were even put to death. Many others went under­
ground. No trace was left of yet others. In 1972-74, when
a detailed study of the villages was being carried out, the
Chhatra Parishad and the Youth Congress were receiving con­
siderable patronage and support from the entire government
machinery including the police. With this support, they could
keep the earlier youth movement totally subdued and
suppressed.
During the Emergency, this blockage of access for villagers
to the previously established democratic and administrative
channels was practised much more openly and at times with
even greater ruthlessness, throughout the country in general
and in the states of north India in particular. Even though the
degree of political consciousness in the remaining fifteen villages
was much less than what was prevailing in the West Bengal
villages, in these villages also there have been several instances
of resistance in the form of rearguard action, evasive manoeuvres
and even desperate and utterly foredoomed frontal armed attacks
against the police. The people’s response to Emergency atrocities
culminated in the victory of the opposition in the general
elections in March 1977. The consequent reopening of the
earlier democratic administrative channels enabled the people
to exert much greater pressure on the system and because of
this they could wrest greater concessions from it.
This is most evident in the West Bengal villages, where the
earlier youth movement regained its momentum while the
Chhatra Parishad and Youth Congress-led activists evaporated
as quickly as they had come into being. One consequence of
these changes was that closely following on the election of the
members of Lok Sabha and members of the State Legislature of
West Bengal from the constituencies covered by these four
villages, the residents elected an entirely new set of people to
head the respective village Panchayats. In the remaining fifteen
villages there have also been changes in the power balance in
favour of the underprivileged sections, though the degree of this
change was less pronounced. In the nine villages belonging to
the north Indian states of U.P., Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat
even though there were changes in representatives in Parliament
and respective state legislatures, the village leadership structure

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remained almost intact. But it came under heavier pressure to
respond to the aspirations of the underprivileged sections.
As will be discussed in greater details in Chapter 10, similar
increase in the pressure from the underprivileged was also
noted in the six villages of south Indian states of Karnataka,
Kerala and Tamil Nadu, even though the political complexion
of their representatives in the parliament and in the respective
state legislatures remained almost unchanged.

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONTROL

L

Activities or Political Parties

i. Villages where political parties are quite active and visible;
ii. Villages where membership of a political party is considered
as a convenient label by the village leadership to keep in
line with those who control political power at higher levels;
and
iii. Villages where the leadership considers this labelling against
their interests and avoid identifying with any political party.

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

The villages can be divided into three categories in terms of
activities of political parties:

I

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116

The village Pullambadi of Tamil Nadu stood out sharply in
terms of visibility of political parties. There was the Congress
(O) Mandapam, Congress (R) Mandapam and DMK (Dravida
Munnetra Kazhagam) Mandapam. All three were situated in the
very heart of the village and all engaged in feverish competition
with one another in terms of colour and glitter of Mandapams,
blare of loudspeakers pouring out film music from the top of
tall flagpoles. But there was little in terms of ideological
encounters among them. The fight was more in terms of
glamour and personalities of the leaders of the respective parties
and how much they had been able to give to the people who
counted in the village.
Political ideology was a major consideration in the alignment
of villagers with political parties in Coyalmannam and Pazhambalakode in the neighbouring state of Kerala. As pointed out
earlier in this chapter, these are the only villages where the
poor landless and tenant farmers have been organised in the
form of a labour union under the leadership of a political
party—the CPI-M. Interestingly, ranged against them are parties

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117

of the ruling alliance of Congress (R) and CPI, which are
backed by more affluent and economically dominant sections of
the population. In this connection the efforts of the members
of the Praja Socialist Party (PSP), which is also a member of
the political alliance ruling the state and which controls the
health portfolio in the state government, to extend the influence
of the party with the help of the patronage offered through the
health department, was interesting. Apart from getting political
support for the party, health services personnel were encourag­
ed to support the party financially so that “people of the
health department in Trivandrum” were kept happy and these
(PHC) personnel did not suffer from harassments in the
form of transfers and various other kinds of administrative
manoeuvres.
The clash of political ideology then was most conspicuous in
the four West Bengal villages which had experienced political
moves of the Congress (R) to suppress parties supporting the
United Front government of West Bengal in 1967. As counter
to such suppression, these four villages experienced intense
political activities culminating in the victory of the left parties—
Janata alliance at the Lok Sabha poll in March 1977 and suc­
cess of the United Left Front of the CPI-M, the Forward Bloc,
the Revolutionary Socialist Party and some other parties in the
election to the state legislature a few months later. This was
followed by the sweeping success of the CPI-M in the elections
to the Panchayats at the village, anchal and district levels in
1978.

The account of Raghvendra Singh of the Rajasthan village
of Rohat, who shifted his position innumerable times, provides
an instance of changing political labels of leaders to suit the exi­
gencies of the political situation at state and national levels.
The Gowda leadership in the Karnataka villages of Jadigenhalli,
Yelwal and Kalur have also changed their labels from Congress
(O) to Congress (R) according to the shifting allegiance of the
Gowda leaders of the taluk, district and state levels. Mention
has already been made about the leadership of the Socialist
Party in the village Arnavali. The Jat farmers of the villages
of Rohota, Arnavali and Bilaspur flaunt the label of Bharatiya
Kranti Dal (BKD). The Banias of Kachhona are supporters

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SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONTROL

POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

of the Jana Sangh.
However, the dominant trend even in the most politicised of
villages of West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu is to avoid
getting stuck with a label of a political party, not to speak of
having a firm political ideology. This trend was almost absolute
in the nine villages of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat
and Haryana. This gave the influential people of these villages
much greater flexibilty to bargain more effectively with the
political leadership at higher levels.
The split in the Congress Party in 1969 provided a vivid
illustration of the relationship of caste, class, power and politi­
cal affiliations in rural India. The pace was set by struggle for
power at the national level to control both the government and
the party machine. This struggle was essentially a fight among
those who formed the very top of the hierarchy of the govern­
ment and of the party, namely the Prime Minister of the coun­
try, the chief ministers of states and their cabinet colleagues,
on one side and the party chiefs and their executives, on
the other side. The financial supporters from the business
and industry as usual played their vital role from behind the
scene. The members of Parliament and state legislatures and
the political bosses at the district level were mobilised as soldiers
by these generals. The outcome of the fight was a major redistri­
bution of power among the victorious generals. Having wrested
their opponents at the national level by retaining their hold on
the Union Government, the Congress (R) used this advantage to
capture the governments in the majority of states.
The impact of the power struggle at the apex was felt at the
base. It is, however, significant that the impact at the base—at
the village level—was not even on the issues which led to the
split at the top. It was much more naked in terms of access to
power. There has been a virtual stampede among the village
bosses to side with the Congress (R) in the states where Congress
(R) captured the government (Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajas­
than and partly Kerala), leading to almost extinction of Con­
gress (O). In the states where Congress (O) managed to with­
stand the pressure of the Union Government (Gujarat and
Karnataka), the village bosses held steadfastly to it. The sole
aim of the leadership is. to cling to power and they do not want

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issues of political scruples, convictions, morality and conscience
or ideological commitment to come in the way.
Political repercussions of the split in Pullambadi were quite
different from the rest in many ways. In the first place, as
Tamil Nadu was dominated by a regional party (the DMK),
the national split in the Congress did not have that much of
an impact. A more important consideration was the deep-seated
loyalty of the villagers to K. Kamaraj who sided with the Con­
gress (O) and who became one of its major leaders. Kamaraj
had won the admiration of the people of Pullambadi not by
his charisma but by having greater rapport with the people and
by responding to their needs, which included some of the needs
of the poor and downtrodden.
The Pullambadi Canal and the housing scheme for Harijans,
which were implemented during his time as the Chief Minister
of Tamil Nadu, had earned Kamaraj the respect and affection
of all sections of the village population. This bond was so
strong in Pullambadi that it withstood the “DMK wave” that
swept the state and the “Indira wave” that swept the Congress
Party after its split. The Panchayat Union was swept off by
the “DMK wave”, but the villagers of Pullambadi remained
loyal to Kamaraj and the village Panchayat remained a
Congress (O) citadel. Only when Kamaraj passed away and
there was a split in the DMK, did the people of the village feel
free to look for new pastures in other political parties.
Political Movements and Election Campaigns

I

The two Gujarat villages, Rupal and Gambhoi, provided very
useful data on the interrelationship of political activities at the
village, state and national levels. In 1969, the influential sections
of the leadership of these villages were followers of the Con­
gress (O) which was the ruling party in the state. But the
Congress (R) leadership of the Union Government used its
various resources to counter the power of patronage of the
state leadership. Finally, after a bitterly contested struggle, it
managed to oust the Congress (O) government in the state.
This strengthened the influence of the other sections of the
leadership in the two villages. But before long, the opposition

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

started to assert itself when the employment situation worsened
and it caused unrest among university students. Prices also
started to rise, cost of agricultural production started to go up,
cutting the margin of the surplus farmers and there was a
general deterioration in the law and order situation in the
state.
The Lok Sabha by-election for the Sabarkantha constit­
uency provided an inside view of the mechanism of mobilising
villagers for an election. It was observed that money played
an important part not only in meeting the cost of an expensive
election campaign and transport of villagers to the polling
stations but also in trying to “buy” votes. Agents from the
rival parties visited the study villages and developed contacts
with influential persons who are capable of delivering votes to
their respective candidates. One such contact was Lalit Kumar
Chawda, who talked freely to the investigator about how
Congress(R) workers had contacted him and left money
with him to ensure that it was distributed to Harijans through
their headman on the condition that their votes would go to
Congress(R). Not to be left behind in the game, the opposition
also mobilised considerable funds to interest people in their
candidate. Further, the opposition capitalised on the acts
of omission and commission of the Congress(R) government,
both at the state and central levels, and they skilfully
appealed to the local patriotism of the villagers by asking them
to vote for a sister of the late Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who
was their candidate. A large section of the village population
got swayed by the efforts of the Opposition and their can­
didate got an overwhelming majority of the votes from Rupal
and Gambhoi. Similar shifts had obviously taken place in
other villages of the consituency.
Anti-government feelings in Gujarat gathered greater
momentum with further deterioration of the situation and it
culminated in a massive students’ movement. The Navnirman
Samiti Movement started from Ahmedabad and soon spread
to other cities of the state. The students then tried to get the
villagers involved. Busloads of student members of the Samiti
came to Rupal from Ahmedabad, shouting slogans and exhor­
ting the villagers to join their movement to overthrow what they

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONTROL

121

branded as a corrupt and anti-people government in Ahmeda­
bad. The investigator also noted the enthusiastic response of
certain affluent and influential sections of the villagers to the
call of the Navnirman Samiti. No efforts were made by the Samiti
workers to involve the poorer sections of the population in the
movement, and neither was there, any response to the movement
from the latter. They remained passive to the political struggle
between the two sections of the better off population and
seemed to know full well that whoever prevails, the results will
not materially change their-plight.
The investigator working in the U.P. village, Arnavali, got
an opportunity of making a detailed participant observation
study as was the case in the above mentioned instance of the
mechanics of the elections of the Block Pramukh of thw
R Block, held on 2 March 1973. It generated considerable
interest as it was a very prestigious election. Moreover, the
honorary post of Block Pramukh could also be very remunera­
tive through “sale” of patronage of various kinds. The 47 Gram
Pradhans of the block, five nominated members from co-opera­
tives, five nominated women members, two “progressive”
farmers, one chairman of the town area falling within the
block and the local members of Parliament and state legislature
constituted the electorate for this election.
The contest was mainly between Nandan Singh, a Tyagi
by caste and Sumer Singh, a Jat, though there were five more
candidates (two Jats, one Brahmin, one Tyagi and one
Harijan). Nandan Singh had been the Block Pramukh since
the inception of this institution and was a reputable politician
of long standing. His main opponent was a rich agriculturist
who was the leader of the village Panchayats.
Right till election time, it was expected that Nandan Singh
would retain his position. He managed to persuade Mangal
Singh, a Jat candidate and the Gram Pradhan of Arnavali to
withdraw in his favour. His main opposition came from Saran
Tyagi, a fellow Tyagi, who was a secretary of the district
Congress(R) party. Nandan Singh had defeated Tyagi in earlier
election battles; first, when he stood as a candidate of the
Communist Party of India, and later, as an independent
candidate. Subsequently by joining the Congress(R), Tyagi

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

wanted to settle old scores with Nandan Singh by using his
influence to divide the Tyagi votes.
Money was the main instrument for canvassing support and
it was used openly and quite lavishly. Price tags for a vote
ranged from Rs 700 to as much as Rs 2,000. One nominated
woman voter, the wife of a Harijan village head, got Rs 1500
in return for her commitment to vote for Sumer Singh. Once
a “deal is struck”, the voter goes out of circulation and he/she
is made to stay within the camp of the candidate who had paid
foi him/her. The voter is offered hospitality on a lavish scale
which includes unlimited supply of liquor, often imported.
The very lavishness of the hospitality, however, boomeranged on Nandan Singh. Four of his “captive” supporters
were so dead drunk when they were escorted to the polling
booth by his supporters that they could not even put the stamp
against his name and all the four votes were declared invalid.
Nandan Singh lost to Sumer Singh by just four votes. Split in
the Tyagi votes and invalidation of the votes of his four
supporters led to his defeat and the Jats made history by elec­
ting Sumer Singh as the first Jat Block Pramukh of R Block.
Sumer Singh celebrated this victory by throwing a puri-subzi
party, attended by some 2,000 guests.

CHAPTER NINE

Quantitative “
Datai on Social and Economic
Profiles of Special Categories

Quantitative data have earlier been presented in Chapter 3
to provide a background to the quantitative data given tn the
subsequent five chapters. Quantitative data on social and eco­
nomic profiles of certain specific categories of the study popu­
lation are being presented in this chapter to give a more com­
prehensive picture of some of the issues that have been discussed
in the previous five chapters.
Ideally, the identification of these categories ought to have
emerged as a result of analysis of extensive tabulations and
cross-tabulations of the data. However, due to various reasons, it
has not been possible to have such a facility. The author ha
to get reconciled to only a limited degree of cross-tabulations.
Fortunately, within these limitations it has been possible to
obtain profiles of seven special categories apart from a category
comprising the total population:
i. Those who do not get full meals for three months or more

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in the year: the Hungry
ii. Those who are Harijans: the Harijans
iii. Those who belong to other backward castes: the Backward

Castes
or in a trade:
iv. Those who are engaged in a regular service
the Service and Trade Group
Those
with more than five acres of dry land or those with
v.
less than one acre of wet land with or without dry land.
More Than 5 Acres Dry Land or Less Than 1 Acre Wet Land
vi. Those with 1-3 acres of wet land, with or without extra dry

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land: 1-3 Acres Wet Land
yii. Those with more than three acres of wet land, with or
without extra .dry land: More Than 3 Acres Wet Land

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

From the above tabulation of the seven identifiable cate­
gories it became apparently logical to identify an eighth category
of respondents who “do not own any wet land or who have
less than five acres of dry land or have no land at all and who
are not engaged in any regular service or trade”, by deducting
the respondents forming the categories iv, v, vi, vii above from
the total population of the respondents. This would have left
a section that is essentially very poor, consisting principally of
agricultural or non-agricultural labourers, sharecroppers arti­
sans or the unemployed. It has been designated as the “Poor
Labourers”. However, a flaw in this simple arithmetical identi­
fication of a category of the poor is that (as shown in Table
.-0,many of those who have a service or a trade, also own
land. Because of this, in addition to falling under the category
iv above, some of them figure again in the categories v, vi and
vn. These people then are counted twice while making deduc­
tions from the total, resulting not only in underestimating the
absolute number of the “Poor Labourers”, but to some extent
attectmg the social and economic profiles of this category. This
has often created an absurd situation (as in Tables 33, 34 42
43 44, 45, 50, 52, 54) where arithmetic calculations have actual­
ly led to negative numbers. For calculating column percentages
tiese negatn'e figures have been ignored. Nevertheless, this
(eighth).category has been retained because, despite these limita­
tions, it provides significant insights into the quantitative data
particularly when the profile of this category is compared with
that of (he other seten categories and of the total population.

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Furthermore, the seven categories cannot also be considered
as pure. As has been pointed out above, many of those with
service or trade also have lands of various sizes and qualities.
So, categories iv, v, vi and vii are not “pure”; they are “con­
taminated”. Similarly, a petty peddler who earns a rupee and
a half a day, or one who is engaged in a service with a monthly
wage of Rs 50, are included among others who may have
monthly incomes running into four figures. Further, “dry” or
“wet” land ownership do not depict the differences in producti­
vity of land in different geographical regions. There is also the
question of family size. All
— these
——~ are in addition to many
possible, sampling and. non-sampling statistical errors that

DATA ON SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROFILES

125

might have crept into such a quantitative study.
As in the case of the group of the “Poor Labourers”, des­
pite these limitations, the data concerning the first seven groups
are valuable, because of the insights they provide and because
of their use in comparing the profiles of these different groups.
As has been pointed out in Chapter 3, while taking the
sample from the villages, in some cases the sample size had to
be increased beyond the postulated 20 per cent, while in some
others, samples which are much smaller than 20 per cent had
sufficed the purpose. The purpose was to get a representative
sample of a reasonable size from each one of the nineteen
villages. However, as drawing up of profiles of the eight
special groups and the total study population needed summation
of respondents belonging to each one of the nineteen study
villages, to ensure same wightage to all villages, suitable
corrections were made to bring percentages up or down exactly
to 20 per cent. Because of these corrections, the frequencies
have acquired decimal points.
In themselves, profiles of each of the eight groups against
each of the 23 parameters provide significant insights into
many aspects of village life. In addition, it is possible to obtain
a more extensive, intensive and integrated account of the groups
by linking such information on each group with the related
parameters from the Tables 4 to 26 and the numerous case
reports, observations and interview responses presented in
Chapters 4-8, and later, in Chapter 10.

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Table 31 sums up many of the outstanding findings of the
entire study.
While it is significant that with a percentage of 19.7 of the
total, the Harijans accounted for 29.5 per cent of those who go
hungry for three months or more and 33.5 per cent of the “Poor
Labourers”, a fact of much greater significance is that as many
as 70.0 per cent of the “Hungry” and 66.5 per cent of the “Poor
Labourers” are among those who are not Harijans—while con­
stituting 12.5 per cent of the total population, the trading caste
forms as much as 15.9 per cent of the “Hungry” and 10.2 per
cent of “
in a nprrAnta™
‘‘Poor Labourers”:; the; correspond
corresponding
percentages

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DATA ON SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROFILES

being 18.1, 15.0 and 20.0 for the backward castes, 30.6, 24.6
and 25.3 for other cultivator castes and 11.2, 11.8 and 10.3
for Muslims. Only the Brahmins, having corresponding per­
centages of 7.9, 3.2 and 0.7 are conspicuous in having a
very favourable position.
The fact that the Harijans form as much as 5.4, 11.0 and
11.6 per cent respectively of those who own more than 3 acres
of wet land, 1-3 acres of wet land and over 5 acres of dry
land or less than an acre of wet land, acquires considerable sig­
nificance when it is considered against the background of the
findings that (a) 70.5 per cent of the people, who are not Hari­
jans, have to be hungry for three months or more in a year
and that (b) there is also pronounced social and economic
stratification amongst the Harijans themselves. (See the repeat­
ed references to practice of untouchability and other acts of
exploitation by Chamars against the Bhangis and the desperate
economic conditions of Bhangis in Chapters 7, 8, and 9).
In this desperately poor country, the bulk of commu­
nity resources are usurped by the small minority of affluent
classes. Out of the very limited resources that are earmarked
for the poor and the exploited sections, a substantial fraction
is specifically earmarked for Harijans—the Scheduled
Castes. Thus depriving the huge majority of the poor who
do not happen to be among the Scheduled Castes. Ah
even more disquieting aspect is that even among the Harir
jans, those who belong to the reasonably well-off sections—
constituting 10.8 per cent, who are holders of wet land or
those who already hold relatively lucrative government jobs
from the quota reserved for Harijans—benefit more from the
funds that are specially earmarked for the welfare of Harijans.
How far have these welfare measures improved the conditions
of the Harijans belonging to the lower half or even the lower
three quarters of the Harijan population? Taking a more
concrete example, how is it that in spite of the bounties of the
Green Revolution, and the resources for “welfare” of Harijans
and in spite of the struggle of Harijans against atrocities
of the upper castes, that Bhangis have still (March 1981)
been found to live under such intolerable conditions in the
villages of Rohota and Arnavaii in Meerut (see Chapter 10)? The

very Chamars of Rupal who were outraged at the refusal of a
barber to cut the hair of a Chamar, practise with impunity a
much more abhorrent form of untouchability against the
Bhangis. The poor Bhangis in Rupal, Rohota as well as . Arnavali appear to have been dehumanised, by the malignant forces
of socialisation at work on them maybe for centuries, to such
an extreme degree that they seem to have lost the ability to
realise their right to claim a portion of the rssources for
Harijan welfare and that there is a law to protect them from
the degrading practice of untouchability, be it by the upper
castes or by Harijan Chamars.
In the 1980 revisit to village Rohota, the encouraging infor­
mation was obtained to the effect that braving the openly biased
and even hostile attitude of the Jat and Brahmin teachers of the
village school, one Harijan student belonging to the village had
obtained admission to the medical college at Meerut from the
quota reserved for Harijans. In the most recent revisit (March
1981), it was found that the student had become a physician
and again with the help of quota reserved for Harijans, he had
received priority in being allotted a government job and posted
to a government hospital in Allahabad. It was also found that
meanwhile, yet another Harijan student had similarly obtained
admission to a medical college, this time at Kanpur. In addition
to reservation for admission, they have also received free
tuition, special scholarship and financial assistance for buying
books, instruments etc. It was, however, discovered during
the March 193-1 revisit that both these students belong to
the same family and that the family is quite well-off. Taking
advantage of job reservation policy, one brother is a police
sub-inspector and the father of the medical student at
Kanpur is a telephone operator in Meerut. Another brother is
an Assistant Telephone Officer in Delhi. Besides, the family
also has its own irrigated land. It is highly questionable that
the investments that have gone into the making of the two
Harijans physicians are in any way linked with improvement of
the living conditions of the poorest of the poor Harijans, even
if one leaves aside the case of the non-Harijan poor who form
over two-thirds of the population of the poor.
Despite renewal of the reservation provision in the Constitu-

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

DATA ON SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROFILES

tion, decade after decade, apart from some strengthening of the
privileged classes among Harijans and providing very marginal
benefits to some segments, these efforts have had little impact on
the hard core poor among them. Even if it is presumed that the
ruling classes did sincerely believe that such reservations are good
for the emancipation of Harijans, there appears to be some
meaning in their naivete in nurturing such beliefs. The reserva­
tion laws enabled the ruling classes to put up a facade that
“much is being done for the weaker sections, for the downtrod­
den, for the poorest of the poor.” This championing of the cause
of Harijan comes very handy to political parties in capturing
the block votes of Harijans in elections. By helping in the co­
option of a few “upper class” Harijans within the privileged
classes, the reservation rules contribute to the perpetuation of
the existing social system.
Data given in Table 31 show that the trading castes, Brah­
mins and Muslims have disproportionately high representation
in the “Service and Trade Group”. Again the Brahmins along
with the “other cultivator castes” have proportionately high
representation among the three landholding groups, namely
those with 3 acres or more wet land or with 1-3 acres of wet
land or with more than 5 acres dry or less than one acre
wet land with or without some dry land. The Brahmins .thus
occupy a distinctly advantageous position amongst the six caste
groups.

Once again, these data seriously call into question the basic
foundations of the policy of job reservation and special finan­
cial programmes for the Harijans as a means to uplift the
“weaker sections of the society”. Money spent on the basis of
this policy bypasses two-thirds of poor labourers and, worse
still, even among Harijans, a substantial proportion of this
money is cornered by those who belong to the upper one-fifth
of the economic strata among Harijans, who do not belong to
the “Poor Labourers” group and who do not have to go hungry
because of poverty. Programmes such as “Food for Work,”
now called “Rural Employment Scheme”, provide an obvious
framework for a policy alternative. Such programmes not only
ensure that its focus is on the poor, who also include four-fifths
of the Harijans, but they also ensure that resources do not go
to those Harijans who are not poor. Indeed, a programme for
organising the poor to launch an active struggle to wrest a
reasonable return for their labour was visualised as a compo­
nent of such a policy in the revised Draft Sixth Five Year Plan:
1978-83.3 It converts what has turned out to be a “divide
and rule” and “co-optive” strategy of the reservation; policy
into a strategy for mass struggle of the poor.
There is ample justification for inclusion of the “Poor
Labourers” as an additional category among the profiles (Table
31). With the profiles of the “Hungry ’, those of the “Poor
Labourers” represent segments of rural population which are not
only much larger in absolute size than the Harijans but which
are also much poorer (in terms of landholding, trade and
service) and at the same time, includes the vast majority of the
Harijans. Consideration of such profiles along with those of
Harijans, the Backward Castes and the other four groups,
provides both a depth as well as perspective to the data.

128

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It is also worth noting that while the “other cultivator castes”
constitute 30.6 per cent of the total, this group accounts for as
much as 25.3 per cent of the “Poor Labourers”.
Another point worthy of note is that as much as two-thirds
of those belonging to “Poor Labourers” group are non-Harijans.
The group of “Poor Labourers” is worse off than Harijans.
There is nothing unexpected about it, because it forms a class,
while the Harijans represent a caste. However, as in the case
of the “Hungry” group, these data acquire considerable signifi­
cance when it is recognised that as much as two-thirds of the
problem of “Poor Labourers” lie outside the pale of the Hari­
jan caste and that a significant number of the Harijans are
better off than “Poor Labourers”, as they fall under the three
landholding groups or under “Service and Trade”.

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Profile of the Categories in Terms of Hunger
Satisfaction, Landholding and Occupation

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The degree of hunger satisfaction among the different groups
is given in Table 32. Those who cannot satisfy their hunger for
’Government of India, Draft Sixth Five Year Plan (Revised), New Delhi,
Planning Commission, 1979, p. 4.

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DATA ON SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROFILES

3 to 6 months constitute 87.1 percent, with those who cannot
satisfy hunger for more than six months forming the remain­
ing 13.0 per cent. The “Poor Labourers” group is distinctly
worse off than Harijans in terms of every variable: 59.0 per cent
of them suffering hunger for 3 months or more with the corres­
ponding percentage of the Harijans at 49.3 per cent. Expectedly,
those with wet lands have almost no hunger. However, in
“More Than 5 Acres of Dry Land” and the “Service and Trade”
categories as many as 30 per cent are not able to fully satisfy
their hunger all the year round, with about 18 per cent suffering
hunger for three months or more.
Table 33 on landholding presents three major findings. It
shows that within the “More Than 5 Acres of Dry Land” cate­
gory, along with those with more than five acres of dry land
(forming 62.8 per cent), there are 37.2 per cent of those who own
less than one acre of wet land, with or without some extra dry
land. It also presents the distribution of land among the “Service
and Trade” group, which is responsible for the anomalous
situation having negative figures in the distribution among “Poor
Labourers”. Finally, when each group is compared with the total
population, the Table also vividly depicts the dichotomy between
the landless and the landed groups, with the “Backward Castes”
conforming to the percentage >of the total population only in
terms of land distribution. This Table also shows distribution of
wet land and over five acres of dry land among the Harijans.
Table 34 has data showing that in “Service and Trade”.
57.9 per cent are engaged in service and 42.1 per cent in trade.
Non-agricultural labourers and unemployed form substantial
percentages among the “Harijans”, the “Poor Labourers” and
“the Hungry”. As expected, landholders are concentrated
heavily on agricultural occupation. The fact that many who
are engaged in “Service and Trade” also have land in various
measures once again points to the anomalous situation of
negative figures in the distribution of “Poor Labourers”.

have been based on past record of these events, some portions
represent cohorts belonging to the earlier era, which was often
distinguished by high birth and death rates. Even after making
concessions on this account, these two Tables reflect a very large
number of births as well as deaths: many belonging to various
groups reflecting as many as nine or more births and eight or
more deaths in a single family.
Within this overall setting, the groups which own wet land
stand out prominently in having as low as 23.8 and 25.9
per cent of those who have three children or less at the time of
the interviews. The group having “More Than 5 Acres of Dry
Land” is seen in company with the “Hungry” and the Harijans
with 31.0, 25.3 and 33.0 per cent, respectively. Those with the
largest percentage—a family size of three children or less—are
the “Service and Trade” group, the “Backward Castes”, and
the “Poor Labourers”. Seen from the other extreme presented
in Table 35, the three landowning categories come together
in having an astonishing 45.6, 51.7 and 49.1 per cent respect­
ively, with six or more children. The “Hungry” and the Harijans
form another group with 40.7 and 41.2 percent, respectively;
the “Backward Castes” and the “Poor Labourers” have 36.4 and
36.3 per cent, respectively. That “Service and Trade” forms the
lowest categeory with as many as 41.5 per cent hgving six children
or more, provides an idea of family size of the study population.
A still more remarkable feature is the lowest child-death
rates, reported by the very landowning groups which topped
the list among those having six children or more. The “Service
and Trade” group also has lower deaths. The most significant
data concern the Harijans. As many as 18.1 per cent of them
have reported losing more than four children and as many as
57.9 per cent have lost at least one child. These findings become
even more significant when they are related to the fact that the
Harijans had registered at least a lower number of births—com­
ing fourth in the rank among those who have three children or
less and again coming fourth from below among those having
six children or more.

130

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Profile of the Groups in Terms of Childbirths and
Child-deaths

Table 35 shows the number of children born to a family and
Table 36, the number of children that have died. As the data
•1 1

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

Consumption of Alcohol
Table 37 shows a very sharp polarisation in terms of those
who do not drink alcohol. On one side are the three landowning

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categories and the “Service and Trade” group having almost fourfifths falling in this category. The Hungry, the Poor Labourers
and the Harijans form the other group with only half mention­
ing that they do not drink. The Backward Castes come in bet­
ween the two poles. Significantly, among the three groups, the
Hungry and the Poor Labourers are well ahead of the Harijans
in terms of those who reported that they drink daily.

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The Poor Labourers and the Hungry stand out among the
groups who have markedly poor knowledge about local Panchayat members (Table 38), the local Member of Legislative
Assembly (Table 39) and the local Member of Parliament (Table
40). At the other extreme, the three landowning categories show
consistently higher percentages in these spheres. For all the groups
there is a declining gradient in the knowledge as one goes from
the Panchayat members to the M.L.A. and then to the M.P.
While the Harijans and the Backward Castes remain in
company with the seven categories in their knowledge about
Panchayat members, they distinctly fall behind the remaining
five in terms of knowledge about the M.L.A. There is a further
shift in the form of “defection” of the “Service and Trade”
group to the Harijans and the Backward Castes category, when
it comes to assessing their knowledge concerning the local M.P.
A notable feature of all the three Tables is that the three
landowning groups had been consistent in being ahead of the
rest. Among themselves, the “More than Three Acres of Wet
Land” group has been consistently ahead of the other two cate­
gories. The gradient in the decline in knowledge has also been
more gradual: for the Poor Labourers, it has gone down from
72.5 percent in Table 38 to 27.5 in Table 40; the corresponding
decline for Harijans is from 86.4 to 46.1; and the decline is
only from 98.2 to 79.8 for those with more than three acres of
wet land.
During 1972-74 the voting behaviour of the different groups
had remained undifferentiated at the Panchayat level (Table 41).
However, differences became sharper in terms of voting for can­
didates for the state legislature and the Lok Sabha (Tables 42

DATA ON SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROFILES

133

and 43). Only the group “More Than 3 Acres of Wet Land” has a
large percentage of those who voted for their “acquaintances
or “as told”. Notwithstanding limitations of the data due obvi­
ously to more pronounced non-sampling errors, it is revealed
that the Hungry, the Poor Labourers and the Backward Castes
are the categories which voted for the CPI-M or CPI-M/CPI in
larger numbers than the other groups. It is also noteworthy
that the Harijans are definitely differentiated from those cate­
gories in voting for CPI-M (Table 42) or CPI-M/CPI(Table 43).
The Backward Castes are more favourable to CPI-M or CPI
than the Harijans. The three landowning categories and the
“Service and Trade” group have quite clearly shied away from
these parties.

Use of Mass Media, Visits Outside Village and
Participation in Co-operative and Community Development
Data on these aspects are presented in Tables 44-50. These
Tables provide a broad perspective of the different sections and
their response to the world beyond. In this context each one
of these seven Tables present a distinct polarisation between the
poor and the rest. The Hungry and the Poor Labourers consti­
tute the poor. The Harijans are also included in this category,
but as some (about a fifth) are not poor, the Harijans become
a little differentiated from the other two groups.
In terms of newspaper readership (Table 44), the Harijans
are firmly with the Hungry and the Poor Labourers in having
virtually nobody who reads a newspaper. At the other extreme,
interestingly, the “Service and Trade” group is joined by those
with “1-3 Acres of Wet Land” to head the list in this sphere.
In terms of radio-listening (Table 45), the hiatus between the
Harijans and the other two categories of the poor opens up a
little bit. On the other side, those with “More Than 3 Acres of
Wet Land” join those with “1-3 Acres of Wet Land” and
“Service and Trade” at the top of the Table. The shift from the
25.6 per cent of written word (Table 44) to 43.7 per cent of
spoken and (Table 45) in the case of “More Than 3 Acres of
Wet Land” category is worthy of note.
While the poor remain very much at the bottom in terms of
participation in co-operatives (Table 46), the three landowning

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DATA ON SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROFILES

POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

categories are conspicuous in their relatively high degree of
participation, with the Backward Castes and the “Service and
Trade” categories occupying middle positions.
The pattern is virtually the same in terms of their knowledge
about the Community Development Organisation (Table 47).
It may be recalled that reference here is only to knowledge about
the organisation and not to the philosophy of community parti­
cipation which forms the central theme. Indeed, the distribution
of those who have some knowledge of the organisation in Table
47 indicates that this knowledge is linked with the landowning
class.
The difference between the Hungry and the Poor Labourers on
the one hand and Harijans on the other comes out more sharply
in terms of city visits (Table 48). While 42 per cent of the former
had never visited a city, the corresponding percentage is 2.36
for Harijans. The Backward Castes and the group with “More
Than 5 Acres of Dry Land” are also with the Harijans, with
the “Service and Trade” group not far behind. The two
groups with wet landholdings are distinctive in their having
very low percentages of those who have never visited the city.
The same trend is broadly maintained in Table 49, showing
visits to a market. The two categories of the poor remain quite
different from the Harijans, while in the case of market visits
the “More Than 5 Acres of Dry Land” section has the highest
percentage daily visiters to market, with the four other categories
having a fourth to a fifth of their group falling in this category.
In terms of visits to other villages (Table 50), not only do
the Harijans continue to be well ahead of the other two cate­
gories of the poor, but surprisingly, even “Service and Trade”
group, the category with “1-3 Acres of Wet Land” and Back­
ward Castes seem to trail behind them.
Data from all three Tables (Tables 48, 49 and 50) on visits
outside indicate consistently that the Harijans move about more
than the others among the poor and compare well with many
of the “non-poor” groups.

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Housing, Availability of a Latrine, Electricity and Radio

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As is evident from Table 51, the polarisation between the
groups is much less in terms of the nature of housing. As the data

I

135

presented in this Table do not take into account the complex
considerations regarding floor area, compound, kitchen-garden
or orchards and as the nature of construction of houses is rooted
in the local culture and local geographical conditions (Table 4),
these findings are not unexpected.
Even against the obviously very poor level of availability of
latrines in the study villages, it is significant that the “Service
and Trade” group is well ahead of the rest (Table 52) with the
“More Than 3 Acres of Waste Land” category following it.
Virtually none of the poor has a latrine. The situation is at most
slightly better in the case of the remaining three sections.
The polarisation within the categories becomes more promi­
nent in terms of availability of electricity (Table 53). The two
“Wet Landholding” groups and the ‘‘Service and Trade” groups
are well ahead of the others. For a change, while the Harijans
and the Poor Labourers have virtually no electricity connections,
relative to them, the position of the Hungry is better. The dis­
tribution of the groups is similar in terms of radio-ownership
(Table 54), with even greater similarities among the three cate­
gories of the poor.

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SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE VILLAGES

An Overview of Social, Economic and Political Changes
in the Study Villages

CHAPTER TEN

Social Change in the Villages During
1972-81*

I
Organisation of the Data

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Even from the first round study of the villages, the data
obtained from bibliographical material, depth interviews,
case reports and from some of the questions included in the
schedule, provided a perspective of some social, economic
and political changes that have taken place in the study
population. With these data it has also been possible to define
the major components which form and maintain different
social, economic and political equilibria in the village commu­
nities. References have been made in the preceding chapters
to the fact that some of the equilibria are rather delicately
balanced and might get disturbed if there are even moderate
shifts in some of the forces which maintain the balance. The
several rounds of revisits provided opportunities to check
these forecasts.
As pointed out in Chapter 2 the very unstable character
of some of the equilibria studied during the first round and
some very far-reaching social and political events which had
taken place subsequently, had prompted the author to make
rounds of study of the villages from 1976 onwards. The last
round, covering all the nineteen of them, took place in the
middle of 1980. To get data on the latest position, the six
villages in south India were visited later in 1980, the four
West Bengal villages in February 1981, and the nine villages
of Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Haryana still later,
in March 1981.

’Changes in health culture are discussed separately in the companion
volume.

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137

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Even from the data presented in the preceding chapters,
it is apparent that village life has been undergoing many changes.
Also, when these various changes are analysed in terms of the
social structure, it becomes clear that most changes are confined
to the upper classes. The lower classes, which form the bulk
of the population, have not been greatly affected and their pace
of social and economic change has been very slow. They
continue to have high rates of illiteracy and are poorly in­
formed; they are steeped in various kinds of superstitions and
have many beliefs and practices that are patently obscurantist
and most of them can also be called fatalistic. It would, how­
ever, be simplistic, and even culturally arrogant, to label the
culture of these lower classes as a “culture of poverty.”1
It is contended that the prevailing high levels of illiteracy,
ignorance, superstition, obscurantism and fatalism are certainly
not passive phenomena: they are not the consequences of any
peculiarities of the “culture” of these poverty-stricken people.
Indeed, in the course of this study many types of positive for­
ces, directed towards bringing about social change, have been
identified within the lower classes. It was also observed that
these forces were actively countered by those unleashed by the
upper classes which (along with the political leadership at higher
levels and the bureaucracy), have vested social, economic and
political interests in perpetuating stagnation within the lower
classes. These two contradictory forces have generated consi­
derable tensions within the village populations. The friction
generated by the obstructive efforts of the upper classes imparts
a special character to the social change among them. Though
the pace is slow, as it is associated with considerable social
tension, social change becomes an issue of struggle between the
two classes.

*C.A. Valentine, Culture and Poverty: Critique and Counter Proposals,
Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1972; Oscar Lewis, La Vida: A
Puerto Rican Family in the Culture of Poverty, San Juan and New York,
Random House, 1966; N. Glozer and D.P. Moynihan, Beyond the Melting
Pot: The Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Italians, and Irish of New York
City, Cambridge, M.LT. Press and Harvard University Press, 1963.

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE VILLAGES

Data obtained from the revisits have revealed that:
(a) in. course of time both the opposing forces have become
stronger and with this strengthening there has been correspond­
ing intensification of social tensions within the village
populations; and, (b) with the relatively greater intensification of
the forces for social change within the lower classes, there has
been a shift in the state of equilibrium of the two opposing
forces in favour of classes and this has led to a quickening in
the pace of social change among them.
The limited data collected from the rounds of revisits are
obviously not adequate to define more precisely the range and
the quantum of social tensions and social change or the dimen­
sions, the range and the quantum of the opposing forces which
generate these tensions and changes. At best, these data can
identify, in very general terms, some of the major causes and
effects of social changes that have taken place in the course of
six to eight years of the study. Five categories of changes have
been identified on the basis of observations and analysis.
They are summarised below:
As a result of the premises made to the oppressed people
and some social action (however casual, patchy and half-hearted),
right from the days of freedom struggle, there has been a sustain­
ed increase in social and political awareness among these peo­
ple. As will be apparent from the data presented later in this
chapter, because of cumulation of this awareness and its rapid
rate of generation in the recent years, it has become increasing­
ly difficult for the upper classes to contain the forces of change
among the lower classes. This has had major repercussions on
the entire economic and political system of the country and
quickened the pace of social change.
Implications of an annual population growth of around two
per cent through the past three decades or more have been highly
complicated and varied and of considerable significance for
understanding such a change. There has neither been a loud
bang of “population explosion”, nor has there been any indica­
tion that there is a burning fuse of a “population time-bomb”.
Expectedly, the rounds of revisits have revealed that the sustain­
ed, insidious growth of population over the six to eight years
has evoked different responses from different segments of the

study population on the one hand, and from the political and
bureaucratic circles at higher levels and educated urban privi­
leged classes on the other.
Provisional population totals for the 1981 Census- which
became available when this report was being prepared, gives
an indication of the growth of population during 1971-81,
along with the rates for 1961-71 for each of the eight states
and for the entire country:

138

Decennial Growth Rate (D.G.R.) of Population

India
States
Gujarat
Haryana
Karnataka
Kerala
Rajasthan
Tamil Nadu
Uttar Pradesh
West Bengal

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Population
1981

D.G.R.
1961-71

D.G.R.
1971-81

683,810,051

+ 24.80

+ 24.75

33,960,905
12,860,902
37,043,451
25,403,217
34,102,912
48,297,456
110,858,019
54,495,560

+ 29.39
+ 32.33
+ 24.22
+ 26.29
4- 27.83
+ 22.30
+ 19.78
4- 26.87

4- 27.21
4- 28.04
4- 26.43
4- 19.00
4- 32.36
4- 17.23
4- 25.49
4- 22.96

As most of those who belong to the lower classes live a
marginal existence, the prospect of having “more mouths to
feed do not appear to be particularly alarming to this class.
After prolonged breast-feeding, the “mouths”, if at all they
manage to survive, need only a few years of feeding, after
which they become positive “assets” to the family—as baby­
sitters, as fuel-gatherers and as low-paid child labourers in
petty shops, establishments or households. Further, for this
class with relatively larger mortality and morbidity rates,
with much poorer access to medical institutions, having
more “mouths” serves as an insurance for the parents in old
age. As far as appeal to patriotism is concerned, the slogan
“country in danger” does not move them much, apparently
2Census of India, Provisional Population Totals, Series 1-India, Paper 1
of 1981, New Delhi, Registrar-General and Census Commissioner of India,
1981.

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SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE VILLAGES

because the country which they are called upon to save has
given them a very raw deal. Indeed, they ought to have a vested
interest in increase of rate of population growth in the country,
because the sheer compulsions of such an increase of population
growth may force the privileged class to fulfil the promises they
had made about improving the living standards of the poor
and the downtrodden. They will do so not as an end in itself,
but as an essential prerequisite for promoting a small family
norm among the poor!

of the existing social order namely, educated urban
privileged class, which is most exercised over what appears
to them to be disastrous consequences of rapid population
growth. They have been the most ardent proponents of the
birth control movement in India.4 Demerath5 has given a vivid
account of them. Many donors of foreign aid and some inter­
national agencies have also exerted strong pressure on
the class to do something urgent and drastic about this
“problem”. Short of bringing about the structured changes
that are required to improve social, economic and political
status of the masses of the people of the country, they have
thrown in almost every weapon in their armoury to “persuade”
people, particularly the masses of the rural poor, to accept
birth control methods. This movement took the form of a naked
class war during the period of the Emergency, when, in sheer
desperation, the urban privileged classes took to using police
force and other forms of coercion to forcibly sterilise over eight
million people, a vast majority of them belonging to the lower
classes.6
Whatever the perception, attitude and behaviour of different
segments of people towards population growth, and the pro­
grammes to curb this growth, data collected during the
revisits to the study villages have revealed that the growth
of population has had profound influence on their human
ecology. The sheer increase in the size of the population
has exerted enormous strain on community resources. A major
consequence of the ecological implications of the growing popu­
lation is that the upper classes, who control political and econo­
mic power, have been compelled to take certain remedial
measures against the threat of increasing impoverishment among
people belonging to the lower classes. They have realised that

Ironically, it is the enticement of the so-called incentive
money which provides the most potent stimulus for generating
motivation among the people of this class to accept sterilisation.
This “motivation” is particularly strong during the lean
agricultural periods when many of these people have to starve.
Among the poor, those with four, five or more children, those
whose last child is already quite grown-up, those whose wives
have already attained menopause, those who are widowers and
those who have never married, are particularly attracted to
the incentive for undergoing sterilisation.3
The attitude of the upper classes in the villages towards
population growth can at best be termed as ambivalent. They
are vaguely aware of the fear of the lower classes swarming
the entire village. They are also vague about the threat this
population growth poses to the country as a whole. Indeed,
more than these “fears”, many Hindus are afraid of the more
rapid rate of population growth among Muslims and Christians,
a major political and economic threat to Hindus. As far as the
“extra-mouths” in their own homes are concerned, these do not
pose much of a problem or a threat. The extra hands can be
absorbed in agriculture. With the newly acquired political power
this group can also grab employment opportunities in trade, in
industry and in government and other public offices and agen­
cies. This attitude of the upper classes in villages is also reflected
in the Table on profiles of different groups in terms of the
number of children born (Table 35). It is the section of the popu­
lation which has by far the greatest stake in the perpetuation

3National Institute of Family Planning, Vasectomy Camps: A Study,
N1FP Report Series. No. 13, New Delhi, NIFP, 1973.

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141

POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

140

4L. Bondestam and S. Bergstrom (eds.). Poverty and Population Control,
London, Academic Press, 1981; D. Banerji, “Family Planning in IndiaSome Inhibiting Factors,” in Ashish Bose et al. (eds.), Population in India's
Development 1947-2000, Delhi, Vikas Publishing House, 1974.
5N.J. Demerath, Birth Control and Foreign Policy: The Alternatives to
Family Planning, New York, Harper and Row, 1976.
*D. Banerji, “Family Planning in India—Some Inhibiting Factors,” in
Ashish Bose et al. (edsj. Population in India's Development 1947-2000, Delhi,
Vikas Publishing House, 1974.

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SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE VILLAGES

these steps have to be taken in their own “enlightened self­
interest”, to quote an expression of foreign aid given to “under­
developed” countries. They have been forced to concede, at
long last, that the “routine” rural developmental efforts that
have been made during the past three decades have mostly bene­
fited the better-off sections of rural population. Therefore,
ostensibly to improve the lot of the weaker sections they have
launched certain programmes that are specifically directed to­
wards them.7
Taken as a whole, almost in every village there has been
evidence of change. Signs of significant development of agri­
culture have dominated the scene. These changes in agriculture
chiefly concern the rich landholders. There has been an increase
in the number of tractors, irrigation pumps, threshers and cane­
crushers used as also in the use of high-yielding varieties of
seeds, chemical fertilisers and pesticides. There has been an
increase in the income of the surplus farmers through higher
market prices for their produce and through better transport
and marketing facilities.
Larger numbers of people are reading newspapers. There are
many more radio sets. In the village Arnavali the number of
television sets has increased from one to three; now the village
Rohota has also acquired four sets; five families in Kachhona
have acquired television sets to come within the range of
Lucknow-Kanpur telecast. There are now more telephone con­
nections, frequent postal and bus services. Additional roads
have been constructed.
There has been an expansion of savings, credit and service
facilities through commercial banks, post-offices and co-opera­
tives. T hree more villages (Rupal, Pazhambalakode and Yelwal)
now have a piped water supply system. Three more of them
now have street lightings (Pazhambalakode, Gambhoi and
Rohat.) Two more villages (Gambhoi, Rampura) have been given
a supply of electricity. There has been a significant increase
in the number of houses which have availed of this facility.
The changes that are specific to individual villages will be
described later in this chapter. Special rural development

programmes, such as certain aspects of the 20-point programme
and the 5-point programme of 1975-76, the Antyodaya
Scheme, the Food for Work Programme and the special Adult
Education Programme will also be taken up separately in
this chapter.
Many significant, even profound, political changes have
also taken place in the study villages during this period. In­
creasing social tensions and awareness of the lower classes of
rural population, pressure from increase in the size of the
population and conflicts and contradictions within the upper
classes are the major factors which have generated these politi­
cal changes. During Emergency a massive programme of forci­
ble sterilisation was launched in the country. In the 1977 elec­
tions to the Lok Sabha, the opposition parties were swept into
power at the Centre and they followed it up to order fresh
elections to some state legislatures. These elections led to the
dismissal of the Congress governments of five of the eight states
introduced in this study (i.e. Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan,
Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal). These five states included
thirteen of the nineteen selected villages. Again, in the 1980
Lok Sabha elections the Congress (I) (this time as Indira Con­
gress) came back to power and following the example of the
Janata Party, it captured four of the five states (i.e. Gujarat,
Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh) it had lost in the
1977 elections. Following the split in the ruling party in Karna­
taka, the “Indira” faction of Congress(I) defeated the Urs
faction of Congress(I) and it managed to retain its control
over that state after the 1980 elections of the state legislature.
However, an equally significant political event was that in
the 1980 Lok Sabha elections, the ruling United Left Front in
West Bengal in fact strengthened its position and no mid-term
poll was ordered for the West Bengal state legislature. There
was also a major swing in the opposite direction in Kerala,
both in the Lok Sabha elections as well as in the elections to
the state legislature in 1980. In Tamil Nadu, interestingly,
while the Congress(I) and DMK alliance has a massive win in
the Lok Sabha election of 1980, the All India Anna Dravida
Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) came back to retain power in
the state legislature. Elections to the Tamil Nadu state

!

’Government of India, Draft Sixth Five Year Plan (Revised), New Delhi,
Planning Commission, 1979, p. 4.

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

legislature were ordered following premature dissolution of the
earlier Al ADM K government and imposition of President’s
Rule in the state by the newly installed government at the
Centre. Of even greater significance for this study were the
elections to the village Panchayats. Thirteen of the nineteen
villages belonging to five states (i.e. Gujarat, Karnataka, Ke­
rala, Rajasthan and West Bengal), held Panchayat elections
during.this period, with the elections to the villages of Kerala
(Coyalmannam and Pazhambalakode), Karnataka (Jadigenhalli,
Yelwal and Kalur), Rajasthan (Rohat and Rampura) and West
Bengal (Haringhata, Dakshin Duttapara, Amdangaand Kamdevpur), being held after the lapse of a period ranging from 10 to 15
years. There were two indirect elections involving the village
Arnavali (Meerut), one for the Panchayat Samiti of the corres­
ponding block and the other for the Gram Pradhan of the
village Panchayat. As opposed to this, the AIADMK-ruled
Tamil Nadu state government dissolved all the village Pancha­
yats and Panchayat unions of the state and appointed bureau­
crats as administrators to run these institutions. The Gram Pan­
chayat of Kachhona (of U.P,) was also dissolved by the U.P.
state government but this was done to establish a semi-urban
Notified Area Committee for the village. Pending elections to
the Notified Area Committee in Kachhona, it is being adminis­
tered by a bureaucrat.
The mere fact that even the poorest in a village were given
opportunities to exercise their franchise on as many as five
occasions within a span of three years is of considerable politi­
cal significance. It needed increasing concessions and greater
efforts to make them vote for a particular party or a candidate.
The political significance of these elections is enhanced further
still when these elections are seen against the various forces
which precipitated them.

The 20-Point and 5-Point Programmes
1

Even though steep rise in prices, acute scarcity of essential
commodities and the crop failure in 1974-75 had caused consi­
derable hardships to the villagers, according to their percep­
tions these conditions-had very little.to-do .with the imposition
of Emergency on 25 June 1975. Again, as far as the study villages

SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE VILLAGES

145

are concerned, only in, Kachhona (Hardoi) two activists belong­
ing to the Jana Sangh/Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) were
arrested under the notorious Maintenance of Internal Security
Act (MISA). The Emergency was seen by the villagers mainly as
a ruthless implementation, on a massive scale, of only one
point of the 5-point programme of Sanjay Gandhi. This
single “point”, namely family planning, had obscured all others
of the 20 and 5-point programmes which were related to rural
populations.
As is evident from a description of implementation of family
planning programme during the first visit to the villages in
1972-748 use of coercion bad already become a common feature
in its implementation. However, with the Emergency powers
providing administrators a virtual immunity against any legal
action and with the immense pressure generated from the top
political leadership for getting more and more sterilisation
“cases”, the family planning programme developed three highly
pernicious characteristics during this period:

i. The coercive forces were applied more ruthlessly and reck­
lessly, often without most elementary humanitarian cons­
traints;
11. Such coercion was carried out on a very extensive scale;
and
iii. Such blatant violation of basic human rights and human
dignity, affecting the most intimate aspects of the lives of
individual citizens, was perpetuated openly by -government
employees, particularly those who could strike terror in the
people.
. ■

Again, for procuring cases for sterilisation, three, types of
agencies were employed. Even before the imposition of the
Emergency, under the target-oriented programme,9 functionaries
of the family planning programme were allotted specific family
planning targets which they had to achieve. Failure to achieve
8D. Bancrji, “Impact of Rural Health Services on the Health Behaviour
of Rural Populations in India: A Preliminary Communication,” EPW,
vol. 8, 22 December 1973, pp. 2261-68.
’D. Banerji, family Planning in India: .4 Critique and A Perspective,
New Delhi, People’s Publishing House, 1971.

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SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE VILLAGES

POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

the prescribed targets meant punishment, which varied from a
mere unfavourable entry in the service records, to transfer,
withholding of salaries and increments, denial of due promotion
and outright dismissal from service. Under the Emergency not
only did punishment become more rigorous, but the range of
the employees required to obtain a prescribed target was ex­
panded several fold to include all health workers and every
single employee working with the government or with any
government-aided agency—Panchayat and block development
officials, police and revenue staff, public works employees, emp­
loyees of the animal husbandry department, school teachers
and other school employees, and so on. Each one of these
employees was required to get their quota or face drastic

I

action.
A “quota” of sterilisation was demanded from villagers when
they (i.e. villagers) visited any government agency for any type
of work. While visiting the village Rohat in October 97 ,
even with a very preliminary enquiry, the investigator could
draw up, as an example, the following list of services for
which sterilisation “cases” were demanded:
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Licence for firearms, for shops, for setting up a cane-crusher
and for plying buses and trucks.
Demarcation of agricultural land getting favourable decision
on land ceiling cases,
For getting various kinds of government lands—for buying
cattle, a tractor, a tube-well, etc.
Various kinds of electricity connections—domestic, commer­
cial or agricultural,
Permits for cement, fertiliser or seeds,
Acquiring a ration card,
Water from irrigation canals,
Exemption from payment of school fees, land

revenue

payment,
.
Registration for becoming a Registered Medical Practitioner,
for getting a favourable decision from courts,
Bail in criminal cases,
For getting appointed to various kinds of jobs,

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Transfers to posting of one’s choice,
For giving “food powers” to sanitary inspectors in PHCs.

Pre-dawn raids were organised with the help of armed police­
men cn previcusly demarcated areas of village to round up
almost every adult male member and herding them together in
open trucks to be taken to sterilisation centres. At these centres
surgeons were ordered to perform the sterilisation operations.
These surgeons were also ordered not to make any fuss about
eligibility of the victim, operating conditions or about their
being tired or the quality of post-operative care. To escape
sterilisation, terror-stricken villagers had learnt to run away to
the fields at the very sight of any approaching vehicle; many of
them lived there to escape capture by the “raiders”. A villager
from Rohat sustained serious injuries when he jumped from a
running truck on which he was being taken to a sterilisation
centre. While in most cases the villagers showed no resistance
once they were rounded up with the help of armed police, invest­
igators did come across two instances of armed resistance to
small raiding groups. It so happened that each of the three areas
where large-scale police firing was resorted to were not far
from some of the study villages—Muzaffarnagar from Rohota
and Arnavali, Sultanpur from Kachhona and Sunni and Pipli
from Bilaspur.

Data show that during the Emergency, coercive methods
were used blatantly and on an extensive scale in all the eight
states covered by the study villages. However, they also reveal­
ed that only in the seven villages (Bilaspur, Rohat, Rampura,
Rohota, Arnavali, Kachhona and Sunni) which belong to the
states of Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, the resistance
of the people to sterilisation was so strong that coercion was
applied very intensively and for this all the three types of agen­
cies mentioned above were extensively mobilised. In the villages
of the other five states, namely Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala,
Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, there were no raids by armed
policemen. Government agencies hardly demanded a quota of
sterilization when people visited them. Factors for the coercion
employed on such a large-scale and so ruthlessly in the three
Hindi-speaking states could be:

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i. In all the three states the then Chief Ministers were parti­
cularly keen for approbation from the Union Government
by showing “magnificent work” in the held of family plan­

Relatively, the degree of coercion was least in the Gujarat
villages, Rupal and Gambhoi. Family planning and health wor­
kers were subjected to various kinds of administrative pressure
and coercion for fulfilling the quota assigned to them. Gujarat
had this distinction presumably because the Union Government
had only recently dismissed a popular government there and
imposed President’s Rule. The rulers had to be careful not to
provoke undue wrath of the people. Not surprisingly in terms of
family planning “achievements” during the Emergency, Gujarat
occupied a very low position in the country.'"
In the southern states of Karnataka, Kerala and-Tamil
Nadu, along with health and family planning workers, pressure
was also exerted on other categories of workers causing- more
widespread dissatisfaction. As. was the case in the villages of
Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh,,some of the village
level government officials used their official positions to extract
“cases” from those who came to get tlieir work done. During
the field work many instances came to the notice of
investigators where, in sheer desperation, some government
officials had to seek the help of “commission agents” to get
“cases” in exchange for as much as 50-150 per cent of their
monthly salaries. Even as late as in February 1980, when the
author visited Yelwal (in Karnataka), the Medical Officer of the
Primary Health Centre informed that till that date there were
five villages under his jurisdiction which had remained out of
bounds to workers of the PHC because of the alleged atrocities

committed there during the family planning campaign of
1976. Several cases of falsification of records and reports con­
cerning family planning work have also been observed.
In the four West Bengal villages, falsification of family plan­
ning records, large-scale use of corrupt practices (e.g. division of
incentive money between surgeons, motivators and “patients”),
use of a variety of false cases (e.g. repeat operations, “pretend­
ed” operations, operation of both the spouses) and large-scale
use of commission agents or “promoters”, locally called Dalals,
are some of the factors which enabled this state to put up a
“magnificent” performance. Family planning organisers in West
Bengal had been able to achieve “great success” without taking
recourse to the brutal methods as used in Haryana, Rajasthan
and Uttar Pradesh.11
Such large-scale use of coercion, blatant corrupt practices
and cynical disregard of rights and dignity of individual citizens
has had far-reaching impact on the credibility of the political
leadership and bureaucrats, specially the police and other agen­
cies of oppression and terror, in all the nineteen study villages.
Understandably, the trauma was felt more by people of the
seven villages of Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The
weaker sections of the population here were the first victims of
coercion. However, with the very rapidly increasing demand
from the government for “cases”, very soon pressure was exert­
ed on those belonging to the upper classes to get “cases” either
by getting sterilised themselves, or using their influence with the
proper sections to get substitute cases. This caused considerable
alienation even of the upper classes from the government. A
very significant finding in the seven villages (of Haryana, Rajas­
than and U.P.) was that the pressure on all types of village
level functionaries to do such obviously unpalatable work was so
intense that they developed a strong animosity towards the
government and became somewhat politicised in the process.
Such an overwhelming preoccupation of the entire govern­
ment machinery with the family planning drive has had a most
adverse eflect on the health services. Not only were health wor­
kers not able to pay adequate attention to their work, but much

'»D Banerji, “Community Response to the Intensified Family Planning
Programme.” F.PW, vol. 12, No. 6, 7 and 8, Annual No. 1977, pp. 261-66.

“D. Banerji, “Community Response to the Intensified Family Planning
Programme,” EPW, vol. 12, No. 6, 7 and 8, Annual No. 1977, pp. 261-66,

148

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ning;
ii. The police organisation andl other instruments of coercion
brutal and ruthless in their
and oppression were particularly
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operation in these three states; and,
iii. Resistance to family planning among the poverty-stricken
states and
populations was particularly strong in
i.. these
------ ----this needed very strong-arm tactics.

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SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE VILLAGES

POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

worse still, the villagers developed an acute fear of the govern­
ment doctor and his entire team. They feared that they (i.e. the
villagers) would be caught at once and forcibly sterilised if they
ventured anywhere near the PHC or PHC staff. This is reflected
in a very sharp decline in the attendance at PHCs and a corres­
pondingly large increase in the clientele of various types of
private practitioners during the Emergency period.
Another dangerous fallout of Emergency operations was not
simply a total breakdown of the law enforcing machinery, but
that the very guardians of law and order turned into petty
tyrants. There have been several reports from all the seven
villages of the three states of local policemen walking into
houses, catching hold of individuals and putting them in a lock­
up. They could obtain release only by meeting the demands of

their “captors”.
Careful enquiries in the study villages revealed that, apart
from implementation of family planning programme, no serious
efforts were made either by the government or any other social
or political organisation to implement the other three points of
the 5-point programme, relevant to rural areas namely, cam­
paign to plant trees and to promote cleanliness.
Three of the 20-points were of direct relevance to villages,
namely, writing off or putting a moratorium on rural debts
of certain amounts, liberation of bonded labour and providing

house sites to Harijans.
Impact of legislative actions on debt relief was felt in the
villages. These laws encouraged the lower classes not only to
disown the loans taken by them, but emboldened them to be­
come more assertive about their rights and privileges. However,
in many instances people belonging to the weaker sections had
to surrender their new found freedom when they were unable
to obtain fresh loans from any other quarters to tide over the
difficult times in the lean seasons.
Similar problems also arose for the very few who could use
the law to secure release as a bonded labourer. After getting
their liberation, they found that they had nowhere to turn to.
As landless labourers, their fate was much worse than what it
had been when they were working under bondage. Presumably
because of the experience and because of patently lukewarm

151

attitude of political and bureaucratic bodies, this campaign did
not make any headway thus ending up as a hollow exercise in
public relations.
The programme of allotment of house sites to Harijans was
in operation before the imposition of Emergency and its inclu­
sion in the 20-points during Emergency did not bring about
any significant improvement in implementation which remained
patchy and half-hearted.

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Policy Changes and New Programmes After 1977

Following the change in the Union Government in 1977,
announcement of the policy changes of the new government
generated a spontaneous feeling of liberation among all sections
of people in the study villages. (The state of Emergency had
already been revoked before the elections.) These policy chan­
ges included, among others, total abandonment of all forms of
coercion in the implementation of family planning programme;
repeal of the hated Maintenance of Internal Security Act and
restoration of fundamental rights and access to law courts for
seeking redressal of grievances. The tensions of government
functionaries were relieved. People were no longer scared of
terrorisation and extortion by petty officials of the law-enforcing
machinery. There was no longer the feeling of utter helplessness
in being not able to turn anywhere for protection against such
actions. And, people could once again go to government
institutions of various kinds without having any fear of being
forcibly taken away to sterilisation camps.
Many of these fears were manifestly exaggerated during the
Emergency. The atmosphere of fear and terror, blocking of
means of normal channels of mass communication and loss of
credibility of the media contributed to generate psychological
conditions which actively encouraged such exaggerated percep­
tions. The sweeping policy changes of 1977 generated the feeling
of liberation among the people by sweeping away this atmos­
phere.
Expectedly, this feeling of liberation was strongest in the
seven villages falling within the states of Haryana, Rajasthan
and Uttar Pradesh, where the people suffered most from the

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SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE VILLAGES

POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

Emergency atrocities and excesses. In th? following year (197778) the number of sterilisations fell precipitate. It was 67.7
per cent less than the 1976-77 figures in Haryana and the
corresponding figures were 80.8 for Rajasthan and 75.0 for Uttar
Pradesh.1- These figures include both male and female sterilisa­
tions. As there was in fact an increase in female sterilisations
in 1977-78, if only male sterilisations are considered, the fall in
1977-78 has been well above 90 per cent in these three states.
In the six villages belonging to the southern states of Kar­
nataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu the turmoil generated by the
Emergency was not strong enough to bring about any political
change. However, the fact that in 1977-78 the number of steril­
isations in three slates fell by as much as 60.5, 55.9 and 67.0
per cent respectively13 is consistent with the data obtained
from these six villages during the Emergency period.

I

Both these sets of data (i.e. sterilisation setback and village
data) question the validity of the assumption that coercive
methods were not employed in the southern states. The argu­
ment that the fall in the number of male sterilisations took
place because of strident anti-family planning outpourings of
the then Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, is not
very convincing. (Family Planning was rechristened Family
Welfare by the new government to underline its abhorrence
of the old approach). Tn terms of response of the people to
the Emergency, the two villages of Gujarat can also be
included in this category of the six south Indian villages. In
the 1977 Lok Sabha elections, these two villages sent a member
who belonged to the opposition alliance (Janata Party) which
included old Congress Party (Congress-O), which had won the
seat earlier in a by-election.

I1

In the four West Bengal villages, the sense of relief was of a
qualitatively different kind. Unlike the seven villages of Haryana,
Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, it emerged not so much as a
reaction to something which had been swept away but rather to
’-'Government of India, Monthly Bulletin on Family Welfare Statistics,
March, New Delhi, Department of Family Welfare, Ministry of Health and
Family Welfare, 1978.
i3Ibid.

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153

the re-emergence of something which had been sought to be
actively and systematically exterminated. Ashok Mitra’s book,
The Hoodlum Years gives a vivid account of some aspects of
the activities of those who carried on their corruption under
protection of state and Union governments.
Withdrawal of the Emergency regulations preceding the
1977 Lok Sabha elections and the sweeping policy changes of
the new Union Government following the elections, provided an
opportunity for political workers of CPI-M in these four villa­
ges to work for their cause openly.
Visits to these four villages in January and again in June
1977 revealed that not only had the party succeeded in keeping
its organisation intact, but the retreat of those forces, which
had earlier attempted to exterminate its members, also inspired
activists to work enthusiastically for election of their candida­
tes to the Lok Sabha, and later, to the State Legislative Assem­
bly. Emergence of a more sympathetic political leadership at
the national and state levels considerably facilitated the work
of party workers among the village populations. By organising
those segments of the people so far dominated by a small group
of people belonging to privileged upper classes, these workers
brought about a fundamental change in the power structures
within the village. The voice of the poor and oppressed sections
of the village populations is now heard in the administration of
social and economic development programmes of their villages
bringing about what can be called democratisation in function­
ing and distribution of goodsand services of village commu­
nities.
Through revisits it was possible to colled data from all
these four villages on the entire range of changes in the “psy­
chological atmosphere” of these villages. Where there was an
all-pervading atmosphere of despondency and resignation there
was now a palpable atmosphere of hope, expectation and confi­
dence among these very people. This change was reflected in
the pride they had of their power to deal with problems pri­
marily concerning them. As a consequence of democratisation
within the village communities, people from the lower classes
were able to get a personal experience of their involvement
in decisions and actions concerning soms ot the resources

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE VILLAGES

155
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which belonged to them. For example, four sarees were sent to
Haringhata (Nadia) as flood relief in 1978 and the entire peo­
ple held a meeting to identify those who were most deserving
in the village.

The psychological metamorphosis in the four West Bengal
villages was perhaps the most significant aspect of the change
as consequence of the political and policy changes at
Central and state levels after Emergency. In turn this psycho­
logical change had been mobilised by the local village leader­
ship to provide the motive force for bringing about a number of
social and economic changes. These changes distinguish the four
West Bengal villages from the rest. The following instances
illustrate the distinguishing features of these changes in the
West Bengal villages.

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‘Operation Barga’ involved a massive drive to register all
tenant farmers in West Bengal to enable them to take advan­
tage of various legal safeguards and rights available to them
under the already existing land legislations in the state. The
outstanding feature of this operation is the high degree of mobi­
lisation and enthusiasm of tenant farmers built up in the pro­
cess of their participation. This operation provides an instance
where an effort to mobilise the land revenue administration of
a state government is matched by an effort to mobilise the
tenants to take advantage of facilities made available to them
by the new state government.
The four villages were also badly affected by the unprece­
dented floods in West Bengal in 1978. The remarkable positive
response of the political leadership at the state level and of the
local community at the village level considerably reduced the
sufferings of the people. While the former made assistance
available to these villages in the form of food, blankets, tents,
medical teams, volunteers, etc., village leadership worked
tirelessly, day and night, to evacuate the affected people and
ensure that the relief material reached the needy. Later, when
the floods receded, they were equally active in helping the
villagers, providing assistance in terms of material and labour
to these who had lost their homes and those who had suffered
damages to their fields, .etc..

Floods had also severely affected the two Rajasthan villages,
Rohat and Rampura, in 1979. In sharp contrast to West Bengal,
in lhese villages the response was mainly in the form of bureau­
cratic actions with characteristic ponderousness, corruption and
lack of imagination. The lower classes, living in the low-lying
areas of the villages, bore the brunt of the onslaught. Political
leadership at the state level responded by providing flood relief
to the affected people. However, in the absence of community
participation on the scale observed in the four West Bengal
villages and in the absence of the degree of rapport the state
political leadership had with the affected people, the relief that
did manage to reach the affected people came very late and in
very inadequate quantity. Those affected had learnt to live with
bungling at political and administrative levels and faced their
problems as well as they could on their own.
Again, in sharp contrast to other villages, implementation
of the Food for Work programme in the four West Bengal
villages had shown not only how the community had actively
participated but also how it had been actively involved in the
actual planning of the programme. The village Panchayat invited
the entire community to identify the public works that should be
taken up under the programme. It was noted in Haringhata
(Nadia) for instance, that the earlier Panchayats and other
government agencies for rural development had totally neglected
the maintenance of village lanes since as long back as 1951. It
was, therefore, decided to carry out a large-scale programme for
repairs of lanes and of raising their levels to facilitate drainage.
The tasks to be performed under this programme were identi­
fied in terms of individual Panchayat ward and the correspond­
ing Panchayat ward member, along with other prominent
residents, to supervise the construction work and pass the pay­
ment of wages of the labourers for the work done by them. This
process of (a) bypassing the bureaucratic red tape and corrup­
tion, (b) involving the community in identifying the community
assets for development under this programme and (c) providing
gainful employment to those who are most in need, yielded rich
dividends to the village leadership and the community as a
whole.
There were several other outcomes of this process of bringing

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deniocratisation within the communities of these four vil­
lages. In two of them, Haringhata and Amdanga, women had
already organised themselves in Mahila Mandate to deal with
special problems faced by women and to work for improving
their social status. During the visit of an investigator to
Haringhata in December 1979, it was observed that the local
youth club had staged a demonstration in front of the PHC to
piotest against the late arrival of the doctor. The chance remark
of the Panchayat head of Dakshin Duttapara in 1979 that many
of the residents had sought, on their own, his assistance in
obtaining family planning services from the PHC and that he too
advised many others to go in for family planning methods,
provided an interesting insight into the generation of motiva­
tion for family planning within the community, entirely
independent of promotional efforts of the official family planning
establishment.

Considerable attention has been paid to aspects of social
and political change in the four West Bengal villages because
these stand out very clearly from the remaining fifteen villages
and their experience may provide some inkling of possible chan­
ges that may occur in other parts of the country. This, how­
ever, should not obscure some glaring shortcomings in the
social, economic and political movements in these West Bengal
villages. A lot more remains to be done to evolve leaderships
at various levels which have a clearer vision and are capable of
making a better analysis of the existing situation, to develop
deeper political and social consciousness among the masses and
make more effective use of the available resources to provide
better service to the masses. There are still a large number of
poor people in these villages and they continue to suffer from
poverty, exploitation and social and economic discrimination
with very meagre access to such social services as health, edu­
cation and housing. It is also quite clear from the revisits that
there is still a long distance to be covered by the poor people
of the West Bengal villages before they achieve their rightful
place in the community.
In the seven villages of Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pra­
desh, as also to a somewhat lesser extent, in the two villages of
Gujarat, the enthusiasm that was generated following the dis­
mantling of the notorious programmes of the Emergency was
not sustained with the help of positive programmes. Instead,
many of the Harijans, Muslims and others belonging to lower
castes, who had so enthusiastically participated in the over­
throw of the previous governments, began to discover to their
utter dismay that the new rulers at the Central, state and village
levels were inclined to take away from them even the very
modest gains they had achieved during the Emergency, and
before.
For instance, emboldened by the changed political climate,
moneylenders began claiming repayment of loans written off
during the Emergency. Landholders also started to find various
pretexts to take back the very modest parcels of land that had
been redistributed to the landless in the past. The process of
allotment of house sites to Harijans slackened still further. All
these considerably heightened social tensions within the.villages.

When interviewed during the revisits, the trend of the res­
ponses ol the village leadership, which were controlling these
villages during the first round, and others belonging to the upper
classes in the four West Bengal villages was that the CPI-M
had captured political power in their villages by misguiding the
poorer sections of the village populations who were illiterate
and ignorant. They did recognise that the new leadership had
succeeded in implementing many good programmes, but, accord­
ing to them, all their good work for the poor faded into
insignificance if the fact was recognised that the CPI-M workers
were using public money to strengthen their cadres in villages.
While making these allegations, they obviously overlooked the
fact that when they themselves were in power. State resources
were used to strengthen supporters of their own parties, who
happened to belong to their own class. Even the funds which
were specifically earmarked for the poor were siphoned off by
their party supporters. When asked whether it was possible to
leach the poor without giving room to the criticism of sup­
porting the CPI-M supporters (who mostly happen to be poor),
the response of these people was very significant: “If democracy
is to be saved in West Bengal, all developmental assistance
must be channelled through government functionaries and that
through the CPI-M .cadres or Panchayats,”

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE VILLAGES

The tensions became so high in Arnavali that they took the
form of an open conflict between the dominant landholding
Jais and Harijan labourers. Jats from surrounding villages also
joined this campaign. They stopped selling irrigation water to
those Harijans who had few parcels of land in the midst of their
fields; forbade them from grazing their cattle in their fields
after the crop had been harvested; and finally, took recourse to
an economic boycott by not hiring the Harijans. Some of the
Harijans were physically assaulted causing several casualties. In
a nearby village, three Harijans were reported to have been
beaten to death. Fear-stricken, many of them fled the village,
finding jobs in Meerut, Delhi and other cities. However, the
Brahmins and the former socialist Jat leader, Pramode Bharati
showed considerable courage in providing shelter, protection and
work for many of the persecuted Harijans. When the Jats
finally realised that they could pressurise the Harijans thus far
and no further, they relented and calm was restored again in
Arnavali. Subsequent visits have, however, revealed that this
has left a deep and a lasting scar in the minds of Harijan
labourers.
Because of inadequate commitment at political and adminis­
trative levels and the conspicuous lack of concern for the weaker
sections in the villages, many ambitious programmes for their
welfare have failed to make any impact. It was possible to
study the Antyodaya programme in the nine north Indian vil­
lages—Rohat, Rampura, Bilaspur, Rupal, Kachhona, Sunni,
Rohota and Arnavali where it failed to make any impact whatso­
ever. The Antyodaya programme was launched to bring, about
improvement of the status of the poorest of th? poor by offering
financial assistance. Antyodaya families of these villages were
sanctioned money to buy cattle, goats, bullock-carts and horse­
carts. Half to a third of the advance was in the form of a grant
and the rest was given as interest-free loans to be repaid in
instalments. Study of the actual implementation of the pro­
gramme revealed that in each of the nine villages:

got vitiated and all the Antyodaya beneficiaries were not
among the poorest of the poor.
(c) There was considerable corruption all along the line.
The bank manager, the veterinary surgeon and the village
level workers of the community development programme
extracted their share of the “cuts” before they gave their
approval to the purchase of cattle/goats/horses/bullocks for
Antyodaya families.
(d) Because of the various “cuts”, the quality of the animal
purchased was much below what was warranted by the
money advanced by the government.
(e) Perhaps because of frustrations due to bureaucratic delays,
village intrigues and blatant corruption in purchase, Antyo­
daya beneficiaries themselves did not appear to take the
programme seriously. Very often, they frittered away
whatever finally came in their hands.

158

(a) There was considerable delay in according the necessary
administrative and financial sanctions for the programme at
various levels of the state administrative machineries.
(b) Because of various considerations, the process of selection

It was bad enough that some of” the concerned officials
should have indulged in corruption so openly. A matter of even
greater concern was the cynicism that crept into the minds of
villagers after witnessing it. Bureaucratic inertia and cold indif­
ference to the needs of the poor and the oppressed, in addition
to corruption, underlines the formidable nature of the obstacles
that need to be overcome to provide succour to the poorest of
poor. That it is essentially a political question has been vividly
brought out from the data of four West Bengal villages. Politi­
cisation of the poor in these West Bengal villages has enabled
villagers to make more effective use of the available resources,
be it Food for Work Programme, be it a loan programme of the
Small Farmers Development Agency or resources for flood relief
or agricultural inputs provided in the experimental projects and
demonstration centres of the Kalyani Agricultural University.
Due to various administrative issues associated with relation­
ships between the state and the Union Government and due to
inertia within the state government itself, the Adult Literacy
Programme could be launched in these four villages of West
Bengal only towards the end of 1979. As in other development­
al programmes, this has made very rapid headway and become
quite popular with villagers. However, during the last visit
(February 1981), it was observed that it had come to a virtual

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SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE VILLAGES

standstill, allegedly because the Union Government had stopped
grants to it. Only in one of the remaining fifteen villages could
an investigator find any trace of the Adult Literacy Programme.
This was in the village Rupal. There too, the programme had
been stopped for the past several months because the “teacher
get busy preparing for his own examinations.”
Compared to the villages of Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan
and Uttar Pradesh, utilisation of resources meant for commu­
nity development was distinctly better in the six southern
villages.
In summary, it can be asserted that during this period,
social tensions increased significantly. In West Bengal, social
forces have been strong enough to bring about a significant
shift in political power from the upper to the lower strata.
Though these forces were not so strong in the nine villages of
Gujarat. Haiyana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, there have been
greater assertions of their rights by deprived sections of popula­
tions sometimes precipitating into conflicts between them and
the upper classes. Evidence of restiveness among the deprived
sections was also found in the six southern villages. The landless
labourers in the Kerala villages, Coyalmannam and Pazhambalakode, have agitated for higher wage rates. Other workers
in these villages resorted to strike action for the same purpose.
In the three Karnataka villages, the Harijans have acquired a
better bargaining position by adopting a more militant posture.
Simmer ings had also been noted in the big Harijan colony of
Pullambadi in Tamil Nadu, where the Harijans started ques­
tioning why the supply of tap water to them should be so inad­
equate and why the Odeyar community should allow the village
tank to overflow into their colony during the rainy season.

of the Antyodaya and Adult Literacy Programme. But they have
done nothing to revive them either.

Changes after the 1980 Elections
■

Change in the Union Government, with changes in the state
governments of Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh
in 1980 meant little change in the social programmes that were
being followed earlier. Return of the Congress (I) Party herald­
ed the return ol the 20-point programme, but implementation
has been even more casual than before. The new governments
have not made any policy statement concerning abandonment

161

Except for the four West Bengal villages, programmes of
community development, Food for Work and other relief pro­
grammes arc going on at the same pace. For West Bengal, this
change in the Union Government has sharpened the conflicts
beween it and the Union Government. The impact of these con­
flicts is being felt in the four villages. A reduction in the resour­
ces for the Food for Work Programme has caused great anxiety
among the poor. Against the strong political winds blowing in
favour of Congress (I) in the country, people of West Bengal
renewed their confidence in the state government by sending a
still larger number of candidates of the United Left Front to
the Lok Sabha, with an even larger mandate. However, their
success in recapturing political power at the Centre has made
the main local opposition party, Congress (I), more strident in
its clamour for removal of the United Left Front government to
“save democracy” and restore “law and order”. With tacit
support from the Union Government and enormous financial
resources at its command, this relentless propaganda has now
become more intense and the pressure to retrieve the administra­
tive power of popularly elected representatives over resources by
bureaucrats, has become much stronger. Leaderships of the
four Panchayats see this as machinations of the ruling party at
the Centre to destroy their credibility among the people. They
also realise that if the Centre precipitates a showdown, their
options are limited. Because of various kinds of alleged ob­
structions in the implementation of development programmes,
particularly in the implementation of the Food for Work Pro­
gramme and because of constant threats of intervention by the
Union Government, during the February 1981 revisits to the four
villages, the author could observe distinct signs of slackening
of development activities in these villages. This has caused con­
siderable disappointment among the people, particularly the
poor. There were also some indications that these setbacks in
the programmes are becoming issues for political action.
The fall of the state governments in Gujarat, Rajasthan and
Uttar Pradesh was welcomed by the weaker sections, as this
meant some reduction in harassment from rich farmers.

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SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE VILLAGES

moneylenders and traders. This also meant that Brahmins and
other upper castes, who supported the new governments, would
have greater access to political power at the state and Central
levels.
The split in the ruling party in Karnataka and return of the
AIADMK in Tamil Nadu have also not brought about any sig­
nificant change in the pace or direction of developmental pro­
grammes in the four villages belonging to these two states.
However, the change of the state government in Kerala and
changes in the village Panchayats (in 1980) in two Kerala villages
has brought about a major realignment of forces. Also, in the
Lok Sabha elections held earlier in 1980, Kerala sent many
more non-Congress (I) MPs.
As a result of the changes at the state and Panchayat levels,
many villagers, who had enjoyed the patronage of the state
government had to forego it: instead, they had to confront a
newly emerging trade union movement within rural areas, for
example trade unions of workers have been formed in the rice
mills and the workers of a private bus company in Coyalmannam are making new wage claims. The richer people bitterly
complained about what they called “excessive and irresponsible
unionisation which is affecting virtually all aspects of economic
life in the state.” There is also a call for bonus for all kinds of
workers, including agricultural labourers. The new government
and the Panchayats are committed to give pension to old people
and to widows who have nobody to support them; the Pan­
chayat has also promised financial support for marriage of
daughters of such widows. All these have aroused considerable
expectations among the poor in Coyalmannam and Pazhambalakode villages.

different segments. Another aspect of interest was the way
different parties and candidates mobilised votes for these elec­
tions.

162

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Canvassing and Voting Behaviour of the Populations
During the Five Elections: 1977-80

As has been pointed out earlier, most of the nineteen villages
went through as many as five elections—a Lok Sabha and a
state election in 1977 and in 1980 and a Panchayat election in
between. It was of particular interest to note the extent to which
the election processes influenced the social relations thereby
contributing to the development of social awareness among

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163

The revisits provided opportunities to collect some very valu­
able data on these aspects. An election caused considerable
ferment within a village population. Of particular interest were
the strategy and tactics of rival candidates to woo poorer sec­
tions. It was observed that such wooing arouses two types of
responses from those subjected to it. First, they feel flattered
at being the focus of so much attention. This makes them value
their votes and perhaps this is why proportionately more people
from these sections exercise their franchise more frequently than
others. Second, past experience makes some of them cynical
about the promises and programmes of different candidates and
they end up voting for “the highest bidder”.

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The 1977 Elections to Lok Sabha and State Legislatures

Behaviour of the electorate in the Lok Sabha elections, parti­
cularly in the three states covering the seven villages of north
India (Haryana, Rajasthan and U.P.) was an expression of their
revulsion against the excesses and atrocities committed during
the Emergency. This feeling created an unprecedented interest
among the electorate and many of those, who had voted for
the then ruling party for decades, shifted their allegiance with
the specific purpose of throwing out the party which was res­
ponsible for causing so much misery to the people. This was
fully exploited by the leadership of the Janata alliance of oppo­
sition parties which scored a landslide victory following an
unusually large turnout of voters.
Elections to the state legislatures took place after five months
and the momentum generated among the people had already
started to wane by the time these were held. But it was still
strong enough to rout the ruling party, though both the sweep
of the victory as well as the turnout was distinctly lower.
In the six villages of the three southern states the then ruling
party even managed to increase its strength in the Lok Sabha
elections. No mid-term elections were held for the state
legislatures.

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

As the two Gujarat villages, Rupal and Gambhoi, did not
suffer as much from Emergency excesses, the swing in favour of
Janata Party was comparatively more moderate. However, it
was strong enough to send an opposition candidate (Janata) to
the Lok Sabha once again and to unseat the Congress candidate
who represented the constituency having Rupal and Gambhoi
for the state legislature.
As indicated earlier, the situation in West Bengal was quali­
tatively different from that in the other states. Here, not only
was the political complexion of alliance of opposition parties
markedly different because left parties such as CPI-M, Forward
Bloc and Revolutionary Socialist Party claimed a major share
of the candidates that were put up by the alliance for the elec­
tion, but often the issues in the election campaign went much
beyond the issue of imposition of Emergency in 1975-76. The
left-wing parties focussed their campaign against the unjust
character of the prevailing social and economic relations, the
systematic oppression for more than a decade prior to the
Emergency of those who attempted to organise the poor. This
alliance recorded a convincing victory against the ruling party
with a very high turnover of voters.
There was a split in the oppostion alliance in West Bengal
before elections to the state legislature were held later in 1980.
It split into two—one remaining the Janata Party, which had
obtained overwhelming support at the Centre, and other form­
ing a six-party United Left Front consisting of the CPI-M, the
Forward Bloc, the Revolutionary Socialist Party and three other
smaller leftist parties. The Congress Party had also split in two
with the formation of a separate party—the Indira Congress or
Congress (I). Despite having the new ruling party and the Centre
ranged against it, the United Left Front actually improved its
electoral performance. On the basis of the data that were collect­
ed from the four villages of West Bengal at the time when the
election campaign was being conducted,, the convincing victory
of the United Left Front can be attributed to its much better
organisational base, its more intensive and intelligently conduct­
ed campaign, extensive mobilisation of the people and, above
all, the raising of political issues perceived as more meaningful
by the masses of people of the state. The West Bengal villages

SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE VILLAGES

165

provided a sharp contrast in the style of electioneering of diffe­
rent political parties, both within these four villages as well as
with the electioneering of these parties in the other fifteen
villages.
Workers of the United Left Front parties were drawn mostly
from the poorer sections and they worked very hard, doing
house-to-house canvassing, making hand-written posters and
placards, organising processions, including torch-light proces­
sions and bicycle processions and holding street-corner meet­
ings. The election campaigns of the opposing parties were based
on use of money to hire men and material to promote their
candidates.
Another very striking contrast was that the elections were
fought on issues rather than on personalities and functions.
While the United Front focussed on economic and social issues,
fear of a communist take-over to form a totalitarian regime,
was the main plank of the major parties opposing the front.
Again in terms of turnout of voters and involvement of the
population in the elections to state legislatures also, the four
West Bengal villages were far ahead of the rest, excepting Coyalmannam and Pazhambalakode of Kerala.

I

The 1980 Elections to Lok Sabha and State Legislatures

A study of the social process of the elections to the Lok
Sabha and six of the state legislatures in 1980 from within the
nineteen villages provided valuable insights into the entire sweep
of the social, economic and political changes that have occurred
in these villages during 1979-80. This enabled the author not
only to have a closer look at some of the basic statistical aspects
of what is called a “sweeping mandate” of the people to the
Congress of Mrs Indira Gandhi (the so-called “Indira Wave”)
but also to examine the cultural and social determinants of this
mandate.
In this context, the failure of yet another very determined
effort to sweep West Bengal and Kerala with the “Indira Wave”
attains considerable social and political significance. Compari­
son of data from direct observations of the election process in
1980 from within the nineteen villages has shown clearly that

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

the people of these two states have been able to withstand these
waves so stoutly not because of any peculiarities of the culture
of the Bengalis or Malayalis as such, but because of their greater
political awareness. It was surprising that even with the mani­
festly limited political education, the masses in West Bengal
and Kerala have been successful in repulsing the many very
determined election onslaughts of the upper classes. One can
venture to forecast that similar political changes will sweep
through the other states of the country when the poor in
these states acquire that level of political consciousness. Para­
doxically, if acquisition of political power becomes an end in
itself, then this acquisition of power might become an obstacle
to further growth and development of political education of the
masses, which is so essential for ushering in a more just social
order.
This study has also revealed the fact that once the upper
classes realise that their interests are being threatened by such
elections, they are prepared to adopt any means, fair or foul, to
fight back. Then even the hoary traditions and conventions which
had hitherto been considered to be so sacrosanct do not remain
so. Power to the people through Panchayati Raj was branded
as a threat to democracy because this was supposed to strengthen
communists. ‘Operation Barga’ was not considered as a move­
ment to give sharecroppers their legal rights, but was projected
as a threat to peaceful harvesting. Even after getting massive
support through what they themselves called free and fair elec­
tions, the United Left Front government is supposed to have
forefeited any right to rule because of the supposed breakdown
of law and order. It was observed that these detractors had
repeatedly failed in their attempts to mobilise people in their
favour. Such failure has made them more frustrated and more
desperate. They managed to mobilise and manipulate many
media of mass communication to lend credibility to their un­
founded allegations. These forces have been so keen on dis­
lodging the United Left Front government in West Bengal that
they did not hesitate to inflame communal passions among
Muslims against what they alleged to be the Godless creed of
communism. This was particularly apparent in the village
Amdanga where Muslims are in a majority. The detractors of

SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE VILLAGES

167

the United Left Front government in West Bengal had backed
up all these allegations with a threat of getting both the state
governments and Panchayats dismissed by the Union Govern­
ment and, by implication, bring back the well-known toughs
under garbs of youth and student leaders to “clean up” political
life in the state.
The situation in the six other states was quite different. As
pointed out earlier, soon after the coming into power of Janata
governments at the Centre and in the states, a feeling of insecu­
rity drove most of the Harijans, Muslims and other poor people
back into the fold of the Congress(I). As pointed out in
Chapter 5, the weaker sections had to choose the lesser of the
two evils. This eminently sums up the political situation in the
six states: the upper classes are in command and the lower clas­
ses have to seek the best bargain from them under the conditions
prevailing at the time. This swing back in the allegiance of the
weaker sections, together with almost perpetual infighting within
the Janata Party (which ultimately led to its split in 1979), steep
rise in prices, acute scarcity of many essential goods, difficulties
in getting diesel oil and kerosene and acute shortage of electricity
for irrigation pumps, generated a sense of despondency and
apathy even among the more prosperous sections of rural popu­
lations. This was an important reason why more than half of
the population did not care to exercise their franchise in the
elections to the Lok Sabha and to the state legislature in 1980.
These developments suited the Congress(I) very well. With
enormous financial and administrative resources at their com­
mand and skilful use of the personality of Mrs Indira Gandhi,
the party workers could bring about considerable mobilisation
of the weaker sections in their favour. This ensured a high rate
of voter turnout among these sections of the population. Along
with the low turnout among the traditionally anti-Congress
\oters, this became a crucial element in the so-called sweeping
victory of the Congress (I) in the 1980 elections to the Lok
Sabha and to the state legislatures of Gujarat, Rajasthan and
Uttar Pradesh.
Even ignoring allegations of gross election malpractices,
including misuse of government machinery and rigging of polls,
the impact of disproportionately large turnout of voters who

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SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE VILLAGES

belong to the weaker sections has turned out to be a decisive
factor in ensuring victory of the Congress. Even purely from a
statistical angle, what had been projected as a massive mandate
from the people essentially consisted of support from less than
a quarter of the electorate or less than half of those who actu­
ally exercised their franchise. Direct observations from within
the villages during the elections tended to confirm the deduc­
tions drawn from this purely statistical analysis.
The fragility of the democratic content of the elections was
vividly demonstrated in the villages of the states of Haryana and
Tamil Nadu. After Haryana had swung back to Congress (I)
in the 1980 Lok Sabha elections, the Janata Chief Minister
forestalled a similar fate meeting his government by the simple
expedient of shifting his allegiance to Congress (I) and taking
along with him a sufficient number of members of the state
legislatures to form a stable Congress (I) government in the
state. In Tamil Nadu, again, more than any ideology or pro­
gramme, elections were a question of choice of two film person­
alities. In the Lok Sabha election, Shri Karunanidhi of the
DMK swept the polls in alliance with Congress (I) and with the
help of a powerful party of rich farmers. However, for elections
to the state legislature later in 1980, even the combined charisma
of Shri Karunanidhi and Mrs Gandhi could not counter the
charisma of the incumbent Chief Minister-cum-film star of the
All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK); with
the rich farmers’ party this time giving the backing to the
AIADMK, which, with its allies claimed a sweeping victory in
the state elections.
In terms of party affiliations, in the Lok Sabha elections,
apart from the two constituencies covering the four West Bengal
villages going to the CPI-M, one constituency (Bagpat) cover­
ing Rohota and Arnavali going to the Lok Dal (a splinter party
of the first split of the Janata Party) representing its president
and the former Prime Minister, Shri Charan Singh, and one cons­
tituency covering village Jadigenhalli (Bangalore south) going to
Janata Party, all the remaining twelve villages covering seven
Lok Sabha constituencies went to the Congress Party (including
one to its ally—DMK, which covered the village Pullambadi).
Elections to the state legislatures were held to cover fourteen

of the study villages belonging to six states. The two Kerala
constituencies covering Coyalmannam and Pazhambalakode
went to CPI-M. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a splinter party
formed after the second split in the Janata Party in 1979, cap­
tured the constituency covering the two Gujarat villages, Rupal
and Gambhoi, and the other covering the villages, Kachhona and
Sunni of U.P. AIADMK came back at Pullambadi to reclaim
the constituency covering it. The remaining seven villages
covered by four constituencies went to Congress(l).

168

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Elections to Village Panchayats

i

Three features distinguish the elections to village Panchayats
that were held during the study period. Firstly, the fact that in 11
villages covered by West Bengal, Kerala, Karnataka and Rajas­
than, Panchayat elections were held after a long time, provides
yet another indication of increase in social and political ferment
within the villages which compelled the ruling political parties
to hold these elections. These elections symbolise the defeat of
the political forces which had managed to stall the elections for
such a long period.
Secondly, this time the elections generated considerable en­
thusiasm within the electorates. There was a lot more extensive
electioneering and votes were sought from people on the basis of
more specific issues.
Thirdly, in all the villages an entirely new generation of
leaders had taken over the control of village Panchayats—young
and more familiar with the outside world. They are better edu­
cated, they are much better informed in political terms and
much more skilful in extracting a higher “price” for their poli­
tical support.
In the two Gujarat villages, Panchayat elections were held
when they became due in the normal course. In the six villages
of U.P., Haryana and Tamil Nadu, even though long overdue,
no elections were held. Indeed, in Tamil Nadu, the state
government had taken a step backward by superseding the
existing Panchayat bodies;
In the four villages of West Bengal, and later on, in the two
villages of Kerala, the election battle was fought on the basis of
political parties and programmes. In West Bengal, instead of

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

SOCIAL CHANGE LN THE VILLAGES

the United Left Front, each of its constituents fought on its
own. Efforts to mobilise the electorate in the four villages in
favour of candidates for rival parties were even more intensive
than was the case in elections to the state legislature or Lok
Sabha. Rival parties adopted the already familiar methods for
canvassing, though house to house canvassing was prominent.
Also, electioneering was conducted mostly at nights when
villagers had returned home from work. As Panchayat elections
were held on issues which were more directly related to their
day-to-day lives, the villagers were able to have a better appre­
ciation of the issues. Because of these reasons, the Panchayat
elections were of even greater significance in imparting political
education to villagers. The CPT-M won all the four Panchayats
which cover the study villages.

presumably because of much superior organisational capabilities
of their rivals and their favouring the working class and the
poor. Congress (I) could win only one out of the ten seats in the
Pazhambalakode Panchayat, though it did give a tough fight to
CPI-M and CPI-M supported independents in all the nine seats

170

In the two Kerala villages, realignment of political parties,
local adjustments at the village level and many “independent”
candidates getting support of political parties, had considerable
effect on election results. The fight was between the working
classes and their supporters, and the rest, though the rival
groups were very actively involved in caste and religious affili­
ations to mobilise support. The CPI-M captured both the Panch­
ayats covering the two Kerala villages. Very hard work by its
workers was perhaps the most important reason for its victory.
Significantly, in Coyalmannam where the Congress (I) leader
had enjoyed considerable support among his fellow Moplas, this
time many Moplas deserted him to join the camp of working
classes; there was also division of Mopla votes because of rivalry
among them. It had been stated that a prolonged strike among
workers employed by his company for running a passenger bus
service had also adversely affected his electoral fortunes. In
Pazhambalakode, Congress (I) could capture the votes of the big
weaver community by offering better prices for products through
better management of the village co-operative and by getting
better marketing facilities using the influence of their party. In­
terestingly, because of this advantage the entire weaver commu­
nity had shifted their support from CPI to Congress (I). The
Congress (I) could also obtain support from the affluent Nair
community through the support of the Nair Service Society.
It also had support from the well-off farmers. However,

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it lost to it.
Even though the Panchayat elections in the seven villages of
Gujarat, Rajasthan and Karnataka were not fought in terms of
rival political parties and political programmes, in all these
villages, elections showed a distinct departure from the
traditions followed. They were no longer considered a routine
ritual to be gone through by a few influential elders of the
village who came to agreement among themselves about a list
of candidates and who were declared unanimously elected by
government officials. All the seven villages had witnessed the
old entrenched leadership being challenged by a youthful group
of new leaders. There had been splits within the groups that
had hitherto dominated village life. The poorer sections of
the village community had also become more alive to their
rights. For getting support, the rival groups of candidates
had to come out v/ith a definite platform of programmes to
actively work among the people. Because of the split, the lival
factions of the ruling group vied with each other in offering
concessions to those belonging to the poorer sections, in order

to win their support.
In the Gujarat village of Rupal, the earlier Pradhan,
belonging to the Patel caste, had voluntarily resigned his
position because he had failed to instal a water system in the
village. Another member belonging to his caste succeeded
him. However, later on, when elections were held, the rival
Kshatriyas and Brahmins managed to wrest the control of the
Panchayat from Patels and Banias by mobilising the support of
Harijans, Muslims and other weaker sections. Similarly, in
Jadigenhalli, in Karnataka, the youth among the Vokkaligas
revolted against the old leadership and brought about its
downfall by joining hands with the numerically strong
Vanhikulas on a platform of better management of Panchayat
resources. In another Karnataka village, Yelwal, the clash was
between two factions among the Vokkaligas with the youthful

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

group winning complete control. Tn the Rajasthan village,
Rohat, there was a direct challenge from the powerful Banias
to the leadership of Raghvendra Singh, the former Jagirdar.
Although the Banias of the region had managed to gain control
over the seats in the Lok Sabha, state legislature and Panchayat
Samiti, the electorate of the village, particularly the poorer
sections, rallied round Raghvendra Singh not only to express
their gratitude and appreciation to their former “master”, but
also to use a Kshatriya candidate tp , thwart the efforts of
Banias to dominate the village Panchayat.
Other Changes Observed in Individual Villages

dH

As has been pointed out earlier, each one of the nineteen
villages has undergone significant changes in the course of this
study. However, expectedly, the villages differ widely in the
degree and nature of the change. The villages can be broadly
classified into three groups according to the degree and the
nature of change:
i. Villages which have undergone changes in terms of
significant shifts in the power balance: (Haringhata, Dakshin
Duttapara, Amdanga,, Kamdevpur) (West Bengal) and
Pazhambalakode and Coyalmannam (Kerala);
ii. Villages which show pronounced increase in social
tensions leading to changes in the leadership structures:
Jadigenhalli, Yelwal, and Kalur (Karnataka) Rohat and
Rampura (Rajasthan);
iii. Villages where the leadership has managed to contain
the social tensions and where the long overdue Panch­
ayat elections have not been held: Pullambadi (Tamil Nadu),
Rohota, Arnavali, Kachhona and Sunni (Uttar Pradesh)
and Bilaspur (Haryana).
-

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A Framework for the Description

Apart from the broad categories of social change which
have been described in the earlier part of this chapter, there
were still some data which threw light on certain aspects of
life in individual villages. Those data become more meaningful
because quite often they were collected specifically to know the

Social change in the villages

173

follow-up of some important issues observed earlier. It may be
recalled that the revisits were made for a very specific purpose
(Chapter 2) and that as the duration of these revisits was very
short the effort was principally to tap the already identified
sources of information. New data were collected from these
sources only in so far as they helped the specific purpose. Very
special efforts were made to resist the temptation of opening
new avenues for study. About the data collected during the
revisits, the author disclaims any intention of being
comprehensive in his villagewise observations on any aspect of
life in the villages. He justifies presentation of the additional
data only on the ground that, when examined against the data
which have already been presented, many observations which
in themselves are manifestly patchy, unconnected or incomplete,
make valuable contributions by enriching some of the data that
have been presented earlier.

For instance, when on the basis of the latest revisits to Rupal
and Gambhoi (24 March 1981) he discusses the three-month
old Anti-Reservation Movement of Gujarat,1 he does not have
any pretension of discussing the Gujarat Movement as a whole
or even discussing it in terms of its detailed repercussions
within these two villages. But a description of the Movement
as viewed by the residents of these villages (however limited) is
of great significance when these are linked with the analysis
and interpretation of data on the relationship between
Harijans and non-Harijans and the tentative conclusions that
were drawn from them (e.g. the case reports on militant actions
by Harijans against practice of untouchability by the tea shop
owner and by the village barber). It may also be mentioned, in
passing, that this linking up of the Gujarat Movement with
some of the data presented earlier and with some forecasts
that had been made on the basis of such data, provides a good
example of testing of forecasts (and, therefore, of the reliability
and validity of the data which formed the basis of forecasts)
by getting objective information on certain concrete events that
have taken place subsequently. (The reference here is to
discussions on this issue in Chapter 2.)
^he Anti-Reservation Movement was withdrawn on 23 May 1981.

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SOCIAL CHANGE tN THE VILLAGES

POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE
4

Villages with Significant Shifts in Balance of Power

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The five revisits to the six villages of West Bengal and Kerala
gave several opportunities to observe how the shift in the
distribution of power has brought about a fundamental shift in
the overall “atmosphere” in these villages. Even though there
is still considerable hunger and want, the fact that the deprived
sections are now able to have much greater say in the process
of decision-making within the community and consequent access
to much larger proportion of community resources, has brought
about a pronounced qualitative, social and psychological change
among them. They are no longer sullenly resigned to social and
economic exploitation and deprivations. This generates some
confidence. Even if this turns out to be only a short-lived
phenomenon, it appears likely that the very experience of feeling
liberated from many of the bondages and compulsions will have
lasting sccial and political impact on these villagers. This
feeling of liberation was also manifest in the behaviour of
the new leadership of village Panchayats in these villages. They
were no longer that secretive, diffident and wary when they
talked to investigators. Instead, they exuded considerable
enthusiasm and confidence, though they had a better apprecia­
tion of the difficulties of putting into practice the programme
they had promised to their followers.
Even among these six villages, the degree of changes observed
in the four villages of West Bengal was more pronounced than
in the two villages of Kerala. The West Bengal villages can be
described as politically different from the Kerala villages at least
on the following counts:
First, political repression, including physical violence against
political workers, rigging of elections, which preceded the
change in power distribution, was more intensive and overt in
the West Bengal villages. This created better conditions for
political education of the oppressed classes.
Second, the West Bengal villages had experienced a much
longer spell of the new social and political order (over three
years) at the time of the last revisit; because of this, the leader­
ship had more time to gain the confidence of the poorer sections
and also make headway in putting into operation programmes

175

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such as ‘Operation Barga’ and ‘Food for Work’. The unpre­
cedented floods of 1979 which engulfed all the four study villages,
provided a challenge as well as an opportunity to the new
leadership to give concrete evidence of their commitment to the
masses.
Third, at least at the level of the villages studied, CPI-M
appeared to be much stronger in the West Bengal villages
than in the Kerala villages.

I

Haringhata

•

Observations of the implementation of the Food for Work
Programme during the revisits to Haringhata provided a valu­
able index of the degree of democratisation that has taken place
in the village community. Each Panchayat ward member held
consultations with people in his ward to identify the work to be
done and the persons who were to be assigned work under the
programme. Repair of the village lanes and roads received top
priority. The ward member also supervised the work and
ensured that the workers got their due payments in the form of
grains and cash. It is significant that these roads and lanes
received attention for the first time since 1951. Panchayat
members have also been active in registering tenant farmers
(Bargadars) in the ‘Operation Barga’ and in using such regis­
tration to get the Bargadars their entitlements under the exist­
ing laws. Because of their efforts, the Bargadars now have
much greater access to credit facilities under various pro­
grammes.
The Panchayat has also been instrumental in installing two
tube-wells for drinking water in localities inhabited by poor
people. In the past three to four years, many have obtained
electricity connections under the Rural Electrification Pro­
gramme of the state.
‘ Establishment of youth organisations for men and women
by the ruling party has been another significant development in
Haringhata. These organisations are meant to provide political
and social education to men and women. A women’s organi­
sation—the Mahila Mandal—has a membership of over 500
women from surrounding villages. This is a political wing of
the CPI-M. Apart from political activities, it organises literacy

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Poverty, class and health culture

classes for women, provides them opportunities to acquire skills
to improve their economic positions. This organisation also
encourages greater participation of women in co-operative acti­
vities and cottage industries. It is also active in promoting
health of women and children and family planning.
A very striking change in Haringhata has been the virtual
disappearance of the village leaders who were in control of the
village at the beginning of the study (1972). The old leaders
have lost even the support of the relatively better off sections of
the population who have chosen new, much younger leaders,
most of whom are not associated with agriculture. They have
much greater links with trade and many have sedentary jobs.
They have formed a club called “Young Men’s Association”;
the members come to the club after the day’s work to play
various indoor games. The club also serves as a political forum
for its members. According to the members of this club, CPI-M
has used the Food for Work Programme to strengthen its own
cadres in the village. They also consider ‘Operation Barga’ a
threat to law and order.
The contrast in the approach to mobilisation of villagers in
favour of the viewpoints of the two classes came out very vividly
during the Lok Sabha elections of 1980. The affluent sections
spent considerable sums of money in hiring people, using cars
and cycle rickshaws fitted with loudspeakers and pasting expen­
sively produced posters to arouse people’s apprehensions con­
cerning implementation of Food for Work Programme and
‘Operation Barga’ and to project the image of their national
leader as the saviour of the country and democracy. The focus
of the other class was on house to house campaigning and
generating enthusiasm among their supporters by organising
impressive torchlight processions on bicycles at nights.
Another notable change in Haringhata has been a reduction
by half in the number of Muslim households within eight years.
Many Muslim families have been forced to abandon their
homes because of even further deterioration in their economic
situation. It has also been reported that on hearing rumours
that they can grab the lands of Bangladeshi Hindus, who had
been forced to migrate to India, some families had migrated to
Bangladesh only to discover that the lands had already been

SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE VILLAGES

177

grabbed by the local Muslims. Those who have remained,
manage to continue a precarious existence serving as “perm­
anent” labourers under some richer farmers. Presumably be­
cause of their abject dependence on rich farmers, they keep a
distance from the activities of other poorer sections of Haringhata, both socially and politically.
There has also been a significant decline in the incidence of
women committing suicide by swallowing Follidol.

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Dakshin Duttapara

Although Dakshin Duttapara has also undergone many
social and political changes which arc similar to Haringhata,
these changes have not generated as much tensions as in the
case of Haringhata. It may be because Dakshin Duttapara is a
smaller village predominantly agricultural without many rich
people. While the political struggle has been quite intense, the
success of the CPI-M led merely to a shift in the leadership
from one group of middle peasants to another group consisting
of middle and small peasants. Indeed, realising well how the
new leadership has been able to provide assistance to the poor
sections through effective implementation of the Food for Work
Programme and ‘Operation Barga’, the defeated group of
leaders have developed almost a grudging admiration for the
new leadership. An observation made by the former Panchayat
chief of the village: “They deserved the support they got from
the masses because they could do what we failed to do all these
long years.”
In their turn, the new leaders of the Panchayat took care to
see that their political opponents were not denied their fair
share of the resources made available through various pro­
grammes. For instance, when they succeeded in acquiring addi­
tional inputs for the village in the form of agricultural demon­
stration projects of the nearby Agricultural University at Kalyani
and through Integrated Rural Development Programme and
Small Farmers Development Agency, peasants belonging to the
rival parties also received their due share from the Panchayat
members. This enabled the new leadership to mobilise a much
larger proportion of the village population for implementation
of various programmes.

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SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE VILLAGES

In 1973, when the study was started in Dakshin Duttapara,
the condition of the main road of the village had become almost
intolerable due to long neglect. It used to become a muddy
swamp during the rains. The old leadership had been unable to
do anything about it. The prompt action of the new leadership
to get the road repaired under the Food for Work Progamme
made a very favourable impression on all sections of the village
population.

the “atmosphere” inPazhambalakode is somewhat different from
what is observed in the West Bengal villages. There has been
considerable increase in militancy of various types of labourers
and a general feeling in the village that considerable corrup­
tion exists at every level of the government machinery. There
have also been several instances of blatant political opportu­
nism. These feelings, coupled with high rates of unemployment
and under-employment, sharp fall in the price of rice, and acute
scarcity of essential goods, have generated an attitude of cyni­
cism among a broad section of the population of Pazhambala­
kode.

178

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The tension generated by shift in the power distribution has
been even higher in Amdanga than that in Haringhata. Apart
from projecting the control of the Food for Work Programme by
the Marxist-dominated Panchayat as a “danger to democracy”
and ‘Operation Barga’ as a threat to law and order, the old
leadership has not hesitated in arousing communal passions to
whip up anti-Marxist hysteria. This was very much in evidence
in the 1977 and 1980 Lok Sabha election campaigns of
Congress (I) to defeat CPI-M. However, the fact that a big
proportion of the Muslims of Amdanga renewed their mandate
in favour of CPI-M attests to the organisational strength of
that party. The villagers of Amdanga had also voted for CPI-M
in the Panchayat elections.

Kamdevpur
Although Arun Maity continues to thrive as a practitioner
of occult medicine and as a soothsayer, and through his pros­
perity the village continues to receive various kinds of benefits,
the years have shown a gradual decline in his political control
over the villagers. The result of the elections show that many
who were earlier his faithful followers, have developed courage
to work against his wishes. Not one of the nominees of Arun
Maity, who fought the Panchayat elections under the banner of
the Congress (I) party, was successful.
Pazhambalakode

As a change in the distribution of power in the village has
been brought about as a result of realignment of political parties,

179

Three of the Panchayat members, who won their seats as
CPI-M supported “Independents” had earlier been in Con­
gress (I). They realised that with the CPI-M growing somewhat
stronger, carrying the label of “CPI-M-supported Independents”
would improve their chances of getting elected to the Panchayat
and maintaining their position within the village.
During this period, there has been a pronounced increase
in corruption in Pazhambalakode. This may be because it has
now become even more difficult to get a job. With the growth
in population size and increase in the number of unemployed
(including many “educated” unemployed), there has been a sharp
rise in “price” of different jobs, (e.g. that of a school teacher)
and such prices are being demanded more openly. A CPI-M
Panchayat member betrayed his cynicism when he observed,
“For any public work, one-third of the money goes to govern­
ment personnel as bribe, another third is cornered by contrac­
tors and only a third reaches the public.” His views are shared
by many in Pazhambalakode.
The minimum wage for agricultural labour has been raised
from Rs 7.00 to Rs 9.20. Agricultural labourers are now also
demanding that they be registered as workers and given bonus,
leave and benefits of the Employees State Insurance Scheme.
On the other side, the employers are getting increasingly ex­
asperated because of fall in the price of paddy and sharp in­
crease in the price of various kinds of agricultural inputs. Reali­
sing this predicament of the employers, many of the labourers
have considerably toned down their demands, even including
their insistence on the minimum wage.

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

The CPI-M-led trade union of labourers had launched a
strike action against the powerful Ezhawa landlord of Pazham­
balakode. This led to a very bitter and protracted dispute. In
the end, the landlord succeeded in breaking the strike.
The condition of the big weaver community has become
even more precarious. Four members of a family manage to
earn about Rs 10 after 10 to 12 hours of hard work. They were
earlier supporters of the CPI, but with the Congress (I) being
able to offer them better terms through the weavers’ co-opera­
tive, they have switched their loyalty to that party. The weavei
community had voted for Congress (I) candidates in all elections
including that to the new executive body of the co-operative.
The Congress (I)-led executive reciprocated this support by
offering them Rs 50,000 as Onam bonus.
Despite many problems, the new Panchayat has managed to
win some admiration from the people by promising to provide
old age pension to labourers and offering financial support to
widows without any support, by improving the village water
supply and street lighting. The Panchayat has also promised to
supply water and electricity free of cost to all Harijans.
A piped water supply system was installed in the village in
1976. A commercial theatre has also been built. An enterpris­
ing young man had been enacting many plays in this theatie.
Many of these carried a political message. But he had finally to
give up for lack of financial support. He had to sell the theatre.
The new owner has now switched to the lucrative trade of
screening glossy feature films.
The ownership of the village liigh school has passed from
the Nairs to an Italian Christian organisation. According to a
senior teacher of the school, schools have become lucrative
business. He observed that the Italian mission had “bought”
the school for a lakh and half rupees and has already made two
lakhs of rupees from it.
There had been further depletion in the ranks of Brahmins.
From the previous twenty families, it has dwindled to five, giving
an even more desolate appearance to their Brahmin Gramam.

I

Coyalmannam
This village shares many of the political and social changes
which have taken place in Pazhambalakode. A significant

SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE VILLAGES

181

observation here was that even though it has a sizeable Muslim
population and the dethroned Panchayat chief is a Muslim,
unlike what is observed in Amdanga, the Muslim leader did not
whip up communal passions to fight his adversaries during elec­
tions to the Panchayat, Lok Sabha or to the state legislature.
Cultural differences, different historical background of the
Moplas and the different pattern of social and economic rela­
tions may account for this difference between Amdanga and
Pazhambalakode. It may also be because the opponents of
CPI-M are so frustrated and desperate in Amdanga, that they
do not hesitate to use this last weapon in their armoury.2
The change in the power structure in Coyalmannam had
added to the problems of managing the land and various other
enterprises owned by Mahmood Hussain. He complained of
frequent strike actions, indiscipline among workers and de­
mands for higher wages, bonus, leave and E.S.I.S. benefits.
However, despite these problems, during these years, Mahmood
Hussain has considerably expanded his business. In addition
to the petrol pump, the merchandise shop and the rice mill, he
has acquired a fleet of buses and the necessary licence to run
passenger services on the Palghat route. He also has a thriving
business in automobile spare parts. He continues to have con­
siderable influence on the social and religious life of the Muslims
by maintaining control over the village mosque and Madarssa.

The number of Brahmin households has gone down from
about 200 to 70. The feeling of gloom and despondency among
those remaining is now much deeper.

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Villages where Leaderships have Changed but has
no Participation of the Poor
As pointed out earlier, Jadigenhalli, Yelwal, Kalur, Rupal,
Gambhoi, Rohota and Rampura belong to this category of the
study villages. While there have been significant changes in the
power structure, they have not resulted in any significant
increase in the percolation of power to the poorer sections.
These changes have three distinguishing features:

2The Kerala Government fell on 19 October 1981.

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SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE VILLAGES

POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

They are brought about as a result of successful overthrow
of the old leadership by a new youthful group of leaders.
ii. The new leadership is outward-looking, with economic
linkages with cities. Villagers perceive these leaders as
“self-made, confident men, familiar with strangers.’ (The
leaders have linkages with Congress (I) and the Youth
Congress (I) in the case of the three Karnataka villages
Jadigenhalli, Yelwal and Kalur.)
iii. Even though the sharp division in the village community
has shattered the social stability observed in 1972-73, in
1980 (when the “Janata Wave” had already receded), the
opposing groups claimed to be staunch supporters of
Congress (I), because “Indira Gandhi is ruling both at the
state and at the Centre and it is always desirable to be on
the side of the rulers.”
1.

Jadigenhalli

The decision of the state government to hold Panchayat
elections in 1978 after a lapse of more than ten years itself
provides an indication of the degree of restiveness within the
village community. The elections also heralded the end of the
power monopoly of the Vokkaligas. The youthful faction of this
caste mobilised the numerically stronger Vanhikula community
to challenge the old leadership. The main plank of this challenge
was the old leadership’s failure to instal street lighting and water
supply in Jadigenhalli, mismanagement and corruption in dis­
tribution of water for irrigation from the Panchayat tank and
poor collection of Panchayat dues. Sensing that their support
had dwindled considerably, the old leadership argued for a
compromise, saying that the Panchayat would be able to get the
reward of Rs 500 if they had an agreed list of candidates
elected without a contest. But the challengers turned down this
offer and went on to capture all the 13 seats. They vindicated
the confidence reposed on them by the villagers by bringing
about dramatic changes in the working of the Panchayat in the
form of better civic amenities and better management of finan­
ces. On the basis of the record of good work done by them
they could also rout the old guard in the 1979 election to the

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183

executive committee of Sericulture Co-operative. This co-opera­
tive had come into existence in 1976.
In 1978, there was an outbreak of Japanese Encephalitis in
this region. At the suggestion of public health workers, the
Panchayat mobilised the entire village and promptly cleaned up
all the shrubs within the village, which were allegedly harbour­
ing disease-carrying mosquitoes.
This shift in the leadership has shown that the youthful rebels
among Vokkaligas have given precedence to more efficient
management of resources over their loyalty to the Vokkaliga
caste. In the bargain, the Vanhikulas have become more influ­
ential. With these changes a larger number of Vanhikulas have
found places in managing affairs of the village.
In the elections to the Lok Sabha and to the state legisla­
ture in 1980, the villagers showed an interesting response to the
further split in Congress (I) with the formation of Urs faction
of Congress (I). Before the split occurred, Chief Minister Urs
used to attribute his successes to the personality of Mrs Gandhi.
Therefore, when he later parted company with her, the villagers
of Jadigenhalli (as also of Yelwal and Kalur) took Shri Urs
at his word, and attributed all the good work of the state
government to Mrs Gandhi. As a result, a large number of them
put the stamp on the “hand” symbol of the candidates of Mrs
Gandhi. On being asked whom did they vote in the elections,
they said they “voted for Indira Gandhi.” When the election
result became known, many who had gambled to stay on with
Shri Urs’ party promptly climbed into the Indira Gandhi band­
wagon by changing their party label to Congress (I).
A remarkable feature of the change in Jadigenhalli has been
further expansion and diversification of the market economy of
the village. This is in the form of production of more cash
crops, opening of a clay pipe factory (which offered employment
to 20 people) and capturing of petty public works contracts by
the youth groups through their political connections in Bangalore.
In fact, the new Panchayat chief has managed to find almost
permanent residential facilities within the Legislators* Hostel in
Bangalore. The number of telephone connections have gone up
from five to eleven. An entrepreneur has found it worthwhile to
pay a substantial rent to the Panchayat to set up a cinema hall

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE VILLAGES

(built of bamboos and thatch) which has now become quite a
lucrative concern. Apart from grapes, many farmers have made
large profits by cultivating flowers, bitter gourd, ginger and other
vegetables for the Bangalore market. These changes have further
improved employment conditions in Jadigenhalli. Now farmers
have started to complain that they have to pay advance money
to get labourers for their farms. They also complain of very
high wages and laziness of the labourers.
Though the social status of the poor has remained un­
changed, it was observed that they are getting more restive and
better organised. This time, election campaigners had to pay
them a higher price in cash before they stamped on the “Hand”
symbol of Indira Gandhi. Tn an effort to win them over, the
erstwhile Urs government had built 20 houses for the weaker
sections. It had started a Youth Centre for providing recreation
programes for the youth.
The Food for Work Programme is run by the state public
works department and there have been many complaints of
corruption in the implementation of the programme.
Three old persons, who have no dependents, have been given
old age pension ranging from Rs 40 to Rs 60 per month.
A number of new shops have come up at the market place.
It is significant that as against only one tailoring shop in 197273, now there are four such. A co-operative store for fertilisers
and pesticides has also been established in this period.
Jadigenhalli now has a brand new building for its high
school.
There has been a qualitative change in the attitude of Vanhikulas. They have more self-confidence and enthusiasm. Corres­
pondingly, there is an aura of despondency in the Vokkaliga
camp.

club called Ramakrishna Youth Club in Yelwal, and people of
the village also widely share the view that “it was Indira Gandhi,
and not Devaraj Urs, who brought about various improvements
in the village.”
The factional cleavage among Vokkaligas, which was obser­
ved during the first visit to Yelwal, has considerably increased
over the years. A major cause of discord has been the lease of
fishing rights for the village tank. The old Panchayat had leased
it to one party. This lease was nullified when, on the advice of
the state fisheries department, the lease was given to two of the
villagers, who had received training from that department. As
this caused considerable resentment among a section of villagers,
they used all their political influence at the taluk, district and
state levels to get this decision reversed in favour of the original
lease offered by the old Panchayat.
On every occasion of the annual fair at the Mariamma
Temple of Yelwal, the two factions pledge to work together to
ensure that no untoward incident takes place on this important
day. So strong has been the animosity between the factions that
almost every year, this pact breaks down towards the end of the
ceremonies. On the last occasion, the village head (Patel) rece­
ived serious head injuries in a fight. It is significant that many
in the village felt happy that the Patel had “been taught a lesson
for indulging in all sorts of intrigues.” Because of factional
fights, it has not been possible to hold even a single meeting of
the School Development Committee of Yelwal.
In this village also, younger people inspired and supported
by the state youth welfare department, had managed to over­
throw the old leadership in the 1978 Panchayat elections. The
youth leaders belong to Vokkaliga caste, but they have managed
to rout the old guard of Vokkaligas by acquiring the support of
the numerically strong Servai caste members. As in Jadigenhalli,
the youth group had made improvement of village roads, and
construction of Janata houses for Harijans, distribution of land
for the landless and more liberal supply of electricity and water
to villagers, as its election plank.
Apart from internal conflicts within the Vokkaligas, there
had been a steep decline in the status of Brahmins. On the other
side, the Harijans have become much more assertive about their

184

Yelwal
There are many similarities between Jadigenhalli and Yelwal
in the changes that have taken place. Yelwal also had a change
in the leadership—a revolt of the youth; similar methods have
been used by workers of Congress (I) to make the Harijans and
other backward sections vote for the party. The Youth Welfare
Department of the state government has also started a youth

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

rights. Many of the Brahmin families had to part with their
lands. They claim that the money given in compensation is onetenth to one-twentieth of the market price of the land. They
allege that they are being harshly discriminated against in
government employment and believe that in colleges and univer­
sities, they get poor gradings because of their caste.

There had also been a sharp change in pollution and purity
practices of the Ayyangars. They now draw their drinking
water along with other castes from the recently installed water
supply system. They mix much more freely with others and
access to their houses has been considerably liberalised. However,
despite this decline and fall of Brahmins, Gopal Ayyangar still
enjoys considerable respect among villagers, particularly among
the Harijans.
A youth movement provides an indication ofrestiveness among
the Harijans. A youth has replaced the old Hejman, Ramaswamy, who had earlier so adroitly played the power game to
get crumbs for his flocks. The new leadership is more demanding
and assertive. This might be the result of the policies of the Urs
government. This government had actively encouraged the Hari­
jans to claim their rights. The Harijan youths have clashed
with their counterparts among Vokkaligas, who had started the
Rama Krishna Youth Club. The Harijan youths have insisted
on having a club of their own under the name of Ambedkar
Youth Club. The Vokkaligas first strongly opposed the move.
Later, they climbed down by conceding that the Harijans too
can have a state-financed youth club of their own, but they in­
sisted that their club could get financial help only if they changed
the name to Nehru, Shastri or some other national leader. The
Harijans, however, stood fast in naming it as Ambedkar Youth
Club and got ready to go ahead with their project without state
support. It was subsequently observed in April 1980 that the
Vokkaligas had finally given in and the Ambedkar Youth Club
received government grants for indoor sports and musical instru­
ments for Bhajan parties.
It was also observed that Harijans of Yelwal had begun to
express resentment against the manure dumping pits within
their colonies.

SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE VILLAGES

187

Another significant change here has been a remarkable incre­
ase in the number of industrial establishments near the village.
Virtually, the entire 16 km route between Mysore city and
Yelwal is now lined by industrial establishments of various sizes.
This provided opportunities to some residents of Yelwal, as
also some belonging to Kalur, to find jobs in the industrial
sector. The son of Gopal Ayyangar could not get any employ­
ment in the government or in the nearby Mysore University,
even though he has a first-class Master’s degree in Sociology.
He alleges that this is because Brahmins are being discriminated
against. He has finally managed to get a job as a clerk in a
nearby tobacco factory.
Yelwal now looks more prosperous, with more brick-built
houses, a larger number of telephone connections and consider­
able increase in the consumption of chemical fertilisers, highyielding seeds and electrically operated tube-wells.

11

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Kalur
The relatively small population of Kalur provided an inti­
mate account of the way the ruling group of the village had
weathered several political storms during the eight years this
study lasted. The local leaders have always managed to mano­
euvre in such a way as to be on the winning side.
The start of the study saw them responding to the Congress
split of 1969 by throwing their lot with Congress (O) of Veerendra Patil, who was then Chief Minister of Karnataka. Over­
throw of the Congress (O) government saw them supporting
the Congress (R) government of Devaraj Urs. They maintained
their support for it despite merger of Congress (O) with othei
parties to form the Janata Party and despite the latter winning
an overwhelming support at the Lok Sabha elections of 1977 be­
cause they wanted to be on the side of the ruling party in the state.
Not even bothering to ascertain the causes of the 1977 split in
Congress(R), they unhesitantly followed Devaraj Urs into Congress(I); this loyalty was reinforced further when the Janata
party splintered twice into a number of new parties in 1980. As
has been pointed out earlier, the further split of Congress(I) in
1979 saw the villagers really believing Urs* earlier contention

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Social change in the villages

POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

that all of his achievements were due to Mrs Indira Gandhi and
they joined Indira Gandhi’s party, the Congress(I), ignoring
the pleas of Urs.
Unwittingly or otherwise, the ruling groups have totally
ignored the ideological pretensions of parties ruling in the states
and at the Centre. Their main concern has been to develop a
“give and take” relationship with the group that happened to
control the state government, so that they are able to maintain
and, if possible, strengthen their position within the village.
Kalur continues to be without any transportation links, exc­
ept the railways. Here too, the daily frequency had been reduced
from three to two. Agricultural output has remained very low
because of water scarcity. However, commissioning of the “lift
irrigation” project, expected in 1981, is likely to improve the
situation. Construction of the Varuna Canal was started a year
back and has provided some jobs to the poor. Because of
reorganisation and merger of co-operatives ordered by the state
government, the office of the co-operative at Kalur has been
shifted to an adjoining village. The big group of potters has
remained desperately poor. They are aware of various assist­
ance programmes of the government but have learnt from past
experience not to expect any help from these. They have gone
from place to place and from person to person without any
benefit.
Rohat
There have been remarkable social and politicial changes
in Rohat during the eight years. As has been pointed
out in Chapter 8, sensing the changing times, Raghvendra
Singh, the local Jagirdar, had quickly donned the democratic
robe and cashed in on his feudal influence over the people, to
control the local Panchayal and Panchayat Samiti through elec­
tions. Tn due course, he also acquired the labels of the Swa­
tantra Party, the Congress Party (before split), the Congress(O),
the Congress(R), Janata, Independent, Janata (JP) and, finally,
Congress of Indira Gandhi, in succession, in a bid to retain
his political hold in the region. Apart from providing yet
another instance of the utter fragility of ideology of national
political parties as well as opportunism of those who join them.

189

! 11r

these frequent changes in the label also provide an indication
of basic changes that have taken place in the power structure
of the village.

1

As has been pointed out earlier (Chapter 8), even during the
heydays of the “Janata Wave” (1977), Raghvendra Singh was
unable to collect enough support to get nominated as party
candidate to the Rajasthan State Assembly. This was a clear sig­
nal to him from the trading classes that he could no longer get
much mileage out of his feudal background. The fact that he
had to stand for the state legislature as an Independent candi­
date and was completely routed revealed this. Even his own
Kshatriya caste was not backing him firmly. His own protege,
the Kshatriya Gram Pradhan, openly opposed him in the elec­
tion to the state legislature. Raghvendra Singh’s failure to retain
hold over the Panchayat Samiti, his failure to mobilise support
for Janata Party (JP) in the 1980 elections to Lok Sabha and
to the state legislature and his ultimately joining of Congress
Party (I) show the continuing decline of his influence as a feudal
chieftain and a steep rise in the political influence of the trad­
ing castes. However, throughout his eight years, Raghvendra
Singh remained the president of the Jodhpur branch of the
Rotary Club.
The village appears to have become more prosperous during
eight years. Two new banks—the Grameen Bank, Me war and
the Gram Sewa Sehkari Bank—have opened their branches in
Rohat. One more petrol pump has been set up. There are four
welding shops and two general shops, including one for repair
of tractors and sale of spare parts. Rohat has now become the
headquarters of a newly created tehsil.
The State Housing Board has built fifteen houses—all for
non-Harijans, eleven of them for Banias. Banias have also
bought the land near Rohat which is earmarked as an indus­
trial area by the state government. Patels of the surrounding
villages forming the Peetal Samaj (Patel Samaj) is now construc­
ting a house at Rohat at a cost of about Rs 500,000.

The number of tractor users has increased from three in
1973 to ten in 1981. A water supply system has been set up in
the village, but the water at the source turned out to be brackish.

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE VILLAGES

Efforts are now being made to bring water from a canal
which is located farther away.

Movement and complaints are also on the same lines — reser­
vations and special benefits should be based on economic
criteria and not on caste criteria and that most of the benefits
meant for the Harijans anyway go to a few who are affluent
among them. The Rajasthan Chief Minister, who is a Harijan
and is perceived as inefficient, appears to have compounded the
resentment of non-Harijans against Harijans. They also point out
that the District Magistrate of Pali has got that job because
he is a Harijan. They ask why his child should get all the
benefits while there are hundreds and thousands of other nonHarijan children who are more needy. Unlike in Rupal, there
is not much of a counter response from the Harijan population.
They are not that assertive in Rohat nor are they organised
even to that extent.
Nobody from Rohat or Rampura had participated in any of
the two Kisan rallies. The Antyodaya programme has com­
pletely disappeared.

190

A noteworthy change has been the sharp decline in the inci­
dence of guinea-worm infestation. The 1979 floods may have
shifted the ecological balance in favour of man by diluting the
water of the disease-spreading village tank with floodwater and
later washing away most of the diluted water. A greater inci­
dence among the villagers of filtering tank water through a
piece of cloth may also account for this. It is noteworthy that
this habit of filtering the tank water was developed by
villagers themselves; the PHC stall had nothing to do with it.
Some of the Muslims have become quite prosperous because
of steep increase in the price of goats. Most of the Muslims,
however, continue to remain very poor, eking out existence as
petty artisans.
Rohat was facing famine conditions again (in March 1981).
The crop had failed almost completely. Many people have left
Rohat to look for jobs. Road construction as part of famine
relief works has been started. They workingroups and receive
their share of wages at the rate of seven rupees per 125 cu.ft.
of earth moved. A very significant finding was that the people
prefer such collective work on famine relief projects to Food
for Work Programme. The reasons given for not liking the
Food for Work Programme are:

i. The quality of wheat supplied was bad,
ii. There was corruption, including underweighing.
iii. There was more rice and less wheat.
iv. Payments were not made on time.
v. It involved long waiting in queues.
This experience of Rohat (as also of Rampura) contrasts
sharply with what was described for the four West Bengal villa­
ges and again underlines the differences in the social and
political systems of the two states.
A significant increase in the resentment among non-Harijans
against the special privileges for Harijans and a more open
display of this has been another significant finding of the
March 1981 revisit. This feeling has spread from the Gujarat

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Rampura

Consumption of opium in groups has continued to be an
important socially accepted institution in Rampura. There is
now even a demand that this should, be regularised and they
should get licence to buy opium at alow price! Villagers have
also been quite overtly making illicit liquor from Gur and
Mahua flowers. The 1979 floods had badly affected this village
and spoilt agricultural land. The village as a whole was not
involved in the flood relief measures, though individual house­
holds did receive cash grants of Rs 300 for. reconstruction of
their houses.
This village has now been electrified. The number of tractors
has increased from three in 1973 to six in 1975 to nine in 1981.
Also, responding to the pressure generated by a section of the
village population, which included many “medium” farmers, as
many as 14 families have been allotted pieces of Government
land and six families have been identified by the villagers for
receiving old-age pension of Rs 40 to Rs 50. The village grazing
land, which was earlier a major cause of conflict in the village,
has been taken away from the individual rich farmer and placed
under a trust constituted of village elders. That even in this

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poverty, class and health culture

relatively remote village, there has been a strong reaction
against forced sterilisation is revealed by the fact that when a
prominent villager, belonging to the Chowdhary caste, who had
been a life-long Congressman, wanted to remain loyal to the
Congress (R) in the 1977 elections, his wife openly revolted
against him and voted for the Janata. She could not forgive
Congress (R) for forcibly sterilising people in her village.

Rupal
Mention had earlier been made (Chapter 7) of how Harijans
had become better organised and managed to get a better deal
for themselves in this village. Several other weaker segments of
the population had also become more assertive about their
rights. The consequent changes in the balance of power has
brought about a dramatic change in the village leadership. In
Chapter 8, the description of the local feudal chieftain, Jaswant
Singh (the self-proclaimed “Raja of Rupal”) was given to under­
line the utter decay and degeneration of the old feudal order.
Extravagant habits, including an almost pathetic attachment to
feudal pomp and show, addiction to alcohol and idleness had
made him heavily indebted to village moneylenders to become
an object of ridicule among the villagers. However, as result of
the change in social equilibrium, when Panchayat elections were
held in 1976, the Brahmins and Kshatriyas mobilised the
support of the Harijans, Muslims and some other socially back­
ward groups. In this way they managed to overthrow the old
leadership. The old “Raja of Rupal” was brought back from
oblivion as the leader of the Kshatriya group and ultimately
chosen to head the village Panchayat. This amazing resurrec­
tion of the long forgotten old “Raja of Rupal” as the
democratically elected Gram Pradhan is in fact a reflection of
the many significant social changes that had taken place in
Rupal during the past decade or so. Elevation to the status of
the Gram Pradhan offered Thakur Jaswant Singh opportunities
of making money and he could also use his office to revive
some of the feudal practices ostensibly to provide “dignity” to
this office. However, the new Panchayat could not do anything
significant to improve the village. Thakur Jaswant Singh had
contracted tuberculosis, presumably because of over-indulgence

SOCIAL CHANGE 1N THE VILLAGES

193

in alcohol. True to his feudal upbringing, he considered it
beneath his dignity to avail of the treatment facilities at the
District Tuberculosis Centre at Himmatnagar. Instead, he
obtained anti-tuberculosis injections “privately” from an
employee of the PHC. Apparently, his disease was much too
advanced and complicated. He died in May 1980.
The fact that despite all his degeneration, Thakur Jaswant
Singh had considerable political weight became evident from the
events that followed his death. This time, once again, the
Banias were backed by Patels. When they fielded their candidate
(Babulal Shah) for the by-election to Rupal Gram Panchayat
all the other five candidates, who had filed their nomination,
did not feel it worthwhile to oppose him and he was elected un­
opposed.
It is also significant that in the elections to Lok Sabha and
the state legislature, outside opinions had influenced electoral
behaviour in the village. One group pointed out that the state­
ment of the Chief of the RSS, Deoras, in 1977, to the effect that
RSS would capture power in the next ten years had adversely
affected the interests of the Janata candidate. Similarly, shifts
in the support of the Shahi Imam of the Jama Masjid, Delhi,
was considered to be significant in swinging Muslim votes of
Rupal from one party to another.
Nobody from Rupal had gone for either of the Kisan rallies
held in Delhi (15 February 1981 and 26 March 1981). They are
all followers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
As has been pointed out in Chapter 9 data on caste and
class relation in Rupal provide insights into the widespread,
protracted and violent Anti-Reservation Movement of Gujarat,
which has already (April 1981) caused extensive loss of life
and property in the state. During the first round of study in
Rupal (1974), it was noted that while Harijans were not soci­
ally discriminated against in public institutions, practice of
discrimination against them was widespread in private interac­
tions with them (Chapter 6). It was also observed that among
Harijans, the socially “superior” Bunkar (Chamars) also prac­
tised social discrimination against the Bhangis. The Bunkars
had utilised the Emergency conditions (in 1975-76) to force
many sections of the village community to concede to them

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

(i.e. the Harijans) some of their legal rights and this had creat­
ed strong resentment among other sections in the village.
The Gujarat Anti-Reservation Movement appears to be a
macro manifestation of what was observed at a micro level in
Rupal. The tensions that were observed in Rupal against what
is perceived by non-Harijans as totally unjustified special pri­
vileges of Harijans, found cumulative manifestation at the state
level in the form of the explosive Anti-Reservation Movement,
with its repercussions throughout the country, particularly in
the adjoining states of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. The
district town of Sabarkantha, Himmatnagar, observed a
“bandh” on this issue on 21 February 1981, and in the vio­
lence that accompanied the bandh, four government jeeps and
one state-owned passenger bus were set on fire. Till 24 March
when Rupal was revisited, there has been no incident against
Harijans, though the investigator noticed a significant rise in
open tension between Harijan and non-Harijan groups. While
not mentioning physical atrocities of non-Harijans against
Harijans, the former group felt that policemen, particularly proHarijan policemen from outside, including the Saurashtra Re­
serve Police, have been deliberately committing brutal atrocities
against non-Harijans.
In terms of specific action, non-Harijans of Rupal joined
others from outside in staging a demonstration within the vil­
lage, which culminated in the burning of the effigy of the Chief
Minister of Gujarat. Activists within the village—including two
non-Harijan employees of the PHC at Rupal launched a funds
collection campaign for the Movement. The schools remained
closed for all these days on orders of the state government.
The Bunkar Harijans justify the special privileges for Harijans
on social criteria because they say even the well-off Harijans
suffer from social discrimination and if economic criteria are
employed, because of social discrimination against Harijans and
because of corruption, the Harijan’s case would remain
neglected.
Economic life of Rupal continues to be controlled by the
Banias. Many of them have relatives with prosperous business
establishments in Bombay. This has brought increasing pros­
perity to Rupal. It has also increased the political strength of

5

Social change in the villages

195

the Banias. There were no telephones in Rupal in 1973. Now
it has eleven telephones. Apart from the PHC and the Sabar­
kantha Bank, nine others (eight Banias and one Muslim) have
installed telephones in their homes. A larger number of houses
now have electricity. A water supply system had been establish­
ed. This, however, had not been working well because of erratic
supply of electricity. Interestingly, seven households—all
Banias—have installed small motors within their houses to draw
water directly from village wells. In the 1981 revisit, it was ob­
served that the water supply system had considerably improved.
There was only one tractor in Rupal in 1973. By 1981 the
number increased to three. While there was only one diesel
pump and no electric pump in 1973, in 1981 there were 30
diesel and fifteen electric pumps.

A dam is being constructed near the village to prevent soil
erosion and to get some water for irrigation. A branch of the
Sabarkantha District Development Bank has also been opened
in Rupal. The Khadi and Gram Udhyog Commission has open­
ed a Charkha Kendra, where 40 persons—all non-Harijans—
earn through Charkha-spinning.
During the eight years, Rupal has become even more dis­
tinctive in having a wide network of voluntary organisations.
The Yuvak Mandal (Youth Club) continues its social work
within the village and collects funds by organising cinema shows
and other such activities. The Rupal Gram Vikas Samiti (village
development committee) had regularly been paying the PHC a
sum of Rs 500 per month for buying medicine. It organised a
“Spectacles Camp” in 1978. An optician had been specially in­
vited from Bombay for this. About 500 persons were given
spectacles free of cost. Some of the rich in Rupal also contri­
buted generously for holding an “Eye Camp” at Himmatnagar,
where as many as 3,000 people received attention. Earlier, in
1975, an organisation calling itself “Sad Vichar Samiti” and a
trust from Bombay, Vansali Trust, had organised another “Eye
Operation Camp”, where over 1,500 persons were operated on.
The cost of running this camp alone was over Rs 1,50,000.
Besides these, voluntary agencies run a high school (since 1957)*
a library, a Bal Mandir for pre-school children (since 1962) and
a Mahila Mandal (since 1963) for training women. Attendance

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SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE VILLAGES

at the Mahila Mandal has increased from 22 in 1977 to 50 in
1981. There is now a trained teacher for the Bal Mandir, where
the attendance of pre-school children (3-5 years) has gone up
from 20 in 1978 to 70 in 1981. From 1975 another voluntary
organisation started operating an “Adivasi Chatravas” (hostel
for tribal students). In 1957, the rich from Rupal contributed
over Rs 60,000 for building the school; they had also paid
Rs 16 000 for the construction of the PHC building. All these in­
stitutions receive heavy subsidies from the state government.
However, it goes to the credit of these organisations that the
institutions run by them are reasonably well-managed—indeed
much better managed than government institutions. In addi­
tion, Rupal also has three Hindu religious organizations.^
“Jhaanjhari Mata Aarati Mandal”, “Krishna Premi Mandal
and “Sanatan Bhajan Mandali”. With the help of data from
the visits to Rupal, it is possible to identify five factors which
distinguish the voluntary organizations in this village from those

Gambhoi

196

in other villages:

Almost the entire cost of running these organisations is met
by the richer sections of the population, particularly those who
have business connections in Bombay. They are mostly Banias,
though the richest man in Rupal—the owner of a thriving tailor­
ing establishment in Bombay—happens to be from a backward
caste.
Enquiries about the donors made it quite apparent that most
of the donations came from “anonymous persons”, who donat­
ed money from “unaccounted funds,” ostensibly, to earn some
punya (virtue).
Although a large number of people (particularly from the
“upper” and “middle” classes) participate in these organisa­
tions, none of these organisations is involved in political activi­
ties, even at the time of elections.

Many of these voluntary organisations are entitled to receive
considerable subsidies from the state government under the
latter’s various development schemes.
Those who control the organisations mostly manage them
quite well, often much better than government organisations.

197

In this village also the Kshatriyas have managed to capture
the Panchayat from the numerically stronger Thakkaras by
manipulating to extend the Panchayat electorate to include two
surrounding villages which have a larger number of Kshatriyas.
Following the construction of a National Highway, Gambhoi
has been transformed from a small sleepy village to an impor­
tant transport junction. Increase in transportation activities has
in turn increased the prosperity of the village. There are now
many more shops, including a tyre repair shop, an automobile
spare parts shop and several “hotels” (snack bars) for bus
passengers. With opening of the telephone exchange, Gambhoi
now has six telephones. A police station has recently been
established here. Electricity was brought in 1980. The village
got its first tractor in 1976. It has in addition, now fifteen diesel
and four electrically operated pumps. A number of workshops
and factories have also been set up. A factory manufacturing
steel chairs and another manufacturing cement pipes for agri­
cultural work are now providing employment to villagers. There
are also four units manufacturing agricultural implements.
Attracted by job opportunities, a group of Ghumkarroe
tribals from an interior village is trying to settle down in
Gambhoi. This is strongly resented by the Panchayat and it is
making strenuous efforts to get them removed from the village.
These tribals, both men and women, are a source of cheap
labour to the factories and workshops and other “work” con­
tractors. Tribal men and women have been observed to be
working from early morning till late at night on a miserably low
wage. Such conditions disturb the wage structure of the entire
village.

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Changes observed in Arnavali during this period are of
considerable significance. There had been a violent confronta­
tion between Jat landlords and Chamar landless labourers; there
are very definite signs of restiveness among the big landholders
about what they call unremunerative prices for agricultural
commodities; there is still stronger evidence that the Chamars

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ignore the interests of Bhangis and often oppress them as much
as they themselves are oppressed by upper castes; Brahmins and
Chamars have continued their alliance, though there are indica­
tions of increasing internal tensions within these two groups.
As had been pointed out earlier (Chapter 8), the violent
confrontation between Jat landlords and Chamars (Jatao group
of Chamars) was precipitated as a political fallout of the Emer­
gency excesses and subsequent Janata landslide victories in 1977
elections. While the Jats felt triumphant at their victory, the
Chamars got politicised enough in the political process to fight
and retain their past gains against onslaughts by the Jats. Their
numerically stronger position emboldened them further. This
confrontation led, on the one hand, to a wider alliance among
Jats of surrounding villages to physically assault and intimidate
the Chamars and economically boycott them. On the other, this
also saw an open support to the Chamars from the economically
and politically strong Brahmins. This also saw the Lohia Socia­
list Jat leader, Promode Bharati, taking an unequivocal stand
in favour of the persecuted Chamars even at the risk of his own
safety and safety of his family and property. The confrontation
ended with loss on both sides. A substantial number ot Cha­
mars had to leave the village to seek jobs elsewhere, more parti­
cularly in the cities of Meerut and Delhi. The Jat landlords
had to suffer the mortification of taking back the Chamars to
work in their fields on the same terms that they had so firmly
opposed earlier.
Death of the Panchayat Pradhan in 1975 had precipitated a
major political crisis in the village. According to the law, he
was succeeded by his deputy, Ram Ratan, who is a Chamar.
There were four Chamars, one Kumhar, two Jats and two
Brahmins in the Panchayat. Both the Jats and the Brahmins
considered it very humiliating to have a Chamar as their Gram
Pradhan. They refused to attend Panchayat meetings, because,
following tradition, these meetings were held in the house of
the Pradhan. The acting Pradhan went to the houses of the Jat
and Brahmin Panchayat members to brief them about Panchayat
meetings and to receive their “instructions”. The Jats and the
Brahmins became even more impatient with Ram Ratan when
they found that he was spending Panchayat resources to

improve civic amenities in Chamar localities. Ram Ratan him­
self started to do manual work to mobilise Chamars for
voluntary labour to improve roads and drainage in their loca­
lity. He also used Panchayat resources to obtain additional
land for keeping cattle belonging to Chamars. What turned
out to be the last straw was Ram Ratan issuing notice to
sixteen Jats to vacate the Panchayat land which the Jats had
allegedly been occupying illegally. The Jats and Brahmins
redoubled their efforts to win over a few Chamar Panchayat
members to their side, using various types of threats and tempt­
ations. They also pleaded that Ram Ratan was incapable of
looking after government officials from outside and this was a
serious blot on the entire village. Ultimately, despite all the
exhortations of Ram Ratan to the Chamar members of the
Panchayat to maintain unity and solidarity, the Jats and Brah­
mins succeeded in winning over some Chamar members. With
this they could pass a vote of no confidence on Ram Ratan. In
his place, they installed a Jat, Bhagat Singh as the new Pradhan.
Ram Ratan fought back and challenged the legality of the
Panchayat. This cost him as much as Rs 1,200 but he was
unable to reverse the decision.
This case report once again underlines the fact that when
class interests are threatened, even bitter enemies come together
to counter the common threat.
In 1980, Promode Bharati forcefully articulated the grievan­
ces of the rich farmers, “Do we get the same degree of returns
from our capital [the land] as others get from their industries?”
he asked. He went on, “We would be satisfied if the govern­
ment gives us a return of even five per cent and pays us the
salary of a clerk or even of a peon for all the labour we put
in.” An interesting finding was the Bharati couple, who had
hitherto been powerful champions of a small family norm and
who had limited their own family only to a boy and girl,
now changed their mind and deliberately went for a third child
to have “more hands for our fields.”
During the March 1981 revisit it was found that Promode
Bharati had become a field officer of Peerless General Finance
and Investment Company Limited and had such a good busi­
ness that he was constantly on the move to clear the March-end

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

rush of work. His wife also helps him in this business. They
now have rented a house of their own in Meerut city (and not
Bharati’s father’s place) and the children go to their schools
from there. Presumably through contacts with his wife’s family,
which lives in Bijnor district, Bharati is also thinking of buying
another farm in that district.
While the Chamars have managed to improve their position
by migrating and by getting a better deal from landlords, the
the plight of the Bhangis has worsened still further. They are
getting no assistance, political or social or economic, from the
government as most of the resources given as assistance to
Harijans had been usurped by the more vocal, organised and
socially superior Chamars. This intra-Harijan exploitation and
oppression is of considerable significance. The Bhangis cannot
rear any cattle as they have no grazing facilities. They cannot
raise pigs as they do not have enough space even for their
residence. Husbands and wives are compelled to share very
cramped accommodation in miserable huts with their grown-up
children and old parents. The house sites for Harijans have all
gone to the “superior” Chamars. The Bhangis feel so over­
whelmed by the odds against them that, unlike the Chamars,
they cannot identify the forces which have been the cause of
their plight. They only plead that somehow they should get
more employment in the fields and better payment, in kind,
for the “unclean” (scavenging) jobs that are traditionally
assigned to them.
Data from the revisits also revealed that even though
Chamars had aligned with Brahmins to get political and econo­
mic protection, lately, presumably because of increase in the
militancy among the Chamars, there had been a perceptible
increase in tension between the two groups with increasing
number of clashes. la one instance, the son of a prominent
Brahmin landowner had inflicted bloody injuries on a Harijan
girl for alleged trespass into his field and theft. This caused
a major uproar among Chamars. To pacify them, the Brahmin
brought his son before a concourse of Chamars, declared him
guilty and, as punishment, asked the Chamars to beat him
“as much as they liked.” The Chamars responded by belabour­
ing the boy pretty thoroughly. As if that was not enough, they

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also lodged a report at the local police station, alleging atroci­
ties against a Harijan. This caused deep resentment among
Brahmins. “The Chamars will remain Chamars. It is wrong on
our part to expect otherwise,” was the confidential comment of
a Brahmin to the investigator.
The eight years also saw significant changes in the village.
Promode Bharati is now joined by three other persons—all Jats
—who own television sets. Bharati and another rich landlord
have set up Gobar Gas plants in their houses. Each plant costs
about Rs 4,000. The government offered Rs 1,000 as grant and
the rest was given as a loan. However, only the rich could avail
of this offer, because others have neither the land nor the cattle
to give the dung needed for the plant. Many more houses have
obtained electricity. A rice mill has been set up in Arnavali by
a Brahmin.
Corruption and nepotism in the running of the high school
(Chapter 4) has become even more blatant and scandalous.
However, significantly, there has been much greater enthusiasm
among Chamars to go to school. They now know that education
will enable them to get the reserved Harijan jobs in cities. One
Chamar boy from the school has obtained admission to the
Medical College at Meerut. As has been pointed out in Chapter
9, in the course of the latest visit it was found that after gradua­
ting from the Medical College, this boy obtained a state
government job and is posted in Allahabad. Another boy from
the same family has also been able to get admission to a medical
college, this time at Kanpur. It was also found that the boys
belong to a well-to-do family, owning considerable irrigated
land, which has availed of the Harijan job reservation facilities
to get good jobs in police and telephone departments.
On the other hand, the Jats are having increasing difficulties
in finding jobs in cities. Because of very high rates of
unemployment, they are getting disillusioned with education.
They are saying: “What is the use of going to school, if we
cannot get jobs? We do not need education to work in our
fields.”
A Brahmin teacher of the school observed that Bhangis do
not send their children to the school. According to him, they
have “weak brains” and are incapable of learning. The Bhangis

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SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE VILLAGES

are still being forced to put up with the nuisance resulting from
the dumping of animal wastes in the manure pits located within
their colony.
As against two in 1973, the village had four tractors and
twenty tube-wells in June 1980. During the latest visit (March
1981), the number of tractors had gone up to seven.

rights and privileges. These gatherings have now given shape to
a new organisation of Chamars—Harijan Milan Kendra.
During the first round of the study, there was no television
in Rohota. Now there are four sets. One belongs to the Pancha­
yat and is installed in the house of the Pradhan. Two sets are in
Jat households; another is owned by one of the doctors of the
PHC. During the March 1981 revisit, the village had acquired
a fifth television set that came as part of the dowry of the bride
of Ram Lal Sharma’s son. Ram Lal Sharma is a telephone
operator and owns considerable land. A branch of the Syndi­
cate Bank has now been opened in Rohota. A new building has
also come up for housing both the bank and the Post Office.
Both of them are located virtually within the compound of
Pradhan Krishna Kumar’s house. Recently, a branch of the
Corporation Savings Bank and a fair price shop under the
co-operative sector have been established in Rohota.
As in the case of Arnavali, there are now many tractors and
tube-wells in Rohota. Tn 1973, there were only fourteen tractors.
The number has now swelled to over 50. During the same
period, the number of tube-wells has gone up from about
twenty to over 100. Between the two last revisits (June 1980
and March 1981), the village has acquired three tube-w'ells and
four tractors.
The scheme of the Fertiliser Corporation of India for sup­
plying fertilisers and high-yielding seeds has now been extended
to the “R” block, which includes Rohota and Arnavali.
While the rich farmers in all three Green Revolution villages
—Rohota, Arnavali and Bilaspur—are very happy with the
rise in price of sugarcane and grains, they have nevertheless,
stepped up their agitation to get ‘’remunerative prices” for their
produce. The demand to “Make Farming Equal to Industry or
Quit Office” is now being written on walls in bold letters in
Hindi. The movement has also become quite complicated.
Brahmins and Harijans joined the 15 February 1981 Kisan
Rally of Congress (I) in large numbers while the Jats remained
aloof as the rally did not have the backing of Charan Singh.
Similarly, as Charan Singh also disapproved of the 26 March
1981 Kisan Rally of the Left Front, it did not evoke much res­
ponse from the villagers.

R.OHOTA

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

202

In contrast to Arnavali the proportion of Chamars in
Rohota is much smaller. Further, as a substantial number of
them are engaged in leather work, the proportion of those
Chamars engaged in agriculture (Jataos) is smaller still. Because
of this there had not been any direct confrontation between Jats
and Chamars in Rohota even though tension between them
had increased over the years. Presumably because of the
respect he commands in the village, Krishna Kumar, a Brahmin,
continues to have a firm control over the village Panchayat.
Restoration of Congress(I) governments both at the state as
well as at the Centre has further strengthened his position.
The plight of the Bhangis in Rohota is as bad as in Arna­
vali. Chamars have continued to resist all their efforts to take
possession of the four newly constructed houses allotted to them
under the Harijan Housing Scheme. The Bhangis are also
denied many other facilities made available under various wel­
fare schemes.
Economic status of the Chamar community has shown some
distinct signs of improvement. Tanning and shoe-making has
become more lucrative. A glue-making factory has also been
established for them in the co-operative sector and it has already
become an economically viable venture. Many Chamars have
relatives who have found government employment in Meerut
city and Delhi under the Harijan job reservation scheme.
Chamars now look better dressed. Many young people, who
have developed contacts with cities, were seen wearing fashion­
able clothes, footwear and long, well-groomed hair. Chamars
have built a big new temple, which also serves as a con­
venient gathering place for them. Such gatheringshave been
used to mobilise their community for more effective struggle for

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The March 1981 revisit revealed that the Jamait-e-Islami has
opened a new Madrassa in Rohota for education in Urdu and
for religious education of Muslims. Two saw mills have also
been started by two well-off Muslim families of the village.
The March 1981 revisit to Rohota revealed a very rapid
deterioration in the law and order situation. People feel very
insecure. A few days before the visit there had been a dacoity
in Majra village, only a kilometre away from Rohota. A few
days earlier, there was a dacoity in another village, Salapur,
close to Majra. On both occasions the victims were well-off
Chamars.

considerable weightage to the oft-repeated grievances of the socalled affluent farmers of Bilaspur as was also the case in Arnavali
and Rohota that they do not get a fair return either from their
capital or from their labour.
While mainly Brahmins went for the 15 February 1981 Kisan
Rally, the Jats have participated very actively in the 26 March
rally, presumably under the leadership of the Haryana Jat
leader, Devi Lal, who was one of the main organisers.

Bilaspur

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

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Bilaspur shared with Arnavali and Rohota the bounty of
the Green Revolution. Farmers were happy about the 1980
price of sugarcane crop. While economic condition of the Chamar agricultural labourers (Jataos) remained bad, the condition
of the Bhangis was relatively better here than in Arnavali and
Rohota. The Bhangis are able to raise goats as there are grazing
facilities; they also raise pigs and poultry. Besides they get rotis
and dal or subzi from farmer households in return for the tradi­
tional scavenging services.
Activities of the Arya Samaj have significantly increased in
the surrounding villages and in the nearby “Gurukul”. A Sanyasi, who was a former Tehsildar, has started to stay in a hut in
the nearby forest. Apart from propagating the doctrine of Arya
Samaj, he gives free tuition to children who study at the village
school. A big Arya Samaj Conference was held at Bilaspur in
December 1980. Many eminent Arya Samaj monks participated
and there were many discourses and religious songs. In 1973,
Bilaspur had only one tractor, two cane crushers and about 30
tube-wells. In March 1981, there were eight tractors, three
crushers and 35 tube-wells.
The condition of the village school had not improved. After
a lapse of all these years, there was not a single student found
to be adequately clad for the severe winter. This provides an
index of the economic status of the village as a whole. In spite
of the Green Revolution, farmers have not been able to meet
some of their very elementary needs. This, incidentally, lends

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Kachhona
During the eight years of our study many moie shops and
houses have come into existence in Kachhona. Three lice mills,
one oil mill and five brick kilns have been set up. Because of
the increasing importance of Kachhona as a market centre in
the region, it has been recognised as a town and as a result a
Notified Area Committee has been set up to administer it, repla­
cing the old Panchayat. However, no elections have been held
to the Committee. It is being administered by a governmentappointed administrator.
The Banias have become more prosperous and exert a fir­
mer political grip over Chamars and other economically back­
ward castes. They own four of the five brick kilns and four of
them also own trucks. Economic conditions of the icst have
remained virtually unchanged. The drain containing human
and animal wastes from the Bania and other upper caste house­
holds situated at higher elevations (Chapter 4) continues to take
the circuitous way through the Chamar colony which remains a
slushy swamp during the rainy season.
The high school had been upgraded into an intermediate
college in 1974. Recently, it began offering facilities for education
in Urdu.
Kachhona reflected also its political affiliations in relation to
the Kisan Rally. A small group consisting of Chamars, Pasis
and Brahmins went for the 15 February 1981 rally but there
was no response to the 26 March rally. Towards March-end
hectic preparations were being made for a massive BJP sponsor­
ed Kisan Rally at Lucknow on 6 April 1981. Like the other two
rallies, the 6 April rally too was a great success. The Harijan BJP

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SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE VILLAGES

Member of Legislative Assembly of U.P. has defected to the >
Congress (I) Party. A Brahmin has opened a Youth Congress (I)
branch at Kachhona. The participation of Harijans in this party
has been very lukewarm.
Even though the Chamar caste Panchayat is still active and
on occasions of births, marriages and deaths the cost of giving
feasts continues to make many Chamars dependent on Bania
moneylenders, there has been a very significant slackening in
the observation of these practices and rituals. As it has become
more difficult to enforce caste sanctions, these sanctions do not
carry the same weight with the Chamars. They now have greater
links with Hardoi and Lucknow; some of them have managed to
get jobs in cities from the reserved quota. While others have
now mustered enough courage to defy caste sanctions which
they consider to be unfair, unjust or simply inconvenient to them.
Their defiance has, in turn, emboldened other Chamars of the
village to challenge the authority of the caste Panchayat.
While the bulk of the Muslims continue to live a precarious
existence, there has been significant improvement in the econo­
mic conditions of the richer families. Apart from having his land­
ed property, houses and shops, Mohommad Hashim, the richest
among them, has now built up a road transport business. He
owns a brick kiln, a jeep and a number of trucks. Two Muslim
lads from Kachhona have become graduates and found clerical
jobs in cities. The prosperity among the Muslims has also
improved the condition of the two village mosques. A new
Madrassa under the name of “Maqtab” was established in
1981.

bad reputation, villagers, more particularly Brahmins, have
difficulty in finding matches for their sons and daughters outside
Sunni.

Sunni

This almost exclusively agricultural village appears to have
become poorer still. That might be one reason why many villa­
gers enrolled themselves in the State Home Guards so as to earn
something whenever they are called up for duties. Interestingly,
Sunni had also acquired notoriety because it was branded as a
law and order problem by the police. It has no tractor and no
lube-well. None from this village participated in any Kisan
rally. Many of the houses have been raided by dacoits and
many of the villagers are suspected to be outlaws. Because of this

207

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PULLAMBADI

There has been considerable expansion of employment
opportunities in the industrial sector. Villagers have found more
jobs in the new industrial units that have sprung up in nearby
Dalmianagar and other urban areas. A number of small manu­
facturing units have also come into existence within the village
itself. As in the case of Yelwal, Jadigenhalli, Kalur and Kachhona, this increasing number of industrial workers within the
village has markedly eroded the hold of the traditional village
and caste leaders. Harijans have now become more assertive
showing resentment against location of manure pits in their
colony and the village tank overflowing into their locality
during the rainy season. They are more vocal in their complaints
against unfair distribution of water from the village water
supply system, which remains irregular because of erratic
supply of electricity and poor maintenance.

The Christian churches continue to have considerable influ­
ence in the village through their control over the Christians and
through institutions like the Sahayamata Hospital, schools,
orphanage and distribution of CARE milk and other commodi­
ties obtained through overseas Christian-aid organisations. The
Catholic Church has continued to adhere strictly to segregation
of Harijan Christians. The Catholics also continue their custom
of marrying within their ‘‘caste”. The Church has also complet­
ed the building of the housing colony for ‘Harijan’ Christians.
These ‘Harijan’ Christians are given a separate church, which
is located within their colony and they continue to be overtly
discriminated against when special religious programmes are held
at the old St. Anthony’s Church. Some reformist “upper caste”
Christians (including the “Ayyangar” physician of Sahayamata
Hospital) had started a campaign against this and against
“caste” endogamy and segregation practices among Christians.
However, the “silent” majority, which controls the Church, has
thus far succeeded in thwarting these efforts.

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CHAPTER ELEVEN

Conclusions

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It is contended that, in a community, perception of a health
problem, meaning of the state of health and disease, response
to various institutions that exist for dealing with these health
problems, all form an integrated, interdependent and interacting
whole. It is a sub-cultural complex which can be termed as the
health culture of the community. As any other aspect of culture,
health culture of a community is influenced by diffusion from
other health cultures. In this context, implementation of govern­
ment health programmes in a community can be considered as
purposive interventions into the existing health culture of that
community, with the object of bringing about a desired change
in that (pre-existing) health culture. Further, as health culture
of the community is in fact a sub-culture of the overall culture
of the community—the yverall way of life, it is intimately linked
with changes in the overall culture that are mediated by various
social, economic and political forces.
Perhaps the most significant aspect of this study is that its
entire methodological edifice is built around this integrated and
broad-based concept of health culture. This concept has deter­
mined the range and the depth of the data that are required to
be collected, the techniques and tools to be used, the selection of
the population for the study and the decision to provide a time
dimension to some of the key findings.
Two consequences flow from the approach adopted for the
study. First, it breaks the barriers of individual disciplines
which not only create obstructions to acquiring a proper under­
standing of a problem but play a downright negative role by
giving a distorted and at times highly slanted picture of the
problem. The second consequence flows from the first. Break­
ing of barriers of individual disciplines makes it all the more

209

necessary to be very selective in data collection: only the data
which have a bearing on the study problem should be collected.
The major findings of this study are summarised in the fol­
lowing sequence:

i. Findings on some additional dimensions of poverty in rural
India;
ii. Power structure in relation to class, caste and religion;
iii. Leadership, and social and economic control;
iv. Social, economic and political implications of population
growth; and
v. Dynamics of social change in the villages in the context of
the social and economic relations within individual villages,
in the context of a time dimension and in the context of
wider changes that had taken place at the national level
during this period.
A host of scholars have written about poverty in India,1 For
this study too it was necessary to obtain quantitative data on pre­
valence of poverty in the study population. But for this purpose
poverty was measured in terms of different criteria (e.g. those
w?ho do not get enough to eat all round the year, those who are
landless and are not engaged in service or trade, or those who are
Harijans). Data on these criteria were also correlated with vari­
ous parameters. This correlation imparted considerable depth
to the data. With this correlation it has also been possible to
relate the special privileges that are offered to Harijans on the
question of dealing with the problem of poverty in India.
Additionally, with the help of qualitative data, it has been
possible to understand:

i. The forces that generate poverty in rural populations;
ii. Biological implications of generation of poverty in terms of
struggle for existence put up by the affected people, in terms
of biological and nutritional consequences of hunger and
deprivation and in terms of the entire life cycle of the
affected people; and
iii. How, in turn, these biological consequences of poverty influ­
ence social life of the affected people.

JSee references at the end of this chapter.

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

CONCLUSIONS

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Detailed portraits of poverty have been drawn up to provide
a more intimate meaning to poverty in concrete real life situa­
tions faced by individual families like that of Suryakanta
Mukherjee. The fact that an overwhelming majority of the popu­
lation will be called “poor” if definition of poverty is changed
merely to include those who do not get two square wholesome
meals all the year round and those who do not have very ele­
mentary facilities of housing, potable water supply and sanita­
tion, underlines the degree of poverty and deprivation among
populations in rural India.
The institution of caste is studied not just within the tradi­
tional boundaries of purity and pollution rituals and hierarchi­
cal positions. It is also studied in terms of class and the forces
which determine the class structure of a population. Among
the castes, despite pronounced village to village variation,
Harijans stand out very sharply as the main victims of caste
discrimination by other castes. However, field data have reveal­
ed that when purity/pollution rituals come in conflict with class
interests, most often the class interests prevail. Interestingly, it
is within the Harijans themselves (e.g. Chamars and Bhangis),
where there is no conflict of class interests, social discrimin­
ation is practised in a much more pronounced manner. The
fact that despite twelve decades of proselyting by Catholic
missionaries, even the third generation of Catholic converts
continue to practise a very rigid form of “caste” discrimination
among themselves, also underlines interplay of factors other
than Hindu caste rituals concerning purity and pollution.
Again, if caste is responsible for sharp social stratification
among Hindus, then one would have expected at least, a less
pronounced stratification among the Muslims within the study
population. This was not found to be the case.

At least compared to Harijans, the non-Harijan and other
castes do not suffer as much social discrimination. Among
them caste affiliation is used as an instrument for gaining poli­
tical and economic power.
The highly complicated interaction among various factors
which influence economic power, class, caste and religion, deter­
mines the nature of the political system within a population,
the leadership structure and the various mechanisms used for

n

enforcing social and economic control. This interaction forms
an equilibrium which is not only dynamic, but also very fragile
and unstable. Because of this, the social and economic equation
which gives shape to a political system within rural populations,
is neither stable nor strong. Extensive prevalence of acute
poverty, exploitation of one class by another, relentless pressure
of rapidly growing population, failure to effectively implement
many of the promised social and economic programmes, restive­
ness within the exploiting groups are some of the major factors
which make the equilibrium so unstable and fragile. Frequently
this equilibrium is forced to realign itself to changes in the
distribution of power within different groups.
With a doubling of population in the past thirty years and
with a growth rate of 24.75 per cent for 1971-81,2 growth of
population is a major factor in determining social change in
India. Growth of population has brought about two types of
changes. By increasing unemployment and poverty, by creating
greater scarcity of essential goods and services, population growth
has posed a major challenge to the stability of the existing
system. The family planning programme was the response to
this problem by those who felt most threatened—the privileged
classes. Apparently because this programme was not combined
with programmes for improvement of other aspects of their
lives, the response of the underprivileged classes was not
adequate. Because of this the privileged classes have gone on
escalating coercive measures, till they culminated in the use of
naked force to sterilise nine million people against their will. It
was in effect a class war: a declaration of ‘war’ against the
underprivileged. As this move did not succeed and the popula­
tion is still growing, the sheer compulsions generated by demo­
graphic conditions will force the privileged classes to bring
about a major shift in.the allocation of resources to improve
the living conditions of the underprivileged to create a norm of
the small family. Unwittingly or otherwise, population growth
thus becomes an ultimate weapon in the hands of the under­
privileged to wrest a better deal from the privileged classes.
It was observed in the first round of the study that the
equilibrium between different forces which maintain the village
2Census of India, Provisional Population Totals, 1981.

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poverty, Class and health culture

life was very fragile and unstable. Because of conflicts and con­
tradictions, there has been a sustained pressure for change from
within. This ferment has increased considerably due to the
major social and political upheavals and convulsions at the
national level that have taken place in recent years. It so
happened that these upheavals were heralded in Gujarat by the
Navnirman Samiti movement in the course of the study, which
ended with another movement in Gujarat the Anti-Reservation
movement, with spillover to Rajasthan. Complex factors have
influenced the nature, degree and the pace of the change in the
study villages. The change has been most far-reaching in the
villages of West Bengal and Kerala. Apparently because such
changes pose a threat to the privileged classes, concerted
attempts are being made to stifle them by starving the population
out of resources, by disturbing peace to “create” law and order
problems, or throwing all democratic pretensions to the winds
by dismissing the state governments.

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R eferences
‘V M- Dandekar and N. Rath, Poverty in India, Poona, Indian School
of Political Economy, 1971.
Government of India, Draft Sixth Five Year Plan (Revised), New
Delhi, Planning Commission, 1979. p- 4.
3V.M. Rao, “Diiema of Poverty,” Economic and Political IVeekly, vol.
33, Nos. 4-5, 1978, pp. 137-41.
*V.M. Dandekar, “Below the Poverty Line,” Economic and Political
IVeekly, vol. 14, Nos. 7-8, Annual, 1979, pp. 233-36.
‘P.K. Bardhan, “On the Incidence of Poverty in Rural India in the
Sixties,“ Sankhya, vol. 36, Series C, Parts 2 and 4, 1974.
*P.K. Bardhan, “On the Incidence of Poverty in Rural India,’ Eco­
nomicand Political Weekly, vol. 8, Nos. 4-5, Annual, 1973, pp. 245-54.
7P.C. Joshi, “Perspectives on Poverty and Social Change: The Emer­
gence of the Poor as a Class,” Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 14,
Nos. 7-8, Annual, 1979, pp. 355-66.
»S. Dasgupta and S. Sarkar, ’’Problems of Rural Poverty: A Sociologi­
cal Exposure,” Economic Studies, vol. 21, No. 1, 1980, pp. 3j-47.
•S. Balakrishna and P.K. Ghosh, “Poverty Line Re-defined and Con­
1980.
firmed.” Behavioural Sciences and Rural Development, vol.3, No. 1, 1980.
(Reprint)
„
10S. Balakrishna, “Incidence of Rural Poverty in Recent Years,
Behavioural Science and Rural Development, vol. 3, No. 1, 1980. (Reprint)

!
CHAPTER TWELVE

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Implications of the Study

ii
Implications for Social Sciences in India

This study calls into question some critical aspects of con­
ventional wisdom in the field of social sciences and in the fields
of its specializations dealing with health issues—e.g. Medical
Sociology and Medical Anthropology. It does not start with an
invocation to the Western demi-gods, nor does it pay obeisance
to their Indian high priests, and the ultra orthodox may still
accuse the author of heresy and sacrilege.
A recent publication by I.P. Desai is of help in putting the
present study within a perspective of social sciences in India.
In what he has described as a ‘‘historical and autobiographical”
case study of sociological research in India, Desai has described
himself as a second generation sociologist, as opposed to the
first generation which has been branded by some as “social
philosophers”, like Ghurye, Karve, D.P. Mukerjee, Radhakamal
Mukherjee and Majumdar. He has also observed that this
second generation of social anthropologists and sociologists
have been very dependent on ideas borrowed from Western
countries, particularly the UK and USA and how this
dependence on what Yogendra Singh has called a “Western
reference frame” has dominated the scene of social anthropology
and sociology in India. Other eminent Indian social scientists
like Ramakrishna Mukherjee, Roy Burman. Sinha and Dube
have made similar observations regarding the state of social
sciences and Nandi on the state of social psychology. They have
all pleaded for development of concepts and methods that are in
tune with the social and cultural conditions prevailing in India.
In Western countries also some scholars have questioned the
works of some of the most influential social scientists in these
See references at the end of this c hapter for the works by the authors mnteioned

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countries. Sorokin was among the first to question (in 1956)
the relevance of most of the sociological work which had been
carried out during the past half a century. C. Wright Mills
made a perceptive analysis of existing concepts and methods of
sociology while pleading for development of what he called
“sociological imagination”. Valentine’s critique of the concept
of culture of poverty and his excellent analysis of sociology of
this type of knowledge and Andreski’s branding of most con­
temporary works in social sciences as “sorcery”, provide other
instances of criticism of efforts of some social scientists to
“mystify” or even vulgarise social sciences.
Sharing the basic contentions of most of the scholars referred
to above, the author had taken pains not to get too engrossed
over schools of Malinowski or Radcliffe Brown, Pritchard, Singer
or DumOnt. Nor did he allow himself to get bogged down with
the interpretation of these scholars by their admirers and faith­
ful followers in India. The author has also not paid much
attention to those who claim to favour “value-free social
sciences”, because he feels that this assertion betrays a disturb­
ing and a dangerous value position. Instead, he is in favour of
making his values explicit by clearly stating his data, his
assumptions, his hunches and even his biases, so that the reader
is in a better position to assess the author’s contentions.

Way back in 1960, when the case studies in Health, Culture
and Community, and particularly those by Marriot and Carstairs
written against Indian backgrounds, exercised considerable
influence on Indian scholars and when social scientists came
forward to help tuberculosis public health workers (Ref. 25) by
finding ways of “educating” people to take recourse to Mobile
Mass Miniature Radiological Units, the author had designed a
study (Ref. 26), placing people, and not technology, as the starting
point: What do people think of the disease? What does it mean
to them? And, what do they do about it? This study revealed that
even in those days, there was considerable awareness among the
patients, more than half of whom (in the district Tumkur in the
then Mysore state) had gone to a rural health institution. In
almost all the instances, the practitioners of the so-called
scientific Western medicine had dismissed them with a bottle of
useless cough mixture! Then, the question was asked: Who

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IMPLICATIONS OF THE STUDY

215

needed education, the doctor or the patient? These findings on
awareness of tuberculosis patients in a rural community formed
the basis of formulation of a people-oriented (felt-need oriented)
tuberculosis programme for India (Ref. 27, 28). Another one­
sided, very narrow and obviously prejudiced stand was taken by­
ma ny tuberculosis specialists and social scientists on the so-called
problem of treatment default. The term, treatment default, is
itself a loaded one. Broad-based studies (Ref. 30, 31), which again
started from the people, revealed that while some shortcomings
could be attributed to the patients, an overwhelming number could
be attributed to organisational failures or to limitations of techno­
logy (in the form of definition of a case or optimal treatment
regime or the question of drug resistance). Yet. the organisa­
tion, and the technology “delivered*’ by it, had seldom become
the object of any study to analyse the problem of “default”: they
were considered to be above reproach, because they were “good”
and had been sanctified by high priests from Western countries.
By implication, it was always the patient who must be reproach­
ed for his “default’ and he should be “educated” so that he
mends his ways on the lines prescribed by his “educators”.
Ivan Illich has convincingly exposed what he aptly describes
as “this mystifying” and “dependence producing” activities in
Western medical practice.
Such value positions come out very clearly in the case studies
of Marriot and Carstairs. Dutifully echoing these ideas in his
book, Cultural Frontiers of Health in Village India, Hasan re­
proached Indian villagers for what he perceived as their supersti­
tious and unscientific health practices. Writings of Gould and
Kha re are in the same mould. Indeed, so pervasive has been
this tendency to accuse the people and their culture while re­
garding the technology and the agency delivering it with consi­
derable awe and respect that one is tempted to find an expla­
nation in the Christian ethos of Western civilization: good
(secular) Christians, with a missionary zeal, coming to these
poor countries to “save” them by showing the way to salvation
(through technology dished out by Western commercial inte­
rests). This veneration for technology and technological institu­
tions is so deep-rooted (Ref. 36) in the (secular) Christian culture
of the West that even radical social scientists like Djurfeldt and

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

Lindberg had not been entirely successful in seeing the ayilaable medical technology in the context of the way of life of the
people, in their study of the village Thaiyur in Tamil Nadu.
Some Western anthropologists have been so preoccupied with
relating their discipline to the health field in Third World coun­
—Medical
tries, that they have launched a new specialisation
i
Third
World
countries.
Anthropology, with special focus on
Fabrega dilating on this “new” field of study says:

A medical anthropological inquiry will be defined as one
that (a) elucidates the factors, mechanisms and processes
that play a role in or influence the way in which individuals
and groups are affected by and respond to illness and
disease, and (b) examines these problems with an emphasis
on patterns of behaviour. Primary emphasis will be given to
studies that are conducted in no/i-Western settings and that
rely on the concept of culture (emphasis mine).

Why should researches in the field of Medical Anthropology
be confined mainly to study the Third World countries? It is
implied that anthropological concepts cannot be applied to heal­
th problems, institutions and practices of Western countries to
any large extent? Have Medical Anthropologists icsponded
adequately to some very pertinent issues raised by Ivan Illich?
(For example, iatrogenicity of various kinds, mystification,
medicalisation and erosion ot autonomy of individuals in the
context of practice of “modern” medicine in Western countries.)
Again, why should the contents of Medical Anthropology get
limited to what Western anthropologists and the faithfuls from
the Third World decide to perceive and study? Why should they
take such a fragmented (and often distorted) look at cultural
realities in Third World countries? (Ref. 22-24, 34) It is remarkable
that such questions were not even raised by anthropologists be­
longing to the Third World during the Tenth International Con­
ference of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, held in
India in 1978. In this conference Medical Anthropology received
special attention. This global meeting also provided a good market
place for anthropologists belonging to affluent countries to
recruit new converts and future proselyters for such rapidly

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emerging exotic cults as Ethnomedicine, Folk Medicine and
Traditional Asian Medicine (Rel. 42-44).
The author has presented the concept of health culture to
counter these not very desirable trends in Medical Anthropolo­
gy. He would however like to strees that it is not being brought
out as a counterweight to Medical Anthropology. Health culture,
by its very definition, is a component of Medical Anthropology.
This concept is introduced to provide a better balance to methods
and concepts of Medical Anthropology and is derived from ideas
that were developed while designing the study ol awareness of
tuberculosis patients in Tumkur district. As the methodology
for study of health culture has to be consistent with this concept,
a new methodological approach for this study had to be fiamed.
Because of this basic difference in the methodological approach,
it may not be worthwhile to compare it with the conventional
approaches, as represented by “Encounters and Experiences,”
a collection of writings of a group of eminent Indian anthropolo- ,
gists, or as seen in the works of Srinivas, Hasan, Dube and
Dasgupta. By the same token, no efforts will be made to relate
the findings of the present study to the findings of studies con­
ducted by such scholars.
Findings of the present study got some corroboration from
the long term, longitudinal study of the Panchayat of a single
village in Telengana region in Andhra Pradesh by Ranga Rao
and the study Health and Culture in a South Indian Village by
Mathews. However, because they have been single village
studies and because there have been substantial differences, both
in the range of the studies as well as in detailed implementation
of methods, the overlap of interests of the present study with
these two studies is very limited.
Against this background of a reference frame which is
different from the Western one (referred to by Yogendra Singh),
the implications of the findings of this study for social sciences
in India, can be summarized as follows:
1.

ii.

An attempt has been made to add data on a class dimen­
sion to the conventional social dimension for study of
caste and religion in India.
Data from the study have provided a deeper understand­
ing of the problem of poverty in rural India, by giving

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flesh and blood to the skeletal framework of statistical
data on this subject.
iii. The data on poverty as well as those on caste and reli­
gion have been studied in the context of power and class
relations, including social and economic control.
iv. The study provides some insights into the structure of
village leadership and how this leadership influences
various decisions concerning community life in villages.
v. It has also provided data on interactions and interrelations
at the village level among the local leadership, the bureau­
cracy and political functionaries from higher levels.
vi. It has also been possible to obtain detailed data on the
way various village leaders and party workers attempt to
influence the behaviour of the electorate for elections to
Gram Panchayats, Panchayat Samitis, State Legislative
Assemblies and Lok Sabha.
vii. Data were also obtained on various implications of the
high rate ol growth of population and the response of
different segments of village populations to the measures
introduced from outside to reduce it.
viii. As the study population covered nineteen villages in
eight states located in different regions of the country,
it was possible to study how the findings varied in the
different villages, in different states and in different
regions.
ix. Follow-up study of all the nineteen villages, which contin­
ued right up to the end of March 1981, provided data on
the process of social change and the response of village
people to the major political and social changes during
this period at the national and state levels.
Implications for Health Culture of Study Populations

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

For convenience of description, implications of the findings
ot the present study are being presented at two levels: at the
micro level and at the macro level.
Micro level implications are in the from of extensive inter­
relationship of data on various aspects of village life described
in this volume, and the data on various aspects of health
culture of different population groups will be discussed in the

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companion volume. Issues such as village institutions, power
structure, economic status of a family or of a given population
segment, influence of political functionaries at various levels and
relationship between politicians and various forms of govern­
ment and community administrative structures, will be taken up
for elucidating aspects of community health culture. Conversely,
some of the micro data on health and family planning have
already been used to elucidate certain key aspects of village life.
Dumping of garbage in Bhangi colonies, diversion of the open
sewage drain through the Harijan colony, implications of break­
down of a water supply system for Harijans, the perception of
an ANM by Harijan women as a ‘ Mem”, community response
to the intensified family planning drive during Emergency and
response of the (former) wife of Suryakanta Mukherjee to
health problems of her children, to her own cholera-like
disease condition and to the facilities offered by the family
planning programme, are some of the instances of medical or
health issues which have been used in this volume to throw
light on aspects of social and economic relations within the
populations of the study villages.
The macro data are in relation to large chunks of population
and their implications will be discussed in two different contexts:
(a) differences in urban and rural settings and (b) among
different strata of populations within the villages. Concerning
the differences in urban and rural settings, it has already been
pointed out in Chapter 4 that in relative terms those living in
rural areas suffer from major disadvantages because ecological
surroundings are more adverse and availability of, and
accessibility to, various kinds of health institutions are restricted
because of their concentration in urban areas, because rural
populations have much less political influence to gain access to
these institutions and as a group they are economically much
weaker than their urban counterparts.
Within a village itself, implications of macro data are
presented in so far as they help in understanding various social
forces influencing formation and functioning of different health
institutions and how access to these institutions is linked with
distribution of power and the nature of social control within
the population. They also help in understanding why a group

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

has developed a particular perception of a health problem, why
it has developed a particular meaning, and what factors deter­
mine the response of the community to the health problem.
By far the most important implication of this study is that
it makes it possible to relate health problems of a community
and its health culture with the question of poverty and the
various social, economic and political forces in the community
which influence the degree and the nature of poverty.
Biologically paraphrased, poor people are those who are on
the losing side in the struggle for existence. Among those on
the losing side are many who have been totally wiped out—they
have died in this struggle for existence. Those who are not
wiped out but somehow manage to cling to their lives, form
a significant segment of the poor because of many reasons.
The most ominous among them is that they have managed to
survive under very adverse conditions, earlier considered incom­
patible with human survival. Due to factors not yet fully under­
stood, it is apparent that the “floor” for biological survival of
man has been lowered and because of this he has acquired
higher longevity. But, as apparent from the several portraits of
poverty, survival has become more precarious and this has drawn
these human beings even nearer to a vegetative existence. They
have become much more vulnerable to manipulation and control
by those who have pushed them down in the struggle for exis­
tence. And if is only a perpetuation of misery and not life
when some of the weak children borne by grossly malnourished
mothers manage to survive the myriad hazards of life.
The study has thus provided data on various aspects of the
most overwhelming health problem faced by rural populations
in India: the problem of hunger. Poverty also leads to further
disintegration and deterioration of the environment and of living
conditions—of sanitation, of the quality of drinking water, of
shelter, of clothing and being forced to eat wild roots, grass
seeds, leaves and even garbage.
One of the most pernicious and potentially most dangerous
consequences of extreme poverty is that it tends to numb the
senses of the victims—it is just like numbness due to destruction
of nerves in leprosy. A highly anaemic, grossly malnourished
and undernourished woman, who carries all sorts of infections,

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still thinks, she is “normal”, because that is the sort of life she
had been living for as long as she remembers. Why, her parents
also lived such a life! In a setting such as this, getting enough
rice to eat, maybe with a piece of fish or meat, is abnormal, or
more precisely, a windfall. The children exclaim at the “sweet
smell of gluey rice that is boiling in a brimless aluminium pot.
However, quite apart from what can be called “diseases ol
poverty”, which have become a “normar’ part of their “normal ’
lives, diseases also strike them in the form of medical catas­
trophes, and these strike them more often than they do other
groups. Obstruction of childbirth or severe bleeding during
childbirth, the husband unable to earn his wage because of
prolonged typhoid fever, the adolescent girl constantly crying
out in acute agony because of extensive inflammation ol the
eyes and various forms of serious injuries sustained as a result
of accidents or assaltus, are examples of such medical
catastrophes. Worse still, the poor are in a most disadvan­
tageous position in facing such catastrophes: they are physically
weak. Loss of wages due to sickness has profound impact on
the economy of the entire household. Besides, they are not
articulate—they are illiterate and ill-informed with no money
to approach private practitioners or to bribe government
officials or to buy the prescribed medicines or meet the cost of
transporting the patient to a health institution. They can exercise
little “influence” on officials because they are low down in the
power hierarchy of the community. In a desperate bid to avert
such catastrophes, they fall prostrate before the hated landowner
or the moneylender or the unscrupulous political boss, and they
readily agree to the terms dictated and thus barter away what­
ever power they possess. This, incidentally, shows how falla­
cious arc assessments of social scientists in ascribing a place for
health needs in the hierarchy of the needs of the people. When
people face no medical catastrophes, health needs may be found
low down in the so-called hierarchy of needs; but when there is
a medical catastrophe, it becomes not simply a top priority, but
a crash priority among the needs of the people. This also
provides an example of how fallacies in the methodology lead to
vital fallacies in the concepts.
Thus by having control over medical services at the

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

time of a medical catastrophe, the exploiting, privileged class
uses this as a weapon to control and exploit the poor. Because
of its privileged-class-orientation, the medical establishment also
ends up strengthening the privileged class by helping it to
deal more effectively with the (fewer) health problems it has to
encounter, while at the same time, it weakens the under-priv­
ileged, by denying them access to medical institutions even when
they encounter (more frequent) medical catastrophes.
This study has also provided ample data to dispel any notion
that the overall atmosphere among the poor in rural India is
that of unrelieved doom and gloom. The unjust and oppressive
social and economic system is going through one crisis after
another. Rising population growth, failure of the forcible steri­
lization drive, internal contradictions within the ruling classes
and increasing assertion by the poor of their rights, are the
major factors which are precipitating the series of crises. This
has forced the ruling classes to make several concessions to the
poor in social, economic and political terms. In turn, these con­
cessions have inspired the poor to demand more: more demo­
cratization, greater social justice and higher return from their
labour. While it may amount to romanticization to contend
that many changes are taking place all over the country. Data
from the nineteen villages for the entire duration of time, makes
it very clear that there is considerable ferment in rural areas.
There is demand for minimum wages for agricultural labour,
for houses and social security; there have been demonstrations
before a PHC to demand better performance by the staff; there
are demands from Mahila Mandals for family planning services;
and, there are widespread demands for a better deal for the
poor in general and for Harijans in particular. In villages where
the poor have managed to wrest some more power, they have
been more effective in helping the poor by more efficiently
implementing programmes such as Food for Work, Integrated
Rural Development, Comprehensive Area Development Project,
Operation Barga, old-age pension, relief programmes of various
kinds and so on.
One of the significant findings of this study is the
very limited extent of contribution and involvement of political
parties in the ongoing struggle for a just social order. Because

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223

of this weakness, these parties have missed several opportuni­
ties to strengthen the organisation of the oppressed classes so
that the struggle can be carried forward. For instance, the pro­
gramme of “People’s Health in People’s Hands,” (Ref. 54)
launched by the Union Government and most of the state gover­
nments, provided excellent opportunities for the people to develop
competence to cope with most of their health problems on
their own and to use the existing health service system more effe­
ctively by ensuring that the referral services work more efficiently.
Further, placement of a community health worker or volunteer
from among them offers the potential for organising people for
demanding justice in having access to health services. Taking
a broader view of health, nothing bars a community health
worker from joining hands with other community level workers,
striving to promote the struggle for a more just social order.
Thus this programme could be employed to increase access to
health services and as a vehicle of community self-reliance and
democratisation in the field of health and consequently in other
sccial, economic and political fields (Ref. 55). Thus, health work
can serve as a stimulus for social change, which alone can
enhance the ecological conditions necessary for improving the
health status of a community.
To sum up there are four issues that emerge when considering
the implications of the findings:
First, because of wide differences in the environmental con­
ditions and in access to health institutions, it can be concluded
in general that people in urban areas enjoy greater advantage
over those living in rural areas. Similar differences exist even
within the villages (as they do in cities), where a small privileged
class lives in better environment with better access to health
institutions than the vast majority of the village population.
Second, as the bulk of the health problems among the poor is
generated by the extremely poor environmental conditions in
which they live, these problems can be dealt only by improving the
living conditions. As this improvement is essentially related to
economic, political and social conditions, improvement of health
status of a population is also essentially an economic, political
and social issue. Under the existing conditions of social and
economic relations, conventional health services can have only

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poverty, class and health culture

a marginal role. Struggle for better health thus becomes synony­
mous with struggle for economic, political and social justice.
Third, under the existing conditions of gross inequality in
the access to health institutions, the privileged class, which has
control over access of the underprivileged to health institutions,
uses the access to health institutions as a weapon to control and
exploit the underprivileged.
Fourth, if the poor are organised enough to exploit the con­
cessions that have already been made by the ruling classes in
the Helds of health, they can not only blunt the weapon of using
access to health services to oppress them, but they can also use
these concessions as a lever to join other forces in ushering in a

more just social order.

References

pH-

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!

‘L.P. Desai, •’Craft of Sociology in India. An Autobiographical Perspective,” Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 16, No. 6, 1981, pp. 197204, No. 7, pp. 246-51.
2G.S. Ghurye, Caste and Class in India, Bombay, Popular Book Depot,
1950.
3J. Karve, Kinship Organization in India, Bombay, Asia Publishing
House, 1961.
4D.P. Mukchrji, “Indian Tradition and Social Change" in G.N.
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KD.N. Majumdar, The Matrix of Indian Culture, Nagpur, Nagpur
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7Y. Singh, “The Role of Social Sciences in India: A Sociology of
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*R.K. Mukherji “Indian Socioloy : Historical Development and Present
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1US. Sinha, “Is There an Indian Tradition in Socio-cultural Anthro­
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1973, pp. 1-14.

IF

hI!
CONCLUSIONS

225

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view from the Third World” in proceedings of the Xth International
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12A. Nandi, “The Non-paradigmatic Crisis of Indian Psychology,
Reflections of a Receipient Culture of Science,” Indian Journal of Psycho­
logy, vol. 49, 1974, pp. 1-20.
13P.A. Sorokin, Facts and Foibles in Modern Sociology and Related
Sciences, Chicago, Henry Regnery, 1956.
laC.W. Mills, The Sociological Imagination, New York, Oxford Uni­
versity Press, 1959.
15C.A. Valentine, Culture and Poverty: Critique and Counter Proposals,
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18S.C. Andreski, Social Sciences and Sorcery, London, Andre Deutsch,
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17B. Malinowski, A Scientifiic Theory of Culture and Other Essays,
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18A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, Structure and Function in Primitive Society,
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Sociology, Paris, Mouton, No. 1, 1957, pp. 7-64.
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Foundation, 1955.
23M. Marriot, “Western Medicine in a Village of Northern India,” in
B.D. Paul, (ed.), Health, Culture and Community, New York, Russell Sage
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24G.M. Carstairs,.“Medicine and Faith in Rural Rajasthan” in B.D.
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25B.K. Sikand and Raj Narain, “Unknown Cases in Pulmonary Tuber­
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27D. Banerji, “Tuberculosis as a Problem of Social Planning in
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28D.R. Nagpaul, “District Tuberculosis Programme in Concept and
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23A.K. Chakraborty, “Twentieth Anniversary of NTI—What has the
NTI Achieved?” NTI Newsletter, vol. 16, No. 4, December 1979, pp.
104-10.
30D. Banerji, Effect of Treatment Default on Result of Treatment in a
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Singh and D. Banerji, “A Follow-up Study of Patients of
Pulmonary Tuberculosis Treated in an Urban Clinic,” Indian Journal of

fli
Hi:
i
«

I

i

■Kt
1 :

I
i

i

Pt

i

i

3 \

rhi
i

iJ'.;
■ ■

1

I

I

CONCLUSIONS
226

it"
■’4?'

| 1
?

!•

P;

I :

I '

Tuberculosis, vol. 15, 1968, pp. 157-64.
82L Illich, Limits to Medicine, Bombay, Rupa and Co., 1977.
33K.A. Hasan, Cultural Frontier of Heath in Village India, Bombay,
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34H-A. Gould, “Implications of Technological Change for Folk and
Scientific Medicine,” American Anthropologist, vol. 59, 1967, pp. 507-16.
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Organization, vol. 22, No- 1, 1963, pp. 36-403flG.M. Foster, “Medical Anthropology: Some Contrasts with Medical
Sociology” Social Science and Medicine, vol. 9, 1975, pp. 427-32
a7G. Djurfeldt and S. Lindberg, Pills Against Poverty, A Study of the
Introduction of Western Medicine in a Tamil Village, (Scandinavian In­
stitute of Asian Studies, Monograph Series No. 23), New Delhi, Oxford
and IBH Publishers, 1975.
38H. Fabrega, “Medical Anthropology,” Biennial Review of Anthro­
pology, 1971, pp. 167-229.
3BI, Illich, Limits to Medicine, Bombay, Rupa and Co., 1977.
•‘"G.M. Carstairs, “Medicine and Faith in Rural Rajasthan” in B.D.
Paul (ed.), Health, Culture and Community, New York, Russel Sage
Foundation, 1955.
41 University of Poona, Deptt. of Anthropology, Proceeding of the Post­
Plenary Session on Medical Anthropology, 10th International Conference
on Anthropological and Ethnological Science, Poona. 1978.
42C.C. Hughes, “Ethnomedicine” International Encylopedia of the
Social Sciences, vol. 10, New York, Free Press, 1968, pp. 87-93.
43V. Kocher, et al. “Strengthening the Folk Health System: Proposed
Link Between the Health Needs of the Rural Population and Limitations
of the Formal Health System in Remote Rural Areas” in Alternative
Approaches to Health Care, New Delhi, Indian Council of Medical Re­

submitted to the Delhi Conference on Village Studies, December,) Delhi,
Hindustan Publishers, 1974.
5aK. Ranga Rao, Village Politics: A Longitudinal Study, Bombay,
Popular Prakashan, 1980.
53C.M.E. Mathews, Health and Culture in a South Indian Village,
New Delhi, Sterling, 1979.
64Government of India, Annual Report, 1977-78, New Delhi, Ministry
of Health and Family Welfare, 1978.
5r,D. Banerji, ‘Health as a Lever for Another Development,” Develop­
ment Dialogue, vol. 1, 1978, pp. 19-25.

II
: 11'
i

In

iL
i

li I

f

search, 1976.
14First International Conierence on Traditional Asian Medicine, Pro­
ceedings of the Conference, Canberra, National University, 2-15 September

1979.
*?,A. Beteille, and T.N. Madan, 1975, Encounter and Experience: Per­
sonal Accounts of Field Work, Delhi, Vikas, 1975.
46M.N. Srinivas, Methods in Social Anthropology'. Selected Essays by
Radcliffe-Brown, University of Chicago Press, 1958 .
47M.N. Srinivas, India's Villages, Bombay Asia Publishing House,
1965.
.
' "
.
48M.N. Srinivas, Social Change in Modern India, Berkeley, University
of California Press, 1966.
49S.C. Dube, India's Changing Villages: Human Factor in Community
Development, Bombay, Allied Publishers, 1958.
60B. Dasgupta, Village Society and Labour Use, Delhi, Oxford Univer­

sity Press, 1977.
S1B. Dasgupta (ed.), Village Studies in the Third World (Based on papers

I

227

POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

■n

f

—

. ........................ ......... -..... —

Table 1

General Description of the Study Villages
j

Village

State

District

Amdanga

West Bengal

1724

West Bengal

24-Parganas
Nadia

38 Kms

Haringhata

52 Kms

1128

Coyalmannam

Kerala

Palghat

14 Kms

Jadigenhalli

Karnataka

Bangalore

Kachhona

li.P.

Hardoi

Distance from the Total
Proportion
city
population of Harijans

Proportion of
Muslims

Period offield
work

14.5%

53.5%

13.3.73 to 31.7.73

13.8%

6.1%

17.7.72 to 4.12.72

3012

12.7%

16.3%

10.4.74 to 22.7.74

40 Kms

1163

17.7%

70 Kms

2289

21.5%

2%
14.9%

24.6.72 to 14.10.72

8-2%

10.4%

10.4.74 to 20.7.74

17.7.73 to 24.11.74

12.7.72 to 16.12.72

Pazhambalakode Kerala
Pullambadi
Tamil Nadu

Palghat

40 Kms

3592

Tiruchirapally

42 Kms

6026

Rupal

Gujarat

Sabarkantha

36 Kms

1710

4%
20%

22%
36%

8.11.73 to 17.4.74

Rohat

Rajasthan
UP.

Pali

50 Kms

2459

23.3%

20%

Rohota

Meerut

18 Kms

7009

35%

Nil

16.1.73 to 9.7.73
18.10.72 to 19.2.73

Yelwal

Karnataka

Mysore

16 Kms

1608

Kalur

Karnataka
U.P.

Mysore
Meerut

21 Kms

572

19.1%
4.5%

4.5%
Nil

16.7.73 to 18.8.73

14 Kms

Kamal

20 Kms

1772
557

46.2%

Haryana
Dakshin Duttapara West Bengal

13.6%

8.1%
Nil

20.10.74 to 8.2.75

Nadia

60 Kms

661

5.12.72 to JO.3.73

Gujarat

Sabarkantha

28 Kms

500

3-7%
20.2%

Nil

Gambhoi

7.2%

17.5.74 to 2.7.74

Kamdevpur

West Bengal

35 Kms

1687

6.6%

0.4%

1.8.73 to 8.12.73

Rajasthan

24-Parganas
Pali

55 Kms

534

15.6.73 to 10.9.73

Hardoi

78 Kms

928

33%
35.2%

Nil

U.P.

2.1%

27.12.72 to 9.3.73

Arnavali

Bilaspur

1 Rampura
Sunni

>
E

m

c/}

20.1.73 to 9.8.73
14.9.72 to 1.6.73

bj

231

TABLES

i
POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

230

■

j IB;

Table 3

0

Table 2

General Description of the Study Villages

■ i.

General Description of the Study Villages
Village

n

Pl'
Sir

F Hr >!

H

1

I

Unani Ayurvepracti- die prationers ctitioners

Nil

Nil

Nil

Amda­
nga

Yes

Harin­
ghata

Yes

3

I

2

2

Nil

1

Coyal­
mannam

Yes

2

1

1

1

Nil

1

Jadigen­
halli

Yes

Nil

Nil

Nil

Nil

Nil

1

Kach­
hona

Yes

Pazhambalakodc

Yes

1

1

2

2

Nil

Nil

Pullam­
badi

Yes

2

1

1

1

Nil

Nil

2

1

2

Nil

Nil

1

Village

Amdanga

Block head­ Bus High
service school
quarters

Yes

Electri­
city

Post
office

Bank

Yes

No

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Haringhata

Yes

Yes

Yes

Coyalmannam

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Jadigenhalli

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Kachhona

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Pazhambalakode

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Pullambadi

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Rupal

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Rohat

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

Yes

Rohota

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yelwal

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

Kai nr

No

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Arnavali

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Bilaspur

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

No

No

No

Ru pal

Yes

1

Nil

2

Nil

Nil

1

Dakshin Duttapara

No

Yes

No

No

Rohat

Yes

1

Nil

1

Nil

1

1

Gambhoi

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes
No

Rohota

Yes

1

Nil

7

Nil

3

1

Kamdevpur

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yelwal

Yes

Nil

1

1

Nil

Nil

Nil

Rampura

No

No

No

No

No

No

Kalur

5 Kms

Nil

1

Nil

Nil

Nil

Nil

Sunni

No

No

Yes

No

No

No

Arna­
vali

6 Kms

Nil

Nil

1

Nil

Nil

Nil

Bilaspur 18Kms

1

Nil

1

Nil

Nil

i

Nil

1

Dakshin 10 Kms
Duttapara

3

Nil

Nil

2

Gambhoi 6 Kms

2

Nil

2

Nil

Nil

1
Nil

Kamdev- 3 Kms
pur

1

Nil

2

1

Nil

Rampura 4 Kms

Nil

Nil

Nil

Nil

Nil

Nil

8 Kms

Nil

Nil

Nil

Nil

Nil

Nil

Sunni

a

PHC loca- Medi- Qualified Regist- Homeotedjdistcine
allopathic ered
pathie
cine
ance from shops physician medical practitiPHC
practi- oners
tioner

i-i

; I

8 ■

I

0

!

•IH

ik
J1

Ki
232

POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

iil

Thatch & Mud

5.1(2)

5-1(2)

100.0(39)

5.0(4)

11.3(9)

100.0(80)

I

I■
;tr1.'

IN

!i,:
i

I

13.8(11)
54.3(38)

54.9(28)

85.0(68)
12.9(9)

35.3(18)

99.9(51)

1.3(1)

100.0(80)

32.9(23)

100.0(70)

Pazhambalakode

43.1(25)

20.7(12)

36.2(21)

100.0(58)

Pullambadi

52.6(51)

25.8(25)

21.7(21)

100.0(97)

Rupal

67.2(39)

13.8(8)

19.0(11)

100.0(58)

Rohat

86 1(62)

2.8(2)

11.1(8)

100.0(72)

44.4(40)

99.9(90)

Rohota

p

Total

89.7(35)

Kachhonna

Bh' ■

Variables
Mixed

83.8(67)

Jadigenhalli

I•

Brick Built

Harjnghata

9.8(5)

34.4(31)

21.1(19)

Yelwal

7.3(4)

41.8(23)

50.9(28)

100.0(55)

Kalur

5.9(1)

41.2(7)

52.9(9)

100.0(17)

Arnavali

44.7(17)

34.2(13)

21 0(8)

100.0(38)

Bilaspur

16.7(3)

61.1(11)

22.2(+)

100.0(18)

Dakshin Dattapara

88.9(48)

3.7(2)

7.4(4)

100.0(54)

7.1(1)

100.0(14)

Gambhoi

78.6(11)

14.3(2)

Kamdevpur

83.3(35)

9.5(4)

7.1(3)

100.0(42)

Rampura

95.2(20)

0.0(0)

4-8(1)

100.0(21)

33.3(12)

100.0(36)

Sunni

Total

66.7(24)

53.2(527)

0.0(0)

24.1(239)

'il

Availability of Latrine

Anidanga

Coyalmannam

233

Table 5

Housing Conditions

Village

Oil ’

TABLES

Table 4

22.6(224)

100.0(990)

NB: The figures in bracket represent the frequencies in all the Tables.

Village

Scavenging

Variables
Flush
Borehole

None

Total

Amdanga

5.1(2)

2.6(1)

5.1(2)

87.2(34)

100.0(39)

Haringhata

26.3(21)

8.8(7)

10.0(8)

55-0(44)

100.0(80)

Coyalmannam

10.0(5)

0.0(0)

0.0(0)

90.0(45)

100 0(50)

Jadigenhalli

0.0(0)

1-3(1)

8 8(7)

90.0(72)

100.0(80)

Kachhona

21.4(15)

1-4(1)

0.0(0)

77.1(54)

1000.70)

r'1

Pazhambalakode

8.8(5)

1-8(1)

0.0(0)

89.5(51)

99.9(57)

Ptillambadi

7-2(7)

0.0(0)

0 0(0)

92.8(90)

100.0(97)

Rupal

0.0(0)

3.5(2)

0.0(0)

96.5(55)

100.0(57)

Rohat

2.8(2)

0.0(0)

00(0)

97 2(70)

100 0(72)

Rohota

7.8(7)

7-8(7)

2.2(2)

82.2(74)

100.0(90)

Yelvval

0.0(0)

14.6(8)

0.0(0)

85.5(47)

100.0(55)

Kalur

0.0(0)

0.0-0)

0.0(0)

100.0(17)

100.0(17)

Arnavali

2.6(1)

0.0(0)

0.0(0)

97.4(37)

100.0(38)

94.4(17)

100.0(18)

Bilaspur

5.6(1)

0.0(0)

0.0(0)

Dakshin Dattapara

3.7(2)

0.0(0)

0.0(0)

96.3(52)

100.0(54)

Gambhoi

0.0(0)

0 0(0)

0.0(0)

100.0(14)

100.0(14)

Kamdevpur

0.0(0)

2.4(1)

4.9(2)

92 7(38)

100.0(41)

Rampura

0.0(0)

0.0(0)

0.0(0)

100.0(21)

100.0(21)

Sunni

2.8(1)

0.0(0)

0.0(0)

97.2(35)

100.0(36)

Total

7.0(69)

2.9(29)

2.1(21)

87.0(867)

100.0(986)

H i; g.' |

j

■i •

!
''

KI

234

TABLES

Table 6

Table 7

Availability of Electricity Connection

Ownership of a Radio

?

Variables

Village

!i

I'
Bp

I
II

No

Total

0.0(0)

100.0(39)

100.0(39)

13(1)

98.8(79)

100.0(80)

Coyalmannam

51.0(26)

49.0(25)

100.0(51)

Jadigenhalli

21.5(17)

78.5(62)

100.0(79)

Kachhona

12.9(9)

87.1(61)

100.0(70)

Pazhambalakode

19.0(11)

81.0(47)

100.0(58)

Pullambadi

33.7(32)

66.3(63)

100.0(95)

Rupal

51.7(30)

48.3(28)

100.0(58)

Rohat

0.0(0)

100.0(71)

100.0(71)

Rohota

15.6(14)

84-4(76)

100.0(90)

Yelwal

41.0(25)

58.9(33)

100.0(56)

Kalur

29.4(5)

70.6(12)

100.0(17)

Amdanga

in

Yes

Haringhata

Arnavali

13.2(5)

86.8(33)

100.0(38)

Bilaspur

27.8(5)

72.2(13)

100.0(18)

Dakshin Duttapara

1.9(1)

98.2(53)

100.0(54)

Gambhoi

21.4(3)

78/(11)

100.0(14)

Kamdevpui

9.5(4)

90.5(38)

100.0(42)

Rampura

0.0(0)

100.0(21)

100.0(21)

Sunni

0.0(0)

100.0(36)

100.0(36)

Total

18.8(186)

81.2(801)

100.0(987)

N

235

POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

»

['Hinge

Yes

Variables
No

Total

Amdanga

23.0(9)

76.9(30)

100.0(39)

Haringhata

30.0(24)

70.0(56)

100.0(80)

Coyalmannam

17.7(9)

82.4(42)

100.0(51)

Jadigenhalli

17.0(13)

83.0(65)

100.0(78)

Kachhona

10.0(7)

90.0(63)

100.0(70)

Pazhambalakode

13.8(8)

86.2(50)

100.0(58)

Pullambadi

18.0(17)

82.0(80)

100.0(97)

Rupal

16.0(9)

84.0(49)

100.0(58)

Rohat

6.0(4)

94.0(68)

100.0(72)

Rohota

28.0(25)

72.0(65)

100.0(90)

Yelwal

21.0(12)

79.0(44)

100.0(56)

Kalur

6.0(1)

94.0(16)

100.0(17)

Arnavali

29.0(11)

71.0(27)

100.0(38)

Bilaspur

11.0(2)

89.0(16)

100.0(18)

Dakshin Duttapara

33.0(18)

67.0(36)

100.0(54)

Gambhoi

7.0(1)

93.0(13)

100.0(14)

Kamdevpur

38.0(16)

62.0(26)

100.0(42)

Rampura

0.0(0)

100.0(21)

100.0(21)

Sunni

11.0(4)

89.0(32)

100.0(36)

Total

19.0(190)

81.0(799)

100.0(989)

■'I
■

Ml
- i •t

I
!

■

i-'-

• :
■

T.
L

I

D'i

">rsttnAa**'*™**

Table 8
Lu

Caste and Religion
Village

Harijans

Amdanga
12.8(5)
Haringhata
22.5(18)
Coyalmannam
15.7(8)
Jadigenhalli
17.5(14)
Kachhona
24.3(17)
Pazhambalakode
8.6(5)
Pullambadi
17.5(17)
Rupal
19.0(11)
Rohat
20.8(15)
Rohota
30.0(27)
Yelwal
19.6(11)
Kalur
6-3(1)
Arnavali
44.7(17)
Bilaspur
7.1(2)
Dakshin Duttapara 7.4(4)
Gambhoi
14.3(2)
Kamdevpur
0.0(0)
Ranipura
33.3(7)
Sunni
33.3(12)
Total
19.3(193)

Backward
castes

Variables
Other
Trading
cultivators
castes

Brahmins

Muslims

2.6(1)
17.5(14)
41.2(21)
38.8(31)
18.6(13)
17.2(10)
5.2(5)
24.1(14)
12.5(9)
17.8(16)
8.9(5)
50.0,8)
13.2(5)
21.4(6)
68.5(37)
57.1(8)
2.4(1)
14.3(3)
25.0(9)
21.6(216)

28.2(11)
35.0(28)
2.0(1)
22.5(18)
14.3(10)
1.7(1)
63.9(62)
27.6(16)
22.2(16)
20.0(18)
51.8(29)
37.5(6)
13.2(5)
21.4(6)
18.5(10)
14.3(2)
92.9(39)
42.9(9)
16.7(6)
29.3(293)

2-6(1)
8.8(7)
25.5(13)
7.5(6)
5.7(4)
12.0(7)
0.0(0)
6.9(4)
11.1(8)
6.7(6)
10.7(6)
6-3(1)
18.4(7)
46.4(13)
3.7(2)
0.0(0)
0.0(0)
9.5(2)
13.9(5)
9.2(92)

48.7(19)
100.0(39)
12.5(10)
100.0(80)
13.7(7)
100.0(51)
3.8(3)
100.0(80)
18.6(13)
100.0(70)
17.2(10)
99.9(58)
5-2(5)
100.0(97)
3-4(2)
100.0(58)
19.4(14)
99.9(72)
14.4(13)
100.0(90)
5.4(3)
100.0(56)
0.0(0)
100.0(16)
10.5(4)
100.0(38)
0.0(0)
100.0(28)
0.0(0)
100.0(54)
7.1(1)
100.0(14)
0.0(0)
100 0(42)
0.0(0)
100.0(2!)
2.8(1)
100.0(36)
10.5(105) 100.0(1000)

5.1(2)
3.8(3)
2.0(1)
10.0(8)
18 6(13)
43.1(25)
8.3(8)
19.0(11)
13.9(10)
11.1(10)
3.6(2)
0.0(0)
0.0(0)
3.6(1)
1.9(1)
7.1(1)
4.8(2)
0.0(0)
8.3(3)
10.1(101)

Total

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[1

Table 10

GJCO

Degree of Hunger Satisfaction
Village

Not for

•TT

Irregular

Total

0.0(0)
2.5(2)
21.6(11)
5.0(4)
1.5(1)
13.8(8)
6.2(6)
0.0(0)
4.2(3)
0.0(0)
3.6(2)
5.9(1)
2.6(1)
0.0(0)
1.9(1)
0.0(0)
4.8(2)
9.5(2)
0.0(0)

2.6(1)
6.3(5)
0.0(0)
3.8(3)
4.4(3)
I.7(1)
0.0(0)
0.0(0)
8.3(6)
8.1(7)
7.1(4)
0.0(0)
2.6(1)
0.0(0)
3.7(2)
0.0(0)
4.8(2)
0.0(0)
II. 1(4)

99.9(39)
100.0(80)
100.0(51)
100.0(80)
100.0(69)
99.9(58)
100.0(97)
100.0(58)
100.0(72)
100.0(87)
100.0(56)
99.9(17)
100.0(38)
100.0(18)
100.0(54)
100.0(14)
99.9(42)
100.0(21)
100.0(36)

4.5(44)

4.0(39)

100.0(987)

more than

O

6 months

41.0(16)
Amdanga
38.8(31)
Haringhata
39.2(20)
Coyalmannam
67.5(54)
Jadigenhalli
55.1(38)
Kachhona
13.8(8)
Pazhambalakode
29.9(29)
Pullambadi
77.7(45)
Rupal
75.0(54)
Rohat
70.1(69)
Rohota
25.0(14)
Yelwal
11.8(2)
Kalur
47.4(18)
Amavali
72.2(13)
Bilaspur
Dakshin Duttapara 77.8(42)
71.4(10)
Gambhoi
59.5(25)
Kamdevpur
66.7(14)
Rampura
61.1(22)
Sunni

7.7(3)
6.3(5)
0.0(0)
0.0(0)
1.5(1)
0.0(0)
0.0(0)
1.7(1)
0.0(0)
0.0(0)
1.8(1)
0.0(0)
2.6(1)
0.0(0)
5.6(3)
0.0(0)
0.0(0)
0.0(0)
0.0(0)

33.3(13)
28.8(23)
0.0(0)
3.8(3)
2.9(2)
0.0(0)
7.2(7)
13.8(8)
I. 4(1)
8.1(7)
17.9(10)
23.5(4)
.10.5(4)
II. 1(2)
5.6(3)
14.3(2)
19.1(8)
9.5(2)
0.0(0)

52.3(516)

1.5(15)

10.0(99)

Total

—

Variables
Not fori
Not for 3
to 3 months
to 6 months

Not for 1
month or
less

Fully
satisfied

15.4(6)
17.5(14)
39.2(20)
20.0(16)
34.8(24)
70.7(41)
56.7(55)
6.9(4)
11.1(8)
13.8(12)
44.6(25)
58.8(10)
34.2(13)
16.7(3)
5.6(3)
14.3(2)
11.9(5)
14.3(3)
27.8(10)
27.8(274)

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bJ

Table 12
Number of Children Born in Households

Village

Amdanga
Haringhata
Coyalmannam

Jadigenhalli
Kachhona
Pazhambalakode

Pullambadi

Rupal

Rohat

No of
Birth

One
Born

Two
Born

Three
Born

Four
Born

7.7
(3)
10.0
(8)
5.7
(3)
5.0
(4)
7.1
(5)

7.7
(3)
3.8
(3)
1.9
(1)
3.8
(3)
2.9
(2)
3.5
(2)
4.1
(4)
8.6
(5)
8.3
(6)

2.6
(1)
8.8
(7)
5.7
(3)
11.3
(9)
11.4
(8)

10.3
(4)
17.5
(14)

14.8
(5)
13.8
(ID
7.6
(4)
15.0
(12)

6.9
(4)
4.1
(4)
8.6
(5)
11.1
(8)

6.9
(4)
3.1
(3)
8.6
(5)
8.3
(6)

9.4
(5)
12.5
(10)
7.1
(5)
10.3
(6)
9.3
(9)
12.1
(7)
9.7
(7)

Variables
Five
Six
Born
Born

Seven
Born

Eight
Born

Nine
or more

Total

5.1
(2)
7.5
(6)
9.4
(5)
15.0
(12)
7.1
(5)
17.2
(10)

18.0
(7)
100
(8)
13.2
(7)
13.8
(ID
32.9
(23)

100.0
(39)

10.3
(6)
18.1
(13)

10.3
(4)
15.0
(12)

12.8
(5)
5.0
(4)

15.1
(8)

69
(4)
22.7
(22)

7.5
(6)
7.1
(5)
19.0
(11)
20.6
(20)

17.0
(9)
7.5
(6)
7.1
(5)
19.0
(H)
18.6
(18)

12.8
(5)
8.8
(7)
15.1
(8)
8.8
(7)
5.7
(4)
6.9
(4)
12.4
(12)

8.6
(5)
8.3
(6)

10.3
(6)
5.6
(4)

12.0
(7)
12.5
(9)

12.0
(7)
4.2
(3)

11.4
(8)

4.1
(4)

3.5
(2)
1.0
(I)
8.6
(5)
13.9
(10)

100.0
(80)
99.9
(53)

hO-

O
C
rn

>
on
czi

>

99.9
(80)

c

100.0
(70)

>
4X

100.0
(58)

X

n
c

99.9
(97)

-i

99.9
(58)
100.0
(72)

m

{Contd.)

Table 12 (Contd.)

Village

No of
birth

One
born

Two
born

Three
born

Variables
Four
born

Five
born

Six
born

Seven
born

Eight
born

Nine
Total
or more

Rohota

3.3
(3)
8.9
(5)
0.0
(0)
7.9
(3)
16.7
(3)
7.4

7.8
(7)
10.7
(6)
17.7
(3)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
20.4
(H)
0.0
(0)
7.1
(3)
0.0
(0)
5.6
(2)

le.-i
(15)
10.7
(6)
11.8
(2)
10.5
(4)
11.1
(2)
16.7
(9)
14.3
(2)
9.5
(4)
19.1
(4)
8.3
(3)

17.8
(16)
16.1
(9)
17.7
(3)
5.3
(2)
11.1
(2)
18.5
(10)
35.7
(5)
4.8
(2)
19.1
(4)
8.3
(3)

16.7
(15)
8.9
(5)
3.5
(4)
15.8
(6)
16.7
(3)
3.7
(2)
14.3
(2)
14.3
(6)
0.0
(0)
22.2
(8)

8.9
(8)
8.9
(5)
5.9
(1)
18.4
(7)
5.6
(1)
7.4
(4)
7.1
(1)
11.9
(5)
19.1
(4)
11.1
(4)

5.6
(5)
7.1
(4)
5.9
(1)
.3
(2)
11.1
(2)
9.3
(5)
0.0
(0)
4.8
(2)
4.8
(1)
8.3
(3)

5.6
(5)
7.1

0.0
(0)
4.8
(2)
0.0
(0)
5.6
(2)

11.1
(10)
7.1
(4)
5.9
(1)
0.0
(0)
00
(0)
3.7
(2)
14.3
(2)
11.9
(5)
0.0
(0)
5.6
(2)

0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
11.1
(2)
1.9
(1)
7.1
(1)
16.7
(7)
9.5
(2)
13.9
(5)

6.7
(6)
14.3
(8)
11.8
(2)
36 8
(14)
16.7
(3)
11.1
(6)
7.1
(1)
14.3
(6)
28.6
(6)
11.1
(4)

100.0
(90)
99.9
(56)
99.9
(17)
99.9
(38)
100.0
(18)
100.0
(54)
100.0
(14)
99.9
(42)
100.0
(21)
100.0
(36)

6.7
(66)

5.5
(55)

7.9
(78)

11.9
(H8)

13.4
(133)

12.8
(127)

11.5
(H4)

8.3
(82)

9.1
(90)

13.1
(130)

99.9
(993)

Yelwal
Kalur

Arnavali
Bilaspur

Dakshin Duttapara

(in
Gambhoi

Kamdevpur
Rampura
Sunni
Total

0

>
co

s

IZJ

Table 13
Number of Child-Deaths in Households
Village

No of
birth

No of
death

One death

7.7
(3)
Haringhata
10.0
(8)
Coyalmannam
5.9
(3)
Jadigenhalli
5.0
(4)
Kachhona
7.1
(5)
Pazhambalakode 6.9
(4)
Pullambadi
4.2
(4)
Rupal
8.8
(5)
Rohat
11.1
(8)
Rohota
3.3
(3)

41.0
(16)
42.5
(34)
45.1
(23)
35.0
(28)
27.1
(19)
41.4
(24)
67.7
(65)
54.4
(31)
43.1

10.3
(4)
23.8
(19)
23.5
(12)
27.3
(22)
15.7
(11)
19.0
(H)
20.9
(20)
19.3
(ID
13.9
(10)
.17.8
(16)

Amdanga

(31)
50.0
(45)

£
to

Variables
Two
Three
deaths
deaths

Four
deaths

Five
deaths

Six or more
deaths

Total

23.1
(9)
11.3
(9)
15.7
(«)
21.3
(17)
21.4
(15)
24.1
(14)
6.3
(6)
7.0
(4)
16.7
(12)
13.3
(12)

5.1
(2)
6.3
(5)
0.0
(0)
2.5
(2)
7.1
(5)
1.7
(1)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
2.8
(2)
3.3
(3)

0.0
(0)
1.3
(1)
2.0

0.0
(0)
1.3
(1)
0.0
(0)
3.8
(3)
15.7
(H)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
5.6
(4)
7.8
(7)

100.0
(39)
100.0
(80)
99.9
(51)
100.0
(80)
99.9
(70)
100.0
(58)
100.0
(96)
100.0
(57)
100.0
(72)
99.9
(90)

12.8
(5)
3.8
(3)
7.8
(4)
3.8
(3)
1.4
(1)
6.9
(4)
1.0
(1)
8.8
(5)
6.9
(5)
2.2
(2)

(D
1.3
(1)
4.3
(3)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
1.8
(1)
0.0
(0)
2.2
(2)

O

o
r
>
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aw

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c
r
C

{Contd.)

Table 13 (Contd.)

Two
deaths

Three
deaths

Four
deaths

Five Six or more
deaths
deaths

16.1
(9)
0.0
(0)
5.3
(2)
5.6
(1)
16.7
(9)
14.3
(2)
19.5
(8)
28.6
(6)
22.2
(8)

o.o
(0)
0.0
(0)
21.1
(8^
11.1
(2)
1.9
(1)
0.0
(0)
2.4
(1)
9.5
(2)
2.8

(1)

0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
J 8.4
(7)
5.6
(1)
7.4
(4)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
14.3
(3)
11.1
(4)

0.0
(0)
5.9
(1)
00
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
2.8
(1)

0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
7.9
(3)
5.6
(1)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
5.6
(2)

100.0
(56)

42.9
(6)
43.9
(18)
28.6
(6)
27.8
(10)

16.1
(9)
17.7
(13)
15.8
(6)
22.2
(4)
24.1
(13)
42.9
(6)
29.3
(12)
19.1
(4)
22.2
(8)

44.5
(440)

20.3
(201)

15.3
(151)

4.9
(48)

4.0
(39)

1.1
(H)

3.2
(32)

99.9
(988)

No of
birth

No of
death

One death

8.9
(5)
0.0
Kalur
(0)
7.9
Arnavali
(3)
16.7
Bilaspur
(3)
Dakshin Duttapara 7.4
(4)
0.0
Gambhoi
(0)
Kamdevpur
4.9
(2)
0.0
Rampura
(0)
5.6
Sunni
(2)

58.9
(33)

Village

Yelwal

Total

6.7
(66)

76.5
(13)
23.7
(9)
33.3
(6)
42.6
(23)

Total

100.0
(17)
100.0
(38)
100.0
(18)

100.0
(54)

W

r
rn

vx

100.0
(14)
100.0
(41)
100.0
(21)
100.0
(36)

£

UJ

Table 14
4^

Newspaper Reading Habits

Village

Daily

Amdanga
Haringhata
Coyalmannam
Jadigenhalli
Kachhona
Pazhambalakode
Pullambadi
Rupal
Roh at
Rohota
Yelwal
Kalur
Arnavali
Bilaspur
Dakshin Duttapara1
Gambhoi
Kamdevpur
Rampura
Sunni

7.7 (3)
27.5 (22)
25.3 (13)
18.8(15)
11.6(8)
13.8 (8)
6.2 (6)
25.9 (15)
0.0 (0)
1-1(1)
12.5 (7)
5-9 (1)
0.0 (0)
0.0 (0)
1-9(1)
7.1 (1)
2.4 (1)
0.0 (0)
0.0 (0)

110.3 (102)

Total

Variables
Frequently

Not Frequently

0.0 (0)
2.5 (2)
0.0 (0)
2.5 (2)
0.0 (0)
0.0 (0)
0.0 (0)
3.5 (2)
1.4(1)
1-1 (1)
0.0 (0)
0.0 (0)
5.3 (2)
0.0 (0)
0.0 (0)
0.0 (0)
0.0 (0)
0.0 (0)
0.0 (0)

0.0 (0)
5.0 (4)
0.0 (0)
22.5 (18)
7.3 (5)
0.0 (0)
0.0 (0)
17.2(10)
0.0 (0)
3.4 (3)
0.0 (0)
0.0 (0)
2.6(1)
0.0 (0)
0.0 (0)
7.1 (1)
0.0 (0)
0.0 (0)
5.6 (2)

92.3 (36)
65.0 (52)
74.5 (38)
56.3 (45)
81.2 (56)
86.2 (50)
93.8 (91)
53.5 (31)
98.6 (71)
94.3 (83)
87.5 (49)
94.1 (16)
92.1 (35)
100.0 (18)
98.2 (53)
85.7(12)
97.6(41)
100.0 (21)
94.4 (34)

100.0 (39)
100.0 (80)
100.0(51)
100.0(80)
100.0 (69)
100.0(58)
100.0 (97)
100.0 (58)
100 0(72)
100.0 (88)
100.0 (56)
100 0 (17)
100.0 (38)
100.0 (18)
100.0 (54)
99.9(14)
100-0 (42)
100.0 (21)
100.0 (36)

1.0(10)

4.5 (44)

84.2 (832)

99.9 (988)

Not at all

b

Total

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Table 16
Visits to the Nearby City

Village

Daily

Very
frequently

Variables
Frequently

Amdanga
Haringbata
Coyalmannam
Jadigenhalli
Kachhona
Pazbambalakode
Pullambadi
Rupal
Rohat
Rohota
Yelwal
Kalur
Arnavali
Bilaspur
Dakshin Duttapara
Gambhoi
Kamdevpur
Rampura
Sunni

0.0(0)
1-3(1)
5.9(3)
1-3(1)
0.0(0)
0.0(0)
0.0(0)
5.2(3)
5.6(4)
1.1(1)
9-1(5)
0.0(0)
7.9(3)
0.0(0)
1.9(1)
7.1(1)
0.0(0)
0.0(0)
2.8(1)

0.0(0)
1.3(1)
2.0(1)
8.9(7)
1.5(1)
0.0(0)
1.0(1)
5-2(3)
6.9(5)
6.8(6)
14.6(8)
17.7(3)
13.2(5)
16.7(3)
1.9(1)
28.6(4)
7.1(3)
4.8(1)
2.8(1)

2.6(1)
13-9(11)
37.3(19)
7.6(6)
15.9(11)
0.0(0)
0.0(0)
19.0(11)
13.9(10)
6.8(6)
16.4(9)
11.8(2)
2.6(1)
22.2(4)
3.7(2)
7.1(1)
0.0(0)
4-8(1)
5.6(2)

Total

2.4(24)

5-5(54)

9.9(97)

Not Fre­
quently
33.3(13)
7.6(6)
2.0(1)
3.8(3)
20.3(14)
17.2(10)
20.6(20)
44.8(26)
16.7(12)
35.2(31)
7.3(4)
17.7(3)
18.4(7)
27.8(5)
14.8(8)
14.3(2)
7-1(3)
28.6(6)
16.7(6)

18.3(180)

b->

Rarely

Never

Total

7.7(3)
63.3(50)
19.6(10)
77.2(61)
52.2(36)
19.0(11)
46.4(45)
12.1(7)
31.9(23)
43.2(38)
32.7(18)
29.4(5)
50.0(19)
16.7(3)
64.8(35)
42.9(6)
14.3(6)
42.9(9)
61.1(22)

56.4(22)
12.7(10)
33.3(17)
1.3(1)
10.1(7)
63.8(37)
32.0(31)
13.8(8)
25.0(18)
6.8(6)
20.0(11)
23.5(4)
7-9(3)
16.7(3)
13.0(7)
0.0(0)
71.4(30)
19.1(4)
11-1(4)

100.0(39)
100.0(79)
100 0(51)
100.0(79)
99.9(69)
100.0(58)
100 0(97)
100.0(58)
100.0(72)
100.0(88)
100.0(55)
100.0(17)
100.0(38)
100.0(18)
99.9(54)
100.0(14)
100.0(42)
100.0(21)
100.0(36)

41.3(407)

22.6(223)

100.0(985)

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Table 17

Visits to Nearby Market
Village

Very
frequently

Daily

0.0(0)
Amdanga
1.3(1)
Haringbata
0.0(0)
Coyalmannam
2.5(2)
Jadigenhalli
Kachhona
‘49.3(34)
0.0(0)
Pazbambalakode
1.0(1)
Pullambadi
75.9(44)
Rupal
86.1(62)
Rohat
0.0(0)
Rohota
0.0(0)
Yelwal
0.0(0)
Kalur
0.0(0)
Arnavali
6.3(1)
Bilaspur
Dakshin Duttaparat 1-9(1)
78.6(11)
Gambhoi
0.0(0)
Kamdevpur
66.7(14)
Rampura
2.8(1)
Sunni
17.6(172)
Total

I

«l >111

Variables
Frequently

Not Fre­
quently

Rarely

Never

Total

2.6(1)
0.0(0)
2.0(1)
3.8(3)
10.1(7)
0.0(0)
0.0(0)
19.0(11)
0.0(0)
2.3(2)
0.0(0)
5.9(1)
5-3(2)
37.5(6)
0.0(0)
14.3(2)
4.8(2)
9.5(2)
13.9(5)

66.7(26)
48.1(38)
70.6(36)
21.3(17)
30.4(21)
0.0(0)
0.0(0)
1.7(1)
4.2(3)
1.1(1)
0.0(0)
11.8(2)
2.6(1)
43.8(7)
48.2(26)
0.0(0)
69.1(26)
14.3(3)
44.4(16)

20.5(8)
45.6(39)
0.0(0)
13.8(11)
8.7(6)
43.1(25)
15.5(15)
3.5(2)
5.8(4)
92.1(81)
3-9(2)
5.9(1)
5.3(2)
0.0(0)
50.0(27)
0.0(0)
19.1(8)
9.5(2)
30.6(11)

10.3(4)
1.3(1)
3.9(2)
40.0(32)
0.0(0)
6.9(4)
43-3(42)
0.0(0)
1.4(1)
2.3(2)
5.9(1)
5.9(1)
36.8(14)
0.0(0)
0.0(0)
0.0(0)
7.1(3)
0.0(0)
5.6(2)

0.0(0)
3.8(3)
23.5(12)
18.8(15)
1-5(1)
50.0(29)
40.2(39)
0.0(0)
2.8(2)
2.3(2)
90.2(46)
70.6(12)
50.0(19)
12.5(2)
0.0(0)
7-1(3)
00(0)
0.0(0)
4.8(1)

100.0(39)
100.0(79)
100.0(51)
100.0(80)
100.0 69)
100.0(58)
100.0(97)
100.0(58)
100.0(72)
100.0(88)
100.0(51)
99.9(17)
99.9(38)
100.0(16)
100.0(54)
100.0(14)
100.0(52)
100.0(21)
100.0(36)

4.6(45)

23.2(227)

24.6(241)

11.3(111)

18.8(184)

100.0(980)

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Table 18
00

Visits to Nearby Villages

Village

Daily

Variables
Frequently
Not frequently

Very
frequently

Rarely

Total

Never

o

<
Amdanga
Haringhata
Coyalmannam
Jadigenballi
Kachhona
Pazhambalakode
Pullambadi
Rupal
Rohat
Roh ota
Yelwal
Kalur
Arnavali
Bilaspur
Dakshin Dattapara
Gambhoi
Kamdevpur
Rampura
Sunni
Total

0.0(0)
0.0(0)
2.0(1)
3.8(3)
4.4(3)
0.0(0)
0.0(0)
5-2(3)
11.1(8)
1.1(1)
0.0(0)
0.0(0)
0.0(0)
0.0(0)
1-9(1)
7.1(1)
0.0(0)
0.0(0)
0.0(0)

0.0(0)
2.5(2)
2-0(1)
7-5(6)
8.7(6)
0.0(0)
0.0(0)
10.3(6)
13.9(10)
9.1(8)
3.6(2)
0.0(0)
0.0(0)
16.7(3)
0.0(0)
14.3(2)
2.4(1)
15.5(3)
39.9(5)

64.1(25)
46.8(37)
7-8(4)
37.5(30)
30.4(21)
0.0(0)
0.0(0)
24.1(14)
20.8(15)
18.2(16)
5-5(3)
0.0(0)
50.0(19)
27.8(5)
81.5(44)
28.6(4)
81.0(34)
55.0(11)
55.6(20)

7.7(3)
26.6(21)
0.0(0)
2.5(2)
42.0(29)
8.6(5)
4 2(4)
37.9(22)
20.8(15)
20.5(18)
20.0(11)
23.5(4)
2-6(1)
27.8(5)
13.0(7)
0.0(0)
11-9(5)
30.0(6)
25.0(9)

28.2(11)
12.7(10)
11.8(6)
40.0(32)
8.7(6)
8.6(5)
46.9(45)
15.5(9)
20.5(2)
42.1(37)
25.5(14)
17.7(3)
36.8(14)
16.7(3)
3-7(2)
28.6(4)
4.8(2)
0.0(0)
2.8(1)

0.0(0)
11.4(9)
76.5(39)
8.8(7)
5-8(4)
82.8(48)
49.0(47)
6.9(4)
30.6(22)
9.1(8)
45.5(25)
58.8(10)
10.5(4)
11.1(2)
0.0(0)
21.4(3)
0.0(0)
0.0(0)
2.8(1)

99.9(39)
100.0(79)
99.9(51)
100.0(80)
100.1(69)
100 0(58)
100.0(96)
100.0(58)
100.0(72)
100.0(88)
99.9(55)
100.0(17)
100.0(38)
100.0(18)
99.9(54)
100.0(14)
99.9(42)
100.0(20)
100.0(36)

2.1(21)

5.6(55)

30.7(302)

17.0(167)

20.9(206)

23.7(233)

99.9(984)

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE
Table 20

t-

I’

Participation in Co-operatives
Variables
Yes

No

Total

Amdanga

28.2(11)

71.8(28)

100.0(39)

Haringhata

31.7(25)

68.4(54)

100.0(79)

Coyalmannam

17.7(9)

82.4(42)

100.0(51)

Jadigenhalli

32.5(26)

67.5(54)

100.0(80)

Kachhona

30.4(21)

69.6(48)

100.0(69)

Pazhambalakode

13.8(8)

86.2(50)

100.0(58)

Pullambadi

20.6(20)

79.4(77)

100.0(97)

Rupal

20.7(12)

79.3(46)

100.0(58)

Rohat

76.4(55)

23.6(17)

100.0(72)

Rohota

18.2(16)

81.8(72)

100.0(88)

Yelwal

56.6(30)

43.4(23)

100.0(53)

Kalur

76.5(13)

23.5(4)

100.0(17)

Arnavali

29.0(11)

71.1(27)

100.0(38)

Bilaspur

50.0(9)

50.0(9)

100.0(18)

Dakshin Duttapara

50.0(27)

50.0(27)

100.0(54)

Gambhoi

14.3(2)

85.7(12)

100.0(14)

35.7(15)

64.3(27)

100.0(42)

38.1(8)

100.0(21)

Kamdevpur
L;“

TABLES

1

Table 21

I

Consumption of Alcohol

■

Village

L

I

Rampura

61.9(13)

Sunni

25.0(9)

75.0(27)

100 0(36)

Total

33.7(332)

66.3(652)

100.0(904)

I
1

251

Variables
Village

Never Occasionally Often

Daily

Total

Amdanga

97.4(38)

2.6(1)

0.0(0)

0.0(0)

100.0(39)

Haringhata

89.8(71)

3.8(3)

1.3(1)

5-1(4)

100.0(79)

Coyalmannam

37.3(19)

37.3(19)

0.0(0)

25.5(13)

99.9(51)

Jadigenhalli

75.0(60)

3.8(3)

15.0(12)

6.3(5)

100.0(80)

Kachhona

63.8(44)

36.2(25)

0.0(0)

0.0(0)

100.0(69)

Pazhambalakode

27.6(16)

15.5(9)

10.3(6) 46.5(27)

100.0(58)

Pullambadi

30.9(30)

52.6(51)

1.0(1)

15.5(15)

100.0(97)

Rupal

82.8(48)

8.6(5)

8.6(5)

0.0(0)

100.0(58)

Rohat

84.7(61)

6.9(5)

8.3(6)

0.0(0)

99.9(72)

Rohota

88.6(78)

11.4(10)

0.0(0)

0.0(0)

100.0(88)

Yelwal

83.9(47)

8.9(5)

5.4(3)

1-8(1)

100.0(56)

Kalur

58.8(10)

41.2(7)

0.0(0)

0.0(0)

100.0(17)

Arnavali

81.6(31)

2.6(1)

13.2(5)

2.6(1)

100.0(38)

Bilaspur

88.9(16)

11.1(2)

0.0(0)

0.0(0)

100.0(18)

Dakshin Duttapara 90.7(49)

5.6(3)

1.9(1)

1.9(1)

100 0(54)

'i ■

0.

Gambhoi

100.0(14)

0.0(0)

0.0(0)

0.0(0)

100.0(14)

Kamdevpur

51.2(21)

4.9(2)

34.2(14)

9.8(4)

100.0(41)

i

Rampura

66.7(14)

19.0(4)

14.3(3)

0.0(0)

100.0(21)

1 h

Sunni

80.6(29)

19.4(7)

0.0(0)

0.0(0)

100.0(36)

Total

70.6(696)

16.4(162)

5.8(57)

7.2(71)

100.0(986)

J

I

I
)■

I
k-

!!

b

252

'T

POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

253

TABLES

Table 22

Variables

Village

M’,

i

I

YesIAll) Few

No

Total

Knowledge About Local Member of Legislative
Assembly (MLA)

■d-'l

Amdanga

100.0(39)

0.0(0)

100.0(39)

Haringhata

96.3(77)

3.8(3)

100.0(80)

Amdanga

Total

Yes

No

74.4(29)

25.6(10)

100.0(39)
100.0(80)

Coyalmannam

35.3(18)

64.7(33)

100.0(51)

Haringhata

61.3(49)

38.8(31)

Jadigenhalli

98.8(79)

1.3(1)

100.0(80)

Coyalmannam

27.5(14)

72.6(37)

100.0(51)

100.0(80)

Kachhona

82.6(57)

17.4(12)

100.0(69)

Jadigenhalli

85.0(68)

15.0(12)

Pazhambalakode

25.9(15)

74.1(43)

100.0(58)

Kachhona

87.0(60)

13.0(9)

100.0(69)
100.0(58)

Pullambadi

93.8(91)

6.2(6)

100.0(97)

Pazhambalakode

20.7(12)

79.3(46)

Rupal

100.0(58)

0.0(0)

100.0(58)

Pullambadi

66.0(64)

34.0(33)

100.0(97)

Rohat

98.6(71)

1.4(1)

100.0(72)

Rupal

86.2(50)

13.8(8)

100.0(58)

Rohota

100.0(87)

0.0(0)

100.0(87)

Rohat

86.1(62)

13.9(10)

100.0(72)

Yelwal

85.7(48)

14.3(8)

100.0(56)

Rohota

65.5(57)

34.5(30)

100.0(87)

Kalur

84.6(22)

15.4(4)

100.0(26)

Yelwal

63.6(35)

36.4(20)

100.0(55)

Arnavali

86.8(33)

13.2(5)

100.0(38)

Kalur

88.2(15)

11.8(2)

100.0(17)

Bilaspur

100.0(18)

0.0(0)

100.0(18)

Arnavali

63.2(24)

36.8(14)

100.0(38)

Dakshin Duttapara

100.0(54)

0.0(0)

100.0(54)

Bilaspur

61.1(11)

38.9(7)

100.0(18)

Gambhoi

100.0(14)

0.0(0)

100.0(14)

Dakshin Duttapara

42.6(23)

57.4(31)

100.0(54)

Kamdevpur

97.6(41)

2.4(1)

100.0(42)

Gambhoi

92.9(13)

7.1(1)

100.0(14)

Rampura

100.0(21)

0.0(0)

100.0(21)

Kamdevpur

58.5(24)

41.5(17)

100.0(41)

Rampura

71.4(15)

28.6(6)

100.0(21)

Sunni

50.0(18)

50.0(18)

100.0(36)

Total

65.3(643)

34.7(342)

100.0(985)

Sunni

72.2(26)

27.8(10)

100.0(36)

Total

87.1(859)

12.9(127)

100.0(986)

1

Variables

Village

1

J

1

Table 23

-1

Knowledge About Village Panchayat Members

I

K
HI

■
f1

"iH
■(jL 1

I

r

if 1
i

■

I

p‘

Hi

• 1
254

TABLES

POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

1

Table 24

IP.

II

rI
I

k ■

I if.
y-

I
hi

h

Variables
Yes

No

2.6(1)

97.4(37)

100.0(38)

Haringhata

13.9(11)

86 1(68)

100.0(79)

Coyalmannam

9.8(5)

90.2(46)

100.0(51)

Jadigenhalli

83.8(67)

16.3(13)

100.0(80)

75.4(52)

24.6(17)

100.0(69)

81.0(47)

100.0(58)

Pazhambalakode

19.0(11)

Pullambadi

62.9(61)

37.1(36)

100.0(97)

Rupal

79.3(46)

20.7(12)

100.0(58)

Rohat

81.9(59)

18.1(13)

100.0(72)

Rohota

58.6(51)

41.4(36)

100.0(87)

55.6(30)

44.4(24)

100.0(54)

Yelwal
Kalur

58.8(10)

41.2(7)

100.0(17)

Arnavali

52.6(20)

47.4(18)

100.0(38)

1 •

Bailaspur

38.9(7)

61.1(11)

100.0(18)

Dakshin Duttapara

7-4(4)

92.6(50)

100.0(54)

f

Gambhoi

57.1(8)

42.9(6)

100.0(14)

Kamdevpur

4.8(2)

95.2(40)

100.0(42)

Rampura

71.4(15)

28.6(6)

100.0(21)

Sunni

44.4(16)

55.6(20)

100.0(36)

Total

48.4(476)

51.6(507)

100.0(983)

i

L
i

J

Variables
Did not Voted acquain­
vote
tanceJ whom
told to vote

. LP I

Village

Not registered

Amdanga

0.0(0)

5-1(2)

94.9(37)

100.0(39)

Haringhata

5.0(4)

11.3(9)

83.8(67)

100.0(80)

Total

Amdanga

Kachhona

i

Voting Behaviour in Panchayat Elections

r[Ph

ib

Table 25

Knowledge about Local Member of
Parliament (MP)

Village

255

Total

Coyalmannam

0.0(0)

11.8(6)

88.2(45)

100.0(51)

Jadigenhalli

98.8(79)

I. 3(1)

0.0(0)

100.0(80)

Kachhona

5.7(4)

0.0(0)

94.3(66)

100.0(70)

Pazhambalakode

0.0(0)

5.2(3)

94.8(55)

100.0(58)

Pullambadi

0.0(0)

34.0(33)

66.0(64)

100.0(97)

Rupal

3.5(2)

29.3(17)

67.2(39)

100.0(58)

Rohat

5.6(4)

16.7(12)

77.8(56)

100.0(72)

Rohota

14.6(13)

0.0(0)

85.4(76)

100.0(89)

Yelwal

58.9(33)

14.3(8)

26.8(15)

100.0(56)

Kalur

82.4(14)

II. 8(2)

5.9(1)

99.9(17)

Arnavali

5.3(2)

0.0(0)

94.7(36)

100.0(38)

Bilaspur

0.0(0)

11.1(2)

88.9(16)

100.0(18)

Dakshin Duttapara

0.0(0)

0.0(0)

100.0(54)

100.0(54)

Gambhoi

0.0(0)

0.0(0)

100.0(14)

100.0(14)

Kamdevpur

4.8(2)

2.4(1)

92.9(39)

100.0(42)

Rampura

0.0(0)

47.6(10)

52.4(11)

100.0(21)

Sunni

2.8(1)

0.0(0)

97.2(35)

100.0(36)

Total

16.0(158)

107(106)

73.3(726)

100.0(990)

1

:: H i

|i!i •! ■

1 J
Mi .

I r!

I i
■

Table 26

to

LA

Voting Behaviour During the Last Elections to State Legislatures
Village

Amdanga
Haringhata

Coy alma nnam

Jadigenhalli

Kachhona
Pazhambalakode
Pullambadi

Rupal
Rohat

Refused
inform­
ation

Not lis­
Voted
ted
for acq­
not
uaintance
voted
as told

Cong­
ress

0.0
(0)
8.9
(7)
0.0
(0)
6.4
(5)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
1.2
(1)
12.1
(7)
0.0
(0)

0.0
(0)
6.3
(5)
2.0
(1)
2.6
(2)
5.8
(4)
5.2
(3)
45.7
(43)
29.3
(17)
11.1
(8)

71.8
(28)
60.8
(48)
51.0
(26)
91.0
(71)
82.6
(57)
13.8
(8)
51.1
(48)
56.9
(33)
83.3
(60)

0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
1.5
(1)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)

Variables
CP1-M

Jana Sangh

CPI &
others

o>

Forward
Block

Total

-a
O

m
7.7
(3)
12.7
(10)
47.1
(24)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
81.0
(47)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)

0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
10.1
(7)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
1.7
(1)
5.6
(4)

2.6
(1)
11.4
(9)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
2.1
(2)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)

17.9
100.0
(7)
(39)
0.0
100.0
(79)
(0)
0.0
100.0
(0)
(51)
0.0
100.0
(78)
(0)
0.0
100.0
(69)
(0)
0.0
100.0
(58)
(0)
4.0
100.0
(94)
(0)
0.0
100.0
(58)
(0)
0.0
100.0
(0) ______ (72)

(Contd.)

TABLE 26 (Contd.)
Village

Rohota

YelwaJ
Kalur
Arnavali

Bilaspur

Dakshin Dattapara
Gambhoi

Kamdevpur
Rampura

Sunni
Total

Refused
inform
ation
0.0
(0)
24.1
(13)
11.8
(2)
0.0
(0)
33.3
(6)
1.9
(1)
64.3
(9)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
2.8
(1)
5.3
(52)

Not lis­
ted
Not
voted

Voted
for acq­
uaintance
as told

Conggress

CPI-M

Jana Sangh

13.6
(12)
18.5
(10)
23.5
(4)
7.9
(3)
27.8
(5)
3.7
(2)
7.1
(1)
2.4
(1)
4.8
(1)
5.6
(2)
12.7
(124)

34.1
(30)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
2.6
(1)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
21.4
(3)
0.0
(0)
66.7
(14)
0.0
(0)
5.0
(49)

52.3
(46)
53.7
(29)
58.8
(10)
89.5
(34)
38.9
(7)
57.4
(31)
7.1
(1)
51.2
(21)
23.8
(5)
88.9
(32)

00.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
35.2
(19)
0.0
(0)
4.9
(2)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
10.7
(105)

0.0
(0)
1.9
(1)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
4.8
(1)
2.8
(1)
1.5
(15)

60.8
(595)

CPI &
others

o.o
(0)
1.9
(1)
5.9
(1)
00
(0)
0.0
(0)
1.9
(1)
0.0
(0)
26.8
(ID
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
2.7
(26)

Forward
Block

Total

0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
14.6
(6)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
1.3
(13)

100.0
(88)
99.9
(54)
99.9
(17)
100.0
(38)
100.0
(18)
100.0
(54)
100.0
(14)
100.0
(41)
100.0
(21)
100.0
(36)
100.0
(979)

n
r

>
GO
GO

>

z
a
>
r

H
E
O
C

Table 27
Summary of the General Background (in per cent)
Village

Brick house

Variables
With Electri- Have radio

With latrine

to
cn
oo

Listen radio

Read news- Knowledge of

city

Amdanga
Haringhata
Coyalmannam

5.1
5.0
54.9
85.0
12.9
20.7
25.8
13.8
2.8
21.1
41.8
41.2
34.2
61.1
3.7
14.3
9.5
0.0
0.0
24.1

Jadigenhalli
Kachhona
Pazhambalakode
Pullambadi
Rupal
Rohat
Rohota
Yelwal
Kalur
Arnavali
Bilaspur
Dakshin Duttapara
Gambhoi
Kamdevpur
Rampura
Sunni

Total

12.8
45.0
10.0
10.0
12.9
10.5
7.2
3.5
2.8
17.8
14.5
0.0
2.6
5.6
3.7
0.0
7.3
0.0
2.8
12.1

papers

0.0
1.3
51.0
21.5
12.9
19.0
33.7
51.7
0.0
15.6
41.0
29.4
13.2
27.8
1.9
21.4
9.5
0.0
0.0
18.8

23.0
30.0
17.0
17.0
10.0
13.8
18.0
16.0
6.0
28.0
21.0
6.0
29.0
11.0
33.0
7.0
38.0
00
11.0
19.0

17.9
27.8

community
Development

7.7
35.0
25.5
43.7
18.8
13.8
6.2
46.5
1.4
5.7
12.5
5.9
7.9
0.0
1.8
14.3
2.4
0.0
5.6
15.8

9-8

21.2
15.9
13.8
13.4
25.9
6.9
25.0
13.5
0.0
18.9
16.7
34.0
14.3
33.7
0.0
11.1
18.7

^5

o

10.3
1.3
0.0
16.0
0.0
0.0
3.1
32.8
20.8
13.3
27.3
11.8
21.1
0.0
13.3
14 3
9.5
9.5
8.3
11.3

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----------

Table 29
Summary of Economic & Demographic Background (in per cent)

N)

O

Village

Hunger fully More than 2
’ landless
' —
No
satisfied
3 acres wet than 5 acres
land
dry land

Amdanga
41.0
Haringhata
38.8
Coyalmannam
39.2
Jadigenhalli
67.5
Kachhona
55.1
Pazhambalakode
13.8
Pullambadi
29.9
Rupal
77.6
Rohat
75.0
Rohota
70.1
Yelwal
25.0
Kalur
11.8
Arnavali
47.4
Bilaspur
72.2
Dakshin Duttapara 77.8
Gambhoi
71.4
Kamdevpur
59.5
Rampura
66.7
Sunni
61.1
Total
52.3

Variables
—------Child More than Never visit-Never visit- N
Never visited Ptrticipate in
deaths 3 children ed city
ed market other village
co-operatives
born
6

7.7
0.0
2.0
7.5
5.7
10.3
5.2
22.4
12.5
32.2
1.8
0.0
36.8
50.0
11.1
14.3
7.1
57.1
11.1

76.9
97.5
62.8
41.3
67.1
82.8
82.5
56.9
40.3
51.1
83.9
64.7
63.2
44.4
81.5
42.9
66.7
19.1
22.2

51.3
47.5
49.0
60.0
65.8
51.7
28.1
36.8
45.8
46.7
31.2
23.5
68.4
50.0
50.0
57.1
51.2
71.4
65.6

71.7
59.9
77.3
77.9
71.5
72.4
79.4
66.1
62.6
61.1
61.6
64.6
81.6
32.2
51.8
70.4
66.7
80.9
74.9

12.8

56.4
12.7
33.3
1.3
10.1
63.8
32.0
13.8
25.0
6.8
20.0
23.5
7.9
16.7
13.0
0.0
71.4
19.1
11.1

64.2

0.0
3.8
23.5
18.8
1.5
50.0
40.2
0.0
2.8
2.3
90.2
70.6
50.0
12.5
0.0
7.1
0.0
0.0
2.8

48.8

0.0
11.4
76.5
8.8
5.8
82.8
49.0
6.9
30.6
9.1
45.5
58.8
10.5
11.1
0.0
21.4
0.0
0.0
2.8

68.0

22.6

28.2
31.7
17.7
32.5
30.4
3.8
20.6
20.7
76.4
18.2
56 6
76.5
28.0
50 0
50.0
14.3
35.7
61.9
25.0

18.8

23.7

33.7

O
ffl

n

t>
co
co

>

2!
U

>
r

S

n
c
r
C

Table 30
Summary of Political Background (in per cent)

Village

Variables
Voted Congress Voted CPI-M Did not vote Did not Know Panch. Know M.L.A- Know M-P.
Member
in state elec.
in state elec, in state elec, vote in
Panch. elec.

Amdanga
Haringhata
Coyalmannam
Jadigenhalli
Kachhona
Pazhambalakode
Pullambadi
Rupal
Rohat
Rohota
Yelwal
Kalur
Arnavali
Bilaspur
Dakshin Duttapara
Gambhoi
Kamdevpur
Rampura
Sunni

71.8
60.8
51.0
91.0
82.6
13.8
51.1
56.9
83.3
52.3
53.7
58.8
89.5
38.9
57.4
7.1
51.2
23.8
88.9

Total

60.8

7.7
12.7
47.1
0.0
0.0
81.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
35.2
0.0
4.9
0.0
0.0
10.7

0.0
6.3
2.0
2.6
5.8
5.2
45.7
29.3
11.1
13.6
18.5
23.5
7.9
27.8
3.7
7.1
2.4
4.8
5.6

5.1
11.3
11.8
I. 3
00
5.2
34.0
29.3
16.7
0.0
14.3
II. 8
0.0
11.1
0.0
0.0
2.4
47.6
0.0

100.0
96.3
35.3
98.8
82.6
25.9
93.8
100.0
98.6
100.0
85.7
84.6
86.8
100.0
100.0
100.0
97.6
100.0
72.2

12.7

10.7

87.1

74.4
61.3
27.5
85.0
87.0
20.7
66.0
86.2
86.1
65.5
63.6
88.2
63.2
61.1
42.6
92.9
58.5
71.4
50.0
65.3

2.6
13.9
9.8
83.8
75.4
19.0
62.9
79.3
81.9
58.6
55 6
58.8
52.6
389
7.4
57.1
4.8
71.4
44.4

48.4

m

00

NJ

—

—J

..
Table 31

ox

IQ

Caste and Religion
Total

Variables

Harijans

Backward
castes

Other culti­
vators

Trading
caste

Brahmins

Total

19.7
(229.1)

18.1
(209-8)

30.6
(355.7)

12.5
(145.6)

7.9
191.6)

11.2
(129.8)

99.9
(1161.6)

Hungry

29.5
(130.7)

15.0
(66 2)

24.6
(108.9)

15.9
(70.4)

3.2
(14.0)

11.8
(52.4)

100.0
(442.6)

Poor labourers

33.5
(183.2)

20.0
(109.2)

25.3
(138.6)

10.2
(56.0)

0.7
(3-7)

10.3
(56.0)

100.0
(547.0)

Harijans

100.0
(229.1)

0.0
(0.0)

0.0
(0.0)

0.0
(0.0)

0.0
(0.0)

0.0
(0.0)

100.0
(229.1)

Backward
castes

0.0
(0.0)

100.0
(209.8)

0.0
(0.0)

0.0
(0.0)

0.0
(0.0)

0.0
(0.0)

100.0
(209.8)

Service and trade

5.2
(11-2)
5.4
(9.3)
11.0
(15.9)
11.6
(9.5)

11.3
(24.6)

25.5
(55.4)

22.7
(49.3)

13.2
(28.7)

22.1
(48.0)

100.0
(217.2)

n
c

14.3
(24.4)

12.1
(20.6)

17.1
(29.3)

4.8
(8.2)

99.9
(170.9)

C

25.8
(37.3)

46.3
(79.1)
33.5
(48.4)

9.5
(13.7)

14.5
(21.0)

5.7
(8.3)

99.9
(144.6)

17.5
(14.3)

41.8
(34.2)

7.3
(6.0)

10.9
(8.9)

11.0
(9.0)

100.0
(81.9)

Muslims

o
<
m
75

More than 3 acres
wet land
1 to 3 acres
wet land

More than 5 acres
dry land

n
r
GO
GO

>
U
K
m
>
K

73

m

Table 32

Degree of Hunger Satisfaction
Variables

Total
Hungry

Poor labourers
Harijans
Backward castes

Service and trade
>3 acres wet land

1 to 3 acres wet land
> 5 acres dry land

Not for
one month
or less

Not for 1 to
3 months

Not for 3 to
6 months

Not for six
months

Irregular

Total

Fully satisfied

48.5
(560.4)
0.0
(0.0)
9.8
(53.0)
18.1
(41.1)
54.5
(112.1)
70.3
(152.6)
97.3
(166.5)
90.3
(130.8)
69.4
(57.5)

1.0
(1.10)
(0.0)
(0.0)
1.7
(9.0)
1.6
(3.7)
0.5
(1-0)
0.9
(2.0)
0.0
(0.0)
0.0
(0.0)
0.0
(0.0)

8.7
(100.8)
(0.0)
(0.0)
14.5
(75.9)
14.8
(33.7)
9.3
(9.2)
8.2
(17.9)
0.6
(1.0)
0.7
(1-0)
6.0
(5.0)

33.3
(384.6)
87.1
(384.6)
59.0
(318.2)
49.3
(111-9)
28.4
(58.4)
18.1
(39.4)
2.1
(3.6)
7.6
(H.6)
15.0
(12.0)

5.0
(57.2)
13.0
(57.2)
9.9
(53.2)
8.3
(18.8)
3.8
(7.7)
0.0
(0.0)
00
(0 0)
0.7
(1.0)
3.6
(3.0)

3.6
(41.8)
0.0
(0.0)
5.7
(30.5)
7.9
(17-9)
3-5
(7.2)
2.4
(5.3)
0.0
(0.0)
0.7
(1.0)
6.0
(5.0)

100.0
(1155.8)
100.0
(441.8)
100.0
(539.1)
100.0
(227.1)
100.0
(205.6)
100.0
(217.2)
99.9
(171.1)
100.0
(144.8)
100.0
(82.9)

W

r*
w

i-j

264

265

TABLES

POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

Table 34

Occupations

iOgiPlililiJilit

I

” £ - 5

nib

£

3 53t -3 S -2

o©o

a
I

Variable

Agricul­
ture

Trade

Service

Total

39.8

10.8

7.9

(461.4)

A

§S
o

td

Crj

s -2 S_ 2

o o e e e & ° 2 g, oe

-1
!|

GW

. 1 IS I

2
o

<3

cn x:
m
ca

vl

03

5
§

i

“I

§I

m

in

I b
§ •n ’\3b

I!

a-'iN«N!i'nee,e-S5j

sg

s s ? 2 s.

<D
’U

<71

2

£
TJ
C
03

3
75

£

O
oi

u. u<
o

X)

c
■2,

° ° -

‘£5

3

s

u

Iu 8 -2£

y Js
rt
m
L

<3 -o

Si15 2 f § §

A

■

25.4

100.0

(1160.6)

(125.8)

(91.4)

(187.8)

(294.2)

230
(101.5)

43.2
(190.3)

100.0
(440.8)

24.9
(109.6)

5.9
(25.9)

Poor

26.1

0.0

0.0

27.7

46.3

100.0

(156.0) (-25.1) (-28.2)

(165.8)

(276.9)

(598.7)

100.0
(229.0)

Harijans

29.6
(67.8)

1.4
(3.3)

3.4
(7.8)

13.9
(31.8)

51.7
(118.3)

Backward castes

30.1
(61.8)

6.4
(13.1)

5.5
(11.4)

27.8
(57.1)

30.3
(62.2)

99.9
(205.6)

Service and trade

0.0
(0.0)

57.9
(125.8)

42.1
(9L4)

0.0
(0.0)

0.0
(0.0)

100.0
(217.2)

> 3 acres wet landi

85.9
(146.9)

7.7
(13.1)

4.3
(7.4)

1.2
(2.0)

0.9
(1-6)

100.0
(171.0)

1 to 3 acres wet
land

72.2
(104.4)

5.7
(8.2)

11.4
(16.5)

5.4
(7.8)

5.3
(7.7)

100.0
(144.6)

> 5 acres dry landi

65.7
(54.1)

4.6
(3.8)

5.2
(4 3)

14.8
(12.2)

9.7
(8.0)

100.0
(82.4)

o

xt ei 0io'PS''osoo£'NS2s'2o'«’c

16.2

Hungry

labourers

- e o & & e

■XS

Total

3.1
(13.5)

9

i-?

Artisans Labourers
and others

a

Table 35
Number of Children Born
Variables

Total

No birth

6.3
(72.7)
One born
5.6
(65.1)
Two born
6.8
(79.3)
Three born 11.6
(135.3)
Four born
13.6
(158.4)
Five born
14.6
(169.2)
Six born
12.9
(149.9)
Seven born
8.2
(95.6)
Eight born
9.0
(104.4)
Nine or
11.4
morn born (132.2)
3 children
30.3
or more
(352.6)
6 children
41.5
or more
(482.3)
Total
100.0
(1162.3)

Hungry

5.6
(24.8)
2.3
(10.3)
7.1
(31.2)
10.3
(45.3)
14.7
(64.7)
19.3
(85.4)
12.6
(55.6)
7.6
(33.6)
10.6
(46.7)
9.9
(43.9)
25.3
(Hl.l)
40.7
(179.8)
99.9
(441.5)

Poor
labourers

7.4
(40.3)
4.3
(23.5)
9.2
(50.4)
12.0
(65.9)
15.0
(82.0)
15.7
(86.2)
10.7
(58.7)
8.7
(47.8)
7.8
(42.9)
9.1
(49.9)
32.9
(180.1)
36.3
(199.3)
99.9
(547.1)

ox

Harijans
7.5
(17.1)
4.0
(9.2)
6.5
(14.8)
15.0
(34.3)
13.1
(30.0)
12.7
(29.0)
12.4
(28.4)
5.3
(12.2)
8.1
(18.6)
15.4
(35.2)
33.0
(75.4)
41.2
(94.4)
99.9
(228.8)

Backward
castes
6.8
(14.3)
6.6
(13.7)
10.2
(21.4)
15.0
(30.6)
13.2
(27.6)
12.2
(25.6)
9.9
(20.7)
7.2
(15.1)
4.3
(8.9)
15.0
(31.4)
38.2
(80.0)
36.4
(70.1)
99.9
(209.3)

Service and
trade

>3 acres wet
lands

1 ta 3 acres > 5 acres
wet land
dry land

6.9
(15.0)
6.7
(14.6)
6.6
(14.2)
11.2
(24.3)
15.4
(33.5)
11.6
(25.1)
14.9
(32.4)
7.6
(16.5)
6.3
(13-7)
12.7
(27.6)
31.4
(67.9)
41.5
(92.2)
100.0
(216.9)

6.9
(11.8)
4.1
(6.9)
4.5
(7.7)
10.4
(17.8)
12.4
(21.1)
16.2
(27.6)
13.4
(22.9)
6.3
(10.7)
11.3
(19.2)
14.6
(24.8)
25.9
(44.2)
45.6
(77.6)
100.0
(170.5)

1.8
(2.6)
6.7
(9-7)
2.1
(3-0)
13.2
(19-0)
9.6
(13.9)
15.5
(21.7)
18.0
(26.0)
8.7
(12.5)
13.2
(19-0)
11.8
(17.1)
23.8
(34.3)
51.7
(74.6)
100.0
(134.5)

3.6
(3-0)
12.6
(10.4)
4.8
(4-0)
10.0
(8.3)
9.5
(7.9)
10-4
(8.6)
12.0
(9.9)
9.8
(8.1)
11.6
(9.6)
15.7
(13.0)
31.0
(25.7)
49.1
(40.6)
99.9
(82.8)

“O

O

<
m

n
r
>

§
tn

>
r
X
ft
c
r
ft
JO

m

I

Table 36

Number of Child Deaths in Households
Poor landless
labourers

Harijans

Backward
castes

Service and
trade

6.2
(72.7)
46.5
No death
(545.1)
19.6
One death
(229.3)
15.4
Two death
(180.0)
4.8
Three deaths;
(55.7)
3.1
Four deaths
(35.9)
1.2
Five deaths
(14 2)
1.3
Six deaths
(14.9)
1.0
Seven deathsj
(11.7)
l.l
Eight deaths
(12.5)
or more
39.8
1 to 3
(465-0)
deaths
7.7
Four and
mose deaths (89.2)

5.7
(24.8)
45.3
(197.4)
18.3
(79.5)
17.4
(75.8)
5.5
(23.8)
4.9
(21-3)
0.8
(3.3)
1.0
(4.2)
1.0
(4.4)
0.2
(1.0)
41.2
(179.1)
7.9
(34.2)

7.2
(40.3)
43.6
(243.6)
17.9
(100.0)
16.3
(90.9)
4.9
(27.4)
3.6
(20.1)
2.3
(12.7)
1.7
(9.7)
1.0
(5.4)
1.5
(8.6)
39.1
(218.3)
10.1
(56.5)

7.3
(17.1)
35.8
(83.3)
15.5
(36.1)
15.0
(35.0)
8.2
(19.1)
6.2
(14.5)
2.6
(6.1)
3.9
(90)
3.4
(7.9)
2.0
(4.6)
38.7
(90.2)
18.1
(42.1)

6.5
(14.3)
46.2
(101.8)
20.9
(45.7)
15.5
(33.9)
3.2
(7.1)
2.7
(6.0)
2.8
(6.1)
0.0
(0.0)
0.5
(10)
1.4
(30)
39.6
(86.7)
7.4
(16.1)

7.1
(150)
46.2
(97.9)
23.8
(50.5)
13.9
(29.5)
3.3
(7.0)
3.2
(6.8)
0.2
(0.5)
1.4
(2.9)
0.0
(0 0)
0.9
(1-9)
41.0
(87 0)
5.7
(12.1)

6.8
(11.8)
48.4
(83.5)
18.3
(31.5)
14.9
(25.7)
6.6
(11-4)
1.7
(3.0)
0.0
(0.0)
0.8
(1-3)
1.3
(2.3)
1.2
(2.0)
39.8
(68.6)
5.0
(8.6)

1.8
(2.6)
49.3
(71.4)
24.
(34.7)
15.0
(21.8)
5.1
(7.4)
2.1
(3.0)
0.0
(0.0)
0.7
(1.0)
2.1
(3.0)
0.0
(00)
44.1
(63-9)
4.9
(7.0)

3.6
(3.0)
581
(48.7)
15.0
(12.6)
14.4
(12.1)
4.0
(2.5)
3.6
(3.0)
1.2
(1-5)
0.0
(0.0)
1.2
(1-0)
00
(0.0)
32.4
(27.2)
6.0
(5.0)

Total

99.9
(435.5)

100.0
(558.7)

99.9
(232.7)

100.0
(218.9)

100.0
(212.0)

100.0
(172.5)

100.0
(144.9)

100.0
(83.9)

Total

No birth

99.9
(11720)

1

> 3 acres.
1 to 3
>5 acres
wet land acres wet land dry land

Hungry

Variables

W

S

bJ
O'.

268

II
rg!
Ip

Table 37

Consumption of Alcohol
Variables

Total

Hungry
Poor
Labourers
Harijans

I

b
r

il
r

Backward castes
Service and trade
>3 Acres
wet land

1 to 3 acres
wet land

> 5 acres
dry land

Never Occasionally Often

Daily

II
i!

-I

POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

■3

TABLES

I

Knowledge about Village Panchayat Members

269

Table 38

Total

Variables

Yes/alllfew

No

Total

Total

83.5
(964.3)

16.5
(190.7)

100.0
(1155.0)

Hungry

64.6
(284.7)

35.4
(156.2)

100.0
(440.9)

Poor
labourers

72.5
(393.7)

27.5
(149.0)

(542.7)

(227.0)

Harijans

9.8
(20.3)

99.9
(207.7)

86.4
(196.2)

13.6
(3L0)

100.0
(227.2)

Backward castes

3.6
(7.7)

1.6
(3.5)

100 0

81.7
(170.5)

18.3
(38.3)

(208.8)

11.7
(19.8)

4.3
(7.3)

1.7
(2-8)

Service and
trade

87.6
(190.4)

12.4
(26.9)

(217.3)

(169.0)

(101.9)

21.3
(30.8)

5.3
(7.6)

3.1

100.0

> 3 Acres wet
land

98.2
(164.2)

1.8
(3.0)

(167.2)

(4.5)

75.5
(62.6)

(144.8)

15.4
(12.8)

0.6
(0.5)

99.9
(82.9)

1 to 3 acres
wet land

94.3

8.4
(7.0)

(136.5)

5.7
(8.3)

(144.8)

>5 acres
dry land

95.8
(79.5)

4.2
(3.5)

100.0
(83.0)

64.3
(743.4)

20.1
(232.7)

5.4
(62.4)

10.2
(117.8)

43.9
(194.0)

26.9
(118.8)

5.7
(25.0)

23.5
(103.7)

48.7
(264.2)

(441.5)

25.7
(139.4)

6.0
(32.8)

19.6
(106.5)

53.9
(122.3)

100.0
(542.9)

25.1
(57.0)

10.0

11.0

(22.7)

100.0

(25.0)

65.8
(136.6)

19.6
(40.8)

4.8
(10.6)

81.0
(175.6)

13.8
(29.9)

82.3
(139.1)

70.4

■

100.0

(1156.3)
100.0

(216.7)
100.0

1 ’

100.0

100.0

j

j'

100.0

100.0

■

I ;'i '•

100.0

g
w
-

a

I

H

r!
J*

r
271

POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

TABLES

Table 39

Table 40

Knowledge about the Local member of the Legislative

Knowledge about Local Member of Parliament (MP)

270

Assembly (MLA)

Yes

No

Tatal

Total

49.8
(574.4)

52.2
(578.1)

100.0
(1152.5)

(1154.1)

Hungry

32.2
(141.9)

67.8
(299.0)

(440.9)

Poor labourers

28.8
(156.4)

71.2
(385.8)

(542.2)

Harijans

46.1
(104.7)

53.9
(▼22.8)

100.0
(227.0)

Variables

Variables

Total

37.4
(431.1)

39.9
(176.1)

(264.8)

100.0
(440.9)

Poor
labourers

41.9
(228.0)

58.1
(315.9)

(543.9)

Harijans

54.8
(124.4)

45.2
(102.8)

1C0.0
(227.2)

Backward castes

43.6
(91.5)

56.4
(118.2)

(209.2)

Backward castes

58-2
(122.1)

41.8
(87.7)

100.0
(209.8)

Service and trade

60.2
(130.9)

39.8
(86.4)

100.0
(217.3)

Service and trade

74.2
(161.3)

25.8
(56.0)

100.0
(217.3)

> 3 acres wet land

79.8
(133.5)

20.2
(33.7)

100.0
(167.2)

> 3 acres wet land

87.6
(146.4)

12.4
(20.8)

100.0
(167.2)

1 to 3 acres wet land

68.3
(98.2)

31.7
(45.6)

100.0
(143.8)

1 to 3 acres wet land

85.3
(122.6)

14.7
(21.1)

100.0
(143.7)

> 5 acres dry land

67.6
(55.4)

32.4
(26.6)

100.0
(82.0)

> 5 acres dry land

78.9
(64.7)

21.1
(17.3)

100.0
(82.0)

Hungry

ii'

No

62.7
(723.0)

Total

I?

Yes

60.1

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

p

I

gfe

I

272

Ii
I
t
-

r
I1’

h

B

t
It

Ifl

II
I
II

I
r

2

(129.1)

(140.4)

19.0
(39.6)

15.6
(68.8)

75.5
(333.4)

99.9
(441.8)

Poor
labourers

11.7
(64.0)

12.3
(67.1)

76.0
(415.8)

100.0
(546.9)

Harijans

8.6

10.3

(19.7)

(23.5)

81.1
(185.7)

100.0
(228.9)

19.0
(39.4)

9.2
(20.2)

71.3

(148.2)

100.0
(207.8)

11.4
(24.8)

(35.7)

72.2
(156.7)

100.0
(217.2)

<u

w

7.2
(12.2)

8.4
(14.2)

84.4
(142.7)

100.0

H

(169.1)

tn
«
J

8.2
(11.8)

9.6

82.2

100.0

(13.9)

(118.9)

(144.6)

Service and trade

> 3 acres wet land
1 to 3 acres
wet land

>5 acres
dry land

19.6

(19.3)

16.4

11.5
(9.5)

68.9

100.0

(57.2)

(83.0)

—

—

(3

O

—

i?J8t8SS5

I?

76.8
100.0
(891.1) (1160.8)

Backward castes

S

o
o

Noted listed Did note vote Voted to acqu- Total
aintancesf
whom told
to vote

12.1

I hi:;’

i

S' °> a?

8 5 8 s§ § S S § § § £ s £

11.1

Total

Hungry

iBt

1

” q

Variables

273

TABLES

Voting Behaviour in Panchayat Election

Hlr

I

1

POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE
Table 41

I

' n

<Z)

<u

Co

CM,

u is

f

3Ko
<u

J

<3

4

a
co

o

" S"C.

’-1 in ®

II

0)

B
a)

o
in

g

oo

£

o ” P

o

c

2ri8aN5;
o o

&

1 .

•M

u §

—-

KO,

»—1
O

O

<3

O

!

W)

.9
B
Q

5
Bg

£ s- si

fgp

KO

O T-,

CO

•------ 1

A§

■5

4 § -X3

b£
.e

£■§ g

o

1i-

^’-’oo/o4J2’-,‘2,r'v->sc>xfrfn^ot-'(:-;C'Je^

o

■w

>

•2E

£

'u

cfl

5

-Q

-Z2-

O

c

73

H

60

c
□

□

■g

p
£3
3®

C/3
Q
•

"c
at

8

1111

j T3

<u X5 o -o S
C
%
i- a
c h

£ §

J

«

!

ts 2 s *2 S
A
‘L

A -o

I

I

Table 43
to

£

Voting Behaviour During Last Elections to Parliament
Variables

Total

Hungry
Poor
labourers
Harijans

Backward
castes
Service and
trade
> 3 acres
wet land
1 to 3 acres
wet land
> 5 acres
dry land

Refused
Information

4.5
(51.0)
1.7
(7.4)
2.7
(14.6)
1.5
(3.4)
7.2
(15.1)
6.7
(14.4)
5.3
(9.0)
7.7
(H 0)
2.5
(2.0)

Not listed
Not voted

Voted for
acquaintance!
as told

Congress

6.6
(74.9)
2.9
(12.5)
3.0
(16-2)
9.4
(21.2)
1.9
(4.0)
1.4
(2.9)
23.1
(39.1)
6.3
(9-0)
9.8
(7.7)

54.8
(626.0)
38.6
(168.6)
42.7
(230.3)
61.3
(138.8)
54.3
(113.7)
62.2
(133.0)
60.4
(102.0)
73.1
(105.1)
70.5
(55.6)

17.9
(204.3)
25.6
(111.6)
23.4
(126.3)
17.8
(40.3)
18.3
(38.3)
19.1
(40.9)
9.4
(15.9)
9.5
(13.7)
9.5
(7.5)

W>

Q-

P

w
P
ex 2
re
cn

p

D
n
p. in

3

§

V)

9

b? b

- -

Ci

r
>

CZ)

on
>
Z
Q

a
>
r
X

o
c

r
H
C

w

I

E.

£

re

in

T3 £ 3:

73
—

‘

100.0
(1142.4)
100.0
(436.3)
100.0
(539.9)
99.9
(226.6)
100.0
(209.4)
100.0
(213.8)
100.0
(169.0)
100.0
(143.8)
100.0
(78.9)

2

2i ■

H
*5

o

c

P.

D
P.

o

15.4
(176.2)
31.0
(135.2)
28.3
(152.5)
9.7
(21-9)
18.3
(38.3)
7.3
(15.6)
00
(0.0)
1.4
(2.0)
7.7
(6.1)

t5 p
I
§

o

Total

CPI-M,CPI
& other

0.9
(10.0)
0.2
(1.0)
0.0
(-3.0)
0.4
(1.0)
0.0
(0.0)
3.3
(7.0)
1.8
(3.0)
2.1
(3.0)
0.0
(0.0)

w
g

* V 2
S- vMl n*a ~
-*
* £
s o
o -•

P

Jana Sangh

LZI

w

Ul

O o

O

£ o
<

B.
Z

b

Vi

$
- -

S

'p NJ
oo

. s

o © T3

3 _

NJ

s o e © 2)

s b eb

0°

O £ bi

R

§
ft

-3
H p
o S5 w
> bi -S b

Z^s

- 1

g 9oo
o S >£)
^b

b s*
Ul

NJ

o? bo

Pg 3 go

NJ

co >SbJ

Lj

£

O)

O

s
i

&
B*

a

era

* ?

v

CT*

>

£

CZ)

(T

gr

I
a

Z^X

£ - 5 —x
g
«8
?!«
-8 gS
Sg $2„ £§
|g
gs
o •
bJ x ^g i3b "b «S ^b
5g
b
73

_

N>

Ml

-K

£

NJ

276

POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

3

Table 45

I
i

Total

■

I
I

Participation in Co-operatives

Daily

10.0

Frequently

Not
Frequently

Not at all

2.9

(1152.9)

Total

Yes

No

Total

Total

29.8
(343.5)

70.2
(811.0)

1000
(1154.5)

Hungry

11.4
(50.0)

88.6
(389.8)

100.0
(439.8)

Variables

I

(115.4)

4.6
(53.4)

(33.9)

82.4
(950.2)

0.6
(2.5)

0.0
(0.0)

0.4
(1.9)

99.0
(436.5)

(440.9)

Poor
labourers

0.0
(-21.5)

Poor labourers

1.1

98.0
(552-8)

100.0
(564.2)

1.6
(8.6)

98.4
(533.2)

100.0
(541.8)

(6-3)

0.9
(5.1)

Harijans

3.4
(7.6)

Harijans

0.2
(0.5)

1.9

94.9
(214.8)

15.7
(35.5)

84.3
(190.7)

100.0
(226.2)

(227.1)

Backward castes 11.9
(24.7)
Service and
23.5
trade
(50.3)
>3 acres
25.4
wet land
(42.9)
1 to 3 acres
28.1
wet land
(40.7)

Backward castes

3.5
(7-2)

99.9
(207.4)

76.6
(159.1)

(207.8)

(0-3)

84.5
(175.2)

23.4
(48.7)

Service and trade

9.8
(20.9)

4.1
(8.8)

62.6
(134.1)

99.9
(214.1)

37.8
(81.6)

62.2
(134.2)

100.0
(215.8)

> 3 acres wet land

6.8
(11-5)

11.6

35.1
(59.4)

100.0
(169.1)

(19.5)

56.3
(95.0)

64.9
(109.7)

(168.9)

1 to 3 acres wet land

0.4
(0-5)

67.4
(97.5)

59.6
(86.3)

40.4
(58.5)

100.0
(144.8)

(144.7)

>5 acres dry land

69.0
(57.3)

31.0

(25.7)

100.0
(83.0)

Hungry

I

Table 46

Radio Listening Habit
Variables

277

TABLES

Bi

>5 acres
dray land

3.6
(3.0)

4.2
(6.0)

10.6

(8.7)

(4.2)
0.1

0.0
(0.0)

85.8
(70.8)

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0
100.0

100.0

100.0

H i

(82.5)

■

278

Table

47

£

Knowledge about the Community Development Programme
Variables

Do not know/
no use

They come/
of some use

Total

89.5
(1035.3)

10.5
(121.8)

100.0
(1157.1)

Hungry

96.2
(421.2)

3.8
(16.6)

100.0
(437.8)

Poor
labourers

98.6
(335.1)

1.4
(7.5)

100.0
(542.6)

Harijans

93.7
(213.3)

6.3
(14.4)

100.0
(227.7)

Backward castes

91.8
(190.3)

8.2
(17.1)

100.0
(207.4)

Service and trade

90.9
(196.9)

9.1
(19.7)

99.9
(216.6)

> 3 acres wet land

68.5
(116.8)

31.5
(53.8)

100.0
(170.6)

82.2
(118.7)

17.8
(25.7)

100.0
(144.4)

81.8
(67.8)

18.2
(15.1)

100.0
(82.9)

1 to 3 acres wet land
> 5 acres dry land

279

TABLES

POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

Total

£

c o

g. e, o - _eS
•K.

*

u
oo
<D

□o'

K

eg
«

J

<U

z

£Q
©

£

i

i

Cr

‘«5

>

t1

£

’<3

c4

12
a>

g

8
^2

£

■g
o
H

c

p

C/3
U

T3

s

C/3
O

'<3_o^

1

H
cC

o

5 S
®
pq 8 cfl S
£ A £ -

c»

<3 ’c

j
) m

c

on _ro

£ w o u

4->
<D

O
■>-•

-*-»
<D

*

Al

’■’"L......................................................•

Table 49
OO

O

Visit to the Nearby Market

Variables

Daily

Very
Frequently

Frequently

Not
Frequently

Rarely

Never

Total
-fl

O

Total

Hungry
Poor labourers
Harijans

Backward
castes

<

15.6
(179.3)
5.4
(23.6)

4.4
(50.3)
2.6
(11.2)

16.1
(185.2)

28.3
(325.9)

12.9
(148.9)

22.7
(260.7)

99.9
(1150.3)

12.4
(54.4)

22.0
(96.2)

3.2
(17.2)

21.7
(94.7)

35.9
(157.1)

2.2
(11-9)
3.7
(8.3)

99.9
(437.2)

16.7
(90.4)

25.6
(138.4)

18.7
(101.3)

33.6
(182.0)

100.0
(541.2)

17.4
(39.1)

29 0
(65.2)

18.2
(40.9)

20.2
(45.5)

100.0
(225.2)

11.6
(26.0)

ffl
5c

>
uo

>
uz
a

5.1
(10.6)

18.5
(38.4)

30.1
(62.4)

86
(17.9)

4.9
(10.5)

18.1
(37.4)

100.0
(207.1)

>
r

Service and
trade

19.5
(40.4)
25.7
(55.1)

> 3 acres
wet land

16.5
(35.3)

28.1
(60.2)

20.4
(34.0)

8.8
(18.9)

9.2
(15.4)

16.0
(34.4)

J 00.0
(214.4)

7.7
(12.9)

1 to 3 acres
wet land

40.0
(66.9)

27.0
(39.0)

9.6
(16.0)

13.1
(21.9)

6.6
(9.5)

100.0
(J67.1)

n
e
r4
H
e

19.7
(28.5)

> 5 acres
dry land

31.4
(45.4)

41.0
(34.09

3.7
(5.4)

3.6
(3.0)

11.7
(16.9)

100.0
(144.7)

21.8
(18.1)

18.1
(15.0)

8.8
(7-3)

6.6
(5.5)

99.9
(82.9)

Not
frequently

Rarely

Never

Total

16.1
(185.6)
13.5
(59.0)
14.5
(78.6)
15.4
(35.0)
21.1
(43.6)
17.1
(37.0)
19.2
(32.5)
18.3
(26.5)
13-4
(11.0)

24.0
(276.3)
26.7
(117.0)
26.5
(143.4)
35.0
(79.5)
14.6
(30.2)
25.9
(56.1)
27.2
(46.0)
12.4
(17.1)
15.8
(12.9)

30.0
(346.3)
43.6
(1909)
37.1
(200.8)
18.0
(40.8)
26.9
(55.7)
25.4
(55.1)
16.8
(28.4)
33.1
(47’8)
17.3
(14.2)

100.0
(1153-4)
100.0
(438.2)
100.0
(542.0)
100.0
(226.0)
99.9
(207.1)
100.0
(216.6)
1000
(168.9)
100.0
(144.5)
100.0
(81.9)

Table 50

Visits to the Nearby Villages

Variables

Daily

Very
frequently

Total

1.7
(19.9)
0.5
(2.0)
0.0
(-0.5)
1.3
(3.0)
0.4
(0-9)
5.3
(11-5)
1.7
(2.9)
0.7
(1.0)
6.1
(5.0)

5.2
(59.7)
2.8
(12.3)
1.7
(9.1)
6.9
(15.7)
7.8
(16.1)
6.7
(14.4)
8.8
(14.9)
7.8
(11.3)
12.2
(10.0)

Hungry
Poor labourers

Harijans
Backward
castes
Service and
trade
>3 acres
wet land
1 to 3 acres
wet land
> 5 acres
dray land

Frequently

23.0
(265.6)
13.0
(57.0)
20.3
(110.1)
23.3
(52.9)
29.3
(60.6)
19.6
(42.5)
26.2
(44.2)
27.7
(40.0)
35.2
(28.8)

>

W

r
m
<Zl

oo

I'

I

282

POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

Variables

it

Hungry
Poor labourers

Harijans

Housing Conditions

Availability of a Latrine

Thatch &
mud

Brick built

Mixed

Total

I-,

I,

I

I
I
II'
ift

I

50.6
(587.9)

23.0
(266.6)

26.5
(307.3)

(1161.8)

Variables

60.9
(268.4)

10.5
(46.3)

28.6
(126.2)

100.0
(440.9)

66.0

6.8

(360.2)

(36.9)

27.3
(148.9)

100.0

Hungry

Scavenging

6.7
(77.8)
1.7
(7.3)

None

Total

1.3
(15.5)

89.7
(1030.3)

(1156.4)

03

0.1

(15)

(0 5)

97.9
(430.5)

(439.8)

99.4
(550.8)

1000
(553.9)

98.7
(226.1)

(229.1)

Flush

2.8
(32.8)

Bore-hole

0.6

100.0

Poor
labourers

0.0
(-2.5)

0.0
(-1.1)

(546.0)

Harijans

1.1

(3.1)
0.2
(05)

100.0

100.0

(2.5)

Backward castes

6.2
(12.7)

0.2
(0.5)

0.5
(1.0)

93.1
(192.2)

99.9
(206.4)

(209.7)

Service and trade

100.0
(217.2)

20.6
(44.2)

8.3
(17.7)

3.5
(7.4)

67.7
(144.9)

99.9
(214.2)

> 3 acres wet land

10.6
(17.8)

8.2
(13.8)

1.5

79.6

(2.5)

(133.9)

100.0
(167.5)

1 to 3 acres
wet land

11.2
(15.8)

1.6
(2.3)

1.8

(2.5)

85.4
(120.7)

99.9
(141.3)

>5 acres dry land

30
(2.5)

0.0
(0.0)

0.0
(0.0)

97.0
(80.5)

(83.0)

9.3
(21.3)

22.9
(52.2)

99.9
(228.0)

Backward castes

20.6
(106.2)

22.3
(46.7)

27.1
(56.8)

100.0

Service and trade

35.3
(76.6)

33.0

(71.6)

31.8
(69.0)

> 3 acres wet land

28.8
(49.3)

44.3
(75.8)

26.8
(45.9)

100.0
(171.0)

1 to 3 acres wet land

35.7
(51.7)

41.9
(60.6)

20.4
(32.4)

99.9
(144.7)

> 5 acres dry land

60.4
(50.1)

26.2
(21.7)

13.4
(1L1)

100.0
(82.9)

1 I1

h
I

100.0

0.0
(0.0)

67.8
(154.5)

. J

i

Table 52

Total

Total

283

TABLES

Table 51

If

i

-1 ■

1000

I

t
284

TABLES

Table 53

Table 54

Availability of Electricity Connection

Ownership of a Radio Set

Variables

Yes

No

Total

Total

21.0
(242.5)

79.0
(914.8)

Hungry

8.4
(36.9)

Poor labourers

Variables

Yes

No

Total

100.0
(1157.3)

Total

18.7
(216.9)

81.3
(744.9)

100.0
(1161.8)

91.7
(403.0)

100.0
(439.9)

Hungry

1.8
(7.9)

100.0
(434.0)

100.0
(441.9)

2.3
(12.7)

97.7
(531.2)

100.0
(543.9)

Poor labourers

0.0
(-5.4)

1000
(552.2)

100.0
(552.2)

Harijans

3.2
(7.3)

96.8
(221.8)

100.0
(229.1)

Harijans

3.9
(8.9)

96.1
(220.2)

100.0
(229.1)

Backward castes

13.5
(20.3)

86.5
(181.5)

100.0
(209.8)

Backward castes

14.6
(30.6)

85.4
(179.2)

100.0
(209.8)

Service and trade

38.3
(82.5)

61.7
(132.7)

100.0
(215.2)

Service and trade

37.2
(80.7)

62.8
(136.0)

100.0
(216.7)

> 3 acres wet land

f
I

39.8
(68.1)

60.2
(103.0)

100.0
(17L1)

>3 acres wet land

43.9
(75.1)

56.1
(95.9)

100.0
(171.0)

1 to 3 acres wet land

47.3
(68.5)

52.7
(77.2)

100.0
(144.7)

1 to 3 acres wet land

35.4
(51.3)

64.6
(93.5)

100.0
(144.8)

H

> 5 acres dry land

13.0
(10.7)

87.0
(71.7)

100.0
(82.4)

> 5 acres dry land

18-4
(15.2)

81.6
(67.3)

100.0
(82.5)

I

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285

POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

■

I.

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O

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Appendix I

List of documents prepared to assist
data collection in the field

J

1. Protocol for the Study of Impact of Activities of Some PHCs on
Community Health Practices Including Family Planning as Conceived
by the Consumer
2. Procedure for Field Work by Research Investigators
3. Check-list and Some Explanatory Notes on Procedure for Field Work
4. Notes on the Tools that are to be Used in Connection with the Study
5. Health Problems and Health Practices in Rural India Background
Papers
6. Sampling Procedure for Defining the Study Population for Using
Unstructured Interview Schedule
7. Schedule of the Study of Community Health Behaviour of a Repre­
sentative Sample
8. Work Procedure for Conducting Interviews Through Schedule
9. Project Newsletter—I
10. Schedule for Interview of the PHC Staff
11. Work Procedure for Interviewing PHC Staff Through Schedule
12. Supplementary Study of the Project Villages in West Bengal, Uttar
Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat to examine the Commu­
nity Implications of the Recent Intensified Family Planning Drive in
these States
13. Some Specific Areas for Investigation in the Supplementary Study of
the Project Villages
14. Schedule for the Study of Family Planning Acceptors (Vasectomy
and Tubectomy)
15. Schedule for Data Collection During the Second Follow-up Study of
Community Health Behaviour

I
I

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291

APPENDIX

Appendix II

Schedule for the study of community health
behaviour of a representative sample

Serial No
1. Name of the Head of the Family
2. House No. (if any)
3. Caste
4. Occupation (to get an idea of income)
(a) Main..............
(b) Subsidiary
5. Standard of House:
(a) Kaccha/Pucca/Mixed
(b) Latrine ... Yes/No. If Yes, type
(c) Electricity.
(d) Radio
6. Landholding (in acres)
(a) Irrigated
(b) Unirrigated (c) Barren
7. Family Composition

I
-

|

S.No.

1

Name of the AgeJ Marital Education Occupation RelationFamily
Sex Status
ship with
Members
Head
2

3

4

5

What measures do you adopt to prevent getting ill?
Do you know of any worker from the PHC who visits the village?
What do they do?
How useful is he to you?
19. Are you familiar with the worker who asks questions about fever, etc.
and who makes an entry on the chart, on the door or on the wall?
20. Is there anybody who gives smallpox vaccinations9
21. Have you vaccinated all your children?
22. From whom did they get vaccination? And at what age?
23. Who registers births and deaths in your village?
24. Did you get your births and deaths registered? If yes, by whom?
25. Number of children born in the household (total births from each
spouse to be taken separately).
(a) How many are alive?
(b) Their age, sex and causes of death and what was done?
26. Abortions—Number and Causes (legal or otherwise).
27. Any stillbirths (i-e born full term but dead)?
28. Other deaths during the past five years?

15.
16.
17.
18.

6

7

Note: (i) Married daughter will not be included.
(ii) Persons staying in the family for more than a month should be
treated as a family member.
(iii) Persons temporarily away—for less than one month—will be con
sidered as a family member.
8. Do you know of any worker from the Block Development Office
who visits your village?
Yes/No. If yes, what does he do? How useful is he to you?
9. What is a PHC?
10. How frequently do you visit it as compared to other institutions,
Private Practitioners of Western Medicine, Vaids, Hakims, Health
Institutions in Town, etc?
(Please make a quantitative comparison)
11. In what connection did you visit it last?
12. What are some of the main activities of the PHC?
13. What is your opinion about the functioning of the PHC?
14. Do you go to local healers for your medical needs?

S.No.

Person died
( name)

Age

Sex

Reason of death

Year

Note : Children will be excluded.
29. Whether treatment taken? Yes/No
30. If Yes, what and through whom?
31. Who conducted the deliveries of the children born in your house­
32. Did the mother get services from anybody before or after the
33. Whom do you prefer for conducting delivery and why?
34. What do you think of the ability of the ANM and the LHV to
conduct deliveries?
35. How long is the mother confined to bed after a delivery?
36. How long is the child breast -fed?
37. Is it the feeling that breast-feeding will delay the next childbirth?
38. At what age is the child put on extra feeds? What are the feeds?
How much of milk is given to the children?
39. What measures do you adopt when a child has severe diarrhoea or
dysentery or cough and cold with high fever? What is the feeding
routine when a child has prolonged diarrhoea?
40. According to you how many children should a family have?
41. According to you what methods do people in the village adopt for
limiting the family size? (this includes induced abortion.)
42. Do you know of family planning methods available from the PHC?
43. Do you know of any depot holder of ‘NIRODH’? Is it also available
from shops?

■

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r

POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

44. What categories of persons czrry
carry out Fwnti"
Family Planning work in the
village? (this includes the revenue staff also.)
45. Does the PHC statisfy your Family Planning needs? If not, why?
What measures are adopted to get Family Planning acceptance?
46.
you famihar with the liberalised abortion law? (one can get
egal abortion on ground of contraceptive failure, mental and physical condition, etc.)
H y
47. Do you know what is pulmonary tuberculosis?
What should be done
when anybody gets this disease?
48. Do you know what is leprosy? What
should be done when anybody
gets this disease?
49. Loan taken :

5. No.

Source

APPENDIX

293

(b) M.L.A
(c) M.P
62. Why did you vote?
Note: (i) If anybody in the family accepted vasectomy or IUCD, please
write a full case report.
(ii) If you get a case of chronic disease with significant data, please
make a case report.
1. Investigator
2. Date and time
3. Respondent Name
Any other questions that the Investigator will like to ask to bring

IJ

out special feature

Amount

Rate of Interest

Reasons of taking
loan

50. Do all members of your family get enough food to satisfy your needs
all round the year? If no, how many months your needs are not fuj

I

Il

51.■ What is the content of your food? (including seasonal variation )
52. How much of pure ghee, milk, dal, vanaspati, gur, sugar tea and
coffee is consumed in your house per month?
53. How much of alcohol is consumed by the household members?
54. Newspaper reading
cuiuers.
(a) How often?
(b) How long?
(c) Do you buy?
55. Radio
(a) How long?
(b) How often?
56. Have you participated in the
activities of any co-operative or
postal saving or the Bank?
57. How often do you go to the
(a) City
(b) Markets
(c) Other villages
58. How
T’ do you spend your spare time?
59. Do
, you
, -get togethi
—ler with others for informal chats? How often and
how long?
60. Do you know about your local
(a) Panchayat members
(b) Zila Parishad members
(c) M.L.A.
(d) M.P.
61. Did you vote and for whom for the election to
(a) Panchayat

)

I

I

APPENDIX

1
Appendix III

Code list for analysis of the quantitative data

1. Caste

j

2. Occupation
3. Standard of Housing
4. Availability of a Latrine
5. Availability of Electricity Connections
6. Availability of Radio
7. Source of Drinking Water
8. Cattle Ownership
9. Landholding
10.

g

Family Composition

11. Knowledge of Block Development Workers
12. Knowledge About the PHC
13. Frequency of Visits to the PHC
14. Reasons for Visiting the PHC
15. Knowledge About th<‘e Functioning of the PHC
16. Opinion About the PHC
17. Approach to Local Healers for Medical Need:
Is
18. Measures Adopted to Prevent Getting Ill
19. Knowledge About PHC Workers
20. What do the PHC Workers Do
21. How
far
’
* are these Visiting Personnel Useful to the Residents
22. Familiarity with the Basic Health Worker
23. Knowledge About the Vaccinator
24. Number of Children Vaccinated in the Households
25. Who Vaccinated them? And where?
26. Age of the Child at Primary Vaccinations
27. Who Registers Births and Deaths in Your Village
28. Extent of Registration of Birth and Death in the Population
29. Number of Children Born in the Households
30. Number of Child Deaths in the Households
31. Number of Abortions in the Family
32. Number of Still Births in the Family
33. Other Deaths During the Past Five Years
34. Sexwise Distribution of the Deaths
35. Causes of the Deaths
36. Measures Taken During Illness

295

Who Conducted the Deliveries?
Services Provided to the Mother Before or After the Delivery
What were the Services?
Choice of Agents for Conducting a Delivery
Reasons for the Choice
What Services were Offered During the Childbirth?
What do you think of the Ability of the Auxiliary Nurse,
Midwife and Lady Health Visitor to Conduct the Delivery
44. Period of Confinement to Bed After Delivery
45. Age of Weaning
46. <Opinion About Influence of Breast-Feeding with Delay in the Next
Childbirth
47. Age at which Extra Foods (Other than Breast Feed) is given to
Babies
48. What are the Extra Feeds?
49. Quantity of Extra Feed
50. Treatment Given when a Child has Severe Attack of Diarrhoea,
Dysentery or Cold and Cough with Fever
51. What is the Feeding Routine when a Child has Prolonged Diarrhoea
52. Opinion About the Number of Children One Should Have
53. Villager’s Idea About the Methods Followed by Villagers for
Limiting the Size of the Family
54. According to Villagers, What Facilities for Family Planning are
Available in the PHC
55. Knowledge About the Depot Holder of Nirodh
56. Knowledge About the Sale of Nirodh in the Open Market
57. Knowledge About Visits of Family Planning Workers Including
Revenue-man for Propaganda
58. Degree of Fulfilment of Family Planning Requirements from the
PHC
. ,
. u
59. What Propaganda Work for Family Planning are Carried out in the
Village?
60. Knowledge About the Law of Abortion
61. What is Tuberculosis?
62. Knowledge About Tuberculosis and its Treatment
63. What is Leprosy?
64. How is Leprosy Treated?
65. Degree of Hunger Satisfaction
66. Type of Food Taken
67. Quantum of Special Foods for Vegetarians
68. Quantum of Special Foods
69. Alcohol Drinking Habit
70. Newspaper Reading Frequency
71. Duration of Newspaper Reading Habit (Since How Long)
72. Purchase of Newspaper
73. Duration of Radio Listening Habit (Since How Long)
74. Frequency of Radio Listening

37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.

296

75.
76.
77.
78.
79.
80.
81.
82.
83.
84.
85.
86.
87.
88.
89.

POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE
Participation in Co-operative Activities
Frequency of Visits to a City
Frequency of Visits to a Market
Frequency of Visits to Other Villages
Mode of Spending Leisure Hours
Extent of Sitting and Gossiping
Duration of Sitting and Gossiping
Knowledge About the Member of the Panchayat
Knowledge About the Members of the Zila Parishad
Knowledge About the Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) of
the Constituency
Knowledge About the Member of Parliament (MP) of the
Constituency
Whom Voted in Panchayat Elections
Whom Voted in Elections to State Assembly
Whom Voted in Lok Sabha Elections
Why Did You Vote?

Appendix IV
1

Code list for analysis of the qualitative data

General Description of the Village

NB: Five codes were assigned for stratification of individual households.

"--ii

1. Criteria for Selection of Primary Health Centres
2. Criteria for Selection of Villages
3. Settling down in the Village
4. Rapport Building
5. Name, Tehsil, District, Brief History
6. General Lay Out
7. General Sanitation
8. Water Supply
9. Medicine Shops
10. Banks and Loan Facilities
11. Other Shops, Markets and Local Industries
12. Panchayat
13. Community Development
14. Schools
15. Temples and Other Places of Worship
16. Transport and Communication Facilities
17. Land and Crops
18. Total Population and its Distribution
19. Economic Stratification
20. Education and Literacy Level
21. Clubs and Other Groups and Fractions within the Village
22. Neighbourhood Patterns, Particularly Location of the Harijan
Colonies

Medical Practitioners
23. Number of Non-professionals—Dais, Bone-setters, etc.
24. Qualified Indigenous Practitioners
25. Non-qualified Indigenous Practitioners
26. Qualified Homeopathic Practitioners
27. Non-qualified Homeopathic Practitioners
28. Qualified Practitioners of Western Medicine
29. Non-qualified Practitioners of Western Medicine
30. Staffing Pattern of the PHC
31. Hospitals within the Village
32. Facilities for Hospital and Medical Care in the Surrounding Areas

---------- "TBStESSn

298

POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

The Village Community
33.t Power Structure of the Village
34. Communication System within the Village
35. Mechanism of Decision-Making
36. Beliefs, Customs and Rituals
37. Birth, Marriage and Death Practices
38. Food Habits
39. Any Others Habits
40. Childhood diseaseychildhood death

Response to Diseases and Health and Family Planning Activities

i

41. Childhood Diseases and Childhood Deaths
42. Smallpox
43. Stomach Disorders
44. Prolonged Fevers
45. Malaria
46. Tetanus
47. Pregnancy, Labour and After Labour
48. Women’s Diseases
49. Child Rearing Practices
50. Vasectomy
51. Tubectomy
52. IUCD
53. Pills
54. Nirodh
55. Induced Abortions/Abortions
56. Family Planning Camp
57. School Health
58. Nutrition Programmes
59. Immunisation
60. Water Supply
61. Drainage System
62. Injuries and Accidents/Suicides
63. Eye Disorders
64. Any Other Disorders
A. Guineaworm Infestation
B. Skin Diseases
C. Opium and Other Addictions
D. Alcoholism
E. Family Planning Motivation
F. Plague
G. Dog Bites
*
H. Snake Bites

APPENDIX
66.
67.
68.
69.
70.
71.
72.
73.
74.
75.

299

Lady Doctor
Lady Health Visitors
Auxiliary Health Midwife/Trained Dai
Basic Health Worker
Vaccinaton
Pharmacists
Sanitary Inspector
Health Inspectors
Block Extension Educators
Other Functionaries

M
IM

Functioning of the Primary Health Centre
76. PHC as a Whole
77. Medical Officer In-charge
78. Second Medical Officer
79. Lady Health Visitor
80. Sanitary Inspector
81. Health Inspector
82. Block Extension Educators
83. Auxiliary Nurse Midwife
84. Basic Health Worker
85. Literacy Worker
86. Other Workers

I

Functioning of Other Practitioners
87. Healer — Non-Professional — in the Village
87a. Healer — Non Professional — outside the Village
88. Private Practitioner of Western Medicine — in the Village
89. Private Practitioner of Western Medicine — in the Town
90. Hospital in Town
91. Hospital in Village
92. Home Remedies

Attitude of the Villagers Towards the PHC and the Other Health
Agencies
65. Medical Officer In-charge
f

APPENDIX

Appendix V

Abstract from the preliminary communication
on the present study

(As reported in “Health Behaviour of Rural Population: Impact of Rural
Health Services — A Preliminary Communication,” June 1974, Centre of
Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New
Delhi.)

Influence of the Activities of the PHC on Health
Behaviour of Rural Population
Response to Medical Care Problems

Demandfor Western Medical Care Services: Taking into account the social
and economic status of the people, the epidemiology of health problems and
the nature of the health services available, it is not surprising that problems
of medical care should be by far the most urgent concern among the health
problems in rural populations. But the surprising finding is that the response
to the major medical care problems is very much in favour of the Western
(allopathic) system of medicine, irrespective of social, economic, occupational
and regional considerations. Availability of such services and capacity of
patients to meet the expenses are the two major constraining factors.
Image of the PHC Dispensary. On the whole, the dispe nsary projects a very
unflattering image. Discrimination against the poor and the oppressed, poor
quality of medicines (only red water), lack of medicines, overcrowding and long
wait, nepotism, bribery and indifferent and often rude behaviour of the staff
are some of the charges that have been levelled against most of the dispensa­
ries. Complaints about medicines and overcrowding and long wait are made
even against the best of the PHCs studied.
Services from Other Agencies of Western Medicine
Because of the very poor image of the PHC dispensary and its limited
capacity, it is unable to satisfy a very substantial proportion of the demand of
the villagers for medical care services. This enormous unmet felt need for
medical care services is the main motive force for the creation of a very large
number of the so-called Registered Medical Practitioners (RMPs)or “quacks”.
Apart from these, depending on the economic status of the patient and the
gravity of his illness, villagers often seek help from government and

301

non-government medical care agencies in the adjoining (or even distant)
towns and cities. There are several instances of families having been totally
ruined in the process of meeting medical care expenses for major illness of the
bread-winner or of other family members.
Services from (qualified or non-qualified) practitioners of indigenous
systems of medicine and homoeopathy and from other non-professinal
healers.
There are numerous instances of adoption of these healing practices. But
among those who suffer from major illness, only a very tiny fraction preferen­
tially adopt these practices, by positively rejecting facilities of the Western
system of medicine which are more efficacious and which are easily available
and accessible to them. Usually these practices and home remedies are adopt­
ed: (i) side by side with Western medicine; (n) after Western medicines fail
to give benefits; (in) when Western medical services are not available or
accessible to them due to various reasons; and, (iv) frequently, when the
illness is of minor nature.

Response to the Family Planning Programme
Image of the Family Planning Programme'. A very significant finding of this
study is that the family planning programme has ended up in projecting an
image which is just the opposite of what was actually intended. Instead of
projecting an image which reflects for dignity of the individual—the so-called
democratic approach which offers free choice of methods to the users and
which ensures better health services, the image of the family planning workers
in rural areas is that of persons who use coercion and other kinds of pressure
tactics and offer bribes to entice people to accept vasectomy or tubectomy.
There are, on the other hand, a few workers who invoke the pity of commu­
nity leaders by making pathetic entreaties to them to “give” them some cases
to save them from losing their jobs. To a large section of villagers, the invert­
ed red triangle and the workers behind the banner invoke a feeling of strong
antipathy.
Follow-up Servi ces for the Acceptors: There have been numerous complaints
from the villagers that they get no help from the organisation when they
encounter complications following acceptance of family planning services—
IUCD, vasectomy and tubectomy. These dissatisfied acceptors have been
allowed to freely spread scare stories regarding these methods. Failure to pro­
vide even a very rudimentary system of health services, particularly curative
services, has tended to reinforce this negative image.
Unmet Demand for Family Planning Services: Because of the failure of
workers to develop a rapport with the villagers, sometimes the villagers are
unable to meet their needs for family planning services- The negative response
evoked by the high-handed attitude of the family planning workers and the
single method mass approach usually adopted by them often obscured the
fact that many villagers actively seek family planning methods of their choice
and that these demands remain most1'' unmet due to lack of response from
the field workers.

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POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

Instances of Induced Abortions: There are several instances of mothers, who,
failing to get suitable family planning services from the PHC, took recourse
to induced abortions to get rid of unwanted pregnancies. This not only points
to the failure of the programme to meet their needs for the services but it
also draws attention to the failure of the programme to offer suitable abortion
services to mothers with unwanted pregnancies, despite the passage of the
abortion bill.

Distribution of ‘Nirodhs': Most of the Nirodh users have to get their supply
from the commercial channels. The depot holders are virtually non-existent
and the free supply from PHC, according to some villagers, often finds its way
into the market and is sold through the commercial channel.
Prophylactic Services for Mothers and Children through Family Planning
Programme'. Supply of iron and folic acid tablets and tetanus toxoid injections
fk ?Ie8narit mot^ers’ 'mniunisation and nutrition programmes for pre-school
children and Vitamin A supplements to the population, all of which are sup­
posed to be offered by the family planning programme, are virtually unknown
m the 17 villages studied.

Response to Maternal and Child Health Services

Demand for the Services: Another very significant finding of this study is
that there is considerable unmet felt need for the services of the Auxiliary
Nurse Midwife (ANM) at the time of childbirth. Villagers are keen to have
the ANM’s service because they consider her to be more skilled than the
traditional dai. Wherever the ANMs have provided services, the daps role has
become less significant. It is significant that even those ANMs who have
tarnished their image by openly carrying on extra-marital affairs within the
villages but who> are otherwise competent continue to command respect of
villagers.
Image of the Auxiliary Nurse Midwife)Lady Health Visitor- The
overall image of the ANM/LHV in villages in north India is that of a person
who is quite distant from them—meant only for special people or for those
who can pay for her services. She is not for the poor. She can he called only
when there are complications and then also she should be paid. She is not
expected to visit them during the pregnancy or after the delivery. In the
villages in the south, the position is (only) relatively better though there
also the utilisation of the ANM is much below the optimal level, thus leaving
substantial unmet felt needs. Antenatal and postnatal care of mothers, as
well as care of the children are virtually absent even in the villages in which
PHCs have been functioning for a very long time.

Utilisation of the Lady Doctor and Hospital Facilities: Lady doctors,
whenever available, are even more inaccessible than the LHVs and ANMs’
The yillagera actively seek their help or even take the patients to the city
hospital m the case of intractable obstetrical complications. These data once
again belie the prevailing notion that the illiterate, superstitious and ignorant
villagers do not accept offers of scientific health care services and, instead
they go for primitive health practices.

APPENDIX

303

Deliveries by Dais, Relatives and Neighbours: They conduct the majority
of the deliveries even in the villages where the PHC is located. In the villages
with no PHC, their sway is almost complete. It is noteworthy that they seek
help from the ANM, LHV or the lady doctor for complications which they
are unable to manage. Use of unclean instruments and adoption of cruder
methods by the dais and relatives and neighbours can be held responsible
for the much more frequent occurrence of neonatal tetanus and other com­
plications. But, in contrast with the ANM and LHV, they either don’t cost
anything or their charges are moderate; they are easily available and access­
ible at any hour of the day; they readily pay repeated visits to the mother
during the pregnancy, labour and after labour; they perform such chores as
massaging of the mother, looking after the infant, washing of the clothes
and disposing of the placenta and other soiled material; and, above all, being
an useful integral part of village social system, they inspire confidence among
the villagers and, unlike the ANMs and LHVs, they do not subdue them by
their curt or even rude behaviour. As in the case of the Registered Medical
Practitioners, confinement by relatives and friends and the indigenous dais
is popular among the villagers not because of their intrinsic merits but in the
absence of suitable services from the ANM/LHV/lady doctors, they are
compelled to settle for something which they consider to be inferior but which
is all that is available accessible to them.

Response to Malaria and Smallpox Work
These are the two programmes which can be stated to have attained
some success in reaching the grass roots. Despite several complaints regarding
the sincerity of these workers, there is almost universal agreement among
the villagers that these workers do visit the community—they reach people in
their homes. It is, however, interesting that frequently the villagers do not
associate them with the PHC:

Q. Does anybody from the PHC visit your village?
A. Nobody.
Q. Anybody who asks about fevers, gives medicines and writes on the
wall?
A. Oh, yes, the malaria man. He visits once in two-three months.
Q. Anybody giving smallpox vaccination?
A. Yes, he visits three-four times a year and also goes to the school to
vaccinate the children.
Except when there are understandable compulsions, such as the prospect
of the poverty-stricken mother losing wages for 4-5 days at the peak agricul­
tural season due to the child’s vaccination reactions and some cases of ortho­
doxy, there is general acceptance of smallpox vaccination in village
communities.

The number of children who are left unvaccinated due to lapses of the
parents appear to be a very small fraction of those who remain unvaccinated
due to the lapses of the vaccinators and their supervisors. During the out­
break of smallpox in a village where the study was going on, the organisation

3
:■

304

POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE
APPENDIX

°f 8etti"8 the info™-

and““rt:XZS'XXb“e

between treatment ofa smallpox case bv'West A S°’ fi"d*ng ,ltt,e to choose
the goddess Sitala for the survival villa J
?lethods and Spending on
practices.
V,,la8erS adoPted a ^’^ture of both these
Response to Other National Communicable Diseases Programmes

lePr°Sy a"d traCh°ma

very

305

family planning, maternal and child health services, control of communicable
diseases and other community health activities. On more than one occasion
the interview was enough of a stimulus to triger off a spontaneous outpouring
of a torrent of comments from some PHC workers on the very dismal state
of affairs in these institutions. Even in the PHC which had an exceptionally
dedicated Medical Officer in-charge, apart from some improvement in the
medical care and materntiy services, which, nevertheless, is very much below
the full capacity of the organisation, there is little activity in the other fields.

sXbut it iXemSuU
eMehSs'effi

Response to Activities in the Field of Environmental Sanitation
viHag^with

(

°f the 7‘C iS nOt eVen aSS°Cia‘ed bV ‘he

and ponds, garbage disposal nronwmeS’ean"18 and.d,slnfec‘ion of well’s
of village food and milk vendors remai’nsSaiinta^elatril'eS’
“InSIKCtion’
preoccupation in the field of environment i ’
• Vl agers eyes’ hls main
great majority of the viliagers “d!!g? e
^l,ll0U«h. by far the
impelled by sheer felt need n
h
c 1 S
de^ecatlon’ significantly,

Response to Other Community Health Activities

stances of villagers, on their own, :seeking triple antigen immunisation fiom
the PHC. Very often even this needI was not met by the PHC.
Registration of births and deaths are most incomplete. School health
services and nutrition services are virtually non-existent.

Cross-checking the Villagers’ Image

OF THE PHC

with the Reality

Cross-checking the Findings with the PHC Staff

.„JInterview
nterview of the worke
workers
rs at PHC irevealed that the disorganisation of the
PHC is even more advanced than what
..
------------ “i came out of the study of the villagers.
The disorganisation is manifest in all the
activities of the PHC-medical care,

Cross-checking the Findings with Officials of Ten State Director­
ates of Health Services
Officials of the state health directorates, after ensuring that they can
respond to the questions put to them by the author as public health workers,
rather than as government officials, were also quite forthright in pointing out
major flaws in the organisation and management of rural health services
in their respective states. Their response provide grounds to believe that the
findings from the villages and PHCs of the four states are also likely to be
valid for the villages and PHCs of the other three states of the country. Their
major comments are as follows:

I

The ideal of the primary health centre exists only in name. It is in total
disarray. The team leader of the PHC, who is the pivot of the instituti-on,
not only lacks the qualities needed to provide leadership but he is also a
most reluctant worker, having interests which are often diametrically opposed
to the interests of the PHC.
The medical colleges have conspicuously failed in giving the needed orien­
tation to the graduates. The departments of preventive and social medicine
have not only failed to bring about the expected social orientation of medical
education, but in the bargain, they have also lost their grasp over practical
community health issues. There is an urgent need for a through review of
their role.

A number of directors of health services drew attention to the very un­
favourable impact of the family planning programme on the rural health
services. Too much preoccupation of the PHC staff with the attainment
of family planning targets has led to further neglect of the health program­
mes. The mass vasectomy camp approach to family planning has further
accentuated this problem. The entire health work comes to a virtual stand­
still for over four months preceding a mass camp. Some of them dramatically
brought home this point by producing graphs to show that outbreaks of
smallpox and cholera and gastro-enteritis synchronised with the organisation
of the mass camps. A number of workers attributed serious setbacks to the
malaria and smallpox eradication programmes to preoccupation of the PHC
staff with family planning work. The mass vasectomy camps seem to have
aroused serious misgivings even among some of the state family planning
officers. With the adoption of a “high” level of incentives for the mass camps,
there is a tendency among the potential acceptors to avoid the regular “low”

I

306

POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

incentives and wait for the next mass camp, thus leading to a very sharp fall
in the number of acceptors for the remaining ten or eleven months of the

There is a palpable lack of political will to develop health services for the
rural population. Several public health workers pointed out that despite
is much nS OfC°.nCe5nfor the villagers’ health needs, the political leadership
s much more .nchned to develop institutions in urban areas-more hospi­
tal beds, more sophisticated facilities, more intensive care units and more
acii ties for education and research in sophisticated and prestigious medical
institutions. Instead of overcoming the wasteful obstructions from the
bureaucrats, they actively nurture them. There is also rampant political intermaZ* ‘f ?he.CJeat,On of P°sts’ in appointments and in promotion and
transfer or health personnel. Democratic decentralization of the adminis­
tration m some states have made the services in these states even more vulnerable to undue political interference.
There is a considerable degree of unmet felt need for all types of health
services: apart from some very overt medical care need, there is considerable
need for services for maternal and child health, nutrition, immunisation,
environmental sanitation and water supply, school health, and health and
family planning information.

Index

Access to educational opportuni­
ties 41
Access to medical services 222
Adult Literacy 159, 160, 161
Agricultural labour 59, 179
Minimum wage, Unemployment,
Militancy of 179
AIADMK (All India Anna DMK)
143-44, 168-9
Alcohol 25, 32
consumption of 131
Ambedkar Youth Club 19, 190-91
193
Amdanga 6, 31, 156,178
ANM (Auxiliary Nurse Midwife)
68, 219
Anti-Reservation Movement 173,
193, 194
Antyodaya 158, 161, 191
Arnavali 6, 31, 197-202
Arya Samaj 42, 85, 93, 204
Ayyangar Brahmins 85, 186, 187
Backward Caste 28, 83, 123
Banias 49, 117
Barajaguli (for Haringhata village)
7, 31, 175-77
Bhangis 85, 87, 127, 200-4, 210
Bharatiya Kranti Dal(BKD) 117
Bilaspur 39, 42, 204
Biological Survival 72, 81
BJP 34, 118, 169, 193
Block Development Administration
43
Brahmins 48, 49, 91, 128, 158,
180, 181, 185-87, 207

Brahmins, Nairs,
Kerala 91-92

Ezhavas

in

CARE 42, 93, 94
Caste 83
influence of 83, non-Harijan 87,
discrimination 210, Political and
economic power 91-2, 211-2
Caste and class 84, 85, 87-92, 210
Caste hierarchy 83, 87-92
Caste Panchayat of Chamars 58,
209
Caste and purity and pollution, 83,
210
Caste and Occupation 28
Chmars 85, 87
Chhatra Parishad 114-115
Childbirths and child-deaths 29,
130-1
Christians 42, 93 Harijan
Christians 42, Roman Catholics
93, 94, Lutheran Church 94
Class interest 210
Community Development
Programme 31
Congress 33, 118
Congress (I) 161, 165, 167, 170,
180
Congress (O) 116
Congress (R) 116, 118, 119
Co-operatives 31
CPI 34, 117
CPI-M 33, 64, 105, 116, 153, 170,
171, 180
Coyalmannam 6, 31, 180
Culture of poverty 38, 137, 214

308

POVERTY, CLASS AND HEALTH CULTURE

Dakshin Duttapara 6, 31, 177-8
Data 8-23
Required data 8, Method of
collection 9, Process 10, Sequ­
ence 13, Analysis of 15, Objecti­
vity, value and biases 16, Compulsion 21,
Limitations 24,
Social and economic profiles
24-35
DMK 144, 162, 168
Elected Representatives 33
Voting preferences 33-34
Elections 162-172
voting behaviour 163
Emergency 18, 20
Excess 19
Family Planning 19, 145, 147-150
156
Family Welfare 152
Field work 17
‘Food for work’ 155, 161
Forward Bloc 34, 117
Gambhoi 6, 25, 31, 52, 197
Green Revolution Villages 30, 39, 48
Gujarat 5, 20, 21,27. 43, 119-120

Haryana 5, 20, 43
Haringhata (Barajaguli) 7, 25 31
175-7
Health Culture 1
concept of 2
Hindus 41
Hunger Satisfaction 1, 29

Implications of the study 213-224
Jadigenhalli 6, 26, 31, 182-4
Janata Party 152 164, 169
Job reservation 129

Kachhona 25, 27, 45, 205-6
Kalur 27, 187-8
Kamdevpur 7, 31, 178
Karnataka 5, 17, 21, 43
Kerala 5, 21, 43, 174
Kisan Rally 193, 205
Labour Union of landless 104
Landholding 29
Lok Sabha Elections (1977) 20
— elections (1980) 21

Mass Media 31
Medical anthropology 216
Mem (Saab) 68, 106
Mobility 31
Muslims 34, 42, 46, 77, 92, 176, 180
Islamic schools 42
Navnirman Samiti movement 7
Naxalbari movement 114

Panchayati Raj 96, 111
Panchayats 110, mummified
‘corpus’ 110
Patels 86
Pazhambalakode 7, 26, 31, 32, 40
77, 178
Population growth 138, 141
Census 1971-81 139;
among Muslims and Christians 140
Poverty, class and health culture 1
Poverty 54, 57, 80, 209, 220
measuring poverty 54, biological
implications of 209, 220
Poverty and power 57, Poverty
in rural India 80, definition
of 210
Power structure and social
equilibrium 61
Primary Health Centre (PHC)
4, 36, 43
rural health service 4
Pullambadi 6, 7, 26, 27, 32, 207
Purposive intervention 2
Rajasthan 117
Rampura 7, 46, 191-2
Rohat 7, 31, 32, 188-91
Rohota 25, 26, 27, 202-4
Rupal 7, 31, 192-6

Social change (1972-81) 136
Study population 4-9
Linguistic zones 5
States 5, Villages 5-9, 175-207
Castes 87-95, Religious groups
and class 81-95, Social and
economic profiles 123-35,
Special categories 123
Sunni 25, 27, 206
Tamil Nadu 116

INDEX
20-point and 5-point
programmes 144, 150, 160
Uttar Pradesh 5, 17, 20
Villages
ecological condition 37,
dependence on cities 37,
education 38, corruption 39,
casteism 40, privileged classes 41,
power structure and community
participation 44, 54, 69,
moneylending 45,
industrialization 47-51,
transport and communication 50
entertainment 51-53,

309

development activities 98,
leadership 98, 99-103,
Administrative system :
traditional institutions,
statutory institutions and the
govt, machinery 105
Villages and their institutions 36-53
Village poor 71-72
Voting behaviour 132

West Bengal 114, 115, 117
United Front ministry 114
Western Reference Frame 213
Yelwal 6, 7, 27, 32, 47, 184-7

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