The Other Growing Army

FURTHER evidence of the pauperisation of the vast majority of the rural population has been provided by the provisional results of the agricultural census 1976-77. The data released so far relate mainly to size of operational holdings and even these are not available for Punjab, J^mrou and Kashmir and Tripura, The figures of the last agricultural census for 1970-71 for these areas have been bloated on the basis of the all-India growth rates and the picture with regard to size of operational holdings for the country as a whole has been presented in a paper in the official journal Kurukshetra by B R Kalra of the Union Ministry of Rural Reconstruction. Apart from the fact that the data pertain to operational holdings and not land ownership, it has to be borne in mind that the agricultural census is based entirely on land records.