In India, the Prime Minister keeps on introducing schemes (yojana) one after the other. My state Maharashtra has 82% of the rural population that depends on agriculture for livelihood. My father is a farmer in the district Beed of Maharashtra. I always wonder, are these schemes really beneficial? I never saw my father getting the benefit. Well I thought it may be a generalization. But after listening to stories of farmers, I realized it was not a generalization but the reality.
Firstly, do these schemes even reach the farmers? The answer is NO. They do not. The farmers in my locality are unaware about the schemes. When I ask farmers in my community if they know about the schemes the answer is no. They say that they have never heard of it. What is the point of the schemes if you are not even informing the farmers that some sort of help exists?
Secondly, let’s consider that farmers are aware about the scheme. But is it accessible? Maharashtra’s ex chief minister, uddhav thackeray had introduced a scheme called e-Peek-Pahani mobile application to reduce hardships on farmers and to ensure they sell their crops at right price. Here farmers who do not have access to devices were eliminated on the first stage. Now farmers like my father took help from people who had access to devices.
I was trying to upload a picture of a farm and fill the form but the app was not working. My father spoke to other farmers and they faced the same issue. Second example of this issue was the a toll-free government helpline for mental health issues introduced in 2014 which was used when farmers felt like talking to someone when suicidal thoughts came or they were weak mentally. The dial number was 104, which was of no use.
This helpline number just existed but did not help the farmers. In October 2022, the government announced a new helpline – 14416 – to replace 104. The new helpline was more difficult to remember and what was the use if the first one did not pick the call.
The government schemes do not even reach the marginal farmers which I feel are the most vulnerable. The article states 1 out of 3 farmers are tenants in Telangana; are excluded from any government support. I often hear my neighbors in the village sharing how the schemes that the government provides are also not reachable as corruption occurs.
Vijay Uncle is my fathers friend who is also a farmer. He went to register for a scheme which gave direct money to farmers. He had to register a lot of documents and despite completing the process the people who were supposed to register his documents said that they were not able to upload it. He tried many times and kept giving excuses.
While some might argue that schemes do support farmers economically but they ignore the fact that these schemes even reach them. I feel farmers are the most important people. Without them we would get no food. Their hard work cannot be even measured. Their dedication towards the field, their commitment towards feeding people is just so inspiring. They do deserve a better life.