India's super profit; Manipur mortgaged
- Part 4 -

Campaign for Peace & Democracy (Manipur) *

Disinvested Industrial sector

In so far as the issue of industry is concerned there could have been industrial expansion, at least in the handloom and silk sectors. An analysis of the trend of resource committed to the so-called industrial development conveys a message of less attention.

• The token outlay of Rs. 0.60 lakhs in the first Five Year Plan was increased to Rs. 13.06 lakhs and Rs. 49.39 lakhs only in the second and third Five Year Plans respectively. During the third Five Year Plan sericulture received a share of Rs 4.29 lakhs only as plan allocation. No skill inventory was prepared.
• The Industrial Policy of 1982 had laid primary emphasis on development of large and medium industries. The Industries Policy of 1990 focused mainly on the development of the small-scale sector. However, the State has not witnessed desired level of industrial activity[37]. A new State Industrial Policy was announced in 1996[38]. But it was silent on the necessity for earmarked industrial area. It has not declared any Industrial Area. Industrialisation attempts existed on paper only. No substantial investment in constant capital for manufacturing industrial take off had been initiated by the government.
• Between 1993-94 and 2000-01 the share of industry in Net State Domestic Product had rose from 15.73 percent to 21.75 percent, i.e., 38.27 per cent increase. The increase is due to high share of the construction sub-sector in Manipur, e.g., dams, office buildings and beautification projects. However, Manipur has the largest decline in the share of manufacturing in Net State Domestic Product from 4.61 percent in 1980-81 to 3.37 percent in 1995-96. In 1996-97, the state accounted for the lowest share in the Northeast region[39].
• High Level Commission Report to the Prime Minister, Government of India in 1997 has stressed that Northeast (Manipur inclusive) has little or no plan resources but heavily indebted in spite of high per capita Plan outlays and subventions. Huge establishment costs exceed state revenue collections as government service provides the sole and certainly the principal avenue of employment. In terms of per capita state domestic product or other standard development indices such as power, road length or hospital beds, the Northeast ranks well below the national average[40].
• In 2002, out of 2014 registered factories, 80.3 per cent were rice mills, another 10.3 per cent were saw-mills and 4.76 per cent were oil mills. The situation had not been improved as late as 2005. In 2005 most of the State-Owned corporations have been closed. 30.86 percent of Small Scale Industry units were sick and 90 percent of micro enterprises were in trouble[41].

Marginal peasants & workers

Internal dynamics within Manipur between the period 1950 and 2000 has revealed dramatic rise in population[42] and corresponding rise in the consumption demand. Slow growth in the productive scale, slow scale improvement in the instrument of production[43] and disproportionate investment could not satisfy demands.

• In other words the Indian state has expected private investment when a backward state such as Manipur requires for tremendous investment in the public sector. As a result productive capacity of Manipur has not been built up over a long period of time and, therefore, its resource base could not be effectively moulded into the development process of Manipur[44].
• Food grains, pulses, vegetables, fruits, edible oil, milk and dairy products, medicines, snacks, liquor, poultry products, fish and almost all varieties of consumer goods of day-to –day usage are imported from outside.
• Effective demand for import leads to export of money that has been largely derived from service sector and imperialistic loan & fund. As a result of comparative decline in local production, heavy reliance on import drains the wealth of the people.

A steady rise in the number of poor has been indicated by the growth of marginal workers.

• According to the official record the number of marginal workers has increased from 40,469 in 1981; to 66,621 in 1991 and to 285849 in 2001. During 1991-2001, the growth rate of marginal workers was 329 percent.
• As far as the incidence of unemployment is concerned, in 1983 the rate of unemployment was 0.4 percent of the total labour force. It was increased to 1.8 per cent in 1993-94; further increased to 3.5 percent in 1999-2000.
• According to the department of Planning, Government of Manipur, 21.58 % of the total population remained unemployed in 2005 (4.93 lakhs)[45].

The growth in the number of poor is more or less explained by relative decline in landholding and continuous breaking down of household based subsistence economy.

• According to the report of the Statistics Department, Government of Manipur[46], the actual area under landholding increased by 16734 hectares between the years 1975 and 1990. The increase was due to deforestation and claiming of hitherto unclaimed lands. However, total number of holders increases by 281 only.
• Analysing the breakup of the statistics reveals that actual area of large holding (above 10 hectares) increased by 45 hectares only and the number of holders by 9 only. The corresponding figure was 4685 hectares and 811 holders in case of medium (between 4 and 9.99 hectares); and 6082 hectares and 1392 holders in case of semi-medium (between 2 and 3.99 hectares) respectively. The statistics reveals a different picture in case of both the small (between 1 and 1.99) and marginal (below 1 hectare) holdings. In case of small holding the actual area under this category increased by 6109 hectares but the number of holders was declined by 343 holders.
• In case of marginal holding, both the area under this category and number of holders declined by 187 hectares and 1588 holders respectively. The overall area of holding of marginal class in 1990-91 was 37820 hectares against the overall area under holding, i.e. 174981.

It is likely that a sizable number of the marginal holders completely parted with land but some new holders emerge all of a sudden taking over those parted lands or pre-existing richer holders bought up the parted land. There appeared to be transfer of holdings without causing much affect in the number of holders in that category. A further fall in the number of the holders of the marginal category was rather prevented due to three reasons.

• Firstly, in compliance with the customary distribution of property for inheritance among family members, those big holders above the level of marginal produced both small and marginal holders through fragmentation.
• Secondly, fragmentation by those in the category of marginal produced the category of marginal only.
• Thirdly, family without any inheritance of holding became better off and started buying up land of that category.

An equally alarming situation has been the process of fragmentation of land for the purpose of housing or conversion of household gardens into construction. It creates disequilibrium in the household subsistence economy that relies heavily on it for garden products such as vegetables, firewood, fruits, flowers, pulses, grains, roots, stems and other daily requirements.

• In the central valley areas the total area declined between 1985 and 2001 under the category of forest, non-agricultural usage area, barren, pasture or grazing, misc., cultureable waste land, fallows was 20760 hectares. Since the area actually used for showing crops during the corresponding period increased by 15305 hectares only it is likely that the rest of the 5454 hectares were used for the purpose of constructing roads, government and private complexes, institutions and settlement areas.
• There is considerable scale of conversion of household gardens for construction purposes. People could not afford to build multi-storeyed buildings and, therefore, they extended their construction horizontally on ground floor. One then has to increasingly depend on market for everything including those items hitherto available in respective household gardens. And since the opportunity to earn money is always scarce, material interest of the large chunk of poor remains unfulfilled.

To be continued.....

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* Campaign for Peace & Democracy (Manipur) is an issue based information & analysis (published on 3rd July 2009) . They contributes to e-pao.net for the first time. They can be contacted at cpdmanipur(at)gmail(dot)com
This article was webcasted on August 08th, 2009.

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