Republic of India Livelihoods in intermediate towns



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3.1: Field-sites: Given its popular image of being a backward state coupled with interesting trends in the growth of non-farm activities, we decided to locate our study in the state of Bihar and in a district that has large (populous) settlements but a low urban population. By that criterion, Madhubani appeared to be an interesting case for such a study. On the scale of urbanization, with only 6 percent of its total population being urban, Madhubani is officially ranked 36th out of the total 38 districts of the state. The district is also known for its relatively high levels of outmigration (see Rogers et. al. 2013), which provided us with the opportunity of understanding the link between migration and the growth of non-farm economic activity in a region with relatively backward agriculture.

The selection of the sites was purposive and was guided by objectives of the study. We decided to carry out the fieldwork at two sites. First, we looked for a settlement that is still officially listed as ‘rural’ but has substantially changed, both in terms of size (10,000 plus population) and the dominant mode of employment (75 percent plus non-farm employment for the “male workers”), which therefore classifies it as a Census Town (CT). For the second settlement, we sought a relatively large village, which is visibly rural, with a similar population size and where the process of change is evident, with around one-third of the male workers employed in non-farm activity.


The idea was not to compare a Census Town with a rural settlement but to capture the possible diversities that the growth of non-farm economy may possess and try to answer questions such as: does the growth of non-farm economy indeed produce an impetus for urbanization of a “subaltern” kind (see Denis et al 2012)? Does it acquire the potential of transforming the region into a modern social and economic formation? Is the social profile of those in non-farm economy in the Census Town any different from those in the “rural” settlement?

After preliminary visits, we chose two large settlements for the fieldwork: (i) the Satghara panchayat, which comprises of two contiguous revenue villages (Satghara and Mirzapur) and (ii) Bhagwatipur, a village panchayat and a large settlement made of four contiguous revenue villages (Bhagwatipur, Bhagwatipur- Inamat, Nahar and Baluha). In order to capture social diversities of the local communities and their involvement with the non-farm economy we also interviewed respondents who technically lived in the neighboring contiguous localities but actively interacted with economic life of the two settlements.


Marked by intermittent clusters of shops and local markets (haat), with fields and habitation in between, the stretch of road is busy during the daytime. In terms of how they are configured however, Bhagwatipur and Satghara represent differences in the scale and density of activities and settlements.
Both these settlements are located at a distance of around 12 to 13 kilometers from the district headquarter of Madhubani. Of the two panchayats, Satghara (block: Rajnagar) was declared a Census Town (CT) in the 2011 Census with more than 75 percent of its male workers engaged in non-farm economic activities. As per the decadal Census, its total population is 10,347 of which 481 or 4.64 percent are the Scheduled Castes.
With a share of a little above 32 percent of its male workers employed in non-farm activities, Bhagwatipur panchayat represents a more typical rural settlement. It has a population of 11,181 (2011 Census) with SC population of 814 (7. 28 per cent). The total number of households in each of the two settlements is approximately 2000.
Satghara

c:\users\ishwari\desktop\satghara map.png
Bhagwatipur

c:\users\ishwari\desktop\bhagwatipur map 1.png
Satghara is located in Rajnagar block of the Madhubani district. It is also the headquarters of the block with all its administrative offices located there. The residents and those from the neighboring towns and villages also identify the settlement as a twin of Rajnagar and hence the popular us of the combination Rajnagar-Satghara. Even though there is no settlement by the name of Rajnagar, the local train station is called Rajnagar. Satghara also has a fort of the former king of Darbhanga.
The scale of the market and the number of shops have seen a significant increase over the past two decades with road network improving. Villagers from the neighboring rural settlements regularly visit the local markets to buy a wide variety of things, ranging from seeds and fertilizer bags to groceries and jewelry. Satghara also has a settlement (Mahapatra tola) where the local women make the famous Madhubani paintings.
Bhagwatipur is in Pandaul block of Madhubani district and is located on the road from Madhubani to Jhanjharpur. Though the pucca road is quite active, frequency of bus service is rather limited. However, besides private vehicle, Bhagwatipur a large number of shared auto-rickshaws ply on the road connecting the settlement with Madhubani town and other neighboring settlements. Its nearest railway satiation is Madhubani. As is indicated above, the market area in Bhagwatipur is much smaller than Satghara and it is mostly spread along the main road.

Bhagwatipur has 4 government schools (high school 1, middle school 1, upper primary 2) and 4 private schools. It has a branch of the State Bank of India with an ATM, which, like Satghara, mostly remained ‘out of order’. Some of the local residents also access banks in the neighboring settlement of Rampatti, located at a distance of around 5 kilometers.


3.2: Data Collection: The fieldwork was conducted over a period of four months. It began with an exploratory visit during the last week of August 2014 to the districts of Patna, Samastipur, Darbhanga and Madhubani5. After preparing the tools for research, which consisted of (i) a settlement schedule (Appendix 5), (ii) a schedule for the survey of non-farm enterprises (Appendix 6) and (iii) interview guides for qualitative interviews, we proceeded with a pilot visit for a week during the second half of October 2014. The final phase of intensive fieldwork was completed over a period of five weeks during the months of November and December 2014 with two researchers staying in the field through the entire period of fieldwork. In addition, a woman researcher and the principal researcher also joined the fieldwork for around two weeks.

During the initial phase of the study we collected data on a wide range of subjects through random interviews and a settlement schedule. This enabled us to map the settlements, their social demography, the range of economic activities and their social and economic dynamics, patterns of migrations and the local/ regional level political dynamics, which have had significant implications for the local economy, including the growth of non-farm economic activities. We prepared a comprehensive list of non-farm activities covering the entire universe of such economic activities in the two settlements (see Appendix 1). This phase of the research also helped us to identify key informants and resource persons for further research. In the second phase we undertook a purposive survey of the non-farm economic activities.


This was followed by focused interviews with a wide range of relevant respondents and group discussions. Simultaneously, we surveyed respondents engaged in a wide range of economic activities. We filled-in a total of 300 schedules. The survey provides a robust and useful database on the social and economic dynamics of non-farm activities in the two settings. Finally, we conducted and compiled case studies for a better qualitative understanding of the subject.
The purposive surveys of 300 non-farm activities/ respondents covered 189 respondents from Satghara and the remaining 111 from Bhagwatipur. Respondents were selected randomly in the market area with a concentration of shop clusters. We also make conscious attempt was to represent respondents, engaged in a wide range of non-farm activities from traditional caste based occupations as well as new occupations. Most of the workers engaged in non-farm activity are relatively young. Those below the age 30 years make for 31 percent of the total respondents. Only 24 percent of them are above the age of 45 (see Table 2). All the respondents were classified among different caste categories as Traditional Upper caste (12 %), Trading castes (20.7%), Other OBCs (29.7%), SCs (16.7%), all of which were Hindus by religious background (79 %). The remaining respondents were Muslim (21%) by religion.


Table 2: Age Profile of the Respondent

 

Settlements

Total

Satghara

Bhagwatipur

Age 15-20

12 (6.3)

6 (5.4)

18 (6.0)

21-30

45 (23.8)

30 (27.0)

75 (25.0)

31-45

95 (50.6)

41 (36.9)

136 (45.3)

46-60

30 (15.9)

24 (21.6)

54 (18.0)

60 and above

7 (3.7)

10 (9.0)

17 (5.7)

Total

189 (100)

111 (100)

300 (100.0)




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