80 SOCIAL SCIENTIST
That the ceiling laws have made almost no impact on the iniquitous land ownership and operation will be clear from the various Agricultural Censuses. The latest Agricultural Census 1980-81 data on land operation is summarized below.
It will be seen that top 2 per cent of the holdings consisting of large farmers account for 23 per cent of the operated area and the same was nearly equal to the area held by bottom 75 per cent of the households consisting of marginal and small farmers.
The National Sample Survey, 37th Round (July 1981 to June 1982) also shows that in rural India bottom 39 per cent of the households account for 4.5 per cent of the assets while top 8 per cent account for 45.6 per cent of the assets.1
In a structure which is characterized by gross inequality the effort to accelerate the growth of the economy through higher public and private investment is bound to strengthen further the upper income groups as they will be the main beneficiaries of any growth that takes place. The Indian experience corroborates it as is revealed by figures regarding asset structure, land ownership and income distribution in recent years. It'was assumed by many that even if the men at the top may gain rapidly the people at the bottom will also gain as the gains will percolate down but the reality does not confirm this.
In the rural areas the number of landless agricultural labourers is rising rapidly. Agricultural labourers increased from 31.5 million in 1961 to 47.5 million in 1971 and further to 55.4 million in 1981, and many studies point out that in real terms the agricultural wages have not increased and they live in destitutions.2 And in the absence of rapid diversification3 of the economy the poor have no alternative but to stay back in agriculture where incomes are low.4
As the absolute number of people depending on agriculture is increasing the percentage of marginal and small holdings is also rising 'rapidly. In 1970-71 according to Agricultural Census 50.6 per cent of the holdings were below 1 hectare; by 1980-81 the same rose to 56.5 of even greater concern is the fact that there has occurred a progressive rise of wage labour in the rural labour force. Between 1973 and 1983 there has been a progressive and substantial decrease in the proportion of male workers in the self employment category. The obverse of this phenomenon is the progressive rise in the share of wage labour in the work force from 34 per cent to 40 per cent in the case of male and from 36 per cent to 38 per cent among females. Another significant trend is the growing casualisation of wage labour, the tendency being again more pronounced amoi)g males; male casual labourers as a proportion of male wage labourers rose from 64 per cent in 1972-73 per cent in 1983.5
The iniquitous agrarian structure has not resulted in a high agricultural growth rate nor has it resulted in higher labour absorption. It has been noted by several scholars that large landowners are not driven to maximize production6 as on account of monopoly over land they can have good living even by inefficient cultivation. They