Two women in MP's Mandla forced to take up role of bulls to till their farmland

Radhika Sahoo and Hemlata Sahoo, living in Mahar village of Madhya Pradesh's Mandla district, have been forced to take up the role of bulls and till their farmland by dragging the plough with their bare hands.

Mandla (Madhya Pradesh): Desperate times call for desperate measures, this English phrase aptly describes the plight of this family in Mahar village of Madhya Pradesh's Mandla district. Extreme destitution and lack of resources have pushed Radhika Sahoo and Hemlata Sahoo to till their farmland by dragging the plough with their bare hands instead of ploughing it with a bull.

All this to help the former's husband and the latter's brother-in-law Rajkumar Sahoo, a farmer by profession, who has been struggling to make ends meet in the absence of a bull and tractor.

The tribal family owns a 40 decimal fertile farmland, which was lying barren from a long time owing to the inability of the family to plough it.

"We don't have a bull, we have been forced to take this step out of sheer desperation. We have sought help from the Panchayat as well as the state government, but to no avail," said Radhika Sahoo.

Hemlata also echoed her sister-in-law's sentiments, "If we don't do this, how will our family survive? We will die out of hunger."

This is not a one-off incident, farmers in the country have been suffering for quite some time now.

Astudy by a premier social sciences research institute reinforces what policymakers and media have been talking about the past few years—that India is going through a deep agrarian crisis.

The Centre for Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), based in Delhi, found that given an option majority of farmers in the country would prefer to take up some other work. Poor income, bleak future and stress are the main reasons why they want to give up farming. Around 18 per cent of respondents surveyed said it was because of family pressure that they are continuing with farming.

The report says that the benefits of government schemes and policies are being mostly given to big farmers having landholding of 10 acres (4.05 hectare) and above. Only 10 per cent of poor and small farmers with average land holding of 1-4 acres (0.4 to 1.6 ha) have benefited from government schemes and subsidies.

The farmers blamed the state and Central governments for their present condition as 74 per cent of those interviewed alleged they do not get any farming-related information from officials of the agriculture department.