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Maharashtra was the fourth State to be studied as part of the Project on Agrarian Relations in India (PARI). Census-type surveys were conducted in May-June 2007 in two villages. At our survey, there were 250 households in the village with a population of 1308 persons (at the Census of 2001, the population was 1447). The number of females per 100 males was 99. The literacy level of persons aged seven and above was 74 per cent, with a male literacy rate of 83 per cent and female literacy rate of 66 per cent. The major caste in the village was Kunbi (43 per cent of all households). Dalits comprised 10 per cent of the village population; Muslim, nomadic tribe, and OBC households were also among those resident in the village. Agriculture is the main occupation of resident households. The major crop cultivated in 2006-07 was cotton, both Bt and non-Bt varieties. Other crops grown included groundnut, sunflower, green gram, sesamum, jowar, maize, pulses, wheat, red gram and black gram. Cotton was cultivated in the kharif season and was intercropped mainly with green gram and red gram. A few cultivators raised wheat during the rabi season. There was no irrigation in the village in 2006-07. Twenty per cent of all households resident in the village did not own any agricultural land and another 26 per cent of village households owned less than one hectare each. The biggest landowner of the village owned 85 acres. Kunbis accounted for 43 per cent of village households, and owned 65 per cent of the land reported by residents. Dalits, by contrast, constituted 10 per cent of the village population and owned 3 per cent of total agricultural land. Nimshirgaon is a village in Shirol taluk of Kolhapur district in the sugarcane-growing region of western Maharashtra. It is connected by an all-weather road to the highway. The nearest railway station is 1 km away and the nearest town is 10 km away. The village has a post office, ration shop, public telephones, two pharmacies, an office of the Kolhapur District Central Cooperative bank, and two cooperative societies. The nearest Primary Health Centre is at a distance of 4 km at Danoli though there is a registered medical practitioner practising in the village. The village has two primary-cum-middle schools and one secondary school. The number of households in our listing was 768, with a population of 3515 persons (at the Census of 2001, the population of the village was 4515). The sex ratio was 862 females per 1000 males. Nimshirgaon is a multi-caste village. Almost one-third of households were Jains, and another one-third of households were Dalits. There were also households from the Dhangar nomadic tribe, OBCs and other caste Hindus (Marathas, Lingayats). According to our survey, the male literacy rate (7 years and above) was 86 per cent, and the female literacy rate was 65 per cent (76 per cent for all persons). Among Jains, the literacy rate was 96 per cent for males and 81 per cent for females. Agriculture in Kolhapur is relatively modern and dynamic. Sugarcane is the major crop, and soyabean, pulses and millets are also cultivated, as are a variety of vegetables and fruits (including grape and mango). Irrigation is from a water supply system linked to the Krishna River. There are also hundreds of privately-owned open wells, borewells and tubewells in the fields. The bulk of cultivators have marginal (28 per cent) or small holdings (24 per cent). The mean extent of land ownership is 2 acres, and the biggest landowner owns 50 acres. Under irrigated conditions, the scale of operation of a cultivator with, say, 2 acres, is very different in Nimshirgaon from the scale of operations of a cultivator in Warwat Khanderao. The landless comprise 28 per cent of all households. Among Dalits, the proportion of landless was 57 per cent. As the Kolhapur region has a large and diversified non-agricultural economy, households in the village also have access to non-agricultural and salaried employment. |
