Two villages were surveyed in the Uttar Pradesh Round in July 2006:

  • Harevli, Bijnor district
  • Mahatwar, Ballia district

Harevli, Bijnor district

Harevli village is located in Najibabad block, Bijnor district, western Uttar Pradesh. There is no all-weather road to the village and the main means of transport from the village to Mandavli, the nearest town and about 4 km away, are bullock-cart and horse-cart. Harevli is a small village: the population was 668 persons at the Census of India 2001. At the time of our survey, 115 households and 674 persons were resident in the village. The dominant caste in the village was Tyagi. Dalit households constituted 38 percent of total households.

Although Harevli is a small village in terms of population, the area of land in the jurisdiction of Harevli village was large, about 505 hectares. A substantial part of the land was owned by residents of neighbouring villages and by persons belonging to the Tyagi caste who had migrated from Harevli to cities for salaried jobs or to set up businesses. Many of these non-resident landowners leased out their land for cultivation to the residents of Harevli.

At the Census of 2001, 90 percent of workers in Harevli were reported to have been cultivators or agricultural labourers. Sugarcane was the most important crop, and wheat, paddy and fodder crops were also cultivated. Irrigation from a public canal, part of the Eastern Ganga canal project, provided water during the kharif season. Tubewells (fitted with diesel or electric pumps) were used for additional irrigation, particularly in the rabi season. Most of the tubewells were owned by large landowning Tyagi households. The distribution of land among households was very unequal. About 33 percent of households in Harevli were landless at the time of the survey.

Mahatwar, Ballia district

Mahatwar village is located in Rasra tehsil, Ballia district, eastern Uttar Pradesh.

There are three agro-ecological areas in Ballia district. The tracts of the north, covering Belthara Road (Sear) and Sikandarpur tehsils, are irrigated by the Doharighat canal system. These areas also have groundwater irrigation. The crops grown in these areas are paddy, maize, pigeon pea (arhar), wheat and gram. The eastern part of the district, known as Doaba, is a part of the Gangetic delta. The soil here is sandy and unsuitable for paddy cultivation. Maize, red gram and wheat were grown here. Although a part of this region is in the command area of the Surha canal system, very little irrigation water was received from it. In the west, the Rasra tehsil was almost entirely dependent on groundwater.

Mahatwar is located near the highway linking Rasra and Mau, and the people of the village had access to bus and jeep services to nearby towns as well as to larger cities such as Varanasi. At the time of our survey, there were 159 households and 1114 persons resident in the village. Mahatwar is a multi-caste village, with 10 different castes. Dalits accounted for 60 percent of all households. The dominant land-owning caste was Rajput.

The major crops grown in Mahatwar were rice during the kharif season and wheat (sometimes inter-cropped with mustard) during the rabi season. Irrigation was from groundwater, using tubewells energised by diesel or electricity. Land distribution in the village was characterised by the prevalence of very small holdings. About 20 percent of the households in the village did not own agricultural land, and about 71 percent owned less than 1 acre each. Non-agricultural occupations, within and outside the village, provided an important source of income to resident households.