Operation Barga Question Answer 2022

Running head: OPERATION BARGA
Operation Barga
Name of student:
Name of University:
Author Note:

OPERATION BARGA1
Table of Contents
Answer to Question: 1.....................................................................................................................2
Answer to Question: 2.....................................................................................................................2
Answer to Question: 3.....................................................................................................................3
Answer to Question: 4.....................................................................................................................4
Answer to Question: 5.....................................................................................................................4
Answer to Question: 6.....................................................................................................................5
Answer to Question: 7.....................................................................................................................6
Answer to Question: 8.....................................................................................................................7
Reference List..................................................................................................................................9

OPERATION BARGA2
Answer to Question: 1
In West Bengal, farmers earned their living by share cropping and were named as
bargadars in the traditional Bengali language. Sharecropping is an agricultural activity where the
landowners rented land to farmers and share their crop to them at the time of harvest if they were
not able to pay the rent. This lowered both the productivity of the farmers and the overall output
of crops. Under the system of Operation Barga, farmers were permitted to keep three-quarters of
the crop and preserved the farmers from landowner’s exploitation if they paid 25 percent of the
quota. Previously farmers could not sell the crops and collect money for payment of rents. As the
farmers has to provide crops at the time of harvest, they were unable to produce the crop (Sarkar,
Datta and Chattopadhyay 2013).
The landowners used this policy to collect the crops from the farmers without working
hard on their own land. Farmers had no other option than to work for landowners as they did not
have their own land or capital and farming is the only source of their income. They did not had
the freedom to use new capitals or tools for better production. Landowners did not took any
initiative and had no interest in raising the productivity because their sole concern was to extract
huge amounts of rents or crops and exploit the poor farmers. Farmers worked independently after
adoption of Operation Barga and used efficient methods of production which ultimately leads to
an increase in the income and output of the farmers. As the incomes went up, farmers paid 25
percent of the quota and kept the profits.
Answer to Question: 2
Operation Barga protected the farmers from the exploitation of farmers. This
strengthened the relationship between the landlord and the bargadar (farmer) because landowners
had to resort to farmers for collecting the share of their crops. The farmers were permitted to
keep 50 percent of crop when landlords supplied the inputs and 75 percent of the crop if the non-
labor inputs are provided by them (Ruud 2015). They benefitted from the inputs given by the
landlords. Previously, there was no legal rights for the farmers and all the policies were favored
towards the landlords who expelled the farmers. The farmers got the tenancy rights which was
almost impossible to get previously which increased the economic stability of the tenants. In
West Bengal, Operation Barga has been a huge success during the period 1977-90.

OPERATION BARGA3
Agricultural growth promoted the rise in output and encouraged more framers to consider
farming who had previously left the work due to exploitation. Thus, employment opportunities in
the agricultural sector went up. Land reform benefits improved the lives of over half of the rural
households and reduced the rates of poverty and deaths from starvation due to crop failure. This
resulted in the rise of income and food intake per household. 65 percent of the population
registered for share-cropping instead of going in for self-cultivation with small lands. However,
the government did not do anything to increase the productivity of the land by using efficient
techniques. The agricultural sector faced a growth of 36 percent after the application of
Operation Barga.
Answer to Question: 3
Operation Barga was established in order to raise the productivity and income of the
farmers. The motto was to stabilize the high poverty rate of that prevailed during the period of
1973. It has been successful in achieving its targets and altogether it was a good policy which
accelerated the economic growth. The system of share cropping expelled the farmers where they
had to give whole of the crop to the landowners.
Farmers committed suicide when they could not pay for the rent and stayed hungry for a
long time. The landowners continuously exploited the tenants by forcefully making them work in
their lands and snatching away the crops during the harvest (Tarafder and Jana 2016). Farmers
did not had the flexibility to work independently and cater to improvement in the production
techniques. Operation Barga has been a driving stone in the late 90’s to bring about economic
growth by rise in crop production, employment, wages, food demand and intake. One of the
biggest achievement was the improvement in the relationship between the tenants and land-
owners which is the basic requirement for long-term growth of economies.
Previously, the farmers did not had legal rights and government supported the landlords.
With the new policy, the farmers got some power in the economy and the landlords were unable
to exploit them further. This created job opportunities due to which more people participated in
share cropping. Production increased as result of rise in demand and consumption of food which
ultimately eliminated the poverty. The condition was worse in West Bengal and Operation Barga
has been an efficient tool for improving the economic scenario.