All-India rural credit survey: District monograph, Osmanabad

FOREWORD
The All-India Rural Credit Survey was conducted in 1951-52 by the Committee
of Direction appointed by the Reserve Bank of India. The investigation extended
over nearly 1,30,000 families resident in 600 villages and the various types of credit
agencies in 75 selected districts spread all over the country. The data collected
covered all important· aspects of the working of the system of rural credit in the
75. districts. The detailed study of the material in all its aspects has been completed
and the Report of the Committee has been published in three volumes, namely,
Volume I, the Survey Report, containing discussions on the results of the Survey,
Volume II, the General Report, containing the recommendations of the Committee
and Volume III, the Technical Report, containing a description of the technique of
the Survey and the various statistical statements prepared from the data. In
order to obtain integrated pictures of the working of the rural credit machinery
under different local types of economies and to provide a basis for preparation of
the all-India report, preliminary monographs were prepared on each of the 75 selected
districts. A few of these are being selected for revision and publication. The
West Khandesh district monograph, which was the first of a series which is being
issued during the course of the coming months, has already been published ill
September 1957. The present monograph is the second in that series.
2. Each district monograph can br9adly be divided into three parts. The
first part describes the main features of the agricultural economy of the district as
well as of the villages selected for investigation and provides the necessary background
for the study of rural credit. The second part is mainly devoted to an analysis
of the' demand' aspect of rural credit. The third part gives a detailed description
and assessment of the working of the rural credit organisation. Although the
treatment of subject-matter is generally on the lines of the All-India Report, the
monographs attempt to focus attention on special problems in the districts, besides
presenting a review of the detailed economic and credit pattern of the district.
The monographs may, therefore, provide some assistance in formulation and adaptation
of credit policy with reference to different types of economic conditions and in
devising measures for dealing with problems of special importance to particular
agricultural tracts.
3. The data presented in each district monograph are based on field investigation
in eight villages selected by adopting the stratified random sampling method.
All the families in each of these villages were covered by a general schedule and
this was supplemented by an intensive enquiry confined to a small sub-sample of
fifteen cultivating families in each of the selected villages, making a total of 120
cultivating families for the district. The district data presented in the monographs
mean, for all purposes for which the data were collected, the data for the villages