SERICUL TURE AND THE PROCESS OF CHANGE - Institute for ...

changes are seen in tenns of mobility in labour and economic status, and
social status. Large farmers hardly gain much from sericulture by way of
mobility, besides incremental value. Moreover, their perfonnance too is
not better than the other category of farmers. The medium fanners show
a consistent perfonnance. They have adequate resources and motivation
to be engaged in sericulture. They demonstrate considerable economic
and social mobility. They command respectability and become models
of development for others, for it is among them that change in living
conditions is more pronounced. They develop close interaction with the
bureaucracy. They also become the carriers of some of the urban
features to the villages. Progressive sericulturists mostly belong to this
category of farmers. The impact of sericulture is evident among the
marginal and small categories too, though with the lower level benefits
as improving their labour status and stabilising their economic life. The
concern of mobility is relevant for three disadvantaged categories, one
based on class, another on caste and the third on gender.
The poor mostly comprise of the agricultural wage labourers.
Sericulture could become relevant to the poor either directly by adopting
sericulture, or indirectly by involving themselves as lessee, shareholders
or labourers in sericulture. A Majority of the marginal sericulture
fanners had earlier depended on wage labour to supplement their
agriculture income. After having successfully adopted sericulture, some
of them even have moved up to the level of hiring labour. This has
reduced the strain of hard labour and 'patronial' dependency of the past
on the one hand and enhanced their esteem on the other.
212