Write a short note on changing means of production and increased rural poverty. (UPSC CSE Mains 2017 - Sociology, Paper 2)
- In economics and sociology, the means of production are physical, non-human inputs used for the production of economic value, such as facilities, machinery, tools, infrastructural capital and natural capital.
- The concept of the ownership of the means of production and the dominance of one class by another was presented by Marx. With increasing industrialization and mechanization in almost every society in the world, the means of production is changing and the result happens to be the increase in the rural poverty.
- Various sociologists have given their views on the change in the ownership of means of production and the mode of production. Ashok Rudra says that Indian Agriculture is in a mode of ''partial capitalism". He says that the production of crops that take place in the markets lies according to the conveniences of the market; also there is lesser diversification of crops. He further added that economic computation on labour is ignored. Hence the already poor population faces the heat and the consequence is the increased rural poverty.
- Now in developing societies like India also, the importance of agriculture is diminishing, due to lesser profits and difficult survival.
- New machines and technologies have arrived to replace manual labour, size of farms is getting smaller and there are lesser incentives for the traditional farmer families too, to continue agriculture. They face the problems of debt which results into the suicides.
- Small and medium enterprises also now facing the competition with improved goods hence are not capable to absorb rural labour, forcing them to migrate to the cities where they face further exploitation and the wrath of poverty.
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