STATUS OF SC ST AGRICULTURISTS IN INDIA -WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO KARNATAKA STATE

Agriculture's contribution to the Indian economy plays a vital role in economic development and in keeping hunger of rural India at bay. Though secondary (Industry) sector is dominant in contemporary economic development of the country, around 65 per cent of people's lives still depends on the primary sector (Agriculture Seventy per cent of India's population lives in rural areas. 79.8 per cent of Dalits live in villages, out of which around 70 per cent are landless and very few have lands, and are mostly marginal farmers. Entitlement to land brings change in the lives of rural Dalits and contributes to the economy and enables them to enjoy a dignified life. The rural masses should have right to productive land under the principle of State socialism, as propounded by Dr. Ambedkar, which places an obligation on "the state to plan the economic life of the people on lines which would lead to the highest point of productivity without closing every avenue to private enterprise and also provide for the equitable distribution of wealth" (AWAS, Vol-3. P408).1 In this context the researcher made an attempt to throw the light on the aspect of SC ST farmers a study has been conducted by keeping paper titled as “Status of SC ST agriculture in India”