Indian Journal of Economics and Development

Estimates of agricultural accidents in states like Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, etc. present a very alarming situation. Punjab State took a lead for rehabilitation of accident victims by providing monetary compensation. Compensation policy was started in 1984 through Punjab State Marketing Board. No insurance premium is collected from anyone covered under the rehabilitation scheme. The monetary relief at the start was fixed at 2, 000 in the case of death and was revised regularly to of 2, 00, 000 at present. About 1900 agricultural accidents victims are provided monetary relief with total expenditure within Rupees 100 million. The application procedure for the victims to avail benefit of this scheme is also simple. This social welfare scheme has been widely appreciated and adopted by a few other states. It is recommended that a similar procedure should be adopted all over the country and also a mechanism should be setup so that the amount of monetary relief depending upon injury level is revised with time.