Extent, magnitude and determinants of indebtedness among agricultural labour households in Punjab

The present study was undertaken in Punjab with the objective to estimate the extent, magnitude and indebtedness among agricultural labour households. The Sangrur district of the state was selected purposively as the district have the highest number of suicides due to indebtedness and number of agricultural labourers are also higher in this district. The sample size consisted of 120 agricultural labour households selected randomly using multistage random sampling technique. The data were collected for the year 2017-18. The average annual income was Rs. 153558 per household. It was found that about 80.83 per cent agricultural labour households were indebted. The average amount of debt per sampled household was Rs.41408, while the average amount of debt per indebted household was Rs.51228. On an average 66 per cent loan borrowed by agricultural labour households was from institutional sources particularly from-micro finance companies (57%), private commercial bank (9%) and 34 per cent from-non- institutional sources namely employers (6%), moneylenders (7%) and relatives (21%). The main purpose of borrowing loan was for unproductive purpose (80% of the total debt) that too dominated by domestic needs (23%), health care (14%) and social ceremonies (12%). The results of the functional analysis exhibited that the family income, education of family head and number of earning members were inversely related whereas loan for unproductive purpose and family size were directly related to magnitude of indebtedness.