Sir, most of the agricultural workers after finishing their work come and work as construction workers. They migrate from one State to another. We have made a study and we find that most of the workers migrate from States where there is more poverty to States like Haryana, Gujarat or Punjab. The flow of migration has come down considerably because the workers are getting jobs in their own villages whether it is in Bihar, West Bengal or any other State. The migration levels have come down which means jobs are available to the people in their own villages and the Members have to acknowledge this. Basically, the work force is in the villages as 65 per cent of the people are working in the villages in the farming sector. The farming sector where the growth rate was hardly half a per cent today has increased to four-and-a-half per cent. That means our farmers are getting work in their own villages. This is one of the reasons behind the migration level coming down. The domestic consumption is till on. Even in the textile sector, garment sector when I inquired with people they said that though exports have been affected but our domestic consumption has gone up. Even in the footwear industry our domestic consumption has gone up. Sir, there are two sectors; export sector and domestic sector. The flow of money is there in the domestic sector. About Rs. 65,000 crore has gone into the rural areas by way of waiver of loans. That means the farmer has been able to raise fresh loans. Earlier Rs. 85,000 crore was going into credit for agriculturists and now it is more than Rs. 2,50,000 crore. This means the purchasing power, whether it is for the seeds, fertilisers or agricultural implements, has increased and ultimately the consumption also has increased.
