The Arhtiyas (Middlemen) of Punjab

The Arhtiyas of Punjab are political connected.

In July 2017, in a public function the Arhyiyas felicitated Amarinder Singh with the title of ‘Fakhr-e-Quam’(Pride of the Community).

Post that function, the CM had said it would be difficult to waive off the debt owed by farmers to the arhtiyas.

As many as 86% of farmer & 80% of agricultural labours are mired in debt, says a study on Indebtedness among Farmers & Agricultural Labourers in Rural Punjab.

Its authors, researchers at Punjabi University, Patiala, say over a fifth of that debt was owed to commission agents and moneylenders.

No less than 8,294 farmers took their own lives between 2000 & 2015, says a study presented last year before the Vidhan Sabha’s Committee.

6,373 agricultural labourers also killed themselves in the same period. And that was in just six of the state’s 22 districts.

The study, commissioned by the state government’s revenue department, found that 83 per cent of all these suicides were largely debt-driven.

An estimate in the year 2012-13 indicated that every Arhitya/ Middle men/ Commission agent earned on a average of 6.7 Lakh on interest payments.

Their average other income excluding commissions & MSP cuts per year is 12 Lakh/ Annum. They receive 1370 Cr in interest every year

In Jan 2016, the outstanding debt in rural Punjab was close to Rs 70,000 crore, of which about one fifth is from loans extended by Arhtiyas.

Punjab had 20,000 Arhtiyas as per a report in 2012 & the extent of farm indebtedness has doubled in the past 10 years

44% of the farmers are still dealing with the same Arhtiyas for more than one generation.

The indebted farmers are not in a position to repay the whole amount of debt in a single season;

In 2019, Union Minister Late Ram Vilas Paswan wrote a strongly worded letter asking Punjab to do away with the arhtiya system & ensure direct payment to farmers for crops procured under MSP. Nothing was done by Amarinder singh. That’s how he supported farmers.

60% of This high earning middlemen profession in Punjab are not graduates and is dominated by Bania, Jat and Katri community.

46% of the Arhtiyas are farmers. How do we say that this is a farmers protest?

48%*

The survey reveals that 66% of the Middlemen in the state have more than one licence.

The reasons is to divide their expenses and income to reduce the income & the sale tax, & to remain in business as usual even if one is cancelled as punishment for malpractices.

Recovery of loan before any payment is the main problem faced by the 53.25 per cent of the respondent farmers. The reason why farmers have been insisting direct payments which the govt of Punjab is not heeding to

The biggest exploitation of all. Slip mechanism.

63% farmers in Punjab even today are issued ‘slip’ for getting the required items from connected or tie-up shops of commission agents, where the price charged is always higher than the prevailing market price