390 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
The Scheduled Castes Federation is firmly of opinion that to remove the cause of this enmity is to give the lower classes the higher education and to open to them the door of services is the only solution of this problem. The artificial distinction between higher classes and lower classes based on birth must come to an end soon. But it cannot come to an end except by raising the lower classes to the level of the higher classes in the matter of education.
B. The Problem of Poverty
8 (7) The economic condition of India has been described by the Planning Commission in very realistic terms. It says :
(i) The population of the Indian Union (excluding Jammu and Kasmir) has increased from 235.5 million in 1901 to 356.9 million in 1951—an increase of about 52 per cent over the half-century. The rate of increase for the first two decades was relatively low, but it has risen since then. Between 1921 and 1931, the increase was 11 per cent; for 1931-41, it was 14.3 per cent; and, for 1941-51, it was 13.4 per cent.
(ii) There has been very little change in the occupational structure, despite considerable development of industries. In 1911, about 71 per cent of the working population was engaged in agriculture. For 1948, the National Income Committee puts this figure at about 68.2 per cent. Agriculture affords employment for only a part of the year, so that a large proportion of the workers engaged in this occupation are more or less idle for the rest of the year. There is thus a great deal chronic underemployment in the country.
(iii) Sown area per person has shown a steady tendency to decline. For British India, sown area per person went down from 0.88 acre in 1911-12 to 0.72 acre in 1941-42. For 1948, i.e., after partition, the estimated sown area per person in the Indian Union works out at 0.71 acre. Evidence as to the trend of yields per acre is not