SCHEDULED CASTES’................MANIFESTO— 393
and in the poverty of the country. This is all the more regretable because the situation is not beyond remedy. In this connection the following figures relating to available land in India are very instructive :
Total Geographical area 811 million acres.
Total area under agriculture 577 million acres
Total area under forest 84 million acres
Cultivable waste 93 million acres
Uncultivable waste 93 million acres
Current fallow 62 million acres
Net land under agriculture 244 million acres
From these figures it is quite clear that there are 93 million acres of land which is cultivable waste and which can be brought under cultivation. Surely, it cannot be beyond modern science to reclaim this vast amount of cultivable waste land and make it available for cultivation. The Scheduled Castes Federation will take up this question.
The prosperity of the agriculturist must depend upon the maintenance of forest belts spread over the country. Without forests belts proper degree of rainfall will not be assured and agriculture in India will continue to be the gamble in rain as it has always been in the past. The Federation would urge for more and more afforestation of the uncultivable waste land.
Agriculture in the narrow sense of the term can never be a profitable persuit. It must be supplemented by subsidiary industries which are called cottage industries. But no cottage industry worth the name will be possible without an adequate supply of electricity. Generation of electricity is in the opinion of the Scheduled Castes Federation the foundation of economic prosperity of India and the Scheduled Castes Federation will strive for the realization of the river valley projects, the purpose of which is to produce irrigation, to produce electricity and to stop floods.
Just as land has been neglected so also landless labourers have been neglected. The Federation will reserve land out of uncultivated land or reclaimed land for the