• Dr. Adepu Venkata Ramana

Indebtedness is one of the major problems concerning to the rural society. Taking debt for the purpose of agricultural activities is indeed necessary. However, the rural people take mostly debts for non-productive purposes i.e. to meet the family needs, perform social functions like marriages, birth, death, and litigation, etc. Since money taken does not contribute to production but instead to consumption, it drags the rural people into indebtedness web. For many small farmers, the agricultural production is so less that they are unable to provide for such unproductive expenditure which drives them to take loans. The main objectives of the present study are: To study the socio economic conditions of rural indebted people, to study the causes of indebtedness among the rural households with special reference to their needs and to analyse the borrowing and repayment behaviour among the rural households. Indebtedness is found to be high among farmers when compared to that of non-farmers. The main causes of indebtedness are poverty, ancestral debt, illiteracy and ignorance, defective agricultural structure, low savings, unproductive expenditure, uncertain monsoons, moneylenders, fragmentation, litigation, defective marketing system, natural calamities. The consequences of indebtedness are low standard of living, health problem, low productivity, suicides etc. It is known that rural indebtedness is an indicator of the weak financial infrastructure of our country. The measures can tackle the problem of rural indebtedness in India in an effective manner are reducing dependence on moneylenders and control over them, control of new loans for non-productive purpose, encouraging the saving habit among the rural etc. The heartfelt measurements only needed in this hour to make the rural people to get rid of indebtedness.

Indebtedness, Rural, Farmers, Credit, Institutional, Non-institutional

"RURAL INDEBTEDNESS: A STUDY IN MAHABUBABAD DISTRICT OF TELANGANA STATE", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.5, Issue 10, page no.268-274, October-2018, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1810A90.pdf

"RURAL INDEBTEDNESS: A STUDY IN MAHABUBABAD DISTRICT OF TELANGANA STATE", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.5, Issue 10, page no. pp268-274, October-2018, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1810A90.pdf