Socio-Economics Status of an Irrigation Scheme's Beneficiaries with Non-Beneficiaries: A Comparative Study in Karnataka

India is predominantly an agriculture based country. Agriculture is the source of livelihood security for majority of the rural population. Among 30 states of India, Karnataka is a major state which contributes 8.2 percent in the financial year 2010-2011 and witnessed several transformations with implementations of schemes and programmes during the period of 1970-90. Ganga Kalyana Scheme is a programme which was implemented to uplift SC/STs communities by giving subsidised bore well facilities. So the study intended to compare the socio-economic status of beneficiaries with non-beneficiaries of GKS in Karnataka. The study framed multi-stage simple random sampling design to decide the sampling and collected information directly from the beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries by using proper questionnaire schedule with personal interview and analysed the data with Chi-square, t-test and Extension exposure scores. Finally, this programme has induced our benefitted farmers to have a better socio-economic condition compared to non-benefitted farmers of Ganga Kalyana Scheme.