Where is free rice leading the farm-laborers of TN?

The program of free rice is unfortunately leading the poor people only into wrong habits; for example, drinking. 

The farmers have been working reasonably well for Rs.100-150 Rs /day only 4-5 years ago. Now they expect Rs.300 /day. Looking at the inflation and the type of labor they have to put in, this by itself is not unreasonable. But it does not seem to be working so simply!

The farmer is getting into the habit of working fewer days in a month, and using a good fraction of the wage for his drink! This is not a theoretical or cynical assumption of an academic or a city-dweller, but the report of fellow farmers and landlords.

The landlord has begun to figure that he is better off using machines for tilling, planting and harvesting, which is inevitable and desirable since we do want a large majority of the population to become blue-collared or white-collared workers, and moving towards a higher quality of living. However the net result of the free-rice program at this stage is that the program is encouraging laziness and drinking, instead of a better standard of life for the farmer!

So what is the remedy? 

 Plain talking about the evils of drinking, for himself and his family doesn’t necessarily free him from the clutches of the evil habit, and does not activate his will to get out of it.

You may correctly point out that in all yugas the habit of drinking has been there, and that even in modern countries as Japan etc this habit is pervasive. The heavy punishment in muslim countries against drunkenness is not a permanent or even a desirable deterrent, for even that needs the belief and will of democratic governments, which describe themselves as ‘secular’!

What shall we do to get out of this cycle of poverty vs. this measure of the Government which is doing more harm done then good. 

I think the only way out for the individual and the society is faith in a Power due to which  the mind and intellect, and indeed the whole Universe functions, and the Universal abd inescapable  law of Action-Reaction (called karmic law in Hinduism). When the government encourages such a faith in a manner acceptable to all religious faiths, and NGO groups and Civil Societies recognize this duty of theirs to help cultivate that faith among the populace, to whose betterment some of them are willing to sacrifice their own lives, then and only then the society & its members will live dharmically and the evil of drinking etc will be at their minimum.

We welcome your thoughts and reactions to the above dilemma in this forum.