CBSE 6 Social Science Chapter 7 Rural Livelihoods Notes

Rural Livelihoods Notes

Table of Contents

Rural Livelihoods Questions and Answers

Kalpattu village

Kalpattu is a village that’s close to the sea coast in Tamil Nadu.
People in this village are engaged in many kinds of work for a living.
Some people here are involved in non-agricultural activities such as making utensils, pots, bricks, baskets, etc.
Some people provide services such as blacksmiths, nurses, teachers, washermen, weavers, barbers, cycle repair mechanics, etc.
Traders and shopkeepers own small shops selling tea, groceries, clothes, seeds, fertilisers, etc. There are shops selling food and snack items like idli, dosa, upama, bonda, mysorepak, and vadai.
Some households earn a living by washing clothes, and some go to the nearby town to work as construction workers and lorry drivers.
The village is surrounded by low hills. Paddy is the main crop that is grown in irrigated lands. Most of the families earn a living through agriculture.
There are some coconut groves around. Cotton, sugar cane and plantain are also grown, and there are mango orchards.

Thulasi

Thulasi works on Ramalingam’s land from 8:30 in the morning to 4:30 in the evening. Ramalingam has twenty acres of paddy fields in Kalpattu.
She gets work in particular seasons only From June to November.
Ramalingam calls her and other workers to transplant the paddy, then again for weeding, and then finally for harvesting.
Ramalingam pays her only 40 rupees per day for the tremendous work they do all day long, this is a little less than what labourers get in her home village.
Her husband, Raman, is a labourer. He spreads pesticides in the fields during this season.

Apart from working on the land, Thulasi does all the tasks at home.
She cooks food for her family, cleans the house, and wash clothes.
She goes with other women to the nearby forest to collect firewood. her husband helps in getting materials such as groceries for the house.
Their school-going daughters are the joy of their lives. when their daughter fell ill and had to be taken to the hospital in town, they had to sell their cow to pay back the money they borrowed from Ramalingam for her treatment.
In Thulasi’s story, poor families in rural areas often spend a lot of time every day collecting firewood, getting water, and grazing cattle.
Around two-fifths of the rural population are agricultural laborers.
Some own small plots of land while others work on other people’s Land.
To earn money people often travel long distances. Such migrations of labourers are common in particular seasons.

Rural Livelihoods Questions and Answers

Sekar

Sekar is a small farmer his family after harvesting the field has to carry paddy to their home. They have only two acres of land. They do all the agricultural work on their own. During the harvesting season,
Sekar takes help from other farmers. In turn, he offers to work in their fields. After harvesting, Sekar’s family carries the paddy from the field to their home.
Sekar takes seeds and fertilizers as a loan from a trader and pays it back by selling his paddy to the trader at a cost lower than the market price. The remaining paddy is used in the house for consumption.
To earn extra money, Sekar works in Ramalingam’s rice mill. There, his responsibility is to collect paddy from neighbouring villages.
Sekhar also has a hybrid cow, which we sell in the local milk cooperative. This way he gets a little extra money for his everyday needs.

On being in Debt

Farmers like Sekar often need to borrow money in rural areas to purchase basic things like seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides. Often they borrow this money from moneylenders.
If the seeds are not of good quality or pests attack their crop there can be a major crop failure. The crops can also be ruined if the monsoon does not bring enough rain. When this happens farmers sometimes are unable to pay back their loans.
The family to survive, they may even have to borrow more money.
Soon the loan becomes so large that no matter what they earn, they are unable to repay. This is when we can say they are caught in debt.
Thus, the accumulated debts become a major reason for distress among farmers and have resulted in farmers committing suicide in many parts of the country.

Ramalingam and Karuthamma

Ramalingam’s financial condition is better than the agricultural labourers and has multiple sources of income.
He owns agricultural land, a rice mill, and a shop selling pesticides and seeds for farmers.
For the rice mill they used some of their own money and also borrowed from the government bank.
They buy paddy from within the village and from surrounding villages. The rice which is produced in the mill is sold to traders in nearby towns. This gives them a substantial income.

Rural Livelihoods Questions and Answers

Agricultural Labourers and Farmers in India

Most of the people in rural areas nearly two out of every five rural families are agricultural labourer families. All of them depend on the work they do on other people’s fields to earn a living.
Many of them are landless and others may own very small plots of land.
A few of them, like Sekar, have small plots of land, which is not enough for the survival of a complete family. 80 % of the farmers in India belongs to this group.
Only 20 per cent of India’s farmers are like Ramalingam. These large farmers cultivate most of the land in the villages.
A large part of their produce is sold in the market. Many of them have started other businesses such as shops, moneylending, trading, small factories etc.
The smaller and poor farmers cannot depend only on agriculture. to increase their income, they engage in non-agrarian activities. Some of them are given below
(a) In central India, both farming and collection from the forest are important sources of livelihood. Collecting mahua, tendu leaves, and honey, to be sold to traders, is an important source of additional income.
(b) Similarly selling milk to the village cooperative society or taking milk to the nearby town may be the main source of livelihood.
(c) For some families. In the coastal areas, we find fishing villages.

Aruna and Paarivelan

Aruna lives in Pudupet, a village close to Kalpattu.
Her family earns their living by fishing.
Her husband Perarivelan, her brother, and her brother-in-law go to the sea to catch fish.
After that, Aruna’s task is to sell the fish to the local market.
The money they get from selling the fish is divided into four parts.
One for each of them who go fishing and the fourth share is kept for buying fishing equipment.
Aruna and her husband are the owners of the equipment. So, they get the fourth share as well.

In the evening, her husband and relatives untangle and repair the nets.
The next morning, they set to the sea as early as 2 a.m. and repeat the same routine.
There are about four months during the monsoon season when fishermen are not allowed to catch fish during the breeding season.
So, they borrowed money from traders in this time and were later forced to sell the fish to the same trader to repay the loan.

Rural Livelihoods Questions and Answers

Rural Livelihoods

People in rural areas earn their living in various ways. Some work on farms while others earn their living on non-farm activities.
Working on farms involves operations such as preparing the land, sowing, weeding, and harvesting crops. We depend on nature for the growth of these crops.
Their life revolves around certain seasons as they depend on the crops which are, in turn, dependent on nature for their growth.
Rural people in different regions of the country grow different crops. However, we do find similarities in their life situations and in the problems that they face.
Many people depend on these lands for work as labourers.
Most farmers grow crops both for their own requirements and also to sell in the market.
Some have to sell to traders from whom they have borrowed money.
For their survival, many families need to borrow money for their work or when no work is available.
There are some families in rural areas which thrive on large acres of lands, businesses and other activities.
However, most small farmers, agricultural labourers, fishing families, and crafts persons in the villages do not find enough work to keep them employed throughout the year.

Rural Livelihoods Questions and Answers

Rural Livelihoods Notes

Kalpattu village

Thulasi

Sekar

On being in Debt

Ramalingam and Karuthamma

Agricultural Labourers and Farmers in India

Aruna and Paarivelan

Rural Livelihoods

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