Page 204 - SST Class 06

would not be able to earn a living from it. So, he bank on a small interest rate, but this privilege is
is considering it actively to shift to some town and not available to middle and landless farmers, who
give the field to some other farmer who will work have to rely upon the village landlords,
on the field and give him a share of the produce. shopkeepers or moneylenders for a loan. More
often than not, these people take a loan on a hefty
A landless farmer is a person who has no
interest rate; the rate is so high that these people
landholding of his own. He works as a wage-
earner on the field of a large farmer. Sometimes find it difficult, mostly impossible, to refund the
loan with its interest. The compound interest
he gets an opportunity to work on a field that a
middle farmer hands him over on the agreement keeps on increasing and a day comes when he has
of sharing the produce. The produce is hardly to sell his property and house in order to repay the
loan. This was a malaise of rural life in the past.
sufficient to meet his needs, so he has to work on
the large farmer’s fields in his extra time, or has to
Info Bits
go to the nearby town to work as a daily wage- Info Bits
earner.
Only a cowardly person can ever think of suicide;
We can also divide the farmers into two brave people struggle and win, they never commit
categories—active farmers and dormant farmers . suicide.
Active farmers are those who work on the field
themselves and they can take the help of their The government has made effort to provide loans
family members or other labourers in farming. to all types of farmers, but all of them have not
Dormant farmers are those who live away in been able to take its advantage in view of a lot of
towns, they give their land to other farmers on an paper work that a bank requires. Once a farmer is
agreement of sharing of the produce. These trapped in the net of a money-lender, he is like a
people are engaged in some service or business in fish out of water. Many times, the only resort for
the town. him is to commit suicide.

Just Think! URBAN LIVELIHOODS

There are over 5,000 towns and large cities in
Why do many villagers migrate to cities even from India. Many of them are very big, with a large
those villages where there is a variety of population. The population in Delhi, Kolkata and
opportunities for earning livelihoods? Mumbai is around one crore, while there are
about two dozen cities in which population
DEBTS AND SUICIDES exceeds 2 million.

Only about 20 percent of farmer-families can be The towns are more densely populated than
called large farmers, about 40 percent are middle villages. The needs of people in towns differ from
farmer-families and others are landless workers. those living in villages. A town also meets the
The land is further divided into parts needs of the surrounding villages, so its
between/among children, thus rendering the size infrastructure has to be built keeping in with such
of the landholding still smaller. When the land of needs.
a large farmer is divided between/among his sons
and daughters, each of them may become a Info Bits
Info Bits
middle farmer, unable to meet essential needs.
This is one of the primary reasons that the Jainism named as many as 228 occupations about
villagers migrate to towns in search of jobs. two thousand years ago. Now the number of

Since almost 80 percent of the villagers are poor, occupations has increased greatly due to
they have to borrow money. A large farmer is an development in science and technology.
influential person who can manage a loan from a
We can see a distinct difference in the
Contemporary Social Science-6
204