Transcript
The village described in this chapter is somewhat big in size. It is well connected by all-weather road from the nearest town. The village has a primary health centre, school, irrigation facilities and electricity supply. The percentage of such villages is minuscule in India. Most of the villages do not have proper connectivity with the nearest town. They may not be having hospital and schools. Electricity supply can be quite erratic in many villages.
• The story gives the idea of production and employment in the villages of India. Palampuris a hypothetical village. Farming is the main activity. Besides dairy farming, shop keeping, small scalemanufacturing etc.. are other activities. Palampur is connected with Raiganj a big village (3 kms away)and Shahpur a small town.Many kinds of vehicles like tongas, bullock carts, bogeys (carts drawn by buffalos ) loaded with jaggery, jeeps motor vehicles, tractors and trucks are also seen in the village.There are around 450 families lived in palampur, 80 upper caste families own land in the village
• The dalits (SCs) comprise one third of the village and lived in one corner of the village and much smallerhouses made of mud and straw.The village had the facilities of electricity, tube wells, 2 primary schools, one high school, a primaryhealth centre run by the government and one private dispensary
• Land: Land is fixed and
scarce. There is not
method by which the land
can be increased. The
growth of population has
increased pressure on
land. Division of property
through subsequent
generations has resulted
in agricultural plots
becoming much smaller.
This has also affected the
scale economies in
farming.
labour
Labour is available in plenty because of a huge army of unemployed. Many people from the poor section are illiterate and hence have to work as unskilled labour. The government provides guidelines on minimum wages from time to time. But because of less demand and huge supply of labour, there are many cases where the farm workers may not be getting even the minimum wages.
Physical capital
Physical capital Tools, machines and buildings comprise the fixed capital in farming. Money is needed as working capital to buy seeds and fertilisers and also to pay the cost of irrigation.
Knowledge and enterprise
A farmer also needs the knowledge and enterprise to effectively manage production. In most of the
cases, certain knowledge is passed down through generations. Government has also taken initiative
in improving the knowledge of farmers.
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