Chapter 8: Rural Livelihoods

In rural areas, people engage in a wide variety of activities to earn a living. While agriculture is often the primary occupation, many individuals and families depend on non-farm work as well. The opportunities available to people are often unequal, leading to significant differences in their life situations and the challenges they face. This chapter explores these diverse livelihoods through the example of Kalpattu village.

Kalpattu Village

Kalpattu, a coastal village in Tamil Nadu, showcases a typical mix of rural occupations. While the main crop is paddy (rice), grown on irrigated land, the village is also home to various non-farm activities.

Non-farm livelihoods in Kalpattu include:

• Crafts and Production: Making baskets, utensils, pots, bricks, and bullock-carts.
• Services: Blacksmiths, nurses, teachers, washermen, weavers, barbers, and cycle repair mechanics provide essential services to the community.
• Trade and Commerce: The main street functions as a market with tea shops, grocery stores, a cloth shop, a tailor, and shops selling fertilisers and seeds.
• Other Work: Some residents work as construction workers or lorry drivers in a nearby town.

Despite this variety, most families in Kalpattu earn their living through agriculture. The village landscape also includes coconut groves, mango orchards, and the cultivation of cotton and sugarcane.

Thulasi: An Agricultural Labourer

Thulasi represents the life of a landless agricultural labourer, a segment that comprises nearly two-fifths of all rural families in India. Her livelihood is entirely dependent on working on other people's land.

Seasonal and Low-Paid Work

Thulasi works on the 20-acre paddy fields owned by Ramalingam, a large farmer. Her work is seasonal and follows the crop cycle: transplanting saplings, weeding, and finally harvesting. This means she only finds regular work for a few months of the year.

She earns $\textsf{₹}$ 40 per day, which is less than the wages in her home village. She accepts this lower wage because Ramalingam provides her with consistent work during the season, unlike other landowners who might hire cheaper labour from outside. Her husband, Raman, also works as a labourer, spraying pesticides during the farming season and finding other work like loading sand or stone during the off-season.

The Burden of Household Chores and Debt

In addition to her paid labour, Thulasi is responsible for all household chores, including cooking, cleaning, fetching water, and collecting firewood. These unpaid tasks are essential for her family's survival. The family's precarious financial situation is highlighted by the fact that they had to sell their only cow to repay a loan taken from Ramalingam for their daughter's medical treatment. This illustrates the cycle of debt that many poor rural families are trapped in.

Sekar: A Small Farmer

Sekar represents the small farmers who make up 80 per cent of India's farming population. He owns a small plot of land—only two acres—which is barely enough to meet his family's needs.

Challenges of Small-Scale Farming

Sekar and his family do all the farm work themselves. During harvest time, he participates in a system of mutual help, working on other small farmers' fields in exchange for their help on his land. This avoids the cost of hiring labourers.

To purchase seeds and fertilisers, Sekar has to take a loan from a trader. A major condition of this loan is that he must sell his paddy back to the same trader, often at a lower price than what he could get in the open market. This dependency on the trader for credit reduces his potential earnings.

Supplementing Income

The 60 bags of paddy he harvests from his field are not enough to sustain his family for the entire year; the produce lasts only about eight months. To earn extra money, Sekar works at Ramalingam's rice mill. His family also owns a hybrid cow and sells its milk to the local milk cooperative, providing a small but steady additional income for their daily expenses.

On Being In Debt

Debt is a pervasive problem for many rural families, especially small farmers like Sekar and landless labourers like Thulasi. They often need to borrow money (take loans) from moneylenders or traders for essential needs.

Reasons for borrowing include:

• Purchasing agricultural inputs like seeds, fertilisers, and pesticides.
• Covering household expenses during the lean season when there is no work.
• Dealing with emergencies like medical expenses.

Farmers become trapped in a cycle of debt when they are unable to repay their loans. This can happen due to:

• Crop Failure: Caused by poor quality seeds, pest attacks, or insufficient rain (drought).
• Low Prices: Being forced to sell produce at low prices to the same trader they borrowed from.

When they cannot repay, they are often forced to borrow more money just to survive. The loan grows larger, and they become caught in debt. In recent years, this severe distress has tragically led many farmers to commit suicide.

Ramalingam And Karuthamma: Large Farmers

Ramalingam represents the 20 per cent of India's farmers who are large landowners. They cultivate most of the land in the villages and have multiple sources of income, which gives them significant economic power.

Diversified Sources of Income

In addition to owning 20 acres of paddy fields, Ramalingam's family also owns:

• A Rice Mill: They process paddy bought from their own village and surrounding ones, selling the rice to traders in nearby towns.
• A Shop: They sell seeds and pesticides, creating a business where small farmers like Sekar become their customers.
• Moneylending: They act as informal moneylenders, providing loans to labourers like Thulasi, which further solidifies their powerful position in the village economy.

This diversification means they are not solely dependent on farming and can generate a substantial and stable income throughout the year.

Terrace Farming In Nagaland

In hilly regions like Nagaland, farmers have adapted their techniques to suit the geography. In Chizami village, the Chakhesang community practices terrace cultivation.

This method involves cutting the land on a hill slope into a series of flat plots or steps. The sides of each plot are raised to retain water, creating ideal conditions for rice cultivation. This technique allows for farming on steep slopes where it would otherwise be impossible.

The people of Chizami also practice a form of collective farming. While they own individual fields, they form groups to work together on each other's land, for tasks like weeding. This community-based approach strengthens social bonds and ensures that the work is completed efficiently.

Aruna And Paarivelan: A Fishing Family

In coastal areas, fishing is a primary source of livelihood. The story of Aruna and Paarivelan from Pudupet, a village near Kalpattu, illustrates the life of a fishing family.

The Daily Routine and Business of Fishing

Their life revolves around the sea. The men go out fishing early in the morning on their catamaran (a type of fishing boat). The women, like Aruna, wait on the beach for their return. Aruna then auctions the catch to other women who sell it in nearby villages and to traders who supply shops in town.

The money from the auction is divided into four shares: one for each of the three fishermen, and a fourth share for the equipment (the catamaran, engine, and nets), which the family owns. They took a bank loan to buy an engine, which allows them to go further into the sea for a better catch.

The Lean Season and Debt

Fishing, like farming, is seasonal. During the four-month monsoon season, they cannot go to sea because it is the fish breeding season. During these lean months, they survive by borrowing money from a trader. This forces them to sell their fish to that specific trader later, preventing them from holding their own auction and getting a better price. Natural disasters like a tsunami can also devastate their lives and equipment, causing immense suffering.

Rural Livelihoods

Rural livelihoods are diverse but share common challenges. Life often revolves around seasons, with people being busy during sowing and harvesting but having little work at other times. The ability to earn and survive depends heavily on the land they cultivate or the natural resources they can access.

A key finding is the widespread inequality:

• Most small farmers, agricultural labourers, fishing families, and craftspersons struggle to find enough work to stay employed throughout the year.
• Many families are forced to borrow money to meet their basic needs, making them vulnerable to debt.
• A small minority of large farmers and business owners control most of the resources and thrive, while the majority live in precarious conditions.

This highlights a significant gap between the rich and the poor in rural India, reflecting a situation of deep-seated inequality.