Exploring Rural Livelihoods: Kalpattu Village

• Chapter 8 explores rural livelihoods, focusing on how villagers earn a living and the disparities they face.
• Rural livelihoods are influenced by the region and types of plants, trees, and crops important to the area.
• Examination of whether opportunities available to people are equal, their life situations, and problems.

Kalpattu Village

• Kalpattu is a village near the sea coast in Tamil Nadu where people engage in diverse occupations.
• People are involved in non-farm activities such as basket making, utensil production, pot making, brick making, and bullock cart construction.
• Services are provided by blacksmiths, nurses, teachers, washermen, weavers, barbers, and cycle repair mechanics.
• The main street has a variety of small shops, including tea shops, grocery stores, barber shops, a cloth shop, a tailor, and fertilizer/seed shops.
• Tea shops sell items like idli, dosai, and upama in the mornings, and vadai, bonda, and mysorepak in the evenings.
• A blacksmith family uses their home as their workshop, and a cycle hire and repair shop is located nearby.
• Two families earn a living through washing clothes, but some villagers travel to a nearby town for work as construction workers and lorry drivers.
• The village is surrounded by low hills, and the main crop is paddy cultivated in irrigated lands. Most families rely on agriculture for their livelihoods. Coconut groves, cotton, sugarcane, plantain, and mango orchards are also present.

Thulasi's Story

• Thulasi works on Ramalingam's land, which consists of twenty acres of paddy fields in Kalpattu.
• Even before marriage, Thulasi worked in her parental village's paddy fields, working from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM under the supervision of Ramalingam's wife.
• Regular work is only available a few times a year, specifically during transplanting, weeding, and harvesting.
• She earns Rs 40 per day, which is less than what laborers earn in her home village, but she works for Ramalingam because the work is dependable.
• Unlike others, Ramalingam doesn't seek cheaper labor from other villages.
• Thulasi's husband, Raman, is also a laborer who sprays pesticides when there is no work on the farm.
• Raman also loads sand from the river or stone from the nearby quarry for use in nearby towns.
• Apart from working on the land, Thulasi cooks, cleans, washes clothes, collects firewood, and fetches water from a borewell one kilometer away.
• Her husband helps with groceries. Last year the family sold their cow to pay back money borrowed from Ramalingam for their daughter’s hospital treatment.

Sekar's Story

• Sekar's family has just finished harvesting their field.
• They own only two acres of land and manage most of the work themselves.
• During harvest, Sekar helps other small farmers and receives help in return.
• The trader provided Sekar with seeds and fertilizers as a loan, which Sekar must repay by selling his paddy at a lower price than the market rate.
• An agent reminds farmers who have taken loans to sell the paddy only to the trader.
• Sekar expects to get 60 bags of paddy, sells some to settle the loan, and uses the rest for his home, which will only last eight months.
• He works in Ramalingam's rice mill to earn extra money and helps collect paddy from other farmers.
• The family also sells milk from their hybrid cow to the local milk cooperative for additional income.

Being in Debt

• Farmers like Sekar often borrow money to purchase essentials like seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides.
• This money is frequently borrowed from moneylenders.
• A major crop failure can occur if the seeds are of poor quality or pests attack the crop.
• Crops can be ruined by insufficient monsoon rains, making it difficult for farmers to repay their loans.
• Farmers may have to borrow more money to survive and become unable to repay the loan. As a result, they become caught in a cycle of debt.
• In recent years, being in debt has become a major cause of distress among farmers, sometimes resulting in suicide.

Ramalingam and Karuthamma

• The family also owns a rice mill and a shop selling seeds and pesticides.
• They invested their own money and borrowed from a government bank to set up the rice mill.
• They buy rice from within the village and from the surrounding villages and then sell it to traders in nearby towns.
• This venture provides them with a substantial income.

Terrace Farming in Nagaland

• Chizami is a village in the Phek district of Nagaland inhabited by the Chakhesang community.
• The community practices terrace farming where the land on a hill slope is transformed into flat plots and carved out in steps.
• The sides of each plot are raised to retain water, which supports rice cultivation.
• Each family owns individual plots of fields, but they also work collectively in each other's fields in groups of six or eight to clear weeds.
• The team eats together after the day's work. The activity lasts several days until the work is completed.

Agriculture Labourers and Farmers in India

• Kalpattu has agricultural laborers like Thulasi, small farmers like Sekar, and big farmers like Ramalingam.
• Nearly two out of every five rural families are agricultural laborers, depending on work in other people's fields for a living.
• Many are landless, while others own tiny plots of land.
• Sekhar’s land is enough to barely meet needs, with 80% of India's farmers in that category.
• Ramalingam and those like him, who make up 20% percent of India's farmers, cultivate most of the land in villages.

Rural Areas

• Apart from Farming, there are people in rural areas who depend on collection from Forests and animal husbandry or dairy produce and fishing etc.
• In central India, both farming and forest collections are important of livelihood such as mahua, tendu leaves and honey to be traded for income.
• Selling milk to village cooperative societies is another source of livelihood for families.
• In coastal areas, fishing villages can be found.

Aruna and Paarivelan

• Pudupet is a village near Kalpattu where the people earn their living by fishing around in the sea.
• The houses faces the sea with rows of catamarans and nets.
• Catamarans return in the morning to bring their catch; women gather to buy and sell the fish.
• Auctioning is done to divide the income into four equal shares; one share for each person fishing and one goes towards equipment
• A loan was taken from a bank to purchase a boat, engine and nets is fixed to the catamaran so that they can fish in deeper waters.
• Women sold the fish in baskets to nearby villages; traders buy the produce for shops in rural nearby towns.
• In the evening repair work is done on the tools.
• For four months during the monsoon, fishermen cannot go out to the sea, so must borrow money from the trader for livelihood.
• Loans prevent them from auctioning, forcing to sell to smaller traders, making for the most difficult lean months.

Rural Livelihoods

• In rural areas people earn their living in various ways such as farming or non-farming activities.
• Working on farms involves preparing the land for sowing and wedding of harvesting the crops.
• Life depends on the season for sowing and harvesting periods.
• How people can earn and survive can depend on the available land.
• Many others work as land labors.
• Most farmers plant for their own requirements and to be sold in markets.
• Survival depends on the need to borrow money for business if no jobs exist.
• The majority of small farmers, agricultural laborers, or fishing families do not have enough employment to sustain them through the year.