Q 1 – Did Swapna get a fair price on the cotton?
Ans. No. Swapna did not get a fair price on the cotton. The local trader paid her a low price.
Q 2 – Why did the trader pay Swapna a low price?
Ans. The trader had lent Swapna money at the beginning of the cropping season on a condition that she would sell all her cotton to him. Thus, Swapna was in his grip. The trader took advantage of this situation and paid her a low price.
Q 3 – Where do you think large farmers would sell their cotton? How is their situation different from Swapna?
Ans. Large farmers would sell their cotton in the market. Their situation is different from Swapna. Unlike Swapna, they grew cotton on their own and therefore they are free to sell them anywhere they wish.
Q 4 – What are the following people doing at the Erode cloth market—merchants, weavers, exporters?
Ans. Merchants: They supply cloth on order to garment manufacturers and exporters around the country. They purchase the yam and give instructions to the weavers about the kind of cloth that is to be made.
Weavers: They make cloth and bring this to the Erode cloth market for sale. They also make cloth on order from the merchant.
Q 5 – In what ways are weavers dependent on cloth merchants?
Ans. Weavers are dependent on cloth merchants for raw materials and markets.
Q 6 – If the weavers were to buy yam on their own and sell cloth, they would probably earn three times more. Do you think this is possible? How? Discuss.
Ans. In such a situation the weavers would definitely earn more. They would buy yam at the lowest possible price and would sell cloth at the highest possible price. They would select the market of their choice for better price.
Q 7 – You might have heard of cooperatives in your area. It could be in milk, provisions, paddy, etc. Find out for whose benefit they were set up?
Ans. They were set up for the benefit of those who were in want of capital.
Q 8 – What are the demands foreign buyers make on garment exporters? Why do garment exporters agree to these demands?
Ans. They demand the lowest prices from garment exporters.
They set high standards for quality of production and timely delivery. Any defects or delays in delivery in dealt with strictly.
The garment exporters agree to these demands because they are able to gain maximum profits even after that.
Q 9 – How do garment exporters meet the conditions set by foreign buyers?
Ans. The garment exporters cut costs. They get the maximum work out of the workers at the lowest possible wages.
Q 10 – Compare the earnings per shirt of the worker in the garment factory, the garment exporter, and the business person in the market abroad What do you find?
Ans. The business person abroad makes a profit of Rs. 600 on one shirt and the garment exporter gains Rs. 100 on one shirt. So far the worker’s earning is concerned, he gets only Rs. 15 per shirt.
Q 10 – What are the reasons that the business person is able to make a huge profit in the market?
Ans. There are various reasons why the business person is able to make a huge profit in the market:
Some of them are given below:
- He sells his shirts to people belonging to high-income groups.
- He is able to sell a large number of shirts every day.
- He knows the ways how to get work done by garment exporters at the lowest possible price.
Q 11 – Who was Swapna?
Ans. Swapna was a small farmer, growing cotton on her small piece of land.
Q 12 – Why did Swapna take a loan from the local trader?
Ans. She took a loan from the local traders to buy seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides for the cultivation of cotton.
Q 13 – On what condition did the trader agree to give a loan to Swapna?
Ans. He agreed to give a loan to Swapna on the condition that she would sell all her cotton to him.
Q 14 – What is the putting-out arrangement?
Ans. Under the putting-out arrangement, the cloth merchants supply the raw material to the weavers and receive the finished product.
Q 15 – Who is mostly employed in the Impex garment factory?
Ans. They are women.
Q 16 – What do women workers do in the Impex garment factory?
Ans. They do thread cutting, buttoning, ironing, and packaging.
Q 17 – Who does the garment exporting factory export the shirts?
Ans. The garment exporting factory exports the shirts to foreign buyers.
Q 18 – How are small farmers in the grip of the local trader?
Ans. Small farmers can not do without the help of the local traders. They depend on them for various reasons:
- During cropping season they take a loan from the local traders.
- Whenever there is an illness in the family they go to the local trader for help.
- Farmers also face seasonal unemployment. There are times in the year when they have no work and hence no income.
During this time their survival depends on borrowing money from him.
Due to these reasons, small farmers easily come in the grip of powerful local traders.
Q 19 – How do weaver’s cooperatives reduce the dependence of weavers on the cloth merchants?
Ans. In a cooperative people with common interests come together and work for their mutual benefit. In a weaver’s cooperative, the weavers form a group and take up certain activities collectively. They get yam from the yam dealer and distribute it among the weavers. The cooperative also does marketing. In this way, the role of the merchants is reduced and weavers get a fair price on the cloth that they produce by dint of their hard labour.
Q 20 – Write a short note on the Impex garment factory.
Ans. The Impex garment factory employs mostly women. The workers work on a temporary basis. They can be asked to leave at any time. Their wages are fixed according to their skills. The highest-paid among the workers are the tailors who get about Rs. 3,000 per month. Women are employed as helpers. They are engaged in thread cutting, buttoning, ironing, and packaging. They get the lowest wages.
Q 21 – How does market work move in favour of the rich and powerful? What are the ways to overcome them?
Ans. It is usually the rich and the powerful who earn the maximum profits in the market. These people have money and they own the factories, the large shops, large landholdings, etc. The poor have to depend on the rich and the powerful for various things. They have to depend on loans, for raw materials and marketing of their goods, and most often for employment.
This dependence makes the poor miserable. They are easily exploited in the market. They get low wages in spite of their hard labour and the rich earn huge profits at the cost of the workers. There are ways to overcome these such as forming cooperatives of producers and ensuring that laws are followed strictly.
Q 22 – What is the provision in our Constitution for equality?
Ans. The Indian constitution recognizes all Indians as equal before the law and states. No person can be discriminated on any ground.
Q 23 – What do you understand about equal right to vote?
Ans. All adults in India have the equal right to vote during elections and this power has been used by people to elect or replace their representatives. The vote of one person is as good as that of another.
Q 24 – What are the key reasons for inequality?
Ans. Poverty, lack of resources, and discrimination are the key reasons that many people’s lives in India are highly unequal.
Q 25 – Why do Dalit, Adivasi and Muslim girls drop out from school in large number?
Ans. Dalit, Adivasi, and Muslim girls drop out of school in large numbers. This is a combined outcome of poverty, social discrimination and the lack of their artists’ good quality school facilities for these communities.
Q 26 – Who fights against inequality?
Ans. In each community and in society there are some respectable people who fight for equality. They may be well-respected because they treat all persons with dignity and are, therefore, trusted and play an important role to resolve issues in the community.
Q 27 – What do you understand about creative expression?
Ans. When the voice of inequality, discrimination etc., are raised through creative means such as pen, or artists’ voice, or thejr ability to dance it is called ‘creative expression’.
Q 28 – Which communities face discrimination in India?
Ans. Minorities, women, Dalits, and Adivasis face discrimination.
Q 29 – Where is Tehri dam situated?
Ans. It is situated in Uttarakhand.
Q 30 – When was Tawa Dam built?
Ans. It was built between 1958 and 1978.
Q 31 – How many villages were affected from Tehri dam?
Ans. About 100 villages.
Q 32 – How do poor face inequality?
Ans. Poverty and lack of resources continue to be the key reason for so many people’s lives to be unequal.
Q 33 – How do the people form cooperatives?
Ans. In India, there are several struggles in which people have come together to fight for issues that they believe are important. There are many such struggles such as those among beedi workers, fisher-folk, agricultural laborers, slum dwellers, and each group is struggling for justice in its own way. Many times they form cooperatives or other collective ways by which people can have more control over resources.’
Q 34 – How are the people forced to displace?
Ans. In the villages adjoining the forest areas, when sanctuaries for animals are constructed many poor:
people are displaced and people are forced to go and build new homes and new lives. In urban areas, the basis in which poor people live is often displaced to the areas located outside of the city. Displaced poor people are severely disrupted.
Q 35 – Where is dam built? How does a dam affect the dwellers?
Ans. Adam is built across a river at sites where one can collect a lot of water. Dam submerges vast areas of land and life of many persons is badly affected. They have to leave their living places. As an example- the Tehri dam, Uttarakhand submerged old Tehri town and 100 villages. Nearly one lakh people were displaced from the construction of the Tehri dam.
Q 36 – What are the issues that affect the poor’s and marginalized communities?
Ans. The issues affecting poor’s and marginalized communities are:
- the privatization of health and other services in the country;
- the increasing control of business houses on the media;
- the low value given to women and their work;
- the low earning made by small farmers etc.
Q 37 – Write a short note on Tawa Matsya Sangh.
Ans. There are several organizations across the country fighting for the rights of the displaced. Tawa Matsya Sangh-a federation of Fisherworker’s cooperative-an organization fighting for the rights of the displaced forest dwellers of the Satpura forest in Madhya Pradesh. The Tawa, originating in the Mahadeo hills of Chindwara district, flows through Betul, before joining the Narmada in Hoshangabad.
The Tawa dam began to be built in 1958 and was completed in 1978. It submerged large areas of forest and agricultural land. People of 33 villages were displaced. Some of the displaced people settled around the reservoir and apart from their meagre farms found a livelihood in fishing.
Q 38 – Describe important works done by Tawa Matsya Sangh.
Ans. In 1994, the government gave the rights for fishing in the Tawa reservoir to private contractors. These contractors got cheap labour from outside. The villagers stood united and decided to set up an organization to protect their livelihood rights. Thus, they formed Tawa Matsya Sangh (TMS). And after long struggles they were granted right to fishing for their livelihood by the Madhya Pradesh government in 1996.
For the upliftment of the needs of fishermen, Tawa Matsya Sangh played a great role to make them able to increase their earning substantially. The Sangh arranges for fair price, transport, selling in a market where they get a good price, loans to fishermen for repair and the buying of new nets etc. Thus, the fishermen have started to earn three times more than they earned earlier.
Q 39 – How do writers, singers, dancers and artists fight against inequality?
Ans. There are two ways to fight against inequality. The first way is to participate in protest movements and the others might use their pen, or their voice, or their ability to dance to draw attention to issues of inequality.
Writers, singers, dancers, and artists have also been very active in the fight against inequality. The second way is called ‘creative expression’. By writing, the issue can be published in the newspapers and periodicals and may draw attention of the authorities as well as masses.
Q 40 – Why does the feeling of equality that the ballot box provides not extend to the most people’s lives?
Ans. The feeling of equality that the ballot box provides does not extend to most people’s lives. The following reasons are responsible for this:
- The increasing privatisation of health services and the neglect of government hospitals have made it difficult for most poor people like Kanta, Hakim Sheikh and Aman to get good quality healthcare.
- A small juice seller does not have the resources to compete with all of the major companies who sell branded drinks through expensive advertising.
- Farmers like Swapna do not have sufficient resources to grow cotton and so have to take a loan from the traders to grow their crops. This forces them to sell their cotton at a lower price.
- Melani like the millions of domestic workers across the country, is forced to endure the insults and hardships of working as a domestic help because she has no resources to set up something on her own.