Example of a Village

Example of a Village Rohit and Ranjan had finished reading about the terms of credit in class. They were eager to know the various credit arrangements that existed in their area: who were the people who provided credit? Who were the borrowers? What were the terms of credit? They decided to talk to some people in their village. Read what they record... 15th Nov, . We head directly for the fields where most farmers and labourers would be working at this time of the day. The fields are planted with potato crops. We first meet Shyamal, a small farmer in Sonpur, a small irrigated village. WWWWWe next meet Arun who is supervising the work of one farm labourer. Arun has seven acres of land. He is one of the few persons in Sonpur to receive bank loan for cultivation. The interest rate on the loan is . per cent per annum, and can be repaid anytime in the next three years. Arun plans to repay the loan after harvest by selling a part of the crop. He then intends to store the rest of the potatoes in a cold storage and apply for a fresh loan from the bank against the cold storage receipt. The bank offers this facility to farmers who have taken crop loan from them. RRRRRama is working in a neighbouring field. She works as an agricultural labourer. There are several months in the year when Rama has no work, and needs credit to meet the daily expenses. Expenses on sudden illnesses or functions in the family are also met through loans. Rama has to depend on her employer, a medium landowner in Sonpur, for credit. The landowner charges an interest rate of per cent per month. Rama repays the money by working for the landowner. Most of the time, Rama has to take a fresh loan, before the previous loan has been repaid. At present, she owes the landowner Rs , . Though the landowner doesn’t treat her well, she continues to work for him since she can get loans from him when in need. Rama tells us that the only source of credit for the landless people in Sonpur are the landowner-employers.