At twilight, I saw a man walking into the harvested field with a basin in his hand. It was too early to be at work. I was at least five hundred feet away from him.
I watched for a while to have an impression of what he was involved in. He gathered the mud on the basin and carryied it on his head to his house.
Outside his house there were two goats in the front yard and a woman in the farm in the backyard.
This scene was rather awe inspiring to say the least.
This man symbolised to me thousands who work in the farmland all over the country from dawn to dusk for their livelihood in all weather conditions.
During the recent campaign for five state assembly elections , I heard a comforting message in favour of such people, who feel suffocated by the poor returns from their farm produces. The minimum market price fixed for different farm produce is not giving the farmers enough margins to depend on farming to live decently. Many farmers having not been able to pay back the accumulated bank loans sell their lands in distress, to large firms who wait to trap a vulnerable farmer to sell the land at a low price. The campaign was to bring justice to farmers by annulling the bank loans of those who have small farms and have no other means to live on.
The opposite political ideology that is being advocated is urban and peri urban development industrially to create more jobs, as farming is unlikely to make people prosperous. To turn farmland for building housing colonies, business complexes and factories is in active pursuit, in the hope that industrialisation would create more job and prospects. The 'trickle down' benefit would benefit the lower strata in the society, it is argued strongly, by the advocates of this ideology. However, they themselves admit that it would take two or three generations before people can feel the impact.
The current state in the country is increasing unemployment and maldistribution of wealth. There is accumulation of wealth among the top five percent of the citizens in the apex of the pyramid, while the lower thirty precent live below the minimum wellness level.
I felt moved by the efforts of this small family to take care of themselves even in such adverse social and economic circumstances.
Each stride this man took to dig and gather mud for constructing his house is a message of inspiration. He is a descendent of generations of people who lived by tilling the land. His house is surrounded by fields, some harvested and some yet to be harvested. At least some of the crops around the house might belong to his family.
He truly is the keeper and steward of the land.
Every time we eat a meal, it is good to remember such people who labour for us to give us our food! They help us to keep us well, while they themselves feel suffocated by the stressors and uncertainties in life.
They are more than self-giving! They give more than what they receive!
Their voice of protest for their sad plight in life seldom reaches the ears of those who matter!
From day break to dusk, they toil to live!
When will our political order change to give a thrust, to offer better opportunities to them and their children!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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