A SHIRT IN THE MARKET

CLASS-VII                          SOCIAL AND POLITICAL LIFE-II

CHAPTER 9.       A SHIRT IN THE MARKET

CASE STUDY OF FARMER IN ANDHRA PRADESH: GROWING COTTON

•        Cotton bolls carry cotton

•        Balls don’t burst all at once. It takes several days to harvest

•        Requires input like pesticides and fertilizers

•        Borrow money for farm expenses

•        Repayment of loans

GINNING MILL

•        A factory where seeds are removed from cotton bolls. The cotton is pressed into bales to be sent for spinning into thread

•        Trader is a powerful man. Farmers depend on him for loans and to meet other exigencies such as illness, children’s school fees

•        In case of no farm income farmers borrow money for survival

CLOTH MARKET- ERODE

•        Erode’s bi-weekly cloth market in Tamil Nadu is one of the largest cloth market in the world

•        Cloth by weavers is brought for sale

•        Cloth merchants buy the cloth

•        Merchants supply it to garment manufacturer or exporter

•        Weavers take the yarn from traders and bring back finished product from power looms

BENEFIT FOR WEAVERS

•        Weavers don’t spend money to buy yarn

•        Weavers don’t have to bother about selling the product

•        They know what to make and how much to weave

WEAVERS’ DEPENDENCY ON MERCHANTS

•        Merchants get more power

•        They give the order for cloth and pay low prices

•        Weavers don’t know for whom they are making the cloth

•        Weavers don’t know the price at which the trader would sell the cloth

•        Merchants sell it to garment factories and market is in favor of merchants

•        Weavers invest there saving or borrow money to buy looms (cost of 1 loom is around Rs. 20,000)- they work 12 hours a day and get Rs,3500 per month

PUTTING OUT SYSTEM

•        Merchants supplies the raw materials and receives the furnished product-Prevalent in India

Weaver cooperatives

•        Weaver’s cooperatives reduce dependence on the merchant and to earn a higher income for the weavers

•        Weavers from group and procure yarn from yarn dealers and distribute among weavers- also do marketing, reduces role of merchants

•        Tamil Nadu runs free school uniform program. Govt. procures the  cloth for this program from the power loom weaver’s  cooperatives. Govt. buys cloth from the hand loom weaver’s cooperatives and sells it through stores known as Co-optex

GARMENT FACTORY

•        Use cloth for shirt marketing

•        US and Europe business persons who run the stores- demand lowest price from suppliers

•        Quality of production and delivery time is set up

•        Exporter tries best to meet the condition

•        Exporting factories- cut cost and so pay less wages to workers, maximize profit and supply garment at cheap-price

•        Highest are highest paid with workers with Rs.3000 per month

•        Women are employed as helpers for thread cutting, buttoning, ironing and packaging

PRICE OF SHIRT IN USA

•        Profit Rs. 600

•        Advertising Rs. 300

•        Storage, etc. Rs. 100

•        Purchase Rs. 200

•        Garment exporter sold at Rs.200/shirt

•        Cloth and raw-materials cost him Rs.70/per shirt

•        Workers wage cost him Rs.15/per shirt

•        Buying and selling occurs at many points-till it reaches supermarket

•        Foreign business person makes wages huge profits

•        Garment export factory gets enough to meet its daily needs

•        The weaver doesn’t get a fair price for the product

•        Not everyone gains equally in market

•        Rich and powerful gets the maximum earning- who have money, shops and land holdings

•        Poor are exploited because of dependence

 

 

THE END