RBSE Class 7 Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 8 A Shirt in the Market

These comprehensive RBSE Class 7 Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 8 A Shirt in the Market will give a brief overview of all the concepts.

RBSE Class 7 Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 8 A Shirt in the Market

→ The story of a shirt begins with the production of cottoii and ends with the sale of the shirt. This story goes through a series of markets. Buying and selling takes place at every step in the chain. But not everyone gets equal benefit in this, but some have less benefit than others and some are also exploited.

→ A cotton farmer in Kurnool: Swapna is a small farmer in Kumool (Andhra Pradesh) who grows cotton on her small piece of land. Cultivation of cotton requires high levels of inputs such as fertilisers and pesticides. In addition, the income earned on selling the cotton after meeting the loan interest borrowed from the local merchant and the condition imposed on him for selling cotton is just a little more than the income he would have earned by working as a labouer.

→ The cloth market of Erode: Erode’s bi-weekly cloth market in Tamil Nadu is one of the largest cloth markets in the world. In this market, cloth made by weavers comes for sale. The cloth merchants of the market, traders of other cities come here to buy cloth. Some weavers here weave their clothes according to the orders of the traders.

→ Putting-out system-weavers producing cloth at home—Textile traders from indigenous and foreign textile manufacturers and exporters distributes work among the weavers based on the orders they have received for cloth. The weavers get the yam from the merchant and supply him the cloth. The merchants have a lot of power. They give orders for what is to be made and they pay a very low price for making the cloth.

→ The arrangement between the merchant and the weavers is called as putting-out system.
The Garment Exporting Factory near Delhi:

• The Erode merchant supplies the cotton cloth produced by the weavers to a garment exporting factory near Delhi and will use the cloth to make shirts.
• The shirts will be exported to foreign buyers who run a chain of stores. They demand the lowest prices from the supplier and set high standards for quality of production and timely delivery. The exporter tries his best to meet the conditions set by these powerful buyers.
• Faced with such pressures from the buyers, the garment exporting factories, in
• turn, try to cut costs at the lowest possible wages. This way they can maximise their own profits and also supply the garments to foreign buyers at a cheap price.

→ Who are the gainers in the market ?:
A chain of markets links the producer of cotton to the buyer at the supermarket in which buying and selling takes place at every step in the chain. But not everyone gets the same benefit as :

• The foreign businessperson made huge profits in the market.
• Compared to the foreign businessperson, the garment exporter made only moderate profits.
• The earnings of the workers at the garment export factory are barely enough to cover their day-to-day needs.
• The small cotton farmer and the weaver at Erode put in long hours of hard work, but they did not get a fair price in the market for what they produced.
• The merchants or traders compared to the weavers, have earned more but it is still much less than the exporter.
• On one hand, the market offers people opportunities for work and to be able to sell things that they grow or produce. But they have to depend on the rich and the powerful for various things. Because of this dependence, the poor are exploited in the market.
• There are ways t0 overcome these such as
  • forming cooperatives of producer, and
  • ensuring .that laws are followed strictly.