sugarcane that Mishrilal has cultivated, he
also buys sugarcane from other farmers and
processes it into jaggery. The jaggery is
then sold to traders at Jahangirabad. In the
process, Mishrilal makes a small profit.

There are not many people involved in
trade (exchange of goods) in Rampur. The
traders of Rampur buy various goods from
wholesale markets in the cities and sell
them in the village. Small general stores
in the village sell a wide range of items
like rice, wheat, sugar, tea, oil, biscuits,
soap, toothpaste, batteries, candles, notebooks,
pen, pencil and sometimes even cloth.

A few families whose houses are close
to the bus stand have used a part of the
space to open small shops. They sell
eatables like tea, samosa, kachori,
namkeen, sweets, toffees, cold drink,
etc. The women and the children in the
family share the work together. In our
country, a large section of people are
self employed like farmers,
shopkeepers, hawkers etc. They are
owners because they have to plan and
organise and take the risk of producing
goods or services. At the same time they
also provide their own labour to manage
the process.

A few shopkeepers also buy goods that the villagers produce and supply it to
shops/ markets in the bigger villages and towns. For instance, the person running
the flour mill also buys wheat from the small farmers in the village and sells it at
the Raiganj market. Flour milling and trading are two different businesses.

A variety of vehicles on the road connect Rampur to Raiganj. Rickshawallahs,
tongawallahs, jeep- tractor- truck- drivers and people driving the traditional
bullock cart and bogey are in the transport services. They ferry people and goods
from one place to another and get paid for it in return. The number of people
involved in transport has grown over the last several years.

Kishore is a farm labourer. Like other labourers, Kishore found it difficult to
meet his family’s needs from the wages that he received. A few years back, Kishore.