Who are the Gainers in the Markets?

It is not as easy to produce shirts as purchasing from supermarkets. There is a chain of activities that takes place for the production of cloth material. In each step the process of buying and selling takes place. But the benefit or profit gained by people in each step is not equal. The farmers who grow cotton and weavers who weave cloth will have to toil hard to produce cotton and the cloth respectively but they won’t get enough money to meet their basic demands. It is very difficult for them to live with minimum wages for their hard work. Whereas the traders, the textile industries, businessmen, merchants, foreign businessmen, etc will get a higher amount of profit and will be living the life of kings.

Gainers in the market

Who are the gainers in the market?

The producer of cotton is connected to the buyer at the supermarket through various market chains. The initial production of a shirt starts by producing fiber that is cotton by farmers, then they will sell it to the local traders who also act as money lenders for farmers at a higher interest rate to meet their requirements for the production of crops as in the purchase of seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, etc. Then the cotton is sold to factories where it is converted to yarn and is again purchased by traders and given to weavers to weave cloth of design of their choice and they will collect the cloth back. The weavers have to weave for an average of 8 to 12 hours for which the wages are not sufficient. Traders trade this cloth to the dress manufacturing factory where it is converted into a dress. This ready-made cloth is purchased by foreign businessmen at very cheaper rates. The foreign business person will carry it to the other countries where he sells it at a  huge profit.

In this whole chain of markets, the following businessman made huge profits in the market. Compared to the profit made by this business person the wages given to weavers and farmers is very low. The farmers and weavers can’t even meet their day-to-day needs. The farmers have to toil hard in the form for months together to get the cotton which is their one-time earning. Due to the local landlords or traders, they won’t get enough money to meet their basic needs. The weavers at Erode also did not get a fair price for their work. They had to work in the factory for 8 to 12 hours for very little earning.

Compared to the profit made by traders, merchants, the manufacturing factory, businessmen, foreign businessmen, etc the farmers and weavers are not treated equally. Even after working so hard, they are not given enough money to meet their day-to-day needs.

Even though the market offers various opportunities for work and to sell their products, it is usually the rich powerful people who get maximum earnings from the market. These are the people who have money, they own the factories, they own large shops, they own large land holdings, etc. The poor will have to depend on so-called rich and powerful people for various things. For landing loans, for raw materials of the product, they are experienced in producing, for the employment propose the poor how to depend on rich people. For this dependency, the poor are exploited the most in the market.

Frequently Asked Questions

Question 1: Explain how weavers are exploited.

Answer:

Erode is one of the largest cloth markets in the world. It is located in Tamil Nadu. In this market the cloth made by weavers is brought for sale. The traders from different towns will come for purchase of cloth to this market. Large variety of cloth is sold in the market. Here the merchants who are sitting in office are the bargainers to purchase the cloth wove by weavers. The weavers after working 12 hours per day will have to sell the clock with very minimum wages to the merchants present in the market. In this way the weavers are exploited.

Question 2: Explain how farmers are exploited in the chain of markets.

Answer:

 The farmers have to toil hard in the form for months together to get the cotton which is their one time earning. Due to the local landlords or traders they won’t get enough money to meet their basic needs. For farming they need basic necessity is like seeds, fertiliser, pesticides etc. For this needs they will have to depend on local traders or landlords who will lend them money at higher interest rate provided that they will sell back the agriculture product to them.

Question 3: Who are the gainers in the market?

Answer:

The traders, merchants, the manufacturing factory, businessmen, foreign businessman etc are the actual gainers  in the market.