Q.In the region where you live, talk to the older people within a rural community and visit the fields they now cultivate. Find out what they produce, how they earn their livelihoods, what their parents did, what their sons and daughters do now, and how their lives have changed over the last 75 years. Write a report based on your findings.

A good report on rural livelihood change would begin by noting that the older generation in the village you visited were primarily subsistence farmers. Their parents grew a mix of food grains like wheat, rice, and millets, along with pulses and oilseeds, mainly for their own consumption. They used traditional seeds, bullocks for ploughing, and relied on rain-fed agriculture. Their livelihoods were simple and self-sufficient, with very little cash income.

The older people you spoke to now cultivate the same land but with major changes. They produce cash crops like sugarcane, cotton, or vegetables alongside food grains, because they need cash to buy inputs. They use chemical fertilisers, pesticides, and high-yielding variety seeds, and many have shifted to tractors and pump sets for irrigation. Their income is higher but so are their costs and risks, especially from debt.

The sons and daughters of these older farmers rarely stay in farming. Many have moved to nearby towns or cities for jobs in construction, factories, or services. Some work as daily wage labourers on the same fields their parents own. The daughters often marry into other villages and may not be directly involved in agriculture. The younger generation sees farming as less attractive and more uncertain than a regular salary job. …

The NCERT textbook for Class 6 Social Science (Chapter on Rural Livelihoods) encourages you to step out of the classroom and observe real life. This question is not about memorising a fixed answer — it is about learning how to ask questions, listen, and connect textbook ideas to the world around you. The goal is to understand how rural India has transformed since Independence (around 1947–1950), especially in farming, work patterns, and family life.

Let me walk you through how to approach this task, what to look for, and how to structure your report.

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Setting the scene: Why 75 years?

Seventy-five years ago, India was newly independent. Most villages had no electricity, no paved roads, no tractors, and no fertiliser shops. Farming depended entirely on bullocks, wooden ploughs, and monsoon rains. Families grew food mainly for themselves — rice, wheat, millets, pulses — and sold any surplus in the local market. The older generation you will talk to (people aged 70–80) were children or young adults in the 1950s–60s. Their parents (your great-grandparents’ generation) were farmers using traditional methods.

Today, the same village may have irrigation canals, tube wells, tractors, mobile phones, and access to markets in town. Many young people no longer want to farm — they study, take up jobs in cities, or work in shops and factories. This is the change you need to capture.

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What to ask and observe

When you visit a rural community and talk to older people, focus on four areas:

1. What they produce now vs. what their parents produced

Ask: “What crops do you grow today? Did your parents grow the same things?” You might find that earlier families grew a variety of grains and vegetables for home consumption. Today, many farmers grow only one or two cash crops — like sugarcane, cotton, or paddy — because they can sell them for money. Some may have shifted to vegetables or fruits if there is a nearby city market.

2. How they earn their livelihoods

Ask: “Apart from farming, how do you earn money?” In the past, most income came from selling crops or milk. Today, many rural families have multiple sources: one member works in a factory or as a driver, another runs a small shop, someone else does daily wage labour. The textbook calls this “diversification” — not depending only on farming.

3. What their parents did

The grandparents of today’s older people were almost certainly full-time farmers. They may also have kept cattle, goats, or poultry. There were very few other jobs in the village — perhaps a blacksmith, a carpenter, a priest, or a teacher. Most people never left the village.

4. What their sons and daughters do now

This is where the biggest change shows up. Ask: “Do your children farm? Where do they live?” You will often hear that sons and daughters have moved to towns or cities for education or jobs. Some may work in IT, teaching, or government service. Even if they stay in the village, they may not want to plough fields — they prefer driving an auto-rickshaw or working in a nearby factory. This is called “occupational shift” — moving away from agriculture.

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How to write your report

Your report should be a narrative, not a list of answers. Here is a suggested structure:

• Introduction: Mention the village you visited, its location, and the people you spoke to (e.g., “I spoke to 70-year-old Ram Singh and his neighbour, 65-year-old Savita Devi, in Kheda village, 10 km from my town.”)
• Farming then and now: Describe what was grown 75 years ago and what is grown now. Note changes in tools (bullock plough vs. tractor), irrigation (wells vs. canals), and seeds (traditional vs. hybrid).
• Livelihoods across generations: Compare how the older generation earned a living, how their parents did, and what the younger generation does. Use the actual stories you heard.
• Key changes observed: Summarise the biggest differences — for example, “Earlier, everyone in the family worked on the farm. Now, only the older couple stays back; their children work in the city.”
• Conclusion: Reflect on what this tells you about rural India’s transformation. …