Question

What is the story of village Palampur about????
20 points.....

Answer 1

The purpose of the story is to introduce

some basic concepts relating to production

and this we do through a story of a

hypothetical village called Palampur.*

Farming is the main activity in

Palampur, whereas several other

activities such as small scale

manufacturing, dairy, transport, etc. are

carried out on a limited scale. These

production activities need various types

of resources — natural resources, man-

made items, human effort, money, etc. As

we read through the story of Palampur,

we will learn how various resources

combine to produce the desired goods and

services in the village.

Introduction

Palampur is well-connected with

neighbouring villages and towns. Raiganj,

a big village, is 3 kms from Palampur. An

all weather road connects the village to

Raiganj and further on to the nearest

small town of Shahpur. Many kinds of

transport are visible on this road starting

from bullock carts, tongas, bogeys (wooden

cart drawn by buffalos) loaded with jaggery

(gur) and other commodities to motor

vehicles like motorcycles, jeeps, tractors

and trucks.

This village has about 450 families

belonging to several different castes. The

80 upper caste families own the majority

of land in the village. Their houses, some

of them quite large, are made of brick with

cement plastering. The SCs (dalits)

comprise one third of the population and

live in one corner of the village and in

much smaller houses some of which are

of mud and straw. Most of the houses have

electric connections. Electricity powers all

the tubewells in the fields and is used in

various types of small business. Palampur

has two primary schools and one high

school. There is a primary health centre

run by the government and one private

dispensary where the sick are treated.

• The description above shows that

Palampur has fairly well-developed

system of roads, transport, electricity,

irrigation, schools and health centre.

Compare these facilities with those in

your nearby village.

The story of Palampur, an imaginary

village, will take us through the different

types of production activities in the

village. In villages across India, farming

is the main production activity. The other

production activities, referred to as non-

farm activities include small

manufacturing, transport, shop-keeping,

etc. We shall take a look at both these

types of activities, after learning a few

general things about production