Young Himachal deserts farm fields for salaried jobs

A farmer ploughing the land (Representational Image) (Image Credit: WikiMedia Commons)

By  Manish Gupta

"Twenty four" was the age when Tarun Kapoor from Churag in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh completed his graduation in Civil Engineering in 2015. Traditionally, Tarun’s family managed agriculture in their small land holding. Before his graduation, he also tried his hands in agriculture for a while, but found it less attractive.

"I am fit for corporate jobs or running a business more, than taking to agriculture",he says. Now he is working as a construction supervisor in a company at Chandigarh. "Agriculture sector has been lagging a lot, lately. I was not able to make as much money as I wanted. I am no more interested in agriculture”, he said.

According to the annual action plan of Department of Agriculture, Government of Himachal Pradesh, agriculture is the main occupation for the people of the state and about 62 percent of the main working population is employed in agriculture. However, youth in the state do not find agriculture interesting and prefer salaried jobs or running business ventures more.

It is not just Tarun’s feeling that agriculture is not his cup of tea; his family also thinks the same. His father Parkesh, an truck driver, thinks that being a farmer does not convert to social status. "Main apne bête ko bada admi bante dekhna chahta hun. Aur kheti-badi se ek achi zindagi nahin mil sakti"(I want to see my child becoming successful in society. Career in agriculture sector is not good for standard living), he says.

Puneet, another young graduate from Churag  is working in his field. "I am compelled to work in the fields for sowing seeds and cutting crops because I was unable to study more", said Puneet. For him, farming is too laborious and is a gamble based on weather conditions. “Our luck depends on weather conditions. If it does not support, we are unable to get good crops”, he said.

Comparing farming to a salaried employment, Tarun finds it too difficult. "Farming takes a lot of strength to do work. There is no time limit to the work and it just keeps getting more”,he said. “We work too hard but income is very low."

Shubham, another friend of Tarun, points to the lack of action from authorities to help farmers in their plight.  "There are hard chances of making money in agriculture and current policies make it impossible to get a decent living from agriculture.The prices that the government offers are not satisfactory," he said.

Even if the policies exist, farmers do not get enough information regarding it. As per the data from the 70th round National Sample Survey, only 23.72 and 20.04 percent of farmers in the rural agricultural household in India are aware of MSP (Minimum Support Prices) of crops grown by them in kharif and rabi seasons respectively.

"Government policies also do not reach the farmers, they only exist on papers. So practically, there is no assistance from the government. People remain economically backwards," says Shubham.

According to the latest Annual Status of Education Report brought out by Pratham, a non-profit organization, 79 percent of the rural youth in the 14 to 18 age group are employed in agriculture, mostly in their family owned lands, despite their enrollment status in education. But among them, only 1.2 percent wants to be a farmer, taking agriculture as full time employment.

Tarun thinks this is more about the sector being less lucrative in the absence of adequate government support for farmers.  "Government agar hum logon ko facilities de tho hum sub aasani se farming kar sakte hain "(If government provides adequate facilities to us, then we shall manage farming easily), he says.

"People wish to make a decent living from agriculture, they don’t get it as of now ," says Tarun.

The Millenial Way

Indian millenials like juggling several assignments than a single job. (Representational Image)

By: Ajay Kumar

Working a single, 9 to 5 job and building up a career along was the norm of the day. That is now a thing of the past. Millennials have begun creating their own definition of work life. They love juggling multiple jobs across different fields.

Manpreet Kaur, (24) from Bhatinda, Punjab, has tried being a salaried employee and a freelancer juggling multiple projects. She works as the Head of Marketing Operations at Brijraj Fashion in New Delhi. But she also works part-time as a content creator, editor and a digital marketing consultant and enjoys it more. She finds social media and affiliation marketing as fruitful avenues of revenue generation. “There’s a huge scope. You can make good money if you are good at the job”, she said.

Social Media provides a great platform for them, primarily by bringing people closer, opened up new opportunities. Social media marketing, online business applications, digital asset monetization, e-commerce are vistas where these job-hopping millennials find new opportunities in.

But make no mistake. It does not mean that you can just make some quick buck here. “Digital marketing is much more complicated than posting social media content. People have to understand that before trying to pursue this as a career. It is a job that changes every day and you have to stay on track or you lose,” cautions Manpreet.

What, then, is their motivation for taking up various projects? “It’s definitely the money because I like to be independent. The current economic situation across the country makes it little hard on everyone’s pocket and part time opportunities help you as a cushion when you fall back.” Says Arun Kumar, who works in the HR sector, writes for a website and dabbles in ad films.

Many who have settled for more stable jobs cherish the other work life. Sumedha Choudhary, an ICSSR Research Assistant at Central University of Jharkhand still fondly recollects her time being a freelance journalist. “I’m doing fulltime job at CUJ but I enjoyed that phase of my life where I used to do freelance reporting besides writing for blogs,” she said. She was engaged in research as well. “It kept me active round the clock and helped in gaining more knowledge”, remembers she.

For some, a full time job is not a reason for dropping off their passions in life. So they juggle such roles in their free time. Ankur Chakravarty is a Corporate Communication professional with a renowned healthcare company in Ranchi. But in his heart, he is a hardcore film enthusiast and film maker. So he nurtures his passion for filmmaking whenever the full time job throws up an off. “I am an Independent Filmmaker and still pursue it actively despite my fulltime job. I have been associated with Prasar Bharati and academic circles as part of my effort to pursue my film dreams,” says he.

But how do you manage such an ‘unstable’ and ‘insecure’ work life? It may appear ‘foolish’ in the older generations’ idea of work life. But the millenials calls it a ‘professional approach’, which fits their idea of a better lifestyle. Here you are more independent, can do things which you enjoy and get paid for that.

The basic prerequisite is the ability to prioritize things, says Rupesh Sahu (25), from Ranchi who juggled many jobs and presently working as a journalist. Before this, he worked as a call center executive, video editor and a blogger. For him, full time jobs take away all the precious time in your life with their rigid working hours. “I am that guy who always race to finish the assigned work as early as possible so that I can have some quality time myself. That’s why I stick with part time assignments. They save time, make me feel independent and pays too”, says he.