Portraits From Suratgarh Village

KAJOR SINGH, 35, Farmer and laborer

Father of six children and a member of the lowly dhobi , or washerman, caste, Singh owns two acres of land but no water. So, he can grow only one crop of wheat and millet a year--after the monsoon--which feeds his family for six months. The rest of the time he works as a sharecropper, a goat grazer or laborer.

His wife, Lakshmi, about 30, also works in the fields. Lunch for his children may be as scanty as an onion and a piece of unleavened bread, or chapati. The children have never been to a doctor.

Singh sees “no real change” for people like him as a result of India’s ongoing economic liberalization. “If you don’t already have the means, your income isn’t better now,” Singh says.

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BHANWARLAL, Barber

Toothless and turbaned, Bhanwarlal, who uses only one name, works outside the cash economy, like many rural tradesmen. He is not paid per shave or haircut. Instead, in return for a year’s service, he receives a small share of his patrons’ harvest and also gifts during marriages, festivals and major Hindu holidays. His employers may call upon him for other tasks, such as serving as a messenger or scouting other villages for potential marriage mates for children.

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RAIGAR CASTE GIRL, Carpet weaver

In the low-caste neighborhoods of Suratgarh, nearly every household has a loom. To earn a few more rupees a day, villagers weave carpets that are then bought by middlemen from Jaipur.

It is not easy money: Weavers typically make just 25 rupees, or 81 cents, for a day of back-breaking, repetitive toil. But carpet weaving has increased villagers’ discretionary income and helped break the Raigar caste’s traditional dependency on leather-working.

“Things are somewhat better now as compared to, say, five or six years ago since they started this carpet business,” said one villager, Ram Sarup, 30, who works at the loom alongside his wife.

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SUMER SINGH RAJAWAT, 52, Landholder

A schoolteacher for 33 years, Rajawat is the most prosperous man in Suratgarh and owns the village’s sole tractor, a used 35-horsepower Massey Ferguson. He is the only villager to apply for a private phone line and hopes to get it installed by the end of the year.

He and his son Lakshman, 22, farm the family’s landholding themselves, planting mustard, millet, wheat and other crops during northern India’s two growing seasons and watering fields from their own diesel-pump-powered well.

Rajawat, Suratgarh’s only resident from the prestigious Rajput caste, doesn’t feel any effects from the Indian government’s economic reforms yet. “There’s no match between what they’re showing on TV and what’s happening,” he says.