The Report - North 24 Parganas

8. DWIPCHAND SARDARNREGA should have a more transparent system for monitoring of ongoingsystem of projects and timely flow of funds“My name is Dwipchand Sardar,” the 65 year old farmer introduces himself. Hisfather’s name is Khendu Sardar. He owns 10 kathas of cultivable land attachedto his house on which the Panchayat has given him 240 banana seedlings for abanana plantation. “They promised to give me a loan as well but I am still toreceive it,” he adds. The house stands over one and a half bighas of land and isstill in his father’s name. It is to be distributed into four shares later on. The pondalso belongs to his father and is within the ten kathas that belongs toDwipchand. He has three sons. Two of them have separated from the family andthe youngest son is working at a goldsmith’s. Dwipchand wanted the Panchayatto spend fifteen thousand rupees on his pond but due to some labour problemsonly half the work was done and moreover he had to pay four or five hundredrupees from his own pocket for it to pay the labourers. He says that his sons haveto be given living space from within the house and once that is done, he and hiswife would have to live in a corner. He would have the ten kathas to live by. Hedoes not have any fowls. He also works on other people’s fields by which he isable to earn fifty rupees for half a day of labour. He has three sons and onemarried daughter. Dwipchand says that he does require a loan with which hewould take a land on a lease basis and give a certain percentage of the yield tothe owner. He would want a loan of about fifty thousand rupees to begin thecycle of comfortable living in his old age.Dwipchand claims that he was unable to buy any amount of land as he hadfour children to bring up and had to spend all his earnings in doing so. He had togo to far off places and take land on lease and earn a living. He has managedto give his children some education. His youngest son has studied till class eightand then dropped out as Dwipchand was unable to afford any money on thatfront further. “How can we afford such things without any help from thegovernment?” he asks.Dwipchand claims that he is mystified by the way women folk have changedover the years. In his father’s time, he had seen women doing a man’s biddingand never raising a voice but now things are different. “Every household herehas the same story,” he says, “the sons separate as soon as they marry.” Sardarsays that he believes that the daughters in law always want the separation firstas they now refuse to take the responsibilities of large families. The desire istowards having a nuclear family and living well than living in a joint one andgoing hungry. He himself has been separated by his sons and none of the three