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← Social and Political Life – II — all chaptersA Shirt in the Market
Start here: why this chapter matters
In simple wordsPick up any shirt and ask: who grew the cotton, who spun it, who wove it, who stitched it, who sold it? Six or seven people touched it before you did, and each was paid something. This chapter puts a price tag on each pair of hands — and finds that the hands that worked longest were often paid least.
This is Chapter 8 of NCERT's Class 7 Social and Political Life – II (2024–25 reprint), the second chapter of Unit Five, ‘Markets’, and the last chapter of the book. It fills book pp. 86–95; the 13-page PDF then carries the book's references (p. 96), an India political map (p. 97) and a road-safety poster (PDF page n = book page n − 85). The Unit Five opener and Teacher's Note (pp. 74–75) are read in gess307. Its parts: an opener; A cotton farmer in Kurnool; The cloth market of Erode; Putting-out system, with a Weaver's cooperative box; The garment exporting factory near Delhi; The shirt in the United States; Who are the gainers in the market?; Market and equality; four exercises and a three-term glossary. We use six concept sections — the chapter is short. The book's numbers are checked with asserts; places are shown in a schematic chain, no maps. Laws, data and scholars beyond the book are marked Beyond NCERT (†). Debates — on trader-lenders, the putting-out system, global buyers and exporters, and whether markets are fair — are attributed positions side by side, with no verdict; no company is named as good or bad.
- How this chapter relates to UPSC, honestly: no question asks about Swapna or Erode. But GS1 asks about women and globalisation and the decentralised cotton textile industry, and GS3 about informal work, wages and value chains — and this chapter is the clearest child-sized picture of all three: a global chain whose bottom links are home-based weavers and temporary women workers.
- Senior chapters — link, don't re-teach: jess204 (Globalisation and the Indian Economy — MNCs, global production, the garment worker who became ‘temporary’); jess203 (Money and Credit — another Swapna, trapped by a trader's loan; formal v informal credit); jess304 (The Age of Industrialisation — merchants and the putting-out chain in history); jess202 and keec106 (organised and unorganised work, informalisation); keec105 (Rural Development — rural credit, cooperative marketing); keec103 (LPG reforms); jess106 (Manufacturing — the textile industry); lesy205 and lesy206 (industrial society and globalisation); leec203 (Production and Costs — what ‘profit’ means); hess308 (Law and Social Justice — minimum wages and why laws must be enforced).
- Before: gess307 (Markets Around Us — the chain of markets, wholesale and retail, ending with ‘do they offer equal opportunities?’, which this chapter answers); gess301 (On Equality — Kanta, whom this chapter names again); gess306 (Understanding Media — advertising).
- UPSC from this chapter: two Mains GS1 questions — 2013 (factors behind the highly decentralised cotton textile industry) and 2015 (positive and negative effects of globalisation on women). No Prelims question tests what this chapter teaches. List at the end.
| Word | What it means here |
|---|---|
| Boll | The pod of the cotton plant that bursts to show the cotton; bolls do not open all at once, so picking takes days (book) |
| Quintal | 100 kilograms — Swapna's cotton is priced per quintal |
| Trader (moneylender) | Here one person who both lends to the farmer and buys her crop (book) |
| Ginning mill | A factory where seeds are removed from cotton and the cotton pressed into bales for spinning (glossary) |
| Yarn | Thread spun from cotton; woven into cloth (book) |
| Powerloom | A power-driven loom; the Erode weavers keep 2–8 in sheds by their homes (book) |
| Putting-out system | The merchant supplies the raw material and receives the finished product (book) |
| Cooperative | People with common interests coming together and working for mutual benefit (book) |
| Exporter | A person who sells goods abroad (glossary) |
| Temporary worker | One who can be asked to leave whenever the employer feels he or she is not needed (book) |
| Profit | What is left from earnings after deducting all costs; if costs are more, a loss (glossary) |
| Value chain † | Beyond NCERT: the linked stages by which a product is made and sold, each adding value — the economist's name for the book's ‘chain of markets’ |
Reading the chapter opener (page 86)
- Photo-collage (colour): a large shirt shape made of photographs — a cotton field, an open boll, pickers, a bullock cart loaded with sacks, bales, a powerloom shed, a man at a loom, a cloth shop piled with folded fabric, a factory interior. A QR code links to the e-book.
- Text (summarised): the story of a shirt from cotton to supermarket; a chain of markets links the producer to the buyer, with buying and selling at every step — does everyone benefit equally?
- The point: the whole chapter is in the picture — every photograph is one link, and the question is who gains at each.
At a glance — the six ideas to carry away
- Swapna (Kurnool, AP): borrowed ₹2,500 from a trader, promised him all her cotton; sold 4 quintals at ₹1,500 (she knew ₹1,800) = ₹6,000; ₹3,000 deducted; ₹3,000 left — the loan tied the sale.
- Erode (TN): a bi-weekly cloth market, ‘one of the largest in the world’; merchants take orders from garment firms, buy yarn and give it to weavers.
- Putting-out system: the merchant supplies the raw material and receives the finished product; weavers spend nothing on yarn and need not sell, but have no say on what is made or the price.
- Weavers' cooperative: buy yarn together, market the cloth together; government help — Tamil Nadu's free school uniforms, Co-optex stores.
- Exporter near Delhi: foreign store chains demand lowest prices, quality, timely delivery; the factory cuts costs — 70 workers, mostly women, mostly temporary; tailors ₹3,000 a month, helpers ₹1,500.
- The ₹1,800 shirt ($26): bought at ₹300 + storage ₹200 + advertising ₹400 = ₹900 cost → ₹900 profit; exporter's profit ₹150; wages ₹25. ‘Not everyone gains equally in the market.’
1. A cotton farmer in Kurnool: when the lender is also the buyer
In simple wordsSuppose your only lender is also the only shop that buys your homework-help, and he set the condition when you borrowed. When he names a low price, can you walk away? You owe him money, and you will need him again next month. That is Swapna's position — not a bad bargain on one day, but a tie that sets every bargain.
Swapna, a small farmer in Kurnool (Andhra Pradesh), picks cotton over several days because the bolls do not burst at once. Cotton needs costly inputs — fertilisers and pesticides — so small farmers often borrow. At the start of the season she borrowed ₹2,500 from the local trader at a very high interest rate for seeds, fertilisers and pesticides, and he made her promise to sell all her cotton to him. So instead of the Kurnool cotton market, she takes the harvest to his yard. At ₹1,500 a quintal it fetches ₹6,000; he deducts ₹3,000 for loan and interest and pays her ₹3,000. When she protests, he says there is a lot of cotton in the market and other traders pay less; she gives in, though she knows cotton will sell for at least ₹1,800. The reason: the trader is a powerful man in the village, and farmers depend on him for loans — for cultivation, for illness, school fees, and the months with no work and no income. Her earning is ‘barely more’ than a wage labourer's.
⤵ Swapna's season, as the book tells it (pp. 87–88)
Borrow₹2,500 from the local trader at a very high interest rate — for seeds, fertilisers, pesticides
Promisethe condition: sell all her cotton to him
Grow and pickfour months of work; bolls burst over several days
Sell4 quintals at ₹1,500 = ₹6,000, at his yard, not at Kurnool market
Repay₹3,000 deducted for loan and interest; ₹3,000 left
What she knewcotton sells for at least ₹1,800 a quintal — ₹1,200 more in all
Why she kept quietshe will need his loans again — illness, fees, lean months
Reading the cotton-plant figure and the margin questions (page 87)
- Figure (yellow panel): a drawn cotton stem whose six open bolls carry six steps — the trader sells the cotton at the Kurnool market; a ginning mill buys it; the mill removes the seeds and presses the cotton into bales; a spinning mill buys the bales; spins them into yarn; and sells the yarn to yarn dealers.
- Margin questions: did Swapna get a fair price; why did the trader pay a low price; where would large farmers sell and how are they placed differently (outlines in the in-text section).
- The point: Swapna's cotton passes through several more markets before it is even thread — and she sees none of them.
| The trader who lends and buys — who says what (Beyond NCERT except the first row) | Position |
|---|---|
| NCERT (pp. 87–88) | the trader's loan and condition leave the small farmer with no choice of buyer or price; dependence for loans lets him pay less |
| NCERT, jess203 (Money and Credit, Class 10) | informal lenders charge high interest and may tie the borrower; cheaper formal credit — banks and cooperatives — should reach poor households |
| Amit Bhaduri, ‘A Study in Agricultural Backwardness under Semi-Feudalism’ (Economic Journal, 1973) | when the landlord-lender's income comes from interest, he may resist changes that free the borrower from debt — a trap, not just a bad price |
| Pranab Bardhan, review of interlocking factor markets (Oxford Economic Papers, 1980) | tying credit to the sale of the crop can arise from missing markets for credit, insurance and information, saving costs for both sides — and it can also deepen the lender's power |
Beyond NCERT — cotton and farm credit (check the latest)
- Minimum Support Price: the Centre announces an MSP for cotton each season; the Cotton Corporation of India (set up in 1970) buys at MSP when market prices fall below it.
- Kisan Credit Card (1998): short-term bank credit for crop inputs — the formal alternative to the trader's loan (jess203, keec105).
- Bt cotton, genetically modified to resist bollworm, was approved for cultivation in India in 2002; input costs and pest resistance remain debated (taught with agriculture chapters).
- Kurnool is in Andhra Pradesh after the 2014 bifurcation too — the book's State is right.
NCERT details to read carefully — Kurnool
- Loan ₹2,500; deduction ₹3,000 (loan + interest); paid ₹3,000. Don't swap the loan and the deduction.
- Price paid ₹1,500/quintal; price she knew at least ₹1,800. Quantity: 4 quintals (our arithmetic from ₹6,000).
- She sold to the trader because of the promise tied to the loan — not because Kurnool market was far (exercise 1).
- She borrowed for inputs; the book adds illness, school fees and lean months as reasons farmers keep depending on him.
2. The Erode cloth market and the putting-out system
In simple wordsA bakery owner hands you flour and says ‘bake 200 buns by Friday, I'll pay ₹2 each’. You need not buy flour or find customers — handy. But you never learn that he sells the buns for ₹10, and you cannot sell to anyone else, because the flour is his. That is the putting-out system.
Erode in Tamil Nadu has a bi-weekly cloth market, ‘one of the largest cloth markets in the world’. Weavers from nearby villages bring cloth; cloth merchants have offices around the market; traders come from many south Indian towns. On market days weavers also bring cloth made on order: the merchants supply cloth to garment manufacturers and exporters around the country, buy the yarn and tell weavers what cloth to make. The weavers take the yarn home, where powerlooms — about 2–8 per unit — stand in sheds next to their houses, weave sarees, towels, shirting, dress material and bedsheets, and bring the cloth back; the merchant keeps an account of the yarn and pays for the weaving. This is the putting-out system: the merchant supplies the raw material and receives the finished product — ‘prevalent in the weaving industry in most regions of India’. It seemingly has two advantages for weavers — no money on yarn, and no worry about selling. But depending on the merchant for both raw materials and markets gives him power: he decides what is made and pays a very low price; weavers do not know who the cloth is for or what it will sell for. A weaver invests savings or borrows at high interest for looms at ₹20,000 each — ₹40,000 for two; he and another adult of the family work up to 12 hours a day and earn about ₹3,500 a month. ‘The market works more in favour of the merchants.’
⤵ One order through the putting-out system (pp. 88–90)
Ordera garment firm orders cloth from an Erode merchant
Yarnthe merchant buys yarn and gives it to weavers with instructions
Weaveat home, on 2–8 powerlooms, two adults up to 12 hours a day
Returnweavers bring the cloth to the merchant's shop in town
Paythe merchant pays for weaving, per his account of yarn given — a very low price
Sellthe merchant sells the cloth to garment factories — at a price the weaver never learns
Reading the Erode shop photograph (page 88)
- Photograph (colour): inside a cloth shop with shelves of folded fabric, men seated on the floor unrolling a length of white cloth. Caption: a shop in Erode.
- The point: the merchant's shop is where orders, yarn and cloth meet — the centre of the system.
Reading the three putting-out photographs and their captions (page 89)
- Photograph 1: a small cloth shop on a street, scooters parked outside — a merchant's shop in the bazaar; such traders have long-built contacts with garment firms who give them orders, and buy their yarn from others.
- Photograph 2: a green powerloom weaving checked cloth in a home shed; weaving units have about 2–8 powerlooms, and families spend long hours on them.
- Photograph 3: weavers seated on a mat outdoors, ready to take finished cloth to the merchant in town, who keeps an account of the yarn and pays for the weaving.
- Margin questions: what merchants, weavers and exporters do at Erode; in what ways weavers depend on merchants (outlines in the in-text section).
- The point: the three photographs are the system's three steps — order, weave, return.
| The putting-out system — who says what (Beyond NCERT except the NCERT rows) | Position |
|---|---|
| NCERT (p. 89), the ‘seeming’ advantages | weavers spend nothing on yarn, need not find buyers and know what and how much to weave |
| NCERT (pp. 89–90), the other side | dependence for raw materials and markets gives merchants power over what is made and the price; the market favours the merchant |
| NCERT, jess304 (The Age of Industrialisation, Class 10) | in Europe's proto-industrial phase, merchants putting out work to village families gave those families extra income — while the merchants controlled supply, price and sale |
| NCERT margin question (p. 90) | weavers buying their own yarn and selling cloth ‘would probably earn three times more’ — the question asks whether that is possible, and how |
Beyond NCERT — handlooms and powerlooms (check the latest)
- National Handloom Day, 7 August, was first observed in 2015; the date recalls the Swadeshi movement, launched on 7 August 1905 (UPSC Prelims 2023 asked this — a history question, not linked here).
- The book's references list Tirthankar Roy, ‘Growth and Recession in Small-Scale Industry: A Study of Tamil Nadu Powerlooms’ (Economic and Political Weekly, 1999) — the likely source of the Erode material.
- The Multi-Fibre Arrangement, which set quotas on textile and garment exports to rich countries, ended on 1 January 2005 under the WTO's Agreement on Textiles and Clothing — opening the global market the chapter describes.
NCERT details to read carefully — Erode
- Erode's market is bi-weekly — twice a week (here ‘bi-weekly’ means twice a week, not once in two weeks).
- The Erode weavers use powerlooms at home; handloom appears only in the cooperative box (Co-optex).
- Putting-out = merchant gives raw material, takes finished product, pays for the work — the weaver never owns the yarn or sells the cloth.
- Loom ₹20,000 each; two looms ₹40,000; earnings ₹3,500 a month for two adults, not each.
3. Weavers' cooperatives: taking back the merchant's role
In simple wordsTen families each need one sack of rice. Alone, each pays the shop's price. Together, they buy ten sacks from the wholesaler at a lower price and share them out. Now suppose they also sell what they make together. That is a cooperative: the group does the trader's job, and keeps the trader's margin.
A box on weavers' cooperatives offers a way to reduce dependence on the merchant and earn more. In a cooperative, people with common interests come together and work for their mutual benefit. In a weavers' cooperative, weavers form a group that buys yarn from the yarn dealer and distributes it, and does the marketing — so the merchant's role shrinks and weavers get a fair price for their cloth. Government sometimes helps by buying from cooperatives at a reasonable price: the Tamil Nadu government runs a Free School Uniform programme and buys the cloth from powerloom weavers' cooperatives; government also buys from handloom weavers' cooperatives and sells through Co-optex stores. Margin questions ask whether weavers could earn ‘three times more’ on their own, whether similar putting-out arrangements exist for papads, masalas, beedis, and for whose benefit local cooperatives — milk, provisions, paddy — were set up.
Reading the Weaver's cooperative box and the margin questions (page 90)
- Box (yellow) with a colour photograph: a woman weaving at a wooden handloom by a window, light falling on the cloth. Text summarised above.
- Margin questions: three times more — possible, and how; putting-out in papads, masalas, beedis; cooperatives in your area and whom they serve (outlines in the in-text section).
- The point: the remedy the book offers is organisation — producers doing together what the merchant did for them.
| Cooperatives as the answer — who says what (Beyond NCERT except the first two rows) | Position |
|---|---|
| NCERT (p. 90, box) | a weavers' cooperative buys yarn and markets cloth, reducing the merchant's role and getting weavers a fair price |
| Government of Tamil Nadu, as the box describes | buys powerloom cooperatives' cloth for free school uniforms; handloom cloth is sold through Co-optex |
| Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union (1946, Anand; the ‘Anand pattern’) | when producers own procurement, processing and marketing, more of the consumer's rupee reaches them |
| Parliament, Constitution (Ninety-seventh Amendment) Act, 2011 | cooperatives need autonomy, democratic control and professional management — hence a right to form them, Article 43B and Part IXB |
Beyond NCERT — cooperatives in law (check the latest)
- The 97th Amendment (2011) added ‘cooperative societies’ to Article 19(1)(c), a Directive Principle in Article 43B (promotion of cooperatives), and Part IXB on cooperative societies.
- A Union Ministry of Cooperation was created in July 2021.
- Co-optex is the brand of the Tamil Nadu Handloom Weavers' Cooperative Society, founded in 1935.
- keec105 covers cooperative credit and marketing for farmers; the same idea answers Swapna's problem — a cooperative lender and a regulated market.
NCERT details to read carefully — cooperatives
- The cooperative does two jobs: procures yarn and markets cloth.
- School uniforms: cloth from powerloom cooperatives; Co-optex: cloth from handloom cooperatives. Don't swap them.
- ‘Three times more’ is a margin question's ‘probably’, not a finding.
4. The garment exporting factory near Delhi: pressure passed down the chain
In simple wordsA big customer tells a caterer: ‘Lowest price, perfect food, on time — or I go elsewhere.’ The caterer cannot argue with the customer, so he squeezes the people he can: the cooks. Pressure runs downhill, to whoever has the least choice.
The Erode merchant supplies the cloth to a garment exporting factory near Delhi, which makes shirts for foreign buyers — among them businesspersons from the US and Europe who run chains of stores. These buyers deal ‘strictly on their own terms’: they demand the lowest prices, high quality and timely delivery, and deal strictly with defects or delays. Under this pressure the exporters cut costs: they get the maximum work from workers at the lowest possible wages — which lets them maximise profit and still supply cheaply. The Impex garment factory has 70 workers, most of them women, most temporary — they can be asked to leave whenever the employer feels they are not needed. Wages follow skill: tailors, the highest paid, get about ₹3,000 a month; checking ₹2,000; thread cutting and buttoning ₹1,500; ironing ₹1.50 a piece. Women are employed as helpers — thread cutting, buttoning, ironing, packaging — the lowest-paid jobs.
⤵ How the buyer's terms reach the worker (pp. 91–92)
Foreign store chaindemands the lowest price, high quality, on-time delivery; strict on defects and delay
Exporteragrees — these are powerful buyers — and tries to meet every condition
Cut costsmaximum work at the lowest possible wages
Temporary jobsworkers can be asked to leave when not needed
Women as helpersthread cutting, buttoning, ironing, packaging — lowest wages
Resultthe exporter keeps a profit and the buyer gets a cheap shirt
Reading the garment-factory photograph (page 91)
- Photograph (colour): young women seated on the floor among heaps of blue denim garments, sewing on buttons by hand. Caption: women workers sewing buttons in a garment factory.
- Margin questions: what foreign buyers demand and why exporters agree; how exporters meet the conditions (outlines in the in-text section).
- The point: the cheapest step in the chain is done by hand, on the floor, by women.
Reading the ‘Payment to workers (per month)’ table and the margin questions (page 92)
- Table (yellow box): tailoring ₹3,000; ironing ₹1.50 (per piece); checking ₹2,000; thread cutting and buttoning ₹1,500 — drawn to scale above.
- Margin questions: why more women are employed at Impex; write a letter to the Minister on proper payment for the workers (outlines in the in-text section).
- The point: pay follows skill, and the least-paid skills are the ones given to women.
| Global buyers, exporters and workers — who says what (Beyond NCERT except the first row) | Position |
|---|---|
| NCERT (pp. 91–92) | powerful foreign buyers set prices and terms; exporters pass the pressure to workers through low wages and temporary jobs |
| Gary Gereffi, on ‘buyer-driven’ commodity chains (1994) | in garments, big retailers and brand owners control the chain through design, marketing and orders, while production is contracted out to factories in poorer countries |
| Naila Kabeer, The Power to Choose (2000), on Bangladeshi women garment workers | factory jobs, despite poor conditions, gave many women wages of their own and more say at home — a gain the workers themselves valued |
| International Labour Organization, Decent Work agenda (1999) | jobs should come with rights at work, social protection and a voice through dialogue — not employment at any terms |
| NCERT, jess204 (Globalisation, Class 10) | global competition brought new jobs, but many became temporary and flexible, with long hours and no security |
Beyond NCERT — wages and the law (check the latest)
- Constitution: Article 39(d) — equal pay for equal work for men and women; Article 43 — a living wage and decent conditions of work (Directive Principles).
- Minimum Wages Act, 1948 — now consolidated into the Code on Wages, 2019, one of four Labour Codes brought into force in November 2025 (see hess308, keec106).
- In PUDR v Union of India (1982), on workers building for the Asian Games, the Supreme Court held that paying less than the minimum wage can amount to forced labour under Article 23.
- The book's remedy — ‘ensuring that laws are followed strictly’ — points to these laws.
NCERT details to read carefully — the exporter
- Impex has 70 workers, most women, most temporary.
- Highest paid: tailors, ~₹3,000; lowest: women helpers (thread cutting, buttoning, ironing, packaging).
- Buyers' three demands: lowest price, high quality, timely delivery.
- The factory is near Delhi; the cloth came from Erode; the buyers are from the US and Europe.
- Ironing is ₹1.50 per piece, inside a table headed ‘per month’ — quote it as per piece.
5. The shirt in the United States: who keeps what of ₹1,800
In simple wordsCut a ₹1,800 cake into the shares each person in the chain keeps. The shop abroad takes half the cake as profit and another big slice for advertising. The exporter's profit is a thin slice. The workers who stitched it get a crumb — ₹25. Same cake; very different plates.
A large clothes shop in the United States prices the shirts at $26, ‘around ₹1,800’. A shirt diagram and a fill-in exercise show the businessperson's costs: he bought the shirt from the Delhi exporter for ₹300, spent ₹400 on advertising and ₹200 on storage, display and other charges — a cost of ₹900 — and sells for ₹1,800: a profit of ₹900 a shirt, and more if he sells many. The exporter sold at ₹300: cloth and other materials cost him ₹100, workers' wages ₹25, his office ₹25 — so his profit is ₹150 a shirt (the book asks the reader to calculate it). Margin questions ask the reader to compare the earnings per shirt of worker, exporter and businessperson, explain the businessperson's huge profit, and say why he spends so much on advertising (the question says ‘Rs 300’; the diagram, ₹400).
Reading the shirt cost diagram and the fill-in exercise (page 92)
- Diagram (colour drawing): a shirt divided into horizontal bands from hem to collar — purchase ₹300 (yellow), storage etc. ₹200 (blue), advertising ₹400 (orange), profit ₹900 (green) at the top. The margin asks what the cost price includes.
- Fill in the blanks (answers): bought for ₹300; advertising ₹400; storage and other charges ₹200; profit ₹900.
- The point: the biggest band of the shirt is profit, and the next biggest is advertising — both earned far from where the shirt was made.
| Why the profit is made at the end of the chain — who says what (Beyond NCERT except the first row) | Position |
|---|---|
| NCERT (pp. 92–93) | the foreign businessperson makes huge profits; the exporter moderate; workers barely enough — not everyone gains equally |
| Stan Shih, founder of Acer, the ‘smiling curve’ (early 1990s) | in global production, more value is added at the two ends — research and design, and brands, marketing and sales — than in manufacturing in the middle |
| Fair-trade movement (certifying bodies such as Fairtrade International) | consumers can choose to pay more for goods certified to give producers a guaranteed minimum price and premium |
| NCERT, gess306 (Understanding Media, Class 7) | advertising builds brands and costs a great deal, and the cost is part of what the buyer pays |
NCERT details to read carefully — the shirt
- Shelf price $26 ≈ ₹1,800; cost ₹900 = 300 + 200 + 400; profit ₹900.
- Exporter: sells at ₹300; costs 100 + 25 + 25; profit ₹150.
- Wages per shirt ₹25 — the same as the exporter's office cost per shirt.
- Advertising is ₹400 in the diagram; ‘Rs 300’ in a margin question — a slip; ₹400 is the figure that adds up to ₹900.
- $26 ≈ ₹1,800 implies about ₹69 to the dollar — exchange rates move; don't memorise the conversion as a fact.
- ‘You have read the chapter on advertising’ — no such chapter in this edition (gess306 treats advertising briefly).
6. Who gains in the market? Market and equality
In simple wordsA market is like a long relay race in which every runner carries the shirt one stretch. But the prize money is not shared by distance run. It goes mostly to whoever owns the finishing line — the shop, the brand, the factory — and least to the runners who had to borrow their shoes.
A chain of markets links the cotton producer to the buyer at the supermarket, with buying and selling at every step. A table asks the reader to sort the people into those who gained and those who didn't gain as much. The book's answer: the foreign businessperson made huge profits; the garment exporter, moderate profits; the workers earn barely enough for day-to-day needs; the small cotton farmer and the Erode weaver worked long hours but did not get a fair price; merchants or traders are in between — more than weavers, much less than the exporter. So ‘not everyone gains equally in the market’. Democracy is also about getting a fair wage: if families like Kanta's (gess301) or Swapna's don't earn enough, how can they feel equal to others? On one hand the market offers opportunities — work, and a place to sell what one grows or makes. On the other, the rich and powerful — who own factories, large shops, large land holdings — earn the most, and the poor depend on them: for loans (Swapna), for raw materials and marketing (weavers in the putting-out system), and for employment (garment workers). Because of this dependence, the poor are exploited. Ways to overcome it: producers' cooperatives and laws followed strictly.
Reading the ‘gainers’ table and margin questions (page 93)
- Table (yellow): two blank lists of three — ‘People who gained in the market’ and ‘People who didn't gain as much in the market’. A filled version: gained — foreign businessperson, garment exporter, merchants/traders (some gain); didn't gain as much — small cotton farmer, weavers, garment workers.
- Margin questions: compare earnings per shirt; reasons for the businessperson's huge profit; why he spends on advertising (outlines in the in-text section).
- The point: the book invites the reader to do the sorting — and the numbers make the answer plain.
Reading the clothes-store photograph and the SDG 8 poster (page 94)
- Photograph (colour): a crowded department store full of racks of bright ready-made clothes. Caption: a question — did you know that ready-made clothes need the work of so many different people?
- Poster: ‘GOAL 08 — Decent Work and Economic Growth: promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all’, showing women at sewing machines in a workshop; credit www.in.undp.org.
- The point: the shop floor hides the chain; the poster names what the chain's workers lack — decent work.
| Is the market fair? — who says what (Beyond NCERT except the first two rows) | Position |
|---|---|
| NCERT (pp. 93–94) | the market offers work and a place to sell, but the rich and powerful gain most and the dependent poor are exploited; cooperatives and laws can help |
| NCERT Teacher's Note (p. 75, in gess306.pdf) | opportunities in the market are ‘highly unequal’; cooperative marketing can give producers a better return |
| Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom (1962) | voluntary exchange benefits both parties, and economic freedom supports political freedom; competition, not control, protects the weak |
| United Nations, Sustainable Development Goal 8 (2015) | growth must be inclusive, with full and productive employment, decent work for all and equal pay for work of equal value |
NCERT details to read carefully — equality
- Merchants and traders are ‘somewhere in between’ — not among the biggest gainers, not among the losers.
- The book names three dependences (loans; raw materials and marketing; employment) and two remedies (producers' cooperatives; strict enforcement of laws).
- It does not say markets are bad: it says markets offer opportunities, and that the rich and powerful get the most.
- ‘Kanta’ is the domestic worker from gess301 (On Equality), named here without introduction.
In-text questions and activities — answer outlines
Every margin question and activity, in page order.
(p. 87) Did Swapna get a fair price on the cotton?
No. She got ₹1,500 a quintal when, as she knew, cotton sold for at least ₹1,800 — ₹1,200 less for her 4 quintals (our arithmetic). Her ₹3,000 after repayment, for four months' work, is barely more than a wage labourer's earning.
(p. 87) Why did the trader pay Swapna a low price?
Because he could: she had borrowed ₹2,500 from him and promised to sell him all her cotton, so she could not go to another buyer; she depends on him for future loans (illness, school fees, lean months), so she will not argue; he is a powerful man in the village.
(p. 87) Where do you think large farmers would sell their cotton? How is their situation different from Swapna's?
At the Kurnool cotton market (regulated, competitive bidding) or directly to ginning mills. They have savings or bank credit, so need no trader's loan and are not tied to one buyer; they sell larger quantities, can store and wait for a better price, and have more bargaining power.
(p. 89) What are the following people doing at the Erode cloth market — merchants, weavers, exporters?
Merchants: take orders from garment firms, buy yarn, give it to weavers, collect the cloth and sell it. Weavers: bring cloth made on order (or cloth of their own) to sell. Exporters (and garment manufacturers): buy cloth from merchants to make garments for export.
(p. 89) In what ways are weavers dependent on cloth merchants?
For raw material (yarn), for orders (what and how much to weave), for the market (the merchant sells the cloth), and for payment (at the rate he sets, on his account of yarn given). They do not know the final buyer or the price.
(p. 90) If the weavers were to buy yarn on their own and sell cloth, they would probably earn three times more. Do you think this is possible? How? Discuss.
Possible if they can overcome what the merchant now provides: working capital for yarn (cooperative or bank credit, government schemes), buyers and market information (a cooperative's marketing, government purchases such as Tamil Nadu's uniform scheme, Co-optex, online platforms), and the ability to bear risk. Alone, a small weaver would find it hard — hence the cooperative.
(p. 90) Do you find similar ‘putting-out’ arrangements in making papads, masalas, beedis? Find out about this in your area and discuss in class.
Yes, commonly: a contractor supplies dough, spices or tendu leaves and tobacco to women working at home and pays per piece or per kilo. Note who supplies the raw material, the piece rate, who sells the product and at what price, and the workers' lack of security.
(p. 90) You might have heard of cooperatives in your area — milk, provisions, paddy. Find out for whose benefit they were set up.
For their members — producers (milk cooperatives on the Anand pattern buy members' milk and share surplus) or consumers (cooperative stores). Check who the members are, who runs it, whether members vote, and whether benefits reach small members.
(p. 91) What are the demands foreign buyers make on the garment exporters? Why do the garment exporters agree to these demands?
Demands: the lowest prices, high quality and timely delivery; strict action on defects or delays. Exporters agree because the buyers are large and powerful, place big orders and can go to other suppliers, in India or abroad.
(p. 91) How do the garment exporters meet the conditions set by the foreign buyers?
By cutting costs: maximum work from workers at the lowest possible wages; temporary hiring so workers can be dropped when orders fall; women employed as low-paid helpers. This keeps their own profit and supplies cheaply.
(p. 92) Why do you think more women are employed in the Impex garment factory? Discuss.
The book shows women in the lowest-paid helper jobs; employers can pay them less and hire them temporarily; many women need work near home and have fewer alternatives; skills like sewing and finishing are seen as ‘women's work’. Discuss whether this is fair (Article 39(d) † — equal pay for equal work).
(p. 92) Write a letter to the Minister asking for what you think would be proper payment to the workers.
Format: address, subject, body. Points: the wage levels (₹1,500–3,000 a month, ₹1.50 a piece for ironing); temporary jobs; women in the lowest-paid work; request at least the legal minimum wage († Minimum Wages Act 1948, now the Code on Wages 2019), equal pay, job security and inspection; close politely.
(p. 92) The shirt shows the profit made by the businessperson and his costs. Find out from the diagram what the cost price includes.
Purchase from the exporter ₹300, storage and display ₹200, advertising ₹400 — total ₹900.
(p. 92) Fill in the blanks: purchased for ₹__; advertising ₹__; storage ₹__; profit ₹__.
₹300; ₹400; ₹200; ₹900 (₹1,800 − ₹900).
(pp. 92–93) Can you calculate the profit per shirt for the garment exporter?
₹300 − (₹100 materials + ₹25 wages + ₹25 office) = ₹150 a shirt.
(p. 93) Compare the earnings per shirt of the worker, the garment exporter and the businessperson abroad. What do you find?
Worker ₹25 (wages), exporter ₹150 (profit), businessperson ₹900 (profit): 1 : 6 : 36. The further from the work and the nearer the final buyer, the larger the gain.
(p. 93) What are the reasons that the businessperson is able to make a huge profit in the market?
He is a large, powerful buyer who dictates prices and terms to many competing suppliers; he controls the shop and the brand and the access to rich consumers; he sells at a high price in a rich country; advertising lets him charge more; he sells in large numbers.
(p. 93) You have read the chapter on advertising. Why does the businessperson spend Rs 300 per shirt on advertising? Discuss.
(The diagram says ₹400; and there is no advertising chapter in this edition.) To build a brand and persuade buyers the shirt is worth a high price; to stand out from competitors; to sell large numbers. The cost is recovered from the buyer in the ₹1,800 price.
(p. 93) Place the people in the table: who gained in the market, and who didn't gain as much?
Gained: the foreign businessperson (huge profits), the garment exporter (moderate), the merchants/traders (in between). Didn't gain as much: Swapna the small farmer, the Erode weavers, the garment-factory workers.
Exercises (page 95) — answer outlines
Four exercises and a three-term glossary. Try first, then open.
1. What made Swapna sell the cotton to the trader instead of selling at the Kurnool cotton market?
She had borrowed ₹2,500 from the trader at a high interest rate for seeds, fertilisers and pesticides, on condition that she sell all her cotton to him. She also depends on him for loans in illness, for school fees and in months without work, so she could not risk displeasing him.
2. Describe the conditions of employment as well as the wages of workers in the garment exporting factory. Do you think the workers get a fair deal?
Conditions: 70 workers, most women, most temporary — can be asked to leave whenever not needed; maximum work demanded under buyer pressure. Wages: by skill — tailors about ₹3,000 a month, checking ₹2,000, thread cutting and buttoning ₹1,500, ironing ₹1.50 a piece; women in the lowest-paid helper jobs. Fair? Wages are ₹25 a shirt against the exporter's ₹150 profit and the buyer's ₹900; earnings barely cover daily needs; no security — not a fair deal by the book's account. † Constitution Articles 39(d), 43; Code on Wages 2019.
3. Think of something common that we use — sugar, tea, milk, pen, paper, pencil. Discuss through what chain of markets this reaches you. Can you think of the people that help in the production or trade?
Example, tea: plantation workers pluck leaves → factory processes → auction centre → wholesalers and blenders/packers → distributors → retail shop → you. People: workers, factory staff, auctioneers, brokers, transporters, packers, shopkeepers. Ask who gains most at each link, as in the shirt story.
4. Arrange the statements in the correct order and fill in the numbers in the cotton bolls. The first two are done (1, 3).
1 (Swapna sells to the trader) → 3 (trader sells to the ginning mill) → 9 (ginning mill cleans and bales) → 7 (spinning mill buys cotton, sells yarn to dealers) → 5 (yarn dealers/merchants give yarn to weavers) → 8 (weavers return with cloth) → 4 (exporters buy cloth from merchants) → 6 (exporter sells shirts to the US businessperson) → 2 (customers buy in a supermarket).
⤵ Exercise 4 as a chain — the nine statements in order (p. 95)
1Swapna sells the cotton to the trader
3Trader sells cotton to the ginning mill
9Ginning mill cleans the cotton and makes bales
7Spinning mill buys the cotton, sells yarn to yarn dealers
5Yarn dealers or merchants give the yarn to weavers
8Weavers return with the cloth
4Garment exporters buy the cloth from merchants
6Exporter sells shirts to the businessperson from the USA
2Customers buy the shirts in a supermarket
Reading the exercise boll chain and the glossary (page 95)
- Exercise figure (yellow panel): ten drawn cotton bolls in two rows linked by arrows — right along the top, down, left along the bottom — with ‘1’ and ‘3’ filled in, the rest blank for the pupil (there are nine statements; the order is given above).
- Glossary (boxed): ginning mill, exporter, profit — all in the key-terms table.
Reading the back matter (pages 96–97 and the poster)
- References (p. 96): the book's sources, including Tirthankar Roy on Tamil Nadu powerlooms (1999) and Indrani Mazumdar, Women and Globalization (2007) — the likely sources of this chapter's Erode and garment-worker material.
- India political map (p. 97, Government of India copyright, with Survey of India notes) — back matter, not part of the chapter; not drawn here (no maps).
- Road-safety poster (unnumbered): a Delhi Traffic Police school road-safety campaign of October 2016–January 2017, with road signs and websites for road-safety material.
Keys and slips to handle with care
- No Prelims question is linked; the two Mains questions carry no key.
- Book slips with safe lines: advertising ₹400 (diagram) v ‘Rs 300’ (margin) — use ₹400; ironing ‘₹1.50 (per piece)’ in a ‘per month’ table — quote per piece; ‘the chapter on advertising’ — no such chapter now; the exercise figure has ten bolls for nine statements.
- Dated figures: all rupee amounts (₹1,500 a quintal, ₹3,500 a month, ₹3,000 for tailors) are undated illustrations, not current prices or wages; ‘$26 ≈ ₹1,800’ implies about ₹69 a dollar — quote as the book's conversion.
⤵ Answer frame for a GS1 question on globalisation and women, or the textile industry
Definethe chain — farm, ginning, spinning, weaving, garmenting, export, retail — and who works at each link
Structuredecentralised: home-based powerlooms and handlooms under putting-out, small units, mills; cotton grown widely
Gainsjobs and own wages for women in export garments (Kabeer); market access; cooperatives
Coststemporary work, lowest-paid helper jobs, buyer pressure on wages (NCERT; Gereffi; jess204)
Law and policyArticles 39(d), 43; Code on Wages 2019; cooperatives (97th Amendment 2011); SDG 8
Way forwardfrom official reports and evidence — attributed, without characterising any present-day party or government
What to remember
Numbers
Chapterbook pp. 86–95 (13-page PDF with references p. 96, India map p. 97, a road-safety poster)
Swapna's loan (book)₹2,500 from the trader, at a very high interest rate; condition: sell him all her cotton
Swapna's sale (book)₹1,500/quintal → ₹6,000; ₹3,000 deducted; ₹3,000 paid; she knew ≥ ₹1,800/quintal
Swapna (our arithmetic)4 quintals; interest ₹500 = 20% for the season; ₹1,200 lost v ₹1,800; ≈ ₹750 a month (asserted)
Erode (book)bi-weekly cloth market in Tamil Nadu, ‘one of the largest in the world’
Weaving units (book)about 2–8 powerlooms; loom ₹20,000; two looms ₹40,000
Weavers' earnings (book)≈ ₹3,500 a month for the weaver and another adult, up to 12 hours a day (₹42,000 a year, asserted)
Impex (book)70 workers, mostly women, mostly temporary; tailoring ₹3,000; checking ₹2,000; thread cutting/buttoning ₹1,500; ironing ₹1.50 a piece
US shirt (book)$26 ≈ ₹1,800; bought ₹300 + storage ₹200 + advertising ₹400 = ₹900; profit ₹900
Exporter (book)sells at ₹300; materials ₹100, wages ₹25, office ₹25 → profit ₹150 (asserted)
Ratio (our arithmetic)wages : exporter's profit : businessperson's profit = 25 : 150 : 900 = 1 : 6 : 36
Exercise 4 order1, 3, 9, 7, 5, 8, 4, 6, 2
Wage law †Articles 39(d), 43; Minimum Wages Act 1948 → Code on Wages 2019; Labour Codes in force Nov 2025; PUDR v Union of India 1982 (Art. 23)
Cooperatives †97th Amendment 2011 (Art. 19(1)(c), 43B, Part IXB); Ministry of Cooperation 2021; Kaira union 1946; Co-optex 1935
Cotton and textiles †CCI 1970; KCC 1998; Bt cotton 2002; MFA ended 1 Jan 2005; National Handloom Day 7 Aug (from 2015; Swadeshi 1905)
Scholars and bodies †Bhaduri 1973; Bardhan 1980; Gereffi 1994; ILO Decent Work 1999; Kabeer 2000; SDG 8 (2015)
One-liners
- A chain of markets links the cotton producer to the shirt's buyer, with buying and selling at every step.
- Swapna sold to the trader because his loan came with a promise to sell him all her cotton.
- A loan tied to the sale of the crop leaves the farmer no choice of buyer or price.
- Erode, in Tamil Nadu, has a bi-weekly cloth market, one of the largest in the world.
- In the putting-out system the merchant supplies raw material and receives the finished product.
- Weavers depend on merchants for both raw materials and markets — so merchants hold the power.
- A weavers' cooperative procures yarn and markets cloth, reducing the merchant's role.
- Foreign buyers demand the lowest price, high quality and timely delivery; exporters cut wages to comply.
- Most Impex workers are women and temporary; women helpers get the lowest wages.
- Of a ₹1,800 shirt, the businessperson's profit is ₹900, the exporter's ₹150, the workers' wages ₹25.
- The poor depend on the rich for loans, raw materials and marketing, and employment.
- Producers' cooperatives and strict enforcement of laws are the book's remedies.
Traps to avoid
- Swapna borrowed ₹2,500 but ₹3,000 was deducted — the difference is interest.
- The trader paid ₹1,500 a quintal; ₹1,800 was the price she knew — not what she got.
- Erode's market is bi-weekly (twice a week), and Erode is in Tamil Nadu; Kurnool is in Andhra Pradesh.
- The Erode weavers use powerlooms; handlooms appear only in the Co-optex line.
- Uniform cloth comes from powerloom cooperatives; Co-optex sells handloom cooperatives' cloth.
- ₹3,500 a month is for the weaver and another adult together, not each.
- Advertising is ₹400 in the shirt diagram, ‘Rs 300’ in the margin question.
- Ironing is ₹1.50 per piece, though the table is headed ‘per month’.
- The exporter's profit is ₹150, not ₹300 — ₹300 is his selling price.
- Merchants and traders are ‘in between’ — neither the biggest gainers nor the losers.
How to strategise
Prelims — what UPSC asks
- From this chapter: no Prelims question in our bank tests what the chapter itself teaches. Expect statement questions on its Beyond-NCERT frame: Articles 39(d), 43 and 43B; the 97th Amendment; the Code on Wages; MSP and the Cotton Corporation of India; National Handloom Day.
- Elsewhere: National Handloom Day and the Swadeshi movement (2023) sit with modern history; Tirupur as a knitwear exporter (2005) with industry geography; ‘yarn used by the weaver’ as working capital (2024) with the economy's capital concepts; Bt cotton (1999, 2000, 2001) with biotechnology.
Mains — where it appears and how to answer
- From this chapter: GS1 2013 (factors behind the highly decentralised cotton textile industry) — use the chain: cotton grown by small farmers, home-based powerlooms in clusters like Erode under the putting-out system, merchants linking them to garment firms; GS1 2015 (positive and negative effects of globalisation on women) — the Impex factory: jobs and wages for women, but temporary work in the lowest-paid tasks under buyer pressure; add Kabeer and Gereffi as attributed positions.
- Elsewhere: globalisation and informalisation of formal employment (GS3 2016) sits with jess204, jess202, lesy205 and keec106; the four Labour Codes (GS3 2024) with hess308 and keec106; cooperative credit for farmers (GS3 2014) with keec105 and jess203.
- Keep answers neutral: laws, cases and years exact; positions on traders, merchants, global buyers, cooperatives and markets attributed to named scholars, bodies or texts; no characterisation of any present-day party or government or of any company.
Self-check
Tap an option. NCERT's own exercise questions come first; the rest test the figures and common confusions.
1. Why did Swapna sell her cotton to the local trader rather than at the Kurnool cotton market?
2. Swapna's cotton fetched ₹6,000 at ₹1,500 a quintal, and ₹3,000 was deducted for a ₹2,500 loan. Which is correct?
3. In the putting-out system described in the chapter:
4. According to the chapter, the cloth for Tamil Nadu's Free School Uniform programme is bought from:
5. The garment exporter sells a shirt for ₹300; cloth and materials cost ₹100, wages ₹25 and office costs ₹25. His profit per shirt is:
6. Which constitutional provision directs the State to secure equal pay for equal work for both men and women?
7. The book's remedies for the exploitation of the poor in the market are:
UPSC questions from this chapter
Open any question to attempt it in the Question bank — your attempt is saved to your progress.