As a group of women belonging to the Indian agrarian community, you live with overwhelming odds! Burdened by overdue debts, all-female cultivators battle with daily trials and tribulations. Some of them may have lost all hope, some may have rescued themselves, and some will take odd jobs for survival.
Whichever card you may play, you will have to make attempts to survive.
“Statistically, every forty minutes a farmer commits suicide in India.” These conversations are important to us, and we are very sensitive to respect this valuable insight. Researching at the primary level with the help of a local surveyor, we witnessed that the rate of this crisis is alarming. Nearly 75% of the full-time workers on Indian farms like you are women (OXFAM). Women are both directly and indirectly impacted by these alarming suicides. This game looks at female farmers’ distress and agrarian crisis as a running commentary of the current time.
Beating the clock, the players confront these distress situations that narrate the farmers’ ongoing battle of survival against intangible and tangible issues.
A. Player’s Persona
1. All players are female, performing varied roles in farming.
2. Every card reads the persona of your character
B. Currency
The money bank/ money lending agency is a common representation of all lending parties of moneylenders, formal and informal credit, relatives, for the ease of the game with the following denominations: Rs.10,000, Rs. 5,000 and Rs. 2,500.
C. PLAYING DECKS
DECK 01 - Kharif cropping season:
April to September - 36 cards
DECK 02 - Rabi cropping season:
October to March - 36 cards
D. Playing Seed
Pick a small playing token from your kitchen to play the game. The token can be anything perishable (a vegetable, a fruit) that will be called - SEED. A seed is synonymous with the metaphor of hope/ germination/ cultivation/ growth that is sacred to any farmer. The seed will be used to move forward each month.
E. GAME BOARD
The game board is a playing farm field that stages the trials and tribulations of the life of a farmer from one month to another.
EACH MONTH = EACH ROUND
1 Year = 12 rounds
F. Game Manual
Note: check the key to whom the play card applies.
a) To pay or receive cash -
Transactional cards
b) To perform gestures - Action cards
c) To be played later - Keep
cards
Note: Some cards ask you to return the wage / allowance for not
working in that round.
**in case, the card is not applicable to you play as it is and continue
with your regular farming activities.
SURVIVED!
At the 40 minute mark, the player with the maximum debt loses her battle with the crisis.
How? Calculate your total debt, including your main debt on the persona/ character card, and balance it out with the revenue. Other players can continue to play if they wish. Repeat the same process, by setting the timer for 40 minutes.
Q. What are Kharif crops?
Kharif crops also known as summer/ monsoon crops like rice, maize, millet, ragi, pulses, jute, cotton, sown early in May. The crops are water-intensive, requiring hot weather to grow, which can be spoiled by excessive or insufficient rainfall.The harvesting of the crops occurs around later October, depending upon the type of the crops.
Q. What are Rabi crops?
Rabi crops are also known as winter crops, sown at the beginning of the winter season in November, such as wheat, barley, potatoes, oats, gram, mustard, linseed. They require a warm climate during the sowing season and grow in cold temperatures. The harvesting occurs from late March to April.
Q. Why must a farmer/ cultivator rotate a crop?
Repeatedly growing the same crop deprives the soil of specific nutrients. But by rotating distinct crops in the same piece of land in a year replenishes the soil organically, controls insect/ pests, prevents diseases and controls weeds. This is generally known to be a healthy and sustainable practice for farmers/ cultivators in the long run. (*see crop table)
Q. Why are all players female? What are the overwhelming odds faced by them?
Women contribute to a sizable part of the workforce in Indian agriculture and allied activities but their contribution stays obscure at all times. Regardless of their notable number their land ownership ranges from meager 6 -13% (Indian Human Development Survey, 2011). The absence of land rights not just keeps landless women and agricultural laborers on the fringes but poor asset holding jolts their credibility, credit access, and grants. Even though women handle 75% of agricultural operations, female hourly wage rates in farm and farm activities vary from 50-75% of male rates. Merely, 7.5% of women participate in decision-making against 92.5% of men (Information Docket, Dilli Chalo, 2018). With a burgeoned number of suicides mostly done by men, women are left with their debts. Poor social security by the virtue of their gender, legislation, and delays in support add to their woes clubbed with the burden of household chores contribute to the further economic disparity. Because of the religious following of the law of inheritance women are never entitled to land in their names or may be in the case if they have a male heir. This de-feminization due to their entitlement and feminization due to their massive number co-exists in India’s agrarian system. Thus, women end up working as farm labourers earning 2-4$ a day in urban areas and much less in rural areas leaving them under abject poverty.
Q. What is the significance of 40 minutes?
In India, a farmer ends their life every 30-40 minutes. Walloped by consecutive years of drought in certain states, unseasonal rains, legislation, policies, debts, and fluctuating global commodity prices, more than 12,600 farmers and agricultural laborers committed suicide in 2015 (Sharma, Ground Reality, 2018), and over 3 lakh farmers have committed suicides between 1995 and 2015. National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). These figures are yet underreported.
Farming and allied activities is a high- stress profession that is associated with a higher suicide rate than the general population. It is claimed that a wide range of reasons behind a farmer’s suicide globally including mental health issues, physical environment, family problems, and economic stress led to total agrarian distress.
Moreover, NCRB defines a farmer /cultivator as one whose profession is farming and includes those who cultivate their own land/leased land/other’s land with or without the assistance of agricultural laborers. While reporting farming suicides, cases of people who have land on their names are considered as farmers. There exists an ambiguous count in the definition and classification of farmers, which further affects recognition of the female face in agriculture.
Q. Who is a cultivator?
A Cultivator is someone who cultivates their own land or have the right to operate on it.
Q. Who is a farm labourer?
Farm Labourers are landless who work on daily or monthly wages on the land of others to earn their livelihood.
Q. Why have artists made this serious game?
The game is drawn from real-life scenarios that provide an immersive experience and trigger a social-political discourse that questions the status quo. The aim is to map gender social-consciousness by disseminating knowledge to develop intrinsic insights, which otherwise are not catered to. These conversations are important to us, as we are very sensitive to respect this valuable insight. By making the people confront these distress situations, we have made an attempt to narrate the farmers’ ongoing battle of survival against intangible and tangible issues through a game that serves a purpose.
A. Authorities & Institutions
A.1 Subsidies/Acts
A.2 Private Authorities/Corporations
A.3 Land Ownership
A.4 Insurance
A.5 Microfinance Institutions
A.6 Union Budget
A.7 Political Parties
A.8 Agricultural Marketing Committees
A.9 Elections
A.10 Contract Farming
A.11 Legal Aid
A.12 Tariffs
A.13 Policies
A.14 Commission Agents
A.15 Political Insurgency
A.16 Demonetization
A.17 Land Reforms
A.18 Fragmentation of Landholding
A.19 Loan Waive Offs
A.20 Nationalized Banks
A.21 Minimum Support Price
A.22 Kisan Credit Card
A.23 Farmer’s Credit Limit
A.24 Public Distribution System
B. Socioeconomic Factors
B.25 Religion
B.26 Caste
B.27 Gender
B.28 Low Education Levels
B.29 Lower Wages
B.30 Household Consumption Expenditure
B.31 Inequality in Income
B.32 Poverty
B.33 Per Capita Income
B.34 Suicides
B.35 Rural Urban Migration
B.36 Growing Population
C. Economy
C.37 Great Depression
C.38 Green Revolution
G.94 Disgui
C.39 Fiscal and Monetary Policies
C.40 Economic Crisis
C.41 Trade
C.42 GDP
C.43 International Organizations
C.44 Inflation
C.45 Consumption
C.46 Globalization, Liberalization, Privatisation
C.47 Volatile Prices
D. Environmental Factors
D.48 Inadequate Rainfall Distribution
D.49 Climate Change
D.50 Global Warming
D.51 Epidemic
D.52 Wind
D.53 Agricultural Drought
D.54 Agricultural Season
D.55 Famine
D.56 Reduced Groundwater Levels
D.57 Other Natural Calamities
E. Development Factors
E.58 Transport
E.59 Irrigation
E.60 Storage
F. Human Factors
F.61 Riots
F.62 Agricultural Labourer
F.63 War
F.64 Exploitation by Middlemen
F.65 Protests
F.66 Rural Distress
F.67 Hoarding by Traders
F.68 Zamindari Systems
F.69 Debt Bandage
F.70 Inherited Indebtedness
F.71 Sharecropping
F.72 Access to Resources
F.73 Agriculture Workforce
F.74 Corruption
F.75 Scarcity of Capital
F.76 Moneylenders
F.77 Faulty Farming Practices
F.78 Overuse of Resources
F.79 Borrowings
F.80 Loan Repayment
G. Nature of Agriculture
G.81 Perishability
G.82 Crop Rotation
G.83 Fertility of Land
G.84 Sustainable Farming
G.85 Intensive Farming
G.86 Economies of Scale
G.87 Lower Crop Yield
G.88 Cattle Farming
G.89 Risks
G.90 Subsistence Nature of Agriculture
G.91 Agricultural Market Failure
G.92 Traditional Farming
G.93 New Market Opportunities
G.94 Disguised Unemployment
G.95 Alternative Livelihood
G.96 Agricultural Productivity
G.97 Seasonal Employment
H.98 Rising Input Cost
H.99 Shortage of Inputs
H.100 Quality of Seeds
Note: these crops have been adapted for ease of gameplay, the information has been broken down to facilitate the understanding of the game. The key pointers are very close to the actual facts.
Q. Why are all players female? What are the overwhelming odds faced by them?
Women contribute to a sizable part of the workforce in Indian agriculture and allied activities but their contribution stays obscure at all times. Regardless of their notable number their land ownership ranges from meager 6 -13% (Indian Human Development Survey, 2011). The absence of land rights not just keeps landless women and agricultural laborers on the fringes but poor asset holding jolts their credibility, credit access, and grants. Even though women handle 75% of agricultural operations, female hourly wage rates in farm and farm activities vary from 50-75% of male rates. Merely, 7.5% of women participate in decision-making against 92.5% of men (Information Docket, Dilli Chalo, 2018). With a burgeoned number of suicides mostly done by men, women are left with their debts. Poor social security by the virtue of their gender, legislation, and delays in support add to their woes clubbed with the burden of household chores contribute to the further economic disparity. Because of the religious following of the law of inheritance women are never entitled to land in their names or may be in the case if they have a male heir. This de-feminization due to their entitlement and feminization due to their massive number co-exists in India’s agrarian system. Thus, women end up working as farm labourers earning 2-4$ a day in urban areas and much less in rural areas leaving them under abject poverty.
Q. What is the significance of 40 minutes?
In India, a farmer ends their life every 30-40 minutes. Walloped by consecutive years of drought in certain states, unseasonal rains, legislation, policies, debts, and fluctuating global commodity prices, more than 12,600 farmers and agricultural laborers committed suicide in 2015 (Sharma, Ground Reality, 2018), and over 3 lakh farmers have committed suicides between 1995 and 2015. National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
These figures are yet underreported.
Farming and allied activities is a high- stress profession that is associated with a higher suicide rate than the general population. It is claimed that a wide range of reasons behind a farmer’s suicide globally including mental health issues, physical environment, family problems, and economic stress led to total agrarian distress.
Moreover, NCRB defines a farmer /cultivator as one whose profession is farming and includes those who cultivate their own land/leased land/other’s land with or without the assistance of agricultural laborers. While reporting farming suicides, cases of people who have land on their names are considered as farmers. There exists an ambiguous count in the definition and classification of farmers, which further affects recognition of the female face in agriculture.
Q. Who is a cultivator?
A Cultivator is someone who cultivates their own land or have the right to operate on it.
Q. Who is a farm labourer?
Farm Labourers are landless who work on daily or monthly wages on the land of others to earn their livelihood.
Q. Why have artists made this serious game?
The game is drawn from real-life scenarios that provide an immersive experience and trigger a social-political discourse that questions the status quo. The aim is to map gender social-consciousness by disseminating knowledge to develop intrinsic insights, which otherwise are not catered to. These conversations are important to us, as we are very sensitive to respect this valuable insight. By making the people confront these distress situations, we have made an attempt to narrate the farmers’ ongoing battle of survival against intangible and tangible issues through a game that serves a purpose.
