Hello students! In the last Chapter you learnt about different kinds of markets and how a chain of markets operates. Now it’s time for Chapter 8 which examines how markets offer people different opportunities by following the story of a shirt. Intrigued?
As usual our solutions and extra material are the best place to begin your study. Find the material below and we advise you to practise answering the questions on your own as well. This will help you understand and retain the lesson better.
Find NCERT Solutions for Class 7 Civics Chapter 8 ‘A Shirt in the Market’ here.
1. What made Swapna sell the cotton to the trader instead of selling it at the Kurnool cotton market?
Answer:
Swapna sold the cotton to the trader instead of selling it at the Kurnool market at a higher price because she had borrowed Rs 2500/- from him to purchase seeds, fertilisers and pesticides on the condition that she would sell all her cotton to 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?
Answer:
The conditions of employment as well as wages of workers in the garment exporting factory are appalling.
The workers are hired on temporary basis and are made to work for long hours because the factory owners try to squeeze the most work out of the workers at the lowest possible wages to maximise their own profits and supply garments to foreign buyers at a cheap price.
The workers do not get a fair deal because they are exploited and have no rights or facilities. They can be fired whenever the factory owner chooses and are paid paltry wages.
3. Think of something common that we use. It could be sugar, tea, milk, pen, pencil, paper, etc. Discuss through what chain of markets this reaches you. Can you think of the people that help in production or trade?
Answer:
The chain of the tea market involves various stages from production to consumption:
(i) The process begins with tea plantations, where tea leaves are grown and plucked.
(ii) After harvesting, the tea leaves undergo processing in factories. The leaves are withered, rolled, fermented, and dried to develop their unique flavours and characteristics.
(iii) Once processed, tea producers often sell their teas at auction houses. Buyers, including wholesalers and exporters, participate in these auctions to acquire tea in bulk. Almost 70% of the tea produced is sold through auctions.
(iv) Wholesalers and exporters purchase large quantities of tea from auctions or directly from producers. They are responsible for packaging and transporting the tea to different markets.
(v) Tea is distributed to retailers and supermarkets, where consumers can purchase tea in various forms, such as loose leaf, tea bags, or ready-to-drink beverages.
(vi) Finally, consumers buy and consume tea for personal use.
4. Arrange the statements given below in the correct order and then fill in the numbers in the cotton balls accordingly. The first two have been done for you.
- Swapna sells the cotton to the trader.
- Customer buy these shirts in a supermarket.
- The trader sells cotton to the Ginning Mill.
- Garment exporters buy the cloth from merchants making the shirts.
- Yarn dealers or merchants give the yarn to the weavers.
- The exporter sells shirts to the businessperson from the USA.
- Spinning mill buys the cotton and sells yarn to the yarn dealer.
- Weavers return with the cloth.
- Ginning mill cleans the cotton and makes it into bales.
Answer:
1. Swapna sells the cotton to the trader.
3. The trader sells cotton to the Ginning Mill.
9. Ginning mill cleans the cotton and makes it into bales.
7. Spinning mill buys the cotton and sells yarn to the yarn dealer.
5. Yarn dealers or merchants give the yarn to the weavers.
8. Weavers return with the cloth.
4. Garment exporters buy the cloth from the merchants for making shirts.
6. The exporter sells shirts to the businessperson from the USA.
2. Customers buy these shirts in a supermarket.
Solutions for In-Text questions of NCERT Class 7 Civics Social and Political life ll Chapter 8 ‘A Shirt in the Market’
Text Page no 87
1. Did Swapna get a fair price on the cotton?
Answer:
No, Swapna did not get a fair price for her cotton. She was disappointed because she had expected to earn enough from the cotton crop to last her a few months, but she received only a pittance for four months of toil.
2. Why did the trader pay Swapna a low price?
Answer:
The trader had lent Swapna Rs 2500/- at the beginning of the cropping season to buy seeds, fertilisers and pesticides on condition that she would sell him all her cotton. Since she was indebted to him, he exploited the situation by paying her a lower than fair price.
3. Where do you think large farmers would sell their cotton? How is their situation different from Swapna?
Answer:
Large farmers would sell their cotton in the market at the highest price possible. Their position is different from Swapna’s since they cultivated the cotton with their own resources and are free to sell their crop anywhere they choose.
Text Page no 89
1. What are the following people doing at the Erode cloth market – merchants, weavers, exporters?
Answer:
Merchants supply cloth on order to garment manufacturers and exporters around the country. They purchase the yarn and give instructions to the weavers about the kind of cloth that is to be made.
Weavers make cloth in the surrounding villages and bring the cloth to the Erode cloth market for sale. They also get yarn from the merchants and make cloth on order according to specifications given by the merchants.
Exporters use the cloth to make readymade garments like shirts to export them to foreign buyers.
2. In what ways are weavers dependent on cloth merchants?
Answer:
Weavers depend on cloth merchants for supply of yarn so they do not have to invest in purchase of raw material, and also for marketing of the cloth they weave.
Text Page no 90
1. 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.
Answer:
Such a situation would be ideal because the weavers would definitely earn more. They would buy yarn in bulk at the lowest possible price and would sell their cloth in the market of their choice so as to fetch the highest price.
But this situation is not feasible because most individual weavers lack the resources to buy yarn in bulk.
However, if they form weavers’ co-operatives, they would be able to pool in their meagre resources to make bulk purchases at low prices and earn more by selling their cloth at the best possible prices.
2. Do you find similar ‘putting-out’ arrangements in making papads, masalas, beedis? Find out about this in your area and discuss in class.
Answer:
Yes, I find a similar putting-out arrangement in making papads in my locality.
The merchant weighs the dough to make papad and hands it over to women in my locality. They are given specifications as to how many papads they must roll out from one kilogram of dough.
The women line up in the morning to collect the dough.
Then they take it home to roll papads and dry them out either in the sun or by using their stoves.
Once the papad is dry they stack them up and return them to the merchant who counts them and pays the women for their labour. Although the pay is very low, it helps the women to earn some additional income without investing any capital for buying raw material.
The merchant gets the papads packaged and gives them to the distributors for selling.
3. You might have heard of cooperatives in your area. It could be in milk, provisions, paddy, etc. Find out for whose benefit they were set up?
Answer:
Cooperatives are groups where people work together to help each other. They share resources and support each other to get fair prices, loans, and affordable goods. This helps everyone in the group to do better and grow stronger together.
Text Page no 91
1. What are the demands foreign buyers make on the garment exporters? Why do the garment exporters agree to these demands?
Answer:
Foreign buyers do business strictly on their own terms. They demand the lowest prices from the supplier and at the same time set high standards for quality of production and timely delivery. The penalty for defects or delays in delivery are strictly enforced.
The garment exporters agree to these terms rather than lose their clients because they will be able to gain maximum profit through stringent cost-cutting measures.
2. How do the garment exporters meet the conditions set by the foreign buyers?
Answer:
The garment exporters take stringent measures to cut cost. They extract maximum work out of the workers at the lowest possible wages. They meet the foreign buyer’s conditions by exploiting the workers.
Text Page no 92
1. Why do you think more women are employed in the Impex garment factory? Discuss.
Answer:
More women are employed in the impex garment factory perhaps because certain tasks in the garment factory, such as cutting threads and buttoning, might be considered more suitable for women based on traditional gender roles.
Moreover, women might agree to work for low wages as their income serves as a supplementary source for their families.
2. Write a letter to the Minister asking for what you think would be proper payment to the workers.
Kanta Misra
C7/4079 Vasant Kunj
New Delhi
110070
31/07/2023
Mr Shankar Yadav
Minister of Textiles
Ministry of Textiles
Udyog Bhawan. Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Marg
Rajpath Area, Central Secretariat
New Delhi
110011
Honourable Minister Yadav,
I am writing to draw your attention to the issue of low wages prevailing in the garment industry, especially the wages paid to women. It is disheartening to see many workers struggling to meet their basic needs due to inadequate wages. They are often compelled to take loans at high rates of interest from the local traders who exploit them.
In view of these disturbing facts, I strongly urge you to consider setting a minimum wage of Rs 10,000 per month for garment workers. This step would improve their standard of living and contribute to their overall well-being.
By setting a minimum wage, we can ensure that workers are paid fairly and are able to meet their daily expenses, support their families, and lead a more dignified life.
I hope you will take this request into active consideration and work towards implementing a minimum wage of Rs 10,000 per month for garment workers.
Sincerely,
Kanta Misra
Top of Form
3. The shirt below shows the profit made by the businessperson, and the various costs that he had to pay. Find out from the diagram below, what the cost price includes.
The cost price of the shirt includes the cost of the cloth and other materials, the worker’s wages, the cost of running the office, cost of storage and advertisement. (Rs 300+ Rs 200+ Rs 400 = Rs 900)
Text Page no 93
1. Compare the earnings per shirt of the worker in the garment factory, the garment exporter and the business person in the market abroad. What do you find?
Answer:
The business person abroad makes a profit of Rs. 900 on one shirt and the garment exporter gains Rs. 150 on one shirt. So far as the worker’s earning is concerned, he gets only Rs. 25 per shirt.
The irony is that the garment exporter makes 6 times as much money as the worker makes and the business person abroad makes 36 times as much money as the worker makes. The inequality is glaring as the poor worker who creates the shirt is deprived while the person who had nothing to do with the production of the shirt makes the most money.
2. What are the reasons that the business person is able to make a huge profit in the market?
Answer:
The reasons why the business person is able to make a huge profit in the market are as follows:
(i) He buys the shirt from the garment exporter at the lowest price possible.
(ii) He spends money on advertisement thus creating a brand which attracts buyers.
(iii) He sells them in a country where garments are much costlier than the country of production.
(iv) He sells shirts to affluent people.
3. You have read the chapter on advertising. Why does the business person spend Rs 400 per shirt on advertising? Discuss.
Answer:
The business person spends Rs 400 per shirt to build a brand because it is the key to multiplying profits. The advertisements of the new brand stick in the consumers mind and they are likely to be swayed to purchase the shirt when they see the brand name.
As a result, the sales increase and the brand owner makes a handsome profit from the sale of the branded shirts.
Since it is through advertising that the brand is promoted, the business person feels justified in spending Rs 400 per shirt on advertising.
4. People who gained in the market
1. The foreign business person
2. The exporter
3. The Trader
People who didn’t gain as much in the market
1. The worker who produced the shirt
2.The poor farmer who was already in debt
3. The weaver
Extra Questions NCERT Class 7 Civics Social and Political life ll Chapter 8 ‘A Shirt in the Market’
A. Multiple Choice type Questions (MCQ)
1. Why did Swapna borrow money from the trader?
(i) to build a house
(ii) to buy a plot of land to cultivate cotton
(iii) To buy seeds, pesticides and fertilisers
(iv) None of the above
2. How long did Swapna toil to grow the cotton?
(i) On year
(ii) three months
(iii) four months
(iv) six months
3. How frequently does the cloth market in Erode function?
(i) one day a week
(ii) once in a fortnight
(iii) once a month
(iv) Twice a week
4. What is bought and sold in the Erode Market?
(i) yarn
(ii) cloth
(iii) both (i) and (ii)
(iv) None of the above
5. Who makes the most profit in the cloth market?
(i)The weavers
(ii) the merchants
(iii) the farmer
(iv) None of the above
6. Weaver’s co-operatives help weavers by_________
(i) reducing the dependence of weavers on the merchants
(ii) ensuring that the weavers earn a higher income
(iii) procuring yarn from the dealer and distributing among weavers
(iv) All of the above
7. Who sells his goods overseas?
(i) importer
(ii) merchant
(iii) farmer
(iv) exporter
8. Who earns the highest wagws in the impex garment factory?
(i) The tailor
(ii) The checker
(iii) The person who irons
(iv) The person who sews buttons
9. Who makes the highest profit in the market?
(i) the merchants
(ii) the weavers
(iii) the exporter
(iv) The foreign business person
10. What are the reasons for which the poor are dependent on the rich?
(i) Loans for purchasing seeds and other inputs
(ii) raw materials and marketing of their goods
(iii) employment
(iv) All of the above
Answer:
1. (iii) To buy seeds, pesticides and fertilisers
2. (iii) four months
3. (iv) Twice a week
4. (iii) both (i) and (ii)
5. (ii) the merchants
6. (iv) All of the above
7. (iv) exporter
8. (i) The tailor
9. (iv) The foreign business person
10. (iv) All of the above
B. Fill in the blanks with suitable words from the box to complete the following sentences:
| costs | trader | pesticides | links | reasonable |
1. Cultivation of cotton requires high levels of inputs such as fertilisers and __________.
2. The __________ is a powerful man in the village and the farmers have to dependon him for loans.
3. At times, the government helps the cooperatives by buying cloth from them at a ________price.
4. Faced with such pressures from buyers, the garment factories, in turn, try to cut _________.
5. A chain of markets __________the producer of cotton to the buyer at the supermarket.
Answer:
1. Cultivation of cotton requires high levels of inputs such as fertilisers and pesticides.
2. The trader is a powerful man in the village and the farmers have to dependon him for loans.
3. At times, the government helps the cooperatives by buying cloth from them at a reasonable price.
4. Faced with such pressures from buyers, the garment factories, in turn, try to cut costs.
5. A chain of markets links the producer of cotton to the buyer at the supermarket.
C. Match the words in column A with those in column B
| A | B |
| Ginning mill | Makes cloth from yarn |
| Cotton bolls | Make yarn from cotton |
| weaver | Contain cotton |
| Spinning mills | Weavers form a group and collectively buy yarn and market the cloth at fair price |
| Weaver’s cooperative | Seeds are removed from cotton and cotton is pressed into bales |
Answer
| A | B |
| Ginning mill | Seeds are removed from cotton and cotton is pressed into bales |
| Cotton bolls | Contain cotton |
| weaver | Makes cloth from yarn |
| Spinning mills | Make yarn from cotton |
| Weaver’s cooperative | Weavers form a group and collectively buy yarn and market the cloth at fair price |
D. State whether the following statements are TRUE or FALSE:
1. The amount that is left or gained from earnings after deducting costs is called investment.
2. It is usually the rich and powerful who gain the maximum earnings from the market.
3. Spinning mllls buy the cotton and sell yarn to the yarn dealers.
4. Most workers at the Impex factory are employed on temporary basis.
5. Swapna would have earned much more from cotton cultivation than she would have earned as a wage labourer.
Answer:
1. False – The amount that is left or gained from earnings after deducting costs is called profit. If the costs exceed earnings, it would lead to loss.
2. True
3. True
4. True
5. False – Swapna’s earnings from cotton cultivation is barely more than she might have earned as a wage labourer.
E. Very Short Answer type Questions:
1. Who is Swapna?
Answer:
She is a small cotton farmer in Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh
2. How much money did she borrow from the local trader at the beginning of the cropping season?
Answer:
She borrowed a sum of Rs 2500 at a very high rate of interest.
3. What inputs does cultivation of cotton require?
Answer:
The cultivation of cotton requires inputs like seeds, fertilisers and pesticides.
4. Which is an important cloth market in Tamil Nadu?
Answer:
Erode’s bi-weekly cloth market in Tamil Nadu is one of the largest cloth markets of the world.
5. How do weavers benefit from the putting-out system?
Answer:
The weavers do not have to spend money on purchase of yarn and the problem of finding a buyer for the cloth is taken care of.
6. What makes the merchants powerful?
Answer:
They control the market so the small weavers are dependent on them.
7. How much does a loom cost?
Answer:
A loom costs Rs 20000/-.
8. How do the exporters make profit?
Answer:
The exporters make profit by exploiting the workers. They extract the maximum work out of the workers at the lowest possible wages.
9. What are the jobs assigned to women in the Impex factory?
Answer:
The women are hired as helpers for thread cutting, buttoning, ironing and packaging.
10. How are the producer of cotton and the buyer at the supermarket linked?
Answer:
A chain of markets links the producer of cotton to the buyer at the supermarket.
F. Short Answer Type Questions:
1. How are small farmers like Swapna in the grip of the local trader?
Answer:
Small farmers like Swapna depend on the traders for loans during the cropping season to buy seeds, fertilisers and pesticides.
They also need to borrow money to meet exigencies like illnesses and children’s school fees.
Farmers also face seasonal unemployment and they need to borrow money from the trader to tide over times when they have no income. Borrowing for them is a means of survival. Due to these unfortunate circumstances the small farmers remain in the grip of the local traders.
2. What are the working conditions like in the Impex garment factory where garments are produced for the export market?
Answer:
The Impex factory employs 70 workers, most of whom are women. They are employed on a temporary basis which means that any worker can be sacked if the employer wants. Workers’ wages are fixed according to their skill. Tailors are the highest paid earning a meagre Rs 3000/- per month. Women are employed as helpers for thread-cutting, buttoning, ironing, and packaging. These jobs are paid the lowest wages. To increase their profits, the factory owners exploit the workers by extracting the maximum work at the lowest possible wages.
3. How are Weaver’s cooperatives beneficial for the weavers?
Answer:
Weaver’s cooperatives reduce the dependence of weavers on the merchants and ensure a higher income for the weavers. The weavers form a group and take up certain activities collectively for their common benefit. They procure yarn from the yarn dealer and distribute it among the weavers. Since they buy in bulk, they are able to get the yarn at a cheaper rate.
The cooperative also takes care of the marketing. The role of the merchant is reduced and the weavers
get a fair price for their toil.
G. Long answer Type Questions
1. Describe the ‘Putting-out’ system? Who benefits most from this arrangement?
Answer:
The putting-out system is an arrangement between the merchant and the weaver whereby the merchant supplies the raw material to the weaver and receives back the finished product for a very low price. It is prevalent in the weaving industry in most regions of India.
The weavers benefit from this arrangement in the following two ways:
- They do not have to invest any money for procuring the yarn.
- They do not have to worry about finding a buyer for their cloth.
However, this dependence on the merchants for both raw material and markets gives the merchant a lot of power. It is the merchants who benefit most from the putting-out system. The weavers have no way of knowing for whom they are making the cloth or at what price it will sell. The merchant sells the cloth to garment factories at the highest possible rates and thus derives the most benefit from the putting-out system.
2. How does market favour the rich and powerful? What are the ways to overcome them?
Answer:
In the market, the rich and powerful usually make the most money. They own big factories, large shops, and large landholdings.
On the other hand, the poor have to rely on the rich for many things. They need loans to buy raw materials and to meet other exigencies, help selling their goods, and often jobs. This dependence on the rich makes the poor feel trapped. They can be easily taken advantage of in the market.
The poor work hard but get paid very little, while the rich make huge profits.
To improve this situation, the poor can come together and form cooperatives of producers to work for their mutual benefit. Laws should be strictly enforced to protect the rights of the workers.
Frequently asked Questions (FAQs) on NCERT Class 7 Civics Social and Political life ll Chapter 8 ‘A Shirt in the Market’
These solutions and extra material have been designed by an expert team of Indian and foreign-educated teachers taking into account every detail of the lesson and presenting them in the most easy-to-understand way possible. Every single aspect of the story of a shirt has been explained in a clear and lucid manner. Accurate and well-written solutions to all the end-text and in-text questions are provided and many more extra questions in different playful formats have been included to ensure maximum retention. We advise you to go through them.
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The NCERT Class 7 Social and Political Life II Chapter 8 ‘A Shirt in the Market’ discusses the following topics:
1. A cotton farmer in Kurnool
2. The cloth market of Erode
3. The garment exporting factory near Delhi
4. A shirt in the United States
5. Who are the gainers in the market?
6. Market and Equality
The markets offer opportunities for people to earn money in different ways. Some earn by growing crops for sale, others are engaged in different stages of processing the crop like ginning and making bales of cotton, spinning yarn, weaving the yarn into cloth, making garments out of the cloth and finally selling the garments. At each of these stages there are people who work for wages, others earn by trading at different levels in the chain of markets.
But the opportunities that exist are not equal for all. Some people like the foreign businessperson and exporter stand to gain a lot in the market transactions, other traders do not gain as much though they still manage to earn a decent amount, but the small farmers who raise the crops and the factory workers who produce the goods are exploited and barely earn enough to eke out a living, often having to resort to borrowing from traders to survive. The system is riddled with inequality. Some efforts are made to provide a better return for producers of crops by forming cooperatives, but more ways for equitable distribution must be found.
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