I started doing farm labour at the age of 17. I did that for 18-19 years. Then, the wage was barely 1000 rupees a month, once I borrowed 600 extra and Only I know what I had to go through to return that amount. I started doing daily wage labour, ranging from two and half rupee a day to ten rupees a day. Sometimes they gave a pile of hay instead of money in exchange for the work we did. They gave some liquor too, to keep us bounded for the next day.
Now I can’t do that, nor does anyone ask me to. My brothers are also shepherds, in between they work at brick kilns too but no one is a farm labourer, we have our own work now. Why bear someone’s arrogance, we like what we do. I get up at 4 in the morning, feed the lambs. Usually we sell the lambs which is a big part of the income from this business other than selling the milk. But in exchange of milk I prefer hay and wheat instead of money.
I have a daughter and two sons, two of them are married. They did very little herding, and I never asked the youngest one to do this. He was more into sports and I let him be. No one of them was interested in studies, even I didn’t force them. They kept going on the way they wished. I don’t like moulding them too much. Little one is into Kabbadi. Every year I make him eat two goats. But he hasn’t been able to achieve much because of the discrimination the SC people face. He has won awards in 65kg category but no one selected him further. Money is the new qualification.