281 (21) The houses of the people are, on the whole, poor in character and unattractive in appearance. (22) Furniture in its modern sense is as yet rare in this village. (23) The people of the village are fond of ornaments in which they invest their meagre savings, if any; they are proverbially short of capital and know little of modern forms of investments. (24) The labour problem of the village is acute, as with a rising rate of wages, the efficiency of the labourer is falling. This is mainly due to outside influences im- ported by labourers who occasionally go out in search of employment. (25) The marketing organization of farm products like paddy, gul and mango-fruits, as well as of necessities, is uneconomical. (26) AH these and other factors like the rise of prices have a marked effect upon the general economic condition of the people, which seems to be stationary, if not deteriorating, during the last decade or more. IV. REGARDING THE SPECIAL FACTS OF THEIR ECONOMIC CONDITION AS GAUGED BY STATISTICS (27) The average standard of living varies with the different groups of the people, but in the case of the majo- rity of the Kaliparaj it is decidedly low. (28) Taking the village as a whole, the average Atgam dweller just lives from hand to mouth. (29) Taking the village by economic groups, more than half of the families inhabiting the village live below a decent standard of living as understood by them. (30) The causes of their poverty are the small size^ of the holding resulting in low production, over-population and indebtedness. The first is the primary cause while the latter two are the accentuating1 factors. (31) Looking at the village population as subdivided into the Kaliparaj and the Ujaliparaj, the former are found to be worse situated than the latter. The compari- 36