The field work on which the landless folk in Hugli District depend is disappearing. Harvesting of rice is now done almost 100% by harvester machines which are smaller scale versions of large harvesters used in Europe and North America. The machine is driven by one man. It cuts the rice and threshes it in one operation. The straw is thrown loosely out onto the ground behind the machine. In this condition the straw is not suitable for chopping by hand on a large blade called a bonti so that it is small enough to be mixed with water and other food to be fed to cattle.

When the rice was cut by hand each labourer used to cut several plants, then leave a tidy bundle of stems on the ground where it was tied up using a stem into a bundle. After drying in the air for a few days on the ground the bundles were collected up into much larger and heavier loads and transported to the owner's yard where it was stacked in readiness for threshing.

With the onset of the machines not only the cutting, but also the carrying and threshing work is disappearing. The machine holds the threshed rice until it is full. Then the grains are poured out into sacks or a trailer which is pulled to the landowner's yard. The machines do not clean the threshed rice very well so some winnowing work remains. The straw which is left strewn in the fields is normally now burnt, causing additional air pollution and contributing to the smog which hangs over local cities in the Winter.

Ploughing of the small fields, which 35 years ago was usually done by a man driving 2 small bullocks, and then by a powerful diesel powered cultivator, is now mostly done at speed by a single person driving a full sized tractor. Transplanting of the rice plant seedlings from the seedbeds where they are germinated is still done by hand, mostly by women. It is inevitable that this work too will eventually be done by machines.

Because of the relatively high cost of tractors and harvesters they are owned by the more wealthy local landowners and business people and hired by the quarter hour to the actual cultivators of the land.

The old way of life, dependent on human and animal power in the fields is vanishing. It is clearly necessary that the new generation of young adults acquire education and enter new types of employment, both for advancement and survival. Dhrubotara understands this well and aims to help the current generation of students to equip themselves better for the future.