question_answer 2)

What happened to the women and children? Cow keeping, collection of firewood, gleaning, gathering of fruits and berries from the common lands was earlier mostly done by women and children. Can you suggest how enclosures must have affected the lives of women and children? Can you imagine how the disappearance of common lands might have changed the relationship between men, women and children within the family?

Answer:

When the landlords erected these enclosures, the women and children could not carry out their traditional activities listed here. They could only do so against suitable payment, but as they were very poor, they could not do so.   Due to the disappearance of common lands, the traditional relationships in the families were drastically affected. Probably, the following problems would have occurred   (i) The men would become stressful due to being not able to feed the family properly. They would quarrel with other family members while trying to justify themselves.   (ii) The women would be trying to do odd jobs to earn some money and so neglecting their traditional family duties. They would also quarrel with other members of the family.   (iii) The children would be the most affected, as they would not get the nutrition desired. They may become ill-mannered and may also resort to stealing food items to satisfy their hunger.