Sushil Kumar Tomar, a farmer with 25 bighas of land, is from Khera village, a part of a cluster of 64 Kshatriya/Rajput-dominated villages spread over 50km covering three districts of Hapur, Meerut and Gautam Buddha Nagar in Uttar Pradesh

Name & Age: Sushil Kumar Tomar, 58

Education & Profession: Class XII dropout; farmer

Family & Place:

Lives in Khera village under Hapur district of Uttar Pradesh, some 50km north-east of Delhi, with wife and two sons, Brajesh Kumar (27) and Lalit Kumar (25)

Do you earn more or less, compared with 2019?

Earnings have increased compared to 2019 but the rise in prices of essentials has nullified the gains. Yield from my farms in recent times has declined majorly due to the nilgai menace. The nilgais come in herds and destroy the crops. The government must do something to tackle this menace. Farming has become un-remunerative and so my two sons work in a private textile company in Pilkhuwa, an industrial town nearby. They don’t earn much though. They get around ₹12,000 per month but it is still a big support

Do you save more or less compared with 2019?

I am hardly able to save anything

What things does your house now have that it did not have in 2019?

Nothing new, except a second-hand motorcycle that one of my sons bought recently

Have central/state govt schemes made any difference to your life? How?

Yes, I get ₹6,000 annually under the PM Kisan Samman scheme

Do your children go to school? If it’s a govt school, then has there been any change in standards/ infrastructure?

No but children of my relatives study in the village government school. Government schools have become better under the Yogi (Adityanath) government

Do you encounter more corruption or less in your daily life? Can you cite from personal experience areas where you are directly affected by corruption?

Don’t know if it has increased or decreased. It is impossible to eradicate corruption from our country

Khera village under Ghaziabad constituency voted on April 26