Remembering the good old days when life was easier and the price of wheat was just Rs 1.6 per kg, Indian Forest Service officer Parveen Kaswan took to social media to share a photograph of a bill from 1987.
The IFS officer shared his grandfather’s “J Form” which shows the bill of produce sold to the Food Corporation of India. Wondering what’s J form? It’s the sale receipt of a farmer’s agricultural produce in the grain market.
Parveen Kaswan tweeted, “Time when wheat used to be at 1.6 rupees per kg. The wheat crop my grandfather sold in 1987 to the Food Corporation of India.” In a follow-up tweet, he posted that his grandfather had a habit of keeping all the records intact. “This document is called a J form. His collection has all documents of crops sold in the last 40 years. One can study at home itself.”
The post has managed to get over 38,400 views, 643 likes and several comments ever since it has been shared.
Reacting to the post, a user wrote, “Thank you sir for posting this. I have read about the J form Today first time.” Another user wrote, “1987 Gold rate was Rs.2,570, so per inflation/gold rate today, wheat would have cost 20X.”
A third user wrote, “Amazing. The elders back then used to write down all the details of every penny spent. Keep records like this for the crop they sold. So much to learn.”
What is the J Form?
The “J form” is an income proof for a farmer who sells his crops. It was earlier issued manually by commission agents. Several agents used to keep these forms with themselves before the digitisation of the J form rather than providing it to the farmers.
