The village economy is entirely dependent on agricultural activities. Most of Sikh families are employed in farming activities, while most of Hindu families work as support workers within the farming. A few people commute to nearby towns and work in other areas - such as construction, tailoring, etc.The farmland in 74GB is made up of very rich soil and produces wheat, cotton, mustard, cantaloupe and lots of vegetables. It rains very little in Rajasthan; therefore, the primary source of irrigation is canal water. Some farmers have dug up deep wells and harvest groundwater for irrigation to supplement canal water.
Education
----The village has had a government run primary school (grade 5) since 1940s. No effort was made by villagers for decades to get this school upgraded to a higher level. The school has been upgraded to a middle school with classes up to 8th grade over the last few years. However, many families have started sending their children to schools in Anupgarh for "better" and more expensive education - especially those who can afford it. Education level among the older population has very low with most people educated up to primary level and some completely illiterate. However, this has been changing over the past 20 - 25 years for families with enough resources. Some families started sending their children to larger cities, near and far, for higher education. First student from this village got his grade ten diploma in 1975 and the next three in 1981. First graduate with a university degree emerged in 1985 and then there was a stream of these students with more degrees. Some of these first graduates went even further and obtained higher professional education. The village saw its first chartered accountant in early 1990s. Since then scores of other students have gone for higher education in a variety of fields, a few got their masters degrees in commerce and one or two in science fields - but the village has not yet produced a single engineer or a doctor. This change in educational profile has been a very difficult process due to low levels of education among the parents and general absence of higher education institutions in the area (there is now a colleage in Anupgarh, next one is 50 kilometers away in Raisinghnagar and then a few more in Sriganganagar). Nearest university is 150 kilometers away in Bikaner, however, that is considered almost out of bounds due to many cultural barriers for the mostly Punjabi population of this area (Bikaner is not a Punjabi town as against Sriganganagar, therefore, most people prefer to go to Sriganganagar rather than Bikaner). There has been no plan on the part of the state government to establish a university in the area or even in Sriganganagar, which is sizeable city (population approximately 225,000).
A handful of young people are now working outside the village in larger cities and a couple of them have even migrated abroad to pursue higher education and high paying professional careers. The countries that the people have migrated to include Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Even though some people have gone for higher education and got settled outside of the village, the general education level among the villagers is still very low. The farming, which is the primary occupation of the villagers, has not seen any substantial change or benefit from the new technologies or knowledge base that is available to people. Tractors arrived in the village in mid-seventies, however, the irrigation system has not changed at all, therefore, the supply of water to the farms is very erratic and has infact deteriorated over the years with the state government just collecting taxes and spending the money in other parts of the state on the expense of this area. Political leadership is non-existent in the area - with elected representatives showing up every five years to get reelected and then disappearing for the enxt five years.
