Why do you think Khetaram has taken up this challenging job?
Khetaram has taken up this challenging job out of sheer necessity and for survival. In his region, "akaal or famine is a way of life", making agriculture highly unreliable and difficult. Even in a good year, he manages to harvest only one crop of bajra, which is entirely insufficient to feed his family of five.
Without this job, Khetaram clearly states that his family "would starve". Therefore, despite the severe challenges, extreme heat, and harsh conditions of the job, he continues to endure them. The job provides the essential financial support needed to keep his family from going hungry when farming fails.
Explanation
The textbook context explicitly provides Khetaram's own reasoning for taking up the job. He mentions that famine is a way of life, yielding only one crop of bajra in a good year, which cannot feed his family of five, and they would starve without this job. This highlights his economic compulsion.