Chapter I INTRODUCTION Agriculture is the backbone of Indian economy. Though the share of agriculture in the GDP is declining, it continues to be a significant contributor. The share of agriculture in the GDP continues to be lower around 25 per cent (as compared with 30 per cent of industry and 45 per cent of services). The scenario is very different in the developed countries where agriculture forms a very small percentage of the national income (U.K: 2 per cent and U.S.A: 3 per cent). In India it still provides employment to nearly two-thirds of the population, though many of them engaged in agricultural activities are not fully employed. Thus agriculture plays a vital role in Indian economy even now (Agarwal, 2003). Labour refers to physical or mental exertion of human being, for which wage is the reward (Bright Singh, 1998). In agricultural sector most of the people nearly two third has been employed because agricultural workers are unskilled and semi-skilled. That is why disguised unemployment is found. Disguised unemployment means seemingly the labourers are employed, but contribute nothing to total productivity or marginal productivity is zero. Agricultural workers constitute mostly neglected class of Indian rural structure. Their income is low and employment is irregular since they possess no skill or training, they have no alternative employment opportunities. Socially, a large number of agricultural workers belong to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. Therefore they are an oppressed class. They are not organized and can not fight for their rights. Because of all these reasons their economic lot has failed to improve even them four and half decades of planning. It seems that (excepting pockets in Punjab, Hariyana and Western Utter Pradesh) the planning process has by passed them (Misra and Misra, 2003). 2 One of the most disquieting features of the rural economy of India has been the growth in the number of agricultural workers – cultivators and agricultural labourers – engaged in crop production. The phenomena of unemployment, under-development and surplus population, are all simultaneously manifested in the daily lives and livings of agricultural labourers. They get usually low wages, conditions of work put an excessive burden on them and employment which they get is extremely irregular. What Dr. Pattabi said in 1940 still holds true speaking at the agricultural labourer’s conference he said “The cultivators who spend the day between slush and mud, who work nows with a starving stomach and now with a half appeased appetite who know no rest in storm or sunshine, who often times has no dwelling site which can be called his own, he grows our paddy but starves. He feeds our milch cows but never knows anything beyond Kanjee and Water. He digs our wells but must keep off from them when they are full. He is a perpetual hewer of wood and drawer of water for those who fatten on his labour and raise to wealth and plenty. His condition is appalling and heart-rending” “It was this condition that led the Agrarian Reforms Committee, 1950 to observe that “To leave out problem of agricultural labour in any scheme of Agrarian Reforms as has been done so-far-is to leave unattended a weeping wound in the Agrarian system of the country.” In view of the over-riding concern to the problems of agricultural labour that the Prime Minister of India Pandit Jawarhal Nehru had stated in 1966 that “we must give special consideration to landless agricultural labour. Although there has been tremendous progress in India since independence. This is one section which has really a very hard time and which is deserving of a very special consideration” (Memoria, 2002). Agricultural labour conceptual issues Agricultural labour force of a country is different from industrial labour force. They are unorganized and scattered stratum of the country’s labour force. They are usually the most unskilled category of workers and hence have 3 no bargaining power to excise in the labour market. As a result of that low bargaining capacity, they are the most easily available factor of production and most of the countries do not face the problems of scarcity of agricultural labour except very few. Definitions It is very difficult to give a precise definition of agricultural labour force. This is mainly because of the difficulty in locating and categorizing a worker as agricultural worker by confining to a particular task or activity, in a very broad sense farmers, their wives and fathers and hired workers in agricultural sector compose agricultural labour force. The first agricultural labour enquiry in India (1950-51) defines agricultural labourers as those people who are engaged in raising crops on payment of wages. The second agricultural labour enquiry in India (1956-1957) enlarged the category to include also those who are engaged in allied occupation like animal husbandry, dairy, poultry etc. But in present Indian context those definitions are not found to be adequately suitable, as it is difficult to separate working on wages from others because they usually work for wages only for a part of the year. So if more than half of the family labourers’s occupation is wage employment in agriculture then according to the first ALE it is an agricultural labour household. The second ALE uses instead of occupation as the basis of defining agricultural workers. Accordingly an agricultural household is one whose main source of income is wages from agriculture. The national commission on labour regards agricultural labour as one who is basically unskilled and unorganized and has nothing but physical labour to exist. So major part of the income is derived from wage for work on land. 4 The decimal population census of India adopted various definitions of agricultural labour from time to time. In the population census 1961 those people were treated as agricultural labourers who work on another’s land and who are paid cash or kind. The 1971 census followed a sightly different definition. It distinguished labourers from non-labourers on the basis of their main activity. The secondary work was not considered for categorising a worker us agricultural or non- agricultural. 1981 census classified the workers as main workers and marginal workers. The main workers were again classified as cultivators, agricultural labourers, household industrial workers and other workers. Agricultural labour is a person who worked in another person’s land for wage in cash or kind or share of crops. He has no risk of cultivation but merely worked for wages. He has no right of lease or contract of land on which he worked. Desai (1994) stated that the 1991 census has followed more or less the same definition of agricultural labour. It states “A person who works on another person’s land for wages in money, kind, or share is regarded as an agricultural labourers. He/she has no work in cultivation but he/she merely works on another person’s land for wages. An agricultural labourer no right of lease or contract on land on which he/she works!”. It is one of the primary objects of the five year plan to ensure fuller employment for workers and better living conditions to all section of the rural community and in particular to assist agricultural labour and backward classes to come up to the level of the rest. 5 Classification at agricultural labourers Agricultural labour is mostly by economically and socially backward sections. Poor sections from the tribes also swell their ranks. It may be divided into four types. a) Landless labourers who are attached with to the land lords. b) Landless labourers who are personally independent but who work exclusively for others. c) Petty farmers with tiny bits of land who devote most of their time working for others and d) Farmers who have economic holding but who have one or most of their cultivation and dependents working for prosperous farmers. The first group of agricultural workers has been more or less in the position of serfs or slaves, they are also called as bonded labourers. They do not normally receive wages in cash but are generally paid in kind. They have to work for their master and can not shift from one to another. They have to provide beggar or forced labour. In some cases they have to offer cash and also supply fowels and goats to their masters. Around the other groups mentioned above the second and third are important. The problem of landless labourers is most serious problem in the rural sector. Conditions of agricultural labourers below poverty line The living conditions of agricultural households continue to be pathetic. The proportion of labour households will normally per capita expenditure of than `100 was about 70 per cent which clearly shows that vast majority of the agricultural labourers are below poverty line. Statement of the Problem Agricultural sector is still contributing nearly 25 per cent of GDP of Indian economy. The population of India is going on increasing, that is shown in 2011 census. So the excess population is employed in agriculture and allied 6 activities. That shows obviously that the number of agricultural labourers are also increasing in respect to population growth. It is further difficult to define the term “agricultural labour in concise and precise terms. However it will be useful to refer to some of the attempts made by experts in this connection. In order to know the problem of agricultural labour the definitions are necessary. The First Agricultural Enquiry Committee (1950-1951) defined this as “Those people who are engaged in raising crops on payment of wages.” The Second Agricultural Labour Enquiry Committee (1956-57) enlarged the definition of agricultural labour to include “those who are engaged the other agricultural occupations like dairy farming, horticulture, raising of livestock, bees, poultry etc.