What do you understand about agricultural labour?

The definition of agricultural labour is given by the Agriculture Labor Enquiry Committee. Agricultural labourers are those people who derive their source of income mainly by working on farms and lands of other people. They work for the wages. 

The work of the agricultural labour involves cultivating the soil, growing or harvesting any agricultural crop or horticulture commodity, and management of livestock, bees, cows, goats, etc.

The agricultural labour enables the backward and other low classes of people to come to the level of other people. The people work for their living. The common problems such as underemployment, underdevelopment, and the surplus population are overcome by agricultural workers. 

Agricultural labour increases the production of goods and commodities and encourages the traditional way of agriculture. In the early times, the lands were available in plenty. So, people who were not capable of getting a job decided to earn their living by farming.

A Note on the Problems Faced by the Agricultural Labor   

• Marginalization of Agricultural Labourers: The cultivators and agricultural labourers were about 97.2 million in the year 1951. And it increased to 185.2 million in the year 1991. Between the years 1951 to 1991, this number increased from 27.3 million to 74.6 million. Hence, we can conclude that the number of labourers increased three times from the year 1951 to the year 1991. And the percentage increase from the year 1951 to the year 1991 was 28 per cent to 40 per cent. Thus, we can say that the casualization of the workers in India kept on increasing at a faster rate. The cost of the shares of the land and the agricultural activities also declines over the years. 
• Reorganization of the agricultural labour: The agricultural labourers in India are unorganized and scattered. They are ignorant and illiterate. As a result, the agricultural labourers have no ability to bargain and fight for their daily fare.   
• Wages and income: The wages of the workers and the family income are very less in India. The money wage rates started increasing, but the wages of the labourers did not increase. To date, the labourers are getting only Rs. 150 per day. This amount is not sufficient to support the living of a family. 
• Employment and working conditions: As we have already discussed, agricultural labourers face problems such as underemployment and unemployment. They work only for some part of the year, and the rest of the time, they remain idle because there is no work on the farm or there is no alternative work available for them.
• Indebtedness: Banking systems are not available in the rural areas of the country. So, when the farmers and agricultural labourers face a lack of money, they borrow from the landlords at a high rate of interest (sometimes 40 % to 50 %), which eventually leads them into debt.
• Low wages for women in agricultural labour: In a country like India, the system of the male patriarch is still dominant. The women are allowed to work very hard on the farms and the lands, but they are paid less as compared to their male counterparts.
• High incidence of child labour: The rate of child labour in India is very high. It is concluded from a survey that the number of child workers varies between 17.5 million to 44 million, which is very, very high. About one-third of child labourers in Asia are in India.
• Increase in migrant labour: The wages of the labourers in the irrigation areas are less compared to the wages of the labourers in the rain-fed areas. This led to the migration of the labourers from the dry areas to the heavy rain areas. 

Steps Taken by the Government of India to improve the problems of Agricultural Labour.

• Abolition of Bonded Labor: Several attempts have been made to wipe out the bonded labour as it is exploitive, inhuman, and violative. Legislative attempts have also been made to remove bonded labour. In 1976, the Bonded Labor System (Abolition) Act was passed. According to this act, about 2.51 lakhs of bonded labourers were identified and freed in different parts of the country. 

• Minimum Wages Act: This act was passed in the year 1948. It started to fix the minimum wages of agricultural labourers.
• Distribution of Landless Laborers: According to this Act, the State Government was advised to distribute surplus lands to the agricultural labourers. 
• Various employment schemes: Various employment schemes are run by the government to ensure the employment of the workers: 
• Rural Works Programme
• Crash Schemes for Rural Employment
• Food for Work Programme
• Jawahar Rozgar Yojana

Conclusion

This article explains in detail the agricultural labour and the numerous problems faced by them. The government has taken several steps to improve their condition. The steps have been explained in detail. By going through this article, one will be able to understand well about agricultural labour. We hope this article finds useful.