Agricultural Labours

People who are mainly taking part in agricultural activities like cultivating in soil, increasing harvesting, involving in horticultural commodity, management of live stocks, poultry, pisciculture and all other activities are considered as agricultural labours. Also, the people who don’t have their own land and earning through working on other’s land are known as Agricultural labours. All the agricultural labours in India have less income because of various reasons. This article will give detailed information about the Agricultural labours, types of Agricultural labours, categories of agricultural labours and growth of agriculture labours. 

(Image Will be Updated Soon)

About Agricultural Labour Enquiry Committee 

In 1950-1951, the first Agricultural Labour Enquiry Committee was set up for raising crops and to increase wages for agricultural labourers.  Since agriculture is the backbone of India, the largest population in India are working as Agricultural labours. But the wages given to them and the expense made for agricultural activities for the whole year by the landlords will remain unknown to the government. In order to maintain the living standards of the agricultural labourers in India, they create a committee and laid down a set of rules on payment of wages for agricultural labours.  They also said that the people who are worked for more than 50 per cent of days should get the payment of wages for their agricultural work. 

In 1956-1957, the second agricultural labour enquiry committee was created to have a broad view of agricultural activities.  During that time, they included the people who are working in allied activities like poultry, animal husbandry, dairy, piggery..etc. According to the second agricultural labour enquiry committee, the people are kept under the agricultural labours based on their income.  If more than 50 per cent of the income from the source are given as wages then the particular source is classified as agricultural labour household. It is more scientific to change from work to income. 

Categories of Agricultural Labourers

The first agricultural labour enquiry committee conducted from 1950 to 1951 have classified agricultural workers into two major categories. They are attached, labourers and casual labourers. 

The people working under the attached labourer category will have some limitations to work in particular cultivator households with some written and oral agreements. The people getting employment through the attached labourer method will be considered as permanent and regular employees. Some people will work as the constitute casual workes.  These workers are free to work in the farmland of any farmers and these labourers will receive the payment based on their daily work. Also, casual labourers do not have permanent roles. 

Agricultural Labour In India Statistics

Before the arrival of Britishers in India, there was no separate class for agricultural workers. In  1842, Sir Thomas Munroe - a popular army officer in English East Indian company stated that India does not have single landless labour.  After, that there were many reasons for the development of landless agricultural labours in India. 

The latest census conducted in India in 2011 was released a bleak picture of Indian agriculture. It explained the bitter truth of Indian agriculture and showed the number of farmers dipped in the past decade. This is mainly due to the shortage of agricultural labourers. A report showing that more than 37 million people came out of the farmland in the past ten years only due to the shortage of agricultural labourers and other environmental changes. 

The Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde released the census details in front of the registrar general of India and census commissioner C Chandramouli in Delhi.   According to the census released by him, only 54.6percentage of people in India are now being the part of the agriculture sector. Which is about 3.6 per cent less than the census report of 2001. 

While comparing to the census report of 2001 with 2011, the number of the male population working as agricultural labourers are increased by 44 percentage and the female population was increased by 24.5 per cent. Census Commissioner, C Chandramouli also made research on the drastic rise in the count of agricultural labours and the fall in the number of landholders in such a short span of time. Since the population of the country is increasing on a large scale, the products obtained from agriculture are already insufficient for the people in the country.  So, the decline in the population of cultivators in the country will impact the growing population of the country. 

According to the census conducted in India in 2011, about 263 million people are engaged in the agricultural sector and more than half of that population are remains as agricultural labourers. India is experiencing such a position first time in the past 40 years 

Types of Agricultural Labourers

The Agricultural labourers are mainly classified into three types. They are bonded labourers, family labourers, and hired labourers

Family Labourer

The people who have small farmlands and who don’t have enough finance to hire labours are termed as family labourers. These people will not hire labours, instead, they will use their own family members for agricultural activities like transplanting, weeding and harvesting. For completing the heavy tasks, they may hire labourers for a short period of time to complete the work on time. 

Hired Labourer

Usually, the hired labours are further classified into two groups, they are casual labourers and attached labourers. The attached labourers will make a contract agreement with the employer to work continuously for a certain period of time or they will work continuously with the same employer for the long term. The casual labourers will work under the employer for only a certain period of time. Once the work is completed they will move towards other employers for other work. Since casual labourers are working for a short period of time, they will receive wages on daily basis based on their operations.  But, the Attached workers will remain in the same work for the long term. So they will receive their pay based on monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or yearly.  Here, the wages given to the attached labourers will be generally less than the casual workers. Because they are employed to complete a piece of work for the short term. 

Bonded Labourer

The special class in the agricultural labours are called the bonded labourers. The bonded labourers are at the bottom of the agricultural ladder in India. A person or his whole family will make a pledge to the employer to do all the works in order to compensate against the loan. A person who is receiving a loan from the landlord will and if they are unable to repay the loan will become a bonded labourer till the loan gets finally settled. 

Reason Behind Growth of Agricultural Labourers

Since the percentage of land remains the same on the earth, the continuous rise of population in the country is the major reason for increasing agricultural labourers in the country.  Also, this increases the load on agriculture. 

During the British rule in India, they are concentrated on implanting modern industries in Indian to complete the work quickly on time. This results in the decline of cottage industries and village handicrafts. On the other hand, people from villages lost their jobs and forced them to move towards the countryside. This is also turned into the major reason for the growth of agricultural labours. 

The process of subdivision of agricultural land and fragmentation of landholders are taking place among the landlords for a long period of time. The income from the small piece of land is very less when compared to their expense.  On the other hand, the moneylenders and Mahajan’s will offer loans to the small farmers and they will acquire the land if they are unable to repay their loans. For acquiring the small piece of land, moneylenders and Mahajan’s will involve in many malpractices like interest, manipulating accounts, etc., So, it is difficult for small farmers and marginal farmers to retain their lands. All these are staying as a reason behind the development of landless agricultural labours in India. 

The wages given to the agricultural labourers are very high nowadays. So, people who have small lands cannot earn enough profit through cultivation. So, people holding small pieces of land are selling it and becoming agricultural labourers. 

This article gave a complete overview of agricultural labours in India, the reason behind the development of landless agricultural labour, agricultural labour in India statistics and types of agricultural labours in detail.