Economic Studies - Mphil Thesis
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://kr.cup.edu.in/handle/32116/139
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Item Socio economic conditions and employment status of agricultural laboures in bathinda district of punjab(Central University of Punjab, 2014) Sharma, Honeymeet; Singla, NareshThe structural transformation process in Punjab has reduced income generation in rural economy. The worst sufferers are marginal and small farmers and agricultural labourers. The principal mode of production is shifting from cultivation of operational holdings to wage labour employment. This type of structural change in rural labour employment has wider social, economic and political implications that draw serious attention. It is in this context that an attempt has been made to study the socio- economic conditions of agricultural labourers and their employment pattern in Punjab. The study has been carried out in Bathinda district of Punjab as it is a major cotton growing area and cotton is more labour intensive as compared to other crops such as paddy and wheat. A sample of 100 agricultural labourers was taken with 50 respondents from two blocks each. An analysis of socio - economic conditions of agricultural labourers shows that most of the agricultural labourers are illiterate, landless and unskilled and belonged to scheduled caste. Although they used electricity, but they have to either share it with their neighbours or stole it from main electricity wire. Similarly, they did not have any water supply connection, but they used water facilities from neighbours and common places such as dharmsala and gurudwaras etc. Only 27 ii per cent of agricultural labourers had cooking facilities. Level of indebtedness was higher among female agricultural labourers (46 per cent) as compared to that among male agricultural labourers (22 per cent). In order to come out of indebtedness, they had to sell their labour by working more on the landlord's farms. Male agricultural labourers carried out all the activities on farm, while female agricultural labourers did only some of the activities such as wheat harvesting, paddy transplanting, cotton picking, plucking of cotton bolls etc. All these works were mainly casual in nature. The average employment days in male agricultural labourers and female agricultural labourers were 234 and 110 in farm sector, and only 46 and 97 in non-farm sector respectively. There also existed wage disparities across Male agricultural labourers and female agricultural labourers. Thus, the study suggested that improving education and imparting skills will improve their bargaining power in labour market in both farm and non-farm sector. Since both male agricultural labourers and female agricultural labourers generally carried same work on farm, same wage should be provided to Male agricultural labourers and female agricultural labourers. Finally, the study concludes with some policy suggestions.