The Gazetteers Department

The class of agricultural labourers dominates the agricultural operations in the district. Landless persons, cultivators having very small holdings and persons belonging to backward classes mainly constitute the agricultural labourers. As per census of 1961, cultivating labourers and their dependents constituted 19.6 per cent of the total population. They are employed by big landlords on agricultural operations such as inter-culturing, harvesting, threshing, etc., during the agricultural season. ^Among the workers men workers are employed on heavy work whereas women workers are employed on light operations such as weeding, threshing, etc.

Casual labourers are often hired on daily wages and are paid either in cash or in kind or partly in kind and partly1 in cash They are employed as and when farm work arises. The minimum daily wages for a man labourer range between Rs. 1.25 and Rs. 1.50. A woman labourer gets between Re. 0.75 and Re. 1 per day. Child labour is not generally employed but whenever it is employed, children are paid half of the wages given to men workers. Wages for different agricultural operations also vary. For sowing, wages paid vary between Rs. 1.25 and Rs. 1.75 per day. For harrowing the land, man worker with a pair of bullocks is paid between Rs. 3 and Rs. 5 per day. For ploughing with a team of 3 to 4 pairs of bullocks and the required number of men for the same, wages paid are between Rs. 10.00 and Rs. 15.00 per day. Sometimes Rs. 18 to Rs. 25 are also paid for ploughing an acre of land.

Some labourers are also employed on seasonal or yearly basis. Labourers engaged on seasonal basis are paid monthly wages while the labourers hired on yearly basis, who are usually called saldars, get cash wage, in addition to food, clothing and accommodation. The saldars get their wages in instalments or sometimes the whole annual wage is given in advance.

The balutedars or village artisans are gradually disappearing under this system. The balutedars get their shares in kind in return for the services rendered by them to the village people from time to time.

The following table gives the statistics of the rates of wages of different categories of workers in the district from 1956-57 to 1961-62: —

TABLE No. 24

RURAL WAGES IN BHIR DISTRICT (DAILY AVERAGE IN RS. PER PERSON)

Month	Year	Carpenter	Blacksmith	Cobbler	Field Labourer	Other Agricultural Labourers	Herdsman
(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)	(7)	(8)
July	1956-57	2.43	2.04	1.75	1.02	0.95	1.09
August	Do.	2.36	1.96	1.61	1.02	0.95	1.19
September	Do.	2.39	1.86	1.75	0.98	0.91	1.05
October	Do.	2.43	2.04	1.61	1.02	0.93	1.05
November	Do.	2.46	2.00	1.75	1.02	1.11	0.91
December	Do.	2.50	2.04	1.61	1.02	0.96	0.91
January	Do.	2.46	2.00	1.61	1.09	0.91	0.91
February	Do.	2.46	1.93	1.61	1.30	1.02	0.98
March	Do.	2.50	2.04	1.64	1.09	1.02	0.98
April	Do.	2.50	2.04	1.61	1.61	1.02	1.02
May	Do.	2.43	1.96	1.57	0.98	0.91	0.91
June	Do.	2.36	1.96	1.57	0.98	0.91	0.91
July	1957-58	2.78	2.36	1.81	1.03	0.98	1.01
August	Do.	2.78	2.35	1.83	1.03	0.98	0.46

TABLE No. 24—cont.

Month	Year	Carpenter	Blacksmith	Cobbler	Field Labourer	Other Agricultural Labourers	Herdsman
(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)	(7)	(8)
September	1957-58	2.68	2.25	1.83	1.03	0.98	0.64
October	Do.	2.64	2.21	1.83	1.03	0.98	0.69
November	Do.	2.82	2.21	1.83	1.03	0.98	0.69
December	Do.	2.68	2.00	1 66	1.03	0.98	0.53
July	1958-59	2.78	2.50	2.04	1.12	1.02	1.59
August	Do.	2.79	2.50	2.04	1.12	1.02	1.50
September	Do.	2.78	2.07	2.00	1.05	0.98	1.50
October	Do.	2.71	2.07	2.08	1.19	0.98	1.50
November	Do.	2.86	2.50	2.17	1.12	1.02	1.56
December	Do.	2.86	2.50	2.25	1.12	1.02	1.56
January	Do.	2.71	2.43	2.08	0.96	0.95	1.37
February	Do.	2.86	2.50	2.25	1.05	0.98	1.44
March	Do.	2.79	2.50	2.17	1.05	0.98	1.44
April	Do.	2.71	2.43	2.25	0.98	0.95	1.34
May	Do.	2.86	2.57	2.25	1.05	0.98	1.37
June	Do	2.71	2.43	1.93	0.98	0.95	1.37
July	1959-60	2.71	2.21	1.83	1.12	0.98	1.19
August	Do.	3.00	2.43	2.20	1.19	1.05	1.44
September	Do.	2.86	2.36	2.42	1.12	1.02	1.44
October	Do.	2.86	2.36	2.25	1.19	1.05	1.31
November	Do.	3.00	2.43	2.25	1.12	1.05	1.34
December	Do.	3.00	2.36	2.00	1.19	1.02	1.46
January	Do.	2.86	2.43	2.42	1.09	1.12	1.34
February	Do.	3.00	2.57	2.33	1.27	1.05	1.25
March	Do.	3.00	2.43	2.08	1.23	1.05	1.22
April	Do.	2.93	2.36	2.00	1.12	0.98	1.31
May	Do.	2.93	2.20	2.08	1.09	1.05	1.84
June	Do.	2.93	2.43	2.25	1.12	1.05	1.25
July	1960-61	3.07	2.35	1.64	1.65	1.05	0.61
August	Do.	2.86	2.50	1.85	1.14	1.05	1.31
September	Do.	2.71	2.36	1.68	1.14	1.09	1.31
October	Do.	2.71	2.36	1.28	1.31	1.09	1.42
November	Do.	2.93	2.36	1.96	1.31	1.09	1.12
December	Do.	2.93	2.43	1.64	1.19	1.22	1.31
January	Do.	3.07	2.36	1.87	1.23	1.08	1.19
February	Do.	3.07	2.36	2.04	1.14	1.05	1.19

TABLE No. 24—cont.

Month	Year	Carpenter	Blacksmith	Cobbler	Field Labourer	Other Agricultural Labourers	Herdsman
(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)	(7)	(8)
March	1960-61	3.07	2.36	2.04	1.23	1.05	1.19
April	Do.	3.07	2.29	2.04	1.16	1.05	1.19
May	Do.	3.07	2.43	2.08	1.09	1.12	1.19
June	Do.	3.07	2.50	2.00	1.19	1.12	1.19
July	1961-62	3.14	2.36	2.10	1.18	1.11	1.06
August	Do.	3.00	2.36	2.25	1.25	1.14	1.75
September	Do.	2.96	2.39	2.15	1.32	1.18	1.08
October	Do.	3.03	2.39	2.15	1.25	1.18	1.12
November	Do.	3.11	2.53	2.15	1.32	1.21	0.87
December	Do.	3.03	2.39	2.15	1.25	1.21	0.87
January	Do.	3.11	2.43	2.15	1.25	1.18	0.91
February	Do.	2.89	2.42	1.96	1.18	1.21	0.91
March	Do.	2.96	2.43	2.15	1.25	1.25	0.68
April	Do.	3.11	2.50	2.15	1.25	1.18	0.91
May	Do.	2.96	2.43	2.15	1.25	1.18	0.68
June	Do.	3.11	2.57	2.15	1.25	1.18	0.91