AGRICULTURE AND IRRIGATION

RURAL WAGES

Agricultural operations in the district are dependent on manual labour and there is a tendency among the big farmers and agriculturists to employ casual field labourers particularly where there is pressure of work on the farm. Generally these labourers are landless persons, small holders of land and persons obliged to seek employment outside their own villages. Such labourers are usually paid either in cash or in kind or both in cash and kind daily or at the end of work. The daily wage rates however do not change with different types of work unless the work requires skilled services. Male labourers are paid more than female labourers as the male labourers undertake heavy work whereas female labourers are employed to attend to light type of work such as weeding, winnowing, etc. There is another category of agricultural labourers known as saldars. The saldars, annual servants, are usually employed by the big agriculturists. They are paid between Rs. 150 and Rs. 400 annually. Besides, they are also provided with one or two pairs of clothing and daily meals.

The labour employed in the agricultural sector, however, is temporary as its services are required during the sowing, weeding, harvesting and threshing seasons only. The casual labourers, therefore, tend to take to such type of work where they could get work for the whole year. The business centres and the small and large scale industries in the district are now providing avenues of employment which are more lucrative than the casual type of work provided in agriculture. The casual labour for agricultural operations, therefore, is becoming dear and scarce. This has resulted in an increased demand for skilled agricultural labourers in the district. The shortage of skilled labourers is always experienced at the time of sowing and harvesting seasons and their wages show an upward trend during these seasons. The wages of skilled labourers are high around the city areas and in the industrial areas. The normal wages are between Rs. 3 and Rs. 4 per day but which rise upto between Rs. 5 and Rs, 6 when the agricultural seasons are in full-swing. The wages of unskilled labourers are between Rs. 2 and Rs. 3 per day.

The labourers in the district could be classified under four categories, viz., (i) skilled, (ii) ordinary, (iii) field labour and (iv) herdsmen. Skilled labour comprises carpenters, blacksmiths and cobblers; ordinary labour consists of load-carrying coolies, well-diggers, masons' or carpenters' assistants, earth workers, etc.; field labour comprises ploughmen, sowers, reapers, harvesters, weeders and transplanters, etc.; and herdsmen whose main work is to collect live-stock from different owners and to feed them in the jungle during the day and to bring them back in the evening to the owners place.

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