AGRICULTURE AND IRRIGATION

RURAL WAGES

Casual Labour.

In 1961 the proportion of agricultural labourers, to total workers in Wardha district was 43.47 per cent, females accounting for 59.34 per cent and males 32.37 per cent. Although the proportion of workers engaged in cultivation is less in the district to that of the State average, it being 33.84 and 46.41 per cent, respectively, the proportion of agricultural labourers is almost double in the district than the State average which is 23.80 per cent. It could thus be seen that both taken together the district has much larger proportion to that of the State average. Again the proportion of both male and female workers engaged as agricultural labourers in the district is much higher than the State average. This is so because no alternative employment in industry is available. In the district itself female agricultural labourers are almost double that of the male workers. [Based on 1961 Census Handbook, Wardha.]

As a rule the cultivators in the district employ casual labourers only when there is pressure of farm work. Preference is always given to local labour and only in case of non-availability or shortage of local labour that outside labourers are employed. The labourers are employed on daily wages and are usually paid in cash though at times payment is also made in kind. In the past at least most of the labourers were paid in kind but now cash payment is more in vogue, the labourers also preferring the latter mode of payment. The rate of wages paid varies depending upon sex, the working season and the nature of the agricultural operation. Women labourers are usually paid at half the wage rate paid to men labourers. At the sowing and harvesting time when the cultivators are hard pressed for labour the rate is higher than what it is at other times of the year. Labour performing operations involving heavy and skilled manual work such as operating agricultural implements, harvesting and threshing is also paid more than the unskilled labour performing routine jobs like stalk-picking etc. Since skilled labour is generally scarce at many places in the district it is employed on contract basis where the labourers can put in more work and earn more. Cotton and groundnut harvesting is generally given on contract basis. Female labour is almost always employed in picking cotton, cutting grass, weeding and cutting off of the jowar earheads. The threshing and winnowing operations are normally performed by the agriculturist and his family, but big cultivators have to hire labour for these operations.

About the wage rates paid and the operations performed the old Wardha Gazetteer says the following: " Women are employed in weeding and are paid 3 or 4 pice if they work from midday till evening which is a common practice in the rains, and 1½ to 2 annas for working the whole day.......... Men are employed in cutting the juar stalks and receive 3 pailis or 7½ lbs. of grain a day. Women cut off the ears from the stalks and get 2 pailis or 5 lbs. each........ The picking of cotton is sometimes paid for by a share of about twentieth of the amount picked according to the demand for labour.......... If cash payment is made, the rate is 3 or 4 annas per maund of 18 seers of seed cotton. Women are almost always employed as pickers........... At the rate given they earn about 2 annas a day. Wheat harvesting is paid for at the rate of one themli or bundle for every 20 bundles cut. This yields between 3 and 4 lbs. of grain and a woman can earn one, and a man one and a half a day........... Women are employed in rooting up linseed plants and beating them cut with a short club or mogri and are paid 2 annas a day. " [Central Provinces District Gazetteers, Wardha, Vol. A, 1906, p. 137.] Though the wages of agricultural labourers have increased manifold since then, especially in the post-World War II period, the prices have also gone on soaring continually and this rise in prices has virtually nullified the rise in wages. Money wages have no doubt gone up but real wages have not shown any substantial increase. Table No. 26 gives averages daily agricultural wages in the district in 1957-58, 1959-60, 1963-64 and 1965-66.

TABLE No. 26

DAILY AGRICULTURAL WAGES, WARDHA DISTRICT

[Figures in Rs.]

TABLE No. 26-contd.

Annual Servants or Saldars.

Saldars or annual servants are employed by big cultivators or those who undertake intensive farming and have the capacity to provide work throughout the year. A saldar is available for work at any time of the day or night and usually does all type of farm-work including errand. carrying. The contract with a saldar is generally entered into only for a period of one year and is employed on the day of the Gudhi Padva. Payment is made both in cash and kind, the rate prevailing at present varying between Rs. 300 and Rs. 700 per annum depending upon the nature of the farm-work, the type of farming followed by the cultivator, and skill and ability of the saldar himself, this latter factor being given the most weight while fixing up the wages. The payment is made in instalments and over and above the cash, a saldar receives 15 to 18 maunds of jowar, a pair of dhoti, a shirt, a ghonghadi or blanket and a pair of foot-wear. Usually the saldars and their employers come from the same village and their relations remain very cordial. In fact some of the cultivators treat saldars as members of their own families. On the festival days the employers usually invite saldars for meals. The following paragraph concerning the farm.servants is reproduced from the old Wardha Gazetteer.

" Farm-servants are usually engaged by the year from the first day of Chaitra (April). But in many cases they are taken on only for six months. If paid in grain the customary wages of a farm-servant are 6 kuros or 120 lbs. of juar a month and from Rs. 20 to Rs. 25 a year in cash or 8 kuros a month and Rs. 5 in cash. Formerly it is said that they received only 5 kuros a month and two to five rupees annually. Besides this the farm.servant receives 5 kuros or 100 lbs. of juar in the pod at harvest, his food on four or five festivals, and a blanket and a pair of shoes annually and while he is watching the juar crop he picks as many of the heads as he wishes to eat. These grain wages work out to Rs. 60 a year, taking juar at 42 lbs. to the rupee. But the servants frequently demand to be paid in cash and their cash wages vary between Rs. 60 and Rs. 80........ The wages of private graziers employed by malguzars or large tenants are the same as those of farm. servants. To the village graziers who pasture cattle by the month for hire, the fees are 2 annas a month for a cow and 4 annas for a buffalo."

Balutedars.

Balutedars are village artisans who are connected with the various agricultural as also other useful operations. The important village artisans are the barhai or carpenter, the khati or blacksmith, the chambhar or cobbler, the mhali or barber and the dhobi or washerman. In the past under the so called balutedari system they were given a fixed payment in kind for all the work they did or services rendered during the year. The baluta system has almost disappeared now and survives only in some of the remoter villages. It is now the usual practice to pay the village artisans in cash according to the job performed by them. The following details taken from the old Wardha Gazetteer are interesting.

" It is now becoming usual to pay the village servants in cash by the job, while the unfortunate Bhumak [ Bhumak meaning priest of the village gods.] and Garpagari [Garpagari or hail-averter.] frequently receive nothing from the sceptical cultivators and have had to be taken themselves to other avocations The carpenter receives an annual allowance of 100 lbs. of grain and the blacksmith of 50 lbs. per plough of four bullocks or 40 acres, tenants who have smaller holdings giving a proportionate amount. In return for this they repair the iron and wooden implements of agriculture including carts, and make new ones when the materials are supplied to them. Sometimes the tenant gives both the carpenter and blacksmith 20 lbs. of grain extra for the repairs of each cart in his possession. The Mhali or barber receives 25 lbs. of grain annually for each man in the household whom he shaves. If paid in cash he receives 6 annas a year per head. He is not paid for children under 12 years of age. The barber also carries the invitations at weddings, acts as torch-bearer and makes leaf-plates. For these duties he receives a present. He massages the legs of his clients when called upon and is given his food. The Warthi or Dhobi washes the clothes of the tenants two or three times a month and all the clothes of the family when a birth or death occurs. For this he receives 20 lbs. of grain at the autumn harvest and 30 lbs. at the spring harvest. When a child is born he gets 25 lbs. of grain if it is a boy and 12½ lbs. if a girl. But he gets nothing extra when a death occurs. Men's loin cloths and women's saris or clothes are washed daily. In the case of the poorer tenants, the women of the family do this work, but those who can afford employ the Dhobi when he is resident in the village and give him a chapati daily in return. Besides their ordinary remuneration all the village servants receive presents at sowing time and at harvest if they go to the fields. These may amount to 3 or 4 lbs. of grain on each occasion." [Central Provinces District Gazetteers, Wardha District, Vol. A., 1906 pp.138-39.]

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