ECONOMIC TRENDS

Wages Trends.

Agriculture is the principal occupation of the people in Yeotmal district, providing work to nearly 5,07,561 persons of the working population as per the 1961 Census. Of the total, working population, agricultural labourers form a large section viz ; 3,03.967. It is therefore necessary to study the trends in wage earnings of agricultural labourers and craftsmen.

The Yeotmal District Gazetteer[Yeotmal District. Gazetteer, Vol, A 1908, pp 127—31,] of 1908 gives a good account of wages prevalent at the time of compilation of the same. The account is reproduced below: —

Village Servants.—" Every village has a certain number of hereditary village servants. They are not paid by 'the piece but receive annually from every cultivator a fixed contribution in kind from the edible crops, a payment generally called baluta in this District, and often called hak elsewhere in Berar. Some perform menial services, some mechanical, and some religious. The list of servants varies greatly from village to village, but generally includes a blacksmith, carpenter, barber, washerman, and the public menial servants called Kotwals, and the rates and modes of calculating payment also vary, but the blacksmith often gets from 32 to 65 seers (of 80 tolas) of juari for each pair of bullocks, that is, for every 16 or 20 acres of cultivated land: the carpenter about the same: the barber from 25 to 40 seers; the washerman from 13 to 16; and the Kotwals from 25 to 32 seers. Village servants of the lowest grade thus receive enough to live on, and those of higher position receive enough for comfortable maintenance.

Agricultural Servants.—" A cultivator generally needs one man or boy for each pair of bullocks. In the rains there should be a man or boy for each single bullock. These servants act themselves as watchmen in the fields, but day-labourers must be hired for sowing, weeding and harvesting. Permanent servants are sometimes paid in cash alone, sometimes by being given their daily food and so much cash besides and sometimes by a stipulated amount of juari and of money. All three ways have been recognised for many years. If cash only is paid the rate is generally from Rs. 72 to Rs. 96 a year, though it is sometimes as low as Rs. 50. A half or even the whole, is often paid in advance. If payment is made partly in kind it is usual to give a pair of shoes and a blanket and meals at festivals. So much juari is agreed on as is expected to make the total payment the same as that which would be given in cash Wages are said to have been steadily rising. Specially responsible servants, such as, men employed to watch money. receive about one hundred rupees a year, but this is no more than used to be paid forty or fifty years ago when, as old men say Muhammadans and" Pardeshis" or foreigners from the north used to he hired at excellent wages to protect timid masters.

Day-labourers.—"Day-labourers (majurdar) in the villages are paid in money for sowing and weeding, but in kind for all harvest work. The rates for weeding vary immensely. If there has been heavy rain with few breaks so that there is great need of weeding being done at once, the rate rises in exceptional cases even to one rupee a day. The usual rate is three or four annas for a woman, and the same, or in some parts a little more, for a man. For cotton-picking the total picked by each woman is divided into so many parts in the evening and she is given the choice of one part as her wages. The work is generally done by women because a woman can pick more than a man. Labourers generally store up their earnings for the week till, bazar day and then sell them. The proceeds usually come to three or four annas a day, but a clever picker may earn twice as much as this. This system clearly has two defects. Firstly, the labourers, who have little power of choosing where to sell and whom to sell such small quantities, probably do not get as good a price as the cultivator would get himself. Either the cultivator or the picker must lose by the introduction of the middleman who buys from the labourer and sells to the ginning factory. Secondly, it is easy for dishonest labourers to go into the fields by night, pick cotton to add to their store, and pretend that it was all earned by picking. This is done to a serious extent in some villages. A village headman sometimes says that he will not allow any people of a certain caste to live in his village because they are in the habit of stealing from the fields at night. Women do their field work in large parties. Their hours are from noon to sunset. The wives of cultivators and labourers alike hire themselves out for weeding and picking. There is practically nothing to do in the house during the afternoon. Weeding and picking are both light work and are scarcely ever done except in fine weather.

Wages in towns.—" The cost of unskilled labour in towns is largely governed by the wages paid in factories for the ginning and pressing of cotton. Cotton gins are generally fed by women. Their pay in Yeitmal is three annas for a day's work, and three-and-a-half for a night's work. Work upon presses and oiling machinery, and relating to the miscellaneous needs of a factory is mostly done by men. Some of it requires a small degree of skill. The wages are four or five annas a clay and one anna more for night work for ordinary labourers: eight annas for porters, hamals; and Rs. 9 or Rs. 10 a month for oil-men. Managers seldom admit that they employ children, but in fact they often employ them to some extent in remote factories. The rate for skilled labour in towns, for instance the pay of carpenters and blacksmiths, has for nearly thirty years been nominally twelve annas a day. The earnings of individuals in fact vary considerably, but this is probably, a fairly correct average. Among employees of higher position, the certificated engineers of cotton factories, who are frequently Parsis or Muhammadans, get from Rs. 60 to Rs. 125 a month, together with lodging, light, and fuel, according to their qualifications. A fitter gets from Rs. 40 to Rs. 50 and lodging, light and fuel. The engagement is generally only for the cotton season, from four to six months. Moneylending or trading establishments are often managed by agents, but even though the annual dealings amount to lakhs of rupees, the agent very seldom receives more than Rs. 500 a year, though Rs. 700 or even Rs. 800 may be paid very occasionally. "

The Central Provinces and Berar Census Report of 1931 analysed the wage trends during the decade 1921—30 in the following words. " The wages of agricultural and other classes of labourers fell with the prices of agricultural produce and the only people who really benefited from the low cost of living were those who had fixed salaries or incomes, and had not adopted a European standard of living. It must be observed that prices are calculated at the number of seers per rupee and therefore with the natural tendency of wages to fall as juices fall especially, where payment is made partly in kind, the two lines in the graphs naturally begin To separate. The reduction of labourers' earnings in the cotton districts from the high level which they reached in 1924 is however very obvious. "

The earning of agricultural labour and of craftsmen showed a rising trend after the economic revival, of 1933. The rising-prices during the World War II as well as the Korean War boom pushed up wage rates to a very great extent. With the dawn of Independence and the adoption of democratic socialism in the country, the wage earner became conscious of his rights in the produce which was the result of his labour. He also became conscious of his low standard of living which he sought to improve. This has produced an inevitable effect on the wage structure in all the regions of the State.

Naturally, the wages of casual labour as well as of fixed salary earners have increased, though the increase in wages is lower than that in prices.

The Bureau of Economics and Statistics of the Maharashtra Government collected some statistics of wages at three villages in the district, viz., Ner, Kalamb and Maregaon, in 1964 and 1965. The statistics are furnished in the following table.

TABLE No. 5

AGRICULTURAL WAGE RATES IN YEOTMAL DISTRICT IN 1964 AND 1965

TABLE No. 5—contd.

AGRICULTURAL WAGE RATES IN YEOTMAL DISTRICT IN 1964 AND 1965 contd.

TABLE No. 5—contd.

AGRICULTURAL WAGE RATES IN YEOTMAL DISTRICT IN 1964 AND 1965—contd.

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