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The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Vol. 49, No. 4, 2006

WAGE-EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIP IN THE AGRICULTURAL LABOUR MARKET OF WEST BENGAL Amit Kundu* This paper is based on a micro level study of four agriculturally developed districts in West Bengal carried out to investigate whether agricultural prosperity percolates down to the agricultural labour force. In spite of the presence of multiple cropping systems, it is quite difficult for the main male agricultural labourers to get 100 days of employment annually. Sufficient demand for labour is not generated in the farm sector. There is also downward wage rigidity in agricultural labour markets, with the wage rate in some cases being more than the government recommended minimum wage levels. I. INTRODUCTION Agricultural workers constitute the most deprived class in the rural economy of any underdeveloped country like India. Their income is low and employment is irregular. Government arranges very little social security for this class. As these agricultural labourers do not possess any other skill, they have little employment opportunities in any other sector. It is very difficult to define an agricultural labourer. One can say that the worker, who works in the field during the time of cultivation, can be treated as an agricultural labourer. However, many small and marginal farmers also work in the farms of others as an agricultural labourer to supplement their income. In this paper, we shall consider the main agricultural labourers who earn major part of their income, through working in the farm sector. During the time of survey, our target group is the local agricultural labourers. These local labourers are defined as those labourers who are staying in a particular village for more than five years and working in the farm sector only in his native village in the last few years. The labourers considered here, as samples are mainly male adult labourers who are more than eighteen years old. In order to get details picture about the wage and employment pattern of the labourers in the agricultural labour market of West Bengal, we have also collected information about the wage and employment pattern of the female agricultural labourers and of male or female migrant agricultural labourers. One of the main characteristics of economics development is the gradual decline of the share of agricultural income to total Gross Domestic Product of the economy as well as the gradual fall of the proportion of main agricultural labour force to total labour force. Nevertheless, even after near about sixty years of independence the main agricultural labourers of India are still observed as the most depressed and vulnerable section of the rural population through depicting their economic plight. Agricultural workers of India are largely unorganized in nature but provide employment to about 60 per cent of the country’s workforce, according to the Population Census, 2001. Also NSSO 2001 had shown that the main agricultural workers are not getting work beyond 150 days a year and the wage paid is rarely beyond subsistence. The average wage earnings per day received by casual wage labourers in agriculture are only Rs. 41.81 for male workers and Rs. 32.73 for female workers in 1999-2000. The child labourers * Senior Lecturer in Economics, Department of Economics, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, (E-mail: akundu29@rediffmail. com)

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in agriculture earned an average Rs.27.44 per day. At the all-India level, 49per cent of the agricultural labourers are found in the lowest range of monthly per-capita expenditure. Bhalla (1993) had shown that wage rates have failed to keep pace with the labour productivity in India. We have to investigate what is happening in West Bengal where we see a good expansion of agricultural production. West Bengal occupies only 3 per cent of total cultivatable land of India. Still in paddy, jute, vegetables and fruit production, West Bengal occupies the first position and in the cultivation of potato and tea, it occupies second position in India. The rate of growth of agricultural production in West Bengal between 1993-94 and 2003-3004 is 3.54 per cent where as in India that is 1.53 per cent. However, in West Bengal 78 per cent of total cultivatable land is owned by small and marginal farmers. Extensive land reform programme is the main cause behind that. Apart from this, proper use of chemical fertilizers, HYV seeds, and improved irrigation facilities play an important role to increase farm production. We know that no production can take place without labour force. So agricultural labourer has a substantive contribution behind this boom of agricultural production of West Bengal. However, no proper study was done to get an idea about the present wage and employment scenario of the agricultural labourers of West Bengal. This study is an attempt to investigate that of the main agricultural labourers of West Bengal whose major part of income comes through working in the farm sector. Then we have to investigate what factors decide wage and employment in that agricultural labour markets. During the time of our studies, we took four districts of West Bengal and they are Howrah, Nadia, West Midnapur and North 24 Parganas. The main similarity of the districts is their almost similar agro-climatic conditions. In each district, we randomly choose two villages and from each village we take at least twenty main agricultural labourers as sample. The Green Revolution technique is a common practice in all the sample villages and at least double cropping system is observed in those villages. Therefore, we can call those villages as agriculturally developed. We have designed a questionnaire to get information about the wage and employment conditions as well as relations in the agricultural labour market of those four districts of West Bengal. Very few studies had done relating to the agricultural labour market of West Bengal. Bardhan and Rudra conducted the pioneer study in 1979, i.e. almost 28 years ago. They had drawn a random sample of 110 villages of West Bengal. In their survey, they observed different types of attachment relations between an employer and a labourer in agriculture. Though a good proportion of labour force is casual in nature, the presence of attached labour was very prominent in different villages of West Bengal during that time. They had shown that big and medium farmers could only employ those attached labourers. In the study we tried to investigate whether attached labourers occupies a significant portion of the village labourforce in the present rural economy of West Bengal. We have also tried to investigate in spite of substantive improvement of agricultural production, whether the benefit percolates down to these lowest strata of the economy. To do that, we have to give major stress on wage and employment pattern of the main agricultural labour force in their principle occupation. To know the wage pattern we have considered the daily wage rate and to investigate the employment pattern we gave importance on the total number of full days (considering eight working hours in a day) a labourer has got employment in a specific agricultural season. In West Bengal, we generally observe three types of agricultural labourers. They are (i) local casual labourers, (ii) local attached labourers and (iii) migrant labourers. The local daily agricultural labourers are called ‘chuto’ who work on daily basis. Most of the times their usual working hour is 8 hours and wage is paid to them as a combination of cash and kind or only in

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cash. These local casual labourers are generally well known to the landlord and the landlord knows how much effort he can pay during working hours. The migrant labourers are generally coming from relatively agriculturally backward regions. Only the big farmers can bear the expenses of the migrant labourers. The employment of migrant labourer has both advantages as well as disadvantages. The main advantage is that the employer can force the migrant labourer to work more than the normal working hours. Nevertheless, the landlords sometimes have to provide shelter to the migrant labourers and sometimes rice is given to them for dinner. So total daily payment sometimes exceed that of local labourer. The job of the attached labour includes farm, off-farm and household jobs. The contract is generally for one-calendar year and during that time; the employer has to provide food, clothing, shelter (sometimes) and wage. In rural Bengal, we observe two types of attached labourer, adult and child. A child-attached labour is between the ages 8 to 12. Generally, big farmers can engage this type of labourer in his house mainly to look after their cattle and to do other household works. In West Bengal, we see the fruitful expansion of land-reform programme from the first half of 1980s. The main thrust of the programme was to record the names of the sharecroppers so that the legal and administrative support can be more effectively ensured to safeguard their interests. This reduced the fear of eviction of tenants. However, gradually it is observed that with the growing population in the rural areas coupled with the laws of inheritances, there is an increase in fragmentation of the land holdings. Therefore, we see the emergence of small and marginal farmers in the rural sector of West Bengal. Marginal farmers are those farmers who possess not more than one hector land, i.e. 2.5 acre land. The expansion of Green Revolution technique in agriculture mainly through expansion of the use of HYV seeds, chemical fertilizers and improvement of irrigation facilities has helped these small and marginal farmers to cultivate their own field at least twice in a particular year. But low price of the produced crop and high cost of production tempts the farmer to reduce the labour cost as much as possible. Therefore, he involves himself and sometimes his family members in cultivation. Hence, we see a progressive substitution of hired labour for family labour with increasingly smaller farm had occurred. The small farmers fail to generate sufficient employment at agricultural peak season. Sometimes the marginal farmers also want to work as an agricultural labourer. Therefore, at one side, we see the gradual fall of the demand of agricultural labourers and on the other side; we see a gradual increase of the supply of agricultural labourers. Due to the presence of two opposite forces, we see that it is difficult for the main agricultural labourers to get at least 100 full days of employment. Even the presence of minimum wage fails to keep those families above the poverty line. The average rate of BPL population in rural West Bengal is 35.85 per cent as against the national rate of 27.09 per cent. The state’s landless agricultural labourers were 32.72 lakhs in 1971 census but increased to 73.62 lakhs by 2001. Such 125 per cent increase is unparallel in the country. During the time of survey, I had taken two villages from each district as samples. Subhahara and Alampur of Howrah district, Jara and Kalora of West Midnapur district, Sikarpur and Kuthipara of Nadia district and Bamanpukur and Majherpara of North 24 Parganas district. We observed the presence of double cropping in all those sample villages and agriculture is the main occupation of the households in those villages. From each village, we choose at least twenty agricultural labourers randomly and most of the sample labourers are local male main agricultural labourers. Lack of proper presence of migrant agricultural labourers and local or migrant female agricultural labourers through out the agricultural season is the main cause behind that. The local landlord class also generally prefers local labourers because according to them

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‘local labourers are easily available’. We consider those local labourers who are physically almost fit and do not loose more than thirty man-days of job due to illness. This was required to keep the homogeneity of the samples. At the time of getting information about the wage and employment pattern of the labourers, we divide the agricultural production process in to five phases such as land preparation, ploughing, sowing, harvesting, threshing and boiling and drying of the crop. If we look at the Rural Labour Enquiry Report 2003-2004, we observe that the average daily wage rates of the main agricultural labourers (considering all the seasons) of West Bengal during June 2004 are Rs.86.66 in ploughing, Rs.54.48 in sowing, Rs.53.75 in land preparations, Rs.54.27 in harvesting and Rs.52.88 in threshing and drying of crops. But if we look at the all India average then we see that, the agricultural wage rate of the male main agricultural labourers are Rs.72.93 in ploughing, Rs.66.07 in sowing, Rs.58.85 in land preparations, Rs.64.69 in transplanting, Rs.61.83 in harvesting and Rs.58.78 in threshing and drying. Therefore, it is clear that the average agricultural wage rate of the main male agricultural labourers of West Bengal is just below the all India average except ploughing. It is also observed that in West Bengal, in any type of agricultural activity, the average daily wage rate of the female agricultural labourers are paid less than the male agricultural labourers. Actually, this type of gender disparity at the time of paying agricultural wage is observed all over India. The present micro level study is also an attempt to investigate whether there exists any wage disparity between male and female agricultural labourers in different agricultural activities. The total agricultural season is divided into three phases, khariff, rabi, and boro. Khariff cultivation is going on rainy season, which starts from middle of May and continues up to middle of October. Rabi season spans between November to January and boro season spans between Februarys to April. In the sample villages of Howrah, paddy is the principal crop, which is cultivated both in khariff and boro season. In the sample villages of West Midnapur, we have observed that cultivation is done in all the three seasons. In the rainy season, we observed there the cultivation of paddy. In winter, the farmers cultivate potato and in spring i.e. in the boro season, the farmers only cultivate paddy. But we observed most of the marginal farmers are cultivating only in khariff and in rabi season. The development of both small and large-scale irrigation is the main cause behind that. But in two villages of Nadia district we see the existence of double cropping. In rainy season, paddy is cultivated, in winter or rabi season wheat is cultivated where in boro season, land is kept barren. Besides that in the two sample villages of Nadia district we see the cultivation of beetle leaves, banana and vegetables through out the year. In the two villages of North 24 Parganas district, the main cultivation is paddy both in khariff and boro season. It is interesting that in all the sample villages, the productivity of crops per acre of land is very high. For example in the entire sample villages, the farmers can produce near about 2000 kg. aman Paddy in one-acre land. Now we have to see whether this higher productivity influences higher wage rate in the farm sector. Using these eight sample villages, we shall investigate the variations of wage and employment disparity among the agricultural labourers of West Bengal. II. SOCIO-ECONOMIC PROBLEMS OF AGRICULTURAL LABOUR It is said that most of agricultural labourers are from backward class and the farmers are generally from upper cast. As cast system is still present in rural India, one of the major causes of oppression of the agricultural labour class is due to their scheduled cast and scheduled tribe background that has to work under upper class landlords. But, during the time of field survey, it was observed that in West Bengal it is partially true. We see the presence of SC and ST category labourers but

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their per centage in the total labour force is not so high. Out of the total 222 surveyed main male agricultural labourers, 45.95 per cent are from Scheduled Caste categories and 48.65 per cent are from general categories where merely 5.40 per cent is from Scheduled Tribe category. If we look at the individual districts, it is clear that except, two villages of Nadia in all the other sample villages majority of the agricultural labour force comes from backward casts. This picture is observed in Table 1. Table 1 Percentage of General, SC and ST Main Agricultural Labourers to Total Labourers District

Villages

Howrah

Subhahara Alampur Jara Kallora Sikarpur Kuthipara Bamanpukur Majherpara

West Midnapur Nadia North 24 Parganas

S.C.

S.T.

General

Total observations

20 (66.67) 20 (62.5) 15 (50.00) 16 (53.33) 5 (16.67) 4 (13.33) 12(60.00) 10(50.00)

0 2 (6.25) 6 (20.00) 3(10.00) 1(3.33) 0 0 0

10 (33.33) 10 (31.25) 9(30.00) 11(36.67) 24 (80.00) 26(86.67) 8(40.00) 10(50.00)

30 32 30 30 30 30 20 20

102

12

108

222

Total Note: Percentages are shown in the parenthesis. Source: Field Survey.

Illiteracy among the rural labour household is another explanation of oppression of this class. But, during the time of survey I have observed mixed picture. Here, we divide the literacy among the main agricultural labourers into three categories and these are, illiterate, literate and above primary level. At the time of discussing about wage and employment, the literacy rate is very important because illiterate or just literate labourers have little employment opportunities outside agricultural sector which means they have little bargaining power at the time of deciding wage prior to any agricultural season. Sample survey proves that in West Bengal, the problem of illiteracy among the agricultural labour households is not so acute. We can have few ideas about that through Table 2, which describes the literacy picture of the sample agricultural Table 2 Literacy Rate of the Sample Agricultural Labourers District

Villages

Howrah

Subhahara Alampur Jara Kallora Sikarpur Kuthipara Bamanpukur Majherpara

West Midnapur Nadia North 24 Parganas Total Source: Field Survey.

Illiterate

Literate

Above primary level

Total observations

10 14 16 14 12 14 10 8

17 16 12 15 17 16 9 12

3 2 2 1 1 0 1 0

30 32 30 30 30 30 20 20

98 (44.14)

114 (51.35)

10 (4.50)

222 (100)

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labourers. This table shows that in our sample near about 55 per cent of the population are literate. But, it is interesting to observe that most agricultural labourers have just crossed primary level. I have found only three labourers who have crossed secondary level of education where the remaining seven labourers have just crossed eight standards. Another interesting feature among those labourers is most of them having no other technical efficiencies. Therefore, their opportunity cost is almost zero. Apart from those two characteristics, we have not found any labourer of Howrah district who took any form of credit either from institutional sources or from non-institutional sources. Same thing also happens in the two villages of North 24 Parganas district. In the two villages of West Midnapur district, three labourers of Jara village and two labourers of Kalora village took loan. But loans were taken from local cooperative banks and the purpose of taking credit is illness. They have to spend a huge amount for medical treatment for his family members, which force them to take credit. The same situation is also observed in the two villages of Nadia district where four labourers of Sikarpur village and three labourers of Kuthipara village had to take credit either for marriage purposes or for medical purposes. Here they took loan from noninstitutional sources mainly from local moneylenders. They have to pay interest against loan and have to repay that within two years. However, they are not bound to work under his creditor. Hence, we can claim total absence of credit-labour interlinked contract as observed by Bardhan (1979) in any sample village of West Bengal. One of the interesting characteristics of the sample villages is the presence of active Primary Health Centres, which keeps the recurring medical expenditure of the agricultural labourers at subsistence level. We know that in India particularly in rural regions the out of pocket private medical expenditure is very high and only due to this reason the poor labourers sometimes have to take credit from the non-institutional sources. However, in those surveyed village the presence and good performance of the primary health centers help the poor labourers to get almost free medical treatment instantaneously. This also helps the labourers in two ways. They at one side loose very few days of employment due to illness and on the other side; they have not to depend on local moneylenders for huge credit, which protects them from any type of credit-labour interlinked contract. Further development of micro-credit system through Self Help Group is required to protect those poor labourers from such type of labour exploitations. Hence due to the absence of any credit-labour interlinked, we cannot find a labourer, who is getting lower than the market wage rate. III. WAGE DISPARITY AMONG LOCAL MAIN AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS Next, we shall focus on the money wage rate of the male local agricultural labourers of West Bengal. The wages are paid either fully in cash, or as a combination of cash and kind. Table 3 shows the wage variation of the agricultural labourers of four agriculturally developed districts of West Bengal. It is clear from Table 3 that there exists a wide disparity in the wage rate in the different regions of West Bengal but uniformity of daily wage rates for a specific agricultural operation. Though, Government of West Bengal has decided to set minimum money wage rate Rs.62 but the table shows that it is not maintained in all parts of West Bengal even in the agriculturally advanced districts. The wage rate of the villages of West Midnapur district and of North 24 Parganas district is far above the minimum level. In the West Midnapur region, the uniform money wage rate is Rs.70 in Jara village and Rs.65 in Kalora village but in the two villages of North 24 Parganas district, i.e. in Bamanpukur village and Majherpara the wage is uniform in any type of agricultural activity. Here the uniform wage rate is Rs.70 and the payment is made

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Table 3 Wage Rate (Cash+Kind) of Male Agricultural Labourers in Different Districts of West Bengal District

Village

Howrah

Subhahara Alampur Jara Kalora Sikarpur Kuthipara Bamanpukur Majherpara

West Midnapur Nadia North 24 Parganas

Land preperation 50+10 50+10 70+5 65+5 35 35 70 70

Sowing

Ploughing

Transplanting

80+10 75+10 70+5 70+5 40 40 70 70

00 00 70+5 70+5 50 60 70 70

80+10 75+10 70+5 70+5 40 40 70 70

HarvestBoiling ing & drying 50+10 50+10 70+5 65+5 40 40 70 70

50+10 50+10 70+5 65+5 35 35 70 70

Vegetables 00 00 00 00 40 40 00 00

Source: Field Survey.

fully in cash. In some places of West Bengal few part of the wage is also paid in kind. In Table 3 we see that in the two villages of Howrah district and in the two villages of West Midnapur district, few part of wage is paid in kind. The landlord provides token tiffin to the labourer at noon at the two villages of West Midnapur district whose valuation according to the landlord is no less than Rs.5. In the two villages of Howrah district, the labourers are given lunch at worksite whose valuation according to the landlords is not less than Rs.10. The landlords are here taking this strategy to monitor the nutritional efficiency of the workers, Chatterjee and Kundu (1999). Nevertheless, the fluctuations of money wage rate are observed in different parts of cultivation. As the market forces determine wage in that labour market, we observe that during the time of sowing and transplanting the wage rate jumps up to Rs.90 in Subhahara and Rs.85 in Alampur village. Actually, during that time the working hour per day sometimes exceed 10 hours because those works should always be completed with in a stipulated time period. We can call this payment not as wage rate but piece-rate. At that time the employers also face shortage of labour supply. So the market force drives the wage upward. But in other parts of cultivation, the wage rate is Rs.50 in cash and a lunch whose value is Rs.10, i.e. Rs.60 which is very near to the minimum wage decided by the West Bengal government. High variation on the wage rate is also observed when we studied the wage pattern of the male main agricultural labourers of the two villages, i.e. Sikarpur and Kuthipara of Nadia District. The survey had shown that the wage rate of the local agricultural labourers varies from Rs.35 to Rs.60. This wide dispersion of the wage rate proves that the agricultural labourers have very little bargaining power with the landlord at the time of deciding the wage rate. The landlord here also like previous situations, prefers local labourers. The table shows that the wage offered to a labourer during the time of ploughing is Rs.60 in Kuthipara and Rs.50 in Sikarpur. The main logic is, as during the time of ploughing, the labourer has to give maximum effort, and availability of labour in this type of job is rare. So this type of labourer is paid higher wage rate. Here also comparatively high daily wage is give to a labourer due to the shortage of labour supply. The wage rate at that area, during the time of transplanting, sowing and land preparation is Rs.40 but at the time of harvesting and threshing, the wage rate drops to Rs.35. Two major crops are produced in that area. Paddy in the aman season and wheat in the rabi season. Besides this, we see the presence of huge cultivation of betel leaves and ‘vegetables’ in that area which gives ample employment opportunities to the rural labourers in those two villages of West Bengal. Betel leaves are cultivated through out the year and ‘vegetables’ cultivated in those villages cover nine months. But the farmers face lots of uncertainties in those two cultivations. Hence,

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only the big farmers can take the risk of cultivation of the two crops. The daily wage rate offered to an agricultural labourer, in those cultivations is Rs.40 and the wage is paid totally in cash. We have also collected information about the wage rate in different agricultural activities of the previous agricultural year of all the sample villages of all districts. Interestingly there is no change of wage rate in the sample villages of Nadia district, West Midnapur district and of North 24 Parganas district. But, in Howrah district the wage rate of a labourer during the time of sowing was Rs.80 in Subhahara village and Rs.75 in Alampur village. Other wage rates were remains unchanged. IV. WAGE RATE OF MIGRANT LABOURERS The wage rate of the migrant labourers in those sample villages varies from district to district. It mainly depends on the wage rate of the local labourers of that particular village. Through field study it is observed that in West Bengal the migrant labourers most of the times receives the same wage rate as of the local labourers. Though the wage rate is same, the cost of hiring a migrant labourer is larger for an employer since he (she) has often to pay for the costs of transportation from the migrant’s place of origin and also for his temporary accommodation near the farm. But the employer is prepared to pay a higher cost for the migrant labourer in such case because the latter may have specialized skills (hired for special operations like ploughing and transplanting) or because he is easier to be monitored. In the sample villages of Howrah district, we fail to find any migrant labourer during the time of survey. In the two villages of West Midnapur district the wage rate of the migrant labourer is Rs.65 in cash and a full meal and shelter in kind where the wage rate of the local labourers is Rs.70 in cash and at least Rs.5 in kind. Sometimes the employer pays rice to the migrant labourer at dinner. So here the total daily wage rate of the migrant labourer may not exceed that of local labourer. In the two villages of North 24 Parganas district the wage rate of the female migrant labourers are less than the male migrant labourers though the working hours are same. There the daily wage rate of the male migrant labourer is Rs.70 but that of female migrant labourer at the same time is Rs.60. Here all the payments are made fully in form of cash and no payment is made in form of kind. The wage rate of the migrant labourers in the two villages of Nadia district is Rs.40 for male labourers and only Rs.35 for female members. It is observed from field survey that only the big landlords employ migrant laborer mainly at the time of sowing or harvesting but the number is very few and they are paid keeping with the parity of the wage rate of the local labourers It is interesting that in all the situations, the labourers both male and female are migrating from such a place where the wage rate is below the existing wage of the sample villages. V. WAGE DISPARITY BETWEEN MALE AND FEMALE AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS Female agricultural labourers cannot be involved in all types of agricultural activities. For example, we fail to find any female agricultural labourer in ploughing or land preparation. However, they are employed in sowing, transplanting, harvesting, threshing and drying. In the field survey, it is observed that the male member of a labour household sometimes does not allow his wife to work as a casual labourer. The female labourers are told to do only the household work. However, they are encouraged to work in the field owned or leased-in by her husband or any other male family members. The landlords also have little interest to employ female labourers in his field. So, we have found little presence of female casual labourers in those surveyed villages. In Howrah district, we have not found any female agricultural labourer. In the two

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villages in West Midnapur district, we have found the presence female agricultural labourers during the time of sowing; transplanting and harvesting but not so much and all labourers are local female labourers. But there is no disparity in the wage rate between male and female agricultural labourers. In Jara village, they are paid Rs70 in cash and tiffin and in Kalora village they are paid Rs.65 in cash and token Tiffin during lunch. The active intervention of Kishan sabha at the time of deciding daily wage rate prior to any agricultural peak season is the main cause behind that. But, in the two villages of Nadia district, we observe the presence of wage discrimination among the male and female agricultural labourers. In those villages, the wage rate of female agricultural labourers in any type of agricultural activity is only Rs.35 in cash though, working hour of any female labourer is same like that of the male agricultural labourer and that is around eight hours. Table 2 shows that most of the agricultural labourers of Nadia district are at least illiterate. Still they fail to organize themselves so that they can bargain for better wage. Local Panchayat never took the initiative to force the employer to pay higher wage on the ground that most of the days in a year each labourer can get employment. Active role of Panchayat at the time of wage determination is also observed in the two villages of North 24 Districts. Still there we observe the presence of disparity between male and female wage rate. The wage paid to a female labourer in any type of activities is there also Rs.60 and that is paid fully in form of cash. The female labourers of those villages are satisfied in this wage rate and they have no complain against this discrimination between the male and female wage rates. VI. AGRICULTURAL WAGE VS. MINIMUM WAGE Government of West Bengal has decided Rs.62 in cash as the minimum wage rate of a labourer in the agricultural sector. If we compare all the four sample districts it is observed that in the two villages of West Midnapur district, the wage rate as a combination of cash and kind is far above the minimum wage. The wage rate of the two villages of North 24 Parganas is also above the minimum wage level but in those villages wage is paid fully in form of cash. The strong organization of ‘kishan sabha’ and the involvement of the Left party dominated local panchayat play the vital role behind that. It is interesting that out of surveyed 50 agricultural laborers of the two villages of West Midnapur district, 45 respondents are members of kishan sabha and all are aware that, they are paid more than the minimum wage proposed by the Government. Same picture is also observed in the two villages of North 24 Parganas District where the active intervention of Panchayat in the agricultural labour market helps the local male, even the migrant labourers to get wage much higher than Rs. 62. The female agricultural labourers there get wage just below the minimum level. In the two villages of Howrah district we observed that the wage as a combination of cash and kind is just below the ‘minimum wage’ during the time of harvesting, land preparation, threshing. But, in the shortage period, i.e. during the time of transplanting and sowing the wage jumps far over the minimum wage level. In Howrah we see the absence of labour union but active participation of panchayat at the time of deciding wage. However, the picture is very different in two villages of Nadia district. In those two villages, we observe the absence of trade union and non-interference of local panchayat at the time of deciding the wage rate. These two villages are basically almost 50 km. away from district town Krishnanagar but not remote. In that two villages we observed the pre-dominance of feudal landlords at the time of deciding the wage rate. From Table 2, it is observed that in the two villages of Nadia district most of the agricultural labourers are general cast. Therefore, we cannot say the labourers are oppressed due to their low cast background. Actually, they fail to bargain with local landlords for better wage. In the villages West Midnapur, where we see the dominance

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of scheduled cast or tribe agricultural labourers, but with the help of labour union, they are getting more than government stipulated minimum wage. Therefore, we can claim that cast is not a factor at the time of deciding wage rate in the agricultural labour market of West Bengal. Hence it is observed that in spite of the wage disparity between different districts of West Bengal the agricultural wage in any particular agricultural season in West Bengal is rigid in the downward direction and sometimes is kept above the minimum wage level. The strong presence of kishan Sabha or the union of the local agricultural labourers or active intervention of the local panchayat at the time of deciding wage prior to any agricultural peak season is the main cause behind this downward wage rigidity. Illiteracy and lower cast background create little impact at the time of wage determination in the agricultural sector of West Bengal. In West Bengal, the landlords are not now enjoying monopsony power in the agricultural labour market. Rather in the absence of third party, wages are decided through bargaining between the landlord and the employee. The labourers do not allow his landlord to reduce the wage rate even if they are unemployed for fear that this will lower wages for everybody for now and in the future (Osmani,1991). Therefore, they are informally organized at the time of wage determination. Almost absence of credit-labour interlinked contract is also another example of the absence of labour exploitation in the agricultural labour market of West Bengal. VII. NON-FARM WAGE AND FARM WAGE In those surveyed villages, there was little expansion of non-farm sector. Interestingly, the nonfarm wage is in those areas are not lower than agricultural wage. In the villages of Nadia, West Midnapur and North 24 Parganas the major non-farm occupation of a labourer is in construction activities. Though little efficiency is required in this activity, the daily wage rate of a labourer in the construction activity in Nadia, West Midnapur and North 24 Parganas is Rs. 50, Rs. 80 and Rs.70 respectively. Therefore, it is clear that the wage rate in the non-farm sector in a particular area is highly correlated with the agricultural wage rate of that area. Actually, an employer in the construction activity said wage of the construction worker could not be kept lower than the existing agricultural wage rate in order to get ready availability of labour. Another non-farm employment opportunity generated in North 24 Parganas villages is cleaning of ponds and fishing where each labourer can get Rs. 70 per day, which is exactly equal to the existing agricultural wage rate in that area. In Howrah, the agricultural labour households do few zari works. The family members of the agricultural labour household mainly do this work. The payment is contractual. Sometimes the daily wage rate becomes Rs. 60. But one cannot survive there only on the basis of this occupation. In those surveyed villages, this zari work treated as supplementary occupation of an agricultural labour household. VIII. EMPLOYMENT IN THE AGRICULTURAL LABOUR MARKET At the time of discussing about employment, we give full stress on the total full days a labourer gets employment in the farm sector. A full day is considered a working day in which a labourer has to work at least eight hours. Here we have already mentioned that the total agricultural season is divided in to three parts such as khariff season, rabi season and boro season. If we consider the time span, the maximum span is observed in khariff season, which starts in the month of May and ends in the month of October. The data are collected in the month of April and May of 2006. So at the time of taking information about total number of days of getting employment in a particular season, the time between May 2005 and April 2006 is considered as current year and May 2004 and April 2005 as the previous year. The following table shows the

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average number of days each male main agricultural labourer gets full days work in different agricultural seasons in a specific year. During the time of calculating average number of days, we initially take information related to total number of days a particular agricultural labourer gets employment in different parts of agricultural activities like sowing, ploughing, harvesting, threshing, drying etc. in a particular agricultural season. Summing all those, we get total number of days each labourer can get employment in any season. Ultimately, we calculated the mean and standard deviation of total full days of employment of all the labourers in that particular village. The standard deviation indicates the uncertainty faces by a local labourer at the time of getting job in his local area and low standard deviation indicates less uncertainty faces by a labourer at the time of getting job in the farm sector in his own locality. In all the sample villages, we observed the dominance of small employers in the labour market. The landlords who have at least more than one and a half hector cultivatable lands create maximum employment. The owner of this type of land cultivate totally with the help of hired labourers but most of the times, the activities of the employed labourers are fully monitored by the landlord himself. They always prefer to employ local labourers but sometimes during the labour shortage period, they hire migrant labourers. The farmers who have less than one hector of land but more than one acre of land cultivates with the help of family and hired labourers. Therefore, they cannot generate much employment in the agricultural labour market. The cost of cultivation in West Bengal is now gradually increasing. The cost of water is almost Rs. 900 per acre in boro or rabi season. Apart from that the cost of HYV seeds, fertilizers and pesticides are approximately Rs. 550, Rs. 2000 and Rs. 1500 respectively. The cost is little lower in the aman season. After cultivation, the farmers generally get Rs. 5.50 after selling one kilogram rice. The total amount of paddy produced in one-acre land is approximately 2100 kgs. Therefore, to generate maximum surplus, the small farmers want to minimize their labour cost and prefers to engage family members in the production process, which means little possibility of employment generation from those types of farmers. When required, these small farmers always prefer local labourers who are easily available. The big farmers only cultivate their land with the help of hired labour. Sometimes they employ migrant labourers but they are not engaged through out the season. Hence, in those sample villages we observe little presence of migrant labourers. In khariff season, the average number of days each labourer gets employment is not almost same in all the sample villages of the four districts of West Bengal (Table 4). It is highest in the Bamanpukur village of North 24 Parganas district and lowest in Jara village in West Midnapur district. However, if we talk about the uncertainties, we observe that it is least in Kallora village of West Midnapur district and it is the highest in the Kuthipara village of Nadia district. We have already mentioned that the local agricultural labourers of the two villages of West Midnapur district are organized. This organization at one-side bargains with the landlords for better wage and on the other side restricts the entry of the migrant labourers in that area. Because of which the local labourers are almost certain to get job in the local farm sector. This incidence is reflected in the values of standard deviation of total possible full days of getting employment in any particular agricultural season. In the two villages of North 24 Parganas district, a good number of labourers are involved in fishing and few labourers have already migrated to other states in search of better-paid jobs. So sufficient number of labourers is not available in the farm sector due to which, the existing labour force are fortunate enough to get good number of whole day of employment in khariff season. The rabi season is totally absent in Howrah and North 24 Parganas district. Hence, in those two districts no employment is generated in that season. In

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the two villages of West Midnapur district potato is cultivated in rabi season. Here the agricultural labourers fail to get not more than 25 full days of employment in Jara village and 22 days in Kalora village. In the two villages of Nadia district, wheat is the main crop in rabi season which can provide 35 days of employment to a labourer on average in Sikarpur village and 38 days on average in Kuthipara village in that particular season. Boro cultivation is observed in the two villages of Howrah district, West Midnapur district and North 24 Parganas district. In all those districts paddy is the main crop. We know that good irrigation facilities are required in boro cultivation and the farmer has to spend a good amount of money for cultivation purposes. Apart from this, the farmer has to bear good amount of expenses on fertilizers and pesticides and water. So it is obvious that only the big farmers or the farmers who owns at least one and a half acre of land can take the risk of boro cultivation. Sometimes small farmers lease out his own land to big farmers and sometimes the lands are kept barren. So little employment is generated in the boro seasons. Still in the North 24 Parganas district due to the shortage of labour supply a main labourer can get 45 days in Bamanpukur village and 43 days in Majherpara village on average. As vegetables, cultivation is not observed in the villages of Howrah, West Midnapur and North 24 Parganas district no employment is generated in those cultivations in those particular villages. We have already mentioned that in the two villages of Nadia district, betel leaves are cultivated through out the year and vegetables are cultivated for nine months. So a labourer can get work on average 115 full days of employment in Sikarpur village and 120 full days of employment in Kuthipara village. Cultivation of those two cash crops besides the cultivation of paddy in aman season and wheat in rabi season help the local labourers to get near about 200 days of employment in a particular year. Table 4 shows that maximum mean number of days each labourer gets employment, in a particular year is in the Kuthipara village of Nadia district. The next one is Sikarpur village of the same district. Maximum standard deviation, of getting employment in terms of working days in any season is observed in those two villages of Nadia district. This is happening because the cultivation of betel leaves and vegetables are going on with the cultivation of paddy in the kharif season and wheat in rabi seasons. As there is virtually no wage difference in those cultivations, a casual labourer can switch over from one type of cultivation to another regularly. Due to this regular switch over, the value of standard deviation of getting employment in terms of man-days in a particular season is observed very high in those two villages of Nadia district. Table 4 Average Number of Days Each Male Labourer Gets Employment in Different Seasons in the Year 2005-2006 District

Villages

Howrah

Subhahara Alampur Jara Kallora Sikarpur Kuthipara Bamanpukur Majherpara

West Midnapur Nadia North 24 Parganas

Kharif

Rabi

Boro

Vegetables

Total mean days

41 (5.83) 39(4.34) 38(4.87) 40(4.31) 41(8.65) 42(9.43) 48 (6.57) 44 (7.74)

000 000 25(3.39) 22(4.48) 35(7.89) 38(4.76) 00 00

40 (4.65) 35(5.23) 35(5.03) 33(3.98) 00 00 45 (7.39) 43 (8.43)

00 00 00 00 115(11.54) 120(10.32) 00 00

81 74 98 95 191 200 93 87

Note: Standard deviations are mentioned in the parenthesis. Source: Field Survey.

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So it is clear that cultivation in all the three seasons may only help the main agricultural labourers to get around100 days of employment where in the full employment situation, a labourer should get 271 full days of employment annually. Vegetable cultivators face many uncertainties during the time of production. Still it can generate many employment opportunities among the agricultural labourers. Nowadays, Government of West Bengal encourages the small and marginal farmers to cultivate vegetables and other crops. Seeds at subsidized rate are also given to them. However, those farmers are not eager enough to take this risky project. Lack of availability of credit is one of the major reasons behind that. This problem can also be sorted out if the Self Help Groups are engaged in this type of project. It is observed that few Self Help Groups in Bankura and Malda districts have already started to cultivate vegetables. Sometimes they have to hire local labourers also. So it is obvious that employment generation in the agricultural labour market of West Bengal does not solely influenced by supply demand interaction or money wage rate. It depends on the types of cultivation going on in a particular village. If the cultivation is going on throughout the season then, automatically the labourer can get more full days of employment in a particular year. But availability of employment also reduces the money wage rate, sometimes far below the government recommended minimum wage. If we compare the total number of possible days of getting employment of a main agricultural labourer in the year 2005-06 with 2004-05 (as shown in Table 5) we see the almost same picture. Actually in those two-reference periods, the agricultural activities in the sample villages were not affected by flood or drought or any other natural calamities. The mean number of days of getting employment of any male agricultural labourers and the values of standard deviation remain almost unchanged in all the sample villages. Therefore, if we compare Table 4 with Table 5, we see that the male agricultural labourers of those sample villages face little uncertainty on the total full days of getting employment and on the daily wage rate in the farm sector prior to any agricultural season. According to the labourers, the farmers of those villages do not want to take any risk through cultivating different crops. So there exists little opportunities of employment generation in agricultural sector in those sample villages. Predominance of small farmers and lack of proper irrigation and credit facilities are the major causes behind noncultivation of rabi crops in the sample villages of Howrah district and North 24 Parganas District. As a result of which it is observed from Table 4 and Table 5 that in the four villages of the two districts an agricultural labourer fails to get at least 100 days of employment in the farm sector annually. So sufficient development of irrigation facilities can only help the small farmers to Table 5 Average Number of Days Each Male Labourer Gets Employment in Different Seasons in the Year 2005-2006 District

Villages

Howrah

Subhahara Alampur Jara Kallora Sikarpur Kuthipara Bamanpukur Majherpara

West Midnapur Nadia North 24 Parganas

Note and Source: Same as for Table 4.

Kharif

Rabi

Boro

Vegetables

Total mean days

39 (5.28) 34(4.03) 40(4.38) 41(4.32) 42(8.79) 42(9.23) 50 (5.72) 45 (5.02)

000 000 27(3.68) 24(4.35) 38(7.03) 37(4.06) 00 00

42 (4.88) 44(5.88) 35(5.23) 38(4.65) 00 00 52 (4.97) 46 (6.34)

00 00 00 00 112(11.47) 120(11.82) 00 00

81 78 102 103 192 199 102 91

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get water cheaply during rabi and boro season. Only at that situation, a farmer will take the risk of cultivation in both the seasons and more employment can be generated in the agricultural sector. Another interesting feature of those sample villages is little development of non-farm occupations. This is necessary to supplement the income of the agricultural labourers. In the two villages of Howrah district zari work is popular among the agricultural labour households. But, they are doing this work through subcontracting and earn very little. Mainly all the family members including the child members are involved in this occupation and most of the times they can earn merely Rs.500 to Rs.600 per month. Between March to May they get no work and earn more in the months between July and October. However, efficiency is essential in this type of work but this occupation can deteriorate the health conditions of the labourers. Hence, all poor families are not interested to involve themselves in this type of occupations. Other nonfarm occupation observed in that area is construction work in which each agricultural labourers can get average 50 full days of employment annually. The construction work is also a prime non-farm occupation in the villages of Nadia, West Midnapur and North 24 Parganas district.. In North 24 Parganas district another important non-farm occupations are digging, washing ponds and fishing from which a main agricultural labourer can get maximum 45 days of employment annually. The main agricultural labourer generally prefers to work in the farm sector and wants to move to the non-farm occupation if he is not getting job in the farm sector or very high non-farm wage. As the second one is not visible in rural Bengal and the non-farm wage is almost equal to farm wage, a labourer always prefer to work in the farm sector. IX. WAGE-EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIP Hence, we observe the predominance of casualisation of the agricultural labourers in the agricultural labour market of West Bengal. Rapid increase in the number of agricultural labour force and the marginalisation of the farmers is the main cause behind that. Due to the gradual increase of marginal and small farmers and high cost of inputs, little demand is generated in the agricultural labour market. Sometimes the marginal farmers to supplement their income also want to work as an agricultural labourer, which automatically increases the labour supply. Therefore, in the agriculturally developed regions even in the presence of multiple cropping, each main local male agricultural labourer hardly gets 100 full days of employment through out the year in the farm sector. Only exception is observed in the two villages of Nadia district where the cultivation of betel leaves and vegetables with the cultivation of paddy in khariff season and wheat in boro season help a local agricultural labourer to get near about 200 full days of employment. Still they are far below 271 days of employment, which, is considered as full employment situation. To supplement their income the labourers then search job in the non-farm sector though, in all the sample villages, little employment is generated in the nonfarm sector. From that sector, a main agricultural labourer can get 50 full days of employment on average annually. Our survey identifies that to create more employment in the agricultural sector, proper expansion of irrigation facilities are required which can provide cheap water to the small and marginal farmers. Rural credit system should also be developed so that the small and marginal farmers can get credit easily during the time of cultivation. This will encourage the small and marginal farmers to cultivate even in the rabi or boro season. This will affect the agricultural labour market in two ways. Due to their engagement in cultivation throughout the season, the small and marginal farmers will not incline to work as a casual agricultural labourer. That will automatically reduce the labour supply. On the other side, this casual and marginal farmers

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now can generate more demand in the labour market. Because of which, the local casual labourers can get more full days of employment throughout the year. In spite of the presence of acute unemployment, the daily wage rate in the agricultural labour market of West Bengal is not kept at abnormally low level. Rather in the two villages of West Midnapur district and of North 24 Parganas district, the daily wage rate was kept above the Government recommended minimum wage level. In those four villages, local panchayat and labour union of the local labourers play the vital role at the time of wage determination. It is not even possible for the employer cum landlord to employ migrant labourer after ignoring local labourer at lower wage rate. In those villages, the fair wage norm developed by Kundu(2005) was observed because no discrimination was observed between local and migrant labourer in daily wage rates. The wage rate of the female labourer in the two villages of West Midnapur district is also equal to the male counterpart. In other villages, the female wage rate is just below the male wage rates. In the two villages of Howrah district, we observed in spite of the presence of unemployment wage was not below Rs. 60. Here we observed the presence of consumption efficiency argument mentioned long ago by Leibenstein (1957) and Majumdar (1959) when a good portion of the wage rate is paid inform of food and the labourer has to take that at his worksite. Efficiency wage argument can be the explanation of this downward wage rigidity in the agricultural labour market of Howrah district. Actually illiteracy and low cast background can not prevent the labourers to accept low wage rate. Here panchayat does not play any active role at the time of wage determination. Labour union of the local labourers is absent. Still the labourers does not accept low wage in spite of unemployment fearing that he will be then offered low wage in the next period. In the two villages of Nadia district, the daily wage rate is far below the government decided minimum wage. However, in those two villages, the labourers get maximum days of employment. Here also the landlord does not decide the wage rate fully. Rather it is decided through bargaining between the local labourers and landlord. The local labourers accept the very low wage rate because they know they can get near about 200 full days of employment throughout the year. The wage rate in the major nonfarm sector in any village is always influenced by the wage rate of the local agricultural labourers. X. CONCLUSION There is wage disparity in the agricultural labour market of West Bengal. All the regions do not here follow the minimum wage norm. But the wage is always determined through bargaining between the employee and the employer, though the landlords still enjoy little more bargaining power than the labourers. So the regions where there is no interference of Panchayat or local labour union, wage is demand determined. Still the labourers do not allow the employers or landlords to offer wage below a certain minimum level. They also allow the employers to employ migrant labour if and only if all the existing local labourers are employed. But if daily wage is decided by local panchayat, then there will be no seasonal variation in the wage rate. Even the discrimination of wage rate between a male agricultural labourer and female agricultural labourer also disappeared. The employment generation by the landlords in a particular region totally depends on the types of cultivation going on in that region. Predominance of marginal farmers and high cost of cultivation automatically decreases employment generation in terms of mandays in rural West Bengal. Still the vegetable cultivation and cultivation of other types of cash crop like betel leaves in Nadia district creates sufficient employment in terms of man-days. But the wages in those regions are far below the government recommended minimum wage level. So if we look at different regions of West Bengal, each agricultural labourer can hardly earn

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Rs.7500 annually as a casual worker. Lack of sufficient development of non-farm sector cannot help them to earn much from any other supplementary occupation. Hence they are not only poor but also vulnerable. It is realized that National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme will be helpful in all those sample villages. This scheme can help the local labourers to get at least 100 more days of employment at a wage rate Rs.60 per day. This scheme can help the rural labourers to cross the poverty line. During the time of survey, we observed three main problems of the sample villages. These are the predominance of nonmetallic roads, the absence of pure drinking water and proper irrigation facilities. Improvement of the first and third one are vital if we want to encourage the small and marginal farmers to cultivate all the seasons. This can also help the local labourers to get more days of employment. Through this NREGP, these problems can be minimized. This programme apart from generating 100 full days of employment of a labourer lying below the poverty line can take proper initiative to improve rural infrastructure such as development of road, drinking water and irrigation facilities etc. This infrastructure development can also generate more no farm employment in rural Bengal and can help the agricultural labourers to remove their poverty and vulnerability. References Bardhan, P. (1979), Land, Labour and RuralPoverty, Oxford University Press. Bhalla, S. (1993), “The Dynamics of Wage Determination and Employment Generation in Indian Agriculture”, Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol. 48, No. 3, pp. 448-470. Chatterjee, B. and Kundu, Amit (1999), “ Credit Labour Interlinkage, Moral Hazard-Issues in the Economics of Wage Policy”, The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Vol. 42, No. 4. Kundu, Amit (2004), “Outcomes of Unionization of the Agricultural Labourers in an Agriculturally Developed Region”, Indian Journal of Quantitative Economics, Vol.19, pp. 29-38. Leibenstein, H. (1957), “Unemployment in Backward Economies”, Journal of Political Eonomy, Vol. 65, pp. 91-103. Mazumdar, D. (1959), “The Marginal Productivity Theory of Wages and Disguised Unemployment”, Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 26, pp.190-97. Osmani, S.R. (1991), “Wage Determination in Rural Labour Markets: The theory of Implicit Cooperation”, Journal of Development Economics, Vol. 34, pp. 3-23.