Employment Patterns among Agricultural Labourers in Rural Punjab

Abstract

The study attempts to examine the employment pattern among agricultural labourers in rural Punjab. The impact of the agrarian crisis on peasants in Punjab is more widely known, but it has also had a grievous impact on agricultural labourers. Economists seem to give more emphasis to the problems of farming communities and less to the problems of agricultural labourers who constitute 47 per cent of the total working population in 2012, as it becomes the general trend among the economists. Though the Land Reforms, Green Revolution and New Economic Policy in India may have contributed to some sections of the society, but nothing to the betterment of the conditions of agricultural labourers. The study concluded that the agricultural labourers are victims of social, political and economic exploitation and discrimination. Their earning is so low to meet basic requirements for livings. More than three-fourths of the households are indebted. Despite the government’s claims of initiating a number of employment programmes and aids to the agricultural labourers for uplifting their levels of living, a large proportion of them still lack basic amenities for decent living standard, demanding a better implementation of these schemes. The most important suggestion came in the form of cooperative farming and the abolition of forces of discriminations on the basis of caste, class, gender etc. is necessary to provide conditions for dignified living to agricultural labourers.