Agricultural labourers in rural Odisha are struggling hard to survive with the changing economic scenario. They constitute about 15 per cent of the total workforce of the State. Census data of 2001 shows Odisha has 21 lakhs agricultural workers who mostly belong to SC, ST and most backward communities and these workers are more concentrated in districts like Ganjam, Mayurbhanj, Kalahandi, Baragarh, Baleswar, Cuttack, Keonjhar and Jajpur.
Women are employed in a large number as agricultural labourers. They get about three to four months’ employment due to seasonal nature of agriculture and single cropping pattern. In recent days, about 60 per cent of agricultural works are being done by machines resulting in a decrease in demand for labour. The labourers in agriculture sector get the lowest wage in comparison to others which also encourage a shift to other employment like construction work under different Government schemes in rural areas. In spite of instructions by the Government against use of machine, it is known to everyone that most of the MGNREGS works are done by machines. Without any other alternative, the village folk resorts to distress migration.
A Union Ministry of labour survey shows that the cost of living of agricultural labourers in Odisha is one of the lowest in the country in comparison to highest in State of Punjab. The agriculture of the State which still provides employment to about 60 per cent of population is mostly dominated by small and marginal farmers and share croppers who also work as labourers after finishing the work in their own field. An agriculturist engages the whole of his family in his work. Women and children also play a major role in the whole process but the agricultural workers who are landless and fully depend on others’ fields are the worst suffers because their involvement is restricted to wage employment only. The small land holding farmers get food, fodder, fuel and other benefits while wage labourers just gets the wage.
The National Commission on Rural labour and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) have identified bondage of agricultural labourers as still being the main form of bondage in backward States like Odisha. labour bondage is linked to traditional social relation and caste system which are more visible in agriculture sector of rural and tribal areas of Odisha. In the backward areas of south-west with low irrigation, lack of infrastructure, low productivity, land alienation and debt, land owning tribals and Dalits are increasingly being converted as agricultural labourers. A number of studies also have established that the bonded labour system in agriculture still prevails in many backward areas of the State which is linked to indebtedness and feudal relation in agriculture production.
The landless agricultural labourers belonging to Dalit communities face social discrimination in every sphere of social life. They are allowed only the activities in field and restricted on their involvement in post production work like food processing, marketing and direct consumption activities. They cannot sell rice, rice products, milk and milk products in the village. Even they are allowed with restrictions to use rice mills in a particular day. Even they are not allowed petty grocery business, tea stall, eateries in caste villages. landlessness, illiteracy, lack of credit and social discrimination collectively restrict their participation to go beyond wage labour for self employment by using the advantage of Government schemes and subsides. This has been a major reason for failure of many of Government schemes which has been unable to build an enabling environment by integrating the potentialities of agricultural workers with resources and very less effort has been made to address the social issues which are blocking economic development interventions in rural areas. The beneficiaries have to invest free time and go through a corrupt process led by hegemonic local political agents of ruling party and bureaucracy to get something which is always less than they deserve. The commitment to family members, especially to children, elders and women and the obligation to age- old traditions in family life forced many of them to manage with mere wage and basic minimum for life. To meet the emerging aspiration in family for education of children, health care, clothes and other needs like marriage, birth and death rituals, they struggle to survive with basic minimum for life. Most of the landless agricultural worker families have no food security, house and social security.
The minimum wage fixing machinery (Agriculture) convention and minimum wage fixing conventions of IlO apart from a Supreme Court judgment in 1991 say that the minimum wage must cover the living expenses of the labourers and his or her family members. Moreover, it must be fair and reasonable to the general level of wage earned and the living standard of other social groups but the wage fixing by State Government does not take into account the expenses of a decent and dignified life. The percentage of BPl family among agricultural workers in some parts of Odisha is highest in the country. The Re 1-a-kg rice scheme is helping many families just to survive and also help in controlling starvation death, extreme poverty and hunger.
Natural and manmade disasters like flood, cyclone, drought, water logging, crop loss, seed and pesticide related damages affect the agricultural labourers more than the farmers in terms of unemployment. The relief and compensation and rehabilitation programme of the Government are more as political charity without a fair and realistic support.
The recent trend in the State called economic globalization armed with global capital has uprooted many families with involuntary displacement, loss of agriculture based livelihood in many mining and industrial areas where farmers are converted to agricultural labourers and wage earners. The huge agricultural land and forest are acquired by private companies for non agricultural purpose. The recent trend shows a large chunk of Adivasies are joining as agriculture labourers in coastal areas and other irrigated parts like Baragarh and Sambalpur. Fertile agricultural land in coastal areas are getting converted to SEZ, urban locations, industrial hubs, corridors and roads and railway tracks which bear direct impact on local agriculture labour who are not being adequately compensated due to lack of land entitlement. They are being pushed from their own locality to the periphery as casual workers. Rural agricultural workers are migrating to urban slums, upcoming industrial locations and cities where they have to lead a life without safe drinking water, sanitary facility and housing. The population of urban poor has been increasing in the State in an alarming rate.
It is unfortunate that there is absence of visible agriculture labour organization in the State because the political parties and trade unions and CSOs have not given due attention to the mobilization of agricultural workers as a result of which their issues are not being reflected in the State policy. The issues of agricultural labourers in the State need to be addressed to check distress migration and poverty. There too is an urgent need to boost agriculture production and employment in rural areas for an inclusive development in the State. Creating alternative source of livelihood for agricultural workers has been a challenge as agriculture sector cannot accommodate such huge unskilled labour force. There has to be improvement within agriculture sector and other related sectors in rural areas. The skill of existing agriculture labourers need to be upgraded to meet the mechanization need of agriculture sector.
They should be provided minimum land to get self employed in land based activities by distributing waste land and available common land. They should be encouraged with integrated farming by integrating cultivation of paddy with vegetables, diary, poultry, pisci culture and many more trades.
The 12th Planning Commission has proposed cooperative farming of agricultural workers by giving them grant to purchase private land and collectively go for farming. The State Government has also made provisions under OGlS Act 1971 to distribute agricultural land to land less agricultural workers. Way back in 1950 and later in 1956, the agriculture labour inquiry committee also had recommend land for agricultural workers and self employment schemes. Sadly, they are not being implemented in true spirit. The minimum wage of agricultural workers should be increased at par with other States along with social security majors like free housing, medical benefit, education, insurance and other incidental coverage as complimentary to their income. The quality of life of the people in villages needs to be improved with sanitary facilities, roads, electricity, safe drinking water, school, hospital and marketing places to minimize rural and urban gap in social infrastructure.
(The writer is a rights activist, who can be contacted at ojaabbsr@gmail.com)