Rural Odisha is seemingly hurtling fast to a crisis as the annual growth rate of wages for rural unskilled workers in the State has fallen below the retail inflation level for two successive years. This sounds alarming when unskilled labourers form over one-third of the population in rural Odisha and the retail inflation is beginning to look up as summer lies ahead.
According to latest data available, the average wage of an unskilled labourer in rural Odisha is around `162 in 2014 compared to `153 in 2013. The wage rate is lower by over 2-3 per cent of the national average in both the years.
The catch here, however, is after recording a whopping 28 per cent growth rate in 2011 the annual growth rate of wages in rural Odisha had dipped to mere 9 per cent in 2013 and further to around 6-7 per cent in 2014. In contrast, the brewing crisis at hand is the annual inflation rate for food, tobacco and beverages in 2013 for the rural labourers in Odisha had been a whopping 13 per cent and around 8-9 per cent in 2014.
This shows the real per capita income for unskilled workers in rural Odisha has been negative — means their wage income growth is far less than the price rise they confront with to meet their basic food consumption needs for the two consecutive years.
Moreover, the State’s wage rate is fifth lowest in the country. Significantly, States having lower wage rate than Odisha are: Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. Interestingly, all except Madhya Pradesh are top industrial States in the country. It seems the lower rural wage rate in the States is due to high availability of skilled jobs and skilled workforce even in rural areas, which is not the case in Odisha.
According to Commission for Agricultural Cost and Prices (CACP), the quantum rise in rural wage rate in Odisha in 2011-12 – when the annual growth in State rural wage rate has been highest nationally – had been on account of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee flagship scheme.
The Commission observed that this has severely impeded even the cost of cultivation in Odisha with farmers reaping huge loss even at the level of minimum support price of crops. Experts at the Nabakrushna Choudhry Institute of Development Studies (NCIDS), however, are of the opinion that the annual growth rate of 7-9 per cent in rural wages in the last two years is not a cause of concern, but the disconcerting factor is the growth in annual price rise in the rural Odisha is much higher vis-a-vis the wages.
Such a scenario could have a devastating effect on the purchasing power in rural Odisha and if not addressed would see large-scale distressed migration, they cautioned. The State has around 68.3 lakh marginal workers, suggests the 2011 Census. And rural Odisha account for over 90 per cent of them or around 64 lakh. Significantly, over half of them (33 lakh) are females.
But the 2014 average rural wage rate of Rs 145 for female labourer in Odisha is much lower than the State average, suggests the labour bureau data. How the high inflation is pinching the rural society in Odisha can well be ascertained from the fact that when mere 18 lakh females in rural Odisha are housewives, nearly twice of them are employed as marginal workers.