F E A T U R E S

Migrant Labour: Bane or Boom for Punjab
Professor Joginder Singh

THE Punjab agriculture has witnessed an unprecedented rapid structural transformation in agriculture during the last few decades. Wheat was a traditional crop while rice stormed into cropping pattern of the state with the onset of Green Revolution. The rice-wheat rotation gained popularity with the Punjab farmers as it was the most profitable crop rotation that offered assured returns. On the other hand, monoculture of rice and wheat over a long period of about three decades has caused many shifts in resource use, besides creating a number of ecological problems of water table, soil health, and pest resistance, air pollution due to burning of straw and above all fast in-migration of human labour.

Allured by higher labour demand and wage rate resulting from intensification of agriculture, labour started migrating from other rice-growing states of the country, particularly during the peak work load periods of transplanting and harvesting of rice crop. Initially, migration was mainly from Uttar Pradesh but later it started from Bihar also. Most of the labourers have come to stay permanently while the others are still seasonal migrants. This depressed the wages of local labour. Followed by rapid farm mechanization and use of herbicides, a lot of labour was displaced from agriculture. Seasonality in the demand for labour got pronounced due to crop monoculture. Therefore, they started migrating to other occupations such as construction, transport, manufacturing, commerce, trade etc., replacing the local labour which was relatively less docile, more hesitant to perform some unhygienic work and works for limited hours a day.

According to the study by Ram Singh (2006), the number of labourers migrated into Punjab was 21 lakh in 2000-01 apart from 16 lakh dependents. Thus the 37 lakh total migrants accounted for 15% of state population and about 22% of total working force out of 91 lakh workers in Punjab. They migrated from Bihar (60%), Uttar Pradesh (21%), Nepal (9%) and other states (10%). The total annual earnings were estimated to Rs3, 500 crores of which about Rs2000 crores was transmitted back to their native states putting a serious drain on the state economy. Interesting part of the whole story is that for Population Census, Survey by Food & Civil Supplies Department and National Sample Survey purposes, migrants are not accounted in Punjab but are accounted in their native states. For example, according to Planning Commission of India the population below poverty in Punjab was 6% in 1999-2000 but this 15% of population of the state, which by and large, is below poverty line, is considered to be the of residents from other states. Allocation of national funds to different states by the Finance Commissions is based on size of population and poverty ratio. Therefore, Punjab loses on both counts for funding. A strong case in this connection has to be presented by Punjab government to seek justice from the Planning Commission of India.

There are enormous socio-economic problems associated with such in-migration. The migration is believed to have depressed wage rate of labour by about 20% which has lowered the cost of production of various commodities and has helped in making the state economy competitive. But partly the benefit of it gets transmitted to other consuming states where such products are marketed at lower price. However, the local labour could not share the fruit of green revolution; rather the employment and wage rate were depressed adding to their misery. It is also advocated to have reduced the burden of farm women as migrants help in carrying out the livestock activities which were mainly done by women. On the other hand, farm women get burdened with additional work of cooking meals for the migrant labour that stays on the farm.

The crime rate in various forms has gone up because it is easy for the migrants to commit crime as their background is unknown and they have access to employers’ secrets. It is also easy to blame that the migrants alone commit this crime. Yet it is essential that for settlement elsewhere they should submit their identity slips to the local police so that the crime is minimized. The slum areas created by them by economizing in terms of expenditure on housing, clothing, food consumption, health and sanitation  have also deteriorated the environment of the state further. The slum dwellings could be avoided by fixing and strictly adhering to certain housing norms. The human health hazards have been aggravated due to their frequent mobility acting as carriers of various infectious diseases from their native places. The habit of their addiction to drugs such as zarda, biris, and  drinking. has been largely inculcated in the local residents, especially local labour and children. The work culture with the local population, particularly farmers has been fast eroding and the Punjabi farmer who was known by his hard-working nature is losing this dignity due to easy availability of labour. Similar is the case with domestic activities. There are certain sectors of the state economy where migrants have significant hold. For example in livestock and construction activities, only one-fourth and in manufacturing activity only one-third of workers employed is local labour. This does not mean that local labour has been upgraded to the superior jobs but they have been the most sufferers of the whole process. Due to seasonal work availability, migrants resorted to some odd jobs such as rickshaw pulling, creating traffic hazards.

The economic lot of migrants did improve as the sole cause of migration is their indebtedness, low wage rate and lack of employment opportunities in their native states. It is not advisable to stop the migration phenomenon under the democratic set up of the country. On the other hand, out-migration from Punjab was seriously curtailed. Some states like Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh passed legislations to stop purchase of land by the migrants as a result of which Punjabi farmers who used to migrate to other states to earn their livelihood have been curbed. Punjab government should raise a voice against conflicting policies of such states to be reviewed in proper perspective.

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Green Revolution in Haryana: Prosperity, Poverty and Debt Bondage
Professor Manjit Singh

THE use of forced labour in agriculture is not the story of the past; even today bonded labour chained with debt can be found working in rural Haryana. in 1979, the National Sample Survey, under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 identified as many as 1,29,000 bonded labourers in Haryana. According to a Survey conducted by Department of Sociology, Panjab University, Chandigarh, there are nearly 1.42 lakh attached agricultural labourers and 2.34 lakh Siris working a the farms in Haryana. Most of them are working under highly indebted conditions, slowly pushing them to the relation of bondage.

Data collected from 3,323 rural labour households spread over more than 200 villages of six districts of Haryana, shows that rural labour can broadly be classified into four categories: attached agricultural labourers, Siris, casual labour in agriculture and casual labour in non-agriculture. However, attached agricultural labourers and Siris are the worst exploited lot right in the heartland of green revolution.

An attached agricultural labour is paid annual wage in the range of Rs.10, 000/- to Rs.24, 000/- that depends upon the amount of workload to be given to the labourer, his physical strength, his experience in agriculture, and above all, the amount of debt that has piled up against him which is  a universal phenomena. The Gazette Notification of the Minimum Wage acknowledges that an attached labourer is a ‘whole time servant’ meaning thereby that he is at the beck and call of his ‘master’. Traditionally, an attached labourer was a part of the Jajmani system, and the landlord would make sure that the earnings of the labourer are good enough for his family’s survival. Today, under the capitalist form of agriculture, it is just the opposite. The landlord makes it sure that, at the end of the year, the labourer is not left with any savings, rather he is left with some debt so that the landlord can perpetuate the servile relation on continuous basis.  That is why every attached labourer today starts with borrowing of at least Rupees ten to fifteen thousand advance debt which is good enough to push a labourer into a continuous debt trap. However, with the rise of commercial relations in agriculture, migrant and child labourers are pouring in to work as attached labourers on cash wages.

In the case of attached agricultural labourers the employer provides no medical help even if a labourer meets with an accident while at work. There is no holiday/ or provision of paid leave. If a worker wants to take off from work either he has to produce a substitute for himself, or his wage would be deducted equal to the highest daily wage rate of a casual worker in the area. In case an attached labourer wishes to quit his job he can do so only after clearing his debt. The same amount he is forced to borrow from some other moneylender. The attached labourers are ‘free’ to quit any number of employers but not the yoke of debt. In the areas of relatively backward agriculture Siri system of securing permanent hands is more popular.

Siri system is worse than attached labour because the income of a Siri depends upon the total crop production from a piece of land allotted to him by the landowner. Out of the total crop production he would share 1/4th to 1/6th. In other words, Siri is a risk-sharing labourer with the landlord and in the event of crop failure the landlord will still survive but the tenant would go under a heavy debt. The status of a Siri is akin to that of a piece rate wageworker in the unorganized sector. Like attached labourer, the relation of dependency between the Siri and the landlord starts from above with the advancing of cash debt to the Siri by the employer. In order to enhance his share of the produce, a Siri engages all his family members in agricultural work. The terms of contact of a Siri are such that at the end of the year he is left with debt rather than surplus.

The facts at a glance show that, of the total rural labourers in Haryana, 88 per cent are Dalits, 74 per cent are illiterate, and more than half of them work for 9-12 hours a day. There are also 8.5 per cent such labourers who have to work for 15-18 hours a day. After such a backbreaking work by the labourers the annual income of 67 per cent of them is less than Rs. 15,000/-. This is an ugly face of our model of development whereby a large number of masses are being continuously pushed to the wall. Consequently, out of the total labourers 61 per cent are burdened under debt. The remaining 39 per cent households are ‘free of debt’ because they are so poor that nobody wants to risk their money by lending them.  There are 32 per cent such rural labour households whose debt ranges between Rs.20-50 thousand. In fact there are 13 per cent households whose debt amount is more than Rs. 50,000/- each. Further, the annual rate of interest being 24 per cent and above, there is no hope to ever come out the state of indebtedness for all those labourers whose debt amount has crossed Rs.50, 000/-. The perpetual state of indebtedness, what can better be named as debt-trap, has reduced them to debt-bondage. The only silver lining noticed among the rural labouring households is that 98 per cent of them do own house, even though 94 per cent of the houses have no toilet and 63 per cent of the houses are made primarily with mud. However, it is pity that in the heart of green revolution 53.52 per cent of the labourers’ houses does not have electric power supply. The labourers virtually do not own any agricultural land. This is a unique feature not only for Haryana but also for  Punjab farm workers.

The study shows that there is a need to reorient rural development with a human face. If the present crisis left unattended, may any time lead to a politically volatile situation, being experiences by other Indian states.

Prof. Manjit Singh teaches Sociology at the Panjab University, Chandigarh. Mob: 098767-25391

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