muddy feet, dirty hands- rice production and female agricultural labour - 1982

Muddy Feet, Dirty Hands: Rice Production and Female Agricultural LabourAuthor(s): Joan P. Mencher and K. SaradamoniSource: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 17, No. 52 (Dec. 25, 1982), pp. A149-A153+A155-A167Published by: Economic and Political WeeklyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4371700 .

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Muddy Feet, Dirty Hands

Rice Production and Female Agricultural Labour Joan P Mencher

K Saradamoni

This paper presents detailedl data on the involvement of wmn7en in the production and processing of paddy, viz,. activities in ivhich large number of women have been traditiornlly engaged. By doing so,the authors propose to:

(a) Fill i,i a suibstantial gap in the data base on women's economic activities, and document the contribution of women to the production of rice at different stages.

(b) Generate data, which could be of use both to womnen workers themselves (to become aware of their contribuxtion and situation), and to policy-makers in making decisions regarding women's work, wages, health care and other welfare measures).

(c) Raise the question whether the concepts and definititons evolved from studying male labourers would remain valid when the problems of women labourers are to be studied specifically.

IN'1T1ODUCTION

THIS paper, based on a partial analysis of da.a from six villages (two each in the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal) is part of a larger study of women and rice cultivation.' One important feature of this study is that a large number of women are involved in it at all stages. In this paper we examine the patterning of agricultural activities of women as well as their contribution to household income. The women we deal with here belong to both landless and marginal agricultural labour households. In terms of employment, the paper explores (i) intra- village variability, (2) dlifferent Pat- terns of work and agricultuiral practices between the different ecological regions in a given state, and (3) differences between the states.

Within each village, one of our significant observations is the importance of disaggregating the category of landless agricultural labourers and/ or marginal labourers. We find that there is a wide range of variability between households, both in terms of the amoulnt of wage employment available to women and in the total amnount of household income.

Between the villages, our data is suggestive at least of the fact that the quantum of employment as well as the availability of alternative employment is considerably less in the modem context (i e, in the context of the 'green revolution') in the main rice-producing district of each state, compared to districts where rice is more commonly interspersed with other crops. Between the states, our data seem to be suggestive of the fact that in West Bengal (as well as possibly other similar areas in the N-E) where most of the manual work in rice

production is done by tribal women, as opposed to south India where most of the work was traditionally done by liarijans who were formerly in the position of agrestic slaves, there is much more alternative work available to the landless labourers because of the association of the tribals with handicrafts, fishing, and a number of related activities (i e, where - they belonged to a total culture lacking occupational diversification by rank).' In the South, these were normally carried out by people of other caste groups. The main body of tillers of the soil did not have traditional occupations to supplement their earnings.

In terms of wages, we shall show below that there is a considerable intra- village range in the total amount of income earned by working women, as well as in the proportion of total household income earned by females. None- theless, on the whole we find that among the landless agricultural labourers, income -given to the household by females accounts for more than half the total amount of household income. Among the marginal households, it comes close to half. If this is so, and it it continues to hold as we analyse materials for the remaining villages in our sample, our data would provide valuable evidence of a known fact, viz, that without the female income these households might not be able to survive at all. The importance of this cannot be underestimated in manpower p.anning, employment generation, and planning for social change.

OBJE;CIVE

The main purpose of this study has been to collect detailed data on the irnvolvement of women in the production and processing of paddy, viz, activities in which large numbers of wo-

tnen have been traditionally engaged. By doing so, we propose to:

(a) Fill in a substantial gap in the data base on women's economic activities, and document the contribu iCn of women to the production of rice at different stages.

(b) Generate data which could be of use both to women workers themselves (to become aware of their contribution and situation), and to policy makers (in making decisions regarding women's work, wages, health care and other welfare measures).

(c) Raise the question whether the concepts and definitions evolved from stuidying male labourers would remain valid when the problems of women labourers are to be studied specifically.

In this connection, we have classified our popul-ation into three groups: (1) lanidless agricultural labourers (defined as those owniing no paddy land and less than 20 cents of dry land, though in fact most own less than 5 cents of dry land); (2) marginal land-owners, that is, households owning small plots of land where the women work oan their own land, and also go out for wage work (to the extent such households can be found, see below) and (3) land- owning households (stratified into small, medium and large landowners).

For each of these categories, our purpose is to explore a number of related questions. Among the landless agricultural labourers, we are attempting (a) to learn some of the sociologi- ecal and demographic characteristics of these women w'ho in fact do agricultural work (eg, caste, mnarital status, age, household composition, etc, of those who work in agricultuire), (b) to explore the pattern of variability in the

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yearly work within villages, between villages in a state, and between states, (C) to docume-nt the contribution to total household income of women and men in the landless agricultural laboul houiseholds, and to try to learn the reasons for differences between households within the same village, between villages in each state, and be:ween states.

Among the' marginal land-owning households, apart from collecting the same information as for the landless hiouseholds, we are also trying to learn: (a) tc wvhalt extent women in such houise- ho:ds w1ork on their ow-n lands or on otthers; (h) what proportion of their work is on their owni laind, and what is for wages; (c) the nunber of days of.wage work, and the number of days of work on own land compared to oul landless sample, and (d) whether the reason why they do not do tlmore wxage work is primarily because of having work on their own lanid, or because work is riot availaBle; and (e) to learn why sorne marginal land-owning women d,rop ouit of wage work, whereas others continue to do it. In some areas, we have hypothesised that these marginal landowning women, might not be able to get enough wage work because they are not able to put themselves at the disposal of the larger landowners at all times, htt have to tend to their own land( w hen there is rain. A detailed analysis of the marginal land-owning hlouseholds is being prepared separately.

The land-owning womeni are stratified into three groups: small, mnedium, anit large (see below for definitions). From these women we are documenting, day by day, their participation in supervision of agriculture, in decision making, in actual fieldiwork (whether relevant), in keeping contac's with government officials concerned with agricul- hire. In addition, we are trying to iearn something about their relaticLo- ships X\i:h the labouring women. Ne hope to he able to find out how know- ledgeable they are about the complex details of agriculture and how their knowledge differs fromn that of men, if at aT. Oie thing that has already emerged from some of our data is that while working in the fields along with the labourers,. they are able to correct work as it goes along, to make instant decisions about what is best to do. Our dlata xvouild certainlv suggest the need for making agronomic field comparisons between the fields of those women who work along with- the labourers on their owvn land, as compared to households

where no famnily member participates in the actual work.

WNNIl WO-mEN ? WViiy RICE?

Oi1e sell of questions which have often arisen while discussing this project re'ate to the rationale of our choice of subject. "Why are you concentrating primarily on women?", "Why restrict the study to rice cultivation?" "Why s'ludy only these three states?" The answers to these questions are related, in that Nvornen have always played an important ro+e in agricultural production in India, especially in rice regions.

"XVet rice ctultivation requires the use of large amounts of labour on small plots of laaLd for short periods of time. It has been noted by Etienne (1968) that this kind of culltivation can be carried out in either of two wvays, by co-operative or exchange work teams, or eLse by mak ulg use of an anny ol agricultural labourers who are available for seasonal employment. In India it has been the practice for the past 2,000 years at least to use agricultutral labourers, mostly belonging to untouchable or low-rankLaog castes who were held even by thc- beginning of this century in a state of slavery or attachment to high-ranking land-owning castes, or else :tribals living in less productive regions who seek seasonal emnployment ouitside their home region (Mencher, 1982).

Several features of traditional wet rice regionis in India, especial:y those of the south and east, should be noted here. Because wet rice has been so labour-intensive, what has developed in t hese regions has been a three-tier system for carrying out paddy culti- vatico. At the top were large land owners, sorneimes only one per vilage, sometimes three or four. Under them one found tenants, both large and small, and then the agricultural labourers. In 'Chose areas whliere Zamindari w -as introduced, the Zuamindars were at the top of this structuxe. There tended to be a close corre&ation betveen caste and class in that most of the actual traditional agricultural labourers were either Harijans, tribals, or poorer members of other Lnidd'e and low castes. In earlier times, and even now, most of those who actually worked the land did not have any kind of rights over land. Vei-y rarely were they tenants in the past. Even today they constitute a very small proportion of those owning paddy land. The picture that one gets for dry areas of India, or even the irrigated wheat areas of the small family

farm, was not in the past, and still is not, the norm in these regions. In fact. especially in the main rice-producing areas of Keraia ancl Tamil Nadlu, very little rice latn(d is owned by people wlho themselves work the land, and hire(d labour forms a verv large part of the wvork force. The percentage of agricultural labourers to 'cultivators' Ls quite high throuighouit the imain paddy-producing areas, and xvould be even higher if the term 'cultivator', did not include peop'e who stand with an uminbrella supervising work operations or check- inig to see that they are not cheated by their labourers (either in terms of time spent relaxing, or by taking homne some produce at harvest time).

Btirdwau- District of West Bengal more or less followvs the Sotuth Indian pattern. In most other parts of West Bengal, we have found amore household-s of Ilarijan or lo-w castes who own small plo!s of lanld which thex' actually cultivate them.se'ves. This is especially so in regions (such as Puru- lia) still dominated by triba's, or in regions of more recent settleinent such as the Sunderbans region of 24- Parganas.

This fl's with the following observations of Bardhan:

In Table 2, we have presented a cross- section breakdown of the proportional importance of the family farmer class for 15 districts of rural West Bengal on the basis of NSS data. It is interesting to note that the proportional importance is the lowest (and corres- pondingly, that of poor peasants and landless labourers highest) in Bardha- man ... (1981: 17)

Bardhan a'so points out that the propor ion of family farmers is low in Ilooghly, Howrah, and 24-Parganas. He then goes on to suggest that for north- ern and eastern India the proportion of lanidless or near-landless is highest n the high-rainfafl, naturally fertile

areas with relatively secure w et agriculture and high population density. T'hese are the areas where we found un'il recenly continuous suLb-division and mnultipiication of rights on land leading to elaborate hierarchies, with the actual manual w qrk of cultivation donie by those who are at the bottom ,of the hierarchy '(ibid: 18-19). This has also been pointed out for Kerala andl Tamil Nadui by Mencher.

The mnost onerous tasks in wet rice cultivation have been ploughing (often knee-deep in mnud.6i), applyina cow-duniig, transplanting, weeding, fixing biinds, harvesting, and processing the harvested paddy. In a high.ly stratified society

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such as is found in tlhe different parts of India, all these tasks tended to be performed by Hlarijans or tribals, and (apart from p'oughing) by the females within these groups. It is not yet entirely clear whether the extent to which wNomen in these areas have beeti cultivators of rice from time immemno- rial is linked (i) to its ardcuous natuire, (ii) to the fact that women were the food gatherers in neolithic times, and that they quay have been the first to domesticate rice,2 or (iii) because paddy production is labour-intensive, or a combinaticn of all three. In any case, it is clear that the introduction of animal-drawn ploughs did not lead to the displacement of woomen in the rice regions or India, at least not to the extent that it occurred in other crop zones, though the actual p!oughing is done by mnales in these regions (as in, the rest of the country). The sanme is true of any other operations done with the help of animul power.

In ally case, traditionally there was a large inivolvement of women in rice cultivationi, at least in some specific operations reserved for women, even xvhen there was a surplus of under- employed nmale labourers. Women could be found \vorking iin the fields during times in the agricultural cycle when there was very little work for males. Though xe cannot find evidence (other than comments by travellers and others inade in passing) for this from earlier periods, wve know this is true from otur data presented below, as we'l as from earlier work (see Menchei 198o). 'rhis is also supported by field observations, miade by one of us in the late fifties and early sixties, not only in Kerala and Tamil Nadu but also iln parts of West l3engal.A

Tlhus the link between women and agriculttire in rice areas is sufficiently strong to warrant detailed study. Apart from this, women constituite a special case in development s-udies because ot their (lual role: they are responisible for the reproduction and maintenance of the f usre labour force, and at the same time are participants in the productioni process. These roles are related to the extent that the demands, of each strongly influence one-another. Thus hungry children compel a xvoman to go out to work - even at times when she does not know what she wvill be paid (Mencher 1980: 1799). On the other hand, a. sick child might keep ler fronm work even if she despera' lv n3le?eds thec

money. In addition, she is responssible not only for providing her own meals, biit also those of her husband and other members of her household. Further- snore, as wc discuss belwm, there is a direct connection between an individual woman's ability to earm and the extent of pauperisation of her household (juldged in terms of health, nutrition, and basic Ahelter and clothing). While this may be true also for men, in the cases which we will be discussing below, we will show that - at least among the landless, marginal, aiid small landholdi-ng groups - male earners have only rarely been able to fin- ance household reproduction and maintenance alone. Thus an important goal of this project. is to examine in detail the ways in which womlcu combine these two roles, and the extent to which t hev are affected by changes in their emiiploylllellt.

This project focuses on women's role in economic development in order to demonstrate the extent of damage which can be done - not only to the women themselves, but also to the rest of the work-force, which is a basic na- tional resource - if economic development has the effect of excluding women from agricultural employmenit. Yet our efforts in this direction can also be hampered by ouir lack of a broader theoretical understanding of the reasons for a growing exclusion of wvomen from agricultural work in some of the rice regions. When wve find (as we do within each of the states we are studying) that there is a wide range of female participation in, anid supervision of, agricultural labour, what is it that wve are looking at? Is it part of a long process of progressive exclusion of fema'es from productioni, or is it a phenomenon of relatively recetnt origin, resulting from such factors as the introduction of new technology (along wN ith alien assumptions about wnomen's place), popu- !ation inicrease, etc? (See Boserup 1970.) By the time the en!ire project is complete we expect to beu ble to link these factors, and others which we hope to discover, in some sort of systematic framlework whliChl might tnake it possibJe to assign causality to certain fac&ors.

We aso exp)ect to be able to see, within each state and sub-region, to what extent the penetration ot capital-intensive innovations in agriculture (alongwith population increase) has affected female work participation. What the case of rice in India makes clear is that agricultural initenlsific'ationl per se does

not necessarily exclude women, though some of the miiodern innovationis do tend to convert female tasks into male jobs (e g, substitution of chetnical fertilisers for cow-dung or green manures, where this has occurred) or to eliminate famale jobs almost entirely (as rice mills have replaced hand-pounding of paddy for middle and larger land-owners, or the use of herbicides has partially replaced weeding). Our project data Nvill show in detail how the displacement of women in agriculture (to 1he exteint it has already occurred, and to the extent that it conitinues or in- creases) can on'y have the effect of greater pauperisation of sizeable seg- inents of the population, leading to increasing inalnutriticn, not only of the womeni themnselves but also of their husbancls ancd children.

InI the past, data on female participa- it Ll in produc:ion has largely been

i-nored, or played down at best. In- deed, it was not considered necessary at ull. Most materials such as census data or NSS studies have been primarily carried out by imiale investigators talk- "ig to viAlage miales. And in the rare cases wN%here female investigators have been used, they have had to follow a format laid clown by mnales, and have tended to rely on information provided by male villagers. For the most part, clevelopment studies have seen women as the wvives or daughters of heads of householdls, a-id have tended to consider their contribution to agriculture as subsidiary. Thus, the Second Agricul- tural Labour Enquiiy (1960: 39) notes:

A district feature of agricultural employment is the preponderance of women and children as wage earners. While such employment is often re- sorted to for supplementing family income, at is to an extent a contri- buiting factor to low wage levels of adult male agricultural workers (p 39). Women were employed mostly in casual agricultural work. Their employmenit for wages was more of en duie to necessitous household economy and need for supplementing meagre family income. Agri- cultural operations in which they were mostly employed were weeding, transplanting and harvesting. They were seldom employed in strenuous operations like ploughing or sowing. (p 88) There is a widespread assumption

that all female jobs need less strength. A male anthropologist once reported that when he asked a man why males did not do the transplanting and weeding work, he was told : "No man can keep standing bent over all day long in the mud and rain. It is much foo difficult, and our backs would hurt too

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TABLE 1: FEMALE HEADED HousraoLDs

Village Landless Chart Marginal Charts Interiew

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4

Maduramangalam 16 3 - - 16 3 1 - 16 3 - 2(1) Magaral 23 4 - - 4 1 - - 16 - - -

Iruvelipattu 16 2 - 1 21 2 - 1(1) 16 2 2 B-Odaiyur 16 - - - 16 1 1 - 16 1 - 1 Eluppur 17 1 1 1 15 - 1 - 16 1 - -

Thirupalayanam 18 1 - - 16 2 - 1() 16 1 2 2 Maharajapuram 22 8 1 6(1) 10 1 2 - 5 1 - -

Kathanaloor 17 5 4 2 16 - 2 - 15 3 5 Pappankulam 16 3 - 1(1) 16 1 1 - 16 2 - 1 Pasingapuram 16 1 1 - 16 3 - - 16 3 1 3 Akathethara 27 6 1 1 5 - 1 - 16 4 1 2 Anakkara 16 - 4 - 16 4 2 2 16 4 - 2(1) Killimangalam 32 4 2 1 10 6 1 6 16 1 3 1 Poyya 16 3 - - 16 - - - 13 1 4 -

Kainakary 16 1. I - 16 2 1 1 16 2 2 -

Thakazhy 16 2 2 2 17 1 2 - 16 2 1 2 Pattnnur 16 4 - 2 16 1 1 - 16 4 2 -

Kottakkal 16 3 - - 16 3 - - 16 6 - 2 Vanganoor 16 2 1 - 13 2 3 - 16 6 - 2 Manickal 16 4 5 - - 1 4 - 16 - 5 -

Kunchli 10 - - - 10 1 - - 13 1 - 1 Goalpara 10 - - - 10 - - - Data not available Putia 16 1 4 1 14 1 2 1 16 2 - -

Bharatgarh 16 2 - - 16 - - - 16 - -

Bagunkodar 16 - - - 16 3 - - 16 - - -

Hetgugui 16 2 - - 16 2 - 1 16 3 - 2 Noada 16 - 16 - - 16 - - - Nabastha 16 3 - - 16 1 - 1 16 2 - -

TotalKerala 187 29 16 6 128 20 15 9 157 30 18 11 Total Tamil Nadu 177 28 7 11 146 14 8 2 148 17 10 9 Total West Bengal 116 8 4 1 114 8 2 3 109 8 - 3 Total in sample 480 65 27 18 385 42 25 14 414 55 28 23

NVote Col 1 Lists the total number of households in each group. Col 2: Includes not only widows, but also divorced women and the case of a young girlliving with a widowed mother and no

adult brothers. If there were adult brothers, it was considered a male headed household, since the adult, earning male functioned as head of house.

Ca 3 : Lists the number of households where the informant has a husband and/or father who does not work. This includes males who are ill, or too old to work, or not working for some other reason.

Col 4: Lists those households in which there is no male over 16. It is a sub-group of thos listed in column 2. A widow with a 20 year old son would not be listed in column 4. A small figure in brackets in this column refers to those households that contain only the informant, i e, only 1 person, usually an elderly widow.

TABLE 2 WAGE RATES AT TIME OF STUDY

(Rs)

Kerala Tamil Nadu West Bengal

Activity Trichur (1) Alleppey (1) Chingleput (I) Thanjavur (1) Birbhum (1) 24-Parganas (1)

M F* M F M F M F M F M F

Ploughing without 6.00 - Only come with 3 - 7.20 - 12.0 - 8-9 -

bullocks buffalo Transplating (pulling) 4-6 2.33 - 8 5 - 7.20 - 5.90 4.00 - 4-50

(putting) - 2.33 - 8 - 2.50 - 5.60 5.90 4.90 - 4.50 Weeding 3.00 2.33 10-11 8 - 2.50 - 5.60 5.90 4.90 4.50 4.50 Harvesting 3.00 2.33- rl out of 7+ r r 6-7+ 4.90+ 4.50 4.50

3. 10 l extra 1/4 1 1 6 padi for 2 meals 2 meals < measure paid . 4 Measures , husband and

Threshing 3.00 3.10 lin kind l wifetogether - 4.90 4.50 4.50 Winnowing 3.00 1.54L L l - 4.90 - 4.50 Other post-harvest 3-5 3.15 - - - - 3 mea- 11 mea- - 4.90 4.50 4.50

sures of sures of paddy paddy

Oher 3-4 3.25 10.60 7.80 6 3 7.20 - 5-6 2+2 3.50 3.50 meals

(*) In Tricbur (1), females are normally paid in kind, males sometimes in kind, usually in cash. We have given the cash value of the kind payment at the time of our study.

mnuch." (Personal conversation with C Von Furer-Haimendorf, 1980.) When a group of about 10 women in one of our Thanjavur villages was asked about

this work, they all said that they make their children walk on their backs to mnassage them every night, to relieve the pain after transplanting.

It is true that the problems of umder-employment and the need for more work is not confined to womnen alone. So, why look at women as a

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separate group? Why should their role in agriculture be brought up independently? From one point of view, it might be said to be meaning- less to look at women separately, that the real problems relate to the funda- mental structure of the society, to the social relations of production. It mitht be argued that it is really mor,e a matter of the class structure, and that singling out females obscures the situation. However, there are two observations that must be made in answer to the above. (1) While not in any way denying the importance of the class structure, it is also clear that within each class, and (especially among the lower classes) women have been subject to two forms of exploitation, by their employers who traditionally not only extracted hard work4 from them but also sexual favours, and also by their own menfolk who sometimes took out their own frustrations on their women and who tended to feel themselves superior to them. Furthermore, womei' have been and continue to be today extremnely dependent on men, in that even where a poor female is the main support of her household (or the sole support when there is no male in the household), she is subject to a number of other difficulties - not only in relation to other classes, but even in dealing with her neighbours and 'allies, since there are mnanv social constraints on independent female behaviour. (2) Ignoring women, and their importance as workers in their own right, as well as their potential for labour organisa- tions and struggle for change can be a serious mistake if allowed to conti- nite.

It is striking that the militancy of female labourers appears to have considerable historical precedent. The following passage by J Tharamangaiam. writing about labour organisation in his native Kuttanad area in Kerala duiring the second quarter of this century, is relevant:

IL-i the initial years, of the move- ment women workers proved to be more active and mifitant than their menfolk. During the first ten years most struggles seem to have occurred during the two ag-ricultural operations which mainly involve women, transp.anting and harvesting. There Nvere ins ances in which landlords were surrounded by women workers in the threshing fields and not allowed to leave the spot until they consented to the workers' demnands. usua'ly for higher wages.... The men remained in the background; they felt too dependent on their Tham- prans to cocnfront them openly.

After all, except for the transplanting and harvesting seasons they were the principal workers and bread-winners in their households.... It m.ust be r e!nembered that the agricultural laboturer still maintained some personal relationship with his Tham- pran and would perhaps have beea comple' ely intimidated at the pros- pect of a personal confrontation (Tharamangalani. 1977: 135). Even earlier, in the first labout

agitation to occur in Kerala at Venga- nur under the leadership of the Pu.aya leader, Ayyankali, it was women agricultural workers who were asked to stop working for their caste Hindui landlords. This struggle was to get Harijan c4bildren admitted in schools (Surendran, 1974).

FEMALE-HEADED HouSEHOLDS

To begin with, there are a significant number of households throughout India which lack adult males, and where one or more females have to support themselves, as well as young children and infirm elders. Table 1 presents the proportion of such households in the total 28 villages we are studying as well as in the six villages being discussed in the present paper. These households are often the poorest in any village. The women in such households are victims of discriminationk both subtle and overt. General social attitudes towards widows as well as the actual lack of a partner to share responsibility and economic loads make their position more onerous. Female- headed households are often without any income at times in the agricultural cycle when the work available only involves male activities, such as ploughing, and they are disadvan' aged wvhenever the task in agricultural production requires a male as well as a female to work as a pair, since a woman without a husband, brother or son cannot work with a strange man. (See below for a discussion of Thanja- vur.) There are other problems that face women workers in femaleJheaded households without any other worker (especially if the women live alone, or only with small children or e'derly parents) in that if she herself or anyone else falls ill, then the family is actually reduced to begging, since there is no one else who can help to buy food or medicine.

DIsCRIMINAIION IN WAGES AND

UNDERLYiNG AsSUMPTIONS

One general problem which tends to face female labourers throughout India is a pervasive wage differential between men and womnen, and between

activities done exclusively by women and those done exclusively by men. These differentials have been banded down from timne immemorial and justified by social custom. They are based on a number of different asstimp- tions about female productivity.

(1) The assumption that women are weaker and cannot do heavy work. If one stops to think of it, one might even argue that higher wages should be paid for work which requires bending over mnost of the time while standing knee-deep in water, having one's legs attacked by leedhes, and often not being allowed to straighten out one's back even for a few minutes by an ever-zealous supervisor. Trans- planting is both a hazardous and a skilled job. It is hazardous beeause of the illness to which it exposes the women, which include a variety of intestinal and parasitic troubles, infec- tions, spliting heels (from standing in muddy water for hours on end), severe pain from leech bites, and ultimately the possibility of crippling ailments like riheumatic joints and arthri'is. It is not rare to find old women, who have spent more than 40 or 50 years of their life transplanting paddy, pernanently bent over and unable to stand up straight at all. Unfortunatelv nobody has cared to study these problems. Transplanting is also an extremely skilled job. If the seedlings are not put at the correct distance. or deep enough, or if the ground is Inot patted down properly afterwards, the plants will not grow correctly. Yet because it is done by women, it is usually regarded as a simple and not very skilled job.

The wage levels in each of our villages differ greatly from one another. Nonetheless it can be seeen that for most operations, women's work is paid less than men's. On the whole, except where the wage is a percentage of the harvest (in the case of Kerala at harvest time), there seerns to be a clear pattern of lower wages for females. For example, in Chingleput District, Tamil Nadu, where wages are paid to each individual intil 1981 (i e, the period after our data was collected), in one of our villages women got either .3 or 332 padi, males 4 padi, and in the other females 232-3, and males 3-3X2.

(It is initeresting that in 1981, in the first village, they sarted giving the same wage to femnales as males. So far the only explanation we have been given is "they asked for it, so we gave". But clearly that is not enough. We

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TABL.E -3 VILLAGE LISI

District Village

Kerala I Palghat 1 Irrigated village (of(en has 3 paddy crops)

2 Non-irrigated; some areas I crop, o(her areas 2 crops nearer coast.

.2. Trichur I Non-irrigated; near forest arca, has pineapple plant-at ion.

2 Non-irrigated; near back waters, (wo crops, a lo( of coconut, fishing, and fish related industries.

3 Alleppey I In middle of Kayal (below sea level) lands; Christ ian dominated.

2 In Kari lands (1/2 of village less fertile), still 2 crops, many old Nair families.

4 Trivandrumn I Coastal village-close to urban area, coconut anid apioca.

2 HiUly in-land village-A lot of dry land crops, forest land etc. along with paddy, rubber, cashew and pulses.

5 Cannanore I In-land arca hilly. Apart from paddy, coconut, arecanut, cashew important, rubber-No Harijan in area.

6 Malappuram I Hilly inland region. Good paddy fields (ZX). No irrigation. Muslim dominated. One small fact oly absorbs much high caste labour. Arecanut s and coconuts.

Tami I Nadu

I Chingleput I Tank irrigated only, Water table very poor. 2 crops, second very irregular due to irregular raiDns. Dominated by 3 groups: Brahmins, Naicker and Paraiyans.

2 Tank irrigated, but also good tube wells. Two or three crops/year. Mudaliar/Harijans dominiated.

Thanjavur I In Eastern Delta, One excellenit and one ordinary crop. Extreme landlord-tenant tensionts.

2 In Western Area. Brahmin dominated. No big LL, 2 Harijan colonies; all lands always douiblc cropped, sometime triple cropped.

3 SoutEl Arco( I In east part of Cauvery/Coloroon delta. Primary cultivation from river channels. One good good crop, number of landowning families.

2 In dry zonie, traditionally tank irrigation. Now-a- days many pump sets. Domina(ed by one Reddiar landlord family.

4 Kanya Kumari I Coastal, near cape. Agricul(ural land. Christian converts from Sambadauar caste. Not very big landlords.

2 Inland, hilly. Many other crops. Big LLs holdings in bamboo, coconut, rubber etc. Small paddy holdings. Formerly Nair dominated.

5 Madurai I Irrigated by Vaigai river channels. Labourers well organised and united. Small landlords mostly. One crop mostly.

6 Tirunelveli 2 Flat dry area. Land irrigated by mooto pump and canal from Thambarani river. Paddy, ground- nut and pulses.

Al est Bengal

2 '4-Parganas I In Sunderbans area highly fertile. Many places i fish. Miny landlords. Have sewing machines.

One crop almost all over. 2 Near Bangladesh border, good paddy land, 2 or

3 crops. Limited otlher industries, but near big market.

2 Birbhum I Village close to Viswa 3harati. Agri, Univ. (No direct source of irrigation).

2 Village about 25 Kms. fromii Agri. University, gets Mayurakshi Canal water for second rice crop (boro), and wheat.

5 Purulia I Many other types of cottage industries. One paddy one wheat crop recently introduced. Shaharjore irrigation canal system. Mul(icaste.

2 Mainly agricultural. One crop only. Trying to introduce boro. Backward village. No other indus- fry. Indirect irrigation from Shaharjore. One caste dominated (Mahato).

are trying to find out how this camo ibout and whether it is spreading elsewhere in the district.)

(2) The other general assumption made albout women is that they cannot do as much work as men, i e, that theii productivity is less. This is not based (An any facts. No one has ever mea- sured the amount of paddy harvested bv a woman and that harvested by a man. In those parts of Kerala where harvesting is paid by a share of what is ilharvested, usualTy 1 to 6, one tends to find a larger proportion of harvesting (lone by females. Still, we have neves lheard a complaint from a landownei that vomen were not good at harvesting, or any c'aim that males could harvest more in a given period of time.

Thus, the discrimination in wages is not directly related to productivity, but rather it originates from deeply ingrainred patterns of discrimination. and the acceptance of this discrimination by all, including many otherwise progressive people.

Still many of the ininimum wage la_ws that were passed in the late 70s and early 80s accepted in one form or allother discrimination by sex, either directly by listing a different wage for timales and females or indirectly by providing for a lower wage for those kinds of work perforned by females. It is interesting that according to the revision of the Tamil Nadu Wage-s Act, as of 1-9-81, wages for adults for ploughirig (not including bullocks ox ploughs), sowing, plucking of seedlings, forning, trimmning and maintenance of lands and channels, preparation of land tor sowing and transplantation, trans- port by manual labour of inputs or produce is to be paid at t,he rate of 7 litres p'us Rs 2.80 or Rs 9 per day, whereas for transplanting, weeding, or other agricu4tural operations not speci- fied, the minimum wage is to be 6 litres of paddy plus Rs 1.80 per day. Y et, the Act defines the hours of w)orking for all operations other than ploughing as seven hours per day, and for ploughing five hours per day.

Evein in Kerala, a state that has passed a far-reaching anid radical agricultural labourers' act, there has been no question raised about the i.ouale-female differential in wages for all operations apart from harvesting (which is paid for as a percentage of what is harvested and threshed). Thus, according to the most recent Kerala minimum wages act, for general coolie vork in agriculture (8 hours per day) al woman] is expected so be paid

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Rs 5.45 and a man ]Rs 7.88. For transplanting the wages are the same except that in the Kuttanad 'Kayal' areas the work is for only five hours and elsewhere it is for 6 hours (1977: 44). In the case of Tamil Nadu, the discri- miolation in the law is more indirect because for each operation there is a different wage, but as it happens, those operations where women predominate are in fact the ones receiving the lower wage.

The West Bengal miniumumi- wage act does not differentiate between males and fermales in terms of wages though ploughing which is done exclusively by males has a higher wage. How- ever, as of August 1982, we find them being paid equally only in our two Burdwanl villages (where there has been considerable labour militancy) and in one of our villages in 24- Parganas (where most of the landowners are refugees from East Bengal and there is no traditional pattern of payment).

DISPLACEMENT OF FEMALE

AGRICULTURAL LABouREoRs AND ALTERNATIVE EMPLOYMENTr

Though mentioned in conferences and seminars, no serious thought has apparently been given to the displacement of female labour that is currently going, on: nor have many people bother- ed to look at the effects of this displace- -nent on the lives of the women or their families. It is worth noting that there has not been a single s.tudy done on female employment lost as a result of the introduction of rice mills, though work in Indonesia indicates that this can be quite significant (Stoler: 1977). This can probably be greater than that lost by males from the introduction of tractors, simply because hand-pounding used to take many days, whereas ploughing was always limited to a much shorter period of time and involved fewer man-hours of work. In fact, in the rice areas of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, one finds manv bullocks and buffaloes still being used for ploughing, whereas hand-pounding for medium and large land owning households has virtually disappeared from the villages in our study. Of course, hand-pounding was extremely arduous and more costly than having rice processed by a mill. But it did provide wage work for a large number of women, especially older wvomen who could not tolerate work in muddy, watery fields. Yet this fact is totally ignored in Indian development literature. TVhe potential loss of work due to other new technologies, such as

the introduction of artificial fertilisers instead of traditional matures, the use of herbicides to cut. down on weeding, and the recently discussed transplanting rm-achines (now being developed in Andhra Pradesh) all should be seriously studied.

Our data, discussed below, indicate that even now there is serious under- employment, and seasonal unemployment, among the landless and marginal landowning women. One of the things which we want to emphasise is the urgent need for alternative employment aimed particularly at women. In our opinion, income-generating activities for women demand the highest priority, in both rural and urban areas.

The question still remains why we are working primarily in rice regions, and why these particular rice regions? There are a number of reasons: (i) more people live in the rice regions of India, and more people eat rice than any other grain; (2) rice is and has been a labour- intensive cron, and thus has provided more work for people; (3) we have found that census and related materials seem to have failed to capture the extent of female involvement in rice cultivation, either as labourers or as super- visors (Mencher 1978, etc); (4) women have always had an intimate association with rice production: note P Bardhans suggestion that the lower mortality figures for women in Easern and South- ern India may be related to their involvement in rice production (Bardhan, 1974).

One reason for selecting these regions in particular is that we have had previous research experience in Kerala, and one of us has also worked in Tamil Nadu and for a short while (4 months in 1963) in West Bengal. In addition, these regions provide a useful contrast to one another. Kerala and Tamil Nadu in the sourth differ from one another in history, in social structure and in ecology. The bulk of the rice grown in Tamil Nadu is on irrigated land (river system, tank, or pump-set irrigation) though there is some rain-fed cultivation along the coast. In Kerala, a good part of the rice cultivation depends exclusively on local monsoon rains. This is also true of large areas of West Bengal, apart from Burdwan District. West Bengal offers an important contrast to the south, both in terms of its different pre-colonial and colonial history in addition, the vast majority of its agricultural labouirers come from tribal communities, and only a small proportion from scheduled castes. Very often we are told by educated Bengalis: "Our

women do not do any manual work". However, when pressed we discover that this statement applies only to caste Hindu- women. - In- fact, in West Bengal a very large percentage of the work of manuring, transplanting, weeding and harvesting is in fact done by these tribal women. In some areas they live in the villages all year round, but in other areas we find that only some of the women stay in the village, whereas others come only when there is work for them. This is especially true of some of the Santals who come into Burdwan and Birbhum districts.

In any case, the rice regimes in the different areas we are studying vary greatly within each of the states, and even more drastically between. the different states. Not only is the main source of water different, but also its timing and its relationship to the cli- mate. As may be seen from Table 3, we have tried to study villages in a number of different agro-climatic zones in each of the states (though we make no claim of complete coverage for any statb).

One of the things we are finding, to a varying degree in each of the states, is that there is both intra-district and inter-district migration of females in search of work in agriculture and related manual labour activities. This is very striking in West Bengal among the Santal women, but is also found in parts of Kerala (such as Kuttanad), and in many village areas in' Ta.mil Nadu, A full scale study of this migration is beyond the scope of our oresent project, but we hope to be able, to present some interesting data on this by the end of our work.

METHODOLOGY

We have been employing a number of different methodologies in carrying out the present study (explained in detail in Mencher, Saradamoni and Panicker, 1979).

(1) Charts We are giving two charts to a sample

of 16 landless. agricultural labourer women in each village. The first chart presents pictures of each of the main activities in which women are known to participate (for paddy cultivation), and provides one column for each day in the week (the days being divided into morning and evening, indicated by pictures of the sun rising and setting.) The woman keeping the chart can note her activities each morning and after- noon b. simply making a mark in the appropriate space. (Wage work is

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marked with a slash, and one's own work with a zero.) The activities pictured include: carrying leaves, break- ing up clods to help prepare the fields, sowing broadcast, pulling seedlings, carrying seedlings, transplanting seedlings, weeding, manuring (especially with cow-dung), working a manual water lift for irrigation, harvesting, carrying the harvested paddy, threshing, winnowing, stacking straw, parboiling paddy, dehusking paddy, feeding or milking cattle, feeding or milking small animals; and two blank spaces are provided for additional activities. The specific number of hours worked is not noted, though for wage work we have regarded 3 to 3L hours as a half day's work. In cases where a woman has done more than one thing in the course of a morning, it is clear that many of the activities do not take much time (e g, feeding her cow, or milking it), or that in other instances the work consisted of a package of activities; and not a single one. The blank spaces can be marked for activities not covered by our pictures, and the village assistant (see below) tries to obtain a description of the additional activity when she collects the chart.

The second chart is designed to record information about income not only for our sample women, but also for all the other working members of their households. It contains pictures representing seven individuals. (We have found households with more than seven earning members to be extremely rare; note that we are dealing here primarily with people who live in small one-room mud huts, and that in fact there is often no physical space for more working adults within the household.) For each individual, each dav in the week is noted separately. In addition, for each day we have shown two pictures, one of a rupee and the other of the local paddy measure which is used to pay wages "in kind". Women are asked to mark for each day how much they received and how much of it was given to the household. Thus a woman

III might mark which would mean

that she was paid 3 measures of paddy and gave all three to her house, or

MI , which might mean that her hus-

band earned 6 rupees but gave only 4 to the house.

The charts are given to the women to mark each week. A part-time village assistant collects the old chart once a week and gives each woman a new set. In the beginning the assistant has to

visit each woman frequently, in order to be sure that they learn how to mark the charts. Where there is a literate respondent she can put the amounts in numbers.6

These same charts are given to a sample of 16 marginal land-owning women (in addition to the landless labourers, as noted above). These are women whose family owns a small amount of land but where the women themselves also work in the fields. This is an extremely difficult category of women to discuss, since the amount of land owned or leased is only one of the variables affecting female work involvement. We find that most of the women who own small amounts of land and also work on the land belong to tribal groups, scheduled castes, or very low- ranking castes. Even very poor higher- caste women rarely do manual jabour. (We plan to deal with this group of women in detail in another paper.) The data on activities is very similar to that which we obtain from the landless agricultural labourers. However, the income data is different, since we are only coding income for that part of the work they do for wages (not exchange labour, or work on their own lands.) Nonetheless, it is interesting to look at this income data as well (see below).

(2) Interviews

In each village we have hired a village assistant to work on a part-time basis, to help with day-to-day interviews as well as collecting and distributing the charts, helping the women learn how to mark the charts, etc. Apart from helping with the charts, these assistants are expected to carry out a relatively simple interview every fourth day in a sample of 16 landless households, at a time in the day when the working women are likely to be at home. The village assistants are primarily local women though in some villages where there was no literate female willing to go out and to do this kind of work, we have been obliged to hire men. In some of our Tamil Nadu villages we have had to hire two people, one to work in the main village and one in the Harijan colony. (In one village with two separate colonies, we had to hire three people. In three of our Kerala villages, we had to hire two girls because the work was in two wards that were spread out as much as 5 miles apart.) The education of our assistants ranged from one middle-aged woman with only five years of school, to a young man with an MA in Economics. The majority of assistants were girls with SSLC only.

The assistant has been expected to visit each household once every four days and ask what the respondent did during the preceding four days, how much she contributed to her household, and how much she got from each of the other earning members (in cash or kind) in order to manage the household. During the second stage of the project, as we did with the chart keepers, we decided to add information on actual earnings of each household member, as well as information about reasons for lack of employment and details on the nature of illness. In addition, for the interview households, we included questions about the activities carried out by each household member (male as well as female) and the time spent in each activity.

(3) Other Methods The other methods which we have

used for studying our sample of landless and marginal land-owning women include (a) having our senior assistants keep an observational notebook during each visit to each village, (b) informal and random interviews by the two authors when visiting a village, and (c) intensive interviews with each of the sample women (as well as one- quarter of the husbands of these women). These intensive interviews are being carried out by our senior investigators, who in addition, have the overall responsibility for the work in their res- pective states.7

These intensive interviews are being carried out in two stages. At the beginning of work in a village, detailed demographic information is collected (age, sex, education, caste, relationship to the head of house), as well as general information about assets (amount of land owned, including wet and dry agricultural land and the house-site; the number and type of other assets, such as animals, tools, etc).

During a later phase of the work in a given village, -when the households are better known, the senior investigator returns again, and apart from checking the above items, collects further information on -a number of other items, including: (a) pregnancy histories from all women, including number of children lost and the reasons why each died, the number of stillbirths, abortions, miscarriages, etc; (b) illness in the household during the previous two weeks, and during the preceding six months, and type of treatment; (c) details on how money is handled, what the woman does with her earnings, etc; (d) in the case of

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landowners (from marginal to large), which household members decides on the disposition of what is grown, and how funds are snent; (e) details on land cwnership and changes in the same over the past 25 years; (f) changes in household composition over the past 20-odd years; (h) for marginal and other landowners, the extent of participation in field work and/or the pre- valence of exchange labour; (i) changes in the sexual division of labour over the past 20 years (or more if the woman is much older); (j) for those working on the land, the age at which they started work, and where. as well as their working practices during pregnancy and after delivery: (k) we are also trying to ascertain if the women themselves have had any education, and what their attitudes, in general are towards female education; if their daugh- ers are not studying, we want to know why they have made this decision: (1) we are also asking each woman for suggestions about any possible income- generating activities that could be started in the area, making use of local resources.

In addition, we are asking the male landless labourers and marginal land- holders about the number of days spent in each agyriculture-related activity as well as other type of work, during the past years, and any changes that they have noted in this. We expect at a later date to be able to do a compari- son of male/female exployment.

Apart from all this, we are asking each senior investigator to keen notes on whatever interesting observations she makes or whatever comes to mind, while working in each village (especially their comparative observations).

LIMITAT IONS OF THE DATA

There are a number of limitations in this study. For example, we have not attempted to collect any detailed quan- titative information on the demand side, though during our village visits we have had numerous informal discus- sions with landowners about this, and have also instructed our senior investigators to make informal inquiries. In a previous pToject in Kerala carried out by Mencher and P G K Panicker at CDS, Trivandrum, in one of our Pal- ghat villages (also in our present sample) we found that landowners on the average used women for 417 hours per acre of wet land (per cron season). whereas they used sales for onaly 106 hours per acre. Thus, there is in fact a much greater demand for female labour in Kerala. We only have this

kind of data for two other Kerala villages, both in the Kuttanad area. For Tamil Nadu we have some data on the demand side from the two villages in Chingleput District where Mencher worked, prev,iously. Here again, we find that while men may do a more varied number of things, there is a greater demand for women because wvomen work in some of the most labour-intensive aspects of paddy cultivation, namely putting in the seedlings for transplanting, and weeding; the demand for women in Tamil Nadu, however, is less than in Palghat, because in Tamil Nadu males pull out the seedlings for transplanting, males participate in the harvest (see other section). and males are generally employed to thresh the paddy, either by driving bullocks around in a circle, or by beating it against a hard surface (in which case the women help by handing the bund- les to the men). We do not have any d ata on the demand side from West Bengal from our own work. though the work of others such as Bardhan does seem to indicate a greater demand for female labour in paddy cultivation (see Kalpana Bardhan, 1979: 11-5).

We hope that by analysing our data day by day from each of ouLr households we will be able to get some idea of the opportunities available to these women during each Dart of the year, though we will not be able to make any kind of conclusive statements about the total demand for labour in a given village for transplanting or for any other operation. We are also not goincg into detail on the question of employment migration, though where women from our villages go to work in a nearby village and stay away for a period of time, the information about that work is given to the village assistant when the woman returns and is noted on the charts. We have not been able to capture details on that kind of work, except where possible through the senior interviews.

SAMPLES

(A) Phase One

In the earlier phase of the study as originally designed, we took a judge- ment sample, making sure that we included a group of households of agricultural labourers and/or marginal landowners and land-owning households from all parts of the village. In addition, we tried to select houses that covered the range of castes doing a given qccupation, e g, wte selected

agricultural labour households in each village from. each of the main castes and groups which supply agricultural labourers. In the Kerala and West Bengal context where settlements are scattered, we tried to selegt a group of three to five households in each category in each locality, so that the village assistant would not have to walk more than four or five kilometers a day. During this phase of the work, we were also not concerned to delimit our households to exclude those in which there was some non-agricultural (apart from coolie work) amriong the landless and marginal samples. Thus, the first six of the West Bengal villages, the first five of the Tamil Nadu villages, and the first five of the Kerala villages were chosen in this way.

(B) Phase Two During this phase of the work, we

tirst had a listing made in each of the villages (or in selected wards in the case of Kerala, where a village might r un to 10,000 households). The listing included information from each household on (1) the name, age, sex, education, caste, and relationship) to the head of the household of each household member, as well as each person's primary occupation; (2) the amount of land owned or rented (in or out) by each household. The sample of households was then selected from this listing.

(C) Problems encountered in utsing the listing

To begin with, we found many problems involved in using the information collected at the time of prelimi- nary listing, even when we had a well- trained person doing the listing. As is well known, village people are often hesitant to give correct information to a complete stranger. Thus, we found errors in (a) the amounts of land owned (many of which we did manage to correct from the land records in consul- tation with village officials), (b) outside income, and (c) strangely enough, in statements about whether the women in a household worked as agricultural labourers (either for wages or on their own land). We plan a detailed paper at a later stage, which will discuss why and how certain houses had to be rejected from the sample. and what this tells us about rural women. We found in many cases that a woman who was listed as doing agricultural field work did not actuallv d o so. either because she was too old, or oreg- nant, or had recently stopped working. In sosme cases, even though the origi-

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nal listing said that a woman worked at least in her own fields, and it was clear that she was economically very poor and needed to do so, it turned out that many of the higher-caste and Muslim women did not do any field work at all, often stating that they did not know agricultural work. In a few cases their husbands did not let them work. (We suspect that this may be the case among Poor Muslim women in Kerala as a result of recent Middle- East money, though this needs more careful probing.) We also found, after selecting some of the higher-caste households, that women tried to con- ceal the fact that they do some field work, because nowadays they felt it was shameful to do this kind of work, even though their mothers may have done even more than they are doing. All of this information will be presented at a later stage.

SIZE OF SANIPLES AND CIUTEBIA

For the landless labourers Nve lave taken two sets of samples: chart keepers and interview households (see above, description of methodology). The numnber was fixed at 16 in each village for each of these sub-samples, because we felt that it would not be possible for the village assistant to go to more than four houses a daY, especially during the early period of work, when she was trying to train the village women in keeping charts themselves and checking on the diary keepers.8 In a few cases the sample was smaller because a particular woman might have moved away after we started our work, or stopped doing any field work (because she retired, or fell ill, or a son suddenly got a permanent job, etc). We have taken a slightly larger sample in a few villages because we wanted to have 16 houses which w ould co-onerate with us for a Iong time, and we were uncertain in the beginning about the co-operation of certain houses on our selected sample list. Therefore, we felt it would be safer to take a larger initial sample.

For the marginal land-owning women who also filled in charts, we set the sample at 16, though it varied from this in a few cases for the following two reasons: (1) In a few villages, especially in Kerala, we did not find 16 marginal landowning households where women worked on the land. This was especially the case in villages where few if any of the lower caste or H-arijan household.s owned any land aptart from the house compound. As noted abov e, many olf the marginal lanld-owning households belonging tox the higher castes did not have women

who worked, even though many were extremely poor. (2) In one or two villages we had charts as well as diaries kept by some of the small cultivators (households with holdings over the number set for our marginal sample, see below) who also work as agricultural labourers.

For the landowning households, we tried to select women belonging to five households in each of our three size groups, i e, small, medium, and large land-owners, for each village. However, in several cases, where the number was extremely small. we decided to include all the large land-owning households where the women are even remotely connected with agriculture. In this category, we sometimes had a sample of less than five (where there were only 3 or 4 large land-owning house'holds whose women had anything to do with agriculture), and in some we had a sump1e of 7 or 8 where there wvere more such households.

It w;as extremely difficult to decide on the exact amount of land holding to define each of our categories. Ini- tially, we' tried to confine the marginal category to households owning between 10 cents and 1 acre of naddy land. However, we found that in many villages, there were no houses with holdings in this range where the women worked in the fields. Thus, we were required to extend our definition to include land of all types (i e, including dry land and compound land). The reason for this problem lies in the fact that paddy land tends to be owned by higher-caste groups. In addition, in some areas there is a tendency for those who own paddy land to consider themselves above manual work. This was especially a problem in Kerala and in Kanyakumari District of Tamil Nadu.

In setting our criteria for small, mediunm. and large land owning households, we also had to make a number of adjustments to suit the conditions existing in particular villages. Thus, on the whole. the definition we used de- pended on the range we found in a particular village. In a village with numerous holdings of 25 acres or more of paddv land, we could include many fairly large (in absolute terms) households. But, in villages where the maximum holding is JO acres of paddy land, we were forced t-o set our limits lower. This will however, be taken into account in analysing the data from the landowning households.

CHOICE OF VILLAGES

Where possible, wve have chosen to work in villag,e5 for which we have

considerable background information, either villages where one of the authors had worked in the past, or where another social scientist has worked, or those for which published descriptions are available, or villages in areas where NSS and related data is available. Thus, we were able to take into account previous knowledge about the local social structure, residence patterns, and the like. This information enables us to put our data into a wider and more holis- tic context.

Table 3 lists the districts and some of the characteristics of each village studied. Our original plan was to study two villages each from five districts, but later on we decided to study two villages from four districts, and one each from two other districts. This was done to provide broader coverage cand to capture the differences noted by others in some of the remaining districts in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. In West Bengal, we have confined the study to eight villages for logistic reasons.

(A) Kerala Villages The majority of the villages chosen

for this work in Kerala were villages where one of the two authors had worked previously. We have also tried to cover each of the ecological zones in the state (i e coastal, midland, and highland) as well as the broad (cultural) differences to be found going from the extreme north towards the south. The villages cover a wide range of cultural and ecological zones. They include places where there are a substantial number of Muslims, and places where there is a large Christian population, apart from the dominant Hindu population of the state.

(B) Tamil Nadu We have taken villages in all of the

coastal districts which were traditionally rice-growing, as well as two from select pockets where rivers (the Tham- braparni and the Vaigai) provide the main source of irrigated Daddy in wet belts within otherwise dry districts. We have not included Coimbatore, which has recently become a paddy- producing district, because we wanted to confine ourselves to areas that were traditionally wet for the present work.

In the coastal region we include in our project area three villages which get their water from the famous Cauvery system, and three which do most of their cultivation using water from traditional tanks with pump-sets. The remaining twot coastal villages (in Kanya- kumari Dt) are in a region with heavy* rainfall twice a year, and where we

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TABLE 4: RANGE OF DAYS CHART-KEEPING WOMEN GET WoRKD

Tanjore-I (51 W) Chinglepet-I (35 W) Trichur-I (50 W) Alleppey-I (49 W) 24-Parganas (52 W) Birbhum-I(25W)

Landless Marginal Landless Marginal Landless Marginal Landless Marginal Landless Marginal Landless Marginal

No of No of No of No of No of No of No of No of No of No of Noof Noof Half Days Half Days Half Days Half Days Half Days Half Days Half Days Half Days Half Days Half Days Half Days Half Days

Act ivi(ies Max Min Max Min Max Min Max Min Max Min Max Min Max Min Max Min Max Min Max Min Max Mi Max Mm

1 Transplanting 118 42 103 40 105 6 61 21 96 12 31 19 82 - 79 10 166 51 96 56 29 11 22 4 2 Weeding 56 12 60 11 99 4 79 27 64 - 14 6 172 14 138 43 130 60 124 58 19 2 18 6 3 Harvesting 67 - 70 - 187 8 132 51 94 32 76 30 66 - 52 19 190 108 136 64 51 25 63 43 4 Pre-Harvesting - - - - 18 - 15 - 90 10 32 17 102 - 58 6 - - - - 27 11 27 9

Work 5 Post-Harvest 8 - 8 - 19 - 6 - 139 36 99 56 40 - 32 8 196 98 198 116 94 46 48 29

Work 6 Agricultural 21 4 18 - 32 - 11 - 18? ? ? ? ? ? ? 16 - 126 - 14 2 23 8

Work for o(her Crops

7 Otherwage work - - - 8 - 4 - 29 - 47 - 67 31 33 20 )

N

Note: W==WeekS o a

C: 0;

r




find mostly rainfe d cultiation as in Kerala.

(C) West Benlgal We have included both irrigated and

non-irrigated villages in our sample, along with one village in the still active part of the delta, and two in an area Close to a considerable amount of forest land. Though we have not included North Bengal for a number of logistical reasons, we have included a fairly wide range of the ecological and social conditions that are peculiar to the state.

TimIE-FuRAME: l,o DATA COLLEC IION

Phase Cule In our initial proposal and during the

fir-st period of field work, we took as our time frame one crop cycle. How- ever, when we started to code that data, we ran into a number of problems: (1) We found considerable variation in the numbiher of mionths that comprised

a crop season, depending on varieties grown and on local post-harvest patterns. Specifically, where mostly high-vielding varieties are grown, the crop season is shorter than in areas

where only traditional varieties are grown. While the HYV's require slightly more labour in harvesting, threshing,

and winnowing since they have higher -ields, the traditional varieties provide much more straw, and straw work can be spread out over a longer period of

time. In addition, in some areas work tends to be concentrated in a short period of time because of climatic con- cerns (the onset of the rain for example), whereas at other times it can be spread out over a longer period.

(2) Taking a season as the unit of time meant that ideally all data collection should start in all the villages in a given region at the same time (i e, at the beginning of the season). This we found difficut to do for a number of reasons, the most crucial being the necessity for the senior investigator to be present in each village for two or three weeks continuously at the start Df the work, in order to teach both the village assistants and the village women. It would have also required a much large organisational set-up than we had available if we wanted to start all the villages ar the same time.

Phase Two

For the reasons given above, it was decided at the beginning of phase two

to take one full year as our unit of

observation, instead of a crop season. ince each senior investigator wvas in

charge of a number of villages, this also has madce it easier for them to complete their interviews in each village around the same time that the data collection was completed. For the project as a whole, the data for two villages in Tamil Nadu and two in West Bengal are for less than one full year. (One of each of these is in the sample presented in the present paper.) The rest of the villages discussed in this paper have been studied between 49 and 52 weeks.

Major Findings Todate PA1l I: E Ipl,0)xMENr

The seasonality of employment for agricultural labourers, as well as the limited number of days of employment, are established facts. However, these are general statements that mask many details. One of our major focuses has been to try to probe deeper into these statements in order to learn something about the degree of variability in employment within each village, as well as the extent of variability between villages (both within the same state and between states), in both the quantum and the patterning of employment. These questions are all discussed below.

(a) Degree of Variability in Enmplotijient wtithin the sanme Village

Our data indicates a wide variation in the quantum of employment (in terms of each activity, as well as in the total amount of wage work) for the households in each of our sets of data (charts kept by landless households, charts kept by marginal households, and interviews). See Table 4. Needless to say there is no single explanation for this variability. It is the result of a com- bination of factors, some operating more strongly in particular villages, or for particular types of households. It would be useful to list some of the factors that appear to influence the quantum of employment - apart from the obvious factor of regional variability (i e, the fact that labourers in some of the districts have distinctly fewer days of work than in other districts, or that there are fewer days of employment in some states than in others), The principal factors we have observed so far incl de:

(1) Conditions of eni ployment We find that the conditions of employment directly affect the number of days of employment. Specifically, if a woman is a nermanent employee, there is at least the possibility of her getting some work in the dry land or household compound of an employer. She might

thus get more days of work than if she is only a casual employee, though here again it depends on the size of the holding of her permanent employer. (Note: We refer here to permanent employees, not bonded labourers, because a permanent employee is free to work for others if her permanent employer does not have any work for her.)

(2) Land refo-rm1 anid siZe of lakId-

holdbig of emiiployer: Changes in the

size of land-holding as well as changes in wages appear to have also influenced employment patterns. Thus, we find in Kerala where land reform has brought about reduction in the size of land holdings, and labour demands along with recent labour legislations have raised the wages of agricultural labourers, that many of the new land-owners (i e, the former tenants) who only have small holdings tend to minimise their use of agricultural labourers. It is beyond the scope of this study to relate size of holdings and demand for labour following land reforms, though it is an aspect which needs probing.

(3) Marital status : If a womnan is

widowed or if her husband is not phy- sically able to work regularly, this can affect the amount of employment she gets in different ways, depending on the situation. In some places, it will mean a greater pressure on the women to do everything to get more days of work, or in the case of one Thanjavur village for example (see below) it might mean less work, since in this area one tends to find couples as the basic production unit at the time of harvest.

(4) Age: The implications of age

seem to vary a great deal from one place to another. Young girls after puberty, or in the early years of marriage, often avoid going far away from home in search of work. At the other end of the scale, women after a certain age are clearly less able to stand in water for hours on end. Apart from this question, we find in some areas a preference on the part of landowners for hiring older wonmen known to be good workers and more trustworthy, whereas in other areas there appears tco be a nreference for younger, more vigorous wvomen who can work harder.

(5) Pregn(anci : If a Nwoman has ipist delivered a child, or is in the last months of pregnancy any time during our data collection neriod. we find that she is not able to do as much work as other women. Thus, women who need more food are often unable to afford it.

(6) Personal re putation: If the

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Reviev of Agriculture December 1982? ECONOMIC AND) POLITICAL WEEKLY

TAB,E E: 5: WEIGHTED AvERAGE OF W(MEN S CON-1 1I1BU 1'ION AND TlHE IRAl() OF MMi.E-1EEMALE INCOME IN THE CHAWr - KE11EPIING HIOUSEIOrI)DS

Village Weighted Aveerage of Ratio Women's Contribution

Tanjore -I: Landless 478.6 1 :1.2 Marginal 441.6 1:0.9

Chiniglepet -I: Landless 331.0 1:1.2 Marginal 396.0 1 :0.9

Trichur - I: Landless 635.2 1: 1.2 Marginal 261.6 1 :1.1

Alleppey -I: Landless 868.2 1: 1.3 Marginal* 499.1

24-Parganas -I: Landless 1034.7 1: 1.6 Marginal 971.0 1 :1.4

Birbhum -I: Landless 210.3 1 :1.0 Marginal 165.9 1: 1.0

Note: *All female headed households (woman is the principal earner)

TABLE 6: INCOME CONThIBUTiON .AMONG CHART-KEEPERS BY VILLAGE

(Rs)

AduP -Women Adul(t-Men Total No Village of Weeks

Maximum Minimum Maximum Minimum

Thanijavur (I) Landless 816.0 301.0 616.0 127.0 52 Marginal2 614.0 184.0 916.0 118.0 52

Chinglepet (1) Landless 1223.0 140.0 614.0 27.0 35 Marginal2 600.0 205.0 1174.0 71.0 35

Trichur (1) Landless 1585.0 313.0 790.0 56.0 50 Marginal 2 380.0 161.0 0.0 0.0 50

Alleppey (1) Landless 1181.0 14.0 1072.0 49.0 49 Marginal2 2075.0 216.0 822.0 204.0 49

24-Pargans (1 Landless 1560.0 733.0 1693.0 171.0 52 Marginal2 1318.0 846.0 1217.0 54.0 52

Birbhum (1) Landless 550.0 242.0 711.0 264.0 25 Marginal2 572.0 276.0 536.0 290.0 25

Notes: (1) This only includes male headed households. (2) Reported age 16 or less. (3) This only includes wage income of marginal households, not value of work

on own lanids.

woman has a reputation of being a good worker, she is likely to get more work than one lacking such a reputation.

(7) Acceptance of wvork conditionts: If the woman is willing or able to work further away from her home (i e, if she will walk or travel a long distance for employment -- though the reasons for this vary a great deal), she obviously has a wider range of choice of employer, and/or greater possibilitv of obtaining employment.

(8) IIouisehold crises : These woffen

are not free from the many family and social obligations which every woman has to deal with. But they do not enioy the various types of holidays and leave which women employed in the organised sector are entitled to. They have to give up one day's work and earnings if they want to attend a relative's marriage, go to a temple, etc. Cases like

sudden illness in the family can take them away from work for a longer period. Working days are also affected by special events in the house. (E g, we find in some of our Kerala villages that a young married woman, though she might have been working in her mother's household, would often wait for 1 or 2 years after marriage before going out to work.)

(9') Caste: We fin(d that womiien of some of the backward castes, or especially some of the higher castes, who work in agriculture (in their own fields or for others). often state that they will not do certain things as a matter of caste prestige. For example, in one village in Chidambaram Taluk of South Arcot District, we found it extremely difficult to get any backward caste women to admit to working on their own lands until they got to know our

investigator well. Even then, they tend to work less on transplanting and weeding than the untouchable women. The caste factor also plays a considerable role in determining whether a woman will work in her own fields at all, even if she is extremely poor.

(10) Husband's contribution : The amount contributed to the household by the husband or other working members also appears to play a role in the amount of employment a woman is compelled to take. (E g, even if a woman is not feeling well, if there is no other person earning anything, she would often force herself to work.)

(11) Preference andI ability for cer- ttitt kind(Is of tuork: We are still examining the auestion whether there are some women who will or can do any kind of work, as opposed to others who can only do certain types of work. In a fewv cases women have said that they did not learn to do transplanting or weeding when they were, young, and so they can only go for harvesting or other casual work. Transplanting is a kind of skilled occupation, and this fact has often been ignored. Indeed, in some of the written diaries kept by landowners who worked in the fields along with their labourers, we find quite fascinating detailed descriptions of transplanting, and how careful one has to be in terms of (a) how deep3 the seedling is placed. (b) how hard the earth is packed down after placing the seedling, (c) the spacing of the seedlings, and (d) avoiding damaee to the roots. All these things require considerable skill and practice, Traditionally this work was taught by a mother to her daughter, much like cooking or caring for animals.

(b) Extent of Variability between Villages and States

(1) Differences in the actual tasks performed by wonmen- (or the sexuial division of labour): We have noted a picture of substantial variation in the actual division of labour, even between sul-regions within the same state. Thu-s in Tamil Nadu, for example, we find that in the north (in Chingleput District and in the dry part of South Arcot) women play a very active role in harvesting, often outnumbering men on a particular plot of land. By contrast, in one of our Thanjavur villages, as mentioned above, we find that for harvesting operations it is customary to work in teams of two (one male and one female). The result is that a widow, or a woman whose husband is unable to work, is in an extremely difficult position unless she has a son or a brother to) make up a

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pair with her. (Of course, the same may be said of a widower, but it is much less common for a man - unless he is very old - to remain unmarried for long after his wife dies.) Thus, in this area, one findls ipso-jacto mnore womiien

than men unable to get work during the harvest season. It is striking that this disguised discrimination against women seems to have been ignored, even in this area of extreme labour militancy. kiterestingly, in Chingleput District which lacks much of the labour militancy of Thanjavur, work parties for harvesting are not based on units of male and female. Thus, one finds work parties with 4 women and 2 men, or 3 women and 4 men, or any odd number, though on the whole more women than men may be seen in the fields at harvest time. The number of oeople in a given work group depends on the size of the area to be harvested, though one does tend to find closely related households forming a work group, and work groups rarely ever cross caste lines.

When we come to the extreme south of Tamil Nadu, Kanya Kumari District (as well as in the extreme south of Kerala. Trivandrumi L District - both

areas were part of the former Travan- core State) we find that untouchable women do so, though men of various castes do harvesting only whereas other low-caste women (wsho are more numerous in the area) do not work during the harvest season. Most of the harvesting operations in this r egion seem to have been done by males (or according to one report for a part of Kanya- ktitiari xvhere we are not working by migrant women from Tirunelveli Dis- trict).

In ouir village in the southcrn Part of Trivandrum District, harvesting is primarily done by males. whereas as one goes north in Kerala one finds an incr-easing proportion of the harvestors being female, so that by the time one reaches the Kuttanad area (part of former Travancore), one fincls a very high proportion of harvesting bcing done by femAles. In a previous studiY carried out in two of the villages included in the present project, the ratio of female to male labourers harvesting wa.s 3: 1 in Kuttand. and 5: 1 in the Palehat area. In North Kerala, i e, Cannanore District, harvesting was ureviously (1958-59) an exclusively female occupation, thourh now (1981) a few mien also

harvest, Furthermore, from the quote yv Tharamiangalaurni (given earlier, we

fiand1 oulr.selves wsonde+ringC if ear ier (i e, in the '.30.s andl '40s of thi.s centulry)

males did any harvesting at all in Kuttanand,'and if they did not, then how did it co.me about that some males do harvest nowadays? Is this related to the lack of alternative employment for males? Or the increase in wages- for harvesting? Surprisingly, women in our Trivandrum village are finding it diffiicultl to break the custom and start harvesting, though faced by acute un- einploy1ment ties are keen to take up anv work. We have not vet uinderstood the reasons for this. We suspect that both caste aniid ecolog,ical factors play some r ole in the development of diverse patterns of this kind, but at the present time we cannot say for certain why a particular pattern evolved. In the case of West Bengal, we suspect that the proportion of tribal women in the agricultural labour force is one important factor.

(2) Differenices in the twork pattert (indl inl the cti(inttnn of eniploymnent We have noted during the course of our field work a number of differences in which agricultural operations are in fact carried out. In some areas a woman might harvest paddy, carry it to the threshing ground near the landlord's house, thresh it. and pile up the straw. all in one day. In another area an etntire day maay he spent in harvest- iing, an(i only alter several days the harvested paddy wouild be carried to the thre.shing, round. It is (lifficult to

account for all of the factors influenc- ing this patterning of work,. or even to determine how long the present pattern has been in existence. By chance, in one of our sample villages (Trichur village 1), rl major change in this, patterning of worlk took place after the main body of data for this project was collected. In the soring of 1981, the wvomen in this village decided that they, would no longer carry home 4he har- ves'Led paddy after it Nwas ciut. Instead.

they would compel the land-owners to hire males (often their husbands, brothers or fathers) to carry the harvested paddy (either the same dav or during the following 2-3 days) to the land- owner's household comnound, where they would come to thresh the paddy. This new pattern seems to be moving into this revion from further north, where it started a few years earlier. However, at the moment, we do not know what caused it to be adopted in this area, or if it is the result of any kind of indirect social pressure on the Nvomen. What the women have told our investigators is that their men have no work, andl this will give them some. What the landlowners say is that this is

driving up labour costs considerably, since they have to pay a high premiumn to have the males carry the harvested paddy to the threshing ground. In- dteed, in solmie of our villages further north where this practice has gone on longer, many small landowners are des- perately trying to sell their land.

To "What extent clifferetnces in the patterining of work in the past resulted from the complex negotiations between labourers and landowners is difficult to say. It is cleariy a feature of present- day capitalist work relations. Even if wve cannot always trace out the orglins of each practice, we hope by the time our project is complete to be able to have a clearer Dicture of the implications of each of these patterns (as well as others) for femiiale labourers.

We also note a difference in the amount of time spent in a given activity on a giiven day. In some areas (such a.; North Malabar) we find that women cnly work for wages for half a day (3-4 hours) at most, whereas in other areas thev tend to wo7trk for ftull days (5 or wiore hoturs) if work is acailable.9 We suspect that working for others for only half a day is more common in areas where (at least in the past) there was less of total landlessness, and the labourers also used to have some work on their oNwn small holdings or in nearby forests, whereas in the main areas of agrestic servitude, especially the areas wvith vast tac'ts of paddy land (such as Thanjavur and par ts of Scouth Arcot and Trichy l)istrict in Tamil Nadu, Eastern Palghat and Kuttanad in Kerala, and Burdwan in West Bengal) long hour s in the fields were traditionally more common. However, that still does not account for the vast array of patterns observed today.

We are also trying to map the employment Pattern for each woman in each village (i e, the total number of half-days of wage employment), and for the 16 males in the interview sample. From this, we will get a picture of the year-round pattern of employment in each region. Sample A shows how this mapping is being done. It is well known that for the agricultural labourers there are Deriods of peak employment and periods with much less work. This mapping shows us:

( ) wvhat we mean by relatively full employment (i e, how many days in a week)

(2) the number of weeks of such full employment

(3) the number of weeks of no em- plovment at all

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(4) the scatter of employment during other times in the year.

One point requiring clarification is whether the days of employment during the rest of the year tend to fall in the same period for all women in a village. If the work tends to be spread over the whole period, then that work could presumably be done by a smaller number of women, thus freeing others for full-time alternative employment. If however, the non-peak work tends to cluster at specific periods, then one would have to plan any additional employment so as to allow for a significant proportion of women taking time off to do these other tasks. From what we have seen so far, here again there seems to be some difference between regions. Hlowever, before coming to any conclusions about this, we plan to check further in the villages.

the employment patterns we have plotted (but which cannot be repro- duced here since they take up a considerable amount of space and have to be copied by a photographic process) give a clear idea of the variation between villages, as well as between households within the same village. One thing that is immediately apparent is that for the villages sudied so far, in West Bengal, one finds that there is no period without any wage work at all, whereas in Thanjavur and in Kuttanad (in Tamil Nadu and Kerala respectively) one finds one long period of unemployment and another long neriod with only scattered work. The other South Indian villages being reported on in this paper stand mid-way between the West Bengal pattern and the Thanja- vur/Kuttanad pattern. To what extent this difference will hold when we add Burdwan District (which in sorme ways reassembles Thanjavur and other parts of the south) remains to be seen. How- ever, it is our general impression from visiting these regions that there are more periods with total unemployment in the south than in West Bengal, with the possible exception of Burdwan.

As noted above, since January 1981. we have included questions (both on charts and in interviews) designed to elicit the reasons why individual household members have not worked on a particular day. W7e hope that this information will Drovide a clearer picture of:

(1) the reasons for the lack of work and their relative importance;

(2) the extent of morbidity among the agricultural labourers;

(3) tlhe extent to which they work on their own land, or do other

household work (for women not doing wage work in a given week.) We will also get somne ideas of the number of days wo- mneli woutld have been available for work if work had been available.

(c) Differences in tlhe Availability of Work

(1) In looking at Table 4 presented above, one thing which is extremely striking is the variation in the availability of supplemental work between villages and areas (with West Bengal having 'much more supplemental work available in rural areas) and between households. For example, village two in Kerala (the Trichur village) in our present sample shows more supplemental work than village number one. This is iti part related to its being close to a rich forest area, since a large part of the supplemental work involves gathering firewoodI anti/or fencirmg.

We also note a considerable range in the availability of this alternative employment for di2erent households in the village. At the moment we are not compretely certaima as to the reason for this variability, but we are checking out hypotheses relating to the question of the conditions of employment (as noted above), as well as the ability of the women to go longer distances or to carry excepitionally heavy loads on their heads.

(2) In looking at our data from the large number of villages, wve find cousi- derable differences between villages and between states in the amount of wage work, as well as non-wage work, among the landless agricultural labourers, To begin with, we find differences between the villages in the number and type of animals kept by the landless workers. Some of the non-wage work involves taking care of these domestic animals, feeding them and cleaning their sheds or coops, etc. Again, we find considerable regional variation in the amnouint of time that is spent collectiing firewood. Here, recent changes in Kerala laws relating to the forests have considerably decreased the amount of time that women could spend collecting firewood. And in most of our Tamil Nadu villages there was no firewood to collect, and small children rather than adults tended to do most of the cow- dung collection In any case, we hope to be able tc document the extent of variability in non-wage employment between the villages in a given region and between the states.

One problems with this part of the data is that some of the village assistants were more successful than others in getting the information about these activities. Nonetheless, from our observations there does appear to be a considerable amount of variability between villages.

(3) Wc also note a considerable difference in the availability of work in paddy-related activities. To some extent this relates to demographic factors such as the absolute number of agricultural labourers available per acre of paddy land (e g, the contrast between the two Kerala villages, where therei is a much higher number of agricultural labourers per acre of Taddy in the Kut- tanad region than in the Trichur area). Other variables, include the percentage of paddy land to other types of land, and the tradition of women in the- area to go and work in villages other than their own. T'he latter of course also interdigritates with caste, so that the factors are incdeed complex. In somne villages the agricultural labourers are only Harijans or Tribals, whereas in others they also include a range of low and intermediate castes.

Implications t[f O r Observationis Our observations have wide-ranging

implications. While planning training programmes for women of this category and also envisaging extra employment generation for them, one has to take into consideration the present pattern of employment for different women in the same village, as well as for women in different villages. Lack of awareness of this kind of information can often catuse difficuilties, at the im- plementation stage. From our observations on the wide variability in availability of work both within the village as well as between village, we have to think seriously of organising work teams, instead of leaving this economically and organisationally backward section to look for work in a situation of erratic employment.

PART II: WAGES

We have collected data on a number of different matters relating to wages and to the contribution of women to household income. These inclutde

(a) the mode of payment: cash, kind (includ(ling meals), deferred payment, etc;

(b) male-female differences iri actual wage payment;

(c) the contribution of each person to total household income:

(d) for all of the villages studied in

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the second phase of our project (the Kuttanad village fits into this group), the proportion of earned incomle given to the household by males and females.

It is useful to look at each of these in some detail.

(a) Mode of Paymtent We have found a considerable range

of variation between villages in how wages are paid - from places where all wages are paid in cash, to those where all but the harvest wage is paid in cash, to areas where a large proportion of -the wages are still paid in kind.

It will not be possible to fully document this and detail the reasons for each pattern, until we have completed our data collection, ibut at this point it is important to note the range of variation and the fact that more than one or two factors are responsible for it. Thus, we find in the Kutta- nad area of Kerala that one of the commonly given reasons for payment in cash at most times (apart irom the harvest season, when a pere-ntage of what is harvested is given) is that this was a result of the agricultural labour union's demands. The reason for the cash payment in one of our West Bengal villages (in the Sunderbans area) is similar to that in Kuttanad. Here also cash payments a.re the result of demands by the labourers, though here these dem-inds werc ma(de through the village panchayat and niot tlhrough organised unions. In the casc of our other village, in 24-Parganac, the reason for cash pavment is quiite different. Here it is related to the fact that in this village the former landowners, who wvere mostly Muslims, had left at partition. and tthe new- comers from East Bengal preferred to pav in cash, nartly because they had no traditional relations in this locality.

We also find that 'in some areas meals still are included as part of the payment given to labourers, whereas elsewhere such traditional perquisite5 are no longer given. Earlier, the demand for higher wages and the aband- oning of such perquisites was primarily a demand of militant workers trying to abolish fedual ways. Nowadays it tends to be the employers who wish to discontinue such customs as providing meals for their workers, when- ever possible. This is related to the fact that in the modern context. especially with families having partitioned and the employers having fewer household serv7ants, cooking for thc

labourers is felt to be a burden for the women of landowning househods.

(b) Male-Female Differences in Actucal Wage Payment

As noted above, the differential in payment between the sexes for most operations in most p4rts of the country is still firmly institucionalised. Our data supports this in considerable detail.

Table 2 presents the data for our six sample villages on !he wages paid to men and women for various activities. It is clear that they cannot be exactly correlated because some activities are performed by men and not by women and vice versa. For ploughing,

we have given the wage without animals, since that is more comparable to the wvay women work. Obviously, if a man brirngs his own animals and plough, he also has to be paid for his material input. It is clear, however. that wherever the operations are comparable, women are paid less than men.

(c) Conitribution of females to total HFousehold Income

One of the major focuses of our study has been to examine the contribution of females to the total household income. We had hypothesised that it would be quite significant. What we find, looking at Table 5, is that evein with lower wages for females, the ratio of female tc male contributions in our samnle households for the landless labour households is at least 1:1 (e g, in the Bir- bhum village), and in most cases it is higher. It should be noted that we have left out of this calculation all of the households that are headed by a female (including one or two where wvoman's husband is too old or weak to work), since these households must in any case be treated differently. The households considered in this table are all households with working males. We have also obviously left out of our sample households where there is no working woman. One would hope that in those households males would give the women a higher proportion ( I

what they earned. However, we do not have any data on this. From our observations however, it is clear that most women who can work do so, simply because i; is very difficult to mnanage on male eamings alone, even for short periods of time.

Even among the marginal land- owning households, where a woman mnight have to work more time on her own land, we find a signifleuntly high

oroportion of total household income coming from females. Of course, this proportion does not include the value of produce raised on their own land, and it might be argued that the males work more on their own land than on others' land. However, this can be misleading. On the basis of previous work of Mencher and P'anickar in Kerala, in a household that owns a small amount of paddy land, where both husband and wife and other family members work on theiLr own land and emoloy outsiders only when needed for a particular task, or if someone is ill, the labour demand for males and for females tends to be fairly equal (though this is obviously somewhat dependent on the sexual division of tasks discussed above). If both male and female !abour are equally needed on their own land, then one could argue that botlh husband and wife are contributing equally to the household by their work on their own paddy land. If their own land is dry land, or land not suitable for paddy, the other crops that tend to be grown on smltl plots in these regions are not very labour- intensive, and do not require much time unless the holding is very large. All of our marginal landowning households own less than an acre. Thus, even in these marginal landowing households the contribution of women to the total household income ranges between a little under half to well over half the household income. It is

probable that if the females were paid on par with males, their contribution would be even higher.

Table 6 shows the maximum and the minimum contribution of the

sample households -in each category, from each of the sample xillages being discussed here. It is clear that the range is large. Leaving aside those households where women are the sole support, we still find a large nuimber of women who contribute over 50 per cent of their household income at the present level of discriminatory wage. These tables are based on contribt- tions to the household in cash or kind, not on what was earned. It was clear from the beginning that at least a part of a man's eamings (though this varied a great deal from individual) never reached the familv. In talking with village males, tlhey were quite onen about it. A village man needs money for his tea, his toddy or other alcholic beverage, his bidis, his dress, at times for gambling or woemanizing, or other male activities.

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These were taken for granted as nor- mual male prerogatives by most of our informants' husbands. Thus, much more of males' earnings was siphoned off from the household than female earnings. (We are attempting to get an exact measure of this in the second stage of our research.) In some places. women also take some money to buy themselves food when they are working (though this is mostly a replace- ment for the food that was formerly provided under more feudal work conditions). However, on days when they do not work, they are unlikely to buy themselves anything apart from an occasional pan. What is striking is that both the men and women do not see this as something wrong, but simply take it for granted. This is the way things are. However, it did happen in the course of collecting the data from our project in Kerala, that a few husbands who had no.t been giving anything to their household,s at all, started to give something so that they would not see a blank in the columns meant to mark their contribution. (Report from Janaki Panicker, November 1981).

It will be noted that the minimum amount contributed by women is larger than the minimum contributed by males in every case. Thus, if a

woman works, her contribution is in- variably significant. It should be noted that the figures in Table 6 for Chingleput (1) and for Birbhum (1) would have been much higher for both nales and females if we had collected the data for an entire year. In the case of Chingleput, we missed the entire second paddy harvest seaoson in the village. But comparing Chingle- put (1) with Thanjavur (1) we see just how poorly off the labourers in Thanjavur (1) are.

CONCLUSIONS

It is clear that many of these households fall below the poverty line, however it- is defined. It is also clear that without the female income, they would probably not be able to survive at all. To ignore the inmportance of this female income in development planning would be fatal, for it is they who provide for the hasic nutrition of the next generation. The introduction of any technology which in any way further reduces their employment opportunities to earn, without readily available alternatives, can only bring more harship in to their lives. This has already been demon- strated by the introduction of rice

DANIDA DRINKING WATER PROJECT: ORISSA

N e e d s

SENIOR SOCIAL SCIENTIST

IN connection with a Rural Drinking Water Supply Project in the costal (saline) belt of Orissa applications are invited for the position of a Socio-Economic Expert. The Project jointly is financed by Government of India and Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) and is intended to run for a period of about 6 years. The selected candidate is expected to work jointly with a DANIDA counterpart in finalising a detailed Project Report and plan of operation; design and supervise sample surveys, baseline studies and intensive community studies; initiate and promote community participation in the design and execution of water supply installations. He/she will assist in developing appropriate training programmes for local caretakers as well as technical personnel and assist in monitoring and evaluating the overall performance of the Project. He/she will be attached to the office of the Project Director, DANIDA with head-quarters at Bhubanes- war and will together with the DANIDA counterpart be in charge of a socio-economic cell comprising 5-7 Research Associates and 10-15 Field Investigators alongwith support- ing staff.

The candidate should hold a Ph.D. degree and have atleast 10 years experience in designing and supervising interdisciplinary research programmes in rural areas, preferably including action research and intensive community studies. On equal merit candidate belonging to S.C/S.T. will be given preference as will Oriya-speaking candidates. Salary commensurate with qualifications, ability and experience with D.A. and other perquisites as per rules applicable for State Govt. employees.

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To & fro travelling expenses will be given to the candidates called for interview.

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ECONOMNIC AND POLITICAL WEEKLY Review of Agriculture 'December 1982

mills. Thus, transplanting machinery or heribicides, about which quite a lot is heard now-a-days, would cer- tainly take away a large share of their work and earnings. Two important things that emerge from our data are: (i) the introduction of any innovation in paddy cultivation would immediately throw these women out ot work; and (ii) even with the existing arrangement, there is urgent need for creating additional employment for these women.

Notes

1 The research on this Droject has been partially supported by a grant from the Indian Counci! ot Social Science Research, and partially by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution to J( an Mencher through Lehman College of CUNY.

2 The quelstion of the origin of agriculture in general every where ill the world, and of rice cultivation in particular in the Asian conitext, still poses a number of problems. It has been hypothesised by many archeologists that ,omneia may have been the first to

domesticate plants, since i is known that in most huntinig and gathering societies women have been primarily responsible for gathering. However, it may well he that such, hypothesis can never be tested (witout the hypo- thetica& scienace fiction time- machine.) Nonetheless, it does seemn reasonable, since individua's who gather plant products day after (lay, year after year, are more likelv to learn about their patterns and possibly to make experiments than those who devote more cf their time to hunting.

:3 In the late fifties and early sixties, Mencher carried out field work in rural areas of Kerala, Tamil Nad'i, and West Bengal. During the course of this field work, a fairlv large number of photographs of routine agricultural o,)erations were taken. Checking thes,', one can see many instances of women alofie working in the paddy fields.

4 It was while interviewing a group of women wdrkers in 1975 in the presence of the local CPM leader in one of our villages that Men- cher acd Janaki Panicker were able to bring out one ( f the special forms of exploitation of female labourers that the local leader had never heard of. (This was a practice of hiring seven women for work, making one of them stay back and work in the household compound of the land- owner, and then asking the other six to share their eurnings with the seventh.)

5 We are also keeping records not-

ing (1) which women learn to keep the charts themnselves, (2) which women - leani only to keep them with the help, of another fam-nily member, and (3) which never learn to keep them themselves, as well as towards the end of work in a particular village, to get some notion of how the women feel about the charts.

6 The village assistants are trainedl by our senior research officers. In the beginning they -o around with the senior person watJiing her do the work. After a few days. theye start taking questions, and talking to the villagers themselves. After an initial training period, they are left alone for 3-4 wveeks, after which time the senior investigator thena returns and checks lp on their work. Obviouis"y there has been a consi(leirable range in their ability to do Clis kind of work and In their understanding of what we are seeking, as well as their rapport wvith the villagers. Some have needed1 more supervision than others.

7 Originally janaki Panicker was the senior investigator in charge of the work in both Kerala and Tamil Nacdu. (In fact, she wtas res- sponsible for the data collected in both of the Tarnil Nadu villages reported on in this paper). Later on, it became clear that the work in each state was more than enough for one person. So we ('ngagecd another person, R Va- santha to take charge of the work in Tamil Nadu. For West Bengal, we have had two different senior investigators, Bela Bandvopadhyay (who was in charge of the data collection for six villages, including the two reported in this paper) and Sipra Majumdar who is now working in two villages. They worked directlv under the authors and were supervised bv them. Janaki Panicker helped in training R Vasantha.

8 For our landowning sample, we have used a method of diary keeping in order to try and learn something about their work related to agriculture throlughout the year. During the first phase of the project we asked the women to keep diaries in which they wrote everything they did or talked about in relation to agriculture. However, we found that while some women wrote excell- ent diaries with considerable detail, the majority were very irregular or stopped altogether after a while. Therefore, we decided to use a kind of printed diary containing 22 items of activity which the women could mark off each day. These diaries are collected each month. '1 hotigh mu1ch easier to get most woman to keep a diary and also to mark. they lack the richness of the written diaries of some women. There-

fore where feasible, we have con- tinued 'td ask one to three women in each village to keep written diar ies which we ean subject to a kind of qualitative analysis (evien though they may not be amnenalble to the kind of quanti- tative analysis that she printed diaries are). Details about the landowning women will appear in a later paper.

9 The definition of a full day depends on many factors, including how close the work place is t,) where the labourers live, whliat kind of negotiations have gone on between the labourers anid landowners (especially in regionis witht agricultural labourer unions), as well as on local customs.

References

[1] Agricultural Operations in Kerala, Part I, 1977. Report of the Com mittee appointed by Governmen, of India, Government Press, Trivandrum.

[21 Bardhan, Kalpana, 1979, "Work as a Medium of Earning and So- cial Differentiation: Rural Wo- men of West Bengal" p:iper for ADC and ICRISAT Conference.

[:3] Bardhan, Pranab, 1974, "On Life .l:rd Death Questions" Economic

n(nd Political Weekly, XI: 1293- 1304.

[4] Bardhan, Pranab, 1981, "Agrarian Class Formation in India" manu- script.

[5] Boserulp, Ester, 1970, "Women's Role in Economic Development", New York: St Martin's Press.

[6] Etienne, Gilbert, 1968, "Studies in Indian Agriculture: The Art of the Possible", Un of California Press.

[7] Mencher, J, K Sardamoni 'and J, Panicker, 1979, "Women in Rice Cultivation : Some ResearchJ Tools", in Studies in Family Plant- nin,g, Vol 11.

[8] Mencher, J, 1980, "The Lessons and Non-Lessons of Kerala: Agricultural Labourers and Pover- ty , Economic ancd Poititical Weekly, Vol XV: 1781-1802.

[9] 1960 Second Agricultural Labour Enquiry, Govt Press, New Delhi.

[10] Stoler, Ann, 1977, "Class Structure and Female Autonomy in Rural Java", Sign?s, 3: 74-92.

[11] Suirendran (ed), 1974, Sri Ayyan- kali Smaraka Grandham, Janata Press, Trivandrum.

[12] Tamil Nadu Minimum Wages Act, G 0 No 1471, Seotember 10. 1979, Government Press, Madras.

[13>] Tharamangalam, J, 1977, "Rural Class Conflict : Political Mobilisa- tion of Agricultural Labourers in Kuttanad. South India".

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muddy feet, dirty hands- rice production and female agricultural labour - 1982

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