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LAWLAWANDAND

POVERTYPOVERTY

MADE BY:Aquib ahmedB.A. L.L.B. (Hons.)IVTH semester

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UnorganisedUnorganised labour andlabour and

the lawthe law

INDEX Topic Page no.

1. Unorganised Nature of Rural Labour 4

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2. Contextual Framework 5

3. Concept and Classification of Rural Labour 8

4. Wages of Agricultural Labourers and the Law 11

5. Social Security for the Unorganised Labour 19

6. Organisation of Rural Workers 23

Unorganised Nature of Rural Labour

The factual conditions of agricultural labour are quite different from non-agricultural labour. Agricultural labour force is widely dispersed on holdings, often of small size, which are scattered due to fragmentation and dub-division. In view of this wide scatter of holdings, labourers who work mostly on daily wages are unorganised. There is no agglomeration of labour on a farm

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continuously for a long time to enable them develop collective bargaining power as in industry. Due to this disability, agricultural labourers are susceptible to exploitation by land-owners who employ them. Another inherent weakness is the absence of a fixed occupation as ‘agricultural labour’, for most workers all the year round. What labourers are concerned with is employment on remunerative wages, whether it is in agricultural or non agricultural work. Agricultural operations provide employment on a sufficiently large scale during busy seasons. During slack seasons, however, they look for alternative avenues of employment.

The extent of rural unemployment defies assessment as much of it designed. According to Planning Commission the number of jobless people in the rural sector is around 20 million, but unofficial estimates put the figure at 45 million. Indeed, in the Indian agricultural sector the intensity of the problem lies in the fact that agricultural labourers are unemployed for 168 days in a year. Further unemployment adds to the intensity of the problem, and ‘in rural context both unemployment and underemployment get inextricably mixed. Either of it voluntarily or involuntarily adds to the complications in analysing the situation. But, statistics apart, in the years since Independence, the developments in rural areas taken together indicate that some relief in terms of more work has already reached them.’ Thus, the various Five Year Plans, particularly Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Plans, have visualised the urgent nature of the problems of unemployment and underemployment and has in fact formulated schemes for promoting self employment, imparting training facilities, encouraging commercial banks to advance loans etc. Further, provision has been made in the budget for schemes designed to benefit small farmers, marginal cultivators and agricultural labourers to meet the employment needs of certain areas. But the pace should be accelerated and more job opportunities should be created.

Contextual Framework

(A) Size of Agricultural labour force

India is predominantly an agricultural country. According to the 1981 census, nearly 525.4 million people out of the total population of 685.14 lived in rural areas. Further, 180.5 million people who constituted and entire labour force in 1971 about 125.8 million i.e. 70.8 percent of the total

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work-force were employed in cultivation and agricultural occupations. The estimated work-force in rural areas in 1978 was 216.16 million as against urban work-force of 44.76 million. Work-force in agriculture was 192.43 million. The remaining 23.73 million of the rural work-force was engaged in non-agricultural occupations. However, the Planning Commission estimated that by 1978, the work-force have gone up to 265.3 million and out this agriculture would be employing 192.43 million. By 1983 the work-force in agriculture is likely to go up to 213.83 million, indicating an addition to 21.4 million persons in just 5 years.

(B) Agricultural Labourer’s Place in the Economy

India has been and will remain in the foreseeable future, predominance agricultural nation. Agriculture in its broad connotation accounts for approximately fifty per cent of our national income. According to the Central Statistical Organisation the net national product generated in India in 1977-78 was estimated to be Rs.30621 crores and the number of workers on the land (including land holders and landless) was 192.43. Food grains production was estimated to be 131.9 million tonnes in 1979-80, when the country suffered a severe drought. But, in spite of this “agriculture labour occupies the lowest rung of the rural ladder. A major part of the area in rural areas is concentrated in a few hands. For example, in 1971 the top 30 per cent of the rural population claimed nearly 82 per cent of the total assets and within this group the first 10 per cent monopolised as much as 51 per cent of the total assets. On the other hand, the lowest 10 per cent possessed a mere 0.1 per cent of the assets and the lower 30 per cent were to be contended with a 2 per cent share. The disturbed of agricultural holdings, the small and marginal farmers, who constituted over 70 per cent of the land owners, operates barely 24 per cent of the agricultural land.

(C) Rural Poverty

Poverty is the greatest economic evil in a welfare state. Agricultural labour that constitutes about one-fifth of the rural work force is the poorest of the poor in India. Fifty per cent of the agricultural labour households are landless and have no asset base. The landless labourers are suffering from a compounded problem of unemployment, low and uncertain income and

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nutritional deficiencies. Low incomes, indebtedness, unemployment and underemployment, big size of the family illiteracy and ignorance may primarily be accounted for the high degree of poverty among rural workers.

(D) The Present Attack: Economic Front

Jawaharlal Nehru warned the Constituted Assembly about the problem of poverty and social change:

“The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity. The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us, but as long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over.”

It is significant to note that various Five Year Plans have taken some steps to achieve the desired objective. Soon after the commencement of Indian Constitution the Planning Commission was introduced in India. The basic objective of the First Five Year Plan was summed up by the planners in the following terms:

“The Plan has two main objectives: (1) a better standard of life for the people and (2) social justice. The objectives of the Plan reflect the idealism of the community and are derived from the Directive Principles of State Policy embodied in the Constitution. These principles envisage equality of opportunity, the right to work, the right to an adequate wage and a measure of social security for all citizens. A Welfare State is the avowed goal of our Constitution. To achieve this new order, the Plan has taken the first few steps.”

The Second Five Year Plan emphasised on the expansion of the community development programme, Rs.200 crores were allocated for development of village and small industries. In rural programmes high priority was given for schemes intended to benefit the weaker section of the population like agricultural labourers and artisans and others.

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The Third Five Year Plan laid considerable emphasis for the cause of agricultural labourer. The Plan provided for additional employment in agriculture for about 3.5 million. However, in the Plan rural works programmes and rural industries projects received half-hearted support, and were even interrupted.

The Fourth Five Year Plan drew attention to the problems of sub-marginal cultivators, and agricultural labourers by two sets of measures viz. (i) land reforms and (ii) generation of employment oriented activities.

The Fifth Plan was intended to make substantial reduction in the magnitude of poverty.

The Sixth Five Year Plan brought new era during which the major goal was the realisation of an economic and social order based on principle of socialism, secularism and self reliance. The Plan used the poverty line of Rs.65 per month at 1977-78 prices for rural areas. In order to remove rural poverty the Plan has allocated Rs.1500 crores for the Integrated Rural Development Programme (I.R.D.P.) which seeks to create productive assets in rural areas.

On 15th August, 1982 Prime Minister Mrs. Gandhi in her Independence Day address announced a scheme under which one member of every family in the country would be given a job. The Prime Minister however did not spell out the scheme in detail but assured that funds would not be a problem. On that basis jobs for 30 lakh persons would mean creation of 300 million man-days in a single year.

Concept and Classification of Rural Labour

Since the rural labour persons who are agricultural labour, as well as holders of petty plots or cultivators of small plots on behalf of the rural owners it is very difficult to identify the agricultural labour as such if one has to go strictly by the occupation only, becausethe occupational structure in a village is overlapping in character. The casual nature of employment, which keeps them shifting from

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one farm to another, further adds to the difficulty of identification. Be it as it may, the rural labour may broadly be classified into the following categories:

(A) Agriculture Labour

It is very difficult to define the ‘agriculture labour’. Section 2(f), of the Kerala Agricultural Workers Act defines ‘agricultural worker’ to mean:

“a person who, in consideration of the wages payable to him by a landowner, works on, or does any other agricultural operation in relation to the agricultural land of such landowner.”

The aforesaid definition postulates a wage-earner under a landowner, either working on agricultural land or doing any other agricultural operation in relation to such land.

Earlier, the National Commission on Labour defined ‘agricultural labour’ to be persons whose main source of income is wage employment. It consists of two sub-categories: (i) landless agricultural labour, and (ii) very small cultivators whose main source of earnings, due to their small and sub-marginal holdings, is wage employment. However, the aforesaid definition of agricultural labour does not accord with the 1981 Census definition ‘agricultural labour’ wherein it is defined as:

“one whose principal means of livelihood is wage income arising out of the farm labour and other allied activities.”

It will thus be seen that the scope of ‘agricultural labour’ still remains uncertain.

(B) Para-Agricultural Labour

Labour who are employed in activities incidental to or in conjunction with the agricultural operation subsequent to harvesting such as grains processing, hand pounding of rice or other food grains, splitting of pulses, splitting of maize or other food grains or even preparation for selling or delivery to storage or to market may be called para agricultural labour.

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(C) Rural Labour in Allied Activities

The rural labour employed for wages either in cash or in kind or partly in cash and partly in kind in dairy farming, raising of live stock, bees or poultry grazing, collective cow dung or selling the agricultural commodities may not be called ‘ agricultural labour’ and may well be classified under the aforesaid category.

(D) Plantation Labour

The plantation labour in India includes all those who are employed in any agricultural undertaking which is mainly concerned with the cultivation or production for commercial purposes of coffee, tea, sugarcane, rubber, bananas, cocoa, coconut, groundnuts, cotton, tobacco, fibres, citrus, palm oil, cinchona or pineapple.

(E) Bonded Labour

Bonded labourers constitute one of the most exploited section of the rural labour. It is the ‘relic of feudal exploited system’. Till recently there existed in our country a system of ‘usury’ under which the debtor or this descendants or dependants had to work for the creditor without reasonable wages or with no wages in order to extinguish the debt. ‘At times, several generations work under bondage for the repayment of a paltry sum which had been taken by some remote ancestor. The interest rates were exorbitant and such bondage could not be interpreted as a result of a legitimate contract or agreement. This system implies infringement of basic human rights and destruction of the dignity of human labour. The ‘practice of forced labour is condemned in almost every international instrument dealing with human rights.’

(F) Labourer in Forestry

Notwithstanding the fact that the Agricultural Labour Enquiry Committee and Rural Labour Enquiry Committee treats workers employed in forestry and

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timbering operation to be ‘agricultural labour’ they may be kept under separate category viz., forestry labour.

(G) Rural Labour for Other Work

Quite apart from the aforesaid classification there are other classes of rural labour such as barber, washer man, milkman, carpenter, blacksmith, cobbler etc. who work either on part time or fulltime basis wages in cash kind or share of produce on another person’s land.

(H) Self Employed Person

A person may be regarded as self employed in an occupation if he is working as an employer or own account worker in that occupation. An own account worker could be both a single worker or joint owner of an enterprise.

Wages of Agricultural Workers and the Law

In order to appreciate the prevailing low rates of wages it is desirable to know the average earnings of some of the agricultural and other rural workers. The estimated average daily earnings of men, women and children in agricultural and other rural household reveals that there was a sharp increase in the average daily earning during 1974-75. But, the high rate of wages could not keep pace

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with the increase in the cost of living index. The wage rates are so low that it may be called even starvation wages.

(A) Minimum Wages Act, 1948

Problems relating to minimum wages of agricultural workers attracted the attention of I.L.O. way back in 1921, I.L.O. adopted Minimum Wage (Agriculture) Convention, 1921.Seven years later in 1928 the Minimum Wage-Fixing Machinery Convention was adopted by the I.L.O. in 1928. The Convention recommended to the Member States the desirability of setting up machinery for fixation of minimum rates of wages in certain industries. The object of the convention was to fix minimum wages in industries “in which no arrangements exist for the effective regulation of wages by collective agreement or otherwise, and wages are exceptionally low.” India has however, ratified the 1928 Convention. To give effect to the convention the Central Legislature passed the Minimum Wages Act, 1948. The Act prevents the exploitation, inter alia, of agricultural workers.

(1) The Coverage of the Minimum Wages Act

The Act extends to the whole of India. Part 2 of the Schedule to the Act covers employment in agriculture. The appropriate Government is empowered to add to the Schedule any employment “after giving by notification in the Official Gazette not less than three months notice of its intention so to do. Under this provision Central Government and several State Governments have fixed minimum wages for agricultural workers. However a good number of agricultural workers are still outside the purview of the Act. If the object of the Act is to project sweated labour against exploitation there is no longer any justification for keeping a vast number of persons employed in exploitative conditions in agricultural occupation without protection about their wages.

Government is committed to the uplift of the weaker sections of the society. Adoption of the 20-point programme makes it incumbent upon the Government to give serious attention to the fixation and revision of

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minimum wages. It is therefore essential that types of agricultural workers who are working under conditions of sweated labour and/or essentially below the poverty line should be brought within the purview of the Minimum Wages Act so as to assure to them a wage which is essential for at least their subsistence.

(2) Fixation and Revision of Minimum Wages

While appropriate Government is under an obligation to fix minimum rates of wages in the entire state in respect of employments specified Part 1, it has discretion to fix minimum rates of wages even in a part of the State in respect of employment specified in Part 2 of the Schedule. Further the appropriate Government shall not be required to fix minimum rates of wages in respect of any scheduled employment in which less than one thousand employees are employed at a given time in the whole of the State. The appropriate Government may fix minimum rate of wages for time work, piece work and overtime work and a guaranteed time rate for piece work. Further, in fixing or revising minimum rates of wages different minimum rates of wages may be fixed for (i) different scheduled employment, (ii) adults, adolescent, children and apprentices; and (iv) different localities. Similarly, the minimum wages may be fixed by any one or more of the following wage period, namely (i) by the hour (ii) by the day (iii) by the month or (iv) by such other longer period as may be prescribed.

The Minimum Wages Act, however, neither defines “minimum wage” nor does it lay down criteria to be considered in determining the minimum wage in any given case. To fill this gap Courts have helped that statutory minimum wage is higher than the bare subsistence wage and provides for measure of education, medical requirement and amenities. The Courts have also ruled that the policy and principle for the guidance for the exercise of this power is inherent in the purpose and object of the Act, and the machinery enacted for assisting the Government in making the equitable adjustment of conflicting claims of labour and management.

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(3) Time for revision of Minimum Wages

Wage structures are not static and are liable to be revised with the change of circumstances. The Act, therefore, empowers the appropriate Government to review the minimum rate of wages so fixed and revise the minimum rate at such intervals as it may think fit. A perusal of wages revised reveals the fact that the minimum rates of wages have not been revised for more than five years, from the date of fixation/revision by the appropriate Government. The period varies from six to twenty years.

(4) Choice of Minimum Wage Fixation Process

The Act empowers the appropriate Government not only to fix minimum rates of wages in respect of any scheduled employment for the first time or in revising minimum rates of wages so fixed but also to choose either of the following two processes:-

(i) appoint as many committees and sub-committees as it considers necessary to hold enquiries and advise it in respect of such fixation or revision, as the case may be

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(ii) by notification in the official Gazette, publish the proposals for the information of persons likely to be affected thereby and specify a date, not less than two months from the date of the notification, on which the proposal will be taken into consideration.

(5) Mode of Payment

Section 11(1) of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 provides for the mode of the payment of minimum wages. It requires that the minimumwages should be paid in cash. But sub-sections (2), (3) and (4) of Section 11 provides for the payment of minimum wages in kind wholly or partly in certain circumstances and for essential supply of commodities at concessional rates.

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(6) Payment of Minimum Rates of Wages

Section 12 imposes an obligation upon the employer to pay every employee engaged in a scheduled employment under him wages at a rate not less than minimum rate of wages fixed by the Government subject to deductions and as may be authorised and subject to such conditions as may be prescribed. This provision will, however, not affect the provisions of the Payment of Wages Act, 1936.

(7) Fixing Hours for a Normal Working Day and Overtime

Section 13 empowers the appropriate Government to fix the working hours and the days of rest as therein indicated in regard to any scheduled employment in respect of which minimum rates of wages have been fixed. Rule 24 of the Minimum Wages (Central) Rules prescribes 9 hours of work for adult workers and 4.5 hours of work for child labour per day. But these provisions are not being observed by employers in agricultural sectors. It is because of variation in the length of working day based on seasonal emergencies of agricultural production that the Minimum Wages (Central) Rules framed under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, while prescribing that 9 hours constitute the normal working day for an adult, provided that, in so far as agricultural employments are concerned, they may be subjected to such, modifications as may, from time to time, be notified by the Central Government.

(8) Enforcement

For the administration of the Act the State Government have been authorised to appoint Inspectors. With “the announcement of the New 20-point Programme by the Prime Minister on the 14th January, 1982, the Department of Labour, Government of India drew up the following Plan of Action to secure fixation and revision of minimum wages for employment in agriculture and their effective enforcement:

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(i) to persuade the State Governments concerned to fix minimum wages;

(ii) to expedite the revision of minimum wages by State Governments which have already notified proposal or constituted committees for the revision of minimum wages;

(iii) to persuade the State Governments to initiate action for the revision of minimum wages where no such action has yet been taken;

(iv) to expedite the finalisation of proposals for amendment of the Minimum Wages Act to improve its working;

(v) to advise the State Governments to setup monitoring units in their Labour Departments to monitor the progress of implementation and send reports to the Monitoring Unit set up in the Department of Labour.

(B) Supreme Court’s Contribution towards payment of minimum wage

(1) Payment of bare subsistence or minimum wage

In order to protect the interest of weaker sections of the society the Supreme Court ruled that if the employer cannot pay to its workmen at least the bare subsistence or minimum wage, it has no right to exist.

Thus, in Crown Aluminium Works v. Their Workmen, the Supreme Court observed:

“It is quite likely that in underdeveloped countries, where unemployment prevails on a very large scale, unorganised labour may be available on starvation wages, but the employment of labour on starvation cannot be encouraged or favoured in a modern democratic welfare state. If an employer cannot maintain his enterprise without cutting down the wages of his employees below even a bare subsistence or minimum wage, he would have no right to conduct his enterprise on such terms.”

(2) Non-payment of minimum wages amounts to violation of Article 23 of the Constitution

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Where “a person is suffering from hunger or starvation, where he has no resources at all to fight disease or to feed his wife and children or even to hide their nakedness, where utter grinding poverty has broken his back and reduced him to a state of helplessness and despair and where no other employment is available to alleviate the rigour of his poverty, he would have no choice but to accept any work that comes his way, even of the remuneration offered to him is less than the minimum wage. He would be in no position to bargain with the employer he would have to accept what is offered to him. And in doing so he would be acting not as a free agent with a choice between alternatives but under the compulsion of economic circumstances and the labour or service provided by him would be clearly “forced labour”.

In view of the prevailing situation the Supreme Court in People’s Union for Democratic Rights v. Union of Indiaruled that the “word ‘force’ must therefore be construed to include not only physical or legal force but also force arising from the compulsion of economic circumstances which leaves no choice of alternatives to a person in want and compels him to provide labour or service even though the remuneration received for it is less than the minimum wage.” The Court accordingly held that “where a person provides labour or service to another for remuneration which is less than the minimum wage, the labour or service provided by him clearly falls within the scope and ambit of the words ‘forced labour’ under Art.23. Such a person would be entitled to come to the Court to direct payment of the minimum wage to him so that the labour orservice provided by him ceases to be ‘forced labour’ and the breach of Art.23 is remedied.

The aforesaid view was followed in Sanjit Ray v. State of Rajasthan3

where in the Supreme Court reiterated that every “person who provides labour or service to another is entitled at the least to the minimum wage and if anything less than the minimum wage is paid to him, he can complain of violation of his fundamental right under Article 23 and ask the Court to direct payment of minimum wage to him so that the breach of Art. 23 may be abated.”

(3) Protection under Article 23 enforceable against the whole world

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Article 23 is “designed to protect the individual not only against the State but also against other private citizens. Article 23 is not limited to its application against the State but it prohibits ‘traffic in human beings and beggar and other similar forms of forced labour’ practised by anyone else. The sweep of Article 23 is wide and unlimited and it strikes at ‘traffic in human beings and beggar and other similar forms of forced labour’ wherever they are found.”

(4) Constitutional obligation for the State to enforce the Minimum Wages Act

The Supreme Court in People’s Union for Democratic Rights v. Union of India also pointed out with all emphasis at their command that:

“whenever any fundamental right which is enforceable against private individuals such as, for example, a fundamental right enacted in Aricle 23 or 24 is being violated, it is the constitutional obligation on the State to take the necessary steps for the purpose of interdicting, such violation and ensuring observance of the fundamental right by the private individual who is transgressing the same. Of course, the person whose fundamental right is violated can always approach the Court for the purpose for enforcement of his fundamental right, but that cannot absolve the State from its constitutional obligation to see that there is no violation of the fundamental right of such persons, particularly when he belongs to the weaker section of humanity and is unable to wage a legal battle against a strong and powerful opponent who is exploiting him.”

It is hoped that appropriate Government would now take serious step to implementation of the Minimum Wages Act particularly in agricultural and unorganised sectors.

(C) Payment of Wages Act

Section 22F of the Minimum Wages Act empowers the appropriate Government to direct that subject to the provisions of sub-section (2) all or any of the provisions of the Payment of Wages Act, 1936 shall with such modifications, if any, as may be specified in the notification apply to wages payable to employees in such scheduled employments as may be specified in

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the notification. The inspectors appointed for the purpose of enforcement of the provisions so applied acts within the legal limit. In exercise of these powers the Central Government has applied the provisions of the Payment of Wages Act, 1926, inter alia, in respect of employees in employment included in Part 2 of the Schedule. Further, States have also applied the provisions of the Payment of Wages Act.

Social Security for the Unorganised Labour

The need for providing social security benefits was recognised by the International Labour Organisation since its inception through the I.L.O. Conventions viz., Workmen’s Compensation(Agriculture) Convention, 1921, Sickness Insurance(Agriculture) Convention, 1933, Invalidity Insurance(Agriculture) Convention, 1933, Survivors Insurance(Agriculture) Convention, 1933 and Minimum Age(Agriculture) Convention, 1921. India has however not ratified any of the conventions. But, the framers of Indian Constitution paid due attention to the amelioration of labourers of the country. The Indian Constitution has made a specific mention of the duties that the State

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owes to rural labourers. Article 43 of the Constitution provides that the State shall endeavour to secure by suitable legislation...to all workers agricultural, industrial or otherwise...conditions of work ensuring a decent standard of life... In order to achieve the objective several social security legislations have been enacted in India. They are, however, applicable to a very negligible section of rural population.

(A) Workmen’s Compensation Act, 1923

The Workmen’s Compensation Act which imposes an obligation upon employers to pay compensation to workers for accident “ arising out of and in the course of employment”, resulting in death or total or partial disablement is also applicable to workers “employment in farming by tractors or other contrivances driven by steam or other mechanical power or by electicity.” From this it is evident that the Act has an extremely limited application and does not apply to all agricultural labour.

(B) Employee’s State Insurance Act, 1948

The Act is one of the pioneering measures in the area of insurance for workers. It provides for (i) sickness benefit; (ii) maternity benefit; (iii) disablement benefit; (iv) dependents benefit and (v) medical benefits. However, section 1(5) empowers the appropriate Government, in consultation with the Corporation, to extend the provisions of the Act or any of them to any other establishment or class of establishment, including agriculture. However, these benefits, if at all, are available only to a negligible section of agricultural labour, because of legal, administrative and other problems. The question has been considered recently by a high powered sub-committee of the Employee’s State Insurance Corporation which has come to the conclusion that the scheme should be modified to suit the consitions of rural area. The Central Standing Committee on Rural Unorganised Labour set up by the Central Government is also considering, inter-alia, the question of social security for rural workers.

(C) Maternity Benefit Act, 1961

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Like the Employee’s State Insurance Act, the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 empowers the State Government to extend the provisions of maternity to an establishment or class of establishment including agriculture. This Act provided for cash maternity benefit for certain periods before and after confinement, grant of leave and certain other facilities etc. to women. However, this Act has an extremely limited application and has rarely been applied in agricultural sector. To avoid this hardship to agricultural women workers section 6 of the Agricultural Workers(Payment of Pension, Fixation of Minimum Wages, Compulsory Insurance and other Amenities) Bill, 1983 provides for payment of maternity allowance of rupees fifty per month by the Government to women agricultural workers for a period of three months and for one month’s maternity leave with full pay. This provision if passed would provide much needed relief to women agricultural workers.

(D) Provident Fund, Family Pension and Insurance

The Employee’s Provident Funds Act, 1952 provides for the institution of provident funds for the employees in the factories and other establishments. By Labour Provident Fund Laws(Amendment) Ordinance and Act, 1971 provision has been made for Family Pension and Life Insurance Benefit also. The Employee’s Family Pension Scheme became effective from 1-3-1971. “ In the year 1976, the Act was further amended with a view to introducing yet another social security scheme to provide and Insurance cover to the members of the Provident Fund in covered establishments without payment of any premium of such members, the Insurance cover being linked to the deposits in the provided fund to the credit of the decease employees. The Employee’s Deposit linked Insurance Scheme thus came to effect from 1-8-1976.”

The Act, however, applies to a very small section of working class. As on 30th September, 1979 the Act applied to 89977 factories/ establishments. The number of subscribers to Provident Fund stood around ten million. More than 11000 establishments with 1.8 million employees belonged to industries/employments located predominantly in rural areas. Thus, a vast majority of rural population has been kept outside the purview of the Act. To meet this hardship the Agricultural Workers(Payment of Pension, fixation of

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minimum wages, compulsory insurance and other amenities) Bill, 1983 provides for Agricultural workers Provident Fund scheme:

“(1) The provident fund facilities shall be extended to the agricultural workers and for that purpose the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, frame a scheme to be called the Agricultural Workers Provident Fund Scheme.

(2) In particular and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing power to frame the Scheme:-

(a) the Government and the employer of agricultural workers each shall contribute separately to the provident fund at a rate of six and a quarter per cent of the wages payable to each of the agricultural workers employed by an employer;

(b) the expenditure on enforcement of the scheme shall be borne by the Government;

(c) the agricultural worker shall be required to contribute two per cent of the total wages to the provident fund.”

(E) Unemployment Insurance

More than seventy per cent of the total population live below poverty line. Needless to mention that most of these unfortunate people are the agricultural workers. They do not get work throughout the year. They get work for about three months in a year and for nine months they are unemployed and suffer from starvation. The reality is that they are ready to work for their livelihood and for the progress of the country but the Government have failed to utilise these human resources and this huge manpower is going waste due to non-utilisation. Another important factor is that the poor and marginal farmers are losing their land every year and they are merely increasing the number of

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agricultural workers, and this is a continuous process. Until and unless the age old feudal practice of private money lending denying minimum wages to the agricultural workers, creating bonded labour and exploiting them economically, socially or culturally, is prohibited and simultaneously the Government came forward with financial assistance, they will not be freed from the present social evils.

Organisation of Rural Workers

(A) Why to Organise

Organisation of rural workers is based on labour philosophy “united we stand, divided we fall.” The Green Revolution, abolition of Zamindari System, and introduction of mechanised farming changed the traditional outlook in the labour management relationship. Next, the needs and expectations of rural people have changed. Further, about half of the population in rural areas live below the poverty line. Furthermore, the labour is in the state of bonded relationship. Indeed, rurallabour is exploited by landlords. Moreover, “unless there is conscious and deliberate effort to develop organisations of the poor, the

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whole exercise of growth with social justice becomes a mere platitude. The formation of farm labour union provides the solution.

(B) Major Constraints in Organisation of Problem Areas of Agricultural Labour

Notwithstanding Mahatma Gandhi’s emphasis on the value of self sufficient village economy agricultural labour have been most neglected and exploited class of human labour who have suffered because they happen to belong to economically and socially backward class of society as also from the ‘ravages of sacrifices and famines in different parts of the country.’ Further, their illiteracy, poverty, indebtness, seasonal nature of work in villages also create obstacle. Heterogeneity and homogeneity and their migratory character also work against their organisation. Agriculture workers also do not have almost any experience in trade unionism. They are even unable to pay even the membership subscription. Furthermore, there is danger of being suppressed, in the formative stage of trade unionism by the landlord. Moreover, “centuries of oppressed and inhuman treatment received as untouchables have damaged their confidence and lowered their self image.”

(C) Trade Union Movement in Rural Areas

During the freedom struggle several “socio-political organisations such as ‘KisanSabhas’, ‘KrishakSabhas’ and ‘Peasant Unions’ came into existence in the late twenties for the benefit of agricultural communities. In 1931 the KisanSabha in Bengal demanded abolition of ‘Permanent Settlement’ and ‘forced labour’. In 1935, the All India KiasnSabha took shape. A mass peasant movement developed after the Second World War in some parts of the country led by local KisanSabhas. By 1945, the Sabha claimed to have enrolled membership of about 8.25 lakhs. Peasant organisations spread to other parts of the country to protect the interests of the small farmer and labour from backward communities and tribes such as halis and warlis in Bombay, and Pannaiyals in Madras. The KisanSabha in 1953 called for abolition of landlordism without compensation, free distribution of land among agricultural labour and poor peasants, stoppage of eviction of peasants and substantial reduction in rent. During post 1960 period, the All India KisanSabha agitated

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against evictions of small peasants and for radical land reforms, distribution of waste land, provision of irrigation facilities for all cultivators and for unity between poor peasantry and agricultural labour who constitute the bulk of the population in the countryside. During Kharif season of 1982, 2 million agricultural workers directly participated in the strike and 4 million agricultural workers participated in propaganda and campaign for struggle in different States for increase in wages.

Besides this politically-oriented organisation, there are many small organisations which are largely non-political. None of them, however, has been able to bring together large sections of unorganised and scattered agricultural workers and weld them into a force for concerted action. A weakness of the Kisan Movement arises out of the dual character of the leadership of the organisation. This in turn is the consequence of the operation of the parallel interests of the leadership as small land-owners in villages and as salaried employees or colleagues in urban areas. While they fight for their own democratic rights and economic uplift in towns and cities, they hesitate to raise their voice to secure higher wages for agricultural labour in rural areas in view of their own involvement there as employers. Quite apart from this there are several voluntary organisations that are active in organising rural labour.

(D) Leadership of Rural Trade Unions

One of the significant features of Trade Union Movement in rural areas is outside leadership. At present the Union of agricultural labour depend on their leadership on social workers, philanthropists, political parties, voluntary organisations and Government Agencies.

(E) Plan Schemes for Organising Rural Workers

Various studies and rural labour enquiries conducted from time to time have revealed that the benefits of many statutory and non-statutory schemes have not

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reached the workers in rural areas, primarily due to lack of their own organisation. Realising the fact that the social gains of economic development can be secured by rural workers only if they are properly educated and organised, a plan scheme was formulated for appointed honorary organisers at block level to organise the rural workers. The functions of the organisers broadly are to educate the workers on their rights and duties and stress the value of organisation, to help them to organise themselves into cooperatives trade unions, or other forms of organisation, as may be considered necessary. It has been considered necessary to make the functions of the rural organisations more broad based.

(F) Trade Union of Agricultural Labour and the Law

Article 19(1) (c) of the Constitution guarantees the right ‘to form association or union’ which right, however, does not include the right to strike. There is no specific provision, like Trade Unions Act, 1926, for agricultural workers. However, the Annual Reports of the Ministry of Labour of 1978-79 and 1979-80 reveal that few agricultural trade unions have been registered. These unions appear to be those which are covered under the ‘industry’ under the Industrial Dispute Act. The data collected by the Rural Labour Enquiry 1974-75 reveals that only about one percent labourers belonging to ‘agricultural labour household’ were members of the Trade Unions. This evidently speaks of the slow growth of trade union movement in the country.

It is, therefore, suggested that the Trade Unions Act should be amended to enable agricultural labour to get them registered under the Act. The Labour Minister announced in the Parliament that the Trade Unions would be amended to enable agricultural workers to form their own labour organisation. It may, however, be relevant to note that the Assam Government has enacted the Assam ShramikVahini Act, 1959 to facilitate formulation of voluntary association of workers and registration for better and regular supply of labour for execution of labour work. Any twenty-five or more workers in an area may constitute a ShramikVahini. Similar legislation should be enacted in other States.

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