How Covid-19 emptied the bowls of farm workers

* The economic crisis following the pandemic has pushed thousands of agriculture labourers reeling under debt

* Big farmers prefer to make a one-time investment in machinery rather than spend on human labour

Lata More is not all that worried about the virus that has been wreaking havoc across the world. She is more concerned about something that’s knocking at her door: Starvation.

A daily wage of ₹100-150 had always meant a hand-to-mouth existence. But she has not managed to earn even that meagre amount, which assured her of at least one meal a day. Covid-19 and the subsequent lockdown have deprived her of work.

“My husband died a few years ago and I don’t have children. The daily wage is the only way to survive,” More says, seated in her shanty in Mhaisal village in Sangli district of Maharashtra. She knows the days ahead will be tougher.

More went in search of farm work along with nine other women in her village, but there was nothing for them to do. “In the last month, I have hardly got any work on farms as farmers say they are struggling and don’t have money to pay. Even after the lockdown is withdrawn, I don’t know if farmers will call us for work. Even if they do, they are not going to pay even ₹70-80 per day,” More says.

The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) 2017 data show that the average daily wage for general agricultural labourers is ₹264.05 for men, and ₹205.32 for women. Women in the sector on an average earn 22.24 per cent less than their male counterparts.

But the figures on paper are further removed from ground reality. “Women farm labourers don’t get more than ₹150 a day, while men get ₹200-300. And the situation is going to worsen. It would be difficult for women to protect their work as men will be ready to work for a lower amount now,” More reasons.

Kaka Thote, a farmer from Aurangabad, agrees that landless labourers are the most neglected in the agrarian sector. “But we ourselves are struggling and reeling under debts. If a farmer has no money, how will he pay the labourers?” he asks.

The economic crisis that has followed the pandemic has pushed More and thousands like her into an existential battle. There are 263.1 million agricultural workers in the country, as per Census 2011, comprising 118.8 million cultivators and 144.3 million agricultural labourers.

A cultivator is engaged in the cultivation of land owned or held by the government or held by private persons or institutions, while an agricultural labourer is one who works on another person’s land for wages in money or in kind or in the form of a share in crop output. A labourer has no right of lease or contract on the land on which they work. This makes them vulnerable to any crisis.

While the Centre and states have tried to address the agrarian crisis by helping farmers with loan waivers, farm labourers are mostly left out of economic packages. They hardly get formal credit and have to bank on moneylenders. The number of farm labourer suicide is significant. Data from the National Crime Records Bureau show that 25,610 of the 57,336 suicides in the agrarian sector between 2014 and 2018 were of farm labourers.

The National Commission on Farmers, under the chairmanship of MS Swaminathan, had recommended that agricultural labourers be treated as landless farmers and also suggested several major non-farm initiatives along with employment guarantee programmes for them. But the recommendations have remained on paper as few political parties are interested in addressing the issue of the farm labourers, who are not a united vote bank.

“The Covid-19 crisis would push farmers into distress,” says PP Pawar, a farmer from Sangli. “Big farmers,” he adds, “would not spend on labourers, but would prefer to make a one-time investment in machinery to take care of farming. This crisis is going to change the farming sector.”

The Economic Survey 2017-18 shows that Indian farmers are adopting farm mechanisation at a faster rate than they did a few years ago. The World Bank estimates that the percentage of agricultural workers in the total workforce will drop from 58.2 per cent in 2001 to 25.7 per cent by 2050. Human power availability in agriculture increased from about 0.043KW/ ha in 1960-61 to about 0.077 KW/ ha in 2014-15. However, as compared to tractor growth, the increase in human power in agriculture is quite slow, the World Bank reports.

The use of mechanical means is multiplying while the number of people working in agriculture is on a decline. In 1960-61, about 93 per cent farm power came from animate sources, which fell to about 10 per cent in 2014-15. On the other hand, mechanical and electrical sources of power increased from 7 per cent to about 90 per cent during the same period.

“Earlier, farmers were dependent on us for the entire farming cycle — from cultivation to harvesting. But now, many farmers use machines to carry out operations,” says Salim Karle, a farm labourer in Mhaisal village.

The economic crisis is certain to hit labourers, but most affected among them will be women, warns Sunanda Kharate, who works for the welfare of widows and abandoned women in Osmanabad. Thousands of women in the region, she points out, work as farm labourers to feed their families. “The economic crisis will not only impact their livelihood but also affect them in various other ways,” she says, adding that women will be more vulnerable to exploitation.

Maruti Khude, a teacher, fears that the crisis might affect the education of children — especially girls — as poor parents will take their daughters out of schools and colleges to save expenses.

For those such as More, the concerns are clear. “The first priority is to be alive. Other things will follow,” More says.

Radheshyam Jadhav

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