Agricultural wage workers (AWW) earn their livelihood by working for wages in the agriculture sector. In India, AWWs are the second largest group of all workers, after owner-cultivators or farmers. Of the workforce of 402 million, AWWs are at least 110 million.

Wage work in the agriculture sector has always been considered a low-status occupation in India, as agriculture labour is provided mainly by socially and economically marginalised sections of society. According to official estimates, around 80 per cent of the total AWWs were SC/ST/OBC and 50 per cent of the total scheduled caste workers in India are working as AWW. The share of women AWW is also around 47 per cent.

Starvation wages for AWW

AWWs are victims of extreme economic injustice and social exploitation. As a result, a large proportion of the AWW and their dependent family members are extremely poor, illiterate and lack access to the most basic social services. According to the report of the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS), Government of India, the average daily wages of the AWW were not only one of the lowest in India, but 91 per cent of the AWW received wage rates below the national minimum wage of Rs 66 in 2004-05.

Minimum wages have risen since then, and the stipulation of a wage of Rs 100 for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGNREGA) might have helped in some pockets. But the fact is that the implementation of MGNREGA leaves much to be desired, as is borne out even by the official data.

Therefore, it is unlikely that the wages of AWWs has changed substantially since 2005; their wages would not be on a par with the minimum wage. And, even if they were to be so, this wage would be lower in real terms than in 2005.

The current debate on the farm crisis wrongly puts the blame on AWWs, whereas the problems can be traced to a host of other policies. To make matters worse, the role being played by MGNREGA in raising wages has been overestimated.

The Supreme Court of India in PUDR v Union of India, 1982, held that employment at wages below the minimum wage is forced labour and attracts punishment under Article 23 of the Constitution of India. The National Commission on Rural Labour (NCRL) has this to say on the plight of the AWW: “…The annual earnings of the majority of the agricultural labourers in India is so low that they cannot meet even their minimum consumption needs… It is evident that the worst sufferers in this context are Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes agricultural labour households…”

The primary reason for the extreme poverty of the AWW and their dependent family members is that they are not getting adequate wages for the work This can be seen from the fact that the average daily wage of the AWW in India in 2005 was Rs 42.60 per day and the average number of days an AWW was getting work in 2004-05 was 209 days, according to the NCEUS.

Now, if the AWW has to support three other dependent family members with his/her wages (AWW + three dependent family members) and to keep them just on the poverty line, an AWW would need Rs 17,102.40 (356.30 x 4 x 12 =Rs 17,102.40) per annum To earn this amount (of Rs 17,102.40 per annum) to keep four-member family just on the poverty line (of Rs 12 per person per day in rural areas) in 2004-05, an AWW was required to work for more than 400 days in a year at the prevailing average daily wage for AWW in 2004-05.

Again, the high growth of the economy since then is unlikely to have dramatically altered this reality.

In contrast our national lawmakers (Members of Parliament) on an average work for around 100 days in a year, while teachers, government officials and other functionaries of the state work for around 200 days in a year. They are part of India's richest 5 per cent households.

At variance with Constitution

Article 43 of the Constitution has directed the state to “endeavour to secure… to all workers, agricultural, industrial or otherwise, work, a living wage, conditions of work ensuring a decent standard of life.”

The Constitution has directed the State to “promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people, and, in particular, of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, and shall protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation.” (Art 46)

But the State in India has failed to follow and fulfil these Constitutional directives, as can be seen from the plight of the agricultural wage workers in India who even today are marginalised, socially, economically and politically. They only pay lip-service to these problems from time to time.

(The author is an independent researcher.)

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