Migrant Labour and Structure of Employment in Agriculture: A Case of Haryana State.

Transcription

1 Chapter-I Migrant Labour and Structure of Employment in Agriculture: A Case of Haryana State. Introduction: Size of population in a region at a time is a net result of births over deaths and immigration over emigration. But nature of migration as a factor effecting population size is different from that of mortality and fertility. Mortality and fertility both are biological factors, whereas migration is a product of the social, cultural, economic, political and physical circumstances in which individuals and societies finds themselves (Shrivastva, O.S., 1994). Migration during normal times is mainly influenced by the differentials in socio-economic considerations. Migration of people is generally caused by the economic factor, although other factors like social, political, cultural, environmental, health, education, spatial, personal etc only initiate the migration of people from one region to another. The migration to a large extent has occurred in India from an underdeveloped area marked by feudal or semi-feudal relations of production to developed areas having capitalists enterprise plantations, mines, factories or commercial agriculture often

2 2 plagued with their pre-capitalist forms of exploitation. Similar pattern is revealed also on rural to rural migration. Owing to poverty in general and seasonal calamities like famine and floods and rural workman also come to developed rural and urban areas in search of employment which give them ready cash and sustenance (Bajaj, S.C., 1997). Migration assumes special significance in the context of developing societies like India, because such societies are in the process of reconstructing their social and economic structure and where every aspect of life is undergoing some change. The Indian economy underwent distinctive changes in its various economic and political regimes. If development means development of direct producers, then during the colonial period, there was economic change in agriculture but no development for peasantry and labour class. However, this change benefited a small section which lived on the labour of others. It resulted in a widening differentiation among the peasants. Indian society until the down of 19th century resulted in a differentiated population due to various social, economic and political causes. So, there was not any significant development in Agriculture (Dhamalingam, 1991). The history of Agricultural development is not much old. India's derive for agricultural development started after the attainment of

3 3 independence. After attaining independence, India embarked up on its objective of attaining industrial growth and self-sufficiency in agriculture. Agricultural growth rate accelerated from about 0.37 percent per annum during pre-independence period to about 2.7 percent in the post independence period (Ahlawat, S.R, 1979). As the decades passed by, some states took leap forward in the industrial infrastructure as well as in agriculture. States like Punjab and Haryana attained substantial progress in the agriculture sector and brought India at the level of -self-sufficiency. This is due to the introduction of new technology in rice and wheat which was termed as the "Green Revolution". With the growth of Industries and Agriculture, economy of these states, the employment potential and wage level was relatively higher than adjoining states. This coupled with other social and economic inequities, led to migration of workers from states of Bihar, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Eastern Uttar Pradesh to the states of Haryana and Punjab. The migration of workers is more perceptible during the peaks of harvesting and sowing seasons in agriculture (Singh, P., 1998). But no ready statistics is available in respect of Haryana state, yet it is a matter of common knowledge that the workers migrate for agriculture and allied

4 4 operations such as building construction activities, brick kiln industries, dairy farming and quarrying operations. It is also a common matter that maximum number of workers amongst those who migrate, have settled in the state for good, because of better employment status. Haryana has experienced 8.6 percent interstate migration of the working population of which 5.1 percent were males and 4.7 percent were females. In India as a whole the rate of inter-state migration of the working population was 3 to 4 percent during the Census year of (Census, 1991, Govt. of India). The inflow of migrant labourers in Haryana was the highest in the last decade and is surpassed Punjab which experienced 5.6 percent total in flow of the migrant labour (Ahlawat, S.R., 1994). Migration to the state ofharyana is rural to rural migration. So, the state require an in-depth study to ascertain the main reasons for more people coming in Haryana from eastern U.P. (28 percent), Bihar (15.15) percent and other Indian states. In this study, it is intended to high-light the issues concerning the phenomena of migration to Haryana and an attempt has been made to understand the plight of migrant labour in agriculture, what is actual mean of migration, why a person moves from his/her native place and how he/she adjust himself/herself in new environment and other issues

5 5 regarding the pattern of employment, living conditions, wages and impact of migrant labourers on local labourer wages and employment levels of the local labour. In general migration is a process of movement of people from one geographical unit to another. According to the "International labour organization", migration is of two types, one is temporary and the other is permanent migration. Temporary migration should cover every that person who passes from one country to another and one place to other for more than a month and not more than a year and on the other hand, the statistics of permanent migration should comprise of those persons who move from one place to another for more than one year, whatever may be the reasons of their removal. "Migration is not a sojourn for pleasure or business nor it is a shift from one locality to another in the same town. It involves permanent departure for a place which is not just nearly" (Shrivastva, O.S., 1994). Multilingual Dictionary of united Nations defined migration is a form of geographical mobility or spatial mobility between one geographical unit to another, generally involving a change in residence from the place of origin or place of departure to the place of destination or place of arrival (Chopra, R., 1995) An operational definition of migration is a change of residence from one

6 6 civil division to another or across the administrative boundaries of a civil division (Bhinde, A., 1993). Stouffer explained migration in terms of people balancing the advantages and disadvantages of remaining at original place vis-a-vis migration to a new place (Shrivastva, O.S., 1994). Todaro ascribed migration to the balance of (a) adverse economic environment at the original place of work and (b) the promising expectations of the new place. Zift and Steward argued that people will migrate even if they are not "pushed" by the lure of better economic future at some other places (Bogue, J. Donald, 1961). B.C. Mehta says that migration is an act of movement of mobility. This includes space differentials, between the place of origin and place of destination. Doneal Kubat talks about some economic function of migration. He says that there is some kind of equilibrium between the labour demand and labour supply in different regions. Todaro says that migration takes many forms. It can involve local moves of little socio-economic significance; it may encompass vast, but temporary population movements in search of seasonal jobs; it may involve the permanent shift of individuals and groups from one socioeconomic system to another, with consequences for output structure and growth, employment pattern and social change, migration may coincide

7 7 with conquest: the migrants come to dominate the nations, regions or sectors where they arrive. But migration may also involve the creation of an unorganized, unskilled, really exploitable labour force, whether it is Mediterranean migrants in western Europe or the landless poor arriving in Haryana (Todaro, M.P., 1969). Bose defines Migration from rural areas means the departure of individuals or households for more than a week or so from the small, primarily agricultural communities in which they live. The migration can be for a harvest or for life, to cities, or to villages, for marriage, for work or for study (Bose, S., 1967). Rural migration is defined here by Caldwell (1968) as the ratio at an coverage time of year of the members of rural community residing also where to the population of the community before they left, net of corresponding immigration (Kamble, 1973). Theoretical perspective There are various 'models' of internal migration. These models deal with the causes and consequences of internal migration. Virtually there have been thousands of studies about the causes, effects, modes and types of migration. All of them cannot be included in our study. Only the better known theories can be studied here. Although migration has been an enduring component of human-history, large-scale sustained

8 8 migration flows have been generally associated with the industrial revolution and Green revolution. The earliest theory. of internal migration which still enjoys a place in the literature of migration studies, is of E.G. Ravenstien (1885). He wrote two classical papers on the 'laws of migration'. The essential and important points of this model are:- 1. The rate of migration between two points will be inversely related to the distance between two points of migration. 2. Migration occurs in stages: First to nearby places and than to most rapidly growing cities and even for off places. 3. Migration occurs in four streams i.e. rural to urban, rural to rural, urban to urban and urban to rural streams of migration. After perusal above these points, Revenstein postulates that migrants move from areas of low opportunity to areas of high opportunity. The choice of destination is regulated by distance, with migrants from the rural areas often showing a tendency to move first towards nearby towns, and then towards large cities. Further, Revenstein observes that each stream of rural-urban migration produces a counter stream of urban-rural migration, although the former tends to dominate the latter. He also points out that the urban residents are less migratory

9 9 than the rural. Lastly migration accelerates with growth in the means of transport and communication and expansion of trade and industry. Rev en stein's basic laws have since been discussed, systematized and expanded by a number of researchers, but the importance of the economic motive in the decision to migrate, the negative influx of distance and the role of step-migration suggested by him are some of the important features which have not be invalidated. M1gration has been viewed as being closely linked to urban industrial growth and hence indispensable in the process of development. One of the prominent of this argument is W.A. Lewis who emphasizes the contributions of labour mobility to capital formation in the cities (Levis, W.A., 1954). This thesis, later formalized and extended by Ranis and Fie (1961) was that a significant part of the labour force could be drawn in to the modem urban industrial section from the labour surplus traditional agricultural sector with out incurring any loss to the latter. This model considers migration as an equilibrating mechanism which, through transfer of labour from the traditional labour surplus sector to the modem labour deficit sector, eventually brings about wage equality in the two sectors. This model visualizes a dual economy, comprising a subsistence agricultural sector characterized by

10 10 under employment and a modem industrial sector characterized by full employment. The marginal productivity of labour in the subsistence sector is zero or very low and the wages paid to the workers are equal to their cost of subsistence, so wage rates exceed marginal products. Contrary to this, wage rates in the modem urban sector are much higher mainly due to the high productivity oriented activities. Migration of workers from the rural areas to urban areas is caused by differences in these wage rates. This in tum, increases industrial production and profits as well as possibilities of reinvestment which in tum increase the demand for labour from the subsistence sector. This process will continue as long as surplus labour exists in rural areas (Oberai, A.S. and Bilsborrow, R.E., 1984). The model of human investment theory uses the concept of investment in human capital to focus on the costs and benefits of migration decisions. The model, as developed by Sjaastad, L. (1962), assumes that people will migrate when the benefits outweigh the cost. Benefits of migration are defined as the present value of potential income gains resulting from the difference in income between origin and destination. Non-monetary benefits such as those arising from location preference are also included in the model. Costs include moving

11 11 expenses, opportunity costs of foregone earnings between jobs and non monetary psychic costs such as the disulity of living one's home community and setting in an unfamiliar environment. The model also recognizes the effect of individual characteristics of potential migrants. Older people are less likely to move because differential income returns from migration accrue over a shorter remaining life span and psychic costs may be greater. Educated youth tend to be more mobile because their lifetime origin-destination income differences are usually larger and their greater awareness probability reduces the psychic cost of migration. Lee (1969) analysed three factors namely 'pull', 'push' and 'natural' factors, purely responsible for migration. Lee studied issues of migration with reference to factors of origin. Area of destination, intervening obstacles and personal factors. There are three sets of factors: the 'plus', the 'minus' and the 'zero' sets. The balance ofthese sets determine whether the net out come is positive or negative for a place. The repellent and attractive forces are thus determined. What is repellent for one place is attractive factor for the place of destination. What may be 'plus' for one man may be 'zero' or even 'minus' for another. So, these points depend upon individual traits, income and

12 12 occupation pattern, education, skill level, sex, race, 'ethnic, or tribal groups etc. There are certain intervening obstacles such as distance and transport costs and restrictive laws, quotas and permits. For poor persons minor problems may become major constraints. In Lee's model migrants are the persons who are ambitious or who cannot get any job to suit their skills at the place of their origin, knowledge, or cannot get incomes that they want, or who cannot tolerate socio-political, cultural or climatic conditions of the place of origin, and who are determined enough to surmount intervening obstacles. Starting from the assumption that migration Is primarily an economic phenomena, which for the individual migrant can be quite a rational decision despite the existence of urban unemployment, The Todaro Model postulates that migration proceeds in response to urban rural difference in expected income rather than actual earnings (Todaro, 1969, 1976). The fundamental premise is that migrants consider the various labour market opportunities available to them in rural and urban sectors and choose the one that maximizes their expected gains from migration. Expected gains are measured by the differences in real income between rural and urban work and the probability of a new migrant obtaining an urban job. According to the model, rural urban

13 13 migration will continue until the expected urban income is equal to the expected rural income. Todaro's basic model and its extension consider that people migrate: 1. To breakup from rural backward social structures. 2. To find jobs in urban areas, particularly when due to decline in rural death rates, density of population per unit of cultivable land mcreases. 3. To break away from extended family and 4. To live in modem setting in cities. Bogue, Blue and Ancan argues that migrants to large cities m developing countries are heterogeneous in their social-economic background. Migrants are usually of such age, education, occupation, risk-taking propensity that they are equipped to cape with the conditions of the city. In the early periods of urbanization the migrant selectivity was higher. Migration selectivity and occupation requirements are interrelated (Donold, J. Boque, 1969).

14 14 The 'neo-classical' theories as a whole (Lewis 1954, Rannis and Fie, 1961; Haris and Todaro, 1970; Todaro 1969; Sjaastad, 1962) contains several implicit propositions and assumptions. 1. The migration of people is caused by differences in wage rates between regions. 2. Aggregate migration flows between regions are sample some of individual moves undertaken on the basis of individual cost benefit calculations. 3. Migration will not occur in the absence of difference in earnings and on employment rates between regions and will occur until expected earnings have been equalized. 4. Migration decisions stem from disequilibria or discontinuities between labour markets; other markets do not directly influence the decision to migrate; and 5. The way for governments to control migration flows is to regulate or influence labour markets in the sending or receiving regtons. The gravity model of migration incorporated both productive and stochastic causative factors of migration. The "Pull" factors are treated

15 15 as "attracting", mass and while the "mass" pulls, the. distance acts as "friction" to migration. In recent years, a new 'economics of migration, has arisen to challenge many of assumptions and conclusions of neoclassical theory (Stark, 0. and Bloom, 1985). A key insight of this new approach is that migration decision are not made by isolated individual factors. But by larger units of related people-typically families or households in which people act collectively not only to maximize expected income; but also to minimize risks and to loosen constraints associated with a variety of market failures, apart from those in labour market (Stark, 0. and Leehari, 1982, Stark, 1984, Kat and Stark, 1981, Taylor, 1986, Stark, 1991). The new economies theorists also argue that income is not a homogeneous good as assumed by neoclassical economics. The source of the income really matters, and the households have significant incentives to invest scarce family resources in activities and projects that provide access to new income sources, even if the activity does not necessarily increase total income. They also argue that workers migrate not only to increase income relative to other households and hence

16 16 reduce their relative deprivation compared with some reference groups (Stark, Taylor, 1989; Stark, ). The theoretical models growing out of the new econonncs of migration yield a set of propositions and hypothesis that are quite different from these emanating neoclassical theories and they lead to a very different set of policy prescription. (1) Families, household or other culturally defined units of production are appropriate units of analysis for migration research, not an autonomous individual (2) wage differential IS not a necessary condition for migration to occur, households may have strong incentive to diversify risks through migration even in the absence of wage differential (3) Migration does not necessarily stop when wage differential have been eliminated across regions (4) The same expected gain income will not have the same effect on the probability of migration for house holds located at different points on the income distribution or among those located in communities with different income distributions (5) Government can influence migration rates not only through policies that influence labour markets, but also through those that safe insurance markets and capital markets; and (6) Government policies and economic changes that shake

17 17 the income distribution will change the relative deprivation of some households and thus alter their incentives to migrate. REVIEW OF LITERATURE Here an attempt has been made to examine the results of various studies pertaining to migration. There is a lot of availability of literature on migration, pattern of migration and wages, employment and living conditions of migratory population. For the understanding of the flight.of migrant labour in agriculture, we have confirmed our focus on the migrant labour studies. Freeman ( 1947), Ist time studied the France and British experience in the field of migration. He finds out that migrant workers are beneficial to the receiving society only as long as they are unorganized and insecure, as soon as they get organized they work really as a threat to the host society. Because of these migrants, security of job opportunities and resources takes place, which is really a severe cause of tension between the natives and outsiders. Gugler (1968) has used the method of case study in the field of rural urban migration in sub-saharan Africa. The Author has focused on two main issues: 1. Relationship between economic and non-economic factors. 2. The distinction between collective and personal forces.

18 18 He finds that predominance cause was economic cash needs and the peasants decision to seek employment for wages because forced labour compelled that labour to migrate and the receiving areas also get cheaper labour supply in reply of their labour demands. Lewadowski (1970) worked on a particular community i.e. Malyalam speaking people of Kerala. The results of his study were that migrants leave their native land in search of employment. The size of labour force and level.of employment in rural areas of various states in India very across seasons in a year due to seasonality of agricultural operations and activities. The seasonality of employment period is interspersed with spells of unemployment and underemployment. Given the wage employment.. being restricted to '., comparatively smaller areas, preponderance of unpaid f~mily labour and self employment states over relatively large areas in different states in India and period of idleness or open unemployment during the slack season transparent in the case of only wage paid and contractual employment status, there is little likelihood of much chronic unemployment throughout the year. The true estimate of magnitude of unemployment in rural areas is prove to underestimation and also prove to be neglected. It is therefore meaningful and realistic to estimate the

19 19 number of main days of employment and unemployment during the reference period than to estimate the backlog of unemployment and classify the labour force into employed and unemployed categories, And, precisely this is what is done by the rural four enquiries entered at estimating the structure of economic and anatomy of unemployment (Planning commission, 1970: Dantawala, 1978). Migration fields of Assam, Maharashtra, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh were selected by Weiner (1973) for his study. He finds that migrant leave their native places because of lack of employment, low wages, shortage of land, threat to his safety and in search of political freedom, personal safety and new economic opportunities. He also observed that much of the migration consists of agricultural labourers and plantation workers. With regarding to the impact of changing urban and rural wage levels on migration rates, the studies by Huntington (1974), Knowles and Anker (1975), House and Rempel (1976) for Kenya, by Greenwood ( 1971) for India as well as those by Barnum and So bot (1975) for Tanzania, Levy and Wadycki (1972) and Schultz (1971) for Venezuela and Colombia respectively provide some initial evidence of the possible values of these differential elasticities (wages). First, with regard to the relative importance of urban job probabilities compared

20 20 with urban wage rates, the Tanzania study estimates that a given percentage increase in urban wages will induce twice as much ruralurban migration as the same percentage increase in employment. Levy and Wdycki (1972) study of Venezuela predicts roughly the same effect for interstate migration. Schultz, however, finds employment rate elasticities of migration more significant than wage elasticities for migration with some secondary and higher education. Greenwoods ( 1971) results for India show that origin wages are twice as important as destination wages. The reverse of the Bornum and Sobat study for Tanzania and the Schultz uses for Venezuela (Todaro, 1976). The essence of Mrs Singh's (1976) study reveals that the upper caste tended to migrate to nearly urban areas where lower caste were more likely to move to the far off places. Saxena (1977) says that emigration involves three conditions of place, purpose and duration of stay. The place of destination should be an industrial and urban centre. The purpose of migration is the earning of a livelihood and the duration of stay is the living period at the place of destination. His study conducted in Gorakhpur district of Eastern Uttar Pradesh. The agricultural labourers supplement their wage earnings by undertaking non-agricultural labour occupation as well. This is pervasive in India.

21 21 The rural labour enquiry collected data on wage earning of labour in agricultural operations and non-agricultural operations separately. It gave data periodically. The data do not relate to the prevailing wage rate of labour. Rather, the average daily wage earning was based on the days of employment and total wage income. Given the incompatibility associated with the National sample survey data on wage due to alternative uses of retail prices and wholesale prices in early and later rounds respectively to convert kind into cash equivalent (Jose, 1978) the periodic data of enquiries were superior in this regard, nonetheless, the seasonal pattern of wage rate variations (Sethuraman, 1998) and the trends of yearly changes (Nayyar, 1976; Jose, 1978) could not be studied. According to the census (1981) migration tables, the highest percentage of immigrants into rural Punjab was from rural Uttar Pradesh followed by rural Bihar and rural Haryana. The highest percentage of immigrants into rural Punjab reporting employment as the principal reason for move also came from rural Uttar Pradesh followed by rural Bihar. The rural Bihari migrants comprised 19.0 percent approximately of the total immigrants into rural Punjab were from rural origin of other states in India. The rural Bihari immigrants into rural Punjab form rural

22 22 origin of other states in India reporting employment as the reason for move constituted 26.0 percent approximately of the total immigrants. And, altogether 88 percent approximately of total rural Bihari out migrants in rural Punjab reported employment to be the principal reason for move and consequently the rest 12 percent moved to rural Punjab due to other than employment reasons (Mohammed Ansari, 1981). The results of Thomas and Znaniecki (1981) are that there is. some Social factors such as family tension and on the other hand are some personal factors such as scarcity of job opportunity compel the individual to migrate. Punjabi Agricultural labourers were unable to satisfy the growing demand and it was to machines and migrants that Punjabi landholders turned to complete agricultural operations within the tighter time frame imposed by the increasingly intensive crop year. In agricultural operations such as wheat showing and threshing, in separating maize from the cob, agricultural machinery budged the gap between the demand and supply of labour. However, for the agricultural work surrounding rice cultivation, efficient machinery was not readily available. In the course of fieldwork, it was found that in the early stages, local Punjabi labourers were unaccustomed to rice cultivation, especially rice transplanting. By contrast, migrant labourers from the

23 23 eastern regions had cultivated rice for most oftheir lives. It was to them that the work of rice cultivation was entrusted in the initial period. Over the decade, Punjabi labourers became more accustomed to rice cultivation but simultaneously the acreage under rice increased dramatically and migrant labourers continued to remain a crucial part of the village labour force, arriving in great numbers at the peak harvesting seasons of wheat and rice (Grewal, S.S. 1984). Analysis of rural to rural migration in the north Indian state of Punjab, Gupta, A. K. (1988) have argued that prosperity in any region act as a magnet, attracting workers from poorer hinterlands and regions. In the wake of the green revolution in Punjab, labourers have migrated primarily from the eastern states of Bihar and from the eastern districts of Uttar Pradesh and subsequently, as the streams of migration swelled, from the western and south western states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh and even across the boarders from Nepal. Though migration into Punjab was always present to a modest degree, the real influx of migrant laborers began from the early seventies coinciding with the period of increasing agricultural productivity in the post green revolution period. In the eighties, despite the increasing mechanization of agricultural operations, the introduction of new crops coupled with

24 24 the intensity of the cropping pattern contributed jointly to a burgeoning demand for agricultural labour. Most theories of migration try and spell out the mechanisms by which social, economic and political factors directly or indirectly effect the demand for labour and influence migration. These theories have generally concerned themselves with the problems posed in neoclassical economics which look at variables such as the nature, character and extant of migration and the utility significance of costs and returns to decision maker in terms of long term or 'life time' income. Another significant aspect is the view that migration is not so much a question of free rational choice, but of survival, given the essentially unfree nature of the labour market. However, in these theories, it is the 'stream' of migration that becomes the focus of analysis (Goldscheider, Sinha & Attawullah, 1987, Sindhu & Grewal, 1984, Gupta, 1988, Rao, 1980). Another paradigm emphasizes history and social structure and within that, the negotiations between distinct cultures. Here, 'culture as a way of life' is a crucial construction and the argument is that by its very nature, migration challenges the idea of a unitary or single way for analyzing the play of power relations in the social field.

25 25 With the above as back drop, an attempt would be made to study the migrant labour in agriculture and the structure of employment with particular reference to Haryana State. The proposed study tends to probe how the migration of labour in agriculture changes the pattern of employment which are directly linked to the agrarian relations. The pattern of change experienced in Haryana's agriculture and the structure of employment experienced change due to the migrant labour would be the main basis for the present study. Research Methodology The present study would seek for examine in the context of Haryana agriculture in detail regarding the migrant labour and the structure of employment. We have considered the following objectives for our study: 1. To study the relationship between agricultural development and migration of labour and pattern of employment. 2. To study the socio-economic background of the migrant agricultural labourers. 3. To study the impact of migrant labour on local agricultural labour.

26 26 4. To examme the nature of change in the structure of relations between employer and employee due to migrant labour in agriculture. 5. To study the employment pattern, wage rates, working conditions and living conditions of the migrant agricultural labourers. 6. To study the responsible factors for migration of agricultural labourers from other states in Haryana. Design of Research Keeping in view the discovery of new ideas and insights m agriculture particularly after the green revolution and the inflow of migrant labour, the exploratory type of research design has been employed. The exploratory research design would help us to analyze the basic issues raised earlier; like structure of employment and change, socio-economic aspect of migrant labour, nature of participation in agricultural activities, working conditions of the migrant labour, relationship with the employer and the local labour hostility towards them, wages and earnings, incidence of indebtedness for carrying out research in real setting.

27 27 Sampling For the present study multistage sampling was employed. At first step, we considered the significance of crop productivity in rupees at constant prices and irrigation, differentiating the type of crop and the intensive labour required for major crops. Three different regions in production of the principal crops m Haryana have been considered because of two factors : (a) agricultural development of different regions is not equal due to variations in the conditions of different levels of development, and (b) different types of crop require different type of labour. For this all the nineteen districts of Haryana were ranked on the basis of crop productivity, cropping pattern and irrigated area. Three regions were demarcated. First agriculturally advanced region, second semi-advanced and third agriculturally backward region. o Agriculturally advanced region comprises of Fatehabad, Hisar, Jind, Kaithal, Kamal, Kurukshetra, Sirsa and Yamunanagar districts. o Agriculturally semi-advanced regwn - Ambala, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Panchkula, Panipat, Rohtak and Sonepat districts.

28 28 o Agricultural backward region - Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Mohindergarh and Rewari districts. Region 'A', the most prosperous region with productivity more than Rs per hectare and gross area irrigated to total cropped area is around 92 percent on an average and wheat and rice are the major crops of this region. Region 'B' -The second most prosperous region with its productivity between Rs per hectare and its gross irrigated area is around 75 percent. Rice and wheat contributes fairly well in the state's grain pool. Sugarcane is the 3rd major crop of this region. Region 'C' bordering Rajasthan and Delhi, the agriculturally backward region having only less than 1500 rupees crop productivity per hectare. Wheat, Bajra and Gram are the major crops of this region. The gross irrigated area is around 51 percent of the total cropped area. This region contributes less than six percent in the total state production of the food grains (Haryana, Statistical Abstract, ). From among these three regions demarcated on the basis of agricultural development, one district was selected by the lottery method. At this stage Kamal, Rohtak and Bhiwani districts were selected. Kamal district is tenned as agriculturally developed district,

29 29 KontaK msrrict Is termea as aeve10pmg ana nmwam msmct Is oackward districts. These three districts selected, besides being at different levels of agricultural development also different type of agro-ecological zones. While selecting villages from these three districts all the villages were ranked on the basis of their population and average landholdings. Villages having high average landholdings and small population, two villages from each selected district were selected. The villages selected from Kamal district were Neval and Dalanpur and from Rohtak district Kansala and Hamayupur and from Bhiwani district were Bond and Ghuskani. The selection of migrant agricultural labourers was done on the basis of their availability in the selected villages. All the available migrant agricultural labourers were included in our sample from all the six villages of the three districts. Techniques of Data Collection Data for the present study were collected using the following techniques. (a) (b) Census Survey Interview Schedule

30 30 The study is based on both primary data obtained through field survey and secondary data from a variety of authentic government sources. Some. of these data are available in published form and ( remaining were personally noted from the files of relevant Government or Non-Government offices. All the possible efforts were made to get data for synchronous years. Sources for Historical Data I. Census Report of Agriculture. II. District Agricultural Report," III. Patwari Land Records. IV. Census: Migration Tables for Haryana and India. V. Labour Inquiries for different years. VI. District Census Handbook. Interview Schedule Interview schedule was used to collect data. The interview schedule had six parts. Part first was structured and it was mainly for collection of general information about migrant agricultural labourers like age, sex, caste, religion, place of origin, educational qualification, type of family and family composition etc. The remaining parts were both structured and unstructured. With the help of these, information

31 regarding reasons for migration, type of migration, work activity before and after migration, work availability, wage rate, total earnings, land ownership, housing conditions, structure of employment, debt burden etc. was gathered of migrant agricultural labourers. Study Area Haryana, a part of Indo-Gangetic plain and a state of the Northern region of the Indian union, was constituted on November Ist, 1966 as a result of the reorganization of composite Punjab on linguistic basis, Punjabi speaking Punjab and Hindi speaking Haryana. It lies between 27 39' to 30 55' 5" North latitudes and 74 27' 8" to 77 36' 5" East longitudes (Alhawat, S.R and Singh, J. 1976). It is bounded on North-West by Punjab, on the North -East by Himachal Pradesh, on the east by Uttar Pradesh and the Union Territory of Delhi and on the South by Rajasthan (Fig. 1.1 ). Haryana is a small Indian state with an area of only 44,000 sq. kms. and population millions, 78 percent of which is rural. Haryana's rural population accounts for roughly two percent of India's total rural population. Out of total population percent are males and percent are females. Decadal growth rate is percent and annual growth rate is percent according to Census of Population density of

32 Hary.ana Ad m llllstrative. D" ] lvisiods 'l I r. ' Yart lun trr ~. ' agar

33 32 Haryana is 477 persons per sq/km. and sex ratio is 861/1000 males, literacy rate is percent in total and for males and percent for females. It consists of 4 divisions, 19 districts, 55 tehsils, 94 towns and 8 cities, 108 blocks and 6959 inhabited villages (Census, 1991, 2001). Excepting some hills of the Siwalik system in the North and of the Aravali system in the South, Haryana State is a plain area. The northern part generally slope imperceptibly from the north-east to southwest. Both the southern sections are undulating due to number of small hills of the Aravali system and send dunes. Physiographically Haryana can be divided into three physiographic regions namely the hilly area and the piedmont region, the flood plain and the sandy undulating plain. Geologically speaking the state is of very recent age. Its surface has been built up by the silting action of its wayward streams. The Siwalik bordering it in the north is composed of sand, silt, clay and conglomerates of ranging in age from the middle Eocene to lower Pleistocene. The plain of Haryana is formed by the deposition of alluvial sediments brought by the Himalayan rivers. The southern Haryana have the Aravali offshoots and have sand dunes of varying heights and size.

34 33 Most of the soils in the state are medium texture. The soils of the state are classified into following broad groups of soils. (a) Radish chestnut soil (b) Tropical arid brown soils (c) Arid brown soils (d) Sierazem soils (e) Desert soils and (1) (3) New alluvium soils (2) Old alluvium soils Sandy soils (4) Mountain soils (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) Naraingarh tehsil of Ambala district Found in Ambala and Kamal districts Gurgaon, Kamal, Rohtak districts Rohtak, Bhiwani, Hisar, Sirsa districts Gurgaon, Jind districts and Meham tehsil Bhiwani, Hisar and Sirsa districts and Meham tehsil The climate of Haryana is semi-arid in the south-west and of Gangetic type in the rest of the state. The normal temperature during the month of May-June increases upto 46 C in south-western part of Haryana. During summer season the whole of the state is under the grip of hot waves called "Loo" in local dialect. Haryana is characterized by wide regional contrasts in rainfall and terrain, stretching from the high rainfall (110 ems.) eroded hill and 'CHO' region in Ambala district and

35 34 25 ems in the south-west semi desert strip of Hisar district (Fig. 1-2). The underground water in Haryana is beneficial only in parts. In almost two-third part of the state, lowering the central and western parts, the subsoil water is brackish to saline (Bhargawa, 1988). This prohibits tube-well irrigation in most of the parts of Haryana. Deep and Scarce underground sweet water on the one hand and water logging on the other hand is a major problem over large parts of the state. Thus, Haryana is a state of marked regional contrasts in land productivity, farm size and farm labour incomes and rural standards of living generally. About 80 percent of the states population is dependent on agriculture and contribute significant part of the state's income and more than 80 percent of its geographical area is under cultivated crops. Thus Haryana is predominately agricultural and is one of the most progressive states in respect of agricultural development. Migration from Haryana to another parts of India is small, except for services in the forces. Likewise, any sizeable migration to Haryana had a wait till the formation of separate state in Hence, for a longtime, the state did not experience benefits occurring from its exposure to external influence associated with migration. Now, due to agricultural development and

36 Haryana Physical Setting b Landform regions Annual rainfall (" '?-- ~'.\.....if -,_._J....-"". '*('... / f \..' { ~\ 1.. Terrain types \. ~ ~ 1 :.. mme lffiffil Siwalik hills...,...._,. Piedmont plain.._,_,, t:===f Ghaggor-Yamuna :(:~~.:.;.-:;L..,.- l=:::j c:iuvlol plain <.rr -:,..~ ~]]] Upland plain t~~~ ' f::.j undu:cting sandy ploi;:;- '-? l :s _;... : ? 0 Sond-<Junos Infested ~ Arovalll outliers plain f;lj.< 11 c Ground water quality Soils

37 35 better infrastructure Haryana enjoys the migration.of labourers m agriculture in recent times from other states in abundance. During 2001 s~. total migration towards Haryana was persons. Rural migration was 83.5 percent of total migration in Haryana and the remaining percent flow of people was towards urban Haryana [The destination of 3.57 percent migrants was rural Haryana and other percent was urban Haryana] (Census, 2001 ). Chapter Scheme Apart from the introducing chapter, the study is being divided into four chapters. Chapter 2nd will deal with the Haryana's Agricultural Economy. Third chapter would devoted for the socio-economic profile of the migrant agricultural labourers. Chapter four would discuss the pattern of employment structure, working conditions, wage structure etc. Chapter 5, would be devoted to discussion and conclusion.