PDF ,.-1 I · · I

... _.?! ....

44be:r

~

^Rural women workers arc doubly deprived, first because they a:re lai~di, s:,

and second b. ., · · I

, ecause ^t 1ey are women. They are paid less than their ^{rn.;1 e}

counterJJarts and . I · . • ·

a1e c enied leave and medical support during maternity.

~

^{Among the}_. ^{1111 · ·} a ¹¹ a ^b ourers, some other vu I ncrable groups are old age people

and widows. ·

~-5•2

Self Employed Workers

Self-employed workers refers to persons who o 1crnte their own farm r

non-form enter Jr . .

ises or arc cngngel llll epcndcntly 111 ^a profession or trade on own account or with one or a lcw 1.:1rtncrs. c cssentra feature of the sc f- employed workers is that the rcmuncrntion 1s l elcrmincd wholly or mainly by sales or ^{JJrofil 1'} ti ^{I · · ·}

..) 1 so 1c gooc s ar secvi~ 1ich arc bcwi,: ^produced.

The categories of ^{the se}lf-employed includes:

J - - {-lome based workers who produce goods like bidis, garmenti;, textile, footwear, handicrafts etc., either on their own or on a piece rate basis for a contractor or a middleman.

~ mall petty traders, vendors and hawkers who sell hN1sehol<l goods, vegetables, fruits, eggs, fish and other food articles in the market place or in the households.

2.).--M-amial labour engaged in agriculture, construction, transportation and those involved in providing services like cleaning, laundering, catering, domestic help and so on.

Since about four-fifth proportion of the rural workforce is enna eel in agriculture and majority of them work as sel -employed workers in fr,._. ~ ., "· ·_•:· · _;_: ·:; ... :·..:

mar:rmal farmers and family labour, we would like to discuss the problems being faced by the self-em lo ed workers in the fo ow111g su

4.~ ack of Ownership of

Land /T

,ancllessness

As has already been discussed in the case of wage labour, for the self-employed too, the main problem stems from the fact of their landlessness.

r

^{n the absence}

ofland ownership, lhey lose all social and cccliomic viability. Sm:ill and margir:al formers who form the bulk of self-employed workers have greJt <lifficulty in generating sufficient income from their small plot of land.

4~ roblem:; of Marketing

Be it marginal farmers or people operating their small non-farm enterprises.

marketing proves to be a big hurdle. For the farmer, agrictJlture being seasonal, the crop is harvested during a short period and consumed gradually. The agricu!(ural commodities require large storage space, which the far~er lacks.

Of these, some are perishable and thus have to be disposed off immediately.

The problem· of both agricultural and non-agricultural marketing is further aggravated by factors such as presence of middlemen, the distance between the market and the place of produce, small individual amounts of marketable surplus (that which is left-over after self consumption) etc. Moreover, due to ignorance and low bargairiing"powe·r,·they accept very low·prites from the middlemen ...

Ev~n if they become aware of the middlemen's malpractice, they cannot avoid them because of their own inabilities Lo unJerstand Lhe response directly to market demand.

er:mnsatFfiiiS; • a;;,.nw

^1t

a •;crn- .anw as a

^{i ITT}

A +

" I

" ,.-1

'-'~

e c ,>I

~ -r"'

, ---

c.;p

~

~

{.i

w

~ ,_ ,,

~

~

~

~

~

; f'

e

~

I ~ 1 1

I

l•

I

1

I ^!

•

!-- ~

4

~

.:j

1

•

, 'tt . : , ,~ .... , ~

• ·

Cl

~ \

4.3: Fishermen with their Fresh Catch

To summarise

, the main problems of agricultural marketing are: u.--,---1nadequate storage facility

iJ.y-"Poverty and illiteracy iii)..---1.,arge number of middlemen i'4-fnadequate transport facilities

~ tisence of.g,qrling and standardisation v~

ck of market information

v~

ck of infra-structure

.

4.5.~ ems of Rural Credit

The problem

of rural indebtedness in India

arises from the activities of moneylenders wh

o earn mainly by capitalismg on the poor economic condition of the peasants and self employed workers.

Peasants, particularly small and marginal farmers

, take new loans either for paying interest on olq

loans or for securing ready cash for ma

_

rriage and religious ceremonies. Since the funds are

·

not generally borrowed for productive purposes, there is every chance that the original amount will never be paid in full. Low income and poverty prevents an adequate application of capital

·

in the cultivation of land. All these lead to agricultural inefficiency: Debts als0 prevent the profitable marketing of agricultural produce, cause a loss of property and transfer of land

. from the

cultivator to the non-cultivator

. This, coupled with the helpless position of the

borrower, make the interest rates exorbitant. Money-lenders get innumerable pecuniary benefits from having acquired a thorough grip-over the poor man's

life:

control oy~r the marketing of his produce at a nominal price and coiitro"l

0

. ver the asset itself.

(0

Key Problems of Unorgnnfsctl Workers

15

Prot« llon of l Otll"l!lnlStd

\\Ni(:fn

16

4.~ me Ways to Overcome the Problems

It must have become clear by now that the root cause of all the problems o f_Qle rural workers is the lack of ownership of the most valuable asset, namely la.rid. It might be possible for the workers to organise themselves and collectively dema..T1d for a red1stnbution of land. However, U11s option may not be actually feasible, at least in the short run.

I

hus, one would have to look at more viable and immediate options for ameliorating the lot of the workers. Follo\ving are some broad SU!!gestions both at the level of state initiatives as well as people's initiatives.

~ is essential to replace the rural moneylender by other sources of rural credit. The Government rural and commt:rcial banks have mostly been unsympathetic to poor people without collateral_ due to the high rate of default. However, the option of org~mising people into self help groups ancrpnrcticirrg-intemaHending as well as applying to institutions for-a loan-- - as a group seems to be working wonder these days. The examples of organisations like the Self Employed Women's Association, /\hmedabad and the NABARD Bank Linkage programme prove that poor people c~

be extremely reliable and wise borrowers.

&}/considering the tremendous pressure on land. c1lternative employment channels must be explored. The Gove~nment can try and reinstate public works progran1mes or else offer training and skill development programmes so that people can start their own enterprises or else find job in other sectors of the economy. Nowadays. several non-Governmental organisations are taking up such initiatives.

~ is important to ensure that infom1ation flows to the people be it regarding Government" s minimum wages act. marketing ch::innels. prices, hrulth facilities, sanitary requirements etc.

~ or marketing of agricultur::il pn)ducc. scttmg up of local ::.~tbzi m:mdis may be a good starling point. For otl1cr kinds C"'.. •·.:.i,L,,, ;:;ay pottery or weaving, it would be better ,f tht.: market demand ( like the designs, the kinds of goods preferred) could bt' first asscss~'J. Or~anisntion - government and non go, ~rnmt:nt controlled by the pL:,'\'k t\1crn:⁰.1::h c~ could ht.:lp in acq11iri11~ and ch:mn1::lling thi" information. r\1h1thcr vital aspect is to enable the piOduct::r and tht.: fitd buyer to meet directly. For this, cooperatives or tic ups with a locnl NGO could be a guod idea.for example, in Gujarat, SEWA members from a particular rural district operate under different cooperatives combined under a federation that takes the responsibility of marketing. The federation is run and managed by the SEWA / members themselves.

~ Finally, the key to overcome the problems is organisation and infom1ation. lfthe workers could achieve this, then half the battle would be won.

Check Your Progress 1

Note: i) Space is given below each question for yciur answer.

ii) Check your answer(s) with those given at the end of the unit.

1) Define wage employed \-Vorke! 3.

···•··••··•···•···=··· .. ···~---···: ... . ... ···•··· ... ··· ············· ···········• ····· .... ^, ..

··· _...

;/ti' §it. . ,._~ ~ E 4, iililEi♦ , :.- ~ ... ac-

\

\ l

\

\

_I

I

I

I

I

2) State whether the following statements arc true or folse.

i) The prevailing health and sanitary situation in the rural areas arc

highly unsatisfactory. ( )

ii) /\ major source of deprivation in the rnral nreas is the lack of adequate

employment. ·( )

iii) The State is not responsible for providing social security to the rural

workers. ( )

1) Stale some reasons for the low level of wages received by rural workers.

·· ··· ·· ··· ··· ··· · ···· ··· ··· ·· ··· ·· ··· ··· ··· ··· ···· ·

··· · ··· ··· ··· ··· ···

···

··· · ··· ··· ··· ·· ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· ···:···

4) What do you understand by the concept of self-employed worker?

···;····-···

···

···

~ KEY PROBLEMS OF URBAN WORKERS

The stru_c_ture of urban workforce as per NSSO 1999-2000 data reveals that 42 per cent nf the total workers work as self-employed workers. Out of the rest 58 per ccnl. 40 per cent work as regular workers and rest 18 per ce;1t as casual workers. Another peculiar feature of the urban workforce which is distinct 1·ro111 rural workforce is that here 91.3 per cent workers get employment in

1 11t111-,1~ricultural occupations and the rest 8.7 per cent

111

agriculture. Hence

4.4: Workers Transporting Bricks to the Construction Site

Key rrohlcm1 or

llnorg1111l1td Wo_rkcr1

17

I

18

Protection of llnorgnnlsrd

\\'orkrrs there is a need to di scuss the problems of urban workers separately.

Urban labour market • h

0 ^IS

eterogeneous and stratified. It has different segm_9Jts.

ne segment compri . . d .

Th th smg m ustnal workers is organised and protected by laws.

e o er se ment coveri . d . . .

f k ng unor anise workers comprises different categories

0 war

ers

^{They nre e d · •}

1 b

-==- . '

^ngage 111 varying type of jobs. T ese ^me u e contract a our, construction wo ·k . ~

b

I ers, casua labour, handloom/powerloom wor rs ee i an cigar worke ·'k h 1

' d rs, 11 s a pu lers, petty pro ucers ome based workers ven ors etc. ^{Owrng t t . . .}

' . '

. . 0 \e cx1ste11ce of different categones o workers with vary mg nature of Jobs 't · cl'

H , 1 is very 1fficult to define urban workers in a precise manner. owever some fth .

k . . ' . ⁰ e important features of the urban informal labour mar et, 111ter-al1a mcfud~· 1

. .

t bl' ^}u

cas

^ua nature of employment·

small

^{size of}

es a 1s ^11ent· lru· e nm1 b f If . . ^~

1 er o se -employed mdiv1drralS' lack of access to

government favours· . • ' . .

W · l b J ar ns I ut1ons ltke trade

uons ^a our e islation t • d . .

' s e c., scattere nature of establtshments· mformal structure and family ownership.

'

The general_ problems of the urban workers may be explained by categorising the unorgarused workers broadly as wage-employed workers and self-employed workers.

4 ~ age Employed Workers

Wage-em fo ed workers are those workers ~vho earn their Ji ·ng their services or labour in return for wages oth time-rate wage or piece-rate wage). Construction workers, contract labourers, casual labourers, hand-cart pullers, head-loaders, riksha pullers, dhobis, cooks, cleaners, providers of ~ther services etc., are all different cate ories of waoe workers. 0ncertam employment, low wages, poverty, lack of housing health and sanitation faci.1t1es. on- availahi.li of an social security arc-some of the key problems -::onfronted by these workers in their Jay to day life. {

4 .6.2 S ~ 1f -Em pi oyed Workers

;\ big chunk of th~ workers in unorganised sector obtain th.;1r earnings by undeiiaking petty production activities or by selling fruits, vegct;ibles or other small commodities. For instance, home based producers like weavers, bidi 2.-,J.:ers, milk producers, garment stichers, handicraft producers, small vendors, small traders and hawkers selling household goods, vegetables, fruits, fish etc., can be put under the category of the self-employed workers. Inadequate marketing facilities, non-availability of adequate raw material and lack of accessibility t~ formal credit_ facilities are the key problems encountered by these groups of workers.

4.6.3 Category Specific Problems

The specific problems confronted_by the different categories ofunorganised workers in urban areas are briefly stated below:

Contract 1:,abour: The establishments-which employ contractors do not owe any direct responsibility regarding the payment of wages to the labourers. The employers keep their production cost low by engaging the labourers on contract basis. These labourers do not get any social security benefits. Further, a large amount of wages due to the labourers is eaten up by the contractors. Labourers

; & in&'¢ ^;aid

#.1$::iBtt' ^{I .}

1&F:

a, ;:;

t

~ •

'

tfJ

~ ~ ,

f;

~

~

c;

~

~ C.

~

"'

. ~

I ~

~

~

~

,- ~

~

~

~

~

• 1

fl'

'. 4'

1

f' f!'

(1

~

4'

<1

, ~

<'