Inequalities in Farm Sector Labour Force in India

Keywords: Wage inequality, Gender stereotyping, Agriculture labor, Female labor force participation, Activity status

Abstract

The back bone of the rural economy in India is the farm sector or agricultural sector. It also contributes an overall economic and social development towards the nation. Farm activities include agriculture (crop production), plantation, animal husbandry (milk, meat, egg, etc.), forestry & logging, and fishing. In India, the lion share of the labor force is engaged in the farm sector(Pal and Dutta.
Though the female labor force participation is typically low in our country, their share in agriculture is commendable and not decreasing as it has been noticed in all other sectors in the recent past. But whether this participation in true sense is in gain full economic activities is to be looked into. Wage discrimination, stereotyping of works, working hours are some inequalities that females are facing at the workplace. In this analysis, an attempt has been made to see the inequality in malefemale participation in farm sectors. Their wage differentials in rural-urban sectors, in different states, have been computed following NIC(National Industry Classification) and NCO(National Classification of occupation) using unit-level data of NSS(National Sample Survey,68th round 2011-12 and Periodiclabour force survey, 2017-18). From preliminary observations, it is noted that there is an increase of rural females as market-oriented crops producers or animal producers and related workers from 2011-12 to 2017-18. The NIC gives the industry-specific picture, where they mainly engaged in mixed farming, plant propagation, post-harvest activities along with perennial and non-perennial crop production. Reduction in a rural male in all these industries is noted as an opposite criterion. In both the rural and urban sectors, gender inequalities persist in wages in almost all NIC activities. Some exceptions like raising of cattle, supporting activities for crop production, fresh water aquaculture, growing of bush fruits and nuts where average earnings of females are a little bit higher than male workers working as either casual labor or regular waged salaried person.

Published
2020-07-02
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