High wage attracts migrant labourers to Punjab fields

Swarana Singh(55), a farmer who owns 20 acres of land in a village near Morinda (Punjab) is busy monitoring score of migrant labourers transplanting paddy in his field.

This year has been a good one for Swaran Singh, who has not faced any shortage of migrant labour. On the contrary, they have received more labour this year compared to last year.

In the wake of labour shortage, Swaran Singh last year was forced to plant maize in some area but this year it would be just paddy.

Rehman (20), a migrant labour working in the fields of Punjab said in the last few years, labourers have started getting better remunerations which was an encouraging sign for both farmers as well as labourers.

 

Mohinder Singh , a progressive farmer in Jagatpur village (near Jalandhar) informs that the cost of transplantation since last three years has moved up from Rs 600-800 per acre in 2008 to Rs 1400-1600 per acre this season.

If Punjab farmerswant continue attracting migrant labourers, they need to ensure better remunerations are being paid to the migrant labour as well.

Sri Krishna (45), another labourer from Bihar says, “villagers back home are willing to come to Punjab after realizing that the migrant labours are now offered better remunerations here.” This probably unravels the reason behind increase in influx of migrant labour during the transplantation season this year in Punjab.

It is estimated that Punjab has 4 lakh migrant labours, who are more or less permanently based in Punjab and additional 4 lakh come for agriculture-related practices. Even as no official figures are available, it is estimated that there has been 20-25 per centdecline in influx of migrant labour in the last few years to Punjab.

P S Rangi, adviser of Punjab State Farmer Commission says, “had there been a serious impact of temporary agriculture labour shortage in Punjab, the paddy area would not have moved up from 26 lakh hectares ( 2007-08) to 28 lakh hectares(10-11).”

Mohinder Singh adds “indeed the paddy area has moved in Punjab since last few years but the reasons are different. The labourers since last few years have been transplanting 12-13 plants in 1 square meter of land as against 32 plant, which ideally should be transplanted. This practice of transplanting less plants in the area has indeed helped Punjab counterbalance any fall in paddy area.”

There is another labour-related issue which Mohinder Singh faces. His labourers who came from Nepal earlier used to stay for 8-9 months in the village but nowadays the labour smove back once the transplantation gets over. It has become very challenging for farmers practising agriculture round-the-year with multi crops, stresses Mohinder Singh.

Most of the agriculture experts blame infrastructure projects and job guarantee schemes like MNREGA for less influx of migrant labours.

Dr Manjit Singh , Professor in Punjab University, Chandigarh maintained that even the domestic migrant labour is now moving to places that offer better remunerations. Hence farmers in Punjab have to realize if they have to attract migrant labour for agriculture, wages have to be revised constantly.Mechanization in farming is another factor that has partially led to decline in influx of labourers.

Farmers say that cost through mechanization is reduced to one-third compared to manual labour, hence machines are getting popular with farmers.

Success of MNREGA for checking influx of labourers to Punjab could just be partial reason as Dinesh (35), a migrant labour from Bihar adds, “had I been employed under job guarantee scheme, there was no reason for me to come miles away from my home.”