Paper short abstract:

We examine diversification of employment, earnings and incomes among hired manual worker households in a cross-section of Indian villages. These aspects are examined in the context of the supply of labour, labour absorption in agriculture and the prevalence of different types of wage contracts.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines diversification of employment, earnings and incomes among hired manual worker households, where household is considered as unit of analysis, in a cross-section of Indian villages. The workers from the class of hired manual worker household constitute the largest single component of India's work force. The data on which this article is based come from village surveys undertaken by the Foundation for Agrarian Studies between 2006 and 2010. The villages studied cover diverse agro-economic zones of the country and allow a comparative analysis of the condition of manual workers in different agrarian regimes on the aspects mentioned above.

Employment and earnings, here, are examined in the context of issues of the demand and supply of labour, and different types of contracts between employers and employees. On labour use, this paper deals with the gender division of labour in employment. This paper, with help of primary data, tries to identify role of different factors on number of days of employment of workers, of the hired manual worker. It also examines wage forms and wage rates in agriculture, and gender differentials in wages.

Hired manual worker households derived income from various sources, including wage employment, crop production, animal resources, salaries, business and trade, pensions, remittances, scholarships and other sources. The major argument of this paper is that the hired manual worker households require diverse sources of income to ensure minimum level of income. The paper examines diversification of incomes of manual worker households and specific patterns of diversification across villages.