Question

“A significant change in rural society that is linked to the commercialisation of agriculture has been the growth of migrant agricultural labour. As ‘traditional’ bonds of patronage between labourers or tenants and landlords broke down and as the seasonal demand for agricultural labour increased in prosperous Green Revolution regions, a pattern of seasonal migration emerged.”

Elaborate on this pattern of migration.

Answer 1

1. As ‘traditional’ bonds of patronage between labourers or tenants and landlords broke down and as the seasonal demand for agricultural labour increased in prosperous Green Revolution regions such as the Punjab, a pattern of seasonal migration emerged in which thousands of workers circulate between their home villages and more prosperous areas where there is more demand for labour and higher wages.
2. Labourers migrate also due to the increasing inequalities in rural areas from the mid-1990s, which have forced many households to combine multiple occupations to sustain themselves.
3. As a livelihood strategy, men migrate out periodically in search of work and better wages, while women and children are often left behind in their villages with elderly grandparents.
4. Migrant workers come mainly from drought-prone and less productive regions, and they go to work for part of the year on farms in Punjab and Haryana, or on brick kilns in U.P., or on construction sites in cities such as New Delhi or Bangalore. These migrant workers have been termed ‘footloose labour’ by Jan Breman.