Lok Sabha Question No. 755 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-02-07
Subject: Labourers in Agriculture Sector
Ministry: LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT
Asked by: Dushyant Singh

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 755 TO BE ANSWERED ON 07.02.2022

## LABOURERS IN AGRICULTURE SECTOR

755. SHRI DUSHYANT SINGH:

Will  the  Minister  of  LABOUR  AND  EMPLOYMENT  be  pleased  to state:

- (a)whether  the  percentage  of  labourers  engaged  in  the  agriculture sector  against  the  total  work  force  in  the  country  has  been constantly increasing in the last five years;
- (b)if so, the details thereof, State-wise and the reasons therefor;
- (c)the number and percentage of the total work force engaged in the
- agricultural sector at present in comparison to 2011-2012;
- (d)whether  the  Government  has  made  an  assessment  of  the  total number  of  agricultural  landless  labourers  in  the  country,  if  the details thereof;
- (e)whether  all  the  State  Governments  are  implementing  the  central Government's  rates  of  wages  for  agricultural  labourers,  if  so,  the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor, State-wise; and
- (f)whether  the  Government  has  done  any  interventions  to  divert  the unemployed and under employed workforce from pure agriculture to other areas/ sectors?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT (SHRI RAMESWAR TELI)

- (a) & (b): As per the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) conducted by  National  Statistical  Office  (NSO),  the  distribution  of  workers  on usual status (ps+ss) basis by broad industry division as per National Industrial Classification(NIC) 2008  in agriculture sector (industry Section  A  of  NIC-2008)    were  44.14%  in  PLFS  (July,2017-June,2018), 42.49%    in  PLFS  (July,2018-June,2019)  and  it  was  45.56%  in  PLFS (July,2019-June,2020).

- The  State/Ut-wise  percentage  of  usually  working  persons (ps+ss) engaged in Agriculture Sector (industry Section A of NIC-2008) during  PLFS(2017-18), PLFS(2018-19) and  PLFS(2019-20) is Annexed.
- (c): As  per    Employment  Unemployment  survey  conducted  by the NSO during NSS 68 th  (2011-12)  round and PLFS conducted during July 2019 - June 2020, estimates of usually working persons  (ps+ss) engaged  in  Agriculture  Sector  (industry  Section  A  of  NIC-2008)  are 48.9% and 45.6% respectively.
- (d): As per the Periodic Labour Force Survey,  the  percentage of  workers  on  usual  status  basis  in  agriculture  sector  (industry Section  A  of  NIC-2008)  with  'casual  labour'  as  broad  status  in employment is 25.5% (July,2017-June,2018), 24.7% (July,2018June,2019) and 24% (July,2019-June,2020). Further, as per Agriculture Census  2015-16,  there  are  146.45  million  operational  holders  in  the country,  of  which  86.07%  operational  holders  (126.06  million)  are operating land less than two hectares.
- (e): Under the provisions of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, both the  Central  Government  and  the  State  Governments  are  appropriate Governments  to  fix,  review  and  revise  the  minimum  wages  of  the employees employed in the scheduled employments including agriculture  under their respective jurisdictions.
- (f): Government  is  providing fiscal stimulus of  more  than Rupees Twenty seven lakh crore as part of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat financial Package  which  comprises  various long term  schemes/ programmes/ policies for making the country self-reliant and to create employment opportunities in the country.

*                                                      *******

Annexure referred to in reply to part (a) & (b) of the Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 755 for 07.02.2022 raised by Shri Dushyant Singh regarding 'Labourers in Agriculture Sector.

| State/Uts           | PLFS(2017-18)   | PLFS(2018-19)   |   PLFS(2019-20) |
|---------------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
| Andhra Pradesh      | 49.78           | 44.35           |           48.96 |
| Arunachal Pradesh   | 50.08           | 46.68           |           55.02 |
| Assam               | 45.47           | 38.86           |           36.79 |
| Bihar               | 45.10           | 48.89           |           49.19 |
| Chhattisgarh        | 67.50           | 64.65           |           68.79 |
| Delhi               | 1.21            | 0.35            |            0.38 |
| Goa                 | 8.47            | 8.09            |           15.28 |
| Gujarat             | 42.43           | 42.77           |           46.24 |
| Haryana             | 27.41           | 26.85           |           29.21 |
| Himachal Pradesh    | 55.61           | 56.62           |           56.44 |
| Jharkhand           | 46.75           | 42.77           |           54.05 |
| Karnataka           | 45.72           | 40.97           |           46.58 |
| Kerala              | 19.85           | 20.36           |           21.89 |
| Madhya Pradesh      | 60.59           | 57.21           |           58.35 |
| Maharashtra         | 47.79           | 45.34           |           48.98 |
| Manipur             | 36.41           | 29.19           |           32.44 |
| Meghalaya           | 56.27           | 49.63           |           51.86 |
| Mizoram             | 43.97           | 42.09           |           42.08 |
| Nagaland            | 36.79           | 36.47           |           48.54 |
| Odisha              | 48.76           | 44.10           |           48.31 |
| Punjab              | 26.04           | 24.59           |           25.75 |
| Rajasthan           | 49.57           | 52.73           |           53.13 |
| Sikkim              | 41.48           | 41.60           |           39.3  |
| Tamil Nadu          | 27.74           | 27.26           |           30.05 |
| Telangana           | 43.43           | 43.56           |           48.43 |
| Tripura             | 29.05           | 31.05           |           41.64 |
| Uttarakhand         | 42.53           | 34.32           |           47.15 |
| Uttar Pradesh       | 48.75           | 49.99           |           51.5  |
| West Bengal         | 36.56           | 34.24           |           36.89 |
| Andaman &N. Island  | 15.47           | 11.22           |           15.29 |
| Chandigarh          | 0.46            | 0.80            |            0.92 |
| Dadra &Nagar Haveli | 19.82           | 19.12           |           27.68 |
| Daman &Diu          | 2.51            | 4.06            |           14.15 |
| Jammu &Kashmir      | 40.74           | 38.13           |           38.5  |
| Ladakh              | -               | -               |           41.7  |
| Lakshadweep         | 25.67           | 28.77           |           17.65 |
| Puducherry          | 11.57           | 14.13           |           15.71 |