Wages

Wages paid to informal sector workers in south Gujarat show strong variations. A classification that I made early in 1991 (Table 6.1) of amounts paid to the principal categories of labour discussed in this study illustrates those differences. The survey shows that the lowest paid received five to six times less than the amount earned by the highest paid. These figures are for adult males. Children up to the age of 15 or 16 who work as unskilled labourers are paid no more than half the amounts mentioned for the first five categories, while the rate for women is at least 20 per cent lower than that paid to men for the same work.

Agricultural labourers earn least of all. Recent research nevertheless shows a gradual improvement in the economic conditions of the landless at the bottom of rural society which forms the largest working class in the country. First in the 1970s and even more in the early 1980s, the agrarian proletariat in various parts of India benefited from a real wage increase. The same source mentions, however, that this favourable trend seems to have come to an end in 1984–85 as far as Gujarat is concerned (Report NCRL, vol. 1, 1991:61).

On the basis of fieldwork at intervals in Chikhligam and Gandevigam, I conclude that the positive effect of a moderate rise in agricultural wages is largely negated by decreasing employment opportunities in agriculture for the local landless population.