Socio-economic Conditions of the Agricultural Labourers: An Analysis

Since long time agriculture is the prime occupation in India as well as Karnataka, even today about 58 per cent of the population relied on it as prime occupation. It plays a dominant role in India's economic development although its share to GDP has been declining continuously from 57 per cent in 1950-51 to 17 per cent in 2016-17 (including allied activities). Despite declining its relative share in GDP, this sector has registered the reasonable growth in last few decades. However, one of the major bottlenecks that has emerged and can become an insurmountable problem is the issue of shortage of agricultural labour. Due to the low wage rate, wage monopoly, insecurity, seasonal employment in agriculture and other factors have pushed the agricultural labourers to migrate from agricultural sector to rest of other sectors. In this regard, this paper is devoted to articulate the socio-economic conditions of the agricultural labourers in the study region. This study is relied on both the secondary and primary data for its analysis. Key words: Agricultural Labourers, Exploitation, MGNREGA, BPL, Income, Saving, Expenditure