Socio-economic conditions of migrant agricultural labourers in Punjab

The present study was undertaken to examine the socio-economic profile of migrant labour in agriculture. A sample of 180 migrant agricultural labourers was selected, covering 12 villages, three blocks and three districts from three agro-climatic zones of Punjab for analysis. The study revealed that the majority of the migrant agricultural labourers belonged to Uttar Pradesh with the mean age of 33.39 years, were mainly from scheduled castes, married, illiterate, owing pucca houses and had medium sized nuclear families. The study highlighted that on an average, the family of the migrant labour had a debt of Rs 9200, which was taken from non institutional sources. Nearly 65.55 per cent of families of the migrant labour engaged in agriculture were living above poverty line and the mean income of their families came out to be around Rs 61907.66 per annum. It was found that whole of the migrant agriculture labour had migrated to Punjab for the better employment opportunities.