A socio-economic profile of agricultural labour in tarai regions of Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal state

An attempt has been made to study the socio- economic profile of agricultural labour in tarai regions of U.P. and Uttaranchal State. In each state one district was selected randomly namely Sidharthnagar in Uttar Pradesh and U.S. Nagar in Uttaranchal state from each of these two selected district, the Birdpur block in Sidharth Nagar district and Rudrapur block in U.S. Nagar district was selected randomly. The study is based on the 55 households in Birdpur block and 66 households in Rudarapur block. Thus, total sample consists of 121 agricultural labour households. The study pertained to the year 1999-2000. Data regarding income, employment pattern and various socio-economic variables, were collected both from primary as well as secondary sources. The total earnings of agricultural labour household in tarai regions of Uttaranchal state was Rs. 39195, while in Uttar Pradesh it was estimated at Rs. 26147 consisting of farm wages, off-farm wages, earning from self employment in on-farm and off-farm. With respect to Monthly per capita expenditure on food, more than 65 per cent of labour households in Uttar Pradesh belong to poor category, which is contrary to Uttaranchal state labour households, where more than 65% of households belongs to non-poor category. It was estimated that all the agricultural labour households in both the states suffers from calories and protein deficiency. With respect to clothing, about 55 per cent of agricultural labour households in tarai regions of Uttar Pradesh falls in the categories of very poor and poor (below poverty line) while in Uttaranchal state it was more than 65%. With respect to per capita investment in housing, more than 45% of agricultural labour households in tarai regions of Uttar Pradesh were very poor and poor (below poverty line), these conditions were very serious for Uttaranchal State, where about 79% of labour households fallen in this categories.