Rural Labour Market

INFORMAL LABOUR MARKET IN PUNJAB: A STUDY OF LABOUR CHOWKS OF DISTRICT SANGRUR
Manjit Sharma
Abstract: This paper explores the rural labouring poor who move daily from villages to urban labour market in search of employment in Sangrur district of Punjab state. This paper unravels the genesis, conditions of labour chowks and labour intake/absorption in the urban centres. This study traces the reasons to enter labour chowks, employment and wages, willingness to work, income earnings and health conditions of the labouring poor. It is an attempt to understand the notion of unwillingness that labour is not interested to do work against work availability. This research endorses through empirical findings that less work availability (low employment)

These views are strengthened by Ronaldo Munck, in his book, ‘Globalization and Labour’ (2002) which is written about emergence of casual labour market and workers of south. The informal-sector model was developed in the 1970s as a theoretical device to account for the reality of under employment, a category derived from the formal labour markets of the industrialised economies of the north. It assumed exclusion of workers from the formal economy and their absorption in the informal economy of small enterprises, often employing family members (Munck, 2002). Correspondingly, International Labour Organization (1972) and Hart (1973) crystallised the phenomenon of unregulated economic activity into the term “informal sector”. There was little anticipation that this sector could become the centre of attraction within a few decades in many countries. Once through of as a precipitate of formal activities, the informal sector gradually expanded in as many forms as imaginable in a complex economy (Marjit and Kar, 2011). Further, waves of globalisation and related maze of actions are smearing the boundaries of formality and informality (Marjit and Kar, 2011). Another view presented by Barbara-Harris White in her book, “Indian market society” that two third of Indian economy is reckoned to be social regulated economy accounting for ninety percent of

Green revolution restructured the division of labour and strongly influenced socio-economic relations among petty bourgeoisie, peasantry, artisans and landless labour. Green revolution can be seen primarily as a phase of acceleration in the development of capitalism in agriculture entailing the restructuring and reallocation of economic activities. Economic and social relations changed due to mechanised and modern profit making agricultural practices. During this time, share cropping system changed into lease agriculture practice in the most parts of the region. Due to new agricultural practices, nature of attached/bonded labour changed into unfree/contractual agricultural workers except lingering of old practice in some parts. Structural transformation of the work force is generally viewed as structural transformation in the output of the economy. The share of agriculture in state domestic product has been declining up to 22 percent in the recent times. Structural transformation of the workforce can be analysed through socio- economic transformations of the society and it occurs due to changing character of agriculture from subsistence to commercialisation of