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Abstract

Agricultural labourers who are mostly landless and form a significant section of rural society mainly depend on wage employment in agriculture.  Majority of them belong to scheduled castes and scheduled tribed and are among the worst exploited section of the society.  Unlike the industrial labourers are neither well organized nor well paid.  These constitute the major portion of have-nots who are basically unskilled and earn their livelihood through manual labour.  The present study attempts to look deep into the level of employment and suggest appropriate measures to improve the living standards of the agricultural labour households in Palayamkottai Taluk of Tirunelveli District, From the study, it is clear that male headed families had higher per capita income than female headed families.  Generally it was concluded that, agricultural activities provided 88 per cent of employment to agricultural labourers. Out of the total agricultural employment, nearly 60 per cent of the employment was provided by paddy cultivation only.  As far as paddy cultivation is concerned, season II was the main provider of employment.  It provided nearly 50 per cent of employment.  In paddy cultivation, female labourers got more employment compared to male labourers.  The labourers who migrated to other places had employment for more number of days.  In short, there was a change in the employment pattern of agricultural activities.

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