Question : Labourers in Agriculture Sector

(a)whether the percentage of labourers engaged in the agriculture sector against the total work force in the country has been constantly increasing in the last five years;
(b)if so, the details thereof, State-wise and the reasons therefor;
(c)the number and percentage of the total work force engaged in the agricultural sector at present in comparison to 2011-2012;
(d)whether the Government has made an assessment of the total number of agricultural landless labourers in the country, if the details thereof;
(e)whether all the State Governments are implementing the central Government’s rates of wages for agricultural labourers, if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor, State-wise; and
(f)whether the Government has done any interventions to divert the unemployed and under employed workforce from pure agriculture to other areas/ sectors?

MINISTER OF STATE FOR LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT
(SHRI RAMESWAR TELI)

(a) & (b): As per the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) conducted by National Statistical Office (NSO), the distribution of workers on usual status (ps+ss) basis by broad industry division as per National Industrial Classification(NIC) 2008 in agriculture sector (industry Section A of NIC-2008) were 44.14% in PLFS (July,2017-June,2018), 42.49% in PLFS (July,2018-June,2019) and it was 45.56% in PLFS (July,2019-June,2020).
Contd..2/-
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The State/Ut-wise percentage of usually working persons (ps+ss) engaged in Agriculture Sector (industry Section A of NIC-2008) during PLFS(2017-18), PLFS(2018-19) and PLFS(2019-20) is Annexed.
(c): As per Employment Unemployment survey conducted by the NSO during NSS 68th (2011-12) round and PLFS conducted during July 2019 – June 2020, estimates of usually working persons (ps+ss) engaged in Agriculture Sector (industry Section A of NIC-2008) are 48.9% and 45.6% respectively.
(d): As per the Periodic Labour Force Survey, the percentage of workers on usual status basis in agriculture sector (industry Section A of NIC-2008) with ‘casual labour’ as broad status in employment is 25.5% (July,2017-June,2018), 24.7% (July,2018-June,2019) and 24% (July,2019-June,2020). Further, as per Agriculture Census 2015-16, there are 146.45 million operational holders in the country, of which 86.07% operational holders (126.06 million) are operating land less than two hectares.
(e): Under the provisions of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, both the Central Government and the State Governments are appropriate Governments to fix, review and revise the minimum wages of the employees employed in the scheduled employments including agriculture under their respective jurisdictions.
(f): Government is providing fiscal stimulus of more than Rupees Twenty seven lakh crore as part of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat financial Package which comprises various long term schemes/ programmes/ policies for making the country self-reliant and to create employment opportunities in the country.
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