Socio-economic Conditions of Agricultural Labourers in the Guntur District of Andhra Pradesh

Indian economy mainly depends on the agriculture sector. At the time of independence, this sector contributed about 52% of Gross Domestic product (GDP) and employed over three-fourth of total work force in the country. In 1961, there were 31.5 million agricultural labourers in India, which accounts for around one-fourth of the agricultural work force. Some of the small and marginal landholders engaged as labourers, but these minute holdings cannot afford even bare subsistence for a family. These landholders’ major part of the income is derived from working on others farmer’s field. In this sense, these landholders are labourers. A large group of landless labourers belongs to the poorest and most depressed sections of society . Mostly the landless agricultural labour groups such as the Malas and Madigas are generally employed in the fields of the dominant ‘ryots’ as farm servants and seasonal labourers. Even though Coastal Andhra has irrigation facilities to a large extent and agricultural development is of the higher order in the region, the proportion of the agricultural labourers to the total agricultural workers has increased remarkably after the Green Revolution due to various technological advancements in the agrarian sector. Numerous agricultural labourers got displaced from the agricultural sector in rural areas due to agrarian transformation and mechanization during the green revolution period of post-independence era.