Recent Developments in Farm Labour Availability in India and Reasons behind its Short Supply

The agricultural sector is India has been characterized with high supply of labour than demand, low wages, skewed distribution of land, and limited options of earning livelihood. This sector has undergone a vast change in recent past, mainly due to the increased rural-to-urban migration and partly due to the inception of MGNREGS and other public works. The structural changes in Indian economy in recent past have made male-migration a lucrative phenomenon while schemes like MGNREGS are found to be attractive for females in rural locations due to various reasons discussed in the paper. This has caused a shortage of farm labour and consequently, an upward push in agricultural wages. The study has suggested that there is a need to implement MGNREGA and other public works schemes with full potential to improve the economic conditions of vast pool of agricultural workers who have been living in distressed conditions for many decades