Agricultural labour in India

In the resource hierarchy of India, agriculture continues to occupy the dominant position. This is evident from the fact that out of a net national income of Rs. 11,310 crores in 1956-57 at current prices, Rs. 5,520 crores or about fifty per cent was contributed by agriculture alone despite pressure of population on land and relatively low yields. According to the 1951 Census, roughly 69 per cent of the fatal population depends on agriculture for its livelihood, and the agricultural labourers comprise about one-fifth of the total rural working force. Unfortunately, agriculture in India, as perhaps in other under-developed economies, seems to have reached a stage of quasi equilibrium at a low level of productivity. The problem is thus one of lifting agriculture from its low equilibrium and breaking the mesh of inter-locking factors, such as out-dated technique, primary poverty and low productivity, which tend to pull it downwards. One of the most important problems which requires immediate attention is to increase the productive efficiency of the man behind the plough.