Hired Labour and Wage Rates for Farm Operations in Eleven Selected Rural Centres of Maharashtra

For the determination of the general wage level of a rural area it is necessary to obtain information regarding the extent of hired labour units employed on farms, the prevailing wage rates for various farm operations, the proportion of population employed in agricultural and non-agricultural sector, the cropping pattern in the area, etc. This paper makes an attempt to examine the first two components namely the extent of hired labour units and the prevailing wage rates in rural areas in eleven different districts of Maharashtra during the period 1955 to 1959. The data collected through village surveys conducted by the Agro-Economic Section of the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics are used for the purpose of this analysis.