Trends in Real Wage Rates of Agricultural Labourers

This paper makes a comparative study of wage rates of agricultural labourers in the different states over the period 1956-57 to 1971-72.
While according to earlier studies wage rates improved significantly in real terms only in Punjab (including Haryana and Kerala), our extension of the series to 1971-72 shows that improvement in real wages took place also in Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat. However, these states still account for less than 30 per cent of the agricultural labour force in the country.