Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2000, published 89th ILC session (2001)

Right of Association (Agriculture) Convention, 1921 (No. 11) - India (Ratification: 1923)

The Committee notes the information provided in the Government’s report.

In its previous comments, the Committee recalled the observations which had been supplied by the National Labour Organization (NLO), Ahmedabad, annexed to a Government’s previous report, which had mentioned the practical difficulties confronting trade union activity in agriculture, owing to the nature of work in this sector, as well as the information supplied by the Government that in practice only 9.2 per cent of the workforce in agriculture is unionized and that the vast majority of the poor agricultural workers is not organized.

The Committee would once again recall the important conclusions reached by the National Commission on Rural Labour (NCRL) which was mandated to study all aspects of the conditions of work relating to this sector and to examine the legal and administrative measures taken in order to organize rural labour, to suggest modification in the existing laws and to propose new legislation. The NCRL, which submitted its report to the Government in 1991, had defined rural labour as "a person who is living and working in the rural area and engaged in agricultural and/or non-agricultural activities requiring manual labour, getting wage or remuneration partly or wholly, in cash or in kind or both during the year, or such own account workers who are not usually hiring in labourers but are part of the petty production system in rural areas". This definition includes workers who do wage-paid manual labour, small and marginal farmers who may be supplementing their income by earning wages, tenants, sharecroppers and artisans. In 1987-88, there were 150 million persons in India falling within this definition which accounted roughly for 60 per cent of the total rural workforce in the country. The NCRL had recommended a central legislation for agricultural labourers (who constitute the most vulnerable category of workers due to their dependence on wage employment) providing for security of employment, prescribed hours of work, payment of prescribed wages and machinery for the settlement of disputes. The NCRL had also recommended a provision in the said legislation for enabling formation of trade unions for agricultural labourers in order to carry on their activities under applicable laws. In fact the NCRL had stressed the utmost importance of organizing the rural workers, in particular agricultural labourers, to enable them to obtain the required bargaining power, to realize what is their due and legitimate interest, to ensure them protection against exploitation of all kinds and to make them partners in the development process to improve their conditions of work. Some efforts had been made by the National Labour Institute which undertook consciousness-raising programmes for rural workers to build their own mass organizations and to make them aware of their basic rights and needs.

The Committee stresses once again that the present Convention applies to all those engaged in agriculture. The Committee expresses its concern that while agriculture is not expressly excluded from the scope of the Trade Union Act (TUA), 1926, as amended, it is not expressly included either, as the definitions given in the Act can be interpreted as excluding workers employed in small agricultural farms from its application. For example, the term "workmen" is defined as all persons employed in trade or industry and references to "trade dispute" (section 2(g)) seems to apply to industrial agriculture and agricultural farms run on a commercial basis but it does not appear to include the bulk of agricultural workers like self-employed farmers, sharecroppers and smallholders.

While noting the information provided by the Government concerning the central level unions/associations of agricultural workers, the Committee would ask the Government once again to supply information concerning their membership, particularly as concerns self-employed workers engaged in agriculture. It also requests information on any legislative and other measures taken or contemplated, as envisaged in the Government’s previous report, to ensure that those engaged in agriculture enjoy the same rights of association and combination as industrial workers, and to repeal any statutory or other provisions restricting such rights.

[The Government is asked to report in detail in 2001.]