Observation (CEACR) - adoptée 2001, publiée 90ème session CIT (2002)

Convention (n° 11) sur le droit d'association (agriculture), 1921 - Inde (Ratification: 1923)

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

The Committee takes note of the Government’s reply concerning the Trade Union Act of 1926. According to the Government, while it is true that the Trade Union Act does not expressly include agriculture, it would not be correct to conclude that it excludes small agricultural farmers, self-employed workers and smallholders from its scope. The Committee would once again recall, however, that the National Commission on Rural Labour (NCRL) (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) concluded in 1991 that organized trade union activity is much less prevalent among rural labour in the country, only about 5 per cent of rural labour in the country is formally organized, and that trade unions have largely confined their activities in favourable areas where labourers have regular employment and work together in large numbers. The NCRL had stressed in particular that care should be taken to see that the following categories do not get excluded in any legislation that might be proposed in respect of agricultural workers: "those with some land but who have to supplement their income by working as labourers for wages for a portion of the year, those who work on a contract basis for an agricultural or allied activity, and those who are styled as permanent servants, attached workers or casual workers".

While noting the practical 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 the number of self-employed workers engaged in agriculture who are union members and to provide statistics more generally on the number and type of agricultural workers’ unions registered under the Trade Union Act.