WAGES

Urban And Factory Wages

Between 1873 and 1901 the wages of laborer were returned at Rs.4 to Rs.5 a month. They rose to Rs.5 in 1893, and were maintained at this rate till 1901 except in the years 1895 and 1896 when they were only Rs.4. There was a further increase to Rs.5-8 in 1902 and Rs.6 in 1903. The last few years will witnessed a most marked increase in the general rates of remuneration, both of skilled and unskilled labor, resulting from various causes. Of these the principle are the development of the mining and cotton factory industries, the construction of new railways, the largely increase amounts spent by the government of public works, such as roads, buildings, and irrigation tanks, more especially in Nagpur District, the general increased of prosperity produced by the large profit of the cotton crop, the expansion of the cultivator to whatever unoccupied land is still available and more intensive cropping, the substitution of crops demanding laborious cultivation like cotton and juar for wheat and linseed, which require less hired labor, and lastly the partial depletion of the working population by the ravages of plague and famine. In Nagpur it is now difficult to obtain a coolie for the most simple and easy kind of unskilled labor, such as grass cutting, at Rs.6 a month. A coolie engaged to carry a load has to be paid 6 annas a day and a banghy-bearer asks for 8 annas. Porters on railway station earn from 12 annas to a rupee a day, and carts charge a rupee a day rising to R. 1-8 in the rains. Male factory hands earn 5 or 6 annas a day and woman 3 annas. A boy from 12 to 14 can make Rs.5 a month. The factory hands have become conscious of their power and of the difficulties to which they can put their employers by refusing to work during the dearth of labor, and have learnt to improve their position by threats of a strike. Their standard of living has risen by leaps and bounds and this has had a market effect on the remuneration of other laborers both rural and urban. Mahars are commonly employed in the ginning factories, while for the presses, skilled hammals or porters of Marãthã caste are imported from the Sholãpur District of Bombay. The wages of skilled artisans as masons carpenters and blacksmiths were returned as Rs.15 a month from 1893 to 1891, and in 1903 were reported to be Rs.18. A fairly good workman can now earn from 12 annas to a rupee a day in Nagpur, while goldsmith and the best Punjabi carpenters can earn Rs.2 a day and the latter can choose their employers, refusing any work they do not care about.

Farm–Servants

Farm servants are paid sometimes in cash and sometimes in grain. The cash wages vary from Rs.4 in the remote parts of the District to Rs.6 in the cotton tracts. Custom exercises a strong influence on a grain wages, and they have not advanced very largely even in the last eighty years. This is not unnatural when it is considered that the produce of the land remains more or less constant, while it must also be remembered that the increase in cash rates has hitherto been counterbalanced by the rise in prices, and it is only in very recent years that the labourer’s position has really improved. In 1827 Sir R. Jenkins recorded that the annual wage was usually 1200lbs. of grain with a blanket and a pair of shoes, and as much as 1440lbs. was only given in exceptional circumstances. The grain wages at present are 7 small kuros (of 15lbs.) or 105lbs.a month, that is 1260lbs. a year, besides presents at harvest and at the Polã festival, amounting to another 140lbs. The farm-servant also receives Rs.2 in cash, this payment in known as wãs. This works out to about Rs.5 a month. In Ramtek the grain wages come to 1320lbs. with Rs.4 in cash as against Rs.2 a few years ago. The wives of farm-servants usually works fir their husband’s master, but are not under any special contract to do so in other Districts. They are allowed a days gleaning free, in which they pick up about 20lbs. Private graziers employed by mãlguzãrs to large tenants are paid at the same rate as a farm-servants. To village graziers, who pasture cattle by the month for hire, the fees paid are 4 annas fro a cow and 8 annas for buffalo.

Agriculture Laborers

Agriculture laborers are generally paid in cash for weeding and in grain for harvesting and sowing. During the weeding season the demand for labor becomes most acute, and though the ordinary wages are 4 annas for a man and 2 to 3 annas for woman they may rise to 2 or even 6 annas when the number of workers is insufficient. In Sir R. Jenkins time a man only earned from 2 to 3 pice a day, and at Mr. Craddock settlement (1894-96) from 2 to 3 annas. Cash wages have therefore nearly doubled in ten years. The watching of the crops is generally done by the tenant for his farm-servants, and laborers are rarely employed. The picking of cotton is paid for by contract at from two to five annas per maund of 16 seers. In the case of juar the man who cuts the stalks get about 11lbs. of grain a day and the woman who cut off and collect the heads, receive about 5lbs. At the wheat harvest 7 or 8lbs. of grain are paid as wages, but more work has to be done as the days are longer. At harvest-time a laborer and his family can calculate on earning enough grain to feed them for Three months. In the case of juar it is said that on an average a quarter of a crop is paid in wages for weeding and harvesting.