Patiala-Rajpura Landholders Sweeten Deals As Manforce In Short Supply

As the paddy sowing season is nearing Patiala and other states of Punjab, farmers across Punjab are commuting to and fro to the railway stations in search of cheap migrant manforce arriving from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Rajpura is also one stop for manforce search.

Officially the paddy season will commence June 10, hence the anxiety is undoubtedly high but over the years the manforce graph has been dwindling.

A recent survey done by the government of Bihar showed a decline of 30 per cent. The reason for this is now there are opportunities available at home so they prefer to stay rather than migrate to Patiala and other cities for work.

Due to the decline in manforce, such is the fascia of the farmers of Patiala and surrounding areas, that they are offering package deals of extra money, free accommodation and intoxicants.

As per experts Patiala and other cities, Punjab requires approximately 7,00,000 of manforce to sow the (nearly) 27 lakh hectares of land. The farmers of Patiala and surrounding areas depend 90% on migrant manforce for their work.

Jaspal Singh who works for a Nabha landlord, daily awaits the arrival of the train in blazing sun stated he needs 50 labourers but he’s not getting any one to work in the fields. The ones that do agree ask for too much.

Hardit Singh, a landlord has stated now the manforce is demanding 3500 per hectare in addition to food and liquor.

This is making it hard to get profit in farming which is declining each year.

The other side scenerio: Ram Din, a migrant from Saharsa in Bihar, states he is getting work in paddy fields back home and is satisfied with his pay. So he has decided this will be his last year here. Then along with his son (who works as a driver in Ludhiana) shall go home and settle there.

Uttar Pradesh is also no different. Chottay Lal, an experienced paddy laborer who use to work in Punjab is now settled back home.

Before he used to stay in Punjab for 10 months but now he comes only in the winters, that also for few months and returns back home to work in his field. He said there is ample work back home.