There is acute unemployment among farm labourers in Punjab due to reducing hours of manual labour in the fields with the introduction of new farm machinery, coming of weedicide sprays which left them almost unemployed. “Earlier, farm labourers used to work round the year in the fields but now their labour hours reduced to one-third which led them to take loan for eating two time meals,” said Kashmir Kughshore, spokesperson of Pendu Mazdoor Union (PMU), another organisation of labourers in Punjab. Around 92 per cent of the farm labourers who are now debt-ridden have taken loans from non-institutional organisations, said Prof Gian Singh. As per a survey report by the Punjab University, Patiala, 948 farm labourers against 781 farmers had committed suicide from 2000-2016 in seven districts of Punjab including Muktsar Sahib, Faridkot, Fatehgarh Sahib, Patiala, Hoshiarpur, Rupnagar and SAS Nagar. Meanwhile, labourers have launched protest under three organisations – PMU, PKM and Zameen Prapati Sangharsh Committee – across Punjab.

Source: Indian Express June 23, 2017 03:41 UTC