Migrants toil in Tamil Nadu’s Cauvery delta Premium

The shortage of labour still remains a common complaint among farmers in the Cauvery delta, as the younger generation has turned away from farming, leaving the elders to shoulder the burden

Migrant workers from other parts of India are slowly making their presence felt in the agricultural fields in the Cauvery delta, in Tamil Nadu, often referred to as the granary of South India. The development comes amid there being a severe shortage of farmhands.

The gradual influx of migrant workers in agriculture has, however, not set alarm bells ringing as yet among trade unions or local labourers as the numbers in the farm sector are not as high when compared to the situation in the industrial and other sectors in Tamil Nadu.

The shortage of labour still remains a common complaint among farmers in the delta, as the younger generation has turned away from farming, leaving the elders to shoulder the burden.

“It’s becoming really hard to find labourers to tend to the crops,” says R. Anandan, a farmer from Parasanallur in Mayiladuthurai district.

Migrant labourers have been filling this gap in some places. They move across the State in groups during the agricultural seasons and are largely hired for the transplantation or the harvesting of paddy as far as the delta region is concerned. Many of them are from West Bengal and Bihar, and are skilled in paddy transplanting and other agriculture activities. They are sought after by farmers here for their swift work and at relatively lower costs.

“For the past three years, we have been working in different districts across Tamil Nadu,” says Deva Mondal, a Bengali labourer, who was part of a group engaged in transplanting paddy seedlings in Mayiladuthurai district, recently.

Deva highlights the demanding nature of their work. The group, he says, works from dawn to dusk, transplanting paddy seedlings on four to five acres per day. “We charge ₹4,500 to ₹5,000 for planting an acre as a group (of 13 workers), whereas local labourers are paid ₹600 per day for the same work. By covering more area in a day, we earn more,” he says.