Switching over to Organic Cultivation and Its Impact on Living Wage and Employment in the Agricultural Labour Market

The export performance of Indian agricultural commodities in the post WTO agreement on agriculture is not encouraging. Substantial increase of cost of farming due to steep increase of prices of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and seeds gradually make farming as non-profitable. This also reduces employment generation in agricultural sector. High improper use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides during the time of cultivation also creates different health hazards among the agricultural labourers. In this situation, this paper suggests that switching over to organic cultivation will be beneficial for both the farmer and agricultural labourers. As India is now enjoying few comparative advantages in exporting organic agricultural commodities, cultivation through organic method with bio-pesticides can help the Indian farmers to penetrate in vast global market mainly in developed countries and can sell the product at premium price. The organic cultivation will also give sufficient health security to the employed agricultural labourers, which is an important part of social security of these unorganized workers. Switching over to organic cultivation, will help the farmers cum employers to offer lower living wage to each employed labourers without violating social security norm of these unorganized workers and can generate sufficient employment in the agricultural labour market which ultimately will increase further if the developed countries following WTO agreement reduces tariff rates at the time of importing organic food productsWTO Agreement, Organic Cultivation, Health Security, Living Wage, Employment

CONDITIONS OF WORK AND RIGHTS OF THE FEMALE DOMESTIC WORKERS OF KOLKATA

Domestic workers, most of whom arefemale are hired to work in private households. But their work remains unrecognised as a legitimate form of activity. This paper through micro level study shows that young married women coming from distant places with higher number of children, with low and uncertain income ofother family members, prefer part-time domestic work to supplement their family income. Through Engel's ratio, it is identified that the standard of living is slightly better than that of part-time domestic workers. But most of the domestic workers of West Bengal are deprived of over time pay, public holidays and timely payment of salaries.Domestic Worker, Labour Laws, Conditions of Work, Rights,

Effectiveness of Microfinance under SGSY scheme to reduce Poverty and Vulnerability of Rural Households: A Natural Experiment

This paper shows that government of India supported microfinance programme under SGSY scheme is partially effective to reduce poverty of the rural households. Few expansion of National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme plays here the supportive role. Taking the help of Natural Experiment it is also proved that microfinance programme is also able to reduce vulnerability of the rural participating households. This is done through constructing vulnerability index. The social factor i.e. enhancement of empowerment of the participating Self-Help Group members all of whom are women under SGSY scheme between the concerned time period and size of microcredit taken for income generating activities plays a significant role to reduce vulnerability of the participating households of this microfinance programme.Microfinance, SGSY Scheme, Poverty, Vulnerability, Natural Experiment

Joint versus Individual Liability in Microfinance – A Comparative Impact Evaluation Through Natural Experiment

In this paper we want to do a comparative impact evaluation among the participants of two separate types of microfinance system; a microfinance system operated through individual liability microcredit contract represented by VSSU and a microfinance system under SGSY scheme of the Government of India which is operated through joint liability microcredit contract through forming Self-Help Group among the rural people mainly married women. This impact evaluation is done through Natural experiment whose time span is two years. It was observed that in the base line period the participants of VSSU are comparatively in better economic position than the participants of SGSY scheme and non participants who are treated as control group in our experiment. It is established that increment of monthly income among the member households of VSSU is more than the member households under SGSY scheme but when we consider the outcome variable as increment of monthly per capita consumption expenditure we see the reverse picture. There is no significant difference on expenditure for human development purposes is observed among the participants of two different types of microfinance system and even at the end line period both the member households still consider expenditure for health and education is luxury. When we consider intra household decision making power through constructing Women’s Empowerment Index as an outcome variable then the change is maximum among the female SHG members under SGSY scheme. We have also estimated the optimum size of micro credit which is helpful for all types of rural participants to improve their economic conditions within a short span of time.Individual Liability, Joint Liability, Income, Consumption Expenditure, Human Capital Expenses, Women’s Empowerment

Can Microcredit and Job Under NREGS Jointly Bring More Happiness to the Villagers?

This paper aims to investigate whether access to microfinance loan and job under National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) have any significant impact to bring life satisfaction as well as happiness, an important well-being indicator to the villagers of West Bengal. Here we consider microfinance system under individual liability loan contract and joint liability loan contract separately. This paper shows participation in microfinance programme, size of microcredit and more number of man-days of getting job under NREGS bring more happiness to the village people. It is also established that members of Self-Help Group under SGSY scheme become happier in compare to members of VSSU a microfinance system operating on the basis of individual liability loan contract. This is because most of the members under SGSY scheme are women and that of VSSU are men and the members of Self-Help Group under SGSY scheme have become much more empowered after joining the microfinance programme through forming Self-Help Group.Microfinance, Individual Liability, Joint Liability, NREGS, Impact Study, Happiness

Some Unexplored Economics of Roaming Child Workers

Within the net of child labour, there is a section of children who live their lives on the streets, without any kind of attachment with their family and maintain their livelihood through working as informal child workers. This study is based on these children who are termed here as ‘Roaming child workers’. It came out that apart from poverty of the parents there are other socio-economic reasons which force a child to come out from the family and work as child worker in the urban areas. It also came out from field survey that after leaving home a good number of children are economically better off and even able to keep themselves above the poverty line. But still they are very vulnerable. Through this study, effort has been made to prove that average monthly expenditure on substances of these ‘Roaming working children’ increases at a decreasing rate with their average monthly income, whereas, average monthly expenditure on entertainment shares a linear relationship with average monthly income.Child Labour, Poverty and Consumption Pattern