Wage labour and unfreedom in agriculture: an Indian case study

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How have hired workers fared? A case study of women workers from an Indian village, 1977 to 1999

This paper examines certain aspects of employment among women workers in hired labour households, drawing on two surveys of Gokilapuram, a village in south-west Tamil Nadu, India, conducted in 1977 and 1999. The study finds that, first, work participation rates among women were high. Secondly, a woman was able to gain employment in 1999, on average, for only about six months a year. Thirdly, there was a distinct shift between 1977 and 1999 in the composition of total employment available to women Fourthly, while the real wage rate for women at cash-paid, daily-rated crop operations rose significantly between 1977 and 1999, the gender gap in wages widened.women, agriculture, wages, work participation rate, Asia, India

Barriers to expansion of mass literacy and primary schooling in West Bengal: Study based on primary data from selected villages

This paper examines factors affecting literacy and access to school education in West Bengal, India, and reports the results of a binomial probit model estimated with primary data from ten villages of West Bengal. In the analysis of adult literacy, the significant variables were sex, caste and occupational status and village location. In the probit results for educational achievements of children of ages 6 to 16 years in the same villages, however, occupational status was not statistically significant. In contemporary West Bengal, we argue, class barriers to school attendance have become less significant; other features of educational deprivation persist.Education, literacy, India, West Bengal

Abstracts of Presentations at IS-MPMI XVIII Congress

Rhizobia are a diverse group of Alpha- and Beta-proteobacteria that undergo a mutualistic relationship with legume plants. Intense chemical crosstalk between rhizobia and the plant host takes place during symbiotic establishment. One major bacterial signaling factor are secreted lipochito-oligosaccharides. These so-called Nod-factors trigger root hair curling in the host which entraps root hair-attached bacteria. From there rhizobia enter the root of host plants via infection threads. These are plant-derived structures which guide the bacteria into the root cortex where they are released into plant cells. Eventually, rhizobia will differentiate into nitrogen-fixing bacteroids and exchange the fixed nitrogen for reduced carbon sources and other nutrients. Within infection threads rhizobia are enclosed completely by plant tissue and hence, all nutrients needed for growth must be provided by the host. Likewise, rhizobia growing in the rhizosphere receive most of their nutrients from root exudates. So far, the microscopic nature of early infection stages has hampered biochemical experiments and the physico-chemical nature of these important structures remains unknown. A novel experiment using INseq has revealed genes of the pea symbiont Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. viciae 3841 which are essential or advantageous during the infection process. Here, we describe mutations in such metabolic genes and their effect on the symbiotic efficiency of R. leguminosarum