THE LABOURER'S WAGES 191 



who cultivates with a single plough employs no 

 permanent labourer. If he is a low-caste man, such 

 as a chamar or a lodha, his own labour and that of 

 his family (his women having no objection to field- 

 work) are sufficient to work his farm. It is only at 

 special times — such as for weeding, irrigation, or 

 harvesting — that he employs extra labour at all. But 

 a man who has a couple of ploughs and four oxen 

 must keep a hired labourer unless he happens to have 

 grown-up sons or other relations living with him and 

 partners in his holding. ' Such labourers,' wrote 

 Mr. Crooke in 1888, 'get wages at the rate of Rs. 3* 

 per mensem, which are paid by village custom, partly 

 in cash and partly in kind — a fact which is of vital 

 importance from the point of view of the labourer, 

 since the price of food grains has so largely increased. 

 The labourer, as a rule, takes in cash only the amount 

 he requires for his actual expenses, such as purchase 

 of clothes, etc. For casual labour the prevailing rates 

 are 6, 7, or, at the highest, 8 picej per diem for men; 

 5 pice for women, and 4 pice for boys and girls. The 

 harvest wages I shall describe later on. These 

 wages are almost invariably paid in grain at the 

 current village rate, which is generally as much as 

 10 per cent, cheaper than the market rate. The highest 

 rates are naturally given at those seasons when work 

 is pressing and there is a demand for labour, such as 

 weeding, irrigating, and harvesting. For digging, 

 manuring, and other work requiring manual strength, 

 the rates are always at the maximum. Only the 



* 'An Inquiry into the Economic Condition of the Agricultural 

 and Labouring Classes in the North- Western Provinces and Oudh,' 

 1888, p. 23. 



f A pice (a paisa) is a quarter of an anna, and tlierefore at the 

 present rate of exchange (Rs. 15 = ^1) is exactly equivalent to one 

 farthing. My own experience leads me to think that the wages of 

 the casual field labourer have risen since Mr. Crooke wrote the above 

 in 1888, and I should think that 8 to 10 paisa was the normal re- 

 rauneratJon in the Northern Doab at the present day, 



