The size and structure of agricultural labour households in India
Krishnaji, N.
Population growth and poverty in rural South Asia: 121-150
1989
Document Number: 373611
Contrasts are drawn between agricultural labour and cultivator households and between labour households with and without land, based on data from two large-scale sample surveys of rural labour in India, conducted during 1964/65 and 1974/75. Results indicate that agricultural labour households clearly differ in size and structure from other agrarian families. They are distinctly smaller in size and have a somewhat lower child-woman ratio; but at the same time they have a higher female to male ratio and a slightly higher proportion of adults. Mortality is an important determinant of these differential structures. The evidence on fertility differences is too scanty to permit firm conclusions but suggests that they are much less important than mortality differences. The findings of a higher female to male ratio in labour families appears to be inconsistent with understanding about female-male mortality differences in poor families. However, the generally high rate of mortality may itself favour these high sex ratios through the higher proportions of adults observed among the labour households. Of course, there are many other factors, such as male migration and a greater frequency of women as household heads, which also contribute to a higher sex ratio.