The demand has been made by labour specialists and the all India agricultural workers union (AIAWU), affiliated to the CPI(M). They said that for the last 20 years now a draft legislation on agricultural labour has been in existence.

The necessity of the government making its stand clear on the issue is necessary in view of the coming elections, joint secretary of Aiawu, Suneet Chopra said.

Chopra gave details on the condition of agriculture labour in various parts of the country as also outlined the dangers of the failure of the government to bring forth such a legislation.

Chopra said in 1997 a bill was drafted, but ``landlord pressure'' kept it from being tabled. It is still in existence and the union demands that all political parties clarify their stand on the legislation if they wish to canvass for the votes of theagricultural labour. ``Whichever government comes to power, it will have to pass the legislation or face the wrath of 80 million of India's poorest,'' Chopra said.

John, a sociologist specialising in labour says, ``this indecisiveness of the government is despite agriculture's prime position in the Indian economy, the size of the labour force engaged in the sector and the absolutely unprotected nature of their work. Agriculture and allied activities constitute the single largest contributor to the GDP, accounting for about 33 per cent of the total. Share of agricultural exports to the total exports is also significant,'' he said.

John is a writer for `Labour File,' a monthly journal of labour and economic affairs.

``Agricultural workers are the most exploited. They are the worst sufferers of the changes taking place in the agricultural scenario and in the economy. The problem becomes more acute in the absence of any legislation to protect their rights and interests. Neither are their hours of workdefined nor are their conditions of work. Most of them live in inhuman and miserable conditions,'' says, general secretary of the CPI(M), Harkishan Singh Surjeet.

The plight of the agricultural workers is miserable, he adds. With the introduction of modern machinery in agriculture in certain areas, they are faced with unemployment.

Surjeet says that even those who find employment get hardly 100 days of work a year, which is not enough to provide them with the means of subsistence.

The bulk of agricultural labour are drawn from among the scheduled casts, who even after 50 years continue to be suppressed. It is only where the left movement is strong that their condition is better, he says.

Chopra says that the lack of human rights for agriculture labour is a ``scandal.'' Minimum wages are not being paid, no regulations exist regarding working conditions and every dispute is settled by violence.

Such legislation is the only way to prevent caste violence that takes place every day in rural India. ``Ifsuch legislation is not passed, whichever government comes to power will be forced to face a militant mass movement,'' Chopra says.

The well-known economist G Parthasarathy has noted ``higher incidence of poverty among agricultural labour households is not due to larger average size of the households or due to lower work participation rates.''

The average size of agricultural labour household is smaller as compared to either a house self-employed in agriculture or other rural households partly because of the greater predominance of nuclear families and also because of higher incidence of infant mortality.

Parthasarathy says the work participation rates among agricultural households are the highest. Female participation in the labour force is high. Adults work up to a ripe old age. Work participation rates among children of school going age are not insignificant. Yet, the agricultural households are trapped in poverty. While a small family could help get households cross the poverty line, the basicproblems are unemployment and low wages. Various studies have shown that in recent years, especially during the post reform period, there has been a decline in the growth rate of real wages. Parthasarathy points out that out of 35 observations, in about half of the centres, including areas spread over the states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Punjab and Tamil Nadu, the real wages showed a negative growth rate. John says women workers in agriculture cannot dream of welfare measures like maternity benefits, health facilities and educational facilities for their children. This is also the case with other rights like old age pension and provident fund. While there is growing trend towards mechanisation and modernisation in agricultural practices, there is no commensurate effort to address the deteriorating and many a times fatal, occupational hazards like accidents and exposure to dangerous chemicals.

Several social scientists have decried the fact that while in principle agricultural workers have thefreedom to organise themselves and collectively bargain for their basic rights, social, historical and political factors have come in the way of their organisation. Not more than two per cent of the agricultural workers are unionised, they say.