Read the passage carefully and answer the questions based on the passage:
The term agrarian structure is often used to refer to the structure or distribution of landholding. Because agricultural land is the most important productive resource in rural areas, access to land shapes the rural class structure. Access to land largely determines what role one plays in the process of agricultural production. Medium and large landowners are usually able to earn sufficient or even large incomes from cultivation. But agricultural labourers are more often than not paid below the statutory minimum wage and earn very little. Their incomes are low. Their employment is insecure. Most agricultural labourers are daily-wage workers. And do not have work for many days of the year. This is known as underemployment. Similarly, tenants have lower incomes than owner-cultivators. Because they have to pay a substantial rent to the landowner – often as much as 50 to 75 per cent of the income from the crop. Agrarian society, therefore, can be understood in terms of its class structure. But we must also remember the structure is itself through the caste system. In rural areas, there is a complex relationship between caste and class. We might expect that the higher castes have more land and higher incomes. And that there is a correspondence between caste and class as one moves down the hierarchy. In many areas this is broadly true but not exactly. For instance, in most areas the highest caste, the Brahmins, are not major landowners, and so they fall outside the agrarian structure although they are a part of rural society. In most regions of India, the major landowning groups belong to the upper castes. In each region, there are usually just one or two major landowning castes, who are also numerically very important. Such groups were termed by the sociologist M.N. Srinivas as dominant castes. In each region, the dominant caste is the most powerful group, economically and politically, and dominates local society.
What would you call a situation in which most agricultural workers do not find work throughout the year?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Underemployment
Option (1) Employment — Incorrect. Employment means having work. The question describes the opposite situation, in which workers do not find work throughout the year.
Option (2) Absolute Poverty — Incorrect. Absolute poverty is the condition of a person whose income is too low to meet the basic needs of life, such as food, clothing and shelter. It measures how poor a person is; it does not describe how many days in a year a worker finds work.
Option (3) Unemployment — Incorrect. An unemployed person has no work at all. Agricultural labourers do get work as daily-wage workers in the farming season; their problem is that the work stops for many days of the year.
Option (4) Underemployment — Correct. Most agricultural labourers are daily-wage workers and do not have work for many days of the year. Having some work, but less than a worker could and would do, is called underemployment.
Note: The concept in Option (2), ‘absolute poverty’, is not in NCERT (2025-26); explained here for the benefit of the students.
NCERT (2025-26): “4.1 Agrarian Structure: Caste and Class in Rural India … The term agrarian structure is often used to refer to the structure or distribution of landholding. Because agricultural land is the most important productive resource in rural areas, access to land shapes the rural class structure. Access to land largely determines what role one plays in the process of agricultural production. Medium and large landowners are usually able to earn sufficient or even large incomes from cultivation (although this depends on agricultural prices, which can fluctuate greatly, as well as other factors such as the monsoon). But agricultural labourers are more often than not paid below the statutory minimum wage and earn very little. Their incomes are low. Their employment is insecure. Most agricultural labourers are daily-wage workers. And do not have work for many days of the year. This is known as underemployment. Similarly, tenants (cultivators who lease their land from landowners) have lower incomes than owner-cultivators. Because they have to pay a substantial rent to the landowner – often as much as 50 to 75 per cent of the income from the crop.” |