Footloose labour are:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Migrant labour
Option (1) Bonded labour — Incorrect. Bonded labourers are tied to one landowner and are not free to move away. Footloose labour is the reverse: workers who keep moving from place to place.
Option (2) Migrant labour — Correct. Workers from drought-prone and less productive regions migrate for part of the year to farms in Punjab and Haryana, brick kilns in U.P. or construction sites in cities. These migrant workers have been termed ‘footloose labour’ by Jan Breman. The name does not mean freedom: such workers have few rights and are usually not paid the minimum wage.
Option (3) Free labour — Incorrect. ‘Free labour’ is the meaning of begar, work given without payment to the landlord for a fixed number of days. It has nothing to do with workers moving in search of work.
Option (4) Industrial labour — Incorrect. Industrial labour means workers employed in factories and industries. ‘Footloose labour’ is not named after the kind of work but after the movement: Jan Breman used it for migrant workers who leave their villages for part of the year to work wherever work is found, on farms in Punjab and Haryana, on brick kilns in U.P. or at construction sites in cities.
NCERT (2025-26): “4.5 Circulation of Labour … These migrant workers have been termed ‘footloose labour’ by Jan Breman, but this does not imply freedom. Breman’s (1985) study shows, to the contrary, that landless workers do not have many rights, for instance, they are usually not paid the minimum wage. It should be noted here that wealthy farmers often prefer to employ migrant workers for harvesting and other such intensive operations, rather than the local working class, because migrants are more easily exploited and can be paid lower wages.…” |