Agri labourers kept out of May Day celebration

JHENIDAH, Apr 30: Agricultural labourers are not recognised as such ever after 128 years of the first celebration of May Day. Though a huge number of agricultural labourers in our villages are directly or indirectly involved in agricultural production, they have no participation in May Day observance.
Moreover, they are recognised as such neither by the government nor national/international agencies. About more than 50 per cent of the population in the rural areas depends upon their agricultural labour for livelihood.
Agriculture is the backbone of our rural economy, and almost the entire population is dependent on it for food and other cereals. Besides, it is a foreign exchange earner for our country. That is why, agricultural labourers' contribution to our economy and government exchequer is a long list of export earnings and development of infrastructure.
However, their earnings are not regulated by any act or viable practices. Their earnings per month are less than Tk. 5,000. As a result, this low-income group cannot buy land or construct houses of their own even after 20 years unlike their counterpart in the industrial sector where there is scope for fixing minimum wages of Tk. 5000. However, there is no such scope for the agricultural labourers.
It may be suggested that this large segment of agricultural labour force may be converted to industrial labourers by establishing more industries in the muffassil areas adjoining the villages.
Moreover, a segment, say, 40 per cent of this agricultural labour force may be given some training on technical lines and sent to serve in the foreign countries, which will fetch foreign remittances to our country.
To establish their rights over the capitalists or land owners, they cannot resort to any collective efforts like unionism or bargaining agents.
Md. Nofar Ali (48), who has been living near Boidanga bazaar under Jhenidah Sadar upazila by the Jhenidah-Chuadanga Highway for many years said, "I have been working as an agricultural labourer since my boyhood. However, I could not afford to buy a single decimal of land."
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