INTRODUCTION:

In an agrarian community, most of the Dalit population has been landless and working as laborers in agriculture. At present, the working pattern in agriculture is almost the same as before ten years back. Among the Musahar community, Most of the male members migrate to urban places but female members stay at this native place and work as an agricultural laborers. in agricultural labor. many studies suggested, “Today, 53 percent all-male worker, 75percent all-female worker, and 85percent all rural female worker are in agriculture. But in the case of women, this percentage has declined less than four points since 1973-74” (Agarwal, 2003). In this, the population of Dalits and Adivasi women is so high than any other caste. In 1971, 35 percent of Dalit women and 53 percent of Adivasi women were involved in agricultural labor. They have been most exploited and are considered field laborers.

Because they work in the field and live freely than women from any other community or caste. In comparison to the women from other caste and communities, women in oppressed caste and communities survive more equally. In tribal communities, the matriarchy system has been popular and in that women have the liberty to choose a partner for their marriage. Besides, there has also been a space for divorce and re-marriage (Omvedt,1977). but they are exploited mostly by the dominant caste class during work in agriculture or industrial area. Besides, In this situation, women have to serve double or triple responsibility, because most of the time male members do not live in their homes, they migrate not only to other places for seeking a job opportunity. that reason women have to live with their children and also have to work as a laborer in agriculture. but, the implementation of the green revolution policy, led the condition to introduce many modern technologies in the agricultural sectors. This change does not come only from the pattern of agricultural relations. In this new condition, women began to work based on caste, class, and gender either session basis or contractual worker, and division of labor has re-emerged as a significant tool of exploitation.

At present, the agriculture sector is continuously changing into the industrial sector. As a result, not just agrarian social structure is continuously changing but also an older obligation is sifting into a newer one. In this, The landlord is not just a landlord but now he became a Tekedar/Shaukar (Moneylender). They started investing their money into the urban area for setting up their factory and pottery business. (omvedt, 1977). But this paper only discusses the pattern of women's exploitation in agriculture.

In agriculture, women from Dalit and tribal communities are hired on a sessional, casual, and contractual basis with low wages. Such types of job irregularity have led to two significant problems among the female laborers First, it has restricted the participation of women in the labor and second, it has also led to pauperization among Dalit women. (Patnaik, 1985, 12) Similarly, in the Kuaria village of Bihar, Musahar’s women are living with the same condition and enforced to work as landless laborers on a casual, contractual, and seasonal basis. After the abolition of bonded labor system, this community became landless laborers and still lived in their landlord's or nearby landlords' field. But in the name of ownership over the land, landlords are still exploiting the Musahar women using different methods. This paper, analyzing these three systems of women’s exploitation- wage system, loan system, and working hours monopoly. and try to discuss the semi-feudal and the semi-capitalist social structure in reference to the case of Kuria village of Bihar. Using a case study as a method, the paper has a key objective to find out the pattern of Musahars exploitation by looking at different aspects of existing social conditions. The caste system will be treated as the primary force of exploitation in the agrarian community.

Women in the Agrarian Economy:

In an agrarian economy, women have been a key force of labor, they engaged in several ways i.e. harvesting, paddy sowing, cutting, cleaning, and packing during the agricultural season. But the landlord does not consider all this work as man's work and therefore landlord does not pay an equal wage to women laborers. women are forced to in landlord's agricultural form because for two reasons- first lower caste women have not any choice to do other work and second women get money for survival only. International labor organization ILO report 2010 shows, in India women's income is not considered as a main income source in the family. Generally, whatever money is earned by women is considered either subsidiary or extra income. this thing leads to the exclusion of women's labor in the family or outside of the family. Irregularity in the job, less income and not receiving wage timely enforce more labor at home or part-time labor. whereas, in rural areas, women have also to care for their children and do much other work at their home. so only that reason, Gail Omevdt has mentioned -

“The regional variation becomes more significant when it is seen in relation to women's concentration in agricultural work and particularly among the lowest section of rural toilers, agricultural laborers working (for wages in cash or kind) on the lands of others. The concentration of women workers in agriculture among wage-earning agricultural laborers as opposed to self-employed cultivators can be defined as one of proletarianization; proletarianization has thus gone on in agriculture while women have tended to be excluded from industrial works women as a percentage of agricultural laborers have remained relatively more constant over time than women as a percentage of total workers, and this is true even though the percentage of agricultural laborers has itself grow .'( Omevdt; 1977)

It means due to exclusion in the industrial sector women have the option to work only in agriculture. Therefore, women have to be bound to do long hours of work only to get a very small amount of money. mostly, lower castes or tribal women are involved. they are working on an entire day and earning only daily expenditure. despite this, their income is never recognized as the main income of the home. Always, man is considered main a breadwinner in his house and his women wage became subsidiary income. These such types of attitudes force to them bear double responsibility without any appreciation or encouragement.

Structure of exploitation and the land question

Historically, the Musahar community whose tribal and living nearby Chota Nagpur area of Jharkhand, later on, came into the caste fold (A caste may be defined as a collection of families bearing a common name, claiming common descent from a mythical ancestor, human or divine, professing the same hereditary calling and regarded by those who are competent to give an opinion as forming a single homogeneous community). Because first, they wanted to gain their land, which had been captured by other castes. And the second reason is they wanted to achieve their prestigious position as dominant castes. For the same reason; they also started following Hindu rituals and later on, they became Dalit under the Hindu caste system. At present they are divided into different castes and engage with different kinds of manual labor such as Dhobi, Chamar castes. they survive as a laborer and is still struggling for their proper recognition as others like Dhobi, kurmi in the Verna-caste system. In many districts of Bihar, most of the population of the Musahar community lives nearby upper and backward castes or nearby their agricultural area. In most cases, they are settled by dominant upper and backward caste in their land to exploit their labor (The information is based on my pilot study in Kuaria village in Bihar, where I had visited during one week 6^th to 13^th April 2015.). Besides, they work as a laborer in the landlord's form so that they could get some money or grain in return for their survival (Hindess, Barry (1975) Pre-capitalist Modes of production, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, pp.233). Although people of this community do not participate equally as servents in any ritual event and return, they occasionally get clothes and some food items as a gift. At many times, Musahars are enforced to work in only the landlord’s forms because the landlord gives them land without any costs for their home. As Gyan Prakash writes-

“in the nineteenth century when colonial officials encountered slavery and bondage all over India, they came across a class of agriculture laborers called Kamias in the eastern province of Bihar. Living primarily in the southern part of the province, these laborers were distinguished by long-term ties to landlords known as Maliks. A Kamia worked all his life for the same landlords, earning wages for the days that he worked and expecting assistance when needed. For his son’s marriage, he received some grain, money, and a small plot of the land from the landlord." (Prakash;1990)

The Musahar's low socio-economical dependence was based on reproduced by a mechanism of credit and indebtedness centered on Kamia-malik (laborer-landlord) relations. By extending small loans to laborers in times of distress, marriage, etc. the landlords ensured their control over the Kamia’s labor until the debt had been repaid. At the same time, the repayment conditions were formulated in such a way that the laborer would never be able to pay back the debt.

The payment system, which is based monthly, is fixed by a landlord in Jyth (July-August) during the harvesting session. If Kamia (laborer) is unable to pay back the debt that he gets from the landlord, they( Kamia) are enforced to work along with all their family members in the landlord's field. This debts system is bound to the Musahars community not only economically but also socially.Ambdekar, therefore, oppose koti system(The Khoti System related to minor land tenures in the Bombay Presidency. It prevailed in some parts of Ratnagiri District and also in some parts of Kolaba (now Raigad) and Thane District. The Khoti tenure differed from the ordinary Ryotwari in as much as in the latter the occupants of the land were directly responsible to the Government for the payment of revenue while in the former the Government employed the services of the Khot for collection of revenue. The Khot was called a superior holder while a tenant (i.e. occupant of the land) was referred to as an inferior holder. The Khoti System thus to some extent resembled Zamindari System prevailing under the Permanent Settlement Act.) because this has been a much exploitative system among the Dalit community and he also argued that this has been very useful for the zamindari system. In this, the old feudal system had resolved but not changed the ways of exploitation of Dalit communities.

After 1970 when the green revolution was introduced, a new condition had emerged that allowed the farmer to use heavy agriculture machines and fertilizers in farming. this technique of farming gradually became more profitable and popular within farmers' groups. the introduction of new technology in the agricultural field has brought out two significant changes in agriculture- first, it reduced human labor, and second big farmers started hiring labor from the poor community only on a seasonal basis. As a result, unemployment increased fastly and the exploitation of Musahar also changed in a different direction. During the off-season, Musahar males start working in the local brick industry and females get engaged in some artistic work such as basket making, sewing, and other things. Besides, females of this community at some time also use to engage with agricultural work, but they do not get similar wages as males.

At present, most of the Musahar are either landless or have a small piece of the land and for that reason, Musahars women are bound to work in landlords’ fields for a long time. Generally, women do not migrate to other places because of their responsibility to care her kids, elder person and animals. They search for job opportunities nearby their places and agricultural farm. The women feel more comfortable working in the landlord's agricultural field with a very nominal wage. They are used three different methods to exploit Mushars women labor in the agricultural field-

Wage System:

The migration of male members of this community to other places forces women to work in the landlord’s agricultural field for their daily survival. Now, most Musahars women are working in the landlords' field and Many times they do not work in the same village, they can also move to some other villages nearby their house. During my fieldwork in the Kuaria village of Bihar, Most of the women said “we go to many places nearby our village such as i.e. Bhikampur, Baniyapur and so on. They walk long distances to reach their workplace, hardly any landlords provide a vehicle to carry heavy with agricultural products. They get 230 or 250 rupees and one-time food in wage. But this wage is very less compared to man’s wage because women’s labor always is considered less physical labor than man’s. Generally, it is assumed in society that women are not very friendly with agricultural equipment like – tractors, using fertilizers, water pumps, and others. Such types of patriarchy reflect in all areas. In education, most of the women choose only social science, not science or medical science. Due to social pressure, women are not able to grapes these ideas and concept. Such of mindset always create barriers that do not allow to them learn technological skills. Apart from this, society never considers females as the main breadwinner and recognize them as a source for only subsidiary income.

Therefore, Musahar’s women are paid less wage rather than males. The second very important thing is women labor that landlord hires only sessional or casual basis not permanently. In this, there is no space for any holidays. Landlords are not responsible to give any such type of security or any other facilities that the government provides to their labor. During the pick harvesting session, most of the time, Musahars women are working in the landlord's field from 10 to 12 hours per day, and they provide one-time lunch only. But the food that they give is to Musahars women-only rice and sessional sabji in a rare case, they give them any other food and pulses because pulses are more costly compared to vegetables and rice. Another thing that is noticeable at the workplaces is they practice untouchability with Musahar women in their field.

Loan System:

Musahars are daily wage laborers and able to earn money for their survival only. For that reason, they become fully dependent on the landlord until their death. In modern times, landlords are not just landlords but also are moneylenders. In any difficult times, Musahar borrows money from landlords and after that, they have to return the same money in different ways. Either they have to work in their agriculture field or return the same money with some interest. Generally, Musahars are not aware of the government loan policy. During the fieldwork, I observed many women were known about "self-help groups". But in Kuaria village, it is not popular among women. one of them described a group having 8-10 women members, those who come from different castes deposit a minimum of ten or more than ten rupees in the self-help group. If any group member needs some money in an emergency, they can take easily it from that group. But Musahar women do not earn regularly so they cannot deposit money continually. That is why always depend on Local landlords. During my fieldwork, I asked a Musahar woman that what is a basic reason behind this dependency. She said, due to landlessness we are living in the landlord’s field and because of this they always force us for free labor or a very less amount of wage. any time if I reject then they harass us in different ways. Before a few days, the landlord threw a huge amount of cement in front of my home and started abusing us. The reason behind this attitude was we did not go into his form for work. At that time, he was aggressively saying to be removed from this land. Additionally, he also snatched my tab from Varanda which was given by the Bihar government. This is such a type of accident we face whenever we are not following his order. At any time, I have to borrow advanced money from landlords during the festivals, any occasion, or illness. they always pressurized us during the pick harvesting session for work in their field. If they refuse to work in their form, they target our women several ways, every day they visit our houses use abusive language for their daughter, sister, and other female members of our family. At many times, they use physical or mental violence. One more thing which is very important in this case is socio-economic deprivation. During the Pick harvesting session, whatever money they earn to invest in ritual things then don’t know how it can be saved. Caste is not just exploited economically but also is used as a tool of the socio-cultural practices used to marginalize the community.

Working Hour Monopoly:

Harvesting time is very different from the other one, they have to work in the agriculture field in irregular ways. At many times, women have to work in the early morning or afternoon or at night. This time frame is very hard for these women because this time they have to care for their children. It is challenging to manage all things at one time, During this fieldwork, I asked a woman how are you work with an 8-9 months baby. She said I am going to work with my child and after that lay down my child on the surface under the tree and ask my 5-6-year-old daughter to take care of this 8-9month baby. If time baby has trouble with her, I give him a very little amount of opium (usually as such types of the drug) after that baby sleep till 2-3 hours and again comes back and feeding milk.

Because during the pick harvesting session we have to work day and night and feel lots of pressure to earn money, then, we could return our loan. we do not have so much time to sleep and eat in harvesting time.

This type of exploitation can be seen in agricultural farms. The landlord exploits poor women's labor to earn more money by using either extended working hours or cutting off their leisure time. He becomes so rich starts investing money in other things. but Mushars women condition has not been changed and papurization exited in their entire life. During the fieldwork, I asked a woman, how much time have you expend with her family, leisure, and friend? she said we do have not so much time, at any time we have to go to the landlord's field in at earlier morning and come from there at late night.

CONCLUSION:

caste has not been only a structure rather it has also been bondage, due to this rigid caste hierarchy, Musahar women are facing several types of exploitation in the agriculture field day to day life. Consequently, land has become a major tool of exploitation. and, on basis of the land, the landlord pay low wage, only hired temporary basis, take lent money with a high-interest rate, impose arbitrary working hours, and so on. trough these mediums, they exploit Musahar women's labor. However, they are earning for survival not beyond, their persisting poor condition. At present time, Musahar women need to unite against caste hierarchy and oppose the exploitative working system, they would come to any change their condition. So, Dr. Bhimrao mentions in his writing - women should be organized, educated, and aggregated. Therefore, it is true that has without women liberation can’t be happened in any society.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:

This paper is very close to my Ph. D work and I am heartily thankful for my all respondents and resource person, that helped me smoothly conduct my fieldwork. without their support, I couldn't understand women's exploitation in an agrarian society. along with I am very thankful to my teachers and partner who have given me valuable suggestions for this.

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Received on 15.11.2021 Modified on 05.12.2021

Res. J. Humanities and Social Sciences. 2021; 12(4):230-234.

DOI: 10.52711/2321-5828.2021.00041