Explain the characteristics of Indian Labour market.
Answers
Labour includes both physical and mental work undertaken for some monetary reward. In this way, workers working in factories, services of doctors, advocates, ministers, officers and teachers are all included in labour.
Any physical or mental work which is not undertaken for getting income, but simply to attain pleasure or happiness, is not labour.
Characteristics of Labour:
Labour has the following peculiarities which are explained as under:
1. Labour is Perishable:
Labour is more perishable than other factors of production. It means labour cannot be stored. The labour of an unemployed worker is lost forever for that day when he does not work. Labour can neither be postponed nor accumulated for the next day. It will perish. Once time is lost, it is lost forever.
2. Labour cannot be separated from the Labourer:
Land and capital can be separated from their owner, but labour cannot he separated from a labourer. Labour and labourer are indispensable for each other. For example, it is not possible to bring the ability of a teacher to teach in the school, leaving the teacher at home. The labour of a teacher can work only if he himself is present in the class. Therefore, labour and labourer cannot be separated from each other.
3. Less Mobility of Labour:
As compared to capital and other goods, labour is less mobile. Capital can be easily transported from one place to other, but labour cannot be transported easily from its present place to other places. A labourer is not ready to go too far off places leaving his native place. Therefore, labour has less mobility.
4. Weak Bargaining Power of Labour:
The ability of the buyer to purchase goods at the lowest price and the ability of the seller to sell his goods at the highest possible price is called the bargaining power. A labourer sells his labour for wages and an employer purchases labour by paying wages. Labourers have a very weak bargaining power, because their labour cannot be stored and they are poor, ignorant and less organised.
Moreover, labour as a class does not have reserves to fall back upon when either there is no work or the wage rate is so low that it is not worth working. Poor labourers have to work for their subsistence. Therefore, the labourers have a weak bargaining power as compared to the employers.
5. Inelastic Supply of labour:
The supply of labour is inelastic in a country at a particular time. It means their supply can neither be increased nor decreased if the need demands so. For example, if a country has a scarcity of a particular type of workers, their supply cannot be increased within a day, month or year. Labourers cannot be ‘made to order’ like other goods.
The supply of labour can be increased to a limited extent by importing labour from other countries in the short period. The supply of labour depends upon the size of population. Population cannot be increased or decreased quickly. Therefore, the supply of labour is inelastic to a great extent. It cannot be increased or decreased immediately.
6. Labourer is a Human being and not a Machine:
Every labourer has his own tastes, habits and feelings. Therefore, labourers cannot be made to work like machines. Labourers cannot work round the clock like machines. After continuous work for a few hours, leisure is essential for them.
7. A Labourer sells his Labour and not Himself:
A labourer sells his labour for wages and not himself. ‘The worker sells work but he himself remains his own property’. For example, when we purchase an animal, we become owners of the services as well as the body of that animal. But we cannot become the owner of a labourer in this sense.
8. Increase in Wages may reduce the Supply of Labour:
The supply of goods increases, when their prices increase, but the supply of labourers decreases, when their wages are increased. For example, when wages are low, all men, women and children in a labourer’s family have to work to earn their livelihood. But when wage rates are increased, the labourer may work alone and his wife and children may stop working. In this way, the increase in wage rates decreases the supply of labourers. Labourers also work for less hours when they are paid more and hence again their supply decreases.
9. Labour is both the Beginning and the End of Production:
The presence of land and capital alone cannot make production. Production can be started only with the help of labour. It means labour is the beginning of production. Goods are produced to satisfy human wants. When we consume them, production comes to an end.
Answer:
As explained below.
Explanation:
- The Indian labour market is characterized by unrecognised or unorganised nature of employment including agricultural labourer, migrant workers, bonded labourers. Thus the unorganised sector is one of the biggest in the Indian economy.
- As there is lack of skilled and semi-skilled labourers like the commodity market that divers the diversity of wages most of the workers being children, women and absence of such labour unions creates an uneven distribution of labour availability in the country.
- Age is also an important factor in the mobility of labour as young tend to be more productive than older ones. The labour market is also impacted by demand during certain seasons and periods.