A SAMPLE survey on rural non-agricultural workers was conducted by the CITU state committee in Telangana. This has given a valuable experience and necessary information to understand their conditions and to decide future activity among them. Six small villages were selected from six districts – Sangareddy, Medak, Siddipet, Nizamabad, Narayanpet, and Bhadradri Kothagudem. Among them Kashipur, Devulapally, Ramsagar, Ambam and Kathanpally are common villages and Anjubaka is an adivasi tribal village.

Two types of questionnaires were prepared. One was on the people who left agriculture and traditional crafts and settled in non-agricultural professions. It helped to know the number of such people and other details like – what are those non-agricultural professions and how many persons are settled in each profession in a village. The other one helped to know the income and expenditure details, social and economic changes taking place in each village. This information is useful to study the concrete conditions in each village. Suitable comrades were selected for this survey and a workshop was conducted to give a common direction. Their suggestions were also useful to strengthen the questionnaire used for survey.

During the survey, we had conducted group meetings in each village with those workers who could provide necessary information. Anganwadi workers, ASHA workers, gram panchayat workers, village servants etc provided such information for the first questionnaire. Based on this information, we selected workers from as many number of non agricultural professions as possible and made a detailed discussion with each worker. It took 45 minutes to one hour for interaction with each worker to gather the information for the second questionnaire.

We reached the selected village a day before and stayed in the houses of poor non-agricultural workers. This has helped us to see their socio-economic conditions closely. All those comrades who participated in this survey made a good effort. Information collected in this survey is useful to analyse and study the concrete conditions. It is also useful to assess their economic and social conditions, to search for the ways to help them and the possibilities of organising them. This is necessary to implement the tasks given by the Party Central Committee. This is also useful for comrades who are interested to do an in-depth study from different angles. This will be useful for researchers also. If some changes in the questionnaire are made, based on this sample survey and experiences, more concrete information could be collected from all villages in the state. More importantly, the capacities of leaders and cadres who participate in such surveys and analyse the data, will improve in utilising the dialectical method. Direct contact with the people will be established. The pulse of the people could be understood.

Farmers in these villages are using 74 tractors in agriculture. This shows the increase in use of tractors in rural agriculture. 116 hamali workers (headload workers) are working in the fields. If IKP (Indira Kranti Patham) centres are closed due to the policies of the Modi government at the centre, these workers may lose their work or new issues may come up. A huge increase of construction workers is found. There are 304 of such workers in the remote small villages.  There are 88 workers who are working on tractors, motor winding machines and harvesters. Almost all the farmers, agricultural labourers, non-agricultural workers are going for rural employment guarantee works. Almost every member in the family is working in the works provided under MNREGA. Majority of them have no consistent work in a year. They are going for three or four types of works to feed their families. Each labourer is involved in three to four types of works. Otherwise family cannot be run. There is no guarantee that everybody finds work all along the year. There is no stability and peace of mind in their life. Women are paid less than men.

Apart from the workers involved in the works provided by MNREGA and scheme workers, considerable numbers of other non-agricultural workers are also there. They are 248 in Devulapally, 202 in Ramsagar, 587 in Ambam, 127 in Kashipur, 313 in Kathanpally and 190 in Anjubaka which is a tribal village. Such workers are there at least in 30 sectors, even in a small village. If it is a relatively little bit big village, they are involved in nearly around 100 types of works. Number of such workers in each sector is dependent on the size and development level of the village. More such workers are there in more developed villages. But no village can escape from the presence of non-agricultural workers. A considerable number of these workers are self-employed. Number of tailors is also increasing, but they are all self-employed. There are small poultry farms run by self-employed, entering into a contact with big outlet chains.

Use of filtered drinking water has increased in the villages. Small water plants are also there in the villages. Real estate business has spread into remote rural areas also. Almost, there is no family without a motor cycle.  Houses without colour TV and cooking gas connection are negligible. Every family has two or three cell phones, of which at least one is a smart phone.  Consumption of non-veg, vegetables and fruits has increased in the rural areas also. But surprisingly, milk consumption has not increased much. Consumption of rice has increased enormously in place of grains produced in dry lands like sorghum, maize etc. Small houses with narrow rooms, without sufficient ventilation, are common. There is almost no family without loans in these five villages. But this feature is negligible in the tribal village. Consumption of cold drinks, biscuits and bakery food has increased; and that of wine has also increased among male members of the families. This has become an important expenditure in many families. Expenditure on education and health has become a major factor due to privatisation. As people are forced to go for multiple works to feed their families, and there is no guarantee of work, schemes like ‘Rythu Bandhu’ (cash payment to the farmers by the government), different types of pensions for widows, physically challenged persons etc and other welfare schemes have given relief to them.

Anjubaka village has been formed by settling adivasi tribals. It is a relatively developed village when compared to many other adivasi areas. But we can see their innocence and sincerity. No one has availed the crop loan facility. They are trying to satisfy themselves with their limited incomes. They are not prepared to go for loans generally. Every family has their own toddy trees and they themselves tap and drink it.

It may be possible to organise beedi workers, construction workers, auto drivers at the mandal level. But other non-agricultural workers are very less if we count them in a particular profession or nature of work. They don’t have a commonality in their way of performing work or in their service conditions. Many of them do not have employee-employer relationship also. Insurance facility for almost all types of workers is a big problem. Government loan facility for the self-employed is a major issue. A big number of daily wage workers are going to Hyderabad every day from the village Devulapally. They have to come to the bus stop by 5 am daily. But they are not sure that they will get work. Bus fares and food expenditure are an extra burden on them if they don’t find work. This is a peculiar problem for those set of workers in that village. Bus pass facility may be demanded for them. Demand for supply of daily necessities from civil supply ration shops is also important. But the situation differs from village to village, mandal to mandal. A close and concrete study of all villages in all mandals is necessary to work at ground level. If an extensive and intensive survey is made, data and observation may be useful to formulate concrete demands for each village or mandal or an area. General demands and campaigns from state or district level may not give much result. These common demands and common activity may be useful only when there is concrete work at the field level on concrete issues. Cooperatives may also be used to organise and help them. Service activity like starting computer centres, teaching tailoring, computer training, starting education and health facilities are also important. More detailed study may give more ideas on how to intervene. But such a field study is more important. This is needed for having a dialectical method in our work and approach, and it is essential now.