Shamsher Singh, Research Associate at the Foundation for Agrarian Studies, made a presentation on the topic “Housing and Labour Relations in Rural Rajasthan: A Case Study of Long-Term Workers” on April 15, 2016. The presentation was on the effect of a lack of home ownership on labour relations in a village, 25F Gulabewala, in Sri Ganganagar district, Rajasthan. Home ownership among Dalit households in this village is exceptionally low, lower than in other villages in Rajasthan and the average for rural India. Dalit households that did not own their dwellings were mainly long-term manual workers who lived in houses provided by landlords (employers) or in temporary dwellings on homesteads belonging to the landed households in the village.

This presentation briefly discussed the literature on the historical dependence of manual workers on their employers (or patrons) for various day-to-day needs, including food, shelter, clothing, and loans and advances. Such dependence is often the basis for extra-economic coercion of the worker by the employer, and for the extraction of unpaid or under-paid work.

The presentation described how lack of a house forced workers into long-term labour contracts with landed households. Workers in the village were unable to improve housing conditions or gain access to basic household amenities such as domestic electricity and drinking water because they did not have ownership rights over the dwellings in which they lived.

The presentation also showed how the domination of rich, historically landed, and powerful sections of village society over local institutions and government in rural areas prevented income-poor Dalit landless households from access to the benefits of various government schemes that were meant to improve their living conditions.