socio-economic profile of rubber tappers in the small holding sector

The Minimum Wages Act has made provisions for providing better incentive to
workers. In 1995-wage revision, incentive as over kilo rate for latex was enhanced from
Rs. 1.15 to Rs.1.70 and over kilo rate for scrap is fixed as 60 paise. But there is not a
single holding where these incentives are given. Out of the total employed persons 76.5
percent are tappers. But income from tapping represents only 71 percent of total income
of even lowest income group. In the highest income group of sample households, the
share of tapping in total income is only 25.2 percent. It shows that income from tapping is
comparatively low and therefore less attractive. That is one of the reasons behind the
movement of family members of rubber tapping households from tapping to other fields.
Certainly, the most important determinant of labour supply is the wage rate .It is a fact
that wage rate of tapping is lower than that of casual labour and other agricultural labour.
The tapping labourers are aware of it.
3.4 Present Trends of labour market
The study reveals that the shortage of tapping laboureres has not reached a serious
extent now, though there is scarcity of skilled tappers. Unemployment in the sample
households is 26.6 percent. But unemployed persons are not ready for tapping labour. The
major reason is low wage rate. Some other factors including market imperfections are
also to be brought under study. Not only objective factors like market forces but also
subjective factors like perspectives of growers and labour force are to be taken in to
consideration.
When we analyse various aspects of supply side, there can be seen excess supply
of labour. At the same time there is excess demand for labour. Present problem is not a
high shortage of labour, but shortage of skilled tappers. The old generation of tappers has