SERICUL TURE AND THE PROCESS OF CHANGE - Institute for ...

(Harris 19 : 240). In quite a few cases, some of the adult women from
the families of the permanent contract labourers provide Assured casual
labour for the same patrons.
Task contract labour IS what Karanth (1995: 128) refers as
'contract labour', which he considers as one of the two sub-types within
the wage labour category, the other being the casual labour . This type of
labour is locally referred to as 'guththi'. The person who is approached
for carrying out a task would tell the Land-owner, 'gutththikku
oppukkirampa' (which means, 'we will take up the work on contract').
In this type of labour, the labourer attaches oneself to a labour-group
under one contractor or leader, who enters into a formal and short term
contract with a land-owner to complete a specified work. Here, the
labourers execute the work with their full competency within the
shortest time, which would otherwise take longer period, and share the
benefits amongst them. In this type of labour, an informal and free
nature exists, along with a specific contractual nature.
The group is normally semi-permanent and informal in nature.
The members could join another group or engage in independent wage
work when the original group is not engaged in any task at a specific
time. There is also a tendency for these groups to be kin-based, though it
is not uncommon to see groups which even cut across different castes.
The group may be composed of a single sex or mixed, depending on the
type of work. This type of labour is increasingly becoming popular in
recent times. It is highly discerned in agricultural activities of weeding,
harvesting, etc. It is also used for harrowing and bottom pruning
activities of mulberry cultivation. Some of these task contract groups are
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