Effective Public Policy Which Can Reduce Gender Discrimination in the Agricultural Labour Market : A Theoretical Investigation

Wage and employment differences between male and female agricultural labourers in the under developed countries including India is not new. With the help of a simple theoretical model it is here proved that public policy like implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in the rural areas can reduce wage discrimination but fails to reduce employment discrimination in the agricultural labour market. It is also proved that implementation of NREGS not only reduces profitability of the farm household but also decreases employment generation in the agricultural labour market. The paper suggests higher amount of monetary punishment charged by the Conciliation Committee at local panchayet formed by State Government for resolving dispute related with social protection of the agricultural labourer as suggested by National Commission for Enterprises in Unorganized Sector (NCEUS) in 2007 for depriving female agricultural labourers both in terms of wage and employment can be an effective public policy which can reduce wage as well as employment discrimination in the agricultural labour market. It is also proved that the loss of profit of the landlord due to charging higher amount of monetary punishment is less than implementation of NREGS in that region. The possible formation of the proposed Conciliation Committee is also suggested here