WOMEN FARM LABOURERS PAID HALF

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Women farm labourers get paid less than men because they are given easier work than men, claim members of the Telangana Federation of Farmers’ Associations.

Many of the women farm labourers from Telangana who participated in the Kisan March in Delhi, said the men are paid `300 and they are paid `200 for the same work.

K. Bala Reddy, vicepresident, Telangana Federation of Farmers Associations, said that generally men are paid more daily wages “because men do heavy work in the farms which is generally tougher and women are given some easy work due to which women are paid less. If men get `500 per day, women are given

`300”. Fifty-year-old Beeram Ramulu, a farmer from Warangal who was participating in the Kisan March in Delhi, disagreed. He said women farm labourers are paid as little as `150 per day while men are paid between `300 and `500 in villages. “But men and women should get equal pay for equal work because even women are doing equally hard work even though there is a slight difference in the work,” Mr Ramulu said.

He said there is lack of awareness about equal pay-for equal work and that is why women are paid less, so there is a need to create more awareness among the villagers. “The government should take the initiative and create more awareness among the villagers as well as the farm owners,” he said.