Rising food prices spurred an increase by 10 points each in the all-India Consumer Price Index (CPI) for agricultural and rural labourers, respectively, last month, the Ministry of Labour and Employment said in a release on Saturday.
An increase in the prices of rice, wheat-atta, jowar, bajra, ragi, vegetables and fruits contributed the bulk of the spike in the two indices with April’s CPI-AL rising to 1108 points and the CPI-RL climbing to 1119. The food group contributed 7.32 and 7.13 points, respectively, to the 10 point jumps in the CPI-AL and CPI-RL.
The year-on-year inflation rate based on the CPI-AL quickened to 6.44% last month, from 6.09% in March and compared with the 2.66% pace in April 2021. In the case of the CPI-RL, the rate accelerated to 6.67%, from 6.33% in the preceding month and 2.94% in the year-earlier period.
In March 2022, the increase was just three points each in both the indices.
Nineteen States recorded an increase of between one to 20 points in the CPI-AL index. Tamil Nadu, which recorded a decrease of 7 points from March, “topped the table with 1,275 points, whereas Himachal Pradesh with 880 points stood at the bottom,” the Ministry said.
Kerala witnessed an increase of 20 points in the CPI for agricultural labourers, while both Kerala and West Bengal saw an increase of 19 points in the index for rural workers, mainly due to the rise in the prices of rice, wheat, pulses, fish, vegetables and fruits.
‘Rural distress’
Representatives of agricultural and rural workers urged immediate intervention by the Centre to help arrest the inflationary trend and ease the rising rural distress.
“If this trend continues, there is no doubt that it will make the existing agricultural distress more painful for the workers and farmers,” said S.K. Sasikumar, former senior fellow at VV Giri National Labour Institute. “The Periodic Labour Force Survey data showed that there was an increase in agricultural employment during the pandemic as a large number of migrant workers went back to their villages. If we are unable to constrain this trend, it will have a negative impact on local development and the local employment scenario,” he added.
Dr. Sasikumar noted that the increase in prices eroded real wages.
“This situation will be problematic for small and marginal farmers too. This sort of increase in the prices of food items will impact every income group in the long run,” he observed, urging the government to improve the public distribution mechanism. “PDS is the backbone of our food security. Traditional food security methods will do more help than direct cash transfers. The overall quality of employment must also be improved... better quality of employment will [help] absorb the price rise,” he added.
B. Venkat, General Secretary of the All India Agriculture Workers Union said agricultural and rural workers spent 50% of their income on food items such as foodgrains and edible oil.
“The rise in prices will have an adverse impact on the rural poor, particularly Dalits and Adivasis. They have reduced purchases of many food items and this has an impact on their health,” he said. Urging the Centre to directly transfer ₹7,500 in cash to the families of all rural and agricultural workers, Mr. Venkat called for a doubling in the allocation of foodgrains to poor families. “Not just foodgrains, edible oils, sugar and pulses should also be distributed through the PDS to address the situation,” he added.
