Seasonal work

Fruit picking, flower picking and field crop seasons in Rajasthan

Seasonal work, picking fruit, sowing and harvesting crops and gathering flowers accounts for a significant proportion of work available over the year. This work is hard manual labour involving climbing long bamboo ladders far into the trees for the fruit picking. Plums are picked in early July. Kharif (Monsoon season) planting takes place in April and is harvested in September/October. Much bending is needed with the sowing and harvesting of the wheat and vegetables due to the relatively primitive agricultural tools used as standard in Rajasthan for this labour intensive work. The workers get hurt hands as a result of the picking of the famous Pushkar Rose used to make perfume and the Marigolds picked for religious ceremonies and Temple decoration. The cotton crop is as ruthless as the roses with their thorns upon the skin. Generally no gloves or protection is provided by the farmers who employ people on an ad hoc basis. This migration of labour takes the men away from their families for considerable amounts of time but is the main source of income for poor families without any formal education. In the Rabi season (Winter) Barley, Wheat, Gram, Pulses and Oil crops of Rapeseed and Mustard are planted. This rotation is a familiar site around Pushkar where the sand dunes have slowly been replaced by green fields. The changes in the weather due to climate variation can have a devastating effect on the livelihoods of both farmers and workers ruining crops at times. A poor monsoon can be particularly hard.