ISSUES AND CHALLENGES OF EMPLOYMENT IN UNORGANIZED SECTORS
sectors:
In the usually employed (‘all’ workers) category, 57 per cent among males and nearly 62 per cent among females were self-employed. The corresponding proportions in urban India were 44 per cent for males and 45 per cent for females. One needs to examine to what extent institutional finance has a role to play in the lives of those self-employed. In the rural areas, 67 per cent of usually employed males and 84 per cent of usually employed females were engaged in the agricultural sector. In rural India, the proportion of ‘all’ male workers engaged in the agricultural activities declined gradually from 81 per cent in 1977-78 to 67 per cent in 2004-05. (This may be pointing to increased migration to cities, among other causes). For all female workers, the decline was less – from 88 per cent in 1977-78 to 83 per cent in 2004-05.
In urban India, the tertiary sector engaged 59 per cent of male workers while secondary sector accounted for 35 per cent of the usually employed males. For females, the corresponding proportions were lower at 53 and 31 per cent. In urban India, the ‘trade, hotel and restaurant’ sector engaged about 28 percent of the male workers while ‘manufacturing’ and ‘services’ sectors accounted for nearly 24 and 21 percent, respectively, of the usually employed males. Quality of employment in these sectors, especially trade, hotel and restaurants is an issue of concern.
Wages (gender parity)
In rural India, on an average, per day, a male casual labourer earned Rs. 56.53, Rs. 20.38 more than a female causal labourer who earned Rs.36.15. In urban India, wage difference was more prominent. A male casual labourer in the urban areas earned Rs.75.51 in a day and female, Rs. 44.28 in a day.
Rates of employment/unemployment
93 per cent of the labour force is employed in the “unorganised sector”, i.e. sectors which don’t provide with the social security and other benefits of employment in the “organised sector.” The unemployment rate went up between 1993-94 to 2004. On the basis of current daily status (unemployed on an average in the reference week), during the reference period, unemployment rate for males increased from 5.6 per cent to 9.0 per cent in rural areas, and from 6.7 per cent to 8.1 per cent in urban areas.
Unemployment rate for females increased from 5.6 per cent in 1993-94 to 9.3 per cent in 2004 in rural areas. The gender differential in the worker population ratio (WPR) was distinct: 55 per cent for males and 33 per cent for females in the rural areas, and 55 per cent for males and 17 per cent for females in the urban areas.
The rate of growth of employment declined sharply from 2.04% per year in the period 1983-94 to only 0.98% per year in the period 19994 to 2000. This is while the labour force increases roughly by 2.5% every year.
There is substantial decline in employment elasticity (e.g. increase in employment for every unit rise in GDP) in almost all the major productive sectors, except for transport and finance. The reason for the phenomenon of jobless growth could be that growth in India has essentially been capital intensive. In any case, the share of the organized sector is too small to really make a difference. The Indian economy has also seen growth on the shoulders of a very successful services sector, which has offset slow growth in manufacturing (which could have been relied upon to generate substantial employment) and the insignificant growth rates in agriculture.
Regular employment was unavailable for many workers. This was indicated by the fact that unemployment rates on the basis of current daily status were much higher than those on the basis of usual status (unemployed on an average in the reference year).
Urban unemployment rates (current daily status) were higher than rural unemployment rates for both males and females in 1993-94. However, in 2004, rural unemployment rates for males was higher than that of urban males. Again, it is important to look at quality of employment in urban areas. Unemployment rates varied sharply across States. States, where wages are higher than in neighbouring ones because of strong bargains or social security provisions, such as high minimum wage, had high incidence of unemployment, in general.
In the rural areas, for every 1000 households, about 17 households reported that at least one male member had got the work in public works, whereas only 8 households reported that at least one female member had got the work in public works for at least 60 days during the last 365 days. Among the social groups, the incidence is found to be highest for the STs, followed by the SCs and OBCs. This may be considered in the implementation of schemes like the NREGS.
UNORGANISED SECTORS
1. Agriculture, forestry, fishing and mining : Issues and