Employment: Growth, Informalization, and Other Issues PDF

6 EMPLOYMENT : GROWTH, INFORMALISATION AND OTHER ISSUES After studying this chapter, the learners will understand a few basic concepts relating to employment such as economic activity, worker, workforce and unemployment...

6 EMPLOYMENT : GROWTH, INFORMALISATION AND OTHER ISSUES After studying this chapter, the learners will understand a few basic concepts relating to employment such as economic activity, worker, workforce and unemployment understand the nature of participation of men and women in various economic activities in various sectors know the nature and extent of unemployment assess the initiatives taken by the government in generating employment opportunities in various sectors and regions. 92 INDIAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 2024-25  What I object to, is the ‘craze’ for machinery, not machinery as such. The craze is for what they call labour-saving machinery. Men go on ‘saving labour’ till thousands are without work and thrown on the open streets to die of starvation... Mahatma Gandhi 6.1 INTRODUCTION People do a variety of work. Some work on farms, in factories, banks, shops and many other workplaces; yet a few others work at home. Work at home includes not only traditional work like weaving, lace making or variety of handicrafts but also modern jobs like programming work in the IT industry. Earlier factory work meant working in factories located in cities whereas now technology has enabled people to produce Fig. 6.1 Multinational companies sell footballs made in the houses of Jalandhar, Punjab those factory-based goods at home in villages. During Covid-19 pandemic in 2020–21, millions of for ourselves; we also have a sense of workers delivered their products and accomplishment when we work to meet services through work-from-home. the requirements of those who are Why do people work? Work plays dependent on us. Having recognised an important role in our lives as the importance of work, Mahatma individuals and as members of society. Gandhi insisted upon education and People work for ‘earning’ a living. Some training through a variety of works people get, or have, money by inheriting including craft. it, not working for it. This does not Studying about working people completely satisfy anybody. Being gives us insights into the quality and employed in work gives us a sense of nature of employment in a country and self-worth and enables us to relate helps in understanding and planning ourselves meaningfully with others. our human resources. It helps us to Every working person is actively analyse the contribution made by contributing to national income and different industries and sectors towards hence, the development of the country national income. It also helps us to by engaging in various economic address many social issues such as activities — that is the real meaning of exploitation of marginalised sections of ‘earning’ a living. We do not work only the society, child labour, etc. EMPLOYMENT : GROWTH, INFORMALISATION AND OTHER ISSUES 93 2024-25 6.2 WORKERS AND EMPLOYMENT The nature of employment in India is multifaceted. Some get employment What is employment? Who is a worker? throughout the year; some others get When a farmer works on fields, he or employed for only a few months in a she produces food grains and raw year. Many workers do not get fair materials for industries. Cotton wages for their work. While estimating becomes cloth in textile mills and in the number of workers, all those who powerlooms. Lorries transport goods are engaged in economic activities are from one place to another. We know included as employed. You might be that the total money value of all such interested in knowing the number of final goods and services produced in a people actively engaged in various country in a year is called its gross economic activities. During 2017-18, domestic product for that year. When India had about a 471 million strong we also consider what we pay for our workforce. Since majority of our people imports and get from our exports we reside in rural areas, the proportion of find that there is a net earning for the workforce residing there is higher. The country which may be positive (if we have exported more in value terms than imported) or negative (if imports Work This Out exceeded exports in value terms) or zero (if exports and imports were of the same Ø In your house or value). When we add this earning (plus neighbourhood, you might or minus) from foreign transactions, come across many women who, even though they what we get is called the country’s gross have technical degrees national product for that year. and diplomas and also free Those activities which contribute to time to go to work, do not the gross national product are called go to work. Ask them the economic activities. All those who are reasons for not going to engaged in economic activities, in work. List all of them and whatever capacity — high or low, are discuss in the classroom workers. Even if some of them whether they should go for temporarily abstain from work due to work and why, and also illness, injury or other physical ways by which they could be sent for work. Some disability, bad weather, festivals, social social scientists argue that or religious functions, they are also housewives working at workers. Workers also include all those home without getting paid who help the main workers in these for that work must also be activities. We generally think of only regarded as contributing to those who are paid by an employer for the gross national product their work as workers. This is not so. and therefore, as engaged Those who are self-employed are also in an economic activity. workers. Would you agree? 94 INDIAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 2024-25 rural workers constitute about two- a particular point of time. If you want thirds of this 471 million. Men form to know the worker-population ratio the majority of workforce in India. for India, divide the total number of About 77 per cent of the workers are workers in India by the population in men and the rest are women (men and India and multiply it by 100, you will women include child labourers in get the worker-population ratio for respective sexes). Women workers India. account for one-fourth of the rural If you look at Table 6.1, it shows workforce whereas in urban areas, the different levels of participation of they are just one-fifth of the people in economic activities. For workforce. Women carry out works every 100 persons, about 35 (by like cooking, fetching water and rounding off 34.7) are workers in fuelwood and participate in farm India. In urban areas, the proportion labour. They are not paid wages in is about 34, whereas in rural India, the cash or in the form of grains; at times ratio is about 35. Why is there such a they are not paid at all. For this difference? People in rural areas have reason, these women are not limited resources to earn a higher categorised as workers. Economists income and participate more in the argue that these women should also employment market. Many do not go be called workers. What do you think? to schools, colleges and other training institutions. Even if some go, they 6.3 P ARTICIPATION OF P EOPLE IN discontinue in the middle to join the E MPLOYMENT workforce; whereas, in urban areas, a considerable section is able to study in Worker-population ratio is an indicator various educational institutions. Urban which is used for analysing the people have a variety of employment employment situation in the country. opportunities. They look for the This ratio is useful in knowing the appropriate job to suit their proportion of population that is qualifications and skills. In rural areas, actively contributing to the production people cannot stay at home as their of goods and services of a country. If economic condition may not allow them the ratio is higher, it means that the to do so. engagement of people is greater; if the TABLE 6.1 ratio for a country is medium, or low, Worker-Population Ratio in India, it means that a very high proportion 2017-2018 of its population is not involved directly in economic activities. Sex Worker-Population Ratio You might have already studied, Total Rural Urban in lower classes, the meaning of the Men 52.1 51.7 53.0 term ‘population’. Population is Women 16.5 17.5 14.2 defined as the total number of people Total 34.7 35.0 33.9 who reside in a particular locality at EMPLOYMENT : GROWTH, INFORMALISATION AND OTHER ISSUES 95 2024-25  tion of work leads to non-recognition Work These Out of women’s work and, therefore, to the underestimation of the number of Ø Any study of employment women workers in the country. Think must start with a review of the women actively engaged in many of the worker -population activities within the house and at ratios — why? family farms who are not paid for such Ø In some communities, you work. As they certainly contribute to might have noticed that the maintenance of the household and even if the males do not farms, do you think that their number earn a high income, they do should be added to the number of not send women to work. women workers? Why? 6.4 S E L F - E M P L O Y E D AND HIRED Compared to females, more males WORKERS are found to be working. The difference in participation rates is very Does the worker-population ratio say large in urban areas: for every 100 anything about workers’ status in urban females, only about 14 are society or about the working engaged in some economic activities. conditions? By knowing the status In rural areas, for every 100 rural with which a worker is placed in an women about 18 participate in the enterprise, it may be possible to know employment market. Why are women, one dimension — quality of in general, and urban women, in employment in a country. It also particular, not working? It is common to find that where men are able to earn high incomes, families discourage female members from taking up jobs. Going back to what has already been mentioned above, many household activities done by women are not recognised as productive work. This narrow defini- Fig. 6.2 Brick-making: a form of casual work 96 INDIAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 2024-25  workforce. Such Chart 6.1 : Distribution of Employment labourers are casually engaged in others’ farms and, in return, get a Male Workers Female Workers remuneration for the work done. Workers like 24% 27% 52% the civil engineer 52% working in the construction company 24% 21% account for 23 per cent of India’s workforce. When a worker is Self-employed Regular Salaried Employees engaged by someone or an enterprise and paid Casual Wage Labourers his or her wages on a regular basis, they are enables us to know the attachment a known as regular worker has with his or her job and salaried employees (see table 6.3). the authority she or he has over the Look at Chart 6.1 you will notice enterprise and over other co-workers. that self-employment is a major source Let us take three workers from the of livelihood for both men and women construction industry — a cement as this category accounts for more shop owner, a construction worker and than 50 per cent of the workforce. a civil engineer of a construction Casual wage work is the second major company. Since the status of each one source for both men and women, of them is different from another, they are also Chart 6.2 : Distribution of Employment by Region called differently. Workers who own and operate an Urban Workers Rural Workers enterprise to earn their 38% 15% 58% 29% livelihood are known as self-employed. Thus the cement shop owner is self-employed. About 52 per cent workforce in 13% India belongs to this 47% category. The construction Casual Wage Labourers Regular Salaried Employees workers are known as casual wage labourers; Self-employed they account for about 25 per cent of India’s EMPLOYMENT : GROWTH, INFORMALISATION AND OTHER ISSUES 97 2024-25 a little more so for the latter (24-27 urban areas. In the latter, both self- per cent). When it comes to regular employment and regular wage salaried salaried employment, both women and jobs are greater. In the former, since men are found to be so engaged in majority of those depending on farming greater proportion. Men form 23 per own plots of land and cultivate cent whereas women form 21 per cent. independently, the share of self- The gap between men and women is employed is greater. very less. The nature of work in urban areas When we compare the distribution is different. Obviously everyone cannot of workforce in rural and urban areas run factories, shops and offices of in Chart 6.2 you will notice that the self- various types. Moreover enterprises in employed and casual wage labourers urban areas require workers on a are found more in rural areas than in regular basis. Work These Out Ø We generally think that only those who are doing paid work regularly or casually such as agricultural labourers, factory workers, those who work in banks and other offices as assistants and clerks are workers. From the above discussion, you must have understood that those who are self- employed such as pavement vegetable vendors, professionals such as lawyers, doctors and engineers are also workers. Mark (a), (b) and (c) against self-employed, regular salaried employees and casual wage labourers respectively: 1. Owner of a saloon 2. Worker in a rice mill who is paid on daily basis but employed regularly 3. Cashier in State Bank of India 4. Typist working in a state government office on a daily wage basis but paid monthly 5. A handloom weaver 6. Loading worker in wholesale vegetable shop 7. Owner of a cold drinks shop which sells Pepsi, Coca Cola and Mirinda 8. Nurse in a private hospital who gets monthly salary and has been work- ing regularly for the past 5 years. Ø Economists point out that casual wage labourers are the most vulnerable among the three categories. Could you locate who these workers are and where they are found and why? Ø Can we say that the self-employed earn more than the casual wage labourers or regular salaried employees? Identify a few other indicators of quality of employment. 98 INDIAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 2024-25 6.5 E M P L O Y M E N T I N FIRMS, FACTORIES AND OFFICES In the course of economic development of a country, labour flows from agriculture and other related activities to industry and services. In this process, workers migrate from rural to urban areas. Fig. 6.3 Garment workers: upcoming factory employment for women Eventually, at a much later stage, the industrial sector begins (viii) Services. For simplicity, all the to lose its share of total employment working persons engaged in these as the service sector enters a period of divisions can be clubbed into three rapid expansion. This shift can be major sectors viz., (a) primary sector understood by looking at the which includes (i) and (ii), (b) secondary distribution of workers by industry. sector which includes (iii), (iv) and (v) Generally, we divide all economic and (c) service sector which includes activities into eight different industrial divisions (vi), (vii) and (viii). Table 6.2 divisions. They are (i) Agriculture (ii) shows the distribution of working Mining and Quarrying (iii) persons in different industries during Manufacturing (iv) Electricity, Gas and the year 2017-18. Water Supply (v) Construction (vi) Primary sector is the main source Trade (vii) Transport and Storage and of employment for majority of workers TABLE 6.2 Distribution of Workforce by Industry, 2017-2018 Industrial Category Place of Residence Sex Total Rural Urban Men Female Primary Sector 59.8 6.6 40.7 57.1 44.6 Secondary Sector 20.4 34.3 26.5 17.7 24.4 Tertiary / Service Sector 19.8 59.1 32.8 25.2 31.0 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 EMPLOYMENT : GROWTH, INFORMALISATION AND OTHER ISSUES 99 2024-25  Work This Out Ø All newspapers have one section meant for job opportunities. Some also devote an entire supplement in a day or every week like Opportunities in The Hindu or Ascent in The Times of India. Many companies advertise vacancies for various positions. Cut those sections. Develop a table which contains four columns: whether the company is private or public, name of the post, number of posts, sector — primary, secondary or tertiary — and qualification required. Analyse the table in the classroom about jobs advertised in the newspapers. in India. Secondary sector provides 6.6 GROWTH AND CHANGING employment to only about 24 per cent STRUCTURE OF EMPLOYMENT of workforce. About 31 per cent of In Chapters 2 and 3, you might have workers are in the service sector. Table studied about the planning strategies 6.2 also shows that about 60 per cent in detail. Here we will look at two of the workforce in rural India depends developmental indicators — growth of on agriculture, forestry and fishing. employment and GDP. Nearly seventy About 20 per cent of rural workers are years of planned development have working in manufacturing industries, been aimed at expansion of the construction and other industrial economy through increase in national activities. Service sector provides output and employment. employment to about 20 per cent of During the period 1950–2010, rural workers. Agriculture is not a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of India major source of employment in urban grew positively and was higher than areas where people are mainly engaged the employment growth. However, in the service sector. About 60 per cent there was always fluctuation in the of urban workers are in the service growth of GDP. During this period, employment grew at the rate of not sector. The secondary sector gives more than 2 per cent. employment to about one-third of Chart 6.3 also points at another urban workforce. disheartening development in the late Though both men and women 1990s: employment growth started workers are concentrated in the declining and reached the level of primary sector, women workers’ growth that India had in the early concentration is very high there. About stages of planning. During these 57 per cent of the female workforce years, we also find a widening gap is employed in the primary sector between the growth of GDP and whereas less than half of males work employment. This means that in the in that sector. Men get opportunities Indian economy, without generating in both secondary and service sectors. employment, we have been able to 100 INDIAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 2024-25 produce more goods and services. Developmental strategies in many Scholars refer to this phenomenon as countries, including India, have aimed jobless growth. at reducing the proportion of people So far we have seen how employment depending on agriculture. has grown in comparison to GDP. Now it Distribution of workforce by is necessary to know how the growth industrial sectors shows substantial patter n of employment and GDP shift from farm work to non-farm work affected different sections of workforce. (see Table 6.3). In 1972-73, about 74 Fr om this we will also be able to per cent of workforce was engaged in understand what types of employment primary sector and in 2011-12, this are generated in our country. proportion has declined to about Let us look at two indicators that 50 per cent. Secondary and service we have seen in the preceding sections sectors are showing promising future — employment of people in various for the Indian workforce. You may industries and their status. We know notice that the shares of these sectors that India is an agrarian nation; a have increased from 11 to 24 per cent major section of population lives in and 15 to 27 per cent, respectively. rural areas and is dependent on The distribution of workforce in agriculture as their main livelihood. different status indicates that over the Chart 6.3: Growth of Employment and Gross Domestic Product, 1951–2012 (%) Note: *This is the period for which comparable and authentic data are available. EMPLOYMENT : GROWTH, INFORMALISATION AND OTHER ISSUES 101 2024-25  TABLE 6.3 Trends in Employment Pattern (Sector-wise and Status-wise), 1972-2018 (in %) Item 1972-73 1983 1993-94 2011-2012 2017-2018 Sector Primary 74.3 68.6 64 48.9 44.6 Secondary 10.9 11.5 16 24.3 24.4 Services 14.8 16.9 20 26.8 31.0 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 Status Self-employed 61.4 57.3 54.6 52.0 52.2 Regular Salaried Employees 15.4 13.8 13.6 18.0 22.8 Casual Wage Labourers 23.2 28.9 31.8 30.0 25.0 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 last five decades (1972-2018), people from self-employment and regular have moved from self-employment and salaried employment to casual wage regular salaried employment to casual work noticed during 1972-94 as wage work. Yet self-employment casualisation of workforce. This continues to be the major employment makes the workers highly vulnerable. provider. Look at the last column of How? Look at the case study of table 6.3. How do you understand the Ahmedabad in the preceding section. stagnation of secondary sector and In the mean time you also notice moderate rise in self-employement in 2017-18 a moderate rise in the during 2011-18? Discuss in the class. share of regular salaried employees. Scholars call the process of moving How do you explain this phenomenon? Work These Out ØDo you know that maintaining employment growth at 2 per cent for a country like India is not an easy thing? Why? Ø What will happen if there is no additional employment generated in the economy even though we are able to produce goods and services in the economy? How could jobless growth happen? Ø Economists say that if casualisation increases the earning of the people, such phenomenon should be welcomed. Suppose a marginal farmer becomes a full-time agricultural labourer, do you think he will be happy even if he earns more in his daily wage work? Or will a permanent and regular worker of the pharmaceutical industry be happy if he becomes a daily wage labourer, even if his or her overall earnings increase? Discuss in the classroom. 102 INDIAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 2024-25 6.7 I N F O R M A L I S A T I O N OF INDIAN labour laws, enable them to protect their WORKFORCE rights in various ways. This section of the workforce forms trade unions, bargains In the previous section we have found with employers for better wages and other that the proportion of hired work jobs - social security measures. Who are they? working for others has been increasing. To know this we classify workforce into One of the objectives of development two categories: workers in formal and planning in India, since India’s informal sectors, which are also referred independence, has been to provide to as organised and unorganised decent livelihood to its people. It has sectors. All the public sector been envisaged that the industrialisation establishments and those private strategy would bring surplus workers sector establishments which employ from agriculture to industry with better 10 hired workers or more are called standard of living as in developed formal sector establishments and those countries. We have seen in the preceding who work in such establishments are section, that even after 70 years of formal sector workers. All other planned development, more than half enterprises and workers working in those of the Indian workforce depends on enterprises form the informal sector. farming as the major source of livelihood. Thus, informal sector includes millions Economists argue that, over the of farmers, agricultural labourers, years, the quality of employment has owners of small enterprises and people been deteriorating. Even after working for working in those enterprises as also the more than 10-20 years, why do some self-employed who do not have any workers not get maternity benefit, hired workers. It also includes all non- provident fund, gratuity and pension? farm casual wage labourers who work Why does a person working in the for more than one employer such as private sector get a lower salary as construction workers and headload compared to another person doing the workers. You may note that this is one same work but in the public sector? of the ways of classifying workers. You may find that a small section of There could be other ways of Indian workforce is getting regular classification as well. Discuss the income. The government, through its possible ways in the class. Box 6.1: Formal Sector Employment The information relating to employment in the formal sector is collected by the Union Ministry of Labour through employment exchanges located in different parts of the country. Do you know who is the major employer in the formal sector in India? In 2012, out of about 30 million formal sector workers, about 18 million workers were employed by the public sector. Here also men form the majority, as women constitute only about one-sixth of the formal sector workforce. Economists point out that the reform process initiated in the early 1990s resulted in a decline in the number of workers employed in the formal sector. What do you think? EMPLOYMENT : GROWTH, INFORMALISATION AND OTHER ISSUES 103 2024-25  Fig. 6.4 Road side vending: an increasing variety of informal sector employment Those who are working in the formal the formal sectors in the country? sector enjoy social security benefits. About only six per cent (30/473×100)! They earn more than those in the Thus, the rest 94 per cent are in the informal sector. Developmental informal sector. In 2011-12, the year planning envisaged that as the economy for which gender wise data on grows, more and more workers would formal-informal sector employment is become formal sector workers and the available (Chart 6.4), about 20 per cent proportion of workers engaged in the of formal sector and 30 per cent of informal sector would dwindle. But informal sector workers are women. what has happened in India? Look at the following chart which Chart 6.4: Workers in Formal and Informal 310 Sector, 2011-12 350 gives the distribution 300 Number of Workers of workforce in formal 250 and informal sectors. (in million) 200 24 133 We learnt that in 6 2011-12 there were 150 about 473 million 100 workers in India. 50 There were about 30 0 million workers in the formal sector. Can you Male Female estimate the percentage of people employed in 104 INDIAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 2024-25  Box 6.2: Informalisation in Ahmedabad Ahmedabad is a prosperous city with its wealth based on the produce of more than 60 textile mills with a labour force of 1,50,000 workers employed in them. These workers had, over the course of the century, acquired a certain degree of income security. They had secure jobs with a living wage; they were covered by social security schemes protecting their health and old age. They had a strong trade union which not only represented them in disputes but also ran activities for the welfare of workers and their families. In the early 1980s, textile mills all over the country began to close down. In some places, such as Mumbai, the mills closed rapidly. In Ahmedabad, the process of Change in the balance of power in a house: an closure was long drawn out unemployed mill worker peeling garlic whereas his wife has a new job of beedi rolling. and spread over 10 years. Over this period, approximately over 80,000 permanent workers and over 50,000 non-permanent workers lost their jobs and were driven to the informal sector. The city experienced an economic recession and public disturbances, especially communal riots. A whole class of workers was thrown back from the middle class into the informal sector, into poverty. There was widespread alcoholism and suicides, children were withdrawn from school and sent to work. Source: Renana Jhabvala, Ratna M. Sudarshan and Jeemol Unni (Ed.) Informal Economy at Centre Stage: New Structures of Employment, Sage Publications, New Delhi, 2003, pp.265. Since the late 1970s, many government. Workers are dismissed developing countries, including India, without any compensation. started paying attention to enterprises Technology used in the informal sector and workers in the informal sector enterprises is outdated; they also do as employment in the formal sector not maintain any accounts. Workers is not gr owing. Workers and of this sector live in slums and are enterprises in the informal sector do not squatters. Of late, owing to the efforts get regular income; they do not have of the International Labour Organisation any protection or regulation from the (ILO), the Indian government has EMPLOYMENT : GROWTH, INFORMALISATION AND OTHER ISSUES 105 2024-25  Work These Out Tick (ü) mark against those which are in the informal sector Ø Worker in a hotel which has seven hired workers and three family workers ØA private school teacher in a school which has 25 teachers ØA police constable Ø Nurse in a government hospital Ø Cycle-rickshaw puller Ø The owner of a textile shop employing nine workers Ø Driverof a bus company which has more than 10 buses with 20 drivers, conductors and other workers Ø Civil engineer working in a construction company which has 10 workers Ø Computer operator in the state government office working on a temporary basis ØA clerk in the electricity office. initiated the modernisation of informal any vacancy in their factory or office. sector enterprises and provision of Many in the rural areas do not go out social security measures to informal and ask for a job but stay home when sector workers. there is no work. Some go to 6.8 UNEMPLOYMENT You might have seen people looking for jobs in newspapers. Some look for a job through friends and relatives. In many cities, you might find people standing in some select areas looking for people to employ them for that day’s work. Some go to factories and offices and give their bio-data and ask whether there is Fig. 6.5 Unemployed mill workers waiting for casual jobs 106 INDIAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 2024-25  Employment and Training data of Registration with Employment Exchanges. Though they provide different estimates of unemployment, they do provide us with the attributes of the unemployed and the variety of unemployment prevailing in our country. Do we have different types of unemployment in our Fig. 6.6 Sugar cane cutters: disguised unemployment is common economy? The situation in farm works described in the first employment exchanges and register paragraph of this section is called open themselves for vacancies notified through unemployment. Economists call employment exchanges. The National unemployment prevailing in Indian farms Statistical Office (Previously it was known as disguised unemployment. What is as National Sample Survey Organisation) disguised unemployment? Suppose a defines unemployment as a situation in farmer has four acres of land and he which all those who, owing to lack of actually needs only two workers and work, are not working but either seek himself to carry out various operations work through employment exchanges, on his farm in a year, but if he employs intermediaries, friends or relatives or by five workers and his family members making applications to prospective such as his wife and children, this employers or express their willingness situation is known as disguised or availability for work under the unemployment. One study conducted in prevailing condition of work and the late 1950s showed about one-third remunerations. There are a variety of of agriculture workers in India as ways by which an unemployed person disguisedly unemployed. is identified. Economists define You may have noticed that many unemployed person as one who is not people migrate to an urban area, pick able to get employment of even one hour up a job and stay there for some time, in half a day. but come back to their home villages There are three sources of data on as soon as the rainy season begins. unemployment : Reports of Census of Why do they do so? This is because India, National Statistical Office’s work in agriculture is seasonal; there Reports of Employment and are no employment opportunities in the Unemployment Situation, Annual village for all months in the year. When Reports of Periodic Labour Force there is no work to do on farms, people Survey, and Directorate General of go to urban areas and look for jobs. EMPLOYMENT : GROWTH, INFORMALISATION AND OTHER ISSUES 107 2024-25  6.9 GOVERNMENT AND EMPLOYMENT GENERATION You may recall about the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005. It promises 100 days of guaranteed wage employment to all rural households who volunteer to do unskilled manual work. The scheme based on this Act is one of the many measures the government has implemented to generate employment for those who are in need of jobs in rural areas. Fig. 6.7 Dam construction work is a direct way of Since Independence, the employment generation by the government Union and State governments This kind of unemployment is known have played an important role in as seasonal unemployment. This is also generating employment or creating a common form of unemployment opportunities for employment prevailing in India. generation. Their efforts can be Though we have witnessed slow broadly categorised into two — direct growth of employment, have you seen and indirect. In the first category, as people being unemployed over a very you have seen in the preceding section, long time? Scholars say that in India, the government employs people in people cannot remain completely various departments for administrative unemployed for very long because their purposes. It also runs industries, desperate economic condition would hotels and transport companies, and not allow them to be so. You will rather find them being forced to accept hence, provides employment directly jobs that nobody else would do, to workers. When the output unpleasant or even dangerous jobs in of goods and services from unclean, or unhealthy surroundings. government enterprises increases, then The Central and State governments private enterprises which receive raw take initiatives and generate materials from government enterprises employment to facilitate a decent living will also raise their output and hence for low income families through various increase the number of employment measures. These will be discussed in opportunities in the economy. For the following section. example, when a government owned 108 INDIAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 2024-25 steel company increases its output, it technology now frequently permit a will result in direct increase in highly competitive existence for efficient employment in that government small scale and often individual company. Simultaneously, private enterprises or specialist workers side by companies, which purchase steel from side with the multinationals. it, will also increase their output and Outsourcing of work is becoming a thus employment. This is the indirect common practice. It means that a generation of employment opportunities by the government big firm finds it profitable to close initiatives in the economy. down some of its specialist Many programmes that the departments (for example, legal or governments implement, aimed at computer programming or customer alleviating poverty, are through service sections) and hand over a large employment generation. They are number of small piecemeal jobs to very also known as employment small enterprises or specialist generation programmes. All these individuals, sometimes situated even in programmes aim at providing not other countries. The traditional notion only employment but also services in of the modern factory or office, as a areas such as primary health, result, has been altered in such primary education, rural drinking a manner that for many the home water, nutrition, assistance for people is becoming the workplace. All of to buy income and employment this change has not gone in favour generating assets, development of community assets by generating of the individual worker. The nature wage employment, construction of of employment has become more houses and sanitation, assistance for informal with only limited availability constructing houses, laying of rural of social security measures to the roads, development of wastelands/ workers. degraded lands. In the last few decades, there has been rapid growth in the gross 6.10 C ONCLUSION domestic product, but without There has been a change in the simultaneous increase in employment structure of workforce in India. Newly opportunities. This has forced the emerging jobs are found mostly in the government to take up initiatives in service sector. The expansion of the generating employment opportunities service sector and the advent of high particularly in the rural areas. EMPLOYMENT : GROWTH, INFORMALISATION AND OTHER ISSUES 109 2024-25  Recap Ø Allthose persons who are engaged in various economic activities and hence contribute to gross national product are workers. Ø About two-fifth of the total population in the country is engaged in various economic activities. Ø Men particularly rural men, form the major section of workforce in India. Ø Majority of workers in India are self-employed. Casual wage labourers and regular salaried employees together account for less than half the proportion of India’s workforce. Ø About three-fifth of India’s workforce depends on agriculture and other allied activities as the major source of livelihood. Ø In recent years, the growth of employment has decelerated. Ø During post-reform period, India has been witness to employment opportunities in the service sector. These new jobs are found mostly in the informal sector and the nature of jobs is also mostly casual. Ø Government is the major formal sector employer in the country. Ø Disguised unemployment is a common form of unemployment in rural India. Ø There has been a change in the structure of the workforce in India. Ø Through various schemes and policies, the government takes initiatives to generate employment directly and indirectly. EXERCISES 1. Who is a worker? 2. Define worker-population ratio. 3. Are the following workers — a beggar, a thief, a smuggler, a gambler? Why? 110 INDIAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 2024-25  4. Find the odd man out (i) owner of a saloon (ii) a cobbler (iii) a cashier in Mother Dairy or Milk Cooperative Society of your area (iv) a tuition master (v) transport operator (vi) construction worker. 5. The newly emerging jobs are found mostly in the sector (service/manufacturing). 6. An establishement with four hired workers is known as (formal/informal) sector establishment. 7. Raj is going to school. When he is not in school, you will find him working in his farm. Can you consider him as a worker? Why? 8. Compared to urban women, more rural women are found working. Why? 9. Meena is a housewife. Besides taking care of household chores, she works in the cloth shop which is owned and operated by her husband. Can she be considered as a worker? Why? 10. Find the odd man out (i) rickshaw puller who works under a rick- shaw owner (ii) mason (iii) mechanic shop worker (iv) shoeshine boy. 11. The following table shows distribution of workforce in India for the year 1972-73. Analyse it and give reasons for the nature of workforce distribution. You will notice that the data is pertaining to the situation in India about 50 years ago! Place of Residence Workforce (in millions) Male Female Total Rural 125 69 195 Urban 32 7 39 12. The following table shows the population and worker population ratio for India in 1999-2000. Can you estimate the workforce (urban and total) for India? Region Estimates of Worker Estimated Population Population No. of Workers (in crores) Ratio (in crores) Rural 71.88 41.9 71.88 × 41.9 = 30.12 100 Urban 28.52 33.7 ? Total 100.40 39.5 ? EMPLOYMENT : GROWTH, INFORMALISATION AND OTHER ISSUES 111 2024-25  13. Why are regular salaried employees more in urban areas than in rural areas? 14. Why are less women found in regular salaried employment? 15. Analyse the recent trends in sectoral distribution of workforce in India. 16. Compared to the 1970s, there has hardly been any change in the distribution of workforce across various industries. Comment. 17. Do you think that during 1950-2010 employment generated in the country is commensurate with the growth of GDP in India? How? 18. Is it necessary to generate employment in the formal sector rather than in the informal sector? Why? 19. Victor is able to get work only for two hours in a day. Rest of the day, he is looking for work. Is he unemployed? Why? What kind of jobs could persons like Victor be doing? 20. You are residing in a village. If you are asked to advice the village panchayat, what kinds of activities would you suggest for the improvement of your village which would also generate employment. 21. Who is a casual wage labourer? 22. How will you know whether a worker is working in the informal sector? SUGGESTED ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES 1. Select a region, say a street or colony, and divide it into 3-4 sub-regions. Conduct a survey by which you can collect the details of activity each person living there is engaged in. Derive the worker-population ratio for all the regions. Interpret the results for differences in worker-population ratio for the different sub-regions. 2. Suppose 3-4 groups of students are given different regions of a state. One region is mainly engaged in cultivation of paddy. In another region, coconut is the main plantation. The third region is a coastal region where fishing is the main activity. The fourth region has a river nearby with a lot of livestock rearing activities. Ask all the four groups to develop a report on what kind of employment could be generated in the four regions. 3. Visit the local library and ask for Employment News, a weekly published by the Government of India. Go through each issue for the last two months. There will be seven issues. Select 25 advertisements and 112 INDIAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 2024-25  fill in the following table (expand the table as needed). Discuss the nature of jobs in the classroom. Items Advertisement 1 Advertisement 2 1. Name of Office 2. Department/company 3. Private/public/joint venture 4. Name of the post 5. Sector—primary/seconday/ service 6. Number of posts/vacancies 7. Qualification required 4. You might notice, in your locality, a variety of works being done by the government, for example laying of roads, desilting of tanks, construction of school buildings, hospital and other government offices, construction of check dams and houses for the poor etc. Prepare a critical assessment report on one such activity. The issues covered could be the following (i) how the work was identified (ii) amount sanctioned (iii) contribution of local people, if any (iv) number of persons involved — both men and women (v) wages paid (vi) is it really required in that area and other critical comments on the implementation of the scheme under which the work is being carried out. 5. In recent years, you may have noticed that many voluntary organisations also take initiatives to generate employment in hilly and dry land regions. If you find such initiatives in your locality, visit and prepare a report. REFERENCES CHADHA, G.K. and P.P. SAHU, 2002. ‘Post-reform Setbacks in Rural Employment: Issues that need further scrutiny.’ Economic and Political Weekly, May 25, pp.1998-2026. DESAI, S and M.B.DAS. 2004. ‘Is Employment Driving India’s Growth Surge’, Economic and Political Weekly, July 3, pp. 3045-3051. GHOSE, AJIT K. 1999. ‘Current Issues of Employment Policy in India.’ Economic and Political Weekly, September 4, pp. 2592-2608. HIRWAY, INDIRA. 2002. ‘Employment and Unemployment Situation in 1990s: How Good are NSS Data.’ Economic and Political Weekly, May 25, pp. 2027-2036. EMPLOYMENT : GROWTH, INFORMALISATION AND OTHER ISSUES 113 2024-25  J ACOB, PAUL. 1986. ‘Concept of ‘work’ and estimates of ‘workforce’ — An appraisal of the treatment of activities relating to non-marketed output,’ Sarvekshana, Vol.IX, No.4, April. KULSHRESHTHA, A.C., GULAB SINGH, ALOK KAR and R.L. MISHRA. 2000. ‘Workforce in the Indian National Accounts Statistics,’ The Journal of Income and Wealth, Vol.22, No.2, July, pp. 3-39. PRADHAN, B.K. and M.R.SALUJA. 1996. ‘Labour Statistics in India: A Review.’ Margin, July- September, Vol.28, Number 4, pp. 319-347. RATH, NILAKANTHA. 2001. ‘Data on Employment, Unemployment and Education: Where to go from here?’ Economic and Political Weekly, June 9, pp. 2081-2087. SUNDARAM, K. 2001. ‘Employment-Unemployment Situation in the Nineties: Some Results from NSS 55th Round Survey’, Economic and Political Weekly, March 17, pp. 931-940. SUNDARAM, K. 2001. ‘Employment and Poverty in 1990s: Further Results from NSS 55th Round Employment-Unemployment Survey, 1999-2000,’ Economic and Political Weekly, August 11, pp. 3039-3049. V ISARIA, PRAVIN. 1996. ‘Structure of the Indian Workforce, 1961-1994,’ The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Vol.39, No.4, pp. 725-740. Government Reports Annual Reports, Ministry of Labour, Government of India, Delhi. Census of India 2011, Primary Census Abstract, Registrar General of Census Operations, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, Delhi. Economic Survey, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. Reports on Employment and Unemployment Situation in India, Ministry of Statistics and Planning, Government of India. Annual Report of Periodic Labour Force Survey 2017-18, National Statistical Office, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India, New Delhi. Websites www.censusofindia.nic.in www.mospi.nic.in 114 INDIAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 2024-25