Employment generation (or the lack of it) will probably be the biggest
issue in the coming years. India’s employment challenge is broadly perceived as
one of moving agricultural workers to remunerative jobs in the non-farm sector,
and rightly so. With a declining share in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and a
relatively stagnant share in employment, farming incomes have been under
squeeze. Unlike farming, the non-agricultural sector is much more
heterogeneous. It comprises the extremely skilled computer programmer as well
as the construction labourer who has migrated to escape absolute penury in
farming. Who are India’s non-agricultural workers? Recently released statistics
from the 2011 census allow us to answer this question in a lot of detail.
This two-part data series will use these statistics to provide a
snapshot of India’s non-agricultural workforce.
According to the 2011 census, 45% of India’s total workers are employed
in the non-agricultural sector. This number excludes those who work as either
cultivators or agricultural labourers. The share of non-agricultural workers
among men is 50%, which is 15 percentage points more than that among women.
Unless otherwise stated, all calculations used in this series will be
based on the number of both main and marginal workers. Census of India defines
a main worker as one who is employed for a majority (six months or more) of the
preceding year. A marginal worker is one who has been employed for less than
six months either out of choice, or paucity of work. The share of
non-agricultural workers is 50% among main workers, which is 18 percentage
points higher than the figure among marginal workers.
This is to be expected, as many workers who do not have regular
employment might find some work during the peak agricultural season.
To be sure, there is an element of ambiguity about the 2011 census
statistics on India’s non-agricultural workers. This is because of a divergence
in the basic trend in growth of the non-agricultural workforce between the 2001
and 2011 Census and 1999-00 to 2011-12 National Sample Survey Office (NSSO)
survey on employment and unemployment.
This was first pointed out in a 2016 paper published in the Review of
Agrarian Studies by Jayan Jose Thomas and MP Jayesh of the Indian Institute of
Technology, Delhi. Their basic findings were summarised in a 2016 Mint piece by
Pramit Bhattacharya. While the total number of people employed in agriculture
decreased by 15.5 million between 1999-00 and 2011-12 according to NSSO data,
it actually went up by 28.9 million between 2001 and 2011 according to Census
data.
There are significant state-wise variations in the share of
non-agricultural workers in India. The share of non-agricultural workers is
around one-fourth in states such as Bihar and Chhattisgarh, while it is almost
two-third in a state such as Punjab. The divergence in share of
non-agricultural workers seems to have a strong relation with the well-being
levels across states.
Living in a particular state is not the only factor that
influences one’s chances of being a part of India’s non-agricultural workforce.
As has been discussed above, men have a greater likelihood of ending up as
non-agricultural workers. Age seems to play a role as well.
Census data shows that the
share of non-agricultural workers is the highest among workers aged between 20
and 59 years, and lower among younger and older workers. This pattern holds
across the gender-divide. The gender gap in the non-agricultural workforce is
the highest in the 20-59 year age group.
As is to be expected, the share of non-agricultural workers
increases with an improvement in the educational status of workers. What is
interesting, however, is that the share of non-agricultural women workers
surges ahead of that of men with an improvement in the educational status.
What is also surprising is the fact that religion too seems to
be playing a role in determining one’s share in the non-agricultural workforce.
According to Census statistics, the share of non-agricultural workers in the
total workforce is the lowest among Hindus and the highest among Jains.
The share of non-agricultural
workers among Muslims, Christians and Sikhs, too, is higher than the national
average. These comparisons are based on statistics for main workers as
religion-wise figures on marginal workers are not available. There also seems
to be a variation in the gender gap across religions when it comes to
participation in the non-agricultural workforce.
Sikhs are the only religious
group among whom the share of women is higher than men among non-agricultural
workers. Muslims have the second lowest gender gap in non-agricultural
employment among all religions.
Posted on :
Jun 18, 2018