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Report No. 539 (66/10/2)
Informal Sector and Conditions of Employment in India
NSS 66th ROUND(July 2009 June 2010)
National Sample Survey OfficeNational Statistical
Organisation
Ministry of Statistics & Programme ImplementationGovernment
of India
January 2012
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Highlights
NSS Report No. 539: Informal Sector and Conditions of Employment
in Indiai
HIGHLIGHTS
This report is based on the eighth quinquennial survey on
employment and unemployment conducted in the 66th round of NSS
during July 2009 to June 2010. The survey was spread over 7,402
villages and 5,252 urban blocks covering 1,00,957 households
(59,129 in rural areas and 41,828 in urban areas) and enumerating
4,59,784 persons (2,81,327 in rural areas and 1,78,457 in urban
areas).
In the NSS 66th round, particulars of the workers in the
informal sector and conditions of employment of the different
categories of employees (viz., regular wage/ salaried workers and
casual labourers) were collected for the industry groups/ divisions
012, 014, 015, 02,05, 10-99 of NIC-2004. Among these, the industry
groups/divisions 012, 014, 015, 02, 05 (henceforth referred to as
AGEGC sector) were in the [ag]ricultural sector [e]xcluding only
[g]rowing of [c]rops, market gardening, horticulture (industry
group 011) and growing of crops combined with farming of animals
(industry group 013). The industry groups 011 and 013 were kept out
of the coverage. This information was collected from those who were
classified as workers according to usual principal status (ps)
including those engaged in subsidiary economic activity(ss). The
discussions on informal sector and conditions of employment, refer
to the workers in usual status (ps+ss) engaged in AGEGC and
non-agriculture sectors.
In India, nearly 49 per cent of the workers were employed in the
industry groups 011 and 013-nearly 63 per cent in the rural areas
and 6 per cent in the urban areas. The coverage of this report has
been mostly confined to AGEGC and the non-agriculture sectors for
purpose of discussion on informal sector and conditions of
employment of the employees. However, the discussion on the
existence of union/ association pertains not only to employees but
also to the self-employed workers in all the industry divisions of
NIC-2004, i.e., NIC 2004 codes 01 to 99.
Some of the key findings relating to workers in informal sector
(defined to cover proprietary and partnership enterprises),
location of workplace of the workers, proportion of workers engaged
in enterprises that used electricity, size of the enterprise, wage
and salary earnings of the employees, and some of conditions of
employment of the employees (regular wage/salaried employees and
casual labourers), viz., type of job contract, eligibility of paid
leave, nature of employment (temporary/permanent), availability of
social security benefits, etc., are givenbelow:
1. Workers in Informal sector
(a) Share of workers (ps+ss) in AGEGC and non-agriculture
sectors [para. 3.1.3 and 3.1.4]:
In rural areas, AGEGC and non-agriculture sectors together
shared 37 per cent (AGEGC: 5 per cent and non-agriculture: 32 per
cent) of the all workers (ps+ss).
In urban areas, AGEGC and non-agriculture sectors together
shared 94 per cent (AGEGC:1.6 per cent and non-agriculture: 92.5
per cent) of the workers.
Among the workers in AGEGC and non-agriculture sectors, the
AGEGC engaged nearly 8 per cent and the remaining 92 per cent of
the workers were in non-agriculture sector.
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Highlights
NSS Report No. 539: Informal Sector and Conditions of Employment
in Indiaii
In the distribution of the total workers in AGEGC and
non-agriculture sectors, in the urban areas the non-agriculture
sector shared nearly 98 per cent of the workers compared to 87 per
cent in rural areas.
(b) Share of workers in informal sector [para.3.2.2 and
3.2.5]:
Among all workers in AGEGC and non-agriculture sectors, nearly
71 per cent were engaged in the informal sector (74 per cent in the
rural areas and 67 per cent in the urban areas).
More than 93 per cent of workers in both rural and urban areas
engaged in AGEGC belonged to the informal sector. In the non-
agriculture sector, nearly 71 per cent of the workers in rural
areas and 67 in urban areas were engaged in the informal
sector.
Among self-employed in non-agriculture sector, about 92 per cent
in the rural areas and 95per cent in the urban areas worked in the
informal sector.
Among casual labourers engaged in works other than public works
in the non-agriculture sector, nearly 73 per cent in both the rural
and urban areas worked in the informal sector.
Among regular wage/salaried employees in non-agriculture sector,
nearly 39 per cent in the rural areas and 40 per cent in the urban
areas worked in the informal sector.
(c) Informal sector workers in broad industry of work
[para.3.2.7 and 3.2.8]:
Construction, manufacturing and wholesale and retail trade
activities together was the main providers of employment for the
informal sector enterprises and all enterprises in both the rural
and urban areas.
Out of all workers in the non-agriculture informal sector, 76
per cent in the rural areas and 72 per cent in urban areas belonged
to construction, manufacturing and wholesale and retail trade
provided. The corresponding figures for all workers in
non-agriculture sector in rural and urban areas were nearly 69 per
cent and 59 per cent, respectively.
Proportions of informal sector workers in the activities which
provided majority ofemployment in informal sector:
industry sections rural urbanmanufacturing 86 78construction 64
72wholesale or retail trade, etc. 91 92transport, storage and
communication 82 68
Among the female workers in informal sector, nearly 53 per cent
in rural areas and 47 per cent in urban areas were in manufacturing
activity. In the manufacturing activity, a higher proportion of
female workers were employed in informal sector than males: 87 per
cent of female workers compared to 75 per cent of male workers in
urban areas and 93 per cent of female workers compared to 83 per
cent of male workers in rural areas.
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Highlights
NSS Report No. 539: Informal Sector and Conditions of Employment
in Indiaiii
(d) Location of workplace of informal sector workers [para.
3.2.10]:
The proportion of rural female workers having workplace in rural
areas was 93 per cent and in the case of male it was nearly 83 per
cent.
The proportion of urban female workers having their workplace in
urban areas was nearly 92 per cent and in the case of male it was
nearly 85 per cent.
Among the workers in informal sector residing in rural areas,
nearly 95 per cent of females and 86 per cent of males had their
workplace in rural areas.
Among the workers in informal sector residing in the urban
areas, nearly 92 per cent of females and 83 per cent of males had
their workplace in urban areas.
In rural areas, nearly 68 per cent of females and 21 per cent of
males employed in informal sector was working in any of the
following types of workplaces: (i) own dwelling, (ii) structure
attached to own dwelling unit, (iii) open area adjacent to own
dwelling unit and(iv) detached structure adjacent to own dwelling
unit. The corresponding proportions in urban areas were nearly 52
per cent for females compared to 15 per cent of males.
(e) Informal sector workers in manufacturing enterprises that
used electricity [para.3.2.11]:
In the rural areas, 31 per cent of all workers engaged in
manufacturing were employed in enterprises that used electricity
for production purposes and in the case of informal sector
manufacturing enterprises, the share was 27 per cent. In the urban
areas, corresponding proportions were 58 per cent and 52 per cent,
respectively.
(f) Informal sector workers in smaller enterprises (i.e.
enterprise with less than 6 workers)[para.3.2.12]:
In rural areas, 77 per cent of the workers in informal sectors
were engaged in smaller enterprises compared to 64 per cent of all
workers, while the corresponding proportions in urban areas were 69
per cent and 53 per cent, respectively.
(g) Wage/salary earning of the employees in informal sector
enterprises [para. 3.2.13]:
The regular wage/salaried employees engaged in the informal
sector enterprises earned nearly half the salary earnings (per day)
of the employees considering all types of enterprises- Rs. 321 for
all types of enterprises and Rs. 177 for informal sector
enterprises. In the case of casual labourers, it was Rs. 115 in the
informal sector enterprises and Rs. 112 for all enterprises.
2. Conditions of Employment
(a) Employees without written job contract [para. 3.3.2]:
Among all the employees (regular wage/salaried employees and
casual labourers) in the non-agriculture sector, nearly 81 per cent
in the rural areas and 74 per cent in urban areas had no written
job contract.
Among the regular wage/salaried employees in the non-agriculture
sector, nearly 60 per cent in rural areas and 65 per cent in the
urban areas had no written job contract.
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Highlights
NSS Report No. 539: Informal Sector and Conditions of Employment
in Indiaiv
(b) Employees with temporary nature of employment [para.
3.3.3]:
Among all the employees in the non-agriculture sector, nearly 52
per cent in the rural areas and 42 per cent in the urban areas had
temporary nature of employment.
(c) Employees without paid leave [para. 3.3.4]:
Among all the employees in the non-agriculture sector, nearly 80
per cent in rural areas and 60 per cent in urban areas were not
eligible for paid leave.
Among the regular wage/salaried employees in the non-agriculture
sector, nearly 50 per cent in rural areas and 46 per cent in urban
areas were not eligible for paid leave.
(d) Employees without any social security benefit [para.
3.3.5]:
Among all the employees in the non-agriculture sector, nearly 82
per cent in rural areas and 64 per cent in urban areas were not
eligible for any social security benefit.
Among the regular wage/salaried employees in the non-agriculture
sector, nearly 57 per cent in rural areas and nearly 53 per cent in
urban areas were not eligible for any social security benefit.
(e) Employees without written job contract and paid leave [para.
3.3.6]:
Among all the employees in the AGEGC and non-agriculture sector,
nearly 75 per cent in rural areas and 56 per cent in urban areas
neither had written job contract and nor were eligible for paid
leave.
(f) Method of payment of employees [para. 3.3.7]:
Among the regular wage/salaried employees in the AGEGC and
non-agriculture sector, nearly 90 per cent got regular monthly
salary and among casual labourers, only 7 per cent got regular
monthly salary and 53 per cent got daily payment.
3. Existence of Union/ Association [para.3.4]
Among all workers of age 15 years and above engaged in any of
the industry divisions 01 to 99 of NIC-2004, nearly 79 per cent had
no union/ association in their activity: it was nearly 85 per cent
among casual labourers, nearly 81 per cent among the self-employed
persons and nearly 58 per cent among the regular wage/salaried
employees.
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Contents
Contents
Page
Chapter One Introduction 1 - 7
Chapter Two Concepts and Definitions 8 - 32
Chapter Three Summary of Findings 33 - 153
Appendix A Detailed Tables: Table 1 to Table 12 (in CD) A-1 -
A-681
Appendix B Sample Design and Estimation Procedure B-1 - B-8
Appendix C Population Projection C-1 - C-3
Appendix D Schedule on Employment and Unemployment (Sch. 10) D-1
- D-16
Appendix A
Detailed Tables
Table No. Title PageTable (1) Distribution (per 1000) of usually
working persons engaged in the industry
groups/ divisions 012, 014, 015, 02, 05 or 10-99 by type of
enterprise for each activity status
A-1 -A-54
Table (2) Distribution (per 1000) of usually working persons
engaged in the industry groups/ divisions 012, 014, 015, 02, 05 or
10-99 by enterprise type for each industry group/ section
A-55 - A-135
Table (3) Distribution (per 1000) of usually working persons
engaged in the industry groups/ divisions 012, 014, 015, 02, 05 or
10-99 by location of workplace for each enterprise type
A-136-A-243
Table (4) Distribution (per 1000) of usually employed persons
engaged in the industry groups/ divisions 012, 014, 015, 02, 05 or
10-99 by enterprise size and use of electricity separately for each
enterprise type
A-244-A-279
Table (5) Distribution (per 1000) of regular salaried/ wage
employees and casual labours by type of job contract for each
industry group/ section
A-280-A-333
Table (6) Distribution (per 1000) of regular salaried/ wage
employees and casual labours by eligibility of paid leave for each
industry group/ section
A-334- A-387
Table (7) Distribution (per 1000) of regular salaried/ wage
employees and casual labours by availability of social security
benefit for each industry group/ section.
A-388- A-441
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Contents
Table No. Title PageTable (8) Distribution (per 1000) of regular
salaried/ wage employees and casual
labours by method of payment for each industry group/
sectionA-442- A-495
Table (9) Distribution (per 1000) of regular salaried/ wage
employees and casual labours working in the industry groups/
divisions 012, 014, 015, 02, 05 or 10-99 by availability of social
security benefit separately for type of job contract, eligibility
for paid leave and method of payment
A-496- A-603
Table (10) Distribution (per 1000) of usually working (ps+ss)
persons (age 15 years & above) by existence of
union/association in their activity and its membership for each
broad usual activity status
A-604- A-609
Table (11) Distribution (per 1000) of usually working persons
engaged in the industry groups/ divisions 012, 014, 015,02, 05 or
10-99 by type of job contract and nature of employment for
different broad industry groups
A-610- A-627
Table (12) Average wage/salary earnings (Rs. 0.00) per day
received by wage /salaried employees according to the usual status
for different industry group/ sections and enterprise type in which
they were usually engaged
A-628- A-681
NOTES ON TABLES
1. Estimates are provided separately for rural and urban areas
and for males and females.
2. The estimates presented in the report, in general, refer to
the mid-point of the survey period (July 2009 June 2010) of NSS
66th round, i.e., 01.01.2010.
3. It may be noted that as the tables are generally presented as
per 1000 distribution or estimates per 1000, the figures are
rounded off. Thus, while using the ratios from the survey results,
it is to be noted that the accuracy of these derived aggregates
will be limited to the number of significant digits available in
the ratio or percentage estimates presented in the report. The
estimated ag-gregates, wherever possible, can be used to get ratios
with more significant digits.
4. If there are no sample households/persons in a particular
category, the estimates/estimated proportions of households/persons
in that category becomes 0. Estimated number per 1000 are also
shown as 0, when they are greater than 0 but less than 0.5.
5. In the detailed tables, in some of the deeper
classifications, some sample sizes may be small and this may have a
bearing on the precision of the corresponding estimates.
6. The cell-level figures in the tables, when added up, may not
exactly be equal to the figure shown against the total column (or
line) due to (i) rounding off and/or (ii) presence of non-response
cases.
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Chapter OneIntroduction
NSS Report No. 539: Informal Sector and Conditions of Employment
in India
1
Chapter One
Introduction
1.1 The Report in Perspective
1.1.1 The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) during the period
July 2009 - June 2010 carried out an all-India household survey on
the subject of employment and unemployment in India as a part of
66th round of its survey programme. In this survey, the nation-wide
enquiry was conducted to generate estimates of various
characteristics pertaining to employment and unemployment and
labour force characteristics at the national and State levels.
Information on various facets of employment and unemployment in
India was collected through a schedule of enquiry (Schedule 10)
adopting the established concepts, definitions and procedures.
Based on the data collected during the entire period, estimates
pertaining to employment-unemployment in India along with various
characteristics associated with them have been presented, in
detail, in NSS Report No. 537 (Employment and Unemployment
Situation in India, 2009-10). Besides, Key Indicators of Employment
and Unemployment in India, 2009-10 has already been released on
June 2011.
1.1.2 In addition to generating lead indicators of employment
and unemployment such as labour force participation rate (LFPR),
worker population ratio (WPR), unemployment rate (UR) and
proportion unemployed (PU) based on alternative approaches of their
measurement, in various cross classification, the NSS 66th round
also endeavoured to capture the details on qualitative aspects of
employment, viz., employment in informal sector and informal
employment. For this purpose, a set of probing questions were asked
to usual status workers regarding some features of the enterprises
in which they worked, in order to study the characteristics of the
workers particularly in the unincorporated enterprises1 that were
considered as constituting informal sector. Besides, for the
employees (i.e., for regular wage/salaried persons and casual
labourers) in usual status, information on conditions of employment
was also collected. Collection of information on type of
enterprises and on conditions of employment of the employees was
done for whole of the non-agricultural sector and a part of the
agricultural sector2 excluding growing of crops; market gardening;
horticulture (NIC-2004 group 011) and growing of crops combined
with farming of animals (NIC-2004 group 013). Thus, coverage of the
activities for collection of information on informal sector and
conditions of employmentwas restricted to those workers engaged in
industry groups 012, 014, 015 and industry divisions 02, 05, 10-99
of NIC-2004. Of these industry groups/ divisions, 012, 014, 015, 02
and 05 are in the [ag]ricultural sector [e]xcluding [g]rowing of
[c]rops, market gardening, horticulture and growing of crops
combined with farming of animals (AGEGC activities for short
henceforth).
1 Enterprises with type of ownership as proprietary or
partnership.2 The coverage of the activities of the agricultural
sector for collection of information on enterprise type and
conditions of employment were farming of animals (NIC-2004 group
012), agricultural and animal husbandry service activities, except
veterinary activities (NIC-2004 group 014), hunting, trapping and
game propagation including related service activities (NIC-2004
group 015), forestry, logging and related service activities
(NIC-2004 divison 02), and fishing (NIC-2004 division 05).
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NSS Report No. 539: Informal Sector and Conditions of Employment
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2
1.1.3 This report, the second in the series of eight reports
planned for NSS 66th round survey on employment and unemployment
(Schedule 10), pertains to the estimates of usual status (ps+ss)
workforce according to characteristics of enterprise where workers
were engaged, with special reference to those engaged in the
informal sector enterprises, as well as the conditions of
employment of the employees characterizing informal employment. The
estimates have, as usual, been presented in respect of various
characteristics associated with them.
1.1.4 The NSSO during the 55th round survey (July 1999- June
2000), for the first time, collected information, through
employment unemployment survey, in respect of workers engaged in
the non-agricultural enterprises in the informal sector and the
estimates on them are available in NSS Report No. 4603. However, in
NSS 55th round, no information on conditions of employment of the
employees was collected. In NSS 61st round, information from the
usual status workers regarding some features of the enterprises in
which they worked was collected and for the first time, information
on conditions of employment for the employees was also collected.
While, the coverage of activities in NSS 55th round was for the
non-agricultural sector only, the coverage of activities in NSS
61st round (July 2004-June 2005) was similar to that of NSS 66th
round. The results related to the workforce according to the
characteristics of the enterprises and conditions of employment of
the employees obtained from NSS 61st round survey are available in
NSS report no. 5194.
1.2 Genesis of NSS Employment and Unemployment Survey
1.2.1 The quinquennial survey on employment-unemployment is one
of the importantsurveys conducted regularly by the NSSO. The first
such survey was done during September 1972 - October 1973
corresponding to the 27th round of NSSO. The present survey is the
eighth in the series.
1.2.2 Past Quinquennial Surveys: The assessment of the volume
and structure of employment and unemployment using large scale
household surveys commenced with the NSS 9th round (May -
September, 1955). Subsequently NSSO conducted a number of surveys
on this subject to firm up the concepts and methods. The core
conceptual framework for conducting such surveys was put in place
by an Expert Committee on Unemployment Estimates (popularly known
as the Dantwala Committee), set up by the Planning Commission. The
Expert Committee reviewed these surveys and the indicators
generated from such surveys conducted by NSS in the past. The
concepts and definitions recommended by this committee formed the
basis of the first quinquennial survey on employment and
unemployment conducted in the 27th round of NSS (September 1972
October 1973). Since then, six comprehensive quinquennial surveys
on employment and unemployment situation in India have been carried
out in the past by the NSSO prior to the present quinquennial
survey. These were carried out during the 32nd round (July 1977
June 1978), 38th round (January 1983 December 1983), 43rd round
(July 1987 June 1988), 50th round (July 1993 June 1994), 55th round
(July 1999 June 2000), 61st round (July 2004 June 2005) in which
concepts, definitions and procedures were based primarily on the
recommendations of the Dantwala Committee. The results of these
3 NSS Report No. 460: Non-agricultural workers in informal
sector based on Employment-Unemployment Survey, 1999-2000.4 NSS
Report No. 519: Informal Sector and Conditions of Employment in
India, 2004-05.
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NSS Report No. 539: Informal Sector and Conditions of Employment
in India
3
surveys have been brought out in the form of NSS reports. In NSS
55th round, the aspects of enterprise characteristic of employment
and in NSS 61st round the qualitative aspects of informal
employment was added in the survey module of the quinquennial
round.
1.2.3 Other surveys on employment-unemployment: Apart from these
quinquennial surveys on employment and unemployment, NSSO had also
been collecting information on certain key items on employment and
unemployment, as a part of annual series, from a smaller sample of
households in each round since its 45th round (July 1989 - June
1990) through the schedule on Household Consumer Expenditure
(Schedule 1.0). The objective of data collected in the annual
series was to measure employment and unemployment indicators in
terms of the usual and current weekly statuses only and study of
these indicators in respect of category of employment, industrial
distribution of the usually employed, etc. These procedures
continued till the 59th round (January-December 2003) of NSS. In
the annual rounds, only activity status and industry of work
according to usual principal status, subsidiary status and current
weekly status approach were collected through a few columns of the
demographic block of the Consumer Expenditure Schedule (Schedule
1.0). Particulars of employment and unemployment according to the
usual principal status and usual subsidiary status were collected
in the annual rounds by following a similar approach as in the
quinquennial rounds. In the quinquennial rounds, particulars of
current daily status of the household members are collected and
current weekly status is derived from them, whereas in the annual
rounds, current weekly status has been obtained through a direct
query. In the 60th round (January-June 2004), a separate schedule
on employment and unemployment was canvassed for the first time in
an annual round and particulars on employment and unemployment was
collected in the same manner as that of the quinquennial rounds. In
NSS 62nd round (July 2005 - June 2006) and in NSS 64th round (July
2007- June 2008) also a separate schedule on employment and
unemployment, similar to the one canvassed during NSS 60th round,
was canvassed and particulars on labour force were collected in the
manner similar to the quinquennial rounds.
1.3 Scope of NSS 66th round Survey on Employment and
Unemployment
1.3.1 The critical issues in the context of labour force
enquiries pertain to defining the labour force and measuring
participation of labour force in different economic activities. The
activity participation of the people is not only dynamic but also
multidimensional; it varies over regions, age, education, gender,
industry and occupational categories. In NSS surveys, persons are
classified into various activity categories on the basis of
activities pursued by them during certain specified reference
periods. Three reference periods are used in NSS surveys, viz. (i)
one year, (ii) one week and (iii) each day of the reference week.
Based on these three periods, three different measures of activity
status are arrived at. The activity status determined on the basis
of the reference period of one year is known as the usual activity
status (US) of a person, that determined on the basis of a
reference period of one week is known as the current weekly status
(CWS) of the person and the activity status determined on the basis
of the engagement on each day during the reference week is known as
the current daily status (CDS) of the person.
1.3.2 In NSS 66th round Employment & Unemployment schedule,
the major features of data collected in NSS 61st round were
retained. In addition, some information on Home based workers was
collected. There is another specific importance associated with the
period of NSS 66th round. The present quinquennial round is the
first one, since the major
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NSS Report No. 539: Informal Sector and Conditions of Employment
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4
public intervention in the rural labour market made with the
enactment of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee
Act 2005. The survey instruments for NSS 66th round appropriately
incorporated the assimilation of data on some salient aspects
relating to MGNREGA.
1.3.3 In NSS 66th round, data on employment-unemployment
characteristics were collected through Schedule 10. The schedule
captured a range of information on the following aspects:
i) Household characteristics, like household size, religion,
social group, land possessed, land cultivated, etc. For the rural
households, information was collected on whether the household had
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (MGNREG) job
card, whether got work in MGNREG works during the last 365 days,
number of days got work in MGNREG works and mode of payment of the
wages earned in MGNREG works. Information on household monthly
consumer expenditure was also collected through a worksheet to
study the employment-unemployment characteristics with the level of
living of the population.
ii) Demographic particulars, like age, sex, educational level,
status of current attendance and vocational training.
iii) Usual principal activity status and subsidiary economic
activity status of the all persons. iv) Particulars of the
enterprise for all the usual status workers (excluding those
engaged in growing of crops and growing of crops combined with
farming of animals) viz., location of work place, type of
enterprises, number of workers in the enterprise etc. and some
particulars on the conditions of employment for the employees, like
type of job contract, eligibility for paid leave, availability of
social security benefits, etc. For self-employed persons in the
usual status, some particulars were collected for identification of
home-based workers.
v) Extent of underutilization of the labour time and on the
qualitative aspects of employment, like changes in activity status,
occupation /industry, existence of trade unions/associations,
nature of employment (permanent/temporary), etc.
vi) Participation in specified activities by the household
members who are classified as engaged in domestic duties in the
usual principal activity status.
1.4 The survey outline of NSS 66th round survey
1.4.1 Geographical coverage: The survey covered the whole of the
Indian Union except (i) interior villages of Nagaland situated
beyond five kilometres of the bus route and (ii) villages in
Andaman and Nicobar Islands which remained inaccessible throughout
the year. However, all the sample first stage units of both rural
and urban areas of Leh, Kargil and Poonch districts of Jammu &
Kashmir became casualty and therefore these districts were outside
the survey coverage.
1.4.2 Sub-round: The fieldwork of the 66th round of NSSO started
from 1st July, 2009 and continued till 30th June, 2010. As usual,
the survey period of this round was divided into four sub-rounds,
each with a duration of three months, the 1st sub-round period
ranging from July to September 2009, the 2nd sub-round period from
October to December 2009 and so on. An equal number of sample
villages/blocks (FSUs) was allotted for survey in
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NSS Report No. 539: Informal Sector and Conditions of Employment
in India
5
each of these four sub-rounds. The survey used the interview
method of data collection from a sample of randomly selected
households.
1.5 Sample Design
1.5.1 A stratified multi-stage design was adopted for the 66th
round survey. The first stage units (FSU) were the 2001 census
villages (Panchayat wards in case of Kerala) in the rural sector
and Urban Frame Survey (UFS) blocks in the urban sector. In
addition, two non-UFS towns of Leh and Kargil of Jammu &
Kashmir were also treated as FSUs in the urban sector. The ultimate
stage units (USU) were households in both the sectors.
Hamlet-groups/sub-blocks constituted the intermediate stage
whenever these were formed in the sample FSUs. For the rural
sector, the list of 2001 census villages (Panchayat wards in case
of Kerala) constituted the sampling frame. For the urban sector,
the list of latest available UFS blocks constituted the sampling
frame. For non-UFS towns, frame consisted of the individual towns
(only two towns, viz., Leh & Kargil constituted this frame).
Within each district of a State/ UT, two basic strata were formed
as follows: rural stratum comprising all rural areas of the
district and urban stratum comprising all the urban areas of the
district. However, within the urban areas of a district, if there
were one or more towns with population 10 lakhs or more as per
population census 2001 in a district, each of them formed a
separate basic stratum and the remaining urban areas of the
district were considered as another basic stratum. There was no
sub-stratification in the urban sector.However, to net adequate
number of child workers, for all rural strata, each stratum was
divided into 2 sub-strata. These were, sub-stratum 1: all villages
with proportion of child workers (p) >2P (where P is the average
proportion of child workers for the state/ UT as per Census 2001)
and sub-stratum 2: remaining villages.
1.5.2 At the all-India level, a total number of 12784 FSUs were
allocated for survey in the central sample. This sample size was at
par with the sample size of NSS 61st round. In addition, 24 State
sample FSUs (16 for rural sector and 8 for urban sector) of Leh and
Kargil districts of J & K were included in the central sample.
The total number of sample FSUs was allocated to the States and UTs
in proportion to population as per census 2001 subject to the
availability of investigators and ensuring minimum sample
allocation to each State/ UT. The State/ UT level sample size was
allocated between two sectors in proportion to population as per
census 2001 with double weightage to urban sector subject to the
restriction that urban sample size for bigger states like
Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, etc. did not exceed the rural sample size.
A minimum of 16 FSUs (to the extent possible) was allocated to each
state/ UT separately for rural and urban areas. Further the State
level allocations for both rural and urban areas were adjusted
marginally in a few cases to ensure that each stratum/ sub-stratum
got a minimum allocation of 4 FSUs. Within each sector of a State/
UT, the respective sample size was allocated to the different
strata/ sub-strata in proportion to the population as per census
2001. Allocations at stratum/ sub-stratum level were adjusted to
multiples of 4 with a minimum sample size of 4 and equal number of
samples was allocated among the four sub rounds.
1.5.3 For the rural sector, from each stratum/ sub-stratum,
required number of sample villages were selected by probability
proportional to size with replacement (PPSWR), size being the
population of the village as per Census 2001. For urban sector,
from each stratum FSUs were selected by using Simple Random
Sampling Without Replacement (SRSWOR). Both rural and urban samples
were drawn in the form of two independent sub-samples. All
households listed in the selected village/block/
hamlet-groups/sub-blocks
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Chapter OneIntroduction
NSS Report No. 539: Informal Sector and Conditions of Employment
in India
6
were stratified into three second stage strata (SSS). A total of
8 households were selected from each sample village/block for
canvassing the employment and un-employment schedule. The sample
households from each of the second stage strata were selected by
SRSWOR.
1.5.4 Out of the total number of 12,808 FSUs (7,524 villages and
5,284 urban blocks) allotted for the central sample5 (including 24
state sample FSUs of Leh and Kargil districts of J & K: 16 for
rural sector and 8 for urban sector), 12,654 FSUs (7,402 villages
and 5,252 urban blocks) could be surveyed at the all-India level
for canvassing Schedule 10. The number of households surveyed was
1,00,957 (59,129 in rural areas and 41,828 in urban areas) and
number of persons surveyed was 4,59,784 (2,81,327 in rural areas
and 1,78,457 in urban areas). The sample design and estimation
procedure used for the survey is given in Appendix B of this
report.
1.5.5 The domains of rural and urban sector in the survey are
co-terminus with the criterion adopted in census. The urban frame
used in the survey is the latest updated UFS that takes into
account the newly declared towns after the last census 2001.
Accordingly the rural sector is the one that is not urban.
1.6 Contents of the Report
1.6.1 As stated earlier, this report deals with various
estimates with regard to workers engaged in non-agricultural sector
as well as in the agricultural sector (excluding growing of crops,
market gardening, horticulture and growing of crops combined with
farming of animals) along with their correlates as obtained on the
basis of data collected on relevant items of information for the
entire round. Consequently, all discussions in this report are
limited to only such items/concepts, based on which estimates have
been generated. Detailed explanations of these are given in the
next chapter entitled Concepts and Definitions.
1.6.2 This report contains three chapters, including the present
introductory chapter, and four appendices. Chapter Two provides
details of the concepts and definitions of only those terms used in
the survey in connection with the subject focus of this report.
Chapter Three discusses the main findings of the survey relating to
these items. While Appendix A gives the detailed tables on which
this report is based, Appendix B presents a description of the
sample design and estimation procedure used for the survey. In
Appendix C, the Projected Population as on 1st March 2009 and 1st
March 2010 supplied by RGI Office have been presented along with
those projected for 1st January 2010 using compound rate of growth.
The projections have been given for male and female separately for
rural and urban for each State/UT. Appendix D gives a facsimile of
the schedule canvassed in the survey.
1.6.3 The detailed tables turned out to be very voluminous.
Hence, the hard-copy of the detailed tables (Appendix A) does not
form a part of the Report and Appendix A of the report is provided
in CD.
5 The sample selected for NSS 66th round which was surveyed by
NSSO is termed Central sample. As is usual in the regular NSS
rounds, most States and Union Territories participated in the
survey: the sample surveyed by State Government officials is termed
as State sample.
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Chapter OneIntroduction
NSS Report No. 539: Informal Sector and Conditions of Employment
in India
7
1.6.4 Tables in Appendix: Appendix A of the report contains
twelve tables. Of these, fivetables provide estimates of workers
including both the self-employed and wage employees by various
attributes such as their activity status, enterprise type, location
of workplace, using electricity for production, existence of union/
association in the activity, etc. The other seven tables present
estimates of wage employees by some combination of attributes like
type of job contract, eligibility for paid leave, social security
benefits, method of payment, etc.
1.6.5 The estimates in this report are generally presented, as
ratios. The estimates of aggregates are also given in the margin of
the detailed tables presented for all-India levels. It may be noted
that estimates of ratios are generally expected to be robust and
the estimates of aggregates may be used only to combine the ratios.
However, to arrive at estimated absolute number in any category,
the users may apply the survey estimates of ratios to the census
population or projections6. It may also be noted that as the tables
are generally presented as per 1000 distribution or rates per 1000,
the figures are rounded off. Thus, while using the ratios from the
survey results, it is to be noted that the accuracy of these
derived aggregates will be limited to the number of significant
digits available in such ratios. The estimates presented in this
report, in general, refer to the mid-point of the survey period
(July 2009 June 2010) of NSS 66th round, i.e., 01.01.2010.
1.6.6 The estimates of the key parameters have been presented
for all the States and UTs. While using the estimates for the
smaller States, it may be kept in mind that the sample sizes for
them may not be adequate enough for getting sufficiently reliable
estimates.
1.7 NSS 66th Round Reports on Employment and Unemployment
1.7.1 The results of NSS rounds are released in reports based on
comprehensive tabulation of subject parameters and indicators in
various cross classifications generated from the central sample
data. Corresponding to NSS 66th round quinquennial survey on
Employment and Unemployment, the results are planned for release in
eight reports. In addition to these eight reports planned, Key
Indicators of Employment and Unemployment in India, 2009-10 has
already been released in June 2011. Of the eight reports, the
present one is the second in the series of reports, while the first
report, Report no. 537(Employment and Unemployment Situation in
India, 2009-10) has already been released. The tentative titles of
the remaining six reports planned to be released are:
(i) Employment and Unemployment situation among Social Groups in
India
(ii) Status of Education and Vocational Training in India
(iii) Participation of Women in Specified Activities along with
Domestic Duties
(iv) Employment and Unemployment situation in Cities and Towns
in India
(v) Home-based Workers in India
(vi) Employment and Unemployment situation among Major Religious
groups in India.
6 In Appendix C, the Projected Population as on 1st March 2009
and 1st March 2010 supplied by RGI Office have been presented along
with those projected for 1st January 2010 using compound rate of
growth. The projections have been given for male and female
separately for rural and urban for each State/UT.
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Chapter Two Concepts and Definitions
NSS Report No. 539: Informal Sector and Conditions of Employment
in India8
Chapter Two
Concepts and Definitions
2.0 The concepts and definitions of some important terms used in
the survey and relevant to this report are explained in the
following paragraphs.
2.1 Household: A group of persons who normally lived together
and took food from a common kitchen constituted a household. The
adverb normally means that temporary visitors and guests (whose
total period of stay in the household was expected to be less than
6 months) were excluded but temporary stay-aways (whose total
period of absence from the household was expected to be less than 6
months) were included. Thus a child residing in a hostel for
studies was excluded from the household of his/her parents, but a
resident domestic servant or paying guest (but not just a tenant in
the house) was included in the employers/hosts household. Living
together was given more importance than sharing food from a common
kitchen in drawing the boundaries of a household in case the two
criteria were in conflict. However, in the special case of a person
taking food with his family but sleeping elsewhere (say, in a shop
or a different house) due to shortage of space, the household
formed by such a persons family members was taken to include the
person also. Each inmate of a hotel, mess, boarding-lodging house,
hostel, etc., was considered to be a single-member household except
that a family living in a hotel (say) was considered one household
only. The same principle was applicable for the residential staff
of such establishments. The size of a household is the total number
of persons in the household.
2.2 Economic activity: The entire spectrum of human activity
falls into two categories economic activities and non-economic
activities. Any activity resulting in production of goods and
services that add value to national product was considered as an
economic activity for the employment and unemployment survey. Such
activities included production of all goods and services for market
(i.e. for pay or profit) including those of government services,
and, the production of primary commodities for own consumption and
own account production of fixed assets.
2.2.1 The full spectrum of economic activities as defined in the
UN system of National Accounts was not covered in the definition
adopted for the NSS 66th round survey of Employment and
Unemployment. Production of any good for own consumption is
considered as economic activity by UN System of National Accounts
but production of only primary goods for own consumption was
considered as economic activity by NSSO. While the former considers
activities like own account processing of primary products as
economic activities, in the NSS surveys, processing of primary
products for own consumption was not considered as economic
activity.
2.2.2 The term 'economic activity' as defined in the employment
and unemployment survey of NSS 66th round, therefore, included:
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Chapter Two Concepts and Definitions
NSS Report No. 539: Informal Sector and Conditions of Employment
in India9
(i) all the market activities performed for pay or profit which
result in production of goods and services for exchange.
(ii) of the non-market activities,
(a) all the activities relating to the primary sector (i.e.
industry Divisions 01 to 14 of NIC-2004) which result in production
(including free collection of uncultivated crops, forestry,
firewood, hunting, fishing, mining, quarrying, etc.) of primary
goods for own consumption
and
(b) activities relating to the own-account production of fixed
assets, which include production of fixed assets including
construction of own houses, roads, wells, etc., and of machinery,
tools, etc., for household enterprise and also construction of any
private or community facilities free of charge. A person may be
engaged in own account construction in the capacity of either a
labourer or a supervisor.
As per the practice followed in earlier rounds, certain
activities like prostitution, begging, etc., which though fetched
earnings, were not considered as economic activities. Activity
status of a person was judged irrespective of the situation whether
such activity was carried out illegally in the form of smuggling or
not.
2.3 Activity status: It is the activity situation in which a
person was found participated in economic and non-economic
activities during the reference period. According to this, a person
could be in one or a combination of the following three broad
activity statuses during a reference period:
(i) working or being engaged in economic activity (work) as
defined above,(ii) being not engaged in economic activity (work)
but either making tangible efforts to
seek 'work' or being available for 'work' if 'work' is available
and(iii) being not engaged in any economic activity (work) and also
not available for 'work'.
Broad activity statuses mentioned in (i) and (ii) above are
associated with 'being in labour force' and the last with 'not
being in the labour force'. Within the labour force, broad activity
status (i) and (ii) were associated with 'employment' and
unemployment, respectively.
2.3.1 Identification of each individual in terms of a unique
activity status could pose a problem when more than one of the
three broad activity statuses listed above were concurrently
obtained in a person. In such an eventuality, the identification
uniquely under any one of the three broad activity statuses was
done by adopting either the major time orpriority criterion. The
former was used for classification of persons according to the
'usual activity status' approach and the latter for classification
of persons according to the current activity status approach. Each
of the three broad activity statuses was further sub-divided into
several detailed activity categories. If a person categorised as
engaged in economic activity by adopting one of the two criteria
mentioned above was found to be pursuing more than one
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Chapter Two Concepts and Definitions
NSS Report No. 539: Informal Sector and Conditions of Employment
in India10
economic activity during the reference period, the appropriate
detailed activity status code was connected to that activity in
which relatively long time had been spent. A similar procedure was
adopted for assigning detailed activity code for persons
categorised as engaged in non-economic activity and pursuing more
than one non-economic activities.
2.3.2 The detailed activity statuses under each of the three
broad activity statuses (viz. employed, unemployed and not in
labour force) and the corresponding codes used in the survey are
given below:code description
working (or employed)
self-employed11 worked in household enterprises (self-employed)
as own-account worker12 worked in household enterprises
(self-employed) as an employer21 worked in household enterprises
(self-employed) as helper
regular wage/ salaried employee
31 worked as regular wage/salaried employee
casual labour41 worked as casual wage labour in public works
other than Mahatma Gandhi NREG
public works42 worked as casual wage labour in Mahatma Gandhi
NREG public works51 worked as casual wage labour in other types of
works61 did not work owing to sickness though there was work in
household enterprise 62 did not work owing to other reasons though
there was work in household enterprise71 did not work owing to
sickness but had regular salaried/wage employment72 did not work
owing to other reasons but had regular salaried/wage employment
not working but seeking/available for work (or unemployed)
81 sought work or did not seek but was available for work (for
usual status approach)81 sought work (for current weekly status
approach)82 did not seek but was available for work (for current
weekly status approach)
neither working nor available for work (or not in labour
force)
91 attended educational institutions92 attended to domestic
duties only 93 attended to domestic duties and was also engaged in
free collection of goods
(vegetables, roots, firewood, cattle feed, etc.), sewing,
tailoring, weaving, etc. for household use
94 rentiers, pensioners, remittance recipients, etc.95 not able
to work owing to disability97 others (including beggars,
prostitutes, etc.) 98 did not work owing to sickness (for casual
workers only)99 children of age 0-4 years
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NSS Report No. 539: Informal Sector and Conditions of Employment
in India11
It may be noted that codes 61, 62, 71, 72, 82 and 98 were
applicable for current weekly status and current daily status
approaches only. Moreover, activity status code 41 in the usual
status is used for casual wage labour in all types of public works,
whereas in the current activity status, code 41 is for casual wage
labour in public works other than MGNREG public works and code 42
is for casual wage labour in MGNREG public works.
2.4 Workers (or employed): Persons who were engaged in any
economic activity or who, despite their attachment to economic
activity, abstained themselves from work for reason of illness,
injury or other physical disability, bad weather, festivals, social
or religious functions or other contingencies necessitating
temporary absence from work, constituted workers. Unpaid helpers
who assisted in the operation of an economic activity in the
household farm or non-farm activities were also considered as
workers. Relevant activity status codes 11 to 72 were assigned for
workers. Workers were further categorized as self-employed
(relevantactivity status codes: 11, 12, 21, 61, 62), regular
salaried/wage employee (relevant activity status codes: 31, 71,
72), and casual wage labour (relevant activity status codes: 41, 42
and 51).
2.5 Seeking or available for work (or unemployed): Persons who,
owing to lack of work, had not worked but either sought work
through employment exchanges, intermediaries, friends or relatives
or by making applications to prospective employers or expressed
their willingness or availability for work under the prevailing
conditions of work and remuneration, were considered as those
seeking or available for work (or unemployed). Activity status
codes 81 or 82 were assigned for unemployed.
2.6 Labour force: Persons who were either 'working' (or
employed) or 'seeking or available for work' (or unemployed)
constituted the labour force. Persons with activity status codes 11
82 constituted the labour force.
2.7 Not in labour force: Persons who were neither 'working' nor
'seeking or available for work' for various reasons during the
reference period were considered as 'not in labour force'. Persons
under this category are students, those engaged in domestic duties,
rentiers, pensioners, recipients of remittances, those living on
alms, infirm or disabled persons, too young persons, prostitutes,
etc. and casual labourers not working due to sickness. Activity
status codes 91-95, 97 and 98 were assigned for persons belonging
to category 'not in labour force'. For the purpose of this report,
status code 99 was assigned to children of age 0-4 years.
2.8 Self-employed: Persons who operated their own farm or
non-farm enterprises or were engaged independently in a profession
or trade on own-account or with one or a few partners were treated
as self-employed in household enterprises. The essential feature of
the self-employed is that they have autonomy (decide how, where and
when to produce) and economic independence (in respect of choice of
market, scale of operation and finance) for carrying out their
operation. The remuneration of the self-employed consists of a
non-separable combination of two parts: a reward for their labour
and profit of their enterprise. The combined remuneration is wholly
determined by the revenue from sales after netting out value of
purchased inputs used in production.
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2.8.1 Categories of self-employed persons: Self-employed persons
were categorised as follows:
(i) own-account workers: those self-employed persons who
operated their enterprises on their own account or with one or a
few partners and who, during the reference period, by and large,
ran their enterprise without hiring any labour. They could,
however, have had unpaid helpers to assist them in the activity of
the enterprise;
(ii) employers: those self-employed persons who worked on their
own account or with one or a few partners and, who, by and large,
ran their enterprise by hiring labour; and
(iii) helpers in household enterprise: those self-employed
persons (mostly family members) who were engaged in their household
enterprises, working full or part time and did not receive any
regular salary or wages in return for the work performed. They did
not run the household enterprise on their own but assisted the
related person living in the same household in running the
household enterprise.
2.9 Regular wage/salaried employee: These were persons who
worked in others farm or non-farm enterprises (both household and
non-household) and, in return, received salary or wages on a
regular basis (i.e. not on the basis of daily or periodic renewal
of work contract). This category included not only persons getting
time wage but also persons receiving piece wage or salary and paid
apprentices, both full time and part-time.
2.10 Casual wage labourer: A person who was casually engaged in
others farm or non-farm enterprises (both household and
non-household) and, in return, received wages according to the
terms of the daily or periodic work contract, was a casual wage
labourer.
2.11 Public works: Public works were those activities which were
sponsored by Government or Local Bodies, and which covered local
area development works like construction of roads, dams, bunds,
digging of ponds, etc., as relief measures, or as an outcome of
employment generation schemes under the poverty alleviation
programme such as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment
Guarantee (MGNREG) public works, Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana
(SGRY), National Food for Work Programme (NFFWP), etc. The coverage
of schemes under public works was restricted to those schemes
through which the Government generated wage employment under
poverty alleviation programme, or relief measures. The types of
works that were generally undertaken through these schemes, were
watershed development, drought proofing, land levelling, flood
control, laying pipes or cables, sanitation, water harvesting,
irrigation canal, development of orchard, road construction,
building construction / repair, running crche, etc. To distinguish
between public works and works not classifiable as public works,
some broad characteristics of public work were identified, viz. the
primary objective is generation of wage employment and poverty
alleviation, and creation of community asset as an outcome in
achieving those main objectives. It is to be noted that the
existing activity status code 41 (casual wage labour in public
works) was split into two codes for assigning activity status codes
as per current daily activity status and current weekly activity
status, as follows:
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(i) worked as casual wage labour in public works other than
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (MGNREG) public
works 41
(ii) worked as casual wage labour in Mahatma Gandhi National
Rural Employment Guarantee (MGNREG) public works 42
However, in the usual activity status, code 41 was used for
casual wage labour in public works, which included all types of
public works and code 42 was not applicable in the usual activity
status.
2.12 Different approaches followed to determine activity status:
The persons surveyed were classified into various activity
categories on the basis of the activities pursued by them during
certain specified reference periods. There were three reference
periods for this survey. These are: (i) one year (ii) one week and
(iii) each day of the reference week. Based on these three periods,
three different measures of activity status are arrived at. These
are termed respectively as usual status, current weekly status and
current daily status. The procedures adopted to arrive at the usual
status, current weekly status and current daily status are
elucidated below.
2.12.1 Usual principal activity status: The usual activity
status relates to the activity status of a person during the
reference period of 365 days preceding the date of survey. The
activity status on which a person spent relatively long time (i.e.
major time criterion) during the 365 days preceding the date of
survey is considered as the usual principal activity status of the
person. To decide the usual principal activity of a person, first a
two stage dichotomousclassification was followed for determining
the broad usual principal activity status (employed or unemployed
or not in labour force) of the person. At the first stage, persons
were first categorised as those in the labour force (either
employed or unemployed) and those not in the labour force depending
on the major time spent during the 365 days preceding the date of
survey. Persons thus adjudged as not belonging to the labour force
were assigned the broad activity status 'neither working nor
available for work' (not in the labour force). At the second stage,
for persons belonging to the labour force, the broad activity
status of either 'working' (employed) or not working but seeking
and/or available for work (unemployed) was ascertained based on the
same criterion viz. relatively long time spent in accordance with
either of the two broad statuses within the labour force during the
365 days preceding the date of survey. Within the broad activity
status so determined, the detailed activity status of a person
pursuing more than one such activity was determined once again on
the basis of the relatively long time spent on such activities. In
terms of activity status codes, codes 11-51 were assigned to
persons classified as workers and codes 91-97 to those not in the
labour force. In the usual status approach, a single code 81 was
assigned to persons seeking or available for work (unemployed
persons) while two separate codes 81 (sought work) and 82 (did not
seek but was available for work) were assigned to unemployed
persons according to current weekly status and current daily status
approach.
2.12.2 Usual subsidiary economic activity status: A person whose
usual principal status was determined on the basis of the major
time criterion could have pursued some economic activity for a
shorter time throughout the reference year of 365 days preceding
the date of
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survey or for a minor period, which is not less than 30 days,
during the reference year. The status in which such economic
activity was pursued was the subsidiary economic activity status of
that person. Activity status codes 11 to 51 only were used for the
subsidiary economic activity performed by a person. It may be noted
that engagement in work in subsidiary capacity may arise out of the
two following situations:
(i) a person may be engaged in a relatively long period during
the last 365 days in some economic (non-economic) activity and for
a relatively minor period, which is not less than 30 days (not
necessarily for a continuous period), in another economic activity
(any economic activity). The economic activity, which was pursued
for a relatively minor period but not simultaneously with principal
activity, was considered as his/her subsidiary economic
activity.
(ii) a person may be pursuing an economic activity (non-economic
activity) almost throughout the year in the principal status and
also simultaneously pursuing another economic activity (any
economic activity) for a relatively short time in a subsidiary
capacity. The economic activity, which was pursued for a relatively
short time, was considered as his/her subsidiary economic
activity.
2.12.3 Usual activity status considering principal and
subsidiary status taken together: The usual status, determined on
the basis of the usual principal activity and usual subsidiary
economic activity of a person taken together, is considered as the
usual activity status of the person and is written as usual status
(ps+ss). According to the usual status (ps+ss), workers are those
who perform some work activity either in the principal status or in
the subsidiary status. Thus, a person who is not a worker in the
usual principal status is considered as worker according to the
usual status (ps+ss), if the person pursues some subsidiary
economic activity for 30 days or more during 365 days preceding the
date of survey.
2.12.4 Current weekly activity status: The current weekly
activity status of a person is the activity status obtaining for a
person during a reference period of 7 days preceding the date of
survey. It is decided on the basis of a certain priority cum major
time criterion.
2.12.4.1 According to the priority criterion, the status working
gets priority over the status not working but seeking or available
for work that, in turn, gets priority over the status neither
working nor available for work. A person was considered working (or
employed) if he/she, while pursuing any economic activity, had
worked for at least one hour on at least one day during the 7 days
preceding the date of survey. A person was considered seeking or
available for work (or unemployed) if, during the reference week,
no economic activity was pursued by the person but he/she made
efforts to get work or had been available for work any time during
the reference week though not actively seeking work in the belief
that no work was available. A person who had neither worked nor was
available for work any time during the reference week was
considered as engaged in non-economic activities (or not in labour
force).
2.12.4.2 After deciding the broad current weekly activity status
of a person on the basis of 'priority' criterion, the detailed
current activity status was then decided on the basis of 'major
time' criterion if that person pursued multiple economic
activities. The current weekly
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activity status of a person could be any of the valid codes
within 11 to 98. Of these codes, 11 to 72 pertained to workers, 81
to 82 for unemployed and 91 to 98 for persons not in the labour
force.
2.12.5 Current daily activity status: The activity pattern of
the population, particularly in the informal sector, is such that
during a week, and sometimes, even during a day, a person could
pursue more than one activity. Moreover, many people could even
undertake both economic and non-economic activities on the same day
of a reference week. The current daily activity status for a person
was determined on the basis of his/her activity status on each day
of the reference week using a priority-cum-major time criterion
(day to day labour time disposition). Time disposition was recorded
for every member of the sample households. This involved recording
of different activities pursued by the members along with the time
intensity in quantitative terms for each day of the reference week.
The different activities were identified and recorded in terms of
'activity status' and 'industry' codes for persons in urban areas
and 'activity status', 'industry' and 'operation' codes for persons
in rural areas. The description (and codes used) of current daily
activity statuses is the same as those of current weekly activity
status. The terms industry and operation are explained later. The
following points were considered for assigning the time intensity
and determining the current daily status of a person:
i) Each day of the reference week was looked upon as comprising
either two half days or a full day for assigning the activity
status. For recording time disposition for activities pursued by a
person in a day, an intensity of 1.0 was given against an activity
that was done for full day and an intensity of 0.5 against the
activity which was done for half day.
ii) A person was considered working (employed) for the full day
if he/she had worked for4 hours or more during the day.
iii) If a person was engaged in more than one of the economic
activities for 4 hours or more on a day, he/she was assigned two
out of the various economic activities on which he/she devoted
relatively long time on the reference day. In such cases, an
intensity of 0.5 was given for each of these two economic
activities.
iv) If the person had worked for 1 hour or more but less than 4
hours, he/she was considered working (employed) for half-day and
seeking or available for work (unemployed) or neither seeking nor
available for work (not in labour force) for the other half of the
day depending on whether he was seeking/available for work or
not.
v) If a person was not engaged in any work even for 1 hour on a
day but was seeking/available for work for 4 hours or more, he was
considered unemployed for the entire day. But if he was
seeking/available for work for more than 1 hour and less than 4
hours only, he was considered unemployed for half day and not in
labour force for the other half of the day.
vi) A person who neither had any work to do nor was available
for work even for half a day was considered not in labour force for
the entire day and was assigned one or two of the detailed
non-economic activity statuses depending upon the activities
pursued during the reference day.
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2.13 Industry of the work activity: For the employed persons, to
record the industry of work, 5-digit classification of NIC-2004 was
used. To identify certain category of workers under Division 95
(Private households with employed persons) of NIC-2004, eight
additional codes were used in the survey viz., housemaid /servant
(95001), cook (95002), gardener (95003),
gatekeeper/chowkidar/watchman (95004), governess/baby-sitter
(95005), tutor (95006), driver (95007) and others (95009). Industry
Divisions 96 (except the activities covered in other Industry
Divisions) and 97 of NIC-2004 were not used for the purpose of
collection of information on industry of activity. The entire
activities described under Division 97 are not under the production
boundary of Indian System of National Accounts (ISNA) and are not
also considered as economic activities in the NSS survey. A part of
the activities under Division 96 (viz., hunting and gathering,
farming and the production of shelter), which is within the
production boundary of ISNA, is also considered as economic
activities in NSS surveys and the industry of these
undifferentiated activities were judged in the usual manner, by
considering the industry in which major time was spent. Thus, this
part of activities got classified against the respective industries
under divisions 01-14 relating to the primary sector or 45 relating
to construction. The rest of Division 96 is outside the production
boundary of ISNA and was not considered as economic activity for
the NSS survey.
2.14 Industry of work for coverage of informal sector and
conditions of employment: Certain probing questions to collect
information on informal sector and informal employment was asked to
all the workers, whether engaged in the usual principal status or
in the subsidiary status, engaged in non-agricultural sector and a
part of the in the agricultural sector, excluding growing of crops,
market gardening, horticulture (industry group 011 of NIC - 2004)
and growing of crops combined with farming of animals (industry
group 013 of NIC - 2004) of the agricultural sector. Thus, coverage
of the activities for informal sector and conditions of employment
of the employees was restricted to those workers engaged in
industry groups 012, 014, 015 and industry divisions 02-99 of
NIC-2004. Of this industry groups/ divisions, 012, 014, 015, 02 and
05 are in the [ag]ricultural sector [e]xcluding [g]rowing of
[c]rops, market gardening, horticulture and growing of crops
combined with farming of animals (AGEGC activities for short
henceforth). The industry groups/ divisions 012, 014, 015, 02 and
05 will henceforth be called as AGEGC for the purpose of discussion
of this report. The industry divisions 10-99 are for the
non-agricultural sector. The discussion on the existence of union/
association pertains not only to employees but also to
self-employed workers in all the industry divisions of NIC - 2004,
i.e., NIC - 2004 codes 01 to 99. The descriptions of the relevant
industry sections/divisions/groups are given in Annexure I.
2.15 Wage and salary earnings: Information on wage and salary
earnings was collected separately for each of the wage/salaried
work recorded for a person in a day. Here, earnings refer to the
wage/salary income (and not total earnings taking into
consideration of all other activities done) received/receivable for
the wage/salaried work done during the reference week by a
wage/salaried employee and casual labourer. The wage/ salary
received or receivable may be in cash or kind or partly in cash and
partly in kind. While recording the earnings following conventions
were followed.
i) The wages in kind were evaluated at the current retail price.
ii) Bonus and perquisites such as free accommodation, reimbursement
of expenditure
for medical treatment, free telephones, etc. evaluated at the
cost of the employer or
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NSS Report No. 539: Informal Sector and Conditions of Employment
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at retail prices and duly apportioned for the reference week
were also included in earnings.
iii) Amount receivable as 'over-time' for the additional work
done beyond normal working time was excluded.
It may be noted that in the survey, at most two activities could
be recorded for a person in a day. Therefore, it is possible that a
person might have carried out two or more wage/salaried activities
in a day, but only one activity or two activities at the most,
depending upon the time spent on those activities, was recorded. In
that case, the wage/salary income only from that activity(s) was
collected and recorded separately, and not the total income of the
person from all the activities done for the entire day.
2.16 Enterprise type: An enterprise is an undertaking which is
engaged in the production and /or distribution of some goods and
/or services meant mainly for the purpose of sale, whether fully or
partly. An enterprise may be owned and operated by a single
household or by several households jointly, or by an institutional
body. The definitions of various types of enterprises are given
below:
2.16.1 Proprietary: When an individual is the sole owner of an
enterprise it is a proprietary enterprise. Own account production
of fixed assets for own use, when produced by a single member, was
classified as proprietary enterprise.
2.16.2 Partnership: Partnership is defined as the "relation
between persons who have agreed to share the profits of a business
carried on by all or any one of them acting for all". There may be
two or more owners, belonging to the same or different households,
on a partnership basis, with or without formal registration (where
there is a tacit understanding about the distribution of profit
among the so-called partners). Own account production of fixed
assets, when produced by two or more members belonging to the same
or different households was classified as partnership enterprises.
Thus, own account production of fixed assets by a group of
households for community use was classified as partnership
enterprise.
2.16.3 Government/public sector enterprise: An enterprise, which
is wholly owned/ run/managed by Central or State governments,
quasi-government, institutions, local bodies like universities,
education boards, municipalities, etc. An enterprise was not
treated as a public sector enterprise if it was run on a loan
granted by government, local body etc.
2.16.4 Private limited company: Private company means a company
which by its articles:(a) restricts the right to transfer its
shares, if any,(b) limits the number of its members to fifty not
including-
(i) persons who are in the employment of the company, and(ii)
persons who, having been formerly in the employment of the company,
were members of the company while in that employment and have
continued to be members after the employment ceased; and
(c) prohibits any initiation to the public to subscribe for any
share in, or debentures of, the company.[Where two or more persons
hold one or more shares in a company jointly, they shall, for the
purpose of this definition, be treated as a single member.]
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2.16.5 Public limited company: A public limited company is
defined as a company that is not a private company. As such public
companies can have an unlimited number of members and can invite
the public to subscribe to its shares and debentures. The minimum
number of members required to form a public company is seven.
2.16.6 Co-operative societies: Co-operative society is one that
is formed through the co-operation of a number of persons,
recognised as members of the society, to benefit themselves. In the
process, the funds are raised by members contributions/investments
and the profits generated out of the societys activities are shared
by the members. The government itself in a government agency can
also be a member or shareholder of a registered co-operative
society but this fact cannot render the society into a public
sector enterprise for the purpose of this survey.
2.16.7 Trust: An arrangement through which one set of people,
the trustees, are the legal owners of property which is
administered in the interest of another set, the beneficiaries.
Trusts may be set up to provide support for individuals or
families, to provide pensions, to run charities, to liquidate the
property of the bankrupts for the benefit of their creditors, or
for the safe keeping of securities bought by trusts with their
investors money. The assets, which trusts hold are regulated by
law, these must be administered in the interests of the
beneficiaries, and not for the profit of the trustees.
2.16.8 Employer Households (i.e. private households employing
maid servant, watchman, cook etc.): The households which are
employing maid servant watchmen, cook, private tutor, etc. was
considered notionally as enterprise for the purpose of this survey
and was classified as Employer households.
2.17 Location of workplace: The location of workplace for each
of the working members of a household was categorised as
follows:
no fixed workplaceworkplace located in:
own dwelling unitstructure attached to own dwelling unitopen
area adjacent to own dwelling unitdetached structure adjacent to
own dwelling unitown enterprise/unit/office/shop but away from own
dwellingemployers dwelling unitemployers
enterprise/unit/office/shop but outside employers dwelling street
with fixed locationconstruction siteothers
The specified locations (except no fixed workplace) of workplace
was further distinguished depending upon the location of the
workplace in rural and urban areas.
2.18 Uses of electricity for production of goods and services:
The information as to whether the enterprise in which the person
worked, used electricity for its production purposes was collected.
It may be mentioned here that use of electricity exclusively for
purposes other than
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production like, for comfort, security, illumination, etc., was
not considered as the use of electricity by the enterprise for its
production.
2.19 Number of workers in the enterprise: Information on number
of workers in which the persons worked was collected in terms of 5
codes. The number of workers employed in the enterprise on an
average in a day of operation, irrespective of whether they are
hired worker or household members working in the enterprise, was
considered as the number of workers in the enterprise. The number
of workers also included working owner(s).
2.20 Type of job contract: It was ascertained for each employee
whether for the job in which he/she was engaged, there was any
written contract or agreement in respect of duration of employment
with his/her employer. For those who reported to have written job
contract with their employer, further probing was done in respect
of the length of duration contracted, viz., for 1 year or less, for
more than 1 year to 3 years and more than 3 years. If the contract
of employment specified a particular date of termination which was
more than 3 years or if the type of job contracted was such that no
time was fixed but the contract could only be terminated for
certain administrative reasons such as incompetence, misconduct or
for economic reasons then the contract was considered to have a
duration of 3 years or more. However, if no written contract
existed, then irrespective of the duration of employment, it was
considered as no written job contract.
2.21 Eligibility of paid leave: Paid leave included leave during
sickness, maternity, or such leave, as an employee was eligible to
take without loss of pay, as per the conditions of employment. The
situation was assessed excluding the paid off-days/holidays, which
an enterprise normally allows to its employees. Employees were
classified as those with eligible for paid leave and those without
eligibility for paid leave.
2.22 Availability of social security benefits: It was
ascertained from the employees whether they were covered under any
of the specified social security benefits or a combination of them
which are arranged or for which contribution was made by the
employer. For the purpose of the survey the following schemes were
considered as social security benefits:
only PF/ pension (i.e., GPF, CPF, PPF, pension, etc.).only
gratuity only health care & maternity benefitsonly PF/ pension
and gratuityonly PF/ pension and health care & maternity
benefits.only gratuity and health care & maternity benefitsPF/
pension, gratuity and health care & maternity benefits
Those who were not eligible for any of the above social security
schemes were considered as not eligible for any social security
benefits
2.22.1 The term Provident Fund (PF) included General Provident
Fund, Contributory Provident Fund, Public Provident Fund, Employees
Provident Fund, etc. It may be mentioned that coverage under any of
these social security schemes meant that the employer contributed/
arranged/ paid in implementing the social security benefits for the
worker. If an employee
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operated, in his/ her individual capacity, a PPF account and the
employer is not contributing in that account then it was not
considered as a social security benefit. On the contrary, a scheme,
in which both the employee and the employer contributed, was
considered a social security benefit. When benefits were given by
the employer for treatment of illness/ injury or an employee was
eligible for paid leave for a specified period of pre-natal/
childbirth/ post-natal stages or the expenditure for maternity care
or childbirth was borne by the employer as per the conditions of
employment, then such benefits was considered as health care &
maternity benefits. There may be cases where the employer was not
directly contributing in a social security scheme for the
employees, but being the member of the welfare association or
organization or scheme in relation to the specific activity carried
out by the employer, the employees got the benefit from that
welfare association/ organization/ scheme. Such cases were also
considered as social security benefits availed through the
employer.
2.23 Method of payment: The method by which payments were
received by the workers for work done was recorded. The different
methods of payment were, regular monthly salary, regular weekly
payment, daily payment, piece rate