Work Force Participation in India

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Work Force Participation in India

1Dr.Nidhi Gupta


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Definition and Concepts Work:- In recent Indian censuses, work is defined as

participation in any economically productive activity with orwithout compensation, wages or profit .

Such participation may be physical and/or mental in nature.

The concept of work in Indian census was introduced since 1961census but main activity was introduced in 1971.

In the 1981 census, attempt was made to get a detailed profile of the working characteristics of the population.

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classification of population

Those who have worked any time in the last one-year were categorized asworkers, and

Those who did not work at all were classified as non-workers.

This type of classification of population into workers and non-workers categorywas followed in latter censuses as well.

Workers were categorized into main and marginal workers since 1981 census.

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Population

WorkersNon-

Workers


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Main Worker :- All those workers who had worked for themajor part of the year preceding the date of enumeration i.e.those who were engaged in any economically productiveactivity for 183 days (six months) and more during the last yearare termed as main workers.

Marginal Worker:- All those workers who had worked any timein the year preceding enumeration but did not work for a majorpart the year i.e. those who worked less than 183 days or lessthan six months were termed as marginal workers.

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The 2001 census made a special effort to capturewomen workforce particularly engaged as unpaid familywork by improving the instruction manual of enumerators.

The manual included several sketches of unpaid workfor sensitizing the enumerators.

Apart from various activities in agriculture, milching ormilk production was included in work.

The enumerators employed in backward and lowliteracy districts have been specially trained throughCensus Advisors to enumerate the women workforce.

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Crude work participation rates (CWPR)

CWPR is defined as the ratio of total workers to the total populationmultiplied by 100.The crude work participation rates were calculated for the total,

main, and marginal workers by gender and rural and urbanresidence.

Labour force in India

With changing technology and scale of production there was a shiftin the location of industry from rural to urban centers, especiallylarge metropolitan cities.

These changes were unfavorable to womens participation in work.

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Since labor force participation rates tend, typically, to be lowerfor both males and females in urban areas than in rural areas,the historical impact of urbanization on crude activity rates

has been negative.

In post independence India we had a series of laws passed forthe upliftment of women.

The constitutional recognition of equal status for women andprogressive enactments has undoubtedly empowered Indianwomen with judicial equality.

But the principles of equality enshrined in the constitution of India are far from reality.

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Today the situation has changed and there are remarkablechanges in the attitude of women, particularly employed,towards the natural superiority of men.

Many girls are getting opportunities of entering the portals of higher education and they are working in non-traditional jobslike men.

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Work participation rate in the rural and urban areas of males and femalesin India is given in following Table .

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MALE FEMALE MALE FEMALE GAP

1971

RURAL 53.8 15.9 37.9

URBAN 48.9 7.2 41.7

1981

RURAL 53.8 23.1 30.7URBAN 49.1 8.3 40.8

1991

RURAL 52.6 26.8 25.8

URBAN48.9 9.2 39.72001

RURAL 52.3 30.9 21.4

URBAN 50.8 11.5 39.3


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Labor Force Participation Rate by Age:2000-2004

Age Male Female Rural femaleL/F participationrate higher to

theirurbancounterpartmainly due toAgriculture.

15-29

Rural 75.10 30.9

Urban 67.30 17.9 30-44

Rural 98.7 46.6 Urban 98.4 26.6

Source : NSSO, 61 ST Round


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Total Workers

1971RURAL

35.3URBAN 29.6

1981

RURAL 38.8URBAN 30.0

1991RURAL 40.1URBAN 30.2

2001RURAL 42.2URBAN 32.2


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Findings:

1. As per 2001 census about 42 percent of the rural

population and 32 percent of the urban populationare workers. In both areas the increase is by 2percentage points over the position of 1991.

2. The gap between the shares of male and femaleworkers has also narrowed down during 1971-2001period. And this gap is very high in the urban areasand it remains almost in the same position from 1971to 2001. But the gap in rural areas become narrowed.


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3. In 1991, the country had about 2.5 male workers per femaleworker .

4. The gap in the male-female participation rates in India is due tothe wide gap that existed in the urban areas.

4. Inequality between the male and female participation ratescan be reduced only by reducing the male-female gap in urbanareas or by increasing the participation of urban females.


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Work Participation Rates (Main+Marginal) by Residence

The crude work participation rate in rural India was around 39 percent in 1981, which has increased to 40 per cent in 1991 and 42 percent in 2001.

This is true for both males and females (see next Table). It is observedthat in all EAG states, except Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh andsome northern states/ union territories like, Haryana, Punjab,Chandigarh and Delhi the female work participation was very low andthe gap between both the genders was high.

However, in the northeastern states of India the difference betweenmale and female work participation rates is the lowest than rest of the country.

Kerala and Lakshadweep stand discretely than rest of India as thework participation of females in the rural areas is showing a decliningtrend during the reference period.

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Work Force Participation in India

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