Pattern and nature of employment in India and among major states

The Government of India gradually adopted market-oriented economic reform policies since the mid-1980s. In the early phase, these were associated with increased public expenditure that involved additional fiscal allocations to the rural areas, and sought to reduce the ill-effects of reform process. The pace of policy change accelerated during the early 1990s, with a marked beginning of intensive economic liberalization and it changed the attitudes towards state intervention in the economy. In this background, this paper examines the changes in the pattern of employment, its nature among the total population and also among the social groups at the national level and among major states in India.

The nature of employment indicates that the proportion of workers who are engaged as SE and RE has declined especially among the urban males, while that of CL has gone up, among both the rural and urban males. In the case of females also, the proportion of SE has come down, as in the case of males, while proportion of RE has increased among the females in both areas and that of CL has gone up among the rural females, but has declined among their urban counterparts. Thus, the degree of casualisation of workforce is especially felt among the rural workers. The analysis indicates that in the rural areas, the proportion of self employment is higher among the OBC and others than that of ST and SC, while the share of labour households is higher among the SC and ST households than among the OBC and others.