Trends of Rural Employment in India:Reflections from Recent NSS Data

Abstract

The employment scenario of India during recent years has not been encouraging. There has been a decline in employment in the rural areas, led by a sharp fall in the employment of rural females. After economic slowdown of 2008 the female work participation in India declined in 2009-10 and reached all time low. There has been a reduction of rural female workforce in India to the extent of 19.5 million during 2004-05 to 2009-10. The entire fall of female employment has been due to the loss of female self-employment. In contrast, for rural male, employment increased by 13 million due to the increase of casual employment. Non-farm sector is the only avenue for rural workers where employment has increased gradually. The growth rate of non-farm employment improved for both rural male and female during 1993-94 to 2004-05 as compared with pre-reform period. But that growth has decelerated after economic slow down; for rural female it has negative in all sectors except construction. For rural male most of the incremental workers were also absorbed in construction. The manufacturing sector, the most important absorber of rural workers, has experienced substantial loss of jobs.