Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

PEOPLE

"The female work participation rate has increased in most of the States and UTs during 1981-91. The increase is, however, sharper (2.5 percentage points or more) in the case of Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Mizoram, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Dadra & Nagar Haveli. "There are nine States and UTs where the female work partici- pation rate has declined during the decade 1981-91. The sharpest decline is in Arunachal Pradesh where the rate declined by 8.18 percentage points from 45.67 in 1981 to 37.49 in 1991. The decline is also significant in Sikkim where the female work participation rate declined by 7.20 percentage points from 37.61 per cent in 1981 to 30.41 per cent in 1991. The female work participation rate in Punjab has declined by only 1.76 percentage points; but this decline is quite significant as the work participation in Punjab was quite low even in 1981 (6.16 per cent) Increasing proportion of females in workforce "As noted earlier, in the country, excluding Assam and Jammu & Kashmir, the female work participation rate has increased in 1991 over 1981 both in rural and urban areas. So has the proportion of marginal workers to total population. What is very important is that of the total workforce (both main and marginal) in the country in 1991, excluding Assam and Jammu & Kashmir, 28.57 per cent are female workers. In 1981, the corresponding percentage was 25.89. Even among the main workers, the proportion of female workers in the country, excluding Assam and Jammu & Kashmir, has increased from 20.30 per cent in 1981 to 22.56 per cent in 1991. In other words, the female contribution to workforce has increased during the decade. "The proportion of male main workers returned as cultivators has declined in 1991 in all the States and Union Territories except Nagaland and Sikkim. The proportion of male main workers re- turned as agricultural labourers has increased in all the States and Union Territories except Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Tripura, West Bengal, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu and Pondicherry. In fact during the decade the number of cultivators in the country, excluding Assam and Jammu & Kashmir, has in- creased only by 17.11 per cent from 91.49 million in 1981 to 107.14 million in 1991. The number of agricultural labourers in the country, excluding Assam and Jammu & Kashmir, has increased during 1981-1991 by 33.04 per cent from 55.44 million in 1981 to 73.75 million in 1991. The proportion of agricultural labourers has in- creased in a majority of the States and UTs but declined in Goa, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Tripura, West Bengal, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu and Pondicherry. States and UTs where the proportion of agricultural labourers has increased by more than two percentage points, in descending order of the magnitude of increase are Sikkim (4.50), Andhra Pradesh (4.08), Uttar Pradesh (2.96), Tamil Nadu (2.91), Rajasthan (2.68), Arunachal Pradesh (2.64), Meghalaya (2.53) and Karnataka (2.14). Interestingly Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan which are adjoining States show different pattern. In the case of Madhya Pradesh the proportion has declined during 1981-91. In 1991 the proportion of agricultural labourers of 23.51 per cent is quite close to the national average of 26.44 per cent, while in Rajasthan where the proportion of agricultural la- bourers (10.00 per cent) is much below the national average, the proportion increased by a significant margin of 2.68 percentage points during the decade from 7.32 per cent in 1981 to 10.00 per cent in 1991. "At the national level the proportion of main workers in indus- trial categories iv, vi, vii, viii and ix zi.e mining and quarrying; con-

1991 Census to net the workers more effectively, particularly those working as unpaid workers on farm or family enterprise” were added in the questionnaire itself. This was done to remind the enumerators that a large number of workers who work on farms or in family enterprises as unpaid workers tend to be omitted and that they should be netted by probing whether any such person is there in the household. Most of such workers usually happen to be women. There was also special emphasis on capturing, the female workforce. The enumerators and supervisors were trained on the need to probe into the economic activities being carried out by the females. A set of economic activities in which women are com- monly involved were identified in consultation with organisations like UNIFEM and universities and included in the instructions to enumerators. The increase in the female work participation rate in 1991 is to be viewed in the light of the above efforts. Due to better canvassing more females might have been netted as workers in the 1991 Census. However, the effect has not been uniform in all the sectors. Since the male workforce is not generally affected very much by the emphasis on netting unpaid workers in farm or family enterprise, or by the mounting of special efforts to net female workforce in a better manner, it would be worthwhile to examine the decadal differences in growth rate of male and female workforce by industrial categories and identify sectors wherein the female workforce has grown much faster compared to male workforce. This may probably be used broadly to identify industrial categories wherein much more efforts would be required to net female workforce in future. A comparison of male and female growth rates indicates that improvements in female work force have been noticed in categories i, iii, v, ix i.e cultivators, livestock, forestry, fishing, hunting and plantations, orchards and allied activities; manufacturing, process- ing, servicing and repairs (both household and non-household); and other services. The Registrar General and Census Commissioner has this ob- servation to make on the WPR: "While comparing the WPR of two censuses, it is essential to keep in mind that the WPR is a very crude measure. It is affected by the age structure of the population. A set of age specific work participation rates would be a better index. This would be available towards the end of 1993. In a period of declining fertility, the proportion of younger age population (0-14) to total population declines and that of population in working age group 15-59 in- creases. This results 'in an apparent increase in the WPR in the later census than what would have resulted if the age structure had remained the same. Since the pace of decline in fertility has not been uniform and has been different in different states, great caution is to be exercised in interpreting the apparent decline or increase in WPR of the 1991 census over that of the 1981 census. “The apparent increase in male WPR in the States of Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Mizoram, Punjab and West Bengal and the Union Territories of Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu, Lakshadweep and Pondicherry may be partly due to fertility decline. Though the changing age structure would have affected female WPR also, the improvements in canvassing in the 1991 census, resulting in better netting of female workers could get confounded with the effect of the change in age structure during the decade 1981-91. The appar- ently small decline in male WPR in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu may also be due to fertility decline. When the age specific rates are available we may probably find a bigger fall in male WPR in each age group.