Self-employment in India’s rural areas across male and female has gone up as per the Periodic Labour Force Survey 2017-18 vis-a-vis the scenario in 2009-10. The percentage of salaried employees has also increased in rural areas during the said period, The Indian Express reported.
From 53.5 per cent in 2009-10, the percentage of rural self-employed among men increased to 57.8 per cent in 2017-18. In the case of rural women, the percentage for 2017-18 stood at 57.7 per cent against 55.7 per cent in 2009-10.
On the other hand, the percentage of casual labour in rural areas significantly went down following their shift to self-employment and salaried jobs from agricultural labour.
From 38 per cent in 2009-10, the percentage of men casual labour decreased to 28.2 per cent in 2017-18 while in the case of women, it reduced from 39.9 per cent to 31.8 per cent in the same time period.
While the casual labour in non-agriculture activity was almost constant during 2011-12 and 2017-18, the agricultural activity saw a steep fall from 21 per cent in 2011-12 to 12.1 per cent in 2017-18.
Nonetheless, they seemingly went for self-employment or salaried job. The percentage of self-employed increased from 49.8 to 52.2 per cent in the six-year period even as for salaried the percentage shot up from 9.6 to 12.7 per cent.
Coming to the urban areas, even as there is a decline in the percentage of self-employed or casual labour men and women from 2009-10 to 2017-18, there has been a visible increase in the percentage of people working on regular wage or salary.
The percentage of the urban self-employed male was down from 41.1 per cent in 2009-10 to 39.2 per cent, and for female self-employed, it reduced significantly from 41.1 per cent to 34.7 per cent in the same period.
With respect to the percentage of male casual labour, it went down from 17 per cent in 2009-10 to 15.1 per cent in 2017-18, and for female casual labour, it went down from 19.6 per cent to 13.1 per cent in the same eight-year period.
