Since the early 1990s, West Bengal like
other Indian states has seen its employment growth lagging behind output
growth, so much so that even a relatively dynamic sector like agriculture
has been successful in creating very few additional jobs.
Chart 1 indicates the change in rates of male work participation according
to the 1991 and 2001 Census of India. The Census defines 'main' workers as
those who participate in economically productive work for 183 days or more
in a year. Marginal workers, on the other hand, are those who participate
in economically productive work for less than 183 days. While this is a
measure of underemployment, obviously it would be an underestimate, since
even those with more than 183 days of work could be underemployed.
Chart 1 >>
The work participation rate of male workers in terms of main activity fell
quite significantly over the decade. Some of this was due to a rise in
participation in education, especially for those in the age group of 1519
years, which is to be welcomed. But this reason is not enough to explain
the decline, and it is clear that the absence of productive employment
opportunities was dominantly responsible for this. Thus, the decline in
the rate of male main workers was countered by the increase in the share
of male marginal workers, which points to fewer jobs being available over
the year. It also suggests that more secure forms of employment may have
been replaced by less secure forms-a possibility also reiterated by the
NSS data on the type of contracts.
Chart 2 shows the rates of work participation of women. West Bengal has
one of the lowest rates of female work participation in the country.
However, unlike the rest of the country, these rates have been rising,
both for main and marginal workers. It is not clear how much of this is
due to better enumeration of women's work and how much is the real trend.
Even here, by far the more significant increase is in terms of marginal
work. (It should be noted that the Census definitions and coverage of
'economically productive work' are still rather restricted and tend to
leave out a range of household related economic activity. This is one of
the reasons why women's work participation as indicated by the Census is
so low in West Bengal. The coverage by the NSS is slightly better in this
regard.)
Chart 2 >>
(It should be noted that the Census definitions and coverage of
"economically productive work" are still rather restricted and tend to
leave out a range of household related economic activity. This is one of
the reasons why women's work participation as indicated by the Census is
so low in West Bengal. The coverage by the NSS is slightly better in this
regard.)
Charts 3 and 4 indicate the changes in terms of main occupation, between
1991 and 2001 for men and women separately. The most significant feature
in both cases is the relative decline in agricultural work. For male
workers, the shift has been in terms of decline in the share of
cultivators (who have also declined in terms of absolute numbers). This
may reflect the increase in the share of landless households, which is
reported by the NSS, whereby few rural men report themselves as mainly
working on their own household plots. By contrast, the proportion of male
agricultural labourers has remained broadly stable at around 23 per cent.
The proportion of 'other workers' too have increased commensurately.
Chart 3 >>
Chart 4 >>
For women workers in West Bengal, the share of both cultivators and
agricultural labourers has declined. In this case, the importance of
'household industry' has gone up considerably, probably as part of a
survival strategy of working households, given the generally weak
employment situation.
While the Census showed a substantial increase in marginal work for both
men and women in West Bengal, the results of the NSS Survey point to a
rather different conclusion. The NSS defines 'usual status' activity as
one where the person is engaged in an activity for a long period of time
in the preceding year. Within this, 'usual principal status' refers to the
main activity while 'usual subsidiary status' refers to those who would be
characterized as 'unemployed' according to the usual status definition,
but pursued some activity in a 'subsidiary' capacity. It is evident that
this corresponds approximately (but of course not exactly) to the Census
definitions of main and marginal work.
According to the NSS results, which are presented in Charts 5 and 6, the
ratio of subsidiary status workers to usual principal status workers, has
been going down for quite a long time in West Bengal, and especially
during the period 199394 to 19992000. Such declines are evident for men
and women, and for rural and urban areas. For male workers the decline was
continuous. For women workers, while the ratio increased in the decade
1983199394, it went down substantially thereafter.
Chart 5 >>
Chart 6 >>
In
addition to 'usual status' activity, the NSS has other concepts of
employment-the 'weekly status' employment that counts a person as employed
if s/he has been engaged in any economic activity for at least one hour on
any day of the week preceding the survey and 'daily status' employment
that defines a person as employed if s/he has worked for 4 hours or more
during the day preceding the survey. The 'usual status' definition may be
said to provide a stock estimate of the work available, since it deals
with the existence of work over a fairly long period of time. By contrast,
the 'weekly' and 'daily' status measures can be seen as flow estimates
that also give a sense of the current state of labour demand.
Charts 7 and 8 indicate the growth of rural employment according to the
NSS, both by the 'usual status' and 'daily status' indicators. In terms of
usual activity, while male employment shows a sharp decline, that for
women has actually turned negative during the later period. In terms of
daily status, which possibly captures the real state of the labour market
from the point of view of workers more accurately, both men and women
experienced a decline in employment, after reasonable growth in the
earlier period.
Chart 7 >>
Chart 8 >>
Charts 9 and 10 show the NSS results for
the same variables in the urban sector. Here the condition of male
employment appears to be slightly better, in that, while there was
deceleration in employment by both usual and daily status indicators, it
was relatively less and male employment growth continued to increase above
the rate of increase in labour force. However, female employment shows a
collapse, with absolute declines according to both indicators.
Chart 9 >>
Chart 10 >>
The change in type of employment must be seen in relation to this
aggregate employment stagnation, since it defines the broader conditions
under which labour contracts change. In what follows, we consider patterns
specifically in the rural areas of West Bengal.
Chart 11 shows the changing terms of employment for rural men. It is clear
that the most significant changes are decline in regular employment and
increase in casual work. While these are part of long-term trends, the
recent period appears to have seen an acceleration in these changes. The
change in self-employment is more complex, since the share of
self-employment increased in 199394, only to come down to almost the
earlier levels by 19992000.
Chart 11 >>
