What are Features of Working Population in India?

The main features of working population in India are as under:

1. In 1951-61, the proportion of working population to the total population was 39.1% and 43% respectively which in 1991 declined to 32.2%.

2. The majority of labour force i.e., 64% in India is still engaged in primary sector which indicates that Indian economy is a backward economy.

3. During the period 1951-91, efforts have been made to expand secondary and tertiary sectors but in spite of all this the percentage of working population in primary sector still remained higher.

4. In India despite heavy investment no change has been witnessed in the occupational distribution of working population so for.

5. India has one-sided occupational development.

Distribution of Working Population

The industry-wise distribution of working population has been given in table 3. In 1981, 68.8 per cent of the population was engaged in agriculture sector, while absorbing 66.5 per cent as cultivators and agricultural labourers. Only 2.3 per cent working force was employed in livestock, forestry and fishing etc.

From this, we can say obviously, that agriculture sector is the dominant in the economy. By comparing it with the year of 1971, we notice that it has considerably declined as it was 72.1 per cent in 1971.

Despite the fact, special attention was given to promote heavy, basic and key industries during the various plan periods; it has slightly increased from 10.7 per cent to 13.5 over the year 1951 to 1981. There was modest rise in the working force engaged in manufacturing sector.

This shows that secondary sector does not provide employment even to one-fourth of the working population. In tertiary sector, as against 16.1 per cent in 1971, working force has increased to 17.7 per cent, showing somewhat growth during the period of 1970.

In order to know whether the occupational structure has changed since the beginning of the twentieth century, we shall have to look at its trends. First, the occupational structure in India has remained almost static over the last 90 years.

At the beginning of the century, agriculture provided employment to about 71.7 per cent of the total population which increased to 76.0 per cent in 1921. Since 1951, it has not made much progress till 1971. But in 1981, it declined to 68.7 per cent and further to 64.9 per cent.

Therefore, it showed that agriculture has remained the main occupation of the people and employment in this sector has never fallen below 71.7 per cent.

Secondly, in the secondary sector, the proportion of working population remained within the range of 10 per cent of 12.6 per cent. Till 1931, working population has continuously declined due to destruction of indigenous cottage and small scale industries.

But after 1951, it improved marginally, as it went up to 13.5 per cent in 1981 and 17.3 in 1991. In the same way, tertiary sector has also shown no clear-cut Indian Economic Development and Elementary Statistics trends. Its share moved between 13.0 per cent to 17.5 per cent over the entire period of ninety years.