Comprehensive Essay on the Labour Force in India

It is obvious that the productive capacity of any country depends on the size of its labour force as well as on the proportion of the persons in the labour force to the total population.

It may, however, be pointed out that the productivity of workers and the rates of unemployment and under-employment are also important factors which need to be considered.

Hence, in addition to the sex- age structure of the labour force, the skills, the experience, the aptitudes, the education and the health of the workers are also considered to be the primary determinants of the productivity of the labour force.

For improved productivity and economic growth, the occupational structure of the labour force, its distribution among various industrial sectors and its rural-urban and regional distribution within the country are all important factors to be taken into consideration.

All these aspects of labour force assume greater importance when the process of industrialisation is in progress. For a country like India, a study of these aspects becomes very pertinent.

Concepts Used in Analysis of Labour Force Data in India

In India, the decennial population census is still virtually the only source of data on the economic activity of individuals. From these data, it is possible to arrive at the number of persons engaged in a particular type of economic activity during some time of the year.

Though information on employment has been collected in each decennial census since 1881, any intercensal comparison of labour force participation rates is difficult because each census has differently defined the term “worker.”

Up to 1951, the classification of “workers” and “non-workers” was based on the “dependency approach,” in which persons were categorised as earning, earning dependents and non-earning dependents on the basis of their “gainful occupation.”

The 1961 census was the first to introduce the labour force approach with a specific reference period.

In this census, the basis of work in seasonal activities such as cultivation, dairying and household industry was whether the person had some regular work of more than one hour a day throughout the greater part of the working season.

In the case of regular employment, the reference period was 15 days prior to the day on which the house-hold was visited. In 1971, the approach was once again changed, and the entire population was classified into two categories.

The first category consisted of those whose main activity was work (that is, participation in any economically active work by physical or mental labour, involving not only actual work but also effective supervision and direction of work).

In other words, this category comprised of full-time workers. The other category covered the “non-mainly- working” persons, or persons whose main activity was other than work.

The reference period for the 1971 census for the enumeration of persons engaged in regular work, such as “trade, profession, service or business,” was prescribed as one week.

For non-regular work such as “cultivation, livestock-keeping, plantation work, household industry, etc.,” the reference period was the last working season prior to the date of enumeration. As mentioned earlier, the reference period for the 1981 and 1991 census was the “last year.”

In the 1981, 1991 and 2001 censuses the total population was grouped in 3 categories, namely, “Main Workers,” “Marginal Workers,” and “Non-Workers.”

Initially, the total population was divided into 2 categories, namely, Workers and Non-workers by asking a question, “Did you work any time at all last year?

The workers were again, categorised into 2 groups, namely, “Main workers” and “Marginal workers.” Those who had worked for a major part of the year, i.e., for 6 months (183 days) or more were designated as Main workers and those who had not worked for the major part of the year, i.e.

Those who had worked for less than 6 months (183 days) were categorised as “Marginal workers.” Those who had not worked at all during the last year were categorised as Non-workers.

The worker was defined as “a person whose main activity was participation in any economically productive work by his physical and mental activities. Work involved not only actual work but effective supervision and direction of work.”

The definitions of Main Workers, Marginal Workers and Non- workers were the same for 1981, 1991 and 2001 censuses.

In the 1991 census to net the workers more effectively, particularly to those working as unpaid workers on farm or family enterprise the words, “including unpaid work on farm or in family enterprise,” was added in the questionnaire itself.

In the Census of India, 2001, two additional questions, namely, distance from residence to place of work in kilometers and mode of travel to place of work were asked to persons engaged in other work.