Abstract
The present contribution is the twelfth part of the Social Change Indicators series. Over the past four issues, we have deliberated on the social and economic challenges arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns. The topics that were covered previously have included aspects of vulnerable households across social classes, poverty and migration, living conditions for social distancing and social protection networks. In this issue, we examine the displacement of rural labour in various states of India. We examine aspects, such as the labour force participation rate in rural India, according to the usual status, age group of 15–59 years, the unemployment rate in rural India, according to the usual status, age group of 15–59 years, the percentage distribution of workers in the usual status by broad status in employment in rural India, and the percentage of workers engaged in informal sector enterprises among workers in usual status engaged in the agriculture sector.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a severe impact on jobs and the livelihood prospects of millions of people around the world. It is claimed that the effects could be far-reaching, pushing households into unemployment, underemployment and working poverty for decades. In India, the health crisis and the consequent lockdowns pushed many workers back to their hometowns after they became jobless with factories shutting down and blocked supply chains in urban services. As many people in urban centres lost their livelihood, declining employment has also remained apparent in regular salaried jobs, casual workers and the self-employed. The job guarantee programme of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme has provided timely opportunities, benefitting migrants returning to rural areas. However, it should be kept in mind that a rising demand for employment in the rural job guarantee scheme also connects with labour shortages in the urban organised and unorganised sectors. A sizable number of migrant workers and their families have again left for their homes during the second wave of the pandemic and consequent economic lockdowns. Experts are already predicting that a number of jobs will fall even more in the near future and have also argued that as the economy returns back to recovery, the jobs lost due to closures may not return and could even see increased degrees of informality in the short-run.
This twelfth part of the Social Change Indicators series is focussed around the aspects of labour displacement in various states of India. Aspects that have been looked into include the labour force participation rate in rural India, according to usual status, age group of 15–59 years, the unemployment rate in rural India, according to usual status, age group of 15–59 years, the percentage distribution of workers in usual status by broad status in employment in rural India, and the percentage of workers engaged in the informal sector (proprietary and partnership) enterprises among workers in usual status engaged in the agriculture sector. The required data have been collected from the recent Periodic Labour Force Survey’s (PLFS) Annual Report.
Source: PLFS, 2018–2019.
Source: PLFS, 2018–2019.
Source: PLFS, 2018–2019.
Percentage Distribution of Rural Workers in Usual Status by Employment Status, Male and Female
Source: Government of India (2020) PLFS 2018–2019 data.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.