Skip to main content

Job quality in India’s rural non-farm sector: Challenges and policy imperatives

By Amandeep Kaur, Sumit Kumar, S.P. Singh* 
The importance of rural non-farm sector notwithstanding, some issues concerning the sector are constantly under scrutiny, such as types of jobs, alternate opportunities, and changes in economic status after employment. The evolving nature of the rural sector also suggests that simply being employed in rural non-farm sector is insufficient for evaluating rural livelihoods; the quality and sustainability of employment are equally important. Those engaged in rural non-farm activities face various challenges including the seasonal and irregular nature of jobs, low wages, informal and insecure job opportunities, lack of health and unemployment insurance, and jobs without clear employer-employee relationship (Binswanger‐Mkhize, 2012; Jha, 2006; Lanjouw & Shariff, 2004; Start, 2001). 
Moreover, the solution of the agrarian distress by engaging in rural non-farm jobs is questionable again because of the type of the jobs and activities offered by the sector. Therefore, a study by Dr. Kaur along with Dr. Kumar and Dr. S.P. Singh focuses on the measuring the quality of employment in India’s rural non-farm sector and identifying the factors associated with it using the recent PLFS (Periodic Labour Force Survey) data. However, in the past researchers have made attempt to measure it by using an indicator, by using a range of indicators or by constructing a composite index (Expert Group on Measuring Quality of Employment, 2015; Ghose, 1999; Standing, 2002; Steffgen et al., 2020). 
Even though no attempts have been made to measure quality of employment of rural non-farm sector particularly in Indian context. Keeping in mind, the importance of non-farm sector, studying the quality of jobs in rural non-farm sector can assist in providing precise policy measure to improve the quality of employment in rural non-farm sector. The study focuses on measuring quality of employment in rural india using six indicators namely vocational training, informal employment, collective bargaining, multiple activities, employment in hazardous industries, and social security. 
Each individual indicator plays an important role in identifying quality of employment in rural India and specifically in rural non-farm sector. Based on these selected indicators Quality of job index is created which define four categories i.e. categorized into four groups: good quality, moderate quality, bad quality, and extremely bad quality.
According to the composite index of quality of employment (CIQE), the data indicates a worrying trend as quality of jobs has worsened from 2017-18 to 2023-24. This deterioration could be linked to the increase in informal jobs, low collective bargain, and lack of social security in jobs in rural India. 
These findings stress the need for urgent policy interventions targeted at improving the job quality of rural Indians. The proportion of good quality jobs have declined 6 percent to 4 percent in the year 2023-24, whereas a proportion of workers working in bad quality jobs in rural India has increased significantly by 26percent points from 2017-18 to 2023-24 along with proportion of workers in extremely bad quality jobs has increased from 2 percent to 12 percent in 2023-24 (refer Figure1).

To identify the factors influencing the increase in bad quality jobs, the authors have applied ordinal logit model to understand the nature and factors for specific category of jobs. Among the household variables, caste and religious minority significantly impact the quality of jobs in 2017-18 and 2023-24. This suggests that worker being from a marginalized social group like scheduled caste, scheduled tribe or backward caste have higher likelihood of being in a worse quality job as compared to good quality jobs. The historical experiences suggest that the households belonging to scheduled castes have inadequate access to capital and are usually not equipped with high level of skills and education which can make them unable to be absorbed in regular wage market and are more likely to get employment as casual labour in the low quality jobs (Thorat & Sabharwal, 2006). 
Only in the year 2017-18, household size significantly impact the quality of jobs. With increase in number of people in the household the odds of getting worse quality of jobs increases. In the year 2017-18 and 2023-24, keeping other things constant, having a graduate degree is significantly associated with a lower likelihood of being in a bad quality job. Same is true for workers with post-graduate degree. In the years 2017-18 and 2023-24, post-graduates are significantly less likely to be in bad quality jobs. Similarly, for workers having technical education have lower probability of working in bad quality jobs in rural India. It is evident from the findings that higher education and technical education continues to play a crucial role in getting better quality jobs in rural India. 
Gender is not found to a significant factor impacting quality of jobs in rural India. For both the years 2017-18 and 2023-24, the coefficient for females is negative and significant at the 1 percent level. This indicates that women are less likely to be in bad quality jobs vis-à-vis their male counterparts. This could suggest a protective effect for women in rural employment and whenever women tend to find that quality of job is poor then they might be leaving the job as compared to working in bad quality jobs as it is evident from descriptive statistics that around one-fourth of workers were female in the year 2017-18 and 2023-24. 
In both years, the coefficients for age and square of age of workers are statistically significant, suggesting that age have significant influence on job quality. The sign of age and age square indicate that it may follow inverted U-type relationship with probability of getting quality of jobs and age of the worker. 
The results show negative and statistically significant relationship between weekly wages (in thousand) and job quality for 2017-18 and 2023-24 which indicate that with increases in wages, likelihood of working in a worse quality job declines. The significance of weekly wages emphasizes the strong association of low pay and low-quality jobs in rural India. 
The quality of job prospects also varies with the type of occupation, elementary occupation such as cleaners and helpers, labourers in mining, construction and manufacturing and transport, kitchen helpers, street related activities, garbage collectors and sweepers has a positive and significant effect on quality of jobs. It indicates that workers in these elementary occupations are more likely to be in lower quality jobs vis-à-vis other occupations. 
Workers in the category of craft and trade workers such as working as building and related trade workers painters, builders, metal, machinery, moulders and weld workers, handicrafts, electrical workers, food processing and related trade workers etc. have higher and statistically significant odds of being in worse quality jobs, suggesting this occupation is associated with poor working conditions vis-à-vis other occupations in rural India. Similarly, service and sales workers like conductors, guides, cooks, waiters, hairdressers, beauticians, sales workers, shop salespersons, personal care workers etc. also have higher odds of being in lower job quality vis-à-vis other occupations. 
Furthermore, workers working as plant and machine operators, assemblers, drivers and mobile plant operators also have a statistically significant impact on job quality. 
The results of the ordered logistic regression indicate that several household level and individual level factors play a significant role in determining job quality in rural India. Key factors are caste, religion, education of the workers, gender and age of the workers, wages, and type of profession. The impact of education is particularly notable, with higher educational attainments and technical education improve the job quality. Furthermore, occupations like elementary occupations, craft/trade, operators, sales/service jobs are more likely to be associated with poor job quality in rural India (refer, Table - Source: Unit level data from Periodic Labour Force Survey (Government of India, 2019, 2024).
The findings emphasise that there are persistent inequalities in rural job markets especially with respect to caste, education, and nature of occupation. These findings emphasis that there is need for more budgetary consideration for focused and targeted policies to improve job quality. Recent efforts to enhance skills, education and vocational training should be strengthened by more allocation of budget this time. For instance, scaling up and expansion of Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) with other vocational programs for the youth at rural areas is required. More budget is required for Industry-academia linkages to ensure the training schemes are industry relevant and aligned with the market requirements. Institutional set up is required to build skill hubs in rural areas along with the cooperation of ITI and local institutions. 
Furthermore, more budget for Mudra Loans and microfinance programs for rural entrepreneurship, rural start-ups support facility in agro-processing, textiles, and handicrafts will help to promote better quality self-employment jobs. Moreover, provision of digital skilling will enable teleworking of rural youth, extension of broadband as well as mobile connectivity to encourage e-commerce, provision of online job platforms and digital platforms interconnecting the rural artisans to urban markets can help to resolve the quality of employment issues to greater extent. 
Therefore, establishing an ecosystem that supports diverse industries and improved job opportunities can increase the access and quality of employment in rural India. Policymakers must prioritize these issues to ensure sustainable and equitable employment in India's rural economy.
---
*Respectively: Assistant Professor, Jaypee institute of Information Technology, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, Ph.d from IIT Roorkee; Assistant Professor, Guru Guru Granth Sahib World University, Fatehgarh Sahib; Professor and Head, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Roorkee

Comments

Post a Comment

TRENDING

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...
Post a Comment
»

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor*  This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.
Post a Comment
»

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.
Post a Comment
»

Uttarakhand tunnel disaster: 'Question mark' on rescue plan, appraisal, construction

By Bhim Singh Rawat*  As many as 40 workers were trapped inside Barkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after a portion of the 4.5 km long, supposedly completed portion of the tunnel, collapsed early morning on Sunday, Nov 12, 2023. The incident has once again raised several questions over negligence in planning, appraisal and construction, absence of emergency rescue plan, violations of labour laws and environmental norms resulting in this avoidable accident.
Post a Comment
»

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu.  He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat
1 comment
»

Job opportunities decreasing, wages remain low: Delhi construction workers' plight

By Bharat Dogra*   It was about 32 years back that a hut colony in posh Prashant Vihar area of Delhi was demolished. It was after a great struggle that the people evicted from here could get alternative plots that were not too far away from their earlier colony. Nirmana, an organization of construction workers, played an important role in helping the evicted people to get this alternative land. At that time it was a big relief to get this alternative land, even though the plots given to them were very small ones of 10X8 feet size. The people worked hard to construct new houses, often constructing two floors so that the family could be accommodated in the small plots. However a recent visit revealed that people are rather disheartened now by a number of adverse factors. They have not been given the proper allotment papers yet. There is still no sewer system here. They have to use public toilets constructed some distance away which can sometimes be quite messy. There is still no...
Post a Comment
»

Women's rights leaders told to negotiate with Muslimness, as India's donor agencies shun the word Muslim

By A Representative Former vice-president Hamid Ansari has sharply criticized donor agencies engaged in nongovernmental development work, saying that they seek to "help out" marginalizes communities with their funds, but shy away from naming Muslims as the target group, something, he insisted, needs to change. Speaking at a book release function in Delhi, he said, since large sections of Muslims are poor, they need political as also social outreach.
1 comment
»

Warning bells for India: Tribal exploitation by powerful corporate interests may turn into international issue

By Ashok Shrimali* Warning bells are ringing for India. Even as news drops in from Odisha that Adivasi villages, one after another, are rejecting the top UK-based MNC Vedanta's plea for mining, a recent move by two senior scholars Felix Padel and Samarendra Das suggests the way tribals are being exploited in India by powerful international and national business interests may become an international issue. In fact, one has only to count days when things may be taken up at the United Nations level, with India being pushed to the corner. Padel, it may be recalled, is a major British authority on indigenous peoples across the world, with several scholarly books to his credit. 
Post a Comment
»

Gujarat Bitcoin scam worth Rs 5,000 crore "linked" with BJP leaders: Need for Supreme Court monitored probe

By Shaktisinh Gohil* BJP hit a jackpot in the form of demonetisation, which it used as an alibi to convert black money into white in Gujarat. Even as party scrambles for answers of how the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADCB), whose director is BJP president Amit Shah, received old currency worth Rs 745.58 crore in just five days, and how Rs 3118.51 crore was deposited in 11 district cooperative banks linked with Gujarat BJP leaders, a new mega Bitcoin scam, worth more than Rs 5,000 crore has been unraveled.
1 comment
»