subject: Employment in India - its past and present [print this page] India is one of the most populated countries in the world, next only to China.
Religion, caste, and language are major determinants of social and political organization in India today.Poverty is one of the major problems facing India. An estimated 30-40 percent of the population lives in poverty. Four out of five of India's poor live in rural areas. About 70% of the people live in more than 550,000 villages, and the remainder in more than 200 towns and cities. But government of india is making laws and all kinds of efforts to create various opportunities of employment in India.
Agricultural and allied sectors accounted for about 60% of the total workforce in 2003 same as in 199394. While agriculture has faced stagnation in growth, services have seen a steady growth. Of the total workforce, 8% is in the organised sector, two-thirds of which are in the public sector. The NSSO survey estimated that in 19992000, 106 million, nearly 10% of the population were unemployed and the overall unemployment rate was 7.3%, with rural areas doing marginally better (7.2%) than urban areas (7.7%). India's labor force is growing by 2.5% annually, but employment in India grows only at 2.3% a year.
Official unemployment exceeds 9%. Regulation and other obstacles have discouraged the emergence of formal businesses and jobs. Almost 30% of workers are casual workers who work only when they are able to get jobs and remain unpaid for the rest of the time. Only 10% of the workforce is in regular employment.India's labor regulations are heavy even by developing country standards and analysts have urged the government to abolish them.
Unemployment in India is characterized by chronic or disguised unemployment. Government schemes that target eradication of both poverty and unemployment (which in recent decades has sent millions of poor and unskilled people into urban areas in search of livelihoods) attempt to solve the problem, by providing financial assistance for setting up businesses, skill honing, setting up public sector enterprises, reservations in governments, etc.
