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The latest Economic Census of India 2005 reports that rural India witnessed a higher rate of employment-generation in recent years compared to urban India
Rural India has outshone its urban counterpart in generating employment, reports the latest Economic Census of India 2005. In the average annual growth in employment since 1999-2000, with employment growth rates of 3.33%, rural areas have outperformed the urban sector, which registered a rate of 1.68%, according to provisional results of the census. Interestingly, the results also show that 42.12 million enterprises are engaged in various economic activities other than crop production and plantation.
Among the surprising facts revealed in the census, Jammu and Kashmir registered 6.82% in total employment growth. It was followed by Sikkim (5.52%), Kerala (5.39%), Haryana (5.22%) and Tripura (5.07%).
Releasing the document on June 12, G K Vasan, Minister of State for Statistics and Programme Implementation, said: "We have collected data from the largest number of enterprises, and contacted 21.1 crore households." He added that unlike the previous census (conducted in 1998) this census would have a directory of enterprises employing 10 workers or more, to help undertake detailed surveys with respect to the services sector, which contributes 54% to the gross domestic product (GDP).
The total number of people working in these enterprises is around 98.97 million, more or less equally distributed between rural and urban areas. Rural India accounts for 51% of total employment, while in urban areas the proportion is 49%.
Adult female workers constitute 19% of the total employed population. In rural areas they comprise 24% of the workforce; the figure for urban areas is 14%.
Rural India also accounts for 61.3% of the country's industrial units, as compared to just 38.7% in India's urban regions. Tamil Nadu, with 44.5 lakh units, ranked first in the list of states with the highest number of industrial units. Mizoram recorded the highest growth in enterprises, at 9.60%, followed by Kerala, Tripura, Tamil Nadu and Assam.
Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal together account for 50% of the total enterprises in the country, according to the census. Surprisingly Gujarat, India's so-called economic powerhouse, is a noticeable absentee from any of the lists of achievers.
Source: www.indiadaily.org, June 13,
2006
Hindustan Times, June 12,
2006
The Economic Times, June 12, 2006
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