New Delhi: While the growth of the economy since the 1980’s has pulled millions of workers out of agriculture and led to an increase in regular wage workers, this has not benefited everyone equally, finds a report by Azim Premji University.

SC/ST communities and religious minorities underrepresented

‘State of Working India 2023: Social Identities and Labour Market Outcomes’ finds that while growth created regular wage jobs for all castes, the rates differed significantly. There has been a rise in SC regular wage workers, with around 22% of SC workers being regular wage as compared to 32% of others, but 40% of SC workers were in casual employment as compared to only 13% for others.

Upward mobility has increased and caste based segregation has decreased, and yet entrepreneurs belonging to SC and ST communities are still rare. SC and ST owners are underrepresented compared to their percentage of the total workforce, even in the smallest firms, while the overrepresentation of upper castes rises with the size of the firm. SC/ST owners are more uncommon in larger firms. Owners of companies with more than 20 employees are hardly SC or ST.

The report also points out that while structures of employment vary more with reference to gender and caste, religious identities have played an important role as well. During the course of the four-decade period since the 80s, after adjusting for education, household size, state, and other pertinent criteria, Muslims are less likely to hold regular wage jobs and more likely to be in own-account or casual pay work. The Sachar Committee Report from 2006 also made note of the chronic underrepresentation in regular wage labour, which remains a huge cause for concern.

Women face stereotypes, pay gaps and discrimination

Gender based earning disparities have also reduced since 2017, but remain prominent – women earn 76% of what men do, and SC/ST women earn 54% of ‘upper’ caste women’s pay. Women’s Workforce Population Rate (WPR) has risen, due to a rise in self-employment caused by the pandemic and subsequent lockdown, female employment rates have increased since 2019. 50% of women were self-employed prior to COVID, which increased to 60% afterwards. As a result, self-employment earnings were just 85% of what they had been in the April-June 2019 quarter, even two years after the 2020 shutdown.

Gender norms also play a heavy role in determining women’s employment status. The “male breadwinner” norm, in which husbands are regarded as the primary earners and females contribute to home money only when necessary, is a prevalent gender norm. The report finds that when the husband’s earnings are high, women are less likely to work.

There is a greater chance that wives will be employed when husbands’ incomes climb, starting about Rs 40,000 per month. The report states that this trend might be the product of shifting social norms brought on by increased wealth, or it might be the effect of such husbands being paired with more educated wives who have preferences and possibilities to obtain better-paying jobs, pointing out how class and gender are barriers to obtaining employment.

Post-marriage life and rules remain a significant factor in determining women’s ability to work. Married women living in families where the mother-in-law is present but not employed are less likely to be employed compared to households where there is no mother-in-law present; and daughters-in-laws are more likely to be employed if the mother-in-law is also employed.

The report also finds that women are employed in higher proportion in districts where domestic violence is more prevalent, which could be from the backlash effect – that because traditional gender roles are being challenged, working women are more likely to experience partner abuse.

In rural areas of Karnataka and Rajasthan, women’s employment participation increased dramatically during the first five years of marriage. The majority of this employment was as self-employed farmers or as contributing family members. However, the lack of a marriage or motherhood penalty indicates that this is work done out of compulsion in order to survive.

Women’s participation in the workforce also varies across the different social groups within – in 2020, the WPR was lowest for Muslim women, at a despairing 16.3%. This points towards difficulty of mobility and opportunities, as well as possible discrimination by employers on the basis of gender, caste and religion.

Unemployment

India’s economic growth and employment creation are still only weakly related. The report indicates that policies favouring faster growth do not necessarily foster faster job creation. Between 2004 and 2019, growth often led to respectable employment. The pandemic, which produced a bigger surge in distressed employment, interrupted this.

For all educational levels, the unemployment rate is lower than it was before COVID. However, it continues to be above 15% for graduates, and more concerningly, it reaches a staggering 42% for graduates under 25. Unemployment has fallen, but remains high.

The report points out the glaring discrimination on the basis of caste, gender, and religion, which prevent access to opportunities and play a role in low workforce participation rates and unemployment.

Urvie Bhattacharya

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