Unemployment in Rural India

Introduction: An unemployed person is one who having potentialities and willingness to earn, is
unable to find a remunerative work. Sociologically, it has been defined as “forced or involuntary
separation from remunerative work of a member of the normal working force (i.e. 15-59 age
groups) during normal working time at normal wages and under normal conditions”. D’mello
(1969) has defined it as “a condition in which an individual is not in a state of remunerative
occupation despite his desire to do so”. Naba Gopal Das has explained unemployment as
“condition of involuntary idleness”. The Planning Commission of India has described a person as
“marginally unemployed” when he/she remains without work for six months in a year.
According to 2011 census survey, unemployment rate in rural areas is 7.15% and in urban, it is
9.62%. More than 51% of the total unemployed persons live in three states of northern India (
West Bengal, Bihar and U.P.) and two states of southern India (Kerala and Tamil Nadu).

Present features of Unemployment in India

 The incidence of unemployment is much higher in urban areas than in rural areas.
 Unemployment rates for women are higher than those for men.
 The incidence of unemployment among the educated is much higher (about 12%) than
overall unemployment of 9.6%.
 There is greater unemployment in agricultural sector than in industrial and other major
sectors.
 The growth of employment per annum is only about 2%.

Types of Rural unemployment

 Seasonal unemployment is inherent in the agricultural sector and certain manufacturing
units like sugar and ice factories. The nature of work in a sugar factory or an ice factory
is such that the workers have to remain out of work for about six months in a year.
 Agricultural unemployment is caused on account of a number of factors. First, the
landholdings are so small that even the family members of the working age-groups are
not absorbed by the land. Second, the nature of work is seasonal. Broadly speaking, a
cultivator in India remains unemployed for about four to six months in a year. R.K.
Mukherjee in “Rural Economy of India” has said that an average cultivator in North India
does not remain busy for more than 200 days in a year.
 Cyclical unemployment is caused because of the ups and downs in trade and business.
When the entrepreneurs earn high profits, them invest them in business which increases
employment, but when they get fewer profits or suffer from losses or their products
remain unsold and pile up, they reduce the number of workers in their industries which
causes unemployment. It can happen in agrarian industry too and in agricultural land and
profession as well, depending upon the climate and land condition.
 Consequences
 From the point of view of personal disorganization, the unemployed person faces
disillusionment and falls easy prey to cynicism. Having no outlet to release their
depression, young persons tune their creative energies into wrong channels which explain
the rise of the number of youthful bandits, highway robberies and bank hold-ups. Most of
the criminals are undoubtedly recruited from boys with a history of earlier delinquencies
but there has been an increase in the number of daring criminals with the decrease in
work opportunities.
 Family disorganization because of unemployment is easy to measure. Unemployment
affects the unity of interests of family members, the unity of objectives, as well as the
unity of personal ambitions. The disharmonious functioning of the members creates
discord within family, which means that not only do the tensions between the
unemployed husband and wife increases but conflicts between parents and children also
arise.
 Social disorganization caused by unemployment is hard to measure. Social
disorganization is a breakdown of the social structure, or change because of which old
forms of social control no longer function affectively, or a process by which social
relationships between members of a group are broken or dissolved. The activities of the
unemployed are so restricted and their attitudes so bitter that in this phase of
disillusionment and discouragement, they lose their desire to work and their skills may
deteriorate with a resultant loss to the whole community.

In fact, there is a strong relation between poverty and unemployment in rural India. A
poor people who very forcibly by working on other lands as agricultural laborer, manages
to have bread and butter daily. Even in rural areas, a poor person suffers from seasonal
unemployment and remains idle for more than six months in a year. The increasing
pressure on land of rapid growth of population leads to fragmentation of land, migration,
imbalances between demand and supply of labour as produce, and, hence more
percentage of poverty. Even the anti-poverty programmes which have started by GOI
used to face setback in later years because of mismanagement, corruption, loopholes and
lacuna from the side of bureaucracy, etc. A poor person even cannot receive primary or
quality education in schools and colleges which leads to further unemployment for them.
Some of them even being educated cannot receive respectful jobs because lack of skills
and capital.