Employment Opportunities Across Social Classes in Rural India

Abstract

In the second part of the Social Change Indicator series, we provide information from government survey data on the work opportunities for Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and non-SC-ST class in the rural India. 1 Our data refers to 18 states which covers more than 95 per cent of the SC or ST population in the country. The generation of employment continues to remain one of the key political economic challenges in India despite the achievements of its high economic growth rates in the past two decades. The problem remains complicated due to the nature of the country’s labour market that is characterised by skill shortages, dominance of low-paid jobs in the informal and unorganised sectors and vulnerable employments. The government has recently set up a task force to address deficiencies in the existing data on employment and plans to outline a National Employment Policy (NEP) for the creation of quality jobs through economic, social and labour policy interventions. The NEP claims that it will also provide a much-needed focus on equal access to employment opportunities for marginalised sections like the SCs and STs by identifying skill shortages, training needs and available employment opportunities. Given social class differences in India, it is sometimes hypothesised that social exclusion and discrimination remain a common phenomenon in the labour market of different states in India.