Measurement of employment, unemployment and underemployment of agricultural labour in tarai regions of Uttaranchal State and Uttar Pradesh

Abstract

In rural areas, both unemployment and underemployment exist side by side, the distinction between them is by no means sharp. The various sophistications and refinements brought about in the concepts and measurement of employment and unemployment, have not fully succeeded even in properly quantifying the above problems. Therefore, in the present study, an attempt has been made to measures the unemployment and under employment of agricultural labour in Tarai regions of uttaranchal state and Uttar Pradesh according to time and income criterion. In each state one district was selected randomly viz. Sidharth Nagar in Uttar Pradesh and U.S. Nagar in Uttaranchal state. From each of these two selected district, the Birdpur block in Sidharth Nagar district and Rudrapur block in U.S. Nagar district was selected randomly. The study is based on the 55 households in Birdpur block and 66 households in Rudrapur block. Thus, total sample consists of 121 agricultural labour households. The study pertained to the year 1999–2000. In order to achieve the objective simple averages and percentages were used. The findings of the study reveals that the unemployment and under employment measured by time and income criteria for agricultural labour household as well as agricultural labour was higher in Uttar Pradesh as compared to Uttaranchal state. It is, therefore, suggested that more avenues of employment must be provided at the village level, including provision of loans for the purchase of inputs, cross bred cattle, and land distribution among agricultural labourers.