Rural non-farm employment in Maharashtra: trends and determinants (1993–94 to 2009–10)

Abstract

In the post-liberalisation frame, employment generation in rural non-farm sector has shown a considerable growth at an all-India level but in Maharashtra the growth of employment in this sector has been a bit stagnant. The present study has been undertaken with the objective of examining the structure, growth and developmental potentials of non-farm activities for employment generation in rural Maharashtra and the determinants of entry into this sector’s employment in the post-liberalisation period. This will be done as Maharashtra is one of the most urbanised states in India and also a state with the maximum number of farmer suicides. Based on the unit-level National Sample Survey data on employment and unemployment for four quinquinnial rounds 50 th , 55 th , 61 st and 66 th , it has been observed that a majority of the rural non-farm workers in the state belonged to Pune, Thane, Ahmadnagar and Sholapur districts in the post-liberalisation frame. Gender disparity with regards to employment in rural non-farm sector has been observed as the employment share is dominated by males while females constitute a very low share of employment in the same. Employment in trade, hotels and restaurants has seen a considerable increase mainly for male workers, followed by the construction sector. Caste status, proxied by social groups categorised as Other Backward Classes have majority of employment in this sector but their educational levels have been low as compared to the “others” in the social groups. This puts forward the role of education and other skills required to obtain economically viable jobs in this sector. The paper thus suggests implementation of proper education and training programmes keeping into account the local conditions of the region of the state to enhance the skills of the rural population which would benefit and provide better possibility of getting employment in the non-farm sector.