A terrible future stares at Odisha in the year 2015 as the unemployment rate in 2014 has nearly doubled to 6 per cent from below 3 per cent in 2013.The 2014 labour Bureau employment-unemployment data released recently defines this unemployment rate as an indicator of ‘chronic unemployment’ that means labour force in Odisha failing to get any employment during a major period of the year.
The data comes as a big shocker for the State as a whopping 84 per cent household in villages don’t get even casual labour wage work, despite the MGNREGA scheme. In cities and towns, a high of 55 per cent households have not a single person earning any wage or salary.People are pushed to self-employment as ‘survival strategy’ only.
An analysis of the labour Bureau’s activity data brings to fore some interesting facts. Odisha has over half of its rural households engaged in self-employment, whereas around one-third is agri labourers and little over 10 per cent are employed. State’s rural labour activity profile in no way looks meaner than that of Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. Self-employed households in those States are also in the same range (50-57 per cent). The proportion of employed too is more or less same (10 per cent).
Not only the rural profile but similarities are also conspicuous in the urban milieu too. Data available reveals that nearly half (45 per cent) of the urban households in State are employed against around one-third self-employed. The proportion is more or less the same in the aforesaid States. But compared to 6 in every 100 employment-seekers here having no employment at hand, only 1 in 100 in Gujarat and 2-3 in every 100 elsewhere has no work to support livelihood.
A Planning Commission note speaks of noted economist Amit Bhaduri where he specified that economic activities in agriculture sector (rural or informal) can be described as ‘survival’ strategy or ‘refugee effect’ than as self employment. In Odisha, interestingly, two in every five household in rural are self employed in agri sector.
"Since the contribution of agriculture to State’s GSDP is only 17.5 per cent against 25 per cent ten years back, this reflects the fall in productive capacity. However, still such a high dependence on agriculture for livelihood underlines ‘disguised’ employment, which is because of joblessness unlike in Gujarat having a similar profile. Disguised employment then compels them to look for other greener pastures outside Odisha," explains XIBM Prof Dr Niraj Kumar.
According to a study paper of Max Planck Institute of Economics, self-employment can reduce unemployment if the per capita income of the economy is higher because it would boost entrepreneurship, which it called the ‘entrepreneurial’ effect. The per-capita income of Odisha is around 2.5 times less than Gujarat and others. Because of this, unemployment rate is higher comparatively, he added.
Another evidence of the ‘refugee effect’ is a very alarming level of unemployment rate among urban females (18 per cent) in 2014 despite lower labour force participation. Prof Kumar explained that since women’s accessibility is limited to certain sectors, a state of high joblessness then leads to such a high unemployment rate. The Planning Commission, recently, has also conceded high intensity of disguise and under employment in Odisha that rarely gets reflected by even the high unemployment rate.
