New Delhi: Hubs of ‘old economy’ industries like textiles continue to be engines of employment, as per a fresh release of Census 2011 data.
With 44 percent of its population reported as ‘main workers’, that is, regularly employed, Tirupur in Tamil Nadu tops the employment table among 506 cities and towns.
Others in the top five include Santipur in West Bengal, Erode and Rajapalyam in Tamil Nadu and Mangalagiri in Andhra Pradesh, all textile manufacturing hubs.
The New Delhi area with its high proportion of government employees, and Bengaluru, a mix of old and new economy, share the joint fourth rank with Mangalagiri in Andhra Pradesh.
Six towns from Bihar and three from Uttar Pradesh along with Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir form the bottom five with less than 20% of their population categorized as regular workers, The Times of India reported.
While part of the reason for this poor showing is the relatively smaller proportion of adults in the population (more children), the key factor is the lack of industrialization to any significant measure. Driven by a very high share of women not working, the non-workers’ populations in cities and towns are over 70 percent in most north Indian towns.
Most marginal workers from northern towns
Another disturbing trend revealed by the Census data, which covers 506 towns and cities, is the plight of West Bengal in terms of urban employment. Most towns of the state have the highest number of jobseekers among all cities and towns in the country. The share of jobseekers in the total population is between 20 and 25% in these places. Bengal was one of the seats of earliest industrialisation in the country but this has drastically declined in the last decades.
The least share of jobseekers is in several western Indian towns stretching from Gujarat to Maharashtra, most of them indu- strial hubs and magnets to migrants from rural hinterlands. Jobseekers include both, those who are doing some irregular work and seek regular work, or completely unemployed workers.
Several North Indian towns like Akbrapur, Ballia, Allahabad, Mughalsarai, Jhansi etc. have high shares of marginal workers – those who are employed for less than six months. Conversely, most of the towns with high employment have low marginal worker shares.
Many of Delhi’s divisions, which continue to be classified as separate census towns, figure in the bracket of lowest share of marginal workers.
Driven by a very high share of women not working, the non-workers’ populations in cities and towns are over 70% in most north Indian towns. Over 90% of women are not working in these places. But in most of these places, a substantial number of women are reported as seeking or available for work. This indicates the growing need and desire to find work although actual availability is a different story altogether.