Employment-Unemployment Situation among Major Religions in India Studied by NSSO

A National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) study revealed in July 2013 that the Christians from the rural areas as well as the Sikhs from urban areas faced highest level of unemployment during 2009-2010, just a year after the global economic crisis. The study was conducted for a period from July 2009 to June 2010. This was the 66th round of National Sample Survey in order to find out about the employment and unemployment situation among major religious groups in India. 

The survey studied the Unemployment Rate. The Rate of Unemployment, also known as Unemployment Rate is defined as the number of persons unemployed per 1000 in labour force. The survey covered 7402 villages as well as 5252 urban areas, thereby including 100957 households and 4.59 lakh people. 

Major highlights of the Survey

• The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) study unveiled that the rate of unemployment in rural India from July 2009 to June 2010 was less than that in the urban areas. This trend indicated that the economic crisis had major impact on the organised sector of urban areas than the rural areas.  
• The 8th quinquennial survey on employment revealed that the rate of unemployment in rural areas was the highest among Christians (3 percent among men and 6 percent among women). 
• In the urban areas, this rate of unemployment was highest among the Sikhs (6 percent among men and 8 percent among women). 
• Among four categories of the workers, i.e., rural females, rural males, urban females and urban males; the urban females were the worst affected with 6 percent unemployment rate. 
• The survey also revealed that maximum number of employed in the rural areas were those who were self-employed. 54 percent of males as well as 56 percent of females were found in this category of unemployed. 
• As far as the rural male workers were concerned, the level of self employment was highest for the Sikhs (55 percent), followed by the Hindus (54 percent). 
• Among the Christians in rural areas, 17 percent of male and 11 percent of female workers were regular wage or salaried employed. 
• In the urban areas, most of the workers were almost equally involved in regular wage or salaried employed as well as in the category of self employment. The proportion of the workers in self employment category were highest among Muslims, followed by the Sikhs. 
• In case of urban Christians, major portion of male workers (45 percent) and female workers (61 percent) were involved in regular wage or salaried employment. 
• Among the urban Hindus, 44 percent of males as well as 40 percent of females belonged to regular wage or salaried employment category. 
• The Worker Population Ratio (WPR) was higher among the male workers than among the female workers in all the religions. The difference was greater in the urban areas. The Worker Population Ratio (WPR) is the number of persons employed per 1000. The male-female differential in WPR was at its lowest among the Christians. WPR was highest among Christians in all categories covered by the survey, except among the urban males. Among the Urban Males, WPR of Hindus was higher.
• The survey also found that in the rural areas, majority of the male workers were from not literate category (28 percent) or the literate and up to primary category (28 percent). Majority of the female workers were from not literate category (59 percent). Proportion of the male workers with the general education level, i.e., secondary and above was highest among the Christians (32 percent) followed by the Sikhs (30 percent).