Female Employment in Rural Non-Farm Sector of Two Districts of West Bengal – Bankura and Malda: A Field Based Analysis

Abstract

The rural non-agricultural sector or Rural Non-farm Sector (RNFS) consists of all the sectors other than agriculture and allied activities and existing literature has refered this sector as the “safety valve” in the post reform period, when agricultural sector experienced decline (Bhaumik, 2007) and “residual sector” absorbing the excess labout in the agricultural sector (Vaidyanathan, 1986). The transformation of rural economy from agriculture to RNFS in India has been proved from the declining share of the former in India’s GDP from 51.4 per cent in 1950-51 to 14.1 per cent in 2011-12 (CSO, 2015) and the corresponding reduction in the participation of the rural workers in the sector. The low growth rate of agricultural sector after the Ninth Plan onwards resulted in less employment opportunities for the increasing rural population forcing them to migrate out of the sector either to urban areas or the non-farm sector. Not only this, the distress condition of the rural households owing to this decline of the agricultural sector forced females and elderly population to join the workforce. This is for supplementing low household incomes from the agricultural sector, otherwise which, generally they confine themselves in household related works and thus, termed as distress drivenemployment. But during the high growth rate of around 9 per cent in the Indian economy in 2004-05 to 2011-12 period, only 2.6 million rural jobs were created in contrast to 60 million jobs during 1999-2000 (Mehrotra et al, 2012) and females were generally more affected by this fall as compared to the male.