Orissa Review (Census Special)
Workers in Orissa
The survival and subsistence of human society
largely depends on the division of labour. Since
some people have to work for production either
for their own consumption or for social wealth, it
is essential for some individuals of the society to
indulge in some form of economic activity. Indian
Censuses since beginning have tried to capture
such active person to gauge the economic
condition of the society. Through a long process
of evolution the definition of workers has under
gone many a changes over Censuses of different
decades.
The groups who are engaged in whatever
form for production of national wealth were
categorized as workers and in contrast non
workers are those who are not engaged in any
economic activities. Furthermore, the workers are
classified according to their period of participation,
sector of economy and status of employment etc.
The workers were further sub-divided as main
and marginal workers as per their period of work
participation. The study of this interesting aspect
of population profiles throws some lights on the
economic characteristic of Orissa.
The distribution of workers in primary,
secondary and tertiary sectors is the main criteria
which decides the social classification of
industrialized, semi-industrialized and agrarian. As
December - 2010
Indian society is an agrarian society its main
working force are found to be engaged in
agriculture and its allied activities. In such society
the efficiency of labour is very low as participation
starts at early age to supplement the family income
even with low return and retirement from working
force is negligible.
Orissa occupies 13th place among states
of India in population.There are 14276488
number of workers and 22528172 number of
non-workers in Orissa. Before looking into
various aspects of workers one must know the
specific definition of Workers as adopted in 2001
Census. Workers are those who had worked in
some economic activity for pay or profit or even
supervision during the preceding year to date of
enumeration. Main workers were those who had
remained engaged in such activity for more than
183 days and Marginal workers are those who
worked for less than 183 days. During Census
2001, persons engaged in activities relating to milk
production even for purely household
consumption were considered as workers for the
first time. Further, emphasis on un-paid work on
farm or in family enterprise has been expanded
by changing it to include even part-time help or
unpaid work on farm, family enterprise or in any
other economic activities. This expanded the
number of workers to a large extent. There were
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Orissa Review (Census Special)
9589269 workers, from whom, 4687219 were
marginal workers constituting 32.83 percent to
total workers in Orissa. The non-workers in the
State constitute 61.21 percent. Differentiated sex
wise, males are 47.47 percent and females 75.34
to their respective sex category. The age-group
wise break-up makes it further interesting. The
sex and age-group wise distribution of population
and workers is given in Table 1.
sectors. Highest percentages of female marginal
workers are seen in this age group in rural sector
but male main workers are almost same in rural
and urban areas but in rural areas percentage of
female main workers is higher than urban.
Work Participation Rate
This is calculated as percentage of
number of workers to total population. Since, it
Table-1
Percentage Distribution of Main, Marginal Workers and Non-workers by Age and Sex
Orissa: 2001 Census
A g eGrou
p
1
Total
/Rur
al
/Urb
an
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
11
12
13
5- 1 4
Total
8634215
4411995
4222220
1.27
1.57
0.96
3.10
2.58
3.65
Rural
7460896
3806204
3654692
1.29
1.58
0.99
3.49
2.89
4.11
Urba
n
Total
1173319
605791
567528
1.17
1.54
0.64
0.66
0.63
2149562
6
1795902
3
3536603
1088758
8
8996338
1060803
8
8962685
1891250
1645353
13.8
9
15.8
2
4.71
24.1
4
27.8
7
3.82
1502730
1536370
Rural
2684486
1322133
1362353
Urba
n
354614
180597
174017
65.8
1
65.8
3
65.7
2
50.6
0
51.9
7
40.5
7
18.9
5
21.8
3
4.30
3039100
40.0
3
40.0
2
40.0
9
28.4
0
29.0
4
23.6
1
0.76
.
13.5
7
14.1
1
10.6
3
6.69
11.2
3
12.2
5
3.48
41.2
3
12.1
8
4.25
11.2
2
12.3
1
2.68
95.6
3
95.2
2
98.1
9
41.0
3
38.1
5
55.6
1
60.3
7
58.7
1
72.9
1
95.8
5
95.5
4
97.8
0
20.3
0
18.3
6
29.5
7
38.1
7
35.8
5
55.1
9
95.4
0
94.9
0
98.6
1
62.3
0
58.0
3
8 5 .5
5
82.0
8
80.9
1
91.3
0
1559
Rural
60+
Urba
n
Total
P
Population
M
F
P
Main Workers
M
F
The percentage of Marginal workers in
the 5-14 age-group are quite high in rural sectors
but the urban child laborers in this age-group are
also significant which can be attributed to
availability of employment in un-organized sectors
like domestic help, rag picking and other similar
activities. The likely causes of their engagement
in rural sector are in agriculture and its allied
activities and in family enterprises. The main
workers in the economic active age-group i.e. in
15-49 are above 40 percent in rural and urban
232
6.78
6.01
Marginal Workers
P
M
F
P
Non Workers
M
F
considers entire population sometimes it becomes
misleading, therefore, it will be more refined if we
take population in the 15-49 age-group which is
the economic active age-group.
Table-2 shows Work Participation Rate
in Orissa by sex during Census 2001 in Total,
Rural and Urban sectors which will provide a
better insight to status of workers.
While, the WPR is considered taking the
entire population visa-a-vis 15-59 age group, it
December - 2010
Orissa Review (Census Special)
Table 2
Work Participation Rate in Total, Rural and Urban considering (a) Total Population as
base and (b) Population aged 15-59 as base: Census 2001
Total/
Rural/
Urban
Percentage of Total Workers
Percentage of Total Workers
to Total Population
to Population aged 15-59
Persons
38.79
40.23
30.62
Total
Rural
Urban
Males
52.53
53.17
49.06
Females
24.66
27.12
10.02
is observed that the WPR in rural sector is much
better than urban sector, possibly the cause can
be attributed to availability of employment in
unorganized agricultural sector. Male work
participation is much better compared to female.
Persons
58.97
61.85
44.39
Males
79.70
81.64
70.43
Females
37.70
41.97
14.45
Fifty to seventy percent of workers of
State are engaged in Agriculture and allied
activities i.e. Cultivators and Agricultural
Labourers. Percentage of female workers as
Agricultural Labour and Household Industry
Table 3.1
Sex wise Percentage distribution of Main Workers in Total, Rural and Urban areas of
Orissa: 2001 Census
Total
Rural
Urban
Main
Workers
958926
9
800474
0
158452
9
807199
9
667741
7
139458
2
151727
0
132732
3
18994
7
Cultivator
s
Agril.
Labourer
es
HH
Industry
workers
35.82
37.54
27.17
42.03
44.42
30.58
2.82
2.92
2.14
21.88
19.62
33.30
25.49
23.05
37.17
2.70
2.38
4.94
4.22
3.22
9.22
4.46
3.36
9.73
2.91
2.54
5.44
Workers in different fields of employment
Workers engaged in different economic
activities can be seen in Table 3. Their percentage
wise distribution in Total, Rural and Urban sectors
with sex wise break up can be studied to
understand the workforce of State.
December - 2010
sectors are quite significant. Similarly, Female
workers as OtherWorkers in Urban areas are
almost fourfold more than in Rural area.
The Marginal workers who have worked
for less than 183 days during the preceding year
provide an interesting facet. The percentages of
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Orissa Review (Census Special)
Table 3.2
Sex wise Percentage distribution of Marginal Workers in Total, Rural and Urban areas of
Orissa: 2001 Census
Total
Main 4687219
Workers
17.33
Cultivators
Agril.
Laboureres
HH Industry
workers
Oth
Workers
Rural
Urban
1797266
2889953
4514970
172249
100988
71261
19.09
16.24
17.84
19.97
16.56
4.00
4.18
3.76
61.89
56.57
65.20
63.45
58.98
66.14
21.02
16.08
28.02
6.34
3.44
8.15
6.26
3.36
8.00
8.60
4.89
13.85
14.43
20.90
10.41
12.45
17.69
9.30
66.38
74.85
54.37
female workers are higher than males. The
participation of female as Agricultural Labourer
in Rural sector is more than urban sector, which
indicates the fact that employment in seasonal
activities are available to them.
1696278 2818692
Sex Ratio
Sex and Age are the primary variables
that are necessary for almost all classification
related to population characteristic. Sex
Table 4
Distribution of Sex Ratio among workers in different Age Groups according Residence
AgeGro
up
Total
Tot
al
Tota
l
5-14
1559
60+
234
972
Main Margi
Work
nal
er
Worke
r
198
1608
Rural
Non
Work
er
Tot
al
Main
Work
er
1543
989
Urban
Non
Work
er
Tot
al
209
Margi
nal
Worke
r
1662
1536
895
Main Margi
Work
nal
er
Worke
r
143
706
Non
Work
er
1581
957
974
582
201
1352
1693
953
2989
960
996
600
213
1368
1755
954
3149
937
870
463
141
900
706
945
2517
102
2
135
1022
2198
103
0
154
1042
2326
964
143
609
1594
December - 2010
Orissa Review (Census Special)
Ratio(females per 1000 males) is an important
indicator to study the gender balance among the
workers and the sex ratio calculated for the
population according worker status and this
information is provided in Table-4.
The sex ratios for total population are
972, 989 and 895 in Total, Rural and Urban areas
respectively.But among main workers the females
share are very negligible.Among Marginal
workers, females out number the males in Rural
sectors compared to very low participation in
urban areas. High sex ratio among non-workers
shows their low participation in economic
activities.
Emerging Issue
More and more employment avenues
should be created to develop the economic
condition of the state so that more work and
employment can be created for both males and
females and also in urban and rural areas. Though
the people of Orissa largely constitute an agrarian
society employment in other sectors have to be
explored. The females who are engaged as
Marginal workers may be provided productive job
opportunity to work in rural and urban sectors for
longer periods so that they provide economic
back-bone to their household as well as of the
nation.
Hon'ble Chief Minister Shri Naveen Patnaik is being presented with a painting
by Shri Bishnupada Sethi, I.A.S., Director of Census Operations, Orissa.
December - 2010
235