Why is agriculture the most Labour absorbing sector in India? How does disguised unemployment make it worse?Explain with an example.
Answers
Answered by
18
The unemployment scenario is quite bleak in India. With every passing day, we are heading towards a more precarious situation. A developing economy like India is defined by its large population and large-scale unemployment, further leading to socio-economic issues like malnutrition, poverty, drug & substance abuse and anti-social & criminal activities, etc.
At the core of such socio-economic issues lie several types of unemployment – structural, frictional or seasonal. However, one which is more severe and even more difficult to track is the disguised unemployment. Such an unemployment cannot even be reflected in the official unemployment records.
Let us look at what ‘Disguised Unemployment’ actually is. In layman’s language, it is the phenomenon wherein more people are employed than actually needed. Usually, this has been witnessed in developing economies and more so in labour-intensive economies.
Disguised unemployment is primarily traced in the agricultural and the unorganised sectors of the economy. As the primary sector of the Indian economy, Agriculture provides employment to almost 51% of the total population. However, the sector’s contribution to the country’s GDP is just 12-13%.
Causes of Disguised Unemployment
The causes for such an unemployment are many. Few of which are:
Population growth: High growth in population leads to surplus labour, especially in the rural areas. India, being the second most-populous country, has almost 70% of its total population in the rural areas (2011 census). Surplus labour exists in the rural areas, however, employment in such areas mostly remains seasonal, thus causing disguised unemployment.
Poverty: Poverty results in inability to purchase land and thus people have access to limited capital. Limited capital: It further increases dependency of more and more people on limited means.
Labour-intensive economies: With such high population, labour is available at cheaper rates. Thus, more people are easily employed for a particular work, which can be done by lesser number of people.
Limited skills and knowledge about better opportunities: Disguised unemployment is also caused by limited skills of the labourers. At the time when majority of India’s most population lives in the rural areas with limited means, people lack proper skills to be recruited at better places.
At the core of such socio-economic issues lie several types of unemployment – structural, frictional or seasonal. However, one which is more severe and even more difficult to track is the disguised unemployment. Such an unemployment cannot even be reflected in the official unemployment records.
Let us look at what ‘Disguised Unemployment’ actually is. In layman’s language, it is the phenomenon wherein more people are employed than actually needed. Usually, this has been witnessed in developing economies and more so in labour-intensive economies.
Disguised unemployment is primarily traced in the agricultural and the unorganised sectors of the economy. As the primary sector of the Indian economy, Agriculture provides employment to almost 51% of the total population. However, the sector’s contribution to the country’s GDP is just 12-13%.
Causes of Disguised Unemployment
The causes for such an unemployment are many. Few of which are:
Population growth: High growth in population leads to surplus labour, especially in the rural areas. India, being the second most-populous country, has almost 70% of its total population in the rural areas (2011 census). Surplus labour exists in the rural areas, however, employment in such areas mostly remains seasonal, thus causing disguised unemployment.
Poverty: Poverty results in inability to purchase land and thus people have access to limited capital. Limited capital: It further increases dependency of more and more people on limited means.
Labour-intensive economies: With such high population, labour is available at cheaper rates. Thus, more people are easily employed for a particular work, which can be done by lesser number of people.
Limited skills and knowledge about better opportunities: Disguised unemployment is also caused by limited skills of the labourers. At the time when majority of India’s most population lives in the rural areas with limited means, people lack proper skills to be recruited at better places.
Answered by
37
Answer =#Agriculture is the most labour absorbing sector because there are not much jobs created in the tertiary and the secondary sector.
The people employed in the agricultural sector are in disguised unemployment. This means that the people are not working with their full potential. This also means that we can remove some of the people from agricultural sector without any effect on the economical growth of the sector.
Government can take various steps such as construction of wells, canals which can help the farmers to cultivate their land more then once. By employing disguised unemployed people in other sectors for the development of the infrastructure and economy. This will also increase their family income.
Similar questions