Manpower dips as state workers pick up skills

CHENNAI: The typical image of a despondent farm labourer, bent double as he works to earn his daily bread may soon become an infrequent sighting. The country's unskilled labour force seems to be shrinking, even as more people are getting upgraded into the skilled category and child labour has come down mainly due to easier access to education.
Union minister for labour K Suresh announced in the Lok Sabha last month that India's labour force has shown only a marginal increase of 5 million between 2005 and 2010.The survey which was carried out by National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) shows that this roughly amounts to a 3% decline in the total labour participation rate and a 6% dip in women's participation too in unskilled labour jobs.
Tamil Nadu, which sees a lot of migrant labourers pour in, is faced with a decline in unskilled labour participation rate. As compared to 2005, the state has seen a 3% dip in rural participation and 4% dip in urban participation. "It's because more people are giving importance to education and moving upwards," said professor Irudaya Rajan, chair professor at the ministry for overseas Indian affairs Research Unit on International Migration.
"With more people finishing their basic education nowadays, the children of earlier generation of daily wage earners are now migrating to skilled and semi-skilled jobs," said professor Maria Saleth, director of Madras Institute of Development Studies. Moreover, agriculture is presently in a crisis, the wages are not attractive and labourers are migrating to other fields.
Among women too, only 23.3% were available for employment in 2010 as opposed to 29.4% in 2005. This may be more due to prosperity with incomes in families going up.
Sheelu, president of Women's Collective said, "In Tamil Nadu, the free rice scheme is partly a reason for lesser women going in for manual labour. Young men and women in rural areas these days are hired by companies like Nokia and Hyundai and also several semi-urban cottage sectors like packaging industries. Although this is not skilled labour, they come under the salaried class." There is also a great deal of migration from Tamil Nadu to neighbouring states of Karnataka and Kerala where higher wages are paid, she said. Their place is taken by labourers from northeastern states.