Recasting Citizenship for Development - File UPI

In the Name of the Community 175
Table 8.6
Work Participation Rates in Arunachal Pradesh: 1971–2001 (percentages)
1971 1981 1991 2001
All Populations Male 63.14 58.63 53.76 50.69
Female 51.28 45.67 37.49 36.45
Total 57.65 52.63 46.24 43.97
Rural Male 62.78 58.50 53.69 51.13
Female 52.27 47.64 40.86 41.33
Total 57.88 53.42 47.69 46.47
Urban Male 70.32 60.24 54.18 48.99
Female 10.58 11.62 11.95 16.69
Total 51.57 41.47 36.39 34.19
Source: Census of India, 2001, Series-13, Arunachal Pradesh, Provisional Population Totals,
Paper-3 of 2001.
Note: Figures for 2001 are based on provisional population totals.
work, as well as the patterns of household risk management where women’s
labour serves as the ‘buffer’ during bad times to meet unexpected shortfalls
in consumption or earnings.
In terms of occupational structure, although women have been gradually
moving out of agriculture and allied activities, they lag behind men
in the extent of shifts to the secondary and tertiary sectors. In 1971, among
the total male main workers, 68.78 per cent were engaged in the primary
sector; only 0.66 per cent were working in the secondary sector; and the
rest, 30.56 per cent, were in the service sector. By 1991, the share of male
workers in the primary sector had come down to 54.60 per cent, but had
risen to 12.34 per cent in the secondary sector and to 33.06 per cent in the
tertiary sector. In contrast, the distribution of female workers in different
sectors in 1971 was 97.11 per cent, 0.14 per cent and 2.75 per cent in the primary,
secondary and tertiary sectors respectively. In 1991, 89.93 per cent
of female main workers were still engaged in the primary, 2.21 per
cent in the secondary and 7.87 per cent in the tertiary sectors. Preliminary
estimates from the 2001 Census data suggests that the percentage of total
female main workers engaged in the primary sector continues to remain
as high as 81.70 per cent in the state, although their share in the service
sector has gone up to nearly 13 per cent (Table 8.7). Thus by all counts, the
occupational diversification of women workers in the state has lagged
behind that of men. Even when they are employed in non-agricultural
occupations, particularly in the government services, a higher proportion
of women workers are to be found in the lowest ranks of the job hierarchy.