Kerala 2005 - of Planning Commission

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Compared to the all-India pattern, however,
Kerala’s historical specificity has thrown up a more
differentiated industrial structure, with a much larger
proportion of women in non-agricultural employment
(40 per cent, the highest in India). Agriculture still
accounts for about 60 per cent of female employment
in rural areas, though absolute numbers employed have
been declining (Appendix Table A7.2). The decline is
partly due to a changing cropping pattern and partly
because young, literate work seekers are unwilling to
work in this low status occupation. There is significant
district-wise variation. The 2001 Census reveals that
the percentage of cultivators, men and women, among
all workers is significantly higher in the eastern hilly
districts of Idukki and Wayanad. However, Palakkad,
a major rice growing area, has the highest percentage
of female agricultural labourers, more than half of all
women workers and correspondingly the lowest level
of other workers. For men in contrast, Palakkad follows
Wayanad and Idukki. Thus, while more than 60 per cent
of all workers in Kerala are ‘other workers’, in Idukki and
Wayanad, it is only about 50 per cent (Table 7.7).
Significantly, the 2003 survey found only around
3 per cent of educated employed women between 15 and
59 years were in agricultural and allied activities. According
to the NSSO data, the non-agricultural segments, which
absorb a high proportion of women, are manufacturing,
trade, hotels and public administration, social and personal
services; in all these, women’s employment has grown in
the 1990s. However, direct estimates of employment in
the informal sector 5 in 1999-00 show that manufacturing,
construction and trade – all industry segments in which
the share of informal sector is high – absorb higher
proportions of women workers. Over three-fourths of
the female workers in manufacturing are in the informal
sector compared to less than 70 per cent for males and
81 per cent in construction vis-à-vis 70 per cent for males.
The share of the formal sector is high in public, social and
personal services.
Given this data on industrial distribution of women
workers, changes in women’s employment by status
– viz. the significant increase in regular employment,
particularly in urban areas, from about 26 to
32 per cent between 1993-94 and 1999-00 is surprising
(Table 7.5). With such a large proportion of women in the
manufacturing sector, construction and trade being in the
informal sector, and a context in which the formal sector
is becoming ‘informalised’ (Unni, 2001), there is reason
to revisit this whole notion of ‘regular’ employment as
defined by the NSSO (Eapen, 2001).
Table. 7.7: Percentage Distribution of Category of Workers (Main and Marginal), 2001 by District
Districts Cultivators Agricultural Labourers Household Industry Other Workers
Male Female Total Male Female Total Male Female Total Male Female Total
Thiruvananthapuram 5.5 4.4 5.2 16.3 12.1 15.4 2.7 9.4 4.2 75.5 74.2 75.2
Kollam 8.5 2.1 6.8 17.4 7.4 14.7 2.1 3.4 2.4 72.1 87.1 76.1
Pathanamthitta 16.0 5.4 13.5 21.2 16.0 20.0 2.0 4.1 2.5 60.9 74.5 64.0
Alappuzha 4.7 1.1 3.6 12.9 16.8 14.1 4.1 13.9 7.1 78.4 68.2 75.3
Kottayam 9.3 2.1 24.5 12.7 15.2 41.7 2.3 6.6 10.0 75.7 76.2 23.8
Idukki 25.5 12.2 21.2 24.6 32.1 27.0 1.1 2.0 1.4 48.8 53.7 50.4
Ernakulam 5.7 3.9 5.2 6.2 13.5 8.0 2.1 4.6 2.7 86.0 77.9 84.1
Thrissur 5.9 4.0 5.5 8.6 20.2 11.4 3.8 9.1 5.1 81.8 66.7 78.1
Palakkad 10.0 7.0 9.1 23.8 56.7 33.7 3.2 3.6 3.3 63.1 32.6 53.9
Malappuram 6.9 4.3 6.5 16.2 27.5 17.8 1.5 4.0 1.9 75.4 64.2 73.8
Kozhikode 3.5 2.6 3.4 7.8 10.8 8.2 1.4 3.9 1.8 87.3 82.6 86.6
Wayanad 19.8 9.8 16.9 27.8 37.4 30.6 0.8 1.2 0.9 51.6 51.6 51.6
Kannur 6.1 6.9 6.3 10.5 22.6 13.5 1.9 4.5 2.5 81.6 66.1 77.7
Kasaragod 5.8 2.6 4.8 9.6 10.9 10.0 2.4 33.7 12.0 82.2 52.8 73.2
Kerala 8.0 4.7 7.2 14.2 22.0 16.1 2.3 7.3 3.5 75.5 66.0 73.2
Coefficient of Variation (%) 65.4 62.3 69.7 42.8 60.1 52.5 40.4 107.4 78.0 16.2 21.2 24.3
Source: Primary Census Abstracts 2001, Census of India 1991, 2001.
5 This data is brought out for the first time by the NSSO together with the 55th Round on Employment and Unemployment in India.