Kerala 2005 - of Planning Commission

CHAPTER 7
RECKONING CAUTION: EDUCATED UNEMPLOYMENT AND GENDER UNFREEDOM
107
is Rs. 120 for males and Rs. 80-100 for females. Given an
average employment of only 20 days a month, this works
out to more than Rs. 2,400 for men and Rs. 1,600-2,000
for women, i.e. only marginally lower than the earnings of
those with secondary and higher secondary education. In
some employment, such as shop assistants, young women
offer themselves for monthly salaries of around Rs.1,000,
i.e. considerably lower than the earnings of an unskilled
female worker even if the days of employment is counted as
15 days a month. The income of the professionally qualified
are without doubt higher than that of post-graduates in the
liberal arts and sciences.
Is educational status related to higher earnings? The 1975
CDS study raised this question and observed that:
“…a comparison of the pay received by matriculates, who
are by far the most numerous category among the educated,
with the estimated earnings of shop assistants and agricultural
labourers suggests that education does not confer a significant
advantage with respect to pay.” (CDS-UN, 1975:129).
This statement seems to hold good even after 30 years
though, in general, the less educated (those with 10 or
12 years of schooling) have lower income and those with
higher education, especially post-graduate/professional
education have higher income (Table 7.8).
Interestingly, women with a diploma earn more than those
with graduate degrees. Women’s earning is relatively lower
than males in all educational categories, except among
the diploma holders. Further wage labourers in Kerala
may even have a slight advantage in income compared
to those with secondary and higher secondary education,
who are on the look out for regular jobs. The average
agricultural wage rate in 2003 (i.e. unskilled rural worker)
Table 7.8: Median Monthly Income by Education for
Regular and Permanent Employment (in Rs.)
Education Male Female
Secondary School Leaving Certificate 2,791 2,181
High School Certificate 3,613 2,320
Diploma 4,159 4,139
Degree 4,716 3,256
Postgraduate 5,411 4,533
Professional 8,290 6,016
All 4,242 4,087
Source: CDS Survey on Employment and Unemployment, 2003.
There is thus a strong preference for a ‘job’ as opposed
to ‘work’ even if it implies a lower level of earnings. The
accent seems to be on regularity of income, social status and
work environment. Casual work involves mostly manual
work under fairly harsh conditions, whereas a job in an
establishment offers a different, if not necessarily better,
work environment. Introduction of new technologies
involving less physical and arduous labour often attracts
otherwise unemployed youth as seen in the case of the
use of such agricultural machinery as tractors, harvesters,
water pumps, winnowing machines, etc. A combination
of regularity of work and better technology could be an
answer to the current scarcity of labour involving physical
work in Kerala.
2.5 Profile of the Self-Employed
Self-employment accounted for 13.5 per cent of the
labour force (or 25 per cent of the work force). Trade
and commerce and agriculture accounted for half of the
employed. The single largest group of men (37 per cent)
was in trade and commerce while agriculture, including
livestock, accounted for 35 per cent of women. In contrast,
agriculture accounted for 16 per cent of men and trade and
commerce for 14 per cent of women.
Educational levels make a difference to this picture only in
so far as post-graduates and professionals are concerned.
For post-graduates, trade and commerce continues to be
the single largest sector but a significant share (27 per cent)
is in education followed by hotels and restaurants and
community and social/personal services (13 per cent each).
That 7 per cent of the post-graduates are self-employed in
agriculture is an interesting finding. For professionals, the
single largest sector is construction (33 per cent) followed
by health (21 per cent; these would be doctors) followed
by education and community and social/personal services
(8 per cent each).