Kerala 2005 - of Planning Commission

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An overwhelming majority (84 per cent for women and
73 per cent for men) reported family and/or friends as the
source of finance and this did not make any difference
according to educational levels. As such the evidence
does not suggest an active involvement of financial
institutions in helping those who would like to generate
their own employment.
Most reported (75 per cent) that education helped to start
self-employment and this held good irrespective of the
level of education. The share was higher for those with
higher educational levels.
2.6 Occupational Mobility
The status of employment is influenced by occupational
mobility. Estimates from the NSSO for the number of usual
principal status employed persons per 1,000 workers who
changed their establishment of work, status/ industry of
work and occupation of work during last two years appear
to be very unfavourable to women. In terms of status, not
a single woman worker per 1,000 employed women in
urban areas changed her status in this period; in terms of
occupation, such proportions were barely one-fifth for men
in both rural and urban areas. However, the proportion
of men and women changing establishments was not very
dissimilar (Eapen, 2004). Hence, women are more mobile
between establishments while hardly achieving any
upward mobility.
In this context, micro studies provide further insight.
Boxes 7.2 and 7.3 indicate that greater diversification
of household incomes, significant male out-migration
and high levels of male occupational mobility have
been associated with the confinement of women to low
paying conventional occupations or their withdrawal into
‘household duties’.
2.7 Dimensions of Unemployment
‘Unemployment rate is X per cent’ is a one-dimensional
definition of unemployment i.e., those without work out
of the total labour force. It refers to the ‘time’ dimension
of unemployment. In the early development literature,
the limitation of this definition and measurement
was highlighted through the concept of ‘disguised
unemployment’, i.e. those who may be spending
time working but without adequate income or output.
Box 7.2: In Reverse Gear?
Women’s Work Profile Over Time
Women registered much less occupational mobility than men between 1971 and 1986-87 in a predominantly rice
cultivating central Kerala village that was little affected by Gulf remittances (Chasin, 1990). In 1986-87, the largest
proportion of women were engaged in household duties (36 per cent, though this was a decline from 54 per cent in
1971) or were unemployed (32 per cent as against 19 per cent of men). Despite unemployment, demand for female
agricultural labour went unmet “as women seem to prefer unemployment to labouring in the paddy fields”. Nevertheless,
agricultural labour continued to be the major avenue of female but not of male employment. In the same village, there
was a strongly diverging trend between male and female employment; women were almost on par with men as students;
but petty trade, skilled labour, white collar, service work, farmer and professional employment were dominated by men
at an average ratio of 10:1 (Franke and Chasin, 1996).
Box 7.3: Male Migration and Female Seclusion
Research on the predominantly male out-migration demonstrates the powerful influence that increased access to economic
resources has on women’s work patterns (Sivanandan, 2002; Zachariah et al, 2003; Kurien, 2002; Osella and Osella, 2000).
In Kadakavur, a south Travancore village, women were greatly involved in coir manufacturing work in 1961, when it was
the subject of a village monograph by the Census of India. Since, households in the village have had considerable access
to other incomes, particularly through remittances from the Gulf, female work participation plummeted from 43 per cent in
1961 to 27 per cent in 1999 as against which women in ‘household duties’ rose from 16 per cent of women non-workers
in 1961 to 32 per cent in 1999. A second feature borne out in these studies is that women in upwardly mobile or affluent
households retreat from poorly paid manual and/or informal sector work but are not averse to employment considered
‘respectable’, particularly regular jobs in the Government sector.