Abstract
Urban spaces impacted by liberalization have not provided enough opportunities to work outside home for women. This paper compares the employment patterns of men and women in three cities both in urban cores, peri-urban areas and the residual parts of the respective states in which or adjacent to which three major metropolitan cities are located in. The paper concludes that though the urban locales of the peri-urban areas have been doing better in many respects vis-a-vis the residual states, these benefits are not distributed equally. Women are worse off in terms of work opportunities and unemployment rates in the peri-urban areas, and such conditions can be explained by the social and demographic changes that have taken place in the peri-urban areas around the large metropolitan cities. With a smaller household size and a lower working age-group sex ratio compared to the interior districts, the possible care burden on the adult women of the households could be a factor explaining their low work participation in these areas.
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Notes
- 1.
Usual activity status: As per the NSSO Employment-Unemployment rounds, the usual activity status relates to the activity status of a person during the reference period of 365 days preceding the date of survey. The activity status on which a person spent relatively longer time (major time criterion) during the 365 days preceding the date of survey is considered the usual principal activity status of the person. To decide the usual principal activity of a person, he/ she is first categorized as belonging to the labour force or not, during the reference period on the basis of major time criterion. Persons, thus, adjudged as not belonging to the labour force are assigned the broad activity status ‘neither working nor available for work’. For the persons belonging to the labour force, the broad activity status of either ‘working’ or ‘not working but seeking and/ or available for work’ is then ascertained again on the basis of the relatively longer time spent in the labour force during the 365 days preceding the date of survey. Within the broad activity status so determined, the detailed activity status category of a person pursuing more than one such activity will be determined again on the basis of the relatively longer time spent.
- 2.
As per the Employment-Unemployment rounds, workers have been divided into the following categories: Self-employed: Persons who operate their own farm or non-farm enterprises or are engaged independently in a profession or trade on own-account or with one or a few partners are deemed to be self-employed in household enterprises. The essential feature of the self-employed is that they have autonomy (i.e., how, where and when to produce) and economic independence (i.e. market, scale of operation and money) for carrying out their operation. The remuneration of the self-employed consists of a non-separable combination of two parts: a reward for their labour and profit of their enterprise. The combined remuneration is given by the revenue from sale of output produced by self-employed persons minus the cost of purchased inputs in production.
The self-employed persons may again be categorized into the following three groups:
(i) own-account workers: They are the self-employed who operate their enterprises on their own-account or with one or a few partners and who during the reference period by and large, run their enterprise without hiring any labour. They may, however, have unpaid helpers to assist them in the activity of the enterprise.
(ii) employers: The self-employed persons who work on their own-account or with one or a few partners and by and large run their enterprise by hiring labour are the employers, and
(iii) helpers in household enterprise: The helpers are a category of self-employed persons mostly family members who keep themselves engaged in their household enterprises, working full or part time and do not receive any regular salary or wages in return for the work performed. They do not run the household enterprise on their own but assist the related person living in the same household in running the household enterprise.
Regular wage/salaried employee: Persons working in other’s farm or non-farm enterprises (both household and non-household) and getting in return salary or wages on a regular basis (and not on the basis of daily or periodic renewal of work contract) are the regular wage/ salaried employees. This category not only includes persons getting time wage but also persons receiving piece wage or salary and paid apprentices, both full time and part time.
Casual wage labour: A person casually engaged in other’s farm or non-farm enterprises (both household and non-household) and getting in return wage according to the terms of the daily or periodic work contract is a casual wage labour.
- 3.
A worker working only on the principal status is one that has round-the-year work or work for a major part of the year. The other workers are those who are working either only on subsidiary status, or on both principal and subsidiary status (two or more jobs) are ones who can be assumed to be in a greater amount of distress than the first group.
- 4.
City wise differences have not been estimated due to small samples in each category.
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Appendix I: District Around Metropolitan Cities
Appendix I: District Around Metropolitan Cities
Metropolitan Centre | Districts representing peri-urban areas | |
|---|---|---|
2004–2005 | 2011–2012 | |
Delhi | Gurgaon, Faridabad, Rohtak, Sonipat | Gurgaon, Faridabad, Rohtak, Sonipat Jhajjar |
Mumbai | Thane, Raigarh | Thane, Raigarh |
Kolkata | North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Haora, Hugli | North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Haora, Hugli |
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Sen, S. (2017). Neo-Liberal Urbanization, Work Participation and Women: Comparing the Urban and Peri-urban Contexts of Delhi with Mumbai and Kolkata. In: Acharya, S., Sen, S., Punia, M., Reddy, S. (eds) Marginalization in Globalizing Delhi: Issues of Land, Livelihoods and Health. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-3583-5_8
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