Growth and Structure of Rural Non-farm Employment in Maharashtra: Reflections from NSS Data in the Post Reform Period

In the post-liberalization frame, employment generation in rural non-farm sector has shown a considerable growth at an all-India level but in Maharashtra the growth of employment in this sector has been a bit stagnant. The present study has been undertaken with the objective of examining the structure, growth and developmental potentials of non-farm activities for employment generation in rural Maharashtra and the determinants of entry into this sector employment in the post-liberalization period since Maharashtra is one of the most urbanized states in India and also a state with maximum incidences of farmer suicides. Based on the unit level National Sample Survey data on employment and unemployment for four quinquinnial rounds 50th, 55th, 61st and 66th, it has been observed that majority of the non-farm workers in the state belonged to the Inland Western region in the post-liberalization frame comprising of Pune, Ahmadnagar and Sholapur districts. Gender disparity with regards to employment in rural non-farm sector has been observed as the employment share is dominated by the males while the females constitute a very low share of employment in the same. Employment in trade, hotels and restaurants has seen a considerable increase mainly for the male workers, followed by construction sector. Caste status, proxied by social groups categorized as Other Backward Classes have majority of employment in this sector but their educational levels have been quite low as compared to the “others” in the social groups. This puts forward the role of education and other skills required to obtain economically viable jobs in this sector. The paper thus suggests implementation of proper education and training programmes keeping into account the local conditions of the region of the state to enhance the skills of the rural population which would benefit and provide better possibility of getting employment in non-farm sector.