Periodic Labour Force Survey: Decline in Self-Employed households

The National Statistical Office recently released the Periodic Labour force Survey. According to the survey, the percentage of self-employed households in rural India declined from 52.2% to 51.7% in the year 2019.

Highlights

• The Survey says that in Urban India the self-employed households declined from 32.4% to 31.8%.
• The decline in rural India is mainly because of the falling dependence on agriculture. 
• The self-employed households that depend on agriculture has declined from 37.8% to 36.6%.

Key Findings

• The Survey says that in urban India, people running small shops have folded up and become labourers. 
• In rural India, the non-agricultural labourers grew from 12.9% to 13.4%.
• In Urban India, the regular wage earners grew by 1.4%.

Implications

• The findings of the report say that Indian Economy is becoming more formalised. 
• The Indian Government has been trying push formalisation and digitisation so hard in the last 5 to 6 years.

Formalisation and Digitisation

• Formalisation is bringing unorganised sector into formal means through GST, ensuring strict registrations under law. 
• The Digitisation has been pushed through Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, Direct Benefit Transfers, etc.