Centre on Friday. (ST)
By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Making a telling point on the economic workforce scenario in the State, the primary census data of 2011 has indicated that the work participation in household industries has declined in almost all the districts in both the urban and rural areas.
While giving a presentation on economic activities and work participation data of census during the workshop on data dissemination of population enumeration census 2011 for Meghalaya here on Friday, Census Operations Assistant Director Dr B Das Gupta said that the total percent of workers in the household industries was 0.9 percent in 2001 and that it has come down to 0.7 percent in 2011.
“The figures are comparatively very low in all the districts with the lowest in East Khasi Hills with a total percentage of only 0.4 percent (0.5 percent in urban and 0.4 percent in rural),” Gupta said.
According to Gupta, the work participation in Meghalaya has also declined in all districts.
Comparing to the figures in the 2001 census, he said that the percentage of agricultural labourers to the total population has also reduced drastically.
Informing that in 2001, the percentage of agricultural labourers in the State was 7.5, Census Operations Assistant Director said that the present percentage of the agricultural labourers in the latest census is only 6.7 percent.
As per the figures, he said that the lowest number of agricultural labourers is in South Garo Hills with a percentage of only 3.9 percent while the highest percentage of agricultural labourers is in West Khasi Hills with 9.7 percent.
Earlier, Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma had expressed serious concern over the decline in the agricultural work force in the State.
“The decline of workers in the agricultural sector as indicated in the primary census data of 2011 is a cause of worry in the State,” Dr Sangma stated.
As per the primary census data of 2011, the number of agricultural labourers has dwindled from 17.7 per cent in 2001 to 16.7 per cent in 2011.
In absolute terms, the number of agricultural labourers in 2011 was 1,98,364 (rural: 1,92,23, urban: 6,141) which works to 16.7 per cent.
At the same time, the number of cultivators has declined from 48.1 per cent in 2001 to 41.7 per cent in 2011. The State recorded a total number of 4,94,675 cultivators in 2011 (rural: 4,86,320, urban: 8,355).