Only 32% of women take up work in TN, says Govt-MIDS survey

Tamil Nadu may be at the forefront when it comes to providing support to girl children in the state but that has not reflected in the number of women working in the state.

As per a survey done by the Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS) in collaboration with the Department of Economics and Statistics of Tamil Nadu government, only 32 per cent of women take up work in Tamil Nadu.

The baseline survey was done in 2018-19. Another survey report will be released in March 2023, said an additional chief secretary.

“With the Centre not announcing the Census, we needed data for various department’s policies. So we had to do a survey with MIDS and the survey sample is big,” said the official.

Increase in unemployment

There has been a three per cent decline in Tamil Nadu’s workforce between 2011 and 2018-19, with just 50 per cent of the State’s population being employed and 46.4 per cent of the population falling under ‘Not in the Workforce’ category in 2018-19, according to the Tamil Nadu Household Panel Survey’s Pre-Baseline Survey. The report says that 3.6 per cent of the employable population was unemployed in 2018-19.

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The survey says unemployment in Tamil Nadu has increased from 1.6 per cent in 2011-12 to 3.6 per cent in 2018-19.

Gender division in employment

The report highlights gender division in employment. While women make up 32 per cent of TN’s workforce, the national average is only 18.6 per cent as per Periodic Labour Force Survey data, says Dr. Kripa Ananthpur, one of the principal investigators and project coordinators of the survey.

“Tamil Nadu is a highly urbanised state with 47 per cent of households living in urban areas and 53 per cent in rural areas in 2018-19. The state had a huge demographic dividend, with around 70 per cent of the population in the age group up to 45 years. 1/3rd of the population was between 26- 45 years of age,” said the survey.

The percentage of people above 60 years of age was 11 per cent and male-headed households were predominant (81 per cent) with only 19 per cent female-headed households in the state.

Of the 19 per cent female-headed households, 74 per cent of female household heads were widowed. The survey observed that 84 per cent (rural 78 per cent and urban 90 per cent) of the population had formal schooling.

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Of the 16 per cent of the population without formal schooling, 88 per cent did not have functional literacy and only 11 per cent knew how to read and write a simple sentence.

Private sector salaried jobs vs casual labour

Private sector salaried jobs emerged as the major work type with 22 per cent of Tamil Nadu’s population involved in it. This was followed by casual labour (agriculture) at 19 per cent and self-employment (non-agriculture) at 14 per cent, respectively.

In rural areas, almost 30 per cent of the population was involved in casual labour (agriculture), followed by 14 per cent in private-sector salaried employment. In urban areas, 32 per cent were in private-sector salaried jobs followed by 21 per cent in self-employment in non-agriculture fields.

Employment across social groups

Private sector salaried work emerged as an important work option for most social groups except Scheduled Tribes. This pattern could be read along with the difference in the level of educational status across the social group and the quality of employment they are engaged in.

The report also says that Kanyakumari has high literacy rate and low employment rate compared to Tirupur which has low literacy rate but high employment rate in Tamil Nadu. Meanwhile, 19 per cent of households in Tamil Nadu are headed by women. Of the female-headed households, 74 per cent of them are widowed and a small percentage of women (3.56 per cent) are separated.

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There are more female-headed households among Scheduled Castes (23.65 per cent), Backward Castes (46.4 per cent) and most backward castes (23 per cent). Chennai (5.71 per cent), Kancheepuram (5 per cent) and Tirunelveli (5 per cent) have more female-headed households than other districts.