July 10, 2011

THE recent round of survey by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) reveals that the unemployment rate in Kerala had come down during the tenure of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government. The survey shows that both rural and urban employment fell down and reflects a welcome trend as unemployment has been a major problem facing the state during the last two decades.

Dr Thomas Issac, a member of the CPI(M) Central Committee and the finance minister during the last five years, has given the details of the survey to the media, characterising it as an unusual trend. The sample survey results, released every five years, had never before shown the curse of joblessness lessening in Kerala. But the state scored a significant and historical achievement in the field of economic development during the last five years, he said. The survey says that this achievement is a result of vibrant functioning of Kudumbasree scheme and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme as well as of the stress on paddy farming. Since 1987, the growth rate of the economy in Kerala has been above the national average and the trend gained further strength during the last five years when the LDF was in power. Consequently, Kerala is now fourth from the top in the order of states in the matter of per capita income of the people.

According to the NSSO’s 66th round of survey done in 2009-10, the rate of rural unemployment came down from 15.8 per cent in 2004-05 to 9 per cent in 2009-10 and the rate of urban unemployment came down from 19.9 to 8.3 per cent in the same period. In 2009-10 the male unemployment rate had come down to 3.8 per cent and that of females to 21 per cent. The rate was 8.3 per cent and 30 per cent respectively during 2004-05.

In the rural areas, 8.3 per cent of the grown-up male population was unemployed as per the 2004-05 sample survey. This proportion declined to 3.8 per cent as per the 2009-10 sample survey. Similarly, in the urban areas, the unemployment rate among men decreased from 9 per cent to 3.4 per cent during the five-year period, Dr Isaac said. Among rural women, the unemployment rate decreased from 30.9 per cent to 21 per cent and among urban women from 42.9 per cent to 19.8 per cent during the same period. The employment participation rate in the state was 54.4 per cent in the case of men and 17. 5 per cent in the case of women, he said.

The NSSO survey analysed the details of 4455 households in 326 villages and 232 urban blocks. The survey team covered 18,061 persons including 8,502 males and 9,599 females.

Region	1977-78	1983	1987-88	1993-94	1999-00	2004-05	2009-10
Rural	19.2	12.6	16.6	9.4	10.9	15.8	9.0
Rural male	13.6	10.6	12.5	7.2	7.6	8.3	3.8
Rural female	29.2	17.0	25.0	15.8	19.7	30.9	21.0
Urban	23.5	15.6	19.6	12.0	12.5	19.9	8.3
Urban male	16.2	11.9	14.2	7.6	6.9	9.0	3.4
Urban female	39.5	25.6	34.0	24.4	26.4	42.9	19.8
Total	19.8	13.1	17.1	10.1	11.4	-	8.8
Total male	14.0	10.8	12.8	7.3	7.4	-	3.7
Total female	30.6	18.4	26.3	18.2	21.5	-	20.7

Region	2004-05	2009-10
Rural	34.3	35.4
Rural male	52.4	55.0
Rural female	17.8	17.6
Urban	32.9	34.4
Urban male	51.4	53.4
Urban female	14.9	17.1
Total	-	35.1
Total male	-	54.5
Total female	-	17.5

People's Democracy