Occupational structure of the Indian population
Occupational structure of the population means the distruibution of population of any country among different coccupations. On the basis of different occupations an economy is broadly classified into primary sector, secondary sector and tertiary sector. We can discuss these sectors briefly as follows:
a) Primary sector: It includes all agricultural and allied activities, e.g. forestry, fishing, mining, quarrying etc.
b) Secondary Sector: This sector is also called manufacturing sector. It converts one type of commodity into another. It includes industries and manufacture farms.
c) Tertiary sector: This sector provides useful services to the primary and secondary sectors. It consists of services such as banking, insurance, transport, trade, communication, finance etc.
Relationship between economic development and occupational structure in an economy:
There is a close relationship between occupational structure and the economic development in an economy. In advanced countries like the U.S.A., the U.K., Germany, Japan, Quatar a very large proportion of population is engaged in secondary and tertiary sector and only a small proportion of workers is engaged in the primary sector. And these small proportion of workers is very efficient in the production activities with advanced shills and technologies and as a result they contribute a good proportion of GDP. And on the other hand, in the underdeveloped countries like India a large proportion of workers engaged in the production activities i.e. agriculture and allied activities, contribute only a small proportion of the GDP of the country.
This concept can be cleared from the following table where occupational structure and GDP of the developed countries and India has shown in below:
Output and Employment shares in selected developed countries(2010)
Shares in Output(%) Shares in Employment(%)
Country
|
Agriculture
|
Industry
|
Service
|
Agriculture
|
Industry
|
Service
|
United Kingdom
|
1
|
20
|
78
|
1.2
|
19.1
|
78.9
|
U.S.A
|
1
|
22
|
79
|
1.6
|
16.7
|
81.2
|
France
|
2
|
19
|
79
|
2.9
|
22.2
|
74.5
|
Japan
|
1
|
27
|
72
|
3.7
|
25.3
|
69.1
|
Germany
|
1
|
28
|
71
|
1.6
|
28.4
|
70.0
|
Italy
|
2
|
25
|
73
|
3.8
|
28.8
|
67.5
|
Australia
|
2
|
20
|
78
|
3.3
|
21.9
|
75.5
|
Source: World Bank(2012), World Development Indicators.
The experience of developed countries shows that as an economy develops, thee is a shift of labours force from primary sector of the economy to it’s secondary and tertiary sectors.
Occupational structure of population in India:
Over the past hundred years the occupational structure of India has changed at very slow pale. The table given below reveals this fact.
Occupational distribution of working population in India ( 1901-2000)
Year
|
Primary Sector
|
Secondary sector
|
Tertiary Sector
|
1901
|
71.9
|
12.5
|
15.6
|
1951
|
72.1
|
10.6
|
17.3
|
1961
|
72.3
|
11.7
|
16.0
|
1971
|
72.6
|
10.7
|
16.7
|
1981
|
69.3
|
12.9
|
17.8
|
1991
|
65.3
|
14.5
|
20.0
|
2000
|
60.4
|
15.8
|
23.8
|
The following are the main features of the occupational structure In India:
· Backward state of the Indian economy: The present occupational structure as explained above clearly reflects the backward nature of the Indian economy. Even today, primary sector constitute the main sector of the Indian economy, where 60.4% of the labour force was employed in 2000.
· Static: During the period (1901-71), the Indian occupational structure has remained more or less static. But during the last three decades ( viz. 1971-2000) some changes in the occupational structure have taken place. The share of primary sector has come down from 72.6% in 1971 to 60.4% in 2000.
· Inadequate growth of other sectors: When we look towards the secondary sector, it seems that very little change has happened in this sector as far as employment of labour force is concerned. In 2000, 15.8% of the labour force was employed in this sector as against 10.7% in 1971. Thus, the proportion of labour force in this sector has not increased virtually during 1971-2000. Like-wise the percentage of working population in the tertiary sector has increased very slowly during the same period.
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