EMPLOYMENT ABROAD-FEATURES OF KERALA MODEL

Introduction

The regional economy of Kerala has witnessed a structural change in terms of income and employment during the last four decades. These changes may summarize as follows: (1) The share of employment in tertiary sector has gone up, but the structural change has not led to a reduction in its share in the primary sector. (2) There has not been much increase in the share of employment in secondary sector. (3) Employment in Kerala is still informal in nature comprising mostly self-employment and casual employment. (4) Economic development has failed to generate more employment opportunities in the organised public and private sectors. (5) There has been a substantial increase in the incidence of unemployment, especially educated unemployment. (6) The unemployed youth are forced to migrate to other parts of India and abroad during the last three decades; and (7) The unprecedented rate of emigration and the consequent inflow of large volume of remittances, has significant influence on the labour market, consumption, savings, investment and income distribution.

While the above issues of development are intricate, we do not have an adequate database to analyse them meaningfully. This paper attempts to review the major sources of data relating to employment, unemployment and migration in Kerala.


Employment and Unemployment.

The major sources of data on employment and unemployment are decennial population Censuses, surveys of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSS) on employment and unemployment, data collected on per Employment Market Information (EMI) scheme, surveys of the Department of Economics and Statistics and data of the Employment Exchanges relating to job seekers.

The detailed and comprehensive source of data relating to employment and its pattern is the decennial population Census. The Economic Tables of the Census categorise 'workers' according to occupation, and are classified according to educational level. In 1961 Census, a person was considered as 'worker' based on his participation in any economically productive work. In 1971, 'worker' was defined as a person whose main activity was participation in any economically productive work. In 1981 and 1991 Censuses 'workers' were classified into 'main' and 'marginal' workers. The Census provides occupational and industrial classification of the workers. District-wise and taluk-wise classification of cultivators, agricultural labourers, household industry workers and other workers according to sex, age and residential status are available in the Census. A major limitation of the Census is that it does not provide detailed estimates on unemployed persons.

The surveys of N.S.S. on employment and unemployment are another major source of data. These surveys give estimate on employment and unemployment and their pattern, in terms of rural-urban, male, female, age, level of education etc. Besides giving occupational and industrial categories of workers, the surveys provide other categories, viz. casually employed, self employed and regularly employed. The N.S.S. Surveys give comprehensive data relating to unemployment. The N.S.S. uses three definitions to measure employment and unemployment viz. usual-status, current-weekly status and current-day status. Using current-weekly status definition, the N.S.S. has estimated that 7.1 percent of male and 12.9 percent of the female labour force are unemployed in rural areas as in 1993-94. The corresponding rate for urban areas was 9.3 percent for male and 22.2 percent for females. The survey has ranked Kerala as the second highest in terms of rate of unemployment in India. The survey results also suggest that the incidence of unemployment was very high among educated, female, youth and urban areas.

The Employment Market Information (EMI) scheme of the Ministry of Labour gives estimate of employment in the organised sector, the industry wise details etc. It covers the entire public sector and non- agricultural establishments in the private sector employing 10 or more persons. Providing further break up according to parameters such as, location, level of education etc, can still enhance the usefulness of such data.

The surveys conducted by the Department of Economics and Statistics also provide data on employment and unemployment. Two notable surveys are Survey of Housing and Employment (1980) and Report of the Survey on Unemployment in Kerala (1987). The latter report gives an estimate on open unemployment and under employment.

Since data are scattered in a number of publications and sources, lack of access the major problem faced by data users. Hence, it is suggested that the Department of Economics and Statistics or State Planning Board should initiate publication of the summary results of the Economic Tables of Census, N.S.S. Reports on Employment and Unemployment and the other relevant sources.


Migration: Data Source and Review of Studies

1. Official Data Sources

Migration may be classified into two categories, viz. internal migration and emigration. The internal migrants or out-migrants are defined as usual residents of a household who migrated out of Kerala and were living outside Kerala but within India. The emigrants are defined as usual residents of a household who had migrated out of Kerala and were living outside India. In a densely populated, land scarce, industrially backward economy like Kerala, migration has been the basic factor which determine the economic well being of people. The data sources on migration may be classified into three viz. Census reports, surveys conducted by Department of Economics and Statistics, and surveys conducted by Research institutions. The Census gives data on internal migration using place of birth and place of last residence definitions. Birthplace data given in the census offers a means to analyse not only the in-out, and net flows of migration but also the destination of migrants from Kerala and places of origin of migrants to Kerala. Persons enumerated outside the State and reporting Kerala as their place of last residence are treated as out-migrants from Kerala. The 1981 and 1991 Censuses have given detailed data on internal migration. But the census has not given much data on emigration. A major source of data about emigration is the surveys conducted by the Department of Economics and Statistics. The DES, survey on Housing and Employment is the first survey which gives an estimate of the out migrants and emigrants from Kerala (D.E.S. 1982). The survey provides a district wise and destination wise estimate of out migrants and emigrants. The surveys on the utilisation of Gulf Remittances in 1987 and Report migration survey 1992-93 are the other reports which give data on migration. Though these two surveys give much details about migration and impact of remittances, the surveys failed to give a reliable estimate about the stock of emigrants and return emigrants.

The DES report on activity status and rehabilitation of migrants of 2002 gives a detailed account of the general features of migrant households, estimate of the emigrants and return emigrants, a district wise and destination wise migrants, reasons of return and the number of persons died abroad. The Survey estimates the total number of emigrants from Kerala as 11.41 lakhs in 2000. The Survey covered 1.31 lakh households representing all the 14 districts. Zachariah et. al (1999), who conducted a study based on primary data collected from a sample of 10,000 households from all the taluks in the State, made taluk-wise estimate of different categories of migrants viz. out migrants, return out migrants, emigrants and return emigrants. In addition to a destination wise estimate of the four categories of migrants, the study has examined internal migration, emigration, characteristics of population of the sample households, trends and patterns of migration and return migration and consequences of migration. This survey provides the most comprehensive picture on all aspects of out migration and emigration. It also has definitional and methodological novelty.

As already mentioned, here also the crucial problem relates to data availability. The DES survey-2000 is not yet published; Zachariah et. al report is yet to be published.

2. Review of Studies

Emigration from Kerala has received the attention of economists, sociologists and demographers. A review of the literature on emigration to West Asia shows that most of the studies dealt mainly with the profiles and socio-economic backgrounds of emigration, processes of emigration, economic and social impact of remittances and issues and problems of return emigrants. The studies conducted during the late 1970's and the early 1980's were mainly micro level studies examining the profiles of migrants, their socio-economic background, causes of migration and the impact of remittances based on village surveys (Prakash, 1978; Mathew and Nair, 1978; Kurien, 1979; Radhakrishnan and Ibrahim, 1981; Agro Economic Research Centre, 1982). Impact of Gulf Migration on Kerala society, especially the impact of male emigration on women and family, is another topic in which a few studies were conducted by sociologists (Gulati, 1983; 1987; 1993; Sekhar, 1997). The economic impact of Gulf migration on Kerala is a topic, which attracted considerable attention from economists and demographers (Nair, 1989; Issac, 1993; Prakash, 1998 a; 1998b; Zacharia, Mathew and Irudaya Rajan 1999).

Since the mid-1970's, the factor that had the greatest impact on Kerala's economy especially on labour market, consumption, savings, investment, poverty, income distribution and economic growth has been the Gulf migration and migrant remittances (Prakash, 1998). A similar conclusion was arrived by another study based on a state wise survey (Zachariah, Mathew and Irudaya Rajan, 2000). Issues connected with return emigration such as the causes of return, socio-economic background of the returnees, the current activity status of the returnees and the problems faced by them is another area where a number of studies are available (Nair, 1986; Nambiar, 1995; Prakash, 2000; Zachacriah, Nair and Irudaya Rajan, 2001).

Besides the above, a study was conducted about Keralite emigrants in United Arab Emirates based on the data collected from UAE. The study examined the changes in labour demand, changes in emigration policy and the employment, wages and working conditions of Keralite emigrants in UAE (Zachariah et.al).

Conclusion

The official database as well as the few independent studies cited above, demonstrate the presence of a rich source of data, atleast in some elementary form. However, a major problem faced by the users, planners and policy makers is their availability in a usable form. Therefore, it is important that such data are made available in a usable form.