HP 2nd after Sikkim in women employment

Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune News Service

Shimla, January 28

In another success story, 63 per cent rural women in Himachal Pradesh are employed, second in the country after Sikkim. This is higher than the national average of 27 per cent. However, only one-fifth of the urban women have regular salaried jobs.

This has been revealed in the recent World Bank report “Social Inclusion and Sustainable Development in Himachal Pradesh”.

While the employment rate of men was on a par with the national average, women employment is a big success story with 63 per cent rural women having jobs in 2011-12,” the report says.

Female labour force participation in urban areas was much lower at 28 per cent in 2011, but was still higher than other north Indian states and on par with Kerala and Tamil Nadu. High women employment is credited to constriction and horticulture activities in the state.

In case of men, almost half of them held regular salaried jobs and high rate of employment has been attributed to agriculture, which is still the mainstay of rural economy, the report says.

Infrastructure development has played an important role in improving human development outcomes in rural areas and many of these outcomes currently appear better in rural areas. Himachal is the least urbanised state in the country, but as the urbanisation level increases, the state may have to ensure that urban residents are able to access key services and grab opportunities that cities and towns offer, the report says.

Almost 80 per cent of rural households in the state have some land and the distribution of land across social groups was more equal in the state compared to the rest of India. “Scheduled Castes who are historically over represented among the landless across the country tend to own land in Himachal with the differential between them and other groups, in terms of average landholding size, converging over time,” says the report.

The report attributed the achievements of the state to the “special category” status that allowed fiscal space to spend on the social sectors and the land reforms between 1950 and 1970 that laid the foundation for progress.

Himachal also outperforms its neighbours and other Indian states on many human development indicators with lowest share of individuals who received no education among northern states. It has made progress in improving educational attainment, particularly among excluded groups resulting in more members of the SCs and STs completing secondary or higher-level schooling, says the report.