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56 million return to India's agriculture sector, more women lead rural workforce

Nearly 56 million people have re-entered the agricultural sector in India over the past three years. This significant transition

By Ground report 29 Mar 2024

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56 million return to India's agriculture sector, more women lead rural workforce

Nearly 56 million people have re-entered the agricultural sector in India over the past three years. This significant transition, highlighted in the India Employment Report 2024, prompts a closer look at the reasons, impacts, and implications of this workforce shift, particularly against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and broader economic trends.

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56 million return to India's agriculture sector

A recent report, the India Employment Report 2024, jointly produced by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Institute for Human Development (IHD), highlights this stark shift. The report points out that while there had been a slow but steady transition away from agriculture in past decades, the pandemic abruptly changed this pattern.

According to the report, the period between 2020 and 2022 saw a staggering influx of nearly 56 million workers back into the agricultural sector. This sharp rise came as a surprise, especially when juxtaposed against the earlier trend of workers moving away from agriculture, particularly among the youth.

One of the significant impacts of this transition has been on gender dynamics within the workforce. The report notes a substantial increase in female participation in agriculture, with women accounting for a significant proportion of the workforce in rural areas. This rise in female employment in agriculture reverses a previous decline in female labour participation rates.

While this shift back to agriculture has brought more workers to rural areas, it also hints at underlying distress in the non-farm sectors. The inability of non-farm sectors to generate adequate employment opportunities has pushed many workers back to agriculture, often seen as a fallback option rather than a choice driven by economic growth.

Before 2019, employment growth was minimal. After 2019, due to the pandemic, employment soared, particularly in agriculture. From 2019-2021, a significant shift to rural and farm sectors greatly altered the labor market in the country. It led to a larger workforce increase in rural areas as compared to urban areas.

More women lead rural workforce

Between 2000 and 2029, the male participation rate exceeded the female labour participation rate, indicating a decline for the latter. However, from 2019 to 2022, more females returned to agriculture than males, reversing this trend. This increase, paired with other changes in the labour market, suggested that more women were joining the workforce in response to crises. In 2022, women made up 62.8 per cent of the agricultural workforce, compared to 38.1 per cent for men.

The report says that "the rise in employment in subsistence agriculture, either as own-account workers or unpaid family workers, as well as in casual workers in the construction sector, indicates that poor migrants returning to their native home and marginal workers might have felt compelled to work in these sectors in rural areas for their livelihood."

The report delves into wage trends, revealing a stagnation or negative growth in earnings for many workers, especially among self-employed women. This economic aspect underscores the challenges faced by workers re-entering or remaining in the agricultural sector.