(Info) Employment Sources in Bundelkhand

Employment

Employment Sources in Bundelkhand

MP Bundelkhand and UP Bundelkhand rank among the least developed regions of either state, with low industrialisation and low urbanisation. Agriculture is the predominant occupation in Bundelkhand. As the table below shows, according to Census 2001, percentage of main workers engaged in agriculture, as cultivators or labourers, was higher than 60, and much higher than state and national averages, in all districts of Bundelkhand except Jhansi, Damoh and Sagar.

(Census 2001 defined a 'main worker' as one who had worked for the major part of six months or more in the year preceding the census household survey. 'Work' was defined as 'participation in any economically productive activity', with or without compensation.)

Percentage-wise breakup of main workers (Census 1991, 2001)

Note: As figures are rounded off to nearest '000 while calculating percentages, totals of years do not add up to 100. H= was part of Hamirpur district. B= was part of Banda district.

While agriculture is the mainstay of Bundelkhand's economy, conditions are unfavourable for growth of cash crops like sugarcane and cotton. Productivity is affected by the poor water retention ability of the soil, weather fluctuations and large amount of wasteland. Rising input costs and frequent incidence of drought are pushing agricultural labourers and small farmers out of agriculture.

The majority of rural households in most parts of Bundelkhand rely on income from local or inter-state, annual or seasonal or migration for work.

Increased migration and increased use of tractors (hired or owned) would account for the significant reduction in the percentage of agriculture labourers between 1991 and 2001 in Jhansi, Hamirpur+ Mahoba, Banda+Chitrakoot , Chhatarpur and Panna, seen in the table.

Only in Jhansi district was the percentage of main workers engaged in 'other work' close to the national average.  ('Other work' includes working in government service, private sector factories, small industrial units, and businesses engaged in trading or service sector activities. 'Other work' also includes working as labour in stone quarries).

Manufacturing, followed by trade, construction, employment in government, education and transport accounts for highest percentage of main workers engaged in 'other work' in the region (see Breakup of Non-agricultural Main Workers in Bundelkhand).

The high percentage of household industry workers in Damoh and Sagar is due to the beedi industry.

Till the end of 2008 there were only two large manufacturing units in the entire region. No small or cottage industry in the region commanded a large market outside. The potential of tourism had not been well realised. Service industry was limited to pockets.

Courtesy : bundelkhandinfo.org