Regular wage employment major income source for urban ST households

For 46.5 per cent of schedule tribe (ST) households in urban areas, regular wages or salary is the major source of household income, says a new report from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).

In rural areas though, ST households are largely dependent on income from agriculture and casual wage employment, with only 6.3 per cent households reporting regular wage or salaried income as their major income source.

The report, based on the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO)'s 68th round of employment and unemployment survey, carried out in 2011-12, reveals in rural areas, for 58.4 per cent of the 'others' households, essentially high caste households, self-employment in agriculture is the major source of income. For only 13.3 of them, regular wages or salary is the main source of income, while 21 per cent are dependent on casual wage labour.

A relatively higher proportion, 52.6 per cent of schedule caste (SC) households in rural areas are dependent on casual wage. This suggests that agricultural holdings of this group are the lowest among all social groups. In urban areas, too, a higher proportion (20.5 per cent) of SC households are dependent on casual wage labour compared to other social groups.

In urban areas, the proportion of households for whom self-employment is the major source of income was highest among OBCs at 37.8 per cent, followed by 'others' at 36.9 per cent.

At the aggregate level, while the proportion of rural households for whom casual wage employment is the major source of household income is roughly three times that of urban households, it is opposite in the case of regular wage employment.

For 41.7 per cent of urban households, regular wage or salaried employment is the major income source, as opposed to only 9.6 per cent in rural areas.