Contrary to the popular and traditional perception that villages facilitate mainly agricultural activities, rural India also has a major contribution in the services sector, housing 60 per cent of the total enterprises in the country, a study has said.
WHAT THE NSO SURVEY SAYS
|
"An estimated 1.65 crore service sector enterprises were in operation in India during 2006-07. Of these enterprises, 60 per cent (0.99 crore) were in rural India and 40 per cent (0.66 crore) in urban area," the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) report released today said.
More than half of the estimated 33.5 million people working in service sector enterprises belong to rural India. The services sector is one of the prime engagers of workforce in the economy.
The report, first in a series of two studies planned to be brought out based on the survey, reveals that 85 per cent of all enterprises fall under own account enterprises (OAEs) category that are run without any hired worker on a fairly regular basis.
The remaining 15 per cent were found to be under Establishments -- those running with at least one hired worker on a fairly regular basis.
Transport, storage and communications engage 25 per cent of the workers, followed by financial intermediation engaging 17 per cent workers and hotels and restaurants 15 per cent, the findings revealed.
More From This Section
"About 81 per cent of working owners or managing partners of proprietary and partnership enterprises were literate, with some formal education," the report said, adding even in rural areas, literacy with some formal education was as high as 77 per cent.
The survey was conducted on 190,282 sample enterprises, of which 438 enterprises belonged to list frame and 189,844 belonged to sample villages/urban blocks of area frame.
Financial sector enterprises and other service sector enterprises comprising relatively large units were put under "list frame" while the remaining units within the coverage were categorised in "area frame".
The field work of the survey was carried out during July 2006 to June 2007.
The survey excluded Leh (Ladakh), Kargil, Poonch and Rajauri districts of Jammu & Kashmir, interior villages of Nagaland and inaccessible villages of Andaman and Nicobar islands.