Lok Sabha Question No. 2473 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-12-03
Subject: Rural Unemployment
Ministry: RURAL DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Balubhau (Alias Suresh Narayan) Dhanorkar, Kani K. Navas

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2473

TO BE ANSWERED ON 03.12.2019

## RURAL UNEMPLOYMENT

## 2473.  SHRI BALUBHAU ALIAS SURESH NARAYAN DHANORKAR: SHRI K. NAVASKANI:

Will the Minister of RURAL DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the rate of rural unemployment in India has jumped from 5.6 per cent to 7.8 per cent;
- (b) if  so,  the  schemes  implemented  by  the  Government  to  provide  the  farmers  with appropriate wages;
- (c) whether rural inflation has also grown at a rate of 28 per cent in the second and third quarters of 2019 and if so, the details thereof; and
- (d) the steps taken by the Government to maintain their disposable incomes?

## ANSWER MINISTER OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT (SHRI NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR)

(a): As per information shared by National Sample Survey (NSS), National Statistics Office (NSO),  Annual  Report  on  Periodic  Labour  Force  Survey  (PLFS)  (July  2017-June  2018), published by Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, estimates of Unemployment rate (UR) of rural sector (primary status + secondary status) in India is 5.3%.  The formula for calculation in this regard is as under:

Unemployment Rate (UR):

*100 no of unemployed persons

. . of employed persons no 

. no of unemployed persons

(b): As per information shared by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, there is no specific scheme under implementation to provide farmers with appropriate wages. However, The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005 provides at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to every rural household (including farmers) whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.

- (c): As  per  information  shared  by  Ministry  of  Statistics  and  Programme  Implementation, National  Statistics  Office  (NSO),  the  All  India  Quarterly  indices  and  year  on  year  General

Inflation  Rates  of  the  Rural  Sector  (in  percent),  with  base  2012=100,  during  the  period  of January,  2019 to September 2019 is given below:

|   Year/Quarter* |   Q2: April-June |   Q3: July-September |
|-----------------|------------------|----------------------|
|            2019 |            142.6 |                145.8 |
|            2019 |              2   |                  2.6 |

* Quarterly Inflation has been worked out on average of Monthly CPI indices for each quarter.

(d): The Government monitors the price situation on a regular basis as price stability is high on its agenda. The Government has taken a number of measures to control inflation especial food inflation which, inter-alia, include regular review meetings on price and availability situation at highest  level  including  at  the  level  of  Committee  of  Secretaries,  Inter-Ministerial  Committee, Price Stabilization Fund Management Committee and other Departmental level review meetings.

To  compensate  the  Mahatma  Gandhi  National  Rural  Employment  Guarantee  Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGS) workers against inflation, the Ministry of Rural Development revises the  wage  rates  every  year  based  on  Consumer  Price  Index  for  Agricultural  Labour  (CPI-AL) published by Labour Bureau, Shimla for all States/UTs.