Lok Sabha Question No. 1496 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-12-12
Subject: Employment to Rural Women
Ministry: RURAL DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Sanjay Haribhau Jadhav, Omprakash Bhupalsinh alias Pawan Rajenimbalkar

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

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1496 ANSWERED ON 12/12/2023

## EMPLOYMENT TO RURAL WOMEN

1496. SHRI SANJAY JADHAV: SHRI OMPRAKASH BHUPALSINH ALIAS PAWAN RAJENIMBALKAR:

Will the Minister of RURAL DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has any data regarding unemployment of rural women during each of the last three years and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) whether the Government has initiated any action in this regard and if so, the details thereof;
- (c) the steps taken by the Government to provide employment to women along with the details thereof;
- (d) the number of rural women who have been provided employment under various rural development schemes in the country during the said period, particularly in Maharashtra;
- (e) whether the Government has prepared any other scheme to provide employment to women during the current year and the next three years; and
- (f) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT (SADHVI NIRANJAN JYOTI)

(a) & (b): From the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) conducted by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), during July 2020 - June 2021, July 2021 - June 2022 and July 2022 - June 2023, estimates of Unemployment Rate (UR) according to usual status [(principal status (ps) + subsidiary status (ss)] among females in rural areas in India are given below:

## Unemployment Rate (UR) (in per cent) according to usual status (ps+ss) among females in rural areas of India from PLFS

| survey (year)   |   UR (in per cent) according to usual status (ps+ss) among females in rural area |
|-----------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| PLFS, 2020- 21  |                                                                              2.1 |
| PLFS, 2021- 22  |                                                                              2.1 |
| PLFS, 2022- 23  |                                                                              1.8 |

Note: 2022-23 refers to the period July 2022 - June 2023

Source: Annual Report, PLFS, 2022-23

Explanatory note with respect to definition followed in the survey is at Annexure - I.

## (c) & (d): The Ministry of Rural Development(MoRD) is implementing the following schemes for providing employment to rural women:

- i. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGS) is a demand driven wage employment Scheme  which  provides  for the enhancement  of  livelihood security  of  the  households  in  rural  areas  of  the  country  by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed  wage employment  in  every  financial  year  to  every  household  whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, requires that priority shall be given to women in such a way that at least one-third of the beneficiaries shall be women  who have registered and requested for work.
- ii. With  a  view  to  provide  a  pucca  house  for  the  weaker  sections living in rural areas, this Ministry is implementing Pradhan Mantri Awaas  Yojana  Gramin  (PMAY-G), which aims to provide assistance  to  eligible  rural  households  for  construction  of  2.95 Crore Pucca houses with basic amenities to achieve the objective of 'Housing for All' in rural areas. As per the Framework  for  Implementation  of  PMAY-G  in  addition  to  house construction and basic amenities, the programme also provides employment for 90/95 days in convergence with MGNREGA. The PMAY-G  has  also  created  employment  opportunities  for  both skilled  as  well  as  unskilled  workers  through  construction  of houses in rural areas. In addition, 2.46 lakh have been certified as  trained  rural  masons.  Such  masons  have  also  been  able  to obtain local employment in constructing houses under PMAY-G.
- iii. Start-up Village Entrepreneurship  programme  (SVEP),  a  sub scheme under Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) is under implementation with an objective to help the rural poor (from Self-Help Group ecosystem) to  set-up  enterprises  at  the  village  level  in  non-agricultural sectors. Besides providing start-up capital, a cadre of Community  Resource  Persons-Enterprise  Promotion  (CRP-EP)  is also developed to provide business support services to enterprise.
- iv. The Ministry also implements two skill development programmes ,  as  a  sub scheme of DAY-NRLM, for skilling of rural poor youth including women to improve their employability.

Deen  Dayal  Upadhyaya  Grameen  Kaushalya  Yojana  (DDU-GKY)  is  a placement linked skill development program for rural poor youth in the age group of 15-35 years. DDU-GKY guidelines provide for earmarking 50% of the funds for SCs and STs and 15% for minorities. Further the scheme  guidelines mandate  that one third beneficiaries of the respective  categories  including  general  category  covered  under  the scheme should be women.

Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETIs) is a Bank lead and MoRD funded training institution established by the Sponsor Banks in their  Districts,  to  provide  training  for  Skill  and  Entrepreneurship Development. MoRD extends financial support for the construction of RSETI  building  and  also  bears  the  cost  of  training  the  Rural  Poor candidates.  Any  unemployed  youth  in  the  age  group  of  18-45  years having  an  aptitude  to  take  up  self-employment  or  wage  employment and  having  some  basic  knowledge  in  the  related  field  can  undergo training  at  RSETI.  Some  of  the  trained  candidates  may  also  seek regular salaried jobs / wage employment.

The details of rural women who have been provided employment under these schemes of this Ministry in the country and in Maharashtra during the last three years are given at Annexure-II.

(e) & (f): The Ministry is currently focusing on proper implementation of these schemes and at present, no other scheme to provide employment to women is under consideration to provide employment to women during the current year and next three years.

*****

Annexure-I referred to in reply to part (a) & (b) of the Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 1496 for reply on 12.12.2023

## Explanatory Note:

1. Definition  of  worker  (employed  persons):  Persons  who,  during  the  reference period, were  engaged  in any economic  activity or who, despite their attachment to economic activity, temporarily abstained from work for reasons of illness, injury or other physical disability, bad weather, festivals, social or religious functions or other contingencies constituted workers.
2. Definition  of  usual  status  worker  (ps+ss):  The  workers  in  the  usual  status (ps+ss)  are  obtained  by  considering  the  usual  principal  status  (ps)  and  the subsidiary  status  (ss)  together.  The  workers  in  the  usual  status  (ps+ss) include (a) the persons who worked for a relatively long part of the 365 days preceding the date of survey and (b) the persons from among the remaining population who had worked at least for 30 days during the reference period of 365 days preceding the date of survey.
3. Seeking or available for work (or unemployed): Persons who, owing to lack of work, had not worked but either sought work through employment exchanges, intermediaries,  friends  or  relatives  or  by  making  applications  to  prospective employers  or  expressed  their  willingness  or  availability  for  work  under  the prevailing  conditions  of  work  and  remuneration,  were  considered  as  those 'seeking or available for work' (or unemployed).
4. Unemployed persons in usual status (ps+ss): The number of persons unemployed for a relatively long period during a reference period of 365 days is defined as unemployed in the usual principal  status or in usual status (ps). However,  some  of  the  unemployed  on  the  basis  of  this  criterion  might  be working  in  a  subsidiary  capacity.  Therefore,  the  persons  who  are  neither employed in PS  nor employed in SS but available for work (seeking or not) are defined as unemployed in usual  status (ps+ss).

Unemployment Rate (UR): Number of unemployed persons *100

Number  of  persons+number of unemployed persons

Annexure-II referred to in reply to parts (c) & (d) of reply to Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No.1496 for reply on 12.12.2023

Details of rural women who have been provided employment under various rural development schemes in the country and in Maharashtra during the last three years

## i. Mahatma Gandhi NREGS

The rate of participation of women (percentage of women person-days out of total in percentage) in Mahatma Gandhi NREGS during the last three financial years is given below:

| Financial Year               |   2020- 21 |   2021- 22 |   2022- 23 |
|------------------------------|------------|------------|------------|
| Women participation rate (%) |      53.19 |      54.82 |      57.47 |

(As per NREGASoft)

The rate of participation of women (percentage of women person-days out of total in percentage) in the State of Maharashtra under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS during the last three financial years is given below:

| Financial Year               |   2020- 21 |   2021- 22 |   2022- 23 |
|------------------------------|------------|------------|------------|
| Women participation rate (%) |      42.93 |      43.67 |      44.74 |

## ii. PMAY-G

Out of the total of 2.46 lakh masons trained under the scheme all over the country, 16,523 women masons trained out of which 1,487 are from Maharashtra.

iii. SVEP

SVEP is approved in 358 blocks across 31 States/UT. Till October, 2023, 2.56 lakhs enterprises are supported across the States/UT. In Maharashtra, SVEP

is approved in the following blocks and a total of 5,591 enterprises are supported in the State till October, 2023 -

| No.   | District   | Block     |   Total Enterprises supported (till October 23) |
|-------|------------|-----------|-------------------------------------------------|
| 1     | Jalna      | Bhokardan |                                             290 |
| 2     | Jalna      | Jalna 1   |                                             330 |
| 3     | Palghar    | Palghar   |                                              68 |
| 4     | Solapur    | Barshi    |                                            2378 |
| 5     | Solapur    | Mohol     |                                            2138 |
| 6     | Thane      | Shahapur  |                                             120 |
| 7     | Yavatmal   | Kalamb    |                                             137 |
| 8     | Yavatmal   | Kelapur   |                                             130 |
| Total | Total      | Total     |                                            5591 |

## iv. DDU-GKY and RSETIs

The details of the achievements during the last 3 years under DDU-GKY & RSETI are given as under:

|         |                   | 2020-21       | 2020-21               | 2021-22       | 2021-22               | 2022-23       | 2022-23               |
|---------|-------------------|---------------|-----------------------|---------------|-----------------------|---------------|-----------------------|
| Sl. No. | Name of the State | Women Trained | Women Placed/ Settled | Women Trained | Women Placed/ Settled | Women Trained | Women Placed/ Settled |
| DDU-    | Maharashtra       | 511           | 1273                  | 204           | 911                   | 3496          | 1521                  |
| GKY     | Total             | 19685         | 22640                 | 58443         | 26040                 | 132259        | 84116                 |
| RSETI   | Maharashtra       | 13998         | 10295                 | 14620         | 12275                 | 20915         | 17112                 |
|         | Total             | 206794        | 138538                | 257107        | 212400                | 331898        | 272977                |

Source: DDU-GKY - Kasuhal Bharat portal, RSETI - NACER

*****