🔘SELF EMPLOYMENT🔘

🔆Self-employment in India

☑️ Definition: Self-employment jobs are the jobs where the remuneration is directly dependent upon the  

profits derived from the goods and services produced.

☑️ As per latest Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) report, self-employment between 2009-10 to 2017-18  

increased in rural workforce and decreased in urban workforce.

☑️ In the urban areas, there is a decline in the percentage of self-employed or casual labour due increase in  

the percentage of people working on regular wage or salary.

☑️ Recently, ILO’s latest report titled ‘Small Matters’ highlighted that 85 per cent of workers in India are self employed or do casual work.

🔆Issues related to self-employment in India

☑️ Dominated by agriculture: About 60% of self-employed are engaged in agriculture which is less productive  

and this share is significantly higher in rural areas than urban ones.

☑️ Only a small fraction acts as job creators: As the data reveals, only 4 % of India’s self-employed actually hire workers from outside.

☑️ Below average earnings: According to PLFS report, the average monthly earnings for all self-employed workers stood at ₹8,000 per month, much lower than the average monthly earnings of regular workers.

☑️ Gender pay gap is highest in the category of those who are self-employed: On an average, male workers earn about 3 times more than the female workers.

☑️ Mostly remain unregistered: The self-employed are tagged ‘formal’ only after they’ve registered with some branch of the government and /or pay taxes.

☑️ According to a National Sample Survey Organization report, 63 million enterprises in India have no registration, out of which 96% are run by individuals and most of them pay no GST as their volume of business is below Rs 20 lakh.  

Way Forward  

Attempt should be made to holistically reform address the issues of self-employment by increasing formalization of the economy, improving access to credit, simplifying the taxation policy and simultaneously addressing the regulatory issues like labour laws and registration processes.

🔆Self-employment in India

☑️Significant role played by self-employment:

✔️ Multiplier effect in job creation

✔️ Diversification in jobs making economy resilient and competitive.

✔️ Indigenization of manufacturing activities providing a boost to make in India.

✔️ Fostering a culture of innovation.

✔️Women empowerment .

🟣Way Forward

Attempt should be made to holistically reform address the issues of self-employment by increasing  

formalization of the economy, improving access to credit, simplifying the taxation policy and simultaneously  

addressing the regulatory issues like labour laws and registration processes