AS the new BJP government prepares to present its first budget in parliament and the finance minister prepares the citizens for ‘tough days’, the census has released detailed data on the work patterns of the adivasis. This data clearly shows that adivasi workers are entering the labour market in search of employment, but are finding no jobs. They are therefore forced into marginal and low wage work in order to eke out their survival. Though this trend is evident from the beginning of the reforms, it seems to have intensified in the last decade. As is well known, the decade between two census, 2001 and 2011, is characterised by intense corporate penetration into resource rich regions and the acquisition of adivasi lands for big projects. This paradigm of growth and development has often been justified by neo-liberal protagonists on the pretext of the argument that such industrialisation will create jobs for the adivasis and lead to the development of their regions. But contrary to this, the centres of corporate penetration have become flash points of violent and militant social conflicts rather than hubs for employment generation. The long term impact of this sustained policy is seen in the decadal changes in the adivasi workforce between 2001 and 2011.

MAJOR TRENDS IN

WORK PARTICIPATION

Recently released data of the workforce can be analysed in terms of child labour (5-14 years), regular workforce (15-59 years) and elderly workforce (60 years and above). These three categories give us indications of the broad impact of neo-liberalism on different sections of the adivasi workers. The changes in the Scheduled Tribe workforce between 2001 and 2011 show the following scenario:

Percentage Decadal Changes in Scheduled Tribe Work Participation, 2001-2011

Source: Calculated from Census 2001 and Census 2011 B Series Tables B01 ST.

Some telling preliminary conclusions can be drawn from the table above. First though there has only been a marginal decline in the total workforce, the greatest fall of employment is seen in the case of regular workers (15-59 years). There is also a decline in child labour (that is of workers between the age of 5-14). Second the decline in employment is driven by the lack of work in the rural areas. It is evident that the urban areas have not seen the same level of decline. Rather there has been a rise in the urban workforce and this is largely driven by the rise in female urban work participation. Thus it seems that though the decline in the regular female workforce has been the largest in the rural areas, women work participation has risen by about half a million female workers or a proportionate increase of 2.68 percent. In contrast, the female rural workforce has gone up by 3.2 million female workers with a negative growth rate of 1.84 percent. The rural male workforce has seen a marginal gain of half a percent or about 4.2 million people. But this gain is in the marginal workforce, where as the female main workers have declined at a much slower rate of less than 2 percent. This loss of main work and the virtual replacement of female marginal workers by male marginal agricultural workers signifies, both underemployment and distress employment in the rural sector. Third, there has been a significant rise in the total workforce of elderly people above 60 years. Here too, the largest rise is seen in the female workforce of elderly people especially in the rural areas by about half a million women workers. This clearly indicates that more and more vulnerable women are forced to work in a situation where regular workers are finding it hard to get gainful employment.

RISING

JOBLESSNESS

Even though employment is declining amongst the STs, it is significant that more and more men, women and children are entering the labour market in search of work. The table below shows the following trend:

Source: Calculated from Census 2001 and Census 2011 B Series Tables B01 ST.

One of the most significant conclusions that arises from the table above is that though child labour has decreased within the total workforce, the number of the children entering the labour market has increased. This clearly indicates that the decline in child labour has not necessarily occurred because of the impact of the educational policies of a neo-liberal government, but because more able bodied workers are entering the labour market and are willing to work for lower wages. Hence we see that the proportion of child elderly marginal workers seeking work is higher than that of regular workers. It is also interesting to note that in the case of rural regions both men and women regular work seekers have increased, whereas in the urban regions it is mainly regular female workers who are looking for work. Seen in the light of the fact that the urban male work participation rate amongst regular workers is declining, it appears that male workers are once again reverting back in search of rural employment, largely for agricultural work. But this search for work does not necessarily imply a revival of the agrarian economy. Rather it may imply underemployment within the rural sector leading to depressed wages and abysmal working conditions.

As indicated in the analysis above, the census data indicates that adivasis are entering into the labour market in higher numbers but are not finding any employment. This shows that the adivasis are becoming an increasingly important part of the reserve army of labour that is essential for maintaining the current form of capitalism. Thus there is a diverse and complex relationship between underemployment in rural regions, the increasing army of adivasi workers ‘seeking’ but not getting work and the patterns of adivasi dispossession under contemporary capitalism. In this situation, the democratic movement needs to intensify the fight for the basic rights of adivasi workers by deepening its political organisation within this social group. However this fight needs to be waged in the context of the larger unity amongst workers of all social groups so that a credible and militant challenge can be posed to the neo-liberal attack on the survival of the adivasi worker.