social redistribution in
recent times has resulted
in the denial of access to
banking services for
underprivileged regions
and sections of the
population
participation rate was 51 per cent for males and 21 per cent for females in Tripura.17 The male work participa-
tion rate is close to the Indian aver- age. The work participation rates for women are similar to those of Assam and eastern India (West Bengal), and much lower than those of the other North Eastern States and also the Indian average. Interestingly, even among the ST population, female work participation rates in Tripura were the second lowest (after Assam) in the North East. However, there has been a rise in both male and female work participation rates between 1991 and 2001. South District and Dhalai show higher work participa- tion rates than North and West Dis- tricts, both for males and females. Work participation rates are lowest in North District (Table 2.12). For women, the highest work participa- tion rate was in Dhalai and the low- est in North District.
In the Statistical Appendix we re- port the work participation rates for each urban area and each rural block respectively. In urban areas, the male work participation rate was highest in Agartala (62.8 per cent) and low- est in Kailashahar (47.6 per cent). The highest urban female work partici- pation rate was in Khowai (Agartala came second). As for rural areas, fem- ale work participation was as high as 49.4 per cent in Killa in South District, while it was only 7.9 per cent in Panisagar in North District. Fem- ale work participation rates were higher in the Autonomous District Council (ADC) blocks (where the proportion of ST population is high-
17 Work here, of course, does not fully capture women’s work since it refers to participation in economic activity and not to extended SNA.
TABLE 2.11
Work participation rate, all persons and Scheduled Tribe (ST) persons, Tripura, North East and India, 2001
All Scheduled Tribes
Persons Male Female Persons Male Female
Tripura 36.2 50.6 21.1 42.7 47.6 37.5 Arunachal Pradesh 44.0 50.6 36.5 43.0 44.8 41.2 Manipur 43.6 48.1 39.0 44.1 46.4 41.8 Mizoram 52.6 57.3 47.5 51.7 55.3 48.1 Assam 35.8 49.9 20.7 43.2 50.5 35.8 Sikkim 48.6 57.4 38.6 48.6 54.6 42.3 Meghalaya 41.8 48.3 35.1 42.8 47.8 38.3 Nagaland 42.6 46.7 38.1 42.3 44.5 40.1 India 39.1 51.7 25.6 49.1 53.2 44.8 TABLE 2.12
Descriptive statistics on work participation rate in Tripura, 2001 (block name in parentheses)
Category Minimum Maximum Range Coefficient of
value value variation (%)
Rural male 37.2 56.6 19.4 7.0 (Dasda) (Chhamanu) Rural female 7.9 49.4 41.5 44.7 (Panisagar) (Killa) Urban male 47.6 62.8 15.2 7.6 (Kailashahar) (Agartala) Urban female 7.5 19.3 11.8 23.4 (Narsingarh) (Khowai) FIGURE 2.3
Work participation rate of rural males in Tripura, by district, 2001
0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0
TRIPURA West District South District Dhalai North District
General SC ST
er) than in the non-ADC blocks. However, among women, the mar- ginal work participation rate was higher than the main work partici- pation rate in 28 out of 40 blocks, indicating that work was available to most women workers for less than six months in a year.
The coefficients of variation of work participation were, as expected, lower for males than females. The high range in respect of values of work participation among women was primarily on account of wide differences in marginal work partici- pation rates.
Religious background had a strong effect on female work participation rates with the work participation rate among Muslim women almost half the work participation rate of Hindu women. The highest work participa- tion was among Buddhist and Chris- tian women. Differences were not as marked among male workers.
The NSS data also point to rela- tively low work participation rates in Tripura. In 1999–2000, Tripura’s employment rate (combined for both principal and subsidiary status usual workers) was lower than the all- India average for men and women. The gap was largest for rural females. The female employment rate in Tripura, both urban and rural, was lower than in the other seven States of the North East. In Mizoram and Nagaland, the employment rate among rural women was 44 per cent, while the corresponding figure for Tripura was 7 per cent.
According to the NSS, the employ- ment rate declined between 1993 and 1999; the decline was very sharp for women and less for men, particularly in urban areas (Table 2.14). The fall in employment rate is similar to the all-India pattern. 0 10 20 30 40 50
Tripura West District South District Dhalai North District
General SC ST FIGURE 2.5
Work participation rate of rural females in Tripura, by district, 2001
FIGURE 2.6
Work participation rate of urban females in Tripura, by district, 2001
0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0
TRIPURA West District South District Dhalai North District
General SC ST
FIGURE 2.4
Work participation rate of urban males in Tripura, by district, 2001
0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0
TRIPURA West District South District Dhalai North District
General SC ST
and reached zero for urban boys. However, it was 3.1 per cent for rur- al boys and 0.3 per cent for rural girls. While the prevalence of child labour is much lower in Tripura than in the country as a whole (where 9 per cent of rural boys and girls were em- ployed), the retention of older rural children in schools continues to be a matter of concern.
2.4.3 Occupational Structure The rural work force is dominated by 2.4.2 Child Labour
A positive feature of the employment situation in Tripura is that the rates of child labour are low. In 1999– 2000, no child aged 5 to 9 in urban areas and no boy of the same age group in rural areas was in the labour force. Among rural girls, 0.6 per cent was employed. The low incidence of