Urban Unemployment in Kerala The Case of Kochi City This study examines the incidence, type and characteristics of urban employment in Kerala’s second largest city, and to offer some clues to explain the high rate of joblessness. According to the results of a sample survey, the urbanisation of Kochi has been associated with a process of casualisation of labour, and failure to generate rapid growth of regular employment in the modern organised sector. Besides, joblessness is found to be basically a problem of educated youth, leading to their migration to other parts of India and abroad in search of employment. B A PRAKASH I included any city in Kerala. So we lack force on the one side, the small size and Introduction information about the nature and charac- low growth of the organised sector lead- teristics of urban unemployment in the ing to a small demand for regular employ- nemployment among a large sec- cities of Kerala. ment on the other, result in high inci- tion of the labour force in urban An examination of the studies on unem- dence of educated unemployment among UKerala has constituted a serious ployment reveals that the subject of urban youth; socio-economic problem for the state unemployment has not received much (3) Due to severe unemployment, the young during the past two decades. Surveys on attention from scholars. A study by the and educated labour force is forced to unemployment conducted at the state Centre for Development Studies (CDS) migrate to other parts of India and abroad and national levels suggest that the in- was one of the first to examine the socio- for employment. cidence of urban unemployment in economic characteristics of the educated The paper is divided into six sections. Kerala is very high. A survey conducted unemployed, the incidence of unemploy- In sections two and three we present the by the Department of Economics and ment and interrelations between supply study area, sources of data and the struc- Statistics (DES) in 1987 estimated that and demand for educated labour in Kerala ture of the labour market. In the subsequent 20 per cent of the male and 58 per cent [CDS 1977]. Another study in 1988 ex- three sections we examine the incidence of the female labour force were un- amined the socio-economic characteris- and characteristics of unemployment, the employed in urban areas. The 50th round tics, incidence of unemployment and job socio-economic factors of unemployment, survey conducted by the National Sample preferences of the unemployed based on and unemploymentand migration. Survey Organisation (NSS) ranks Kerala a sample survey at Trivandrum [Prakash as a state having the second highest rate 1988]. Subsequent studies have drawn Conceptual Framework of urban unemployment in India. Using attention to the worsening problem of un- the current daily status measure of un- employment, especially among the edu- In this section, we present a review of employment, it was estimated that 14 per cated, in Kerala [Thomas 1988, Prakash the labour force framework of Interna- cent of the male and 28 per cent of the 1989, Oommen 1992, Mukherjee and Isaac tional Labour Organisation (ILO) and the female labour force were unemployed in 1994, Mathew 1995, 1997]. But these NSS. The ILO’s labour force framework urban areas. studies have not addressed the issue of classifies, at a given moment of time, the A review of the studies done in Kerala urban unemployment in Kerala. This is population above a specified minimum show that two types of literature are avail- the context in which this study is pro- age for measuring the economically active able, namely, unemployment surveys and posed. Its objective is to examine the population into three mutually exclusive studies. The surveys conducted by the DES incidence, type and characteristics of ur- and exhaustive categories: employed, un- and NSS are major sources that give the ban unemployment in Kochi city and to employed and not in labour force. The unemployment estimates for Kerala [DES offer some explanations for the high in- employed and unemployed categories 1982, DES 1988]. Though the surveys cidence of unemployment. To explain the give an estimate of urban employment, unemployment situation, we present the Table 1: Work Participation Rate they failed to give a detailed account of following hypotheses. Agewise Work Participation Rate the characteristics of urban unemploy- (1) The high incidence of unemployment Male Female Total ment. From the NSS surveys we get an in Kochi city is due to the nature of the 20-29 63.29 10.20 42.46 overall estimate of urban unemployment labour market characterised by informal 30-39 85.94 13.16 58.82 [NSS 1988, 1993, 1997, Sarvekshana 1990, and casual employment and the low par- 40-49 92.50 16.67 36.36 1993]. Though NSS has conducted a ticipation of the educated labour force in 50-59 79.46 10.40 43.04 + survey on unemployment in major cities informal and casual activities; 60 19.10 - 12.78 Total 62.57 10.61 39.00 in India in its 43rd round, it has not (2) The excess supply of educated labour Economic and Political Weekly September 28, 2002 4073 together make up the labour force, or the cent. Kochi has a high literacy rate, with currently active population, which gives an effective literacy rate of 97 per cent a measure of the number of persons fur- for men and 94 per cent for women. The nishing the supply of labour at a given city authorities identified 231 slums in the moment of time. The definition of unem- city in 1996. ployment covers persons who during the The major source of data is primary data reference period were (a) without work; based on a sample survey conducted in (b) currently available for work; and Kochi city during the first quarter of 1999. (c) seeking work [Hussmanns et al 1990]. To select the samples, we have used a The NSS has classified the persons into stratified sampling method. Five divisions various activity categories on the basis of were selected out of 50 in Kochi city. To the activities pursued by them during certain get a list of all households we used the specified reference periods. Three refer- voters’ list of the divisions. From each ence periods are used in the survey: one division 60 sample households were se- year, one week, and each day of the week. lected from the voters’ list on the basis of Based on these three periods three differ- simple random method. Based on a ques- ent measures are arrived at. These are tionnaire, information was collected from termed as usual status, current weekly status the sample households by visiting inves- and the current daily status. In the usual tigators. The five divisions covered in the status approach, the status of activity on survey are Fort Kochi, Mulamkuzhi, which a person spent a relatively longer Thevara, Palarivattom and Aiyappankavu. time of the preceding 365 days from the date of the survey is considered as the Population in principal usual status activity of the per- Sample Households son. A person is considered as ‘seeking or available’ for work or ‘unemployed’ if the In this section, we present a profile of person was not working but was either the city’s population based on the sample seeking or was available for work for a survey conducted in 300 households. relatively longer time during the past year. According to the survey, the total popu- According to current weekly status, a person lation in 300 sample households was 1,310 who had not worked for even one hour on persons, comprising 716 males and 594 any one day of the week, but had been females. Of the total population, the labour seeking or had been available for work at force accounts for 57.2 per cent, migrants any time for at least one hour during 4.8 per cent and persons not in labour force weekdays was considered as ‘seeking/ 37.9 per cent. The survey results suggest available for work or unemployed. The that nearly half of the population is young, current day status rate of unemployment and belongs to the age group of 20-29. Old is the ratio of unemployed days per week people aged 60 and above account for (seeking or available for work) to the total 10 per cent of the total population of the labour supply per week (working plus sample. seeking plus available days). In the study The survey results suggest that there we used the NSS definition for defining was no substantial migration from other unemployment. districts of Kerala or other states to Kochi. The data on the place of birth of the head II of the household or main earner suggest Study Area and Source of Data that of the total persons only 8 per cent had their place of birth in other districts The Kochi Municipal Corporation in its of Kerala. This suggests that there is no present form was formulated on Novem- substantial migration from other districts ber 1, 1967. It comprises an area of 95 sq of Kerala or other states to Kochi. But km coming under the municipalities of there has been considerable migration Fort Kochi, Mattancherry and Ernakulam, within the district, especially from rural and panchayats Palluruthi, Vyttila, Vennala areas, to the city. and Edapally. Kochi city is a commercial, The survey findings suggest that a con- industrial and port city that has witnessed siderable proportion of the households in rapid changes during the past three de- Kochi city is poor. Distribution of the cades. As per the 2001 Census, Kochi is households on the basis of monthly per the second largest city in Kerala, with a capita income revealed that one-fourth have population of 5.96 lakh people.