Female Workers and Transformation of Rural Economy into Urban Economy

Many rural areas have been classified as an urban area, specifically as census towns, in the 2011 Census. Shift of majority of working population from farm employment to non-farm employment is the main criterion, among other demographic characteristics, for the classification of rural areas as the urban areas. Change in occupational structure has changed the economy of these settlements. An attempt has been made to analyse the employment structure of female labour in these settlement, particularly census towns of Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Census towns which are far away from the nearest class I city, more than 100 km, have been selected for the study. An assessment of evolution of employment patterns among female and male workers during the decade of 2001–2011 has been attempted by using data provided by 2001 and 2011 Census. A substantially high percentage of female workers are agricultural labours in these census towns. This pattern is contrary to the pattern observed in the case of male workers. Further, employment vulnerability has increased more among female workers as compared to male workers in these settlements during the period of 2001–2011. Moreover, majority of these settlements experienced comparatively lower intensity of farm to non-farm employment shift among female workers as compared to male workers. The trend is same in both Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.