NEW DELHI: India has a total workforce of 47.41 crore as per the last survey of the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) conducted in 2011-12, Parliament was told on Wednesday.
Minister of State for Labour Vishnu Deo Sai in a written reply to Rajya Sabha today said out of the total figure, 33.69 crore were workers in the rural areas.
"The last survey was conducted during 2011-12. According to it, the total workforce is estimated at 47.41 crore, out of which 33.69 crore were rural workers and 13.72 crore were urban workers," Sai said.
He said in the rural areas, 35.3 per cent of the workers are employed as casual labourers while the figure is 14.6 per cent in the urban areas.
Replying to another question, Sai said as per the last three NSSO surveys, the estimated number of unemployed persons as per the usual status varied from 1.08 crore during 2004-05, to 0.95 crore during 2009-10 and 1.06 crore during 2011-12.
He said the government has been making continuous efforts through normal growth process and by implementing various employment-generation schemes to create additional job opportunities both for men and women in the country.
To another question, Sai said as per the NSSO survey of 2009-10, the total employment in the unorganised sector is 43.7 crore.
Giving details of the National Health Insurance Scheme, he said it is currently active in 26 states and Union Territories covering 3,85,15,411 families.
The minister said the total number of women workers in 2011, including rural and urban, as per population Census 2011 was 15.0 crore. In the rural areas, it was 12.2 while in urban areas it was 2.8. The total workforce participation rate of women workers was 25.5 per cent.
He said according to the last three NSSO surveys, the workforce in the country grew from 45.91 crore in 2004-05 to 47.41 crore persons in 2011-12.
While 23.18 crore persons were employed in agriculture and allied sectors in 2011-12, 11.50 crore were employed in industries sector and 12.73 in the services sector.