Culture of Self-employment in India
Evidences show that the different segments of the Indian economy remained very active since the earlier periods. Apart from agriculture, India was widely known for her crafts, high quality manufacturing, business and trade. Writing on the industrial situation that prevailed more than 2300 years ago, Basham noted that ‘the basis of ancient Indian industry was individual craftsman aided by the members of his own family, though there were larger manufacturers also’. While narrating the situation in the eighteenth century Agarwala notes: “A large proportion of the Indian population was engaged in various industries up to the first decade of the 19th century. Weaving was still national industry of the people; millions of women eked out their family income and their earnings from spinning. Dyeing, tanning and working in metals also gave employment to millions.” It seems that significant proportions of people remained involved in industrial, trade and service sectors, apart from agriculture and related activities.
In this connection it is important to understand that the Indian tradition accorded the highest priority to self- employment. More than five thousand years ago, sage Vidura emphasized in his teachings that self employment was the best status in life. Hence venturing in to something on one’s own or getting engaged in family occupation was considered as the most preferable vocation in life.
Self employment system has several advantages and is a unique feature of the Indian economy. It gives freedom to the individual concerned as one is not under the control of any body. It provides adequate opportunities for those who want to work independently. People with original ideas can try them and undertake newer efforts. Self -employment seems to be an ideal one in many ways, as it avoids the negative effects of both the popular economic systems. In the market system, significant sections of the working class might not get adequate remuneration for their toil or even opportunities to work, while the communist system does not properly recognize entrepreneurship and initiatives. At the macro level, the contemporary market system with mega corporations tries to exploit people at every single opportunity, while the communist system denies people choices and opportunities resulting in restricting the basic freedom to grow.
Self employment system does not mean that all activities remain on a smaller scale. Even in the earlier periods there were big businessmen. Moreover, there were different types of business organizations such as pani and srnei, which were partnership and corporate forms of organizations. Evidences indicate that these forms of organizations were known to have existed at least 2800 years ago.
One major reason for the sustenance of the Indian economic system over thousands of years could probably be her self-employment base and the culture of many people (and families) directly involved in managing their vocations. Even continued invasions and the resultant disturbances for hundreds of years could not destroy the economy. Also the continuous involvements of sections of people in selected vocations over generations have enabled them to specialize in their activities and design suitable systems to make superior output. But the subsequent domination of the British and the colonial rule destroyed the native arrangements, resulting in serious damage to the economy and society. Millions of families had to move away from their vocations due to the destruction of the agricultural, manufacturing, trade and service activities.
As a result when the country got independence, more than three fourth of the population was dependent on land based activities. With their new found political freedom and the burden of history, different groups of people started moving to newer vocations, and as a result millions of initiatives have been taking place during the last sixty years. Till the globalization process started impacting the home made arrangements in the system a few years back, going for jobs and working under somebody was considered low in status among many Indian communities. Even today doing something on one’s own or getting engaged in the case of family business is considered as a superior way of life in different parts of the country. It may be pertinent to note here that people with educational and professional backgrounds are slowly venturing to set up own initiatives during the recent years.
It was estimated that the self employment sector contribute about 35 percent to the GDP of India, the largest share. Along with agriculture, the total contribution of the self –employed segment would be about 55 per cent of output. The balance is shared by the government and the corporate sectors. Also the self employment sector provides the maximum employment opportunities to people. Project OASIS Report 1999 submitted to the Government of India stated that of the total working population, 15.2 percent were regular salaried employees, while over 53 percent were self-employed. We can understand the significance of self-employment in India when we note that the self-employed rates in richer parts of the world are very low, while their salaried populations remain higher. In the US for example, the share of self-employed category was only 6.6 per cent, as against the share of private waged and salaried workers who constituted 78.5 per cent.
The 62nd round of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) report on the employment situation of India in 2005-06 reinforced the fact that Indians prefer self- employment. The number of self-employed people were high, both in rural and urban areas of the country. The survey revealed that in rural India, more than half of all workers were self-employed, 57 per cent among males and nearly 62 per cent among females. The corresponding figures for urban India were 42 for male and 44 for female.
The self employed sector is a self made one that does not depend on the governments. Moreover this sector is the breeding ground for future enterprises. The major business and industrial centres of the country today were once the initiatives of a few entrepreneurs from this category. In this respect it is pertinent to note that this sector has played a significant role in laying the foundation for the growth of Indian economy after independence.
Self - employed sector has been instrumental in creating millions of enterprises over all these years. Economic Census 2005 (Government of India) states that 41.83 million establishments were functioning in the unorganized sector as smaller units. Of them, more than 70 percent of the total number of enterprises was own-account enterprises. The Third Census of the Small Scale Industries had estimated that there were 1, 05, 21,190 units in the SSI category. About 95.8 percent of them were found to be of the proprietary type, with 10.11 percent of the units managed by women. There were more than 2000 clusters in the country with hundreds of enterprises belonging to the small, medium and even corporate units in each of them. Generally, a venture begun with the initiative of one or two entrepreneurs spearheads the formation of clusters.
The economic development of different regions and states has been driven by the self- employed sections. In many cases, the initiatives of the self- employed sector at the local levels grow into small, medium and big enterprises. What was started as a small cycle shop a few decades ago has grown to be the well known Hero Group today. Hero Honda, one of their group companies, is the largest manufacturer of motor cycles in the world. The economically advanced states of India such as Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Punjab have many well performing industrial and business centres, initiated by the self-employed segments a few decades back.
Though the self employment based sectors have had to face continuous challenges due to the apathetic attitude of the ruling sections and have undergone changes over the years, they still remain the basis of Indian economy and business. They play their role silently and steadily, without many of us even realising it. It is the culture of self-employment, nurtured by the family and cultural traditions of the country, which has been helping India to grow and emerge as a powerful economy at the global level.
References
Basham, A.L., The Wonder that was India, Rupa and Co., New Delhi, 2001
National Sample Survey Organisation report, 62nd round, Govt. of India
Project OASIS Report 1999, Govt. of India
Third All India Census of Small Scale Industries 2001-02, Govt. of India, 2004
US Bureau of Census – Share of different categories of workers in US in 2000
(Yuva Bharathi - Voice of Youth, Vivekananda Kendra, July 2010)
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