Any\nwork or job which provides financial security to a person, is also important\nfor his\/her social integration and overall well-being. The part of population\nin a society which is willing and able to work constitutes the labour force.\nThis labour force is the manpower behind the economic and social development of\nthe society. Underemployment and unemployment are among the various problems\nbeing faced by Indian society and economy. Therefore, a number of government\nschemes and policies are directed for providing both wage employment and\nself-employment. Wage employment is a situation where a worker is employed by\nan entrepreneur, public holding company or the government for which he\/she is\ngiven wages according to his\/her skills. On the other hand, in case of\nself-employment, a person is the owner of a business, enterprise or\nprofit-making organisation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Around\n51% of Indian workers are self-employed, mostly in rural areas, while 33.5% are\ncasual labour and only 15.6% have salaried employment. However, the nature of\nwork done in self-employment is not contributing much value to society or to\nworkers. As a result, they remain in the low-income bracket. According to a\nreport in Hindustan Times, the share of self-employed persons earning less than\nRs. 3000 per month was more than 1 in 5 in urban areas and just under half in\nrural areas. In India, since Independence, the policies have been skewed in\nfavour of wage employment. Also, the policies in favour of self-employment have\nfailed to take pace as is evident by the above data regarding the per month\nincome of the self-employed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However,\nif promoted along with right market conditions, self-employment is the better\noption to bridge the gap that often arises in government efforts to create\nquality opportunities in the field of employment. It also helps to tackle the\nproblem of rising unemployment rates and jobless growth more efficiently than\nwage employment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Self-employment\nensures faster economic growth than wage employment. This is because of various\nfactors. Firstly, it can help transform India into a country of job creators\ninstead of job-seekers. Secondly, it helps attract private investments in those\nsectors where government intervention has been less; for example, artificial\nintelligence, blockchain technology, robotics, green technology etc. Thirdly,\nif you start an export-oriented business it can give a boost to the exports,\nwhich can further reduce Current Account Deficit. In addition to these, various\nsocial impact start-ups in the field of skill development and women empowerment\ncan help complement the welfare schemes of government in turn accelerating the\neconomic growth. Self-employment enterprises are mainly labour intensive and\nthus can solve the problem of jobless growth; particularly women-oriented jobless\ngrowth. The first self-help group that was given microfinance credit was a\nwomen\u2019s SHG under Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA)\nScheme. Also, 90% of all SHGs are operated by women as women beneficiaries are\nmore comfortable in self-employment than wage employment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Start\nUp India is a flagship initiative of the Government of India intended to build\na strong ecosystem that is conducive to the growth of start-ups, to drive\nsustainable economic growth and generate large-scale employment opportunities.\nThe Start Up India Action Plan envisages several incubation centres, easier\npatent filing, tax exemption, ease of setting up business, a Rs. 1000\ncrore corpus fund and a faster exit mechanism among others. Start-ups providing\nvarious services like renewable energy, travel and tourism, marketing, design,\neducation, health care etc. are already under different stages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Self-employment\nhelps to harness the full potential of the labour force. Entrepreneurs explore\nthe methods to gain maximum profit with minimum resources as they are not\nworking for a fixed wage. Thus, any increase in
\nprofit is beneficial to them. It promotes innovation in technology, working\nmethods and design. Thus,
\nself-employment ensures perfect use of intellectual, manual and skill-based\npotential of individuals. The efficiency of workforce is a by-product of a\nrevolution in self-confidence. This happens when artisans and other producers\nno longer feel powerless and see themselves as owners and managers. Wage\nemployment, on the other hand, provides lesser creative freedom and\ndecision-making power. There are lesser incentives for improving one\u2019s\nperformance which leads to lack of use of full potential of the workers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Self-employment,\napart from spurring economic growth, can also help in poverty alleviation and\nrural development. Most of the poor are involved in informal sector activities\nand uncertain wage employment where there is a constant threat of eviction,\nremoval, confiscation of goods and almost non-existent social security cover.\nNational Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) implemented by the Ministry of Rural\nDevelopment is a poverty alleviation programme focussed on promoting\nself-employment and skill enhancement for wage employment. Since there are\nlesser opportunities of wage employment in rural areas due to lack of\nenterprises, self-employment is the only viable option to make the rural\npopulation self-dependent. The basic idea behind this programme is to organise\nthe poor into Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and make them capable for\nself-employment. The challenge is to unleash the capabilities to generate\nmeaningful livelihoods and enable them to come out of poverty. An excellent\nexample of such an endeavour is Aajeevika Grameen Express Yojna (AGEY) under\nNational Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM). Under this, the SHGs will operate\nroad transport service in backward areas. This will help to provide safe,\naffordable and community-monitored rural transport services to connect remote\nvillages for overall economic development of backward rural areas. This will\nalso provide an additional avenue of livelihood for SHGs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
National\nUrban Livelihood Mission (NULM) is a similar programme with focus on urban poor\nhouseholds and the urban homeless. It will also address the livelihood concerns\nof urban street vendors by facilitating access to suitable spaces,\ninstitutional credit, social security and skills to the urban street vendors\nfor accessing emerging market opportunities. It promotes self-employment\nthrough building strong grassroots-level institutions of the poor and skill\nenhancement for entrepreneurship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In\nspite of all these advantages of self-employment over wage employment, there\nare certain hurdles in creating an ideal atmosphere for growth of\nself-employment. The unfair working conditions and lack of jobs, especially in\nIT sector, has led to a wave of new start-ups. This, in addition to lack of\nconsumer demand and slow economic growth, has led to cut-throat competition\namong them. Other problems which are faced by enterprises are globalisation,\ncompetition from MNCs, lack of credit, lack of post-retirement security etc.\nBut instead of shying away from these problems and inclining towards wage\nemployment, solutions to these must be sought because as explained earlier,\nonly self-employment can assure sustainable growth of economy and development\nof society as a whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Globalisation\nhas very selectively expanded opportunities. Most small producers are left\nfeeling more vulnerable and insecure in the globalised economy. Co-operative\nsocieties have played a major role in organising the small producers and\nproviding them with a platform to sell their products and services. Two\nexcellent examples of such co-operative societies in India are Amul and SEWA\n(Self Employed Women\u2019s Association). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Credit\nremains another big hurdle. To start an enterprise, business or organisation,\nstarting capital is required. Government subsidies are often not enough for the\npoor and underprivileged. Thus, credit becomes a prerequisite for\nself-employment. Traditional bank credit is no more a viable option due to lack\nof ability and willingness to pay back. The solution to the credit problem can\nbe found in microfinance-based credit. This can be obtained through SHG-Bank\nlinkages or through Micro Finance Institutions (MFI). This will solve the\nproblem of both ability and willingness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nneed of the hour is to change our perception and views about \u2018self-employment\u2019.\nAn expert states that an \u201centrepreneur is someone who is associated with\ninitiative, insight, vision, foresight, fresh thinking, conviction and stamina.\nIn contrast, a self-employed person is anybody who is working for oneself\ninstead of working for a wage or salary in an organisation run by others, which\nis the case of wage employment.\u201d We thus need to equate our new concept of\nself-employment with entrepreneurship. India, at present, is battling with a\nnumber of issues like poverty, joblessness, slow economic growth, social\nstigmas, lack of technological developments etc. Self-employment if promoted\ncan definitely help to find novel and creative solutions to these problems. It\nwill empower the people and the society by making them the masters of their\nfate. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Any work or job which provides financial security to a person, is also important for his\/her social integration and overall well-being. The part of population in a society which is willing and able to work constitutes the labour force. This labour force is the manpower behind the economic and social development of the society. Underemployment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":595,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594\/revisions\/595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}