The increase in self-employment is majorly driven by the increase in own-account employment (i.e. without hiring any labour) in rural areas and unpaid family helpers in urban areas, indicating that employment generated under this category is entirely necessity-driven and not opportunity-oriented, having a limited financial and infrastructural capacity for further employment generation.
During the pandemic (2019-20 to 2020-21), the increase in rural women’s WPR was completely explained by the rise in self-employment as the regular salaried and casual employment opportunities significantly declined. The entire increase in rural women’s self-employment was owing to the increase of 10% in own-account employment between 2019-20 to 2020-21.
by Shiney Chakraborty, Priyanka Chatterjee and Mitali Nikore
06/07/2022