Patterns of Employment in Rural Marathwada

Abstract

The present study is an attempt to find out the patterns of rural employment in Marathwada. The total 287 households from twelve villages of six districts of Marathwada were selected for the collection of primary data to find out the patterns of rural employment in Marathwada. The study used descriptive statistics for the purpose of data analysis. To find out the statistical difference in land holdings, pattern of employment among various social groups the chi-square test (5 % significance level) is used. The multinomial regression analysis is used to analyse determinants of pattern of employment in rural Marathwada. The study found high significant differences among various social groups in case of access to land, employment pattern in rural Marathwada and caste, landholdings are the significant determinants of employment pattern in rural Marathwada. Most of the Scheduled castes were landless and depended upon farm and non-farm casual wage employment. Migration was also relatively high among scheduled castes for casual employment. To augment the operational holdings of small and marginal farmers, the process of land lease in and lease out should be eased. The government land or common land should be made available to landless scheduled castes on prioirity basis. Giving access to credit and encouraging self-employment activities in partnership with other social group members can be an important initiative to generate non-farm selfemployment among scheduled castes.