Self employment main stay for religious groups in rural areas

New Delhi, Mar 30 (UNI) Self-employment is the mainstay for all the religious groups in rural areas, according to a survey.

About 37 per cent of Hindu households, 35 per cent of Christian households and 26 per of Muslim households are dependent on self-employment in agriculture, says the Report based on the 61st round of National Sample Survey.

The proportions of households depending on self-employment in non-agriculture were 14 per cent for the Hindus, 28 per cent for the Muslims and 15 per cent for the Christians.

In the case of rural labour households, the proportions varied from 32 per cent (Muslims) to 37 per cent (Hindus).

In urban India, the proportion of Hindu households depending on self-employment, regular wage/salary and casual labour were 36 per cent, 43 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively.

For the Muslims, the corresponding shares were 49 per cent, 30 per cent and 14 per cent, respectively, while for the Christians, these were 27 per cent, 47 per cent and 11 per cent, respectively.

The Report, 'Employment and Unemployment Situation among Major Religious Groups in India, 2004-2005', covered all states and union territories except some interior areas of Nagaland, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Ladakh and Kargil districts of Jammu&Kashmir.

The survey was spread over a sample of 7999 villages and 4602 urban blocks covering 1,24,680 sample households (79306 in the rural areas and 45374 in the urban areas).

Of the 1,24,680 households surveyed at the national level, households reporting religion as Hinduism, Islam, Christianity and Sikhism were 95066, 14785, 8575 and 3037, respectively.

In rural areas, about 84 per cent of households having 83 per cent of population followed Hinduism, whereas 10 per cent of households followed Islam with about 12 per cent of population.

Further, about 2 per cent of households and population followed Christianity.

In urban areas, the percentage of households and population were about 80 and 77, respectively for Hinduism, 13 and 16 for Islam and 3 and 3 for Christianity.

Even after excluding Jammu and Kashmir, having different geographical coverage in different NSS rounds, the proportion of persons by major religious groups virtually remained unchanged.

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