Past Studies in Changes in Rural Employment Structures

KUMAR, 1996 documented changes in the structural and transitional aspects of distribution of land, employment, income, occupational diversification, poverty and living standards in Bhuvel village, Kheda district, Gujarat, India. This village was first surveyed in 1946 and then again in 1993. In both surveys, information was collected from all the households, adopting a census method of investigation. The survey showed declining trends in the male worker population ratio

34 A multitude of exogenous and endogenous influencing factors induces the social changes. As an immanent component of the societal development processes, therefore, the institutions also undergo change. Institutions in this context mean economic, social, and political organizations, together with the rules that govern their interaction. A central concern of development economics is the analysis of changing economic and social institutions, the forces that shape them, and the outcomes in the levels and distribution of living standards. The study of change needs observation of individuals and communities at different points in time. The study of living standards involves knowledge of the circumstances of individuals. Despite their fundamental place in the process of enquiry into economic development, such data are rare. The rarity is understandable since those who would observe have finite and changing lives, and those to be observed may not stay still, remain alive, or wish to be followed (LANJOUW &

STERN, 1998).

35 The way in which a society changes is a mixture of changes in formal rules, informal norms of behavior, and conventions and their enforcement characteristics (NORTH, 2000, p. 8). NORTH, 2000, p. 13, citing Russia as an example states ‘In Russia, many of the formal rules were changed but there were no enforcement mechanisms, and the norms of behavior that evolved over time were inconsistent with these formal rules, producing the chaos and results that are apparent today.’

but significant rise in the female worker population ratio. The major changes observed were: a reduction in the proportion of agricultural workers and increase in the non-farm employment;

increasing feminization of agricultural labour; replacement of tenant and permanent labour by wage labour; within wage labour the growth of temporary and casual labour; and, inflow of migrant labour.

CHAUDHRY and CHAUDHRY, 1992 explored the trends in rural employment and rural wages in Pakistan, and analysed the causes underlying these trends. The study concluded that growth of demand for labour in agriculture remained well above the increases in labour supplies throughout 1959-60 to 1984-85 and might have resulted in growing scarcities of labour and rapid increases in real wages in Pakistan agriculture.

RIEKEN, 1994 examining the same six villages in Northwest Pakistan as present, revealed the profound interactions and dependencies between rural development and the process of institu-tional change in non-agricultural employment. His study was motivated by the assumption that the increasing intrusion of modern principles of economy and a growing mobility need emerging new institutions to regulate society, even at the village level. There always remains the question whether the existing , mostly traditional institutions are adequate for such adjustment require-ments, whether there exist modern ones and which driving forces are behind institutional change.

RIEKEN, 1994 study was planned as a follow-up³⁶ of MOHNHAUPT, 1971 investigation on “Rural Population and Factory Work” concerning the same research villages in Northwest Pakistan.

MOHNHAUPT, 1971 following a framework of differentiation between traditional and non-traditional occupations reported that only four percent of the labour force in the research area was employed in the industrial sector, while the fluctuation margin between the six villages was zero to fifteen percent. An immediate reason for this variance, which, to a certain extent only, was the result of distance between the residence and the place of work.

MOHNHAUPT, 1971 and so as RIEKEN, 1994 observed a considerable degree of social hierarchy prevailing in the Northwest Pakistan as he states “somehow characteristic physical occupations, which are not connected with owner-cultivation, are always identified with the lowest social

36 The two studies are not directly comparable as MOHNHAUPT, 1971 investigation in the area was concentrated on the extend and conditions of industrial workers while R^IEKEN, 1994 took a broader approach by studying all the non-agricultural occupations in the area. The heavy industry lost its importance considerably in the 70es and 80es in Northwest Pakistan due to variety of reasons and hence to find a subject of greater structural relevance for the village level, RIEKEN, 1994 extended his investigation to include all the non-agricultural occupations not just factory workers.

status.” RIEKEN,1994 further suggests that this results from “the association that an ascription of roles and status and societies characterized by agriculture only allows criteria of social position such as the amount of income to become important at a very slow pace and within the context of more radical changes in the economic framework conditions. Thus, access to traditionally known occupations which however, are connected with little prestige, is more limited than to such ones which, when taken up, require a long separation from family connections.” MOHNHAUPT, 1971 also indicated several time in his study the poor prestige associated with factory work in North-west Pakistan. According to him, this correlates with the extremely high fluctuation rate among new employees, precisely, but also among those who have been working for long, and with a high rate of absenteeism.

Exploring the reasons behind the prevailing underdevelopment in the Northwest Pakistan, RIEKEN, 1994 citing MOHNHAUPT, 1971 states “under the conditions of a completely unknown socio-structural environment, in the absence of sanction mechanisms going beyond the financial aspects– somehow a structural vacuum- even such terms as absence of contracts or products quality must lose their substance. In view of lack of mechanisms regulating the social organiza-tion, the workers’ ‘pressure groups’ did not appear as trade unions but as ‘informal groups’ with autocratic leaders. Decisions made by these groups often had a greater liability for their members than eventually contrary own interests. This was reflected in the bulk enticement of whole gangs from one factory to the other.”

The miserable levels of formal education and hardly available trainings as observed by MOHNHAUPT, 1971 also forced the factory managers in Northwest Pakistan to either renounce to employment qualifications or to resort to entice employees from other firms. The on-job training conducted by a few firms then were restricted only to the base necessities. Similarly, the qualified workers because of less perceived pressures and controls also preferred to work in cottage industries despite low wage and more working hours.

MOHNHAUPT, 1971 made two broad recommendations for labour market based on his study, the wage system be further differentiated according to performance and period of employment and a greater transparency for the workers in Northwest Pakistan.

MANIG, 1991 along with a team of German and Pakistani researchers analysed the results of the survey conducted in 1986/87 to highlight the institutional change processes in six villages in the vicinity of Peshawar. The survey results revealed that pure farming households lost relatively

in significance while at the same time non-farm income earning households gained significance both absolutely and relatively in all of the six villages.

Of more than 1800 households in the six surveyed villages, approximately half derived their household income exclusively from non-agricultural jobs and around 37 percent from the combi-nation agricultural and non-agricultural occupations. The group of non-agricultural households consists of businessmen households and the wage and salary earner households. The percentage of businessmen households increased from 14 percent to more than 17 percent.