Tamil Nadu tops in rural jobs generation: Economic Survey

59 persondays per household was a record in 2013-14

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme has come as a boon to labourers, especially women. A scene at Iyampettai near Kancheepuram. File Photo

Tamil Nadu tops the list of States in generation of average persondays per household under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).

The Economic Survey, tabled in Parliament on Wednesday, said Tamil Nadu’s figure of 59 persondays was the highest during 2013-2014, closely followed by Kerala with 57 persondays. The national average was 46 persondays.

However, as for the parameter of women’s presence in the MGNREGS workforce, Tamil Nadu lagged behind Kerala a bit. The share of women employed under the scheme was 84.1 per cent, next to Kerala’s 93.4 per cent.

37.29 crore persondays

According to the State Rural Development Department, 37.29 crore persondays were generated during 2013-2014, the highest in the country.

Of these, women workforce contributed 30.7 crore persondays. Of a total registered households of 96.25 lakh, the number of households provided employment was 62.67 lakh and those who completed 100 days of employment numbered 9.21 lakh. About Rs. 3,808 crore was spent on wages.

School education

The Survey stated that in the area of school education, Tamil Nadu was among four States which were exceptions to the national trend of decline in children’s attendance in rural primary schools. The other three were Bihar, Karnataka and Odisha.

Groundnut production

Also, the document identified Tamil Nadu as one of the three top producing States with regard to groundnut and sugarcane. Last year, the State produced 1.17 million tonnes of groundnut, 12.79 per cent of the national production. It produced 37.55 million tonnes of sugarcane, 10.85 per cent of the national production.

A perusal of the data on State-wise comparison of services share in the gross state domestic product (GSDP) reveals that Tamil Nadu is among many States where the services sector dominates.

According the State Planning Commission, the growth recorded by the sector was 5.51 per cent during 2012-13 and 8.26 per cent during 2013-14, while the GSDP growth rates were 4.14 per cent and 6.13 for the two years. The Survey also mentioned that Tamil Nadu saw the lowest growth in the GSDP during 2012-2013.