India - Employment and Unemployment : NSS 68th round, Schedule 10, July 2011- June 2012

Principal industry-occupation: Columns (4) to (6) of the schedule-10, block-5.1, will be filled-in for those who are 'working', i.e., those with any one of codes 11, 12, 21, 31, 41, or 51 in column (3)( i.e activity status). The description of the industry-occupation relevant to the type of economic activity pursued by the person in the status recorded in column (3) of block-5.1 will be given in column (4) of block-5.1. The corresponding 5-digit industry code (NIC-2004) and the 3-digit occupation code (NCO-2004) will be entered in columns (5) and (6), respectively. In case, two or more industry-occupation combinations corresponding to the status code given in column (3) have been reported by a person, the principal industry-occupation will be the one in which relatively more time has been spent during the preceding 365 days by the person.

To identify certain category of workers separately, NIC-2004 industry class code 9500 (Division 95) has been split, for the purpose of the survey, into the following sub-classes as given below:

Division 95: ACTIVITIES OF PRIVATE HOUSEHOLDS AS EMPLOYERS OF DOMESTIC STAFF
housemaid/servant .......…………..…...... 95001
cook .............................……………...... 95002
gardener .....................…………...…..…. 95003
gatekeeper/chowkidar/watchman .….….. 95004
governess/baby-sitter .….....… 95005
tutor …..............……….……... 95006
………..........……......…….95007
others ................…….…....….. 95009
These additional codes are to be used, wherever necessary, in recording five digited industry codes in column 5 of block 5.1. In assigning the industry code under Division 95, it should be kept in mind that the work is to be performed predominantly in the premises of the household irrespective of whether it is performed in one or more than one household. If services provided by the individuals to the household originate and terminate in the same household, they will be classified under Division 95.

For example, all persons who collect electric bills from the households for payment, who provide potable water in the container made available by the household, who collect grocery items from the shops/market as per the list of items supplied by the household, who give tuition to the members of the household at the residence of the household members, etc., will be classified under this division. On the other hand, if the households avail these services by approaching such persons (providing these services) in their establishment/house, then those services will not be classified under Division 95. They will be classified under appropriate division. For example, for a person giving tuition in his coaching center or in his own house, his activity will be classified under NIC 80902 or NIC 80903, respectively. Similarly, a person who is supplying potable water to one or more households (and uses his own container - which is his asset) will be classified under NIC 93093. Note that the persons classified under NIC division 95 in the above example will be considered as 'wage earners/employees', while those not classified under division 95 will be considered as 'self-employed'.

It may be noted that in determining the usual principal status of a person, it is not essential to consider the time disposition in respect of various activities pursued by the person on a day-to-day basis - which is generally done in the case of current status. What is important is that the activity, which a person usually performed or the status in which the person usually belonged for a longer period during the reference period, is to be assessed. In order to determine the usual principal status, the dominant activity of the individual that kept the person engaged for a longer period during the reference period, may be identified. This may largely be understood by the functional role of the individual in daily life or normal attachment of the individual to an activity or the activity situation in which an individual disposes himself or herself. This may even be understood by the response to the question generally asked 'what he/she normally does or did during the reference period?' such as, teaching or housekeeping or tutoring others or studying or farming or renting or prostitution. For example, the dominant activity of a person whose normal attachment is with household chores, even though gives tuition for some time - maybe for three/ four hours in a day, will be considered as performing 'domestic duties' or, that of a boy who disposes himself as a student though performs some work activity regularly will be considered as 'student'. Note that the dominant activity of a person during the reference period is determined irrespective of the activity situation on a specific point of time (say, 1 day) or during a short period of time (say, 1 week).

There may be several situations for a person during the reference period. The individual might be engaged in a single dominant activity throughout the year or, the dominant activity might be carried out with other activities simultaneously or in succession or in alternation. In the first situation, the dominant activity for the person, which did not change during the reference period, will determine his/her usual principal activity status. In the second situation, where the dominant activity changed, the usual principal status for the person will be determined by the activity that prevailed for a longer period for the person during the reference period, that is, by major time criteria. For example, the dominant activity situation for a person may be employed through out the year, with or without any other activity carried out simultaneously, and accordingly, his/her usual principal activity status will be assigned as employed. On the other hand, the dominant activity situation for a person may be out side the labour force for some period, unemployed for some period and employed for the remaining period during the year. The broad usual principal status of the person will be the activity that prevailed for the person for a longer period during the year, which is obtained following a two-stage dichotomous classification depending on the major time spent on the different broad activities. However, if a person who did any economic activity for a period of 30 days or more, he/she will be considered as worker either in the principal status or in the subsidiary status depending upon the situation during reference period.