Are they really having High Standard of Living?
The quinquennial survey on employment and unemployment of the 66th round of National Sample Survey report (NSSO) ‘Employment and Unemployment Situation among Major Religious Groups in India’ deals with the employment and unemployment of various religious groups.
Sikhs account for only 1.87 percent (Census, 2001) of the population of India. Compared to other religions they are a minority. It will be interesting to understand their living standard, education and employment.
For both rural and urban India, average Monthly Per capita Consumption Expenditure (MPCE) was the highest for the Sikh households, followed by Christians and Hindus. At the all-India level, the average MPCE of Sikh household was Rs. 1659 (Rs. 2180 in urban areas and Rs. 1498 in rural areas) while that for Muslim household was Rs. 980 (Rs. 1272 in urban areas and Rs. 833 in rural areas). MPCE is a proxy for showing the standard of living. So the high level of MPCE shows that Sikhs have the highest standard of living. Among the major religious groups, proportion of persons of age 15 years and above with educational level secondary and above was the highest for Christians, followed by Sikhs. These proportions for rural males, rural females, urban males and urban females among Christians were 38 per cent, 31 per cent, 63 per cent and 55 per cent, respectively as against the corresponding proportions of 28 per cent, 15 per cent, 56 per cent and 44 per cent, respectively for these categories of persons at the all-India level.
Self-employment among Sikhs was found to be high. In urban areas proportion of workers who were in self-employment were found to be high, next to Muslims. In rural areas self employment was the highest among Sikhs. An analysis of the type of households among each religious groups shows that households who are engaged in self-employed agriculture is highest among Sikhs. The proportion of households with major income from self-employed in agriculture was the highest among Sikh households.
Is the high standard of living of Sikh community associated with their education and employment? From the earlier analysis it is clear that education is high among Sikh community. Can the self-employment in agriculture give them good income such that their living standard is high? There were many studies showing about the debts of farmers and their suicides.
From the NSSO report it is clear that Muslims have low living standard. Muslims were also in casual and self-employment. More studies can be done to show the type of self-employment taken up by various communities and how it affects their lives.
It is also seen that the secondary education is high among Sikh community. But they are in self-employment. It is because they are not getting employment according to their education? Employment opportunities have to be increased so that the educated people are getting more employment according to their education.
