High self-employment rate among rural women in Nagaland

DIMAPUR — In Nagaland, 86.8% of employed women in rural areas are self-employed, 12.3% are regular wage or salary workers, and 0.9% are casual labourers, according to a survey conducted in 2022-2023.

This information was provided by the Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Rao Inderjit Singh, in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on Monday.

He stated that the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, has been conducting the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) since 2017 to measure the employment and unemployment situation in India.

He noted that the survey does not estimate the percentage of women entrepreneurs in rural areas. The data shows an increase of 10.4% in self-employed women in 2022–2023, compared to 76.4% in 2018–2019 in the state.

Among the northeastern states, Mizoram has the highest number of self-employed women in rural areas at 91.5%, with only 8.5% being regular wage or salary workers. Meanwhile, Tripura has the lowest percentage of self-employed women in rural areas at 59.4%, 26.2% of women are casual labourers and 14.4% are regular wage or salary workers.