Changes in Women s Employment in Rural Areas, 1961-83

ple Survey together give us a time series on the level and structure of employment. Frequent changes in definitions and concepts have led to problems of comparability across censuses and NSS rounds. These changes are found to affect the enumeration of female workers much more than male workers. Most studies which analyse changes in the employment structure using secondary data sources explicitly exclude women from the analysis on the ground that the estimates on women workers are unstable and non- comparable over time. However, it is important to study female workers since they constitute a significant proportion of the labour force, particularly in agriculture, and the overall participation rate is considerably influenced by the female participation rate [Dasgupta, 1977]. Besides, the test of cen- sus/NSS enumeration of workforce lies in its coverage of female workers since their count is extremely sensitive to the definitions and concepts used.