Directions: Read the given passage carefully to answer the following questions. Each question will have five alternatives as its answer. Choose the correct option as your answer.The India Employment Report (IER) 2024 by the Institute for Human Development and International Labour Organization poses questions on the trickle-down effect of benefits to the working class in the backdrop of a 5.4% average real economic growth, from 2015-16 to 2022-23. It also shows a divergent trend between rural and urban areas in terms of employment and income. It demonstrates a relatively higher unemployment rate in urban areas, at 4.8% in 2000 over the 1.5% in rural areas. However, average monthly earnings are higher by 76% for self-employed, 44% for regular employed and 22% for casual labour in urban areas in 2022. The coexistence of higher unemployment and wages requires further investigation to understand its implications for the urban poor. This article looks at the dynamics of employment and wages in pockets of deep urban poverty, such as slums, and juxtaposes these with the findings of the IER 2024. Directions: Read the given passage carefully to answer the following questions. Each question will have five alternatives as its answer. Choose the correct option as your answer. The higher income in urban areas and a better life have underrated rural-urban migration in the past. As in the IER 2024, although overall migration has increased, the migration of males has declined by 1.2% during 2000-08 and further marginally in 2021. This implies that migration for economic mobility is losing its sheen. An analysis of income and employment trends among slum dwellers in urban India reveals prospects for economic mobility and decent work, as poor rural households often migrate to slums rather than formal settlements. This writer and a team surveyed 37 slums across different parts of Kolkata in 2012. These slums were again surveyed in 2022- 23. However, we could track only 29 slums as the other slums had either been redeveloped or evicted. We surveyed 513 slum households in 2012 and 396 in 2021-22. To get the overall trends from 2012, we collected data on income and employment in slums in 2019, the pre-COVID-19 year, to avoid the COVID-19-affected years of 2019-22, for comparison. The major occupations in slums in Kolkata have remained the same over the decade, with a fourth of the working population taking on unskilled labour. It is the most stable and significant occupation in slums. The IER 2024 also finds that a fourth of workers in India were engaged in unskilled work during this period. Other major occupations in slums were skilled or semi-skilled labour work, and people as employees in private organisations, and owning petty businesses or small shops. Unlike unskilled labour, the share of employment in skilled and semi-skilled labour was reduced by 6%, and in private organisations by 3% between 2012-19. On the other hand, employment has increased by 9% in petty businesses or small shops. Surprisingly, the share of other self-employed has also declined by 3%. Among occupations that were less popular earlier but which gained momentum in the last 10 years are truck driving and cleaning, by 5%, and construction and related work, by 4%. The number of people employed in construction and related work was minuscule in 2012. What does the passage reveal about the evolution of major occupations in Kolkata's slums over the past decade?
- A.There has been a significant shift towards skilled and semi-skilled labour occupations.
- B.Unskilled labour remains the most stable and predominant occupation in slums.
- C.Employment in private organizations has consistently increased over the years.
- D.The number of self-employed individuals has declined steadily since 2012.
- E.Truck driving and cleaning declined in popularity compared to construction work.