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MISCELLANEOUS OCCUPATIONS
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INTRODUCTION
AN ATTEMPT IS MADE IN THIS CHAPTER TO GIVE A BROAD ACCOUNT OF CERTAIN
SELECTED MISCELLANEOUS OCCUPATIONS Such as tailoring, flour-milling, hair-cutting, hotel-keeping, gold and silversmithy, etc. These occupations are typically urban in charac-
teristics and have much impact on the economy of the district.
They arc enumerated in census reports under various classes
such as Industry, Trade, etc. During the last forty years many
such establishments have come up. A change has also taken
place in the structure, composition and character of a few of
them. Not only has the number of such occupations gone up
but the employment in them has also increased. With the
break-up of the joint family system, the attraction of city life
which induced the people from rural areas to migrate to the
cities, the industries-small and big-which sprang up and a
change in food habits of the people, the number of catering
establishments has increased. The change in the mode of dress
has given rise to a number of shops dealings in ready-made
clothes. The change in the mode of conveyances such as cycles
and motors has widened the activity and scope of the cycle and
motor-repairing shops. The census reports of 1911, 1921, 1931
have given lists of occupations such as hotels and restaurants,
cycle-repairing, milk and sweetmeat selling, tailoring, hairdress-
ing, gold and silversmithy, painting, laundering, flour-milling
and the like. Most of the craftsmen and traders included in
these categories are engaged in production of goods of daily
consumption or in rendering some useful service to the society.
A smaller number engaged in vocations like law, medicine,
education, journalism or employed in Government departments,
municipalities, etc., also serve a social purpose. The rapid growth
of such occupations is both a factor in the pace of urbanisation
and an index of the degree of prosperity and economic stability of the district.
A sample survey of the following selected occupations was conducted in Amravati, Badnera, Achalpur, Daryapur, Anjan-gaon, Chandur, Chandur-bazar, Dhamangaon, Morshi, Warud, Shendurjana, Paratwada, Malkapur, Karanja and Sirasgaon with a view to presenting a broad picture of economic conditions prevailing in these occupations. Samples were taken from different localities which were representative of sizes and
types, A general questionnaire was framed on the basis of which
the data was collected from each of the selected samples. The
occupations selected were: (I) Hotels and restaurants, (2) Lodg-
ing and boarding, (3) Tailoring, (4) Hair-cutting, (5) Dhobis
and laundry services, (6) Pan and bidi-making, (7) Bakery,
(S) Cycle-repairing, (9) Sweetmeats making, (10) Rice-pounders,
huskers and flour-grinders, (11) Domestic servants, (12) Religious
professions and (13) the learned professions such as Doctors,
Lawyers and Teachers.
Many of these occupations combined trade and industry. They are described in regard to their employment, earnings, equipment, wages, raw materials, organisations, etc.
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