MISCELLANEOUS OCCUPATIONS

INTRODUCTION

HITHERTO, WE HAVE DESCRIBED THE PRINCIPAL SECTORS OF THE ECONOMY of this district such as agriculture, industry, trade and transport. These sectors provide means of livelihood for a great majority of the population. They do not, however, embrace the whole field of economic activity. There is an appreciable percentage of the population which earns its livelihood on small crafts and trades like pounding and parching of grains and pulses, tailoring, restaurants and tea shops, laundries, hair-cutting saloons, bakeries, cycle-repairing, cap-making, manufacture of aerated waters, etc. Most of these craftsmen and traders are engaged in production of goods of daily consumption or in rendering some useful service to the community. A comparatively smaller number engaged in professions like law, medicine, education, journalism, or employed in Government departments, municipalities, etc.. also serve a social purpose. Rapid growth of such occupations is both a factor in the pace of urbanization and an index of the degree of prosperity and economic stability of the district. The following table puts down employment, as enumerated by the Censuses of 1911, 1921, 1931 and 1951 in a few occupations in the district: —

TABLE No. 1

NUMBER OF PERSONS ENGAGED IN DIFFERENT OCCUPATIONS IN 1911, 1921. 1931 AND 1951 IN JALGAON DISTRICT

An attempt has been made in this chapter to give an account of these occupations and the peculiar conditions and problems affecting the persons engaged in them. A sample survey of the following occupations was conducted- in Amalner and Jalgaon towns. It was confined to certain aspects of the occupations such, as number of units existing, the nature of tools and appliances used, their cost, average monthly expenses incurred, the nature of market for the products, etc.

The occupations covered by the survey were—at Jalgaon (1) Flour-milling, (2) Pounding and parching of grains and pulses. (3) Tailoring, (4) Making of ready-made clothes, (5) Hotel-keeping (restaurants). (6) Goldsmithy. (7) Hotel-keeping (eating-houses), (8) Hotel-keeping (boarding and lodging), (9) Milk supplying, (10) Laundering. (11) Hair-cutting, (12) Confectionerv-making, (13) Tin-smithy, (14) Motor-body building, (15) Cycle-repairing, (16) Cap-making and (17) Manufacture of aerated waters; and at Amalner (!) Dyeing and bleaching. (2) Flour-milling, (3) Pounding and parching of rice. (4) Tailoring. (5) Making of ready-made clothes, (6) Goldsmithy, (7) Hotel-keeping (restaurants and tea shops), (8) Hotel-keeping (boarding houses), (9) Hotel-keeping (boarding and lodging houses), (40) Hair-cut ling. (11) Confectionery-making, (12) Tin-smithy, (43) Motor-body building, (14) Cycle-repairing, (15) Cap-making and (16) Manufacture of aerated waters.

Information regarding the total number of establishments and ward-wise break-up and the number of persons engaged in them was obtained from the respective municipalities.

Percentage of samples selected varied between 5 and 10.

They were selected from different localities and were representative of every size and type. A general questionnaire was framed and answers were collected from each of the selected samples.

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