MISCELLANEOUS OCCUPATIONS

INTRODUCTION

IN THIS CHAPTER ARE DESCRIBED A FEW MISCELLANEOUS OCCUPATIONS which neither come under the purview of the Factories Act nor are they subject to the jurisdiction of the Shops and Establishments Act These occupations are typically urban in characteristics. The census reports enumerate them under various classes such as Industry, Trade, etc. The attached table broadly gives the numerical growth of these occupations during the last seventy years or so during which time a considerable development has taken place in their structure, composition and character. A few have disappeared altogether and quite a number has inflated their ranks. Not only the number of these occupations has gone up but the employment in them has also increased. As a matter of fact the pattern of growth in respect of these occupations shows the even tenor of the changing habits of those who constitute the urbanite groups of the population. To make it more specific with the break-up of the joint family system and changes in the food habits of the people the number of hotels and similar establishments has increased. The change in the wear apparel has resulted in an increase in establishments dealing in ready-made clothes. The availability and ushering in of the new modes of conveyances such as cycles, motors etc., have been responsible to the coming up of shops of cycle repairers, petty mechanics, etc. Naturally we find an exhaustive and ever increasing number of occupations such as hotel and restaurant-keeping, leather-working, cycle repairing, fruit and vegetable selling, milk and sweetmeat selling, flower selling, flour milling, hair-cutting, gold and silver smithy, painting, tailoring, tinsmithy, domestic service, laundering, etc. An attempt has been made in this chapter to give a broad account of certain selected occupations such as those of goldsmiths, tailors, flour mills etc. Such an account helps to get a clear picture of the economic set-up, particularly in the urban area.

A Sample Survey of the following selected occupations was conducted in Satara, Karad and Phaltan with a view to present a broad picture of the economic conditions prevailing in these occupations. About five to ten per cent. of the total establishments were selected for the survey. Samples were taken from different localities and were representative of different sizes and types. A general questionnaire was framed and answers were collected from each of the selected samples. The occupations selected were: -

(1) Aerated water manufacturing, (2) Bakeries, (3) Keeping of Boarding and Lodging Houses, (4) Cap making, (5) Running Flour mills, (6) Gold-smithy, (7) Hair-cutting, (8) Laundering, (9) Motor-building and repairing, (10) Running or Managing Restaurants and Tea-shops, (11) Tailoring, etc.

Many of these occupations are combinations of trade and industry. They are chiefly to be found in urban areas and are described in regard to the number, employment, earnings, equipment, wages to employees and raw materials used.

The number of occupations in each ward in Phaltan town is not given in the chapter as the same was not available.

The following table gives the number of persons employed in different occupations in the years 1911, 1921, 1931 and 1951. These figures are taken from different Census Reports.

TABLE 1

The figures for the years 1911, 1921 and 1931 pertain to the former Satara District which included Jaoli, Malcolmpeth, Karad, Khanapur Khatav, Koregaon, Man, Patan, Satara, Tasgaon, Wai, Walwa and Shirala talukas. They together with Mahabaleshwar, Phaltan, Jath and Miraj were grouped into two districts, namely, North Satara and South Satara [Thes districts are known as Satara and Sangli (resp.) at present.] after 1948.

The information which has been collected shows that the occupations which attracted increasingly large number of persons were learned professions like education, law and medicine, administrative services and occupations such as goldsmithy and jewellery, hair-cutting, running restaurants and tea-shops and tailoring. The total number of persons engaged in the district in learned professions and adminis trative services was about 11,000 and of those engaged in occupations surveyed in the two towns was about 1,350. The total employment in restaurants and tea-shops in the two towns was more than the employment in any other occupations surveyed. Wages paid to employees in different occupations except those in motor-repairing were mostly uniform. Paucity of skilled staff was one of the major difficulties experienced by many of these occupations. Goldsmiths and jewellers employed the largest capital in the occupations surveyed. Lack of capital was another difficulty experienced by them. Occupations like running lodging and boarding houses and flour mills have scope for further development. Over a period of last sixty years the conditions of most of the occupations have improved but their earnings do not seem to have kept pace with the rising cost of living. In most of the occupations there appears to be an influx of skilled workers. In occupations, where execution of intricate processes is involved, the tendency is for the replacement of human labour by machine. This has affected the quality of the work done.

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