Benefits from demographic dividend going to be marginal in Kerala

By reaching a fairly advanced stage in demographic transition, Kerala amount to benefit lesser from its demographic dividend in future, according to Kerala Economic Review published by State Planning Board.

The review was published earlier this month. While Kerala having a marginal increase in working population, statistic promising a sharp increase in the working population in states like Utter Pradesh and Bihar.

The decline in fertility in Kerala is found to be much faster in comparison with the rest of the country and it has quickened the pace of the demographic transition. During 2001-11 working-age population has increased only by 0.5 percentage points, from 63.4 per cent to 63.9 per cent, while the national level average increase was at 3.3 per cent. Data from Periodic Labour Survey and Census of India shows that the size of Kerala's workforce as on January 1, 2018, was 127 lakhs. This comprised 93.7 lakh male workers and 33.4 lakh, female workers.

Economic Review viewed female labour participation in the state as better in performance than the national level. "With respect to labour force participation of females, Kerala has fared better than the rest of India: in 2017-18, the corresponding rates were 21.3 per cent and 17.5 per cent for Kerala and India respectively. However, at the same time, the unemployment rate among women was much higher in Kerala (at 23.2 per cent) than in the country as a whole", Report recognised.

Kerala's elderly population above 60 years of age has increased by 1.1 million in 2001-2011 which tally almost the same as the increase in the working-age population in the State during the same period.