6 cr don't travel for job: Census

Around 6 crore people engaged in work other than agriculture and household industry do not travel a single kilometre for their job while 52.37 lakh have to cover more than 50 km to reach their working place.

The census 2011 on workers, released recently, puts the total number of workers engaged in jobs as cultivator, agricultural labourer and household industry worker at 20.04 crore and their favourite mode of transport are bus and bicycles. India has a workforce of around 47.41 crore.While over 6.01 crore do not travel for job, 4.57 crore travel between two and five kilometres and 3.26 crore travel less than 1 km for work. Another 2.73 crore, according to the Census, travel six to 10 km while another 1.13 crore travel 11 to 20 km.

This declines to 75.10 lakh workers for 21-30 km travel and further down to 48.64 lakh for 31-50 km travel.

A break-up showed that 2.62 crore workers use bicycles to reach their house. Among this, 22.65 lakh even cover a distance of 21-30 km while 19.44 lakh ride between 11-20 km, which could mean that they may not be earning enough to avail public transport system.There is no record of workers cycling more than 30 km to reach their workplace, according to the Census.

Buses were other major transport mode with 2.29 crore using it. Of this, maximum workers (53.99 lakh) use buses to cover a distance 6-10 km while 23.27 lakh cover more than 50 km.

Country’s reluctance in developing waterways is reflected in the Census figures, which showed that it is the least preferred transport mode with just 4.89 lakh using it.