Kolkata, Sep 16 : The average daily income of working women in rural areas of West Bengal is higher than that of their counterparts in urban and metro areas, according to the latest statistics released by the Centre.

According to the said report christened "Women and Men in India 2024: Selected Indicators and Data", used by the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, as on June 2024, the latest period statistics available on this count, the average daily income per woman in rural West Bengal stands at Rs 320, which is marginally higher than Rs 272 as on September 2023.

According to the report prepared with inputs from the state finance department, as of June 2024, the average daily income per woman in the metro and urban areas of West Bengal is Rs 316. And, the average daily income per woman in the metro and urban pockets of the state was comparatively higher at Rs 324 as of September 2023.

In both rural and urban pockets, the Left Front-ruled state of Kerala is at the top of the list in terms of the average daily income of the working women.

In the case of Kerala, the amount earned by rural working women is Rs 454, and in urban and metro areas, it is Rs 505.

Economic observers feel that this phenomenon of rural working women enjoying marginally higher average daily income than their counterparts in urban and metro pockets is an indication of how lower rates of wages, even in organised sectors in urban and metro West Bengal, are encouraging workers' migration from the state, including women, to other states for much higher daily wages.

The economists feel that the phenomenon of the rural working women in West Bengal enjoying an average daily income higher than their counterparts in urban and metro pockets in the state is a strange phenomenon, considering that the picture is generally opposite, since the avenues of employment generation in urban and metro pockets are much higher than in rural pockets.

'In rural pockets, the scope of employment for women is generally limited to specific areas like farming, animal husbandry, and, to an extent, rural handicrafts, among others. But in urban and more specially metro pockets, the avenues of employment generation are far too many, namely security personnel in business establishments like hotels, shopping malls, multiplexes, big hospitals and other merchant establishments, health workers in big hospitals, selective factories where skills specialised by women are necessary and most importantly the traditional employment of working as domestic helpers, among others," acclaimed economist P. Mukhopadhyay

He added, "These days, several women are even engaged in unconventional employment like app-cab drivers and product delivery, among others. But still with so many avenues of employment generation, when the average daily income for women in urban and metro pockets is so low, it does not cut a rosy picture of the economic health of the state, and more especially on daily wage rates in urban and metro pockets.'

Teacher of economics, Diganta Basu, feels that precisely because of this low daily wage structure, the rate of workers, including women workers, migrating from West Bengal to other states for better livelihood is so high.

'Imagine, the average daily wage earned by a woman worker in urban and metro areas in West Bengal is just Rs 316, as against the figure of Rs 505 enjoyed by their counterparts in Kerala. So it is quite natural that any worker in West Bengal, men or women and skilled or unskilled, will opt for other states like Kerala than their own native state,' he said.

/IANS