Introduction

The Indian economy remained by and large interventionist in nature from the time of its independence in 1947 until the late '80s. The central government in India has since 1991 adopted a policy of market economic reform under the Structural Adjustment Program of the IMF and the World Bank. This study has addressed some interesting developments that occurred since 1991, particularly in the labour market. The empirical data sources for employment and unemployment of the workforce are mainly the various rounds of surveys conducted by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO). This study is based on NSSO surveys of various rounds from the 43rd Round (pre-reform period, 1987–88) to the latest 66th Round (2009–10). We have subdivided the reform period into three parts: 1993–94 to 1999–2000 (55th Round of NSSO), 1999–2000 to 2004–05 (61st Round of NSSO) and 2004–05 to 2009–10 (66th round of NSSO). Henceforth we will refer to these three periods as the ‘first reform period’ or ‘1990s’, the ‘second reform period’ or ‘early 2000s’ and the ‘third reform period’ or ‘late 2000s’.

The summary of the NSSO trends of data is that casualization increased and diversification shrank in the first reform period and the process opposite to that happened in the second period. Nevertheless, there is an increasing trend of casualization for all categories during the third reform period, that is, between 2004–05 and 2009–10. The labour force participation rate (LFPR) during the reform period, similarly, showed a downfall in the first part (1990s), a recovery in the second part (early 2000s) and again a decline in the third part (late 2000s).