Old Age Wage Labour Participation and Labour Supply in India: Changes from 1993-94 to 2009-10

Population ageing is intriguing phenomenon and especially important for India, where social benefits for the older population are low. Against the absence of social security and growing nuclearisation of families, the aged individuals may have to resort to wage labour. In this context, taking nationally representative data from the National Sample Survey (NSS) for 1993-94 and 2009-10 of the employment-unemployment survey, this paper examines the factors that determine the participation of the older population in wage labour and also their weekly number of days of work to gauge the labour supply decisions using probit regressions and Heckman sample selection models respectively, separately for rural and urban sectors, for both the time periods. We find that in urban areas, older individuals from poorer households have significantly higher chance of participating in wage labour and this relationship is stronger in 2009-10 than 1993-94. However, no significant association with weekly number of days of work is found. It is found that elder individuals majorly work for labour intensive works and hence may not have to ability to work for higher number of days. The findings lay foundation for universal pension scheme, with better pay to achieve higher welfare for the aged population.