India - Household Consumer Expenditure, Jan 2003 - Dec 2003, NSS 59th Round

For a person it may be necessary to ascertain whether he or she worked in a subsidiary capacity during the 365 days preceding the date of survey or not; in other words, whether he or she had a subsidiary economic usual status. This has to be ascertained for all the three broad categories of persons initially classified as 'employed', 'unemployed' and 'not in labour force'. To illustrate, a person categorised as working and assigned the principal usual activity status 'self-employed' may also be engaged for a relatively shorter time during the year as casual wage labour. In such a case, he will be considered to have worked also in a subsidiary capacity (i.e., having a subsidiary economic status which is different from the principal status). On the other hand, a person may be self-employed in trade for a relatively longer period and simultaneously also engaged in agricultural production for a relatively minor time. In such a case, the principal usual activity status will be 'self-employed in trade' and subsidiary economic status, 'self-employed in agriculture'. Similarly, persons categorised as 'unemployed' or 'not in labour force' on the basis of 'relatively longer time' criterion might have pursued some economic activity for relatively shorter time during the year. In all the above cases, they will be treated to have had subsidiary economic usual status. It may be noted that engagement in work in subsidiary capacity may arise out of two situations:

(i) a person may be engaged for a relatively longer period during the 365 days in one economic activity/non-economic activity and for a relatively shorter period in another economic activity;
(ii) a person may be pursuing one economic activity/non-economic activity almost throughout the year in the principal status and also simultaneously pursuing another economic activity for relatively shorter time in a subsidiary capacity.