2011 Census has divided the working population of India into four major categories. Which one of the following is NOT one of them?

Q: What is the answer to CAPF 2020 Paper I Q46?

B. Correct — B, Domestic workers. The 2011 Census sorts every worker into exactly four categories — cultivators, agricultural labourers, workers in household industry, and other workers. A cook, a driver or a maid employed in a private home is counted, but is counted inside the residual fourth category of other workers; there is no separate Census head called domestic workers. Options (a), (c) and (d) name three of the four real categories, so the fourth real category, other workers, is the one the question quietly leaves out and replaces with a plausible substitute.

(a)Cultivators
(b)Domestic workers
(c)Household industrial workers
(d)Agricultural Labourers

Answer

Why

Correct — B, Domestic workers. The 2011 Census sorts every worker into exactly four categories — cultivators, agricultural labourers, workers in household industry, and other workers. A cook, a driver or a maid employed in a private home is counted, but is counted inside the residual fourth category of other workers; there is no separate Census head called domestic workers. Options (a), (c) and (d) name three of the four real categories, so the fourth real category, other workers, is the one the question quietly leaves out and replaces with a plausible substitute.

Why the others are wrong

(a)Cultivators — A genuine Census category. A cultivator works on land owned or held by the household, whether by self, family or hired labour, and is counted separately from a wage labourer.
(c)Household industrial workers — A genuine Census category. Household industry means production carried on by the members of a household at home or within the village, not in a registered factory.
(d)Agricultural Labourers — A genuine Census category, and the one that separates a wage worker on someone else's field from the cultivator who holds it.

Concept

The Census counts economic activity in two cuts. The first cut is by intensity — a main worker has worked for six months or more in the reference year, a marginal worker for less, and a non-worker not at all. The second cut is by kind of work, and that is the four-fold split the question is about. The two cuts run across each other, so every worker has both a main or marginal label and one of the four occupational labels.

The wrong option here is chosen with care. Domestic work is real, it is enumerated, and there is even a National Classification of Occupations code for it — what does not exist is a Census worker category of that name. That distinction between an occupation that is recorded and a category into which the workforce is divided is the whole question. The 2011 Census also captured the long-running shift within agriculture: agricultural labourers outnumber cultivators, and their share has been rising while the cultivator share falls, which is the standard evidence for shrinking landholdings and distress in farming. The 2011 count is still the last completed Census; the exercise due in 2021 was deferred, and the Government has since notified a Census with 1 March 2027 as its reference date for most of the country.

Key facts

The 2011 Census divides workers into cultivators, agricultural labourers, workers in household industry, and other workers.
A main worker is one who worked for 183 days or more in the reference year; anyone working for less is a marginal worker.
Other workers is the residual category, and it is the largest of the four; domestic help, government service, trade and factory work all fall into it.
Agricultural labourers outnumber cultivators in the 2011 count, reversing the older pattern.
The 2011 Census remains the latest completed one, with the next Census notified for a 2027 reference date.

The four Census worker categories, and where domestic help goes

Cultivators→Work land owned or held by the household.

Agricultural labourers→Work on another's land for wages in cash or kind.

Workers in household industry→Produce goods at home or within the village, outside the factory system.

Other workers→Everyone else — including domestic workers, who have no category of their own.

Three of the four appear as options; the fourth is missing and its place is taken by a category that does not exist.

Study next

Main and marginal workers and the 183-day rule that separates themWork participation rate and how it differs between men and women in IndiaThe shift from cultivators to agricultural labourers and what it indicatesHousehold industry as a Census concept and how it differs from registered manufacturingHow the Census definition of a worker differs from the labour-force survey definition

Common traps

Accepting an option because the work it names is real, without asking whether the Census uses it as a category.
Confusing the four-fold occupational split with the main-worker and marginal-worker split.
Assuming cultivators are still the largest agricultural group — in 2011 agricultural labourers were more numerous.

The examiner lists three of four correct items and substitutes a fourth that sounds official; the way in is to recall the real list first and then look for what is absent.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
According to the Census of India, a person who has worked for 183 days or more during the reference year is classified as
- (a)a marginal worker
- (b)a main worker
- (c)a seasonal worker
- (d)a non-worker
Answer(b) a main worker — anyone who worked for fewer than 183 days is a marginal worker.
practice — not a real PYQ
In the Census of India, a person cultivating land owned or held by his or her own household is classified as
- (a)an agricultural labourer
- (b)a cultivator
- (c)a household industry worker
- (d)an other worker
Answer(b) a cultivator — the agricultural labourer works someone else's land for wages.