RETIRED Or WORKING


Retired or Working
We in India, being an old-fashioned country, are not used to see people idling or having private means and taking life easy.
We place our friends / relatives / people surrounding us – whether male or female as to whether they are Working, Retired or still Unemployed.
But are these 3 categories enough to group all persons ?
Let us see – off hand I can think of several categories – such as ….
1.     Working and getting a Salary
2.     Retired and getting a Pension
3.     Retired and getting no Pension
4.     Unemployed – totally
5.     Sporadic employment
6.     Self employed – hence no retirement
7.     Not having to work – having private means
Of course there can be some more categories, but let us consider the above one by one
1. Working and getting a Salary
At the employable age, we all want to know whether person X is employed or not. We place all persons in regular employment, whether in the Public sector or in the Private sector, organised sector or un-organised sector, in this category. Next comes the enquiry whether that person is in “Software” or ‘Govt’ or simply Private sector. They can be in the Factories, Teaching, Sales, offices etc. Whether they work or just pass the time and draw salaries is beside the point.

Employed

After coming to know that they are employed comes the inquisitiveness of how much salary they get. Of course there are indirect methods of getting to know this – such as what post he is on - and you get an idea of the salary.

2. Retired and getting a Pension
In India it is only the employees of the Public sector, Government departments whether Central or State who get Pensions.
38.76 lakhs were in central government alone according to 2001 census.
50 lakhs were in PSU's (central and state combined) alone.
Add to this state govt. and autonomous bodies (including central universities).
It will be around two crore employees (maybe more), ie. around two percent of the total population of 115 crores or so.
But these people have the clout to change government decisions, increase market rates, change policy matters etc.
The amount of Pension keeps increasing every 6 months by way of the DA component in it, and within a few years of retirement becomes more than the gross last drawn salary. Some may say that the price of gold increases because of this!!

Retired & getting a Pension

A decade or two ago such people used to become Consultants after retirement, but now it is seen that they prefer not to do any such activity because of the hefty pension they get.
It is a mute point whether they enjoy all this largesse having worked hard when they were employed or worked hard as the saying goes and are still having the last laugh !!


3. Retired and getting no Pension
All persons who were not in Government service fall in this category.
All Private sector employees fall in this category.
All persons employed in shops, showrooms, cottage industry, and so on fall in this category.

Retired & no pension

Self Employed persons who claim this category is debatable, as they do not retire, hence are kept in a separate category.
Those who fall in this category are mostly the population who have worked as employees in the Private Sector, and at the age of 58 or 60 are retired and left to fend for themselves. They have to seek new employment mostly on contract, year to year, thus slog throughout their lives.

Retired & getting No Pension

The moot question is whether such a retired person with “no pension” having to work to keep the home fires burning is now to be considered as “Employed” or “Retired with no pension”

      4.     Unemployed – totally
Who is unemployed in India is a big mystery. All self employed persons whether they are earning Lacs claim that they are unemployed. Even the government is not able to decide who is unemployed, hence the unemployment figures vary drastically.
All persons working as salespersons in shops, petty roadside vendors claim likewise.

Unemployed

All persons connected with farming also claim unemployment
It turns out that in India, whosoever is not employed by the Public sector, claims unemployment, which may be a large percentage of the population !!





     5.    Sporadic employment
Daily wage labourers who get employed one day and are unemployed the other day, fall in this category. House painters, plumbers, masons, etc who stand in the labour mandi at 8.00 AM in each city are in this category.
Some persons who genuinely could not get regular employment, try their hands at different occupations time after time fall in this category.
All persons connected with the Film Industry may claim sporadic employment. Some among them have earned crores and invested in 5 star hotels, restaurants, farms and other business etc., would not fall in this category.

     6..     Self employed – hence no retirement
Doctors, Lawyers, contractors, pandit / pujari, consultants, fortune tellers and similar people fall in this category, as they are self employed and keep on working till they wish.  Mostly they reluctantly stop working when they become physically unable to work or due to very old age.

     7.     Not having to work – having private means
People who get large amounts as rent of property, interest from bank deposits etc fall in this category. The landed gentry of yester years and Bertie Wooster are in this class.

Bertie Wooster

     So ….

The best category may be different according to different tastes !!




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