Chennai: Around 27 million workers in India are employed in environmentally sustainable green jobs, while 21 million are in environmentally destructive brown jobs. While the share of green jobs has witnessed growth in the past decade, the share of brown jobs is relatively constant, finds a study by the World Bank.
About 5.9 per cent of jobs in India, which amounts to approximately 27.1 million workers, are green, while 4.6 per cent or 21.2 million workers are employed in brown occupations. However, almost 89 per cent of jobs in India are neither green nor brown.
The World Bank study finds that the percentage of green jobs has increased from 5 to 6 per cent in a decade. The percentage of brown occupations stays relatively constant around 4.5 per cent over this period. These results suggest that green jobs are increasing at a faster rate than brown jobs.
The largest share of green employment is in construction (39 per cent), manufacturing (21 per cent), and agriculture (14 per cent). However, manufacturing also accounts for 53 per cent brown jobs and construction accounts for 30 per cent. Both construction and manufacturing face considerable opportunities in driving the green transition, but also important challenges as they would need to strive to reduce their overall brown footprint. Public utilities have a higher share of green jobs and mining has more brown jobs.
Green workers have higher average hourly wages than brown and the rest of workers in India. Hourly wages are 59 rupees for green workers, 29 rupees for brown workers, and 43 rupees for workers in neither green nor brown occupations. This suggests a wage premium of almost 40 per cent for green jobs and a penalty of 31 per cent for brown jobs when compared to other occupations.
Among the states, Punjab, Haryana and Delhi have more green jobs while those with more brown jobs are Gujrat and Tamil Nadu.
According to the World Bank, India's Skill Council for Green Jobs has identified 44 green low and medium-skilled occupations related to renewable energy, environment, forestry, climate change, and sustainable development. SCGJ also has to ensure that the curriculum responds to the needs of the industry and whether the training results in employment.
It will be essential to strengthen the existing Labor Market Information System to monitor green and brown jobs and to support the green skills development agenda.
