24 SOCIAL SCIENTIST rose gradually and steadily between 1961 and 1983 in both rural and urban areas. This gradual increase in female WPR may, however, be due to the changing age-composition over the two decades. That is, a decline in the proportion of children in the age group 0 to 14 years and a corresponding increase in the adult population, would lead to a natural increase in WPRs. In order to make inter-temporal changes in participation rates free from the effect of changes in the age-structure of the population we would ideally require age-standardised participation rates using the terminal year (198S) age distribution as weights. Unfortunately this is not possible for two reasons: (i) The 1961 Census used age groupings which cannot be made comparable with the age-groupings used in the quinquennial employment surveys. (ii) It is not possible to obtain age-specific participation rates for the NSS 27th Round. The WPRs presented in Table 1 are crude participation rates. However, for all-India we have computed the age-standardised participation rates for 1977-78 using the age specific participation rates for 1977-78 weighted by the age-distribution of 1983, the assumption being (hat the age distribution for 1977-78 was the same as that in 1983. The age-standardised WPR was 55.8 for males and 33.5 for females in rural areas in 1977-78. This adjustment does not make any difference to the direction of change in participation rates between 1977-78 and for rural females, while it does so in the case of rural males.2 Overall there is no declining trend visible in the work participation of women. In fact, it has risen slightly over the past two decades in rural and urban areas, for the country as a whole. A similar trend was also observed in the majority of states. While there has been a small increase in the work participation of women over the past two decades, what changes have come about in the status distribution (employer/employee) of the population? During the course of capitalistic development in agriculture, with increase in the productivity of land, there is likely to be an increase in the demand for hired labour, especially on the part of the surplus producing landed households. On the other hand, the landless and very small cultivator households, not possessing adequate resources for a reliable livelihood, have to depend on hiring out their labour. The demographic process of division of households together with the fragmentation of holdings is likely to increase the number of economically nonviable holdings, Unless there is a large-scale increase in non-agricultural activities, such small and marginal farmers may be forced to hire out their labour to supplement their income, or over a period of time lose their land and join the ranks of casual labourers. All these processes are expected to raise the proportion of casual employees in the work force.