Distribution of household assets and the resultant pattern of income and employment among the weaker sections in the rural areas of Haryana

Abstract

Since the beginning of planning in India, the strategies and programmes are being designed and redesigned, keeping in view the objective of poverty alleviation. In almost all the plan documents, emphasis has been placed on the common man, weaker sections and the less privileged of the society. Repeatedly, the objectives of the plans have kept removal of poverty, unemployment and inequality at the top in priority. But the planned development efforts have failed to yield tangible results in terms of visible improvement in the standard of living of the people belonging to the lower income groups. The landless households, marginal and small farmers, agricultural wage earners and casual workers engaged in non-agricultural activities constitute the bulk of rural poor. The obsolete methods of production, small land holdings and their low productivity are the main causes of poverty among households dependent on land based activities for their livelihood. The lower literacy percentage and lack of other vocational skills also perpetuates poverty. Due to the poor physical and capital base, a large proportion of the people are forced to continue in the occupations having extremely low levels of productivity as well as income. One of the most striking experiences of planned efforts in India has been that economically backward regions and economically backward and socially oppressed people, in both developed and backward regions, have gained little. The benefits accrued proportionately more to the already rich and socially privileged sections of the society perpetuating social inequalities and disparities of income and wealth distribution. The present paper focuses on distribution of household assets and the resultant pattern of income and employment among the weaker sections in the rural areas of Haryana.