Livelihood Prospects Across Social Classes in Rural India

Abstract

In the third part of the Social Change Social Indicator series, we look at livelihood prospects across social classes in rural India. The rural population in India earns its living from different livelihood types—farming, agricultural labour, other manual labour, domestic services or other jobs. The majority of farmers in the country are however small landholders and therefore depend on other sources of income to earn enough money to survive or to even purchase crucially needed seeds and fertilisers. Then there are the agricultural labours who do not own land of their own and work in the fields to earn daily wages. Since the land support for these rural families has become increasingly difficult, a section of the rural population has started looking outside their locale for jobs. In recent decades, jobs for urban construction and private security services industry has provided a potential alternative for backward or economically weaker sections from the rural and semi-urban areas of the country. The government has been trying to provide employment opportunities and livelihood for villagers within their villages by encouraging them to start their own enterprises, supporting them by providing some training and finance. But although rural occupational opportunities have increased comparatively in several states, the creation of productive livelihoods for different social classes remains a challenge in certain rural segments of India. From data one observes that while a majority of Schedules Caste (SC) farmers remain daily wagers, the livelihood of the Scheduled Tribe (ST) community remains dependent on forest, agriculture and animal husbandry. The Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011, provides survey data on the livelihood opportunities of SC, ST and Non-SC–ST households across sources such as cultivation, non-agricultural own account enterprises, manual casual labourers, part- or full-time domestic services, ragpicking, begging and others.1 Our analysis of data refers to eighteen states that cover more than 95 per cent of the SC or ST population in the country.