Non-farm employment for rural households in Jharkhand region of Bihar: Evidence and prognosis

Abstract

Expansion in avenues of rural non-farm sector is one of the major ways of diversification of the rural economies. It has gained currency in recent years due to inability of the agriculture sector along to provide the ultimate answer for rural and under-employment in peasant economies. The paper, on the basis of primary data, tries to discuss the nature and magnitude of non-farm sector prevalent in tribal region of highly backward State of Bihar. Study reveals that agriculture, in the region, is the main source of livelihood and almost all household participate in it. However, the cultivation at subsistence level, is not able to provide sufficient income to the workers and so, participate in other activities also as their ‘Survival strategy”, non-farm sector constitute of a whole range of activities from collecting tree twigs which is used as a tooth brush to teaching in schools. However, most of them are traditional and low technology based. They have very poor linkage with agriculture or non-farm sector in the urban areas. The Government's effort to train the youth under TRYSEM to enable them to establish their own non-farm activity has not been able to serve the purpose satisfactorily. Multiprong steps must be taken to increase the productivity of the sector as well as to establish forward and backward linkage with other sectors of the economy.