Non-Farm Sector and its Contribution in Transforming Rural India with Special Reference to Uttar-Pradesh

Abstract

The present paper has two objectives. The first objective is to re-evaluate the role of non-farm sector in generating productive employment and alleviating poverty in rural areas. An attempt has been made to analyze the recent growth of rural non-farm activities to explore the determinants and factors that might be responsible for its growth. The sources of growth and nature of activities undertaken are important considerations while analyzing the significance of non-farming sector in transforming the economic life of rural households. In this regard the inter-relationship of rural non-farm sector (RNFS) employment with agricultural wages and degree of urbanization is also highlighted. It also examines the major changes in the occupational structure in the RNFS during the period 1983 to 1999-2000. This paper is based mainly on the unit record level data on employment-unemployment collected by the NSSO in the 38th round (1983) and 55th round (1999-2000) across seventy one comparable rural NSS region nation wide. The second objective of the paper is to study the growth of RNFS in the rural Uttar-Pradesh (U.P.) and the factors, which could explain the process of growth is discussed at length. An attempt is made to look in to the inter relationship between growth of RNFS labour employment with poverty and degree of urbanisation. It also analyses at the structural and gender distribution of non-farm rural employment along with intra-state regional variations in U.P.. Finally, paper identifies the issues for further research and suggests some policy measures for developing RNFS.