Rural labour employment and their livelihoods in Bihar: Micro-level evidences from selected villages

Abstract

This study examines the changing employment and livelihood patterns of rural labour households in Bihar. The study is based on the high-frequency panel data being collected under the ICAR-ICRISAT project on Village Dynamics Studies in eastern India. The findings of the study indicate that there has been a decline in the proportion of labour households in the total number of rural households, but the transition of the labour force from the farm to the non-farm sector is clearly evident. However, the number of land-owning households among the labour households has increased. The study shows that employment opportunities for males in both the farm and non-farm sectors have increased with a higher magnitude in the non-farm sector than in the farm sector. By contrast, women’s employment in the farm sector has declined, though their employment in the non-farm sector has increased. Both the farm and non-farm sectors have witnessed an increase in the wages of labourers during the past four years, but the increase has been much higher in the non-farm sector (65 %) than in the farm sector (15 %). The study further indicates that male labourers are employed at higher wages than women labourers in both the farm and non-farm sectors. The wage determinant analysis reveals that a healthy, educated and land-owning adult male labourer is likely to get higher wages than others. The study also shows that labour households face several constraints and their access to institutional credit is abysmally low in Bihar. They primarily depend on non-institutional sources for meeting their credit needs. It has been observed that about one-third of the labour households borrow mainly to meet consumption and medical expenses. Various programmes for the welfare and development of the weaker sections are being implemented by different government departments. However, the erstwhile flagship development schemes such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Indira Awas Yojana (IAY), Kisan Credit Card (KCC) and Self-help Group (SHG) schemes have virtually ceased to operate in the villages under study. Hence, there is a need to revive these projects by laying greater emphasis on the upliftment of the weaker sections of society.