SOIL Report 2008 - ACCESS Development Services

Chapter Iof the north-east where STs are in a majority in several small states. Mining and other developmentalactivities like power and irrigation projects in tribal belts often lead to large-scale displacement fromtraditional habitats and they are not properly rehabilitated economically, socially or culturally.3.4 Sectoral overview – what do people do for a living?A large numberof poor familiesin rural areashave multiplelivelihoodactivities whichare diverse fromeach other,and each ofthe activities iscarried out ata subsistencelevel.As mentioned earlier, the share of agriculture in total employment has been declining in the postliberalisationera, and is likely to drop soon to below 50 per cent for the first time in our history. Whatsectors substituted for agriculture? While the manufacturing sector’s share increased marginally duringthis period, services – trade, hotel and restaurant sector – which contributed significantly to higheremployment than in earlier years. The other important sectors whose shares in employment have increasedare transport, storage and communications apart from financial, insurance, real estate, business andcommunity, social and personal services.A large number of poor families in rural areas comprising the landless poor or small/marginal agriculturallyprosperous areas and the forest-based tribal and other households in remote areas, have livelihoods thathave two essential characteristics: (i) they have multiple livelihood activities which are diverse from eachother, and (ii) each of the activities is carried out at a subsistence level, mainly for household consumptionor barter. Mahajan, Dikshit and Sasidhar 9 called this the Diversified Portfolio of Subsistence Activities(DPSA). The household is thus involved in many sub-sectors, but stuck in a low-input, low-outputequilibrium, unable to eke out a living. (See Table 1.5)24While theeconomic centreof gravityhas beenshifting in thesouth-westerlydirection, thedemographiccentre ofgravity hasbeen movingin the oppositedirection.Table 1.5: Diversified Portfolio of Subsistence Activities of a Rural LandlessHousehold in JharkhandSources of household income% Income from different activitiesCollection of non-timber forest produce 30%Livestock rearing 32%Manual Labour 27%Other sources 11%Source: BASIX-UNDP Rural Livelihoods Studies for Madhya Pradesh Jharkhand States, 20033.5 Spatial overview – where is work to be had, and where do people sit idle?Differential economic performance of the last two decades has increased the regional disparities in thecountry. Broadly speaking, while the western and southern States have experienced faster economicgrowth, the northern and eastern states have lagged behind. On the other hand, population growthcontinues to be significantly higher in the lagging regions as compared to the forward regions. As a result,the per capita income differentials have been widening even further. Thus, while the economic centreof gravity has been shifting in the south-westerly direction, the demographic centre of gravity has beenmoving in the opposite direction. Another dimension of the same problem is that while more and moreemployment opportunities are created in the developed regions of the country, labour force growth ismuch higher in the backward regions. This has adverse implications socially as well as economically.State wise employment generation data also reveal increasing levels of inequalities over time. The Ginicoefficient of variation, which measures inequality, increased from 53.7 in 1993-1994 to 63.7 in 1999-2000 across states. Out of the 15 major states and Union Territories, only three (Gujarat, Haryana andKarnataka) experienced a decline in the unemployment rate during this period.9Mahajan, Vijay, Mona Dikshit and TN Sasidhar “Rural Livelihoods Study for Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand States”, 2003. Sponsored by theUNDP. BASIX, Hyderabad.24