Agrarian Concerns

The article “Changes in Rural Economy of India, 1971 to 2012: Lessons for Job-led Growth” (EPW, 30 December 2017), written by the team of the newly-created policy think tank of India, National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, aims to explore the “nature of growth in rural economy, and analyses its effect on job creation and occupation structure … ” (p 64).

The article is timely, on account of various national and international developments: the agrarian distress, including the alarming rise in the number of farmer suicides, and protests due to the neglect of agriculture by the union and state governments; and globally, the emergence of the neo-liberal regime of the market which has been given primacy over the welfare of farmers and peasant communities, especially in developing nations, by reducing subsidies in the farm sector. The authors have systematically brought in the patterns and trends in the changes of rural employment structures, and their dynamics in a sector-wise manner, that is, in agriculture, manufacturing, construction and the service sector.