Occupational diversification in the rural sector between 2003 and 2013: some observations

Abstract

The rural occupational structure of the Indian economy has witnessed a change between 2003 and 2013. Understanding the occupational diversification is the central part of understanding the nature of transitionary process in Indian economy. Focusing on the two different methods of occupational classification, the present article is an attempt to explain the patterns of diversification of the rural Indian economy. The questions raised here are: Is the share of household in the farm sector reducing, if yes, who is diversifying from the farm sector, which occupational groups are increasing their share. The present study uses the National Sample Survey’ (NSS) unit level data on Household Debt and Investment and identifies three different important partial movements in the rural Indian economy. One is the significant decline in the share of ‘Other’ household in the non-farm sector. These households might be the households with surplus who moved out of rural sector to the urban sector. The second movement is the decline in the share of agricultural labour households and movement towards increasing share of cultivators/self-employed in agriculture on the one hand and the growth of ‘Other Labour’ on the other hand. The third movement, if the mixed household represents plural households, is an increase in the mixed households in the ‘Other Labour’ category within this group. It has a larger policy implication.