Rural Labour Employment and Livelihoods in Tribal Villages of Eastern India

This study examines the changing employment and livelihood patterns of rural labour households in tribal villages of eastern India. The study is based on the high frequency panel data collected under the ICAR-ICRISAT project on Village Dynamics Studies in eastern India from 2010 to 2014. The findings revealed that the work participation rate of landless labour households had a declining trend whereas that of land owning labour households had a mixed trend in tribal villages of Jharkhand. The employment in the farm sector declined for males but increased for women. Employment in non-farm sectors registered an increase in both the genders and the magnitude of the increase was higher in the non-farm sector as compared to the farm sector. Similar trend was observed for wage rate which showed faster growth in the non-farm wage compared to the farm wage. Both the sectors witnessed an increase in the labourer’s wages during the past four years, however, the increase was much higher in the non-farm sector than the farm sector. The study also indicated that male labourers were employed at higher wages than their female counterparts in both sectors but the difference was narrowed down during last four years. A wage determinant analysis revealed that a healthy, educated, landowning adult male labour is likely to get higher wages than others. Non-farm wage employment is emerging as the most important source of income on labour households contributing 63 to 74% to their total income. The survey further revealed that income from farming constituted only 6 to 13% of the total income of labour households, but it showed increasing trend due to implementation of various mega agricultural development projects in the state.