Table Of ContentNiti Mehta
RURAL TRANSFORMATION
IN
POST LIBERALIZATION
THE
PERIOD GUJARAT
IN
Economic and Social
Consequences
Rural Transformation in the Post Liberalization
Period in Gujarat
Niti Mehta
Rural Transformation
in the Post
Liberalization Period
in Gujarat
Economic and Social Consequences
Niti Mehta
Sardar Patel Institute of Economic and Social Research
Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
ISBN 978-981-10-8961-9 ISBN 978-981-10-8962-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8962-6
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018944582
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P R T
raise for uRal RansfoRmaTion in The
P l P G
osT ibeRalizaTion eRiod in ujaRaT
“The book in the classical tradition deals with agriculture and rural development
in a fast growing economy, deftly managing diversification, infrastructure besides
the rural-urban space. It is for a real life example, Gujarat, making it a must read.
I did this for India; but India is too big and the models and simulations remain
abstract. The book is important for the businessman, policy maker, scholar and
student.”
—Professor YK Alagh, Eminent Economist and Former Union Minister
“The rural transformation process in going on for quite some time, but it appears
that the speed has accelerated with the advent of improved connectivity. Many
rural areas by definition have amenities in common with small towns. I am happy
that this book brings forth several of these dimensions.”
—Professor SP Kashyap, Eminent Economist having extensive work on issues
related to economic development
“The book vividly demonstrates how urbanization can turn a powerful vehicle of
rural transformation if we address the problems faced by small towns and promote
rural and urban linkages through them. As agriculture has limited capacity to gen-
erate gainful employment, rural diversification of the sources of income and
employment opportunities is the need of the hour. This book would be very useful
in guiding the policy makers in ameliorating agrarian distress and promoting rural
development.”
—Professor RB Bhagat, Head, Department of Migration and Urban Studies,
International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai
v
vi PRAISE FOR RURAL TRANSFORMATION IN THE POST LIBERALIZATION…
“…The running theme of the book is ‘inclusive and sustainable urbanisation’.
Based on the case studies of 15 diverse towns in Gujarat, the author tries to
understand the intricacies of urban growth and its socio-economic ramifications.
The policy makers could take a leaf of two from the work, especially when the
exercise of crafting a National Policy for Urban Development is currently underway
in the country”.
—Professor Dinesh Awasthi, Former Director, Entrepreneurship Development
Institute of India, Ahmedabad
P
reface
Rapid structural changes are evident in the rural sector with economic
reforms as manifested in the expanding share of rural non-farm employ-
ment to almost one-third of rural employment. Concomitantly rural
incomes have shown a dramatic shift towards non-primary activities. Such
changes in rural economic sector have also had an impact on the urbaniza-
tion process in India, notably the rising numbers of census towns that are
also emerging as a major source of overall urbanization. The focus of the
study is on these newly emerging urban settlements that have not been
re-designated as statutory towns and economic factors underlying the
growth of villages leading to their reclassification. Rural transformation is
driven by the diversification of rural economies away from the reliance on
agriculture, growth of non-agricultural activities, adoption of multiple
livelihood strategies by individuals and households, urban ward migration
as well as urbanization of rural regions that reduces the relative isolation
of rural areas and people.
In Gujarat as in some other pockets of the nation, urbanization is get-
ting equitably spread out besides the concurrent process of peripheral
expansion. The momentum of urban growth is fuelled by the lower levels
of settlement hierarchy or the smaller towns. It is also evident that struc-
tural changes and employment diversification has enabled a large number
of villages to be elevated to town status. The present study makes an
attempt at understanding the on-going changes in the rural economic
structure of Gujarat as manifested in emergence of large numbers of cen-
sus towns and the underlying economic, social and environmental dimen-
sions. A large chunk of the urban population remains unrecognised that
vii
viii PREFACE
leads to problems of service provision, resource generation and gover-
nance. Clearly, policy focus is desired on all of these fronts for a smooth
process of rural transformation. This is also imperative in the interest of
emergence of a sustainable settlement system that eases the constraints
being faced by the explosive metropolitan expansion. Timely policy inter-
ventions are desirable to make agriculture a more profitable venture for
the communities dependent on the sector. In addition expansion and pro-
vision of urban amenities and regulation of land use changes in these set-
tlements are of utmost importance for equitable growth.
The study is the result of financial support received from the Indian
Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi (ICSSR) under the major
research programme scheme. We acknowledge with gratitude the financial
support from ICSSR and administrative support received from Mrs.
Revathy, Director at the ICSSR. This report has been prepared with the
help of several individuals whose help is acknowledged. First and fore-
most, I would like to express my gratitude to Prof. S.P. Kashyap for his
advice in designing the methodology of the study. He also offered insight-
ful comments on all the chapters. The support of Research Associates, Ms.
Monu Yadav and Ms. Indu Pareek, along with the Research Assistants,
Mr. Ashwin Rawal and Mr. Pradeep Chauhan, in conducting the field
surveys, focus group discussions and in tabulating the primary and sec-
ondary information has been invaluable. The involvement of Ms. Reena
Narendran and Mr. Satheesan in providing timely computational and sec-
retarial assistance is also gratefully acknowledged.
The study has benefitted immensely from the comments and sugges-
tions made by Professor Dinesh Awasthi and Professor AK Singh as mem-
bers of the Research Advisory Committee appointed for the Project. Their
valuable insights have given direction to the research work. The compo-
nents of the study have been presented in seminars organized by
NIRD&PR, Hyderabad, SPIESR, Ahmedabad, and ISLE, New Delhi.
For that, we are thankful to the organizers and to the discussants for their
sharp comments. The study also benefitted from the suggestions of two
anonymous referees.
Last but not the least, discussions with numerous officials, Panchayat
functionaries and the residents and enterprise owners of the towns
selected as case studies have enriched the final outcome. The respondents
of the field investigation spared their valuable time in parting with
PREFAC E ix
information and also deserve our heartfelt gratitude. The support offered
by the publishing team at Springer (Palgrave Macmillan) India, especially
Ms. Sagarika Ghosh and Ms. Sandeep Kaur has enabled the study to be
published and be available for wider dissemination. Any shortcomings,
and there are bound to be numerous, are entirely the author’s.
Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India Niti Mehta
c
ontents
1 I ntroduction 1
Conceptual Framework 1
Rural Non-farm Sector and Process of Urbanisation 5
Selection of Case Study 12
Objectives and Methodology 14
References 18
2 Occupational Diversification and Rural Transformation 23
Introduction 23
Overview of Rural Non-farm Diversification: Insights
from Literature 26
Occupational Diversification After 2000 29
Overview of Macro Tendencies 37
Employment and Income in Economic Sectors 46
Sectoral Employment and Income Shares 46
Labour Productivity Across Sectors 48
Correlates of Rural Non-farm Sector 50
Dynamics of Structural Changes in Rural Economy 54
Concluding Remarks 61
Annexure 63
References 68
xi
