World Bank Document

Report No: AUS7434 Republic of India Public Disclosure Authorized Livelihoods in intermediate towns Social Dynamics of Non-farm Economy A Study of Two “Rural” Settlements of Madhubani District, Bihar August 27, 2015 Public Disclosure Authorized GFA06 SOUTH ASIA Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Document of the World Bank Executive Summary This Report is based on a field study of two large settlements, Satghara (a Census Town) and Bhagwatipur (a rural cluster with 10,000 plus population) in the Madhubani district of Bihar. A large proportion of the working population in both the settlements is primarily employed in non-farm economic activities, more than 75 percent in Satghara and nearly 35 percent in Bhagwatipur. The study explores the social dynamics of the “rural” non-farm economy by empirically mapping non-farm occupations in both the settlements. It examines the dynamics of caste, community and gender within the social organization of the non-farm economy in terms of their economic and social hierarchies and the differential incomes and status they provide. The study also looks at the relationship of the local non-farm economy with patterns of outmigration. It further attempts to understand the manner in which the changes in the regional structures of power and domination have influenced the local economic processes and are being influenced by them with a specific focus on the non-farm economy in the two setting. The study also attempts an assessment of the possible development and urbanizing effects of the rather rapid growth of non- farm economy in rural Madhubani. Fieldwork for the study was completed during the second half of 2014. It included a survey of 300 respondents engaged in non-farm occupations, qualitative interviews with relevant informants and case studies of localities in the two settlements and of different occupations. For the purpose of this study, we treated all those economic activities that did not primarily involve direct employment in agriculture, i.e. cultivation of land, as ‘non-farm’. As is the case with most rural settlements in India, the households across both the settlements are divided into a wide range of caste groups and communities. Caste based communities mostly live in their own localities, known as tolas or paras. The tolas are also named after the titles of the community. While some localities do have mixed-caste inhabitant populations, they are few. This was particularly so with the Dalit and Muslim localities. We were able to identify a total of 1,680 individuals employed in different categories of non-farm activities, of which 1,384 were in Satghara and another 296 in Bhagwatipur. A large majority of the non-farm activities are typically individual centric and self-owned enterprises. Those engaged in these activities are relatively young men, below the age of 45 (76%) and many of them have had the experience of working outside the state as migrant workers (48%). The main findings of the report are summarized below. ii Non-farm preferred to on-farm occupations. The growing density of population in the region, fragmented land holdings and the uncertainty caused by frequent floods and drought, abetted by a lack of investments in building agricultural infrastructure by the state, has resulted in agriculture no longer being a viable occupation for a large majority of the rural population. Agriculture has also declined socially. As is the case with most other regions of the country, younger generations, even in families where the land holdings are large, no longer view agriculture as an aspirational occupation. The political churning that the region has experienced over the last three decades has also made agriculturally dominant groups marginal to the local politics and power structure. More than 60 percent of those who reported being currently engaged in a non- farm activity are first generation workers, i.e. their fathers and other members of the family from the generation prior to them were either employed in agriculture or in a traditional caste based occupation. Only 10 percent of survey respondents wanted their children to take up agricultural cultivation as an occupation with 90 percent expressing a preference for non-farm occupations. A wide range of different non-farm occupations - more than 50 - were identified. Appendix 1 gives a detailed listing of non-farm occupations identified across both settlements and Appendix 2 gives a descriptive account of such occupations. A large majority of the non-farm activities are typically individual centric and self-owned enterprises with only 3 percent of respondents reporting their status as employed workers. A majority (51 percent) of them work from rented premises, with 24 percent owning the establishment premises they work from and the rest (25 percent) working from temporary structures with no formal title or ownership. Most of the respondents reported starting a non-farm activity because it made sense to them as a possible source of employment. Many of them did so either because it was their family business (30 percent) or they had been exposed to it during their work outside the village (nearly 15 percent) and many others reported assessing that they simply had no other options for employment (12.3 percent) or that there was a local need for the business they initiated (28.7 percent). The recent expansion of road and communication networks, mostly after the turn of the century, has played an important role in the growth of the local non- farm economy. Not only are towns like Madhubani well connected to the state capital and other towns of the region through good quality highways, rural settlements in the region are also well connected through pucca roads. Cell phones and digital networks have also reached the interiors of Bihar. Besides iii making physical movement and communication possible, they also make migration convenient and easier. But non-farm occupations observed continue to be informal and subsistent in nature and scale. A large majority of our respondent across communities and caste reported near subsistence level incomes from their enterprises. From the total sample, only 12 percent reported earning more than 10,000 rupees per month, which diminishes for specific caste/community groups. 70 percent of the SC respondents and 61.6 percent of the Muslim respondents reported a monthly income of less than Rs. 7,500 per month (See Table 22). 75 percent of respondents do not want their children to take up the same occupation as them. The local non-farm economy is not based on modern technology, except where technology itself is a source of employment, such as cell phone repair shops. Even in such cases, their social organization remains low-skill based and almost universally informal. Even those dealing with sectors like modern medicine are likely to be working without any formal qualifications and licenses from the relevant departments. Modern manufacturing is completely absent in both settlements. Manufacturing establishments, where they exist (bhuja-puffed rice, jewelry, brick kiln, trunk making) are traditional and small-scale activities that mostly use manual labor and only occasionally mechanical and do not use electric power. They neither generate a significant volume of employment nor require a high volume of investment. By the way of their appearance and configuration too, the operation of these non-farm activities in rural Madhubani retain the semblance of the ‘rural’ i.e. a site for the reproduction and sustenance of cheap labour, largely catering to local requirements. This is in keeping with state-level data showing minimal industrial growth industrial growth in the state over the past three decades while the rural non-farm economy has grown almost at par with the pace at the national level. Non-farm economy is largely a male enterprise, with women making for a miniscule proportion of the total employment in the category. Women engaged in the non-farm economy tend to be employed in low-income occupations and reported lower income levels than men. The number of women owning and managing a non-farm enterprise on their own is not more than 4 percent of the entire universe (we expanded our sample of women respondents). Those women engaged in non-farm economy tend to work in occupations that are either traditionally identified with women, such as bangle making, or in occupations that involve serving exclusively or primarily women, such as tailoring or running a beauty parlor for women or vegetable vending. Some of them also “help” their men but they tend to be “invisible”. iv The income levels reported by women tend to be lower than men. Nearly one fourth (22.2 percent) of total women respondents report a monthly income of less than Rs. 2,500 as compared to only 8 percent of male respondents. None of the women respondents in either of the markets reported a monthly income higher than Rs. 10,000 per month whereas 13.6 percent of the male respondents did. On the whole, of the women reporting participation in the non-farm economy, 45 percent report earning less than Rs. 5,000 per month Caste and community affiliations still play a determining factor in types of non-farm occupations of respondents. Community-specific exclusions can be observed in specific non-farm categories. Active discrimination in relation to certain occupations and differentials across non-farm occupations on key indicators such as amount invested in enterprise, monthly income and ownership of assets were also observed. One of the obvious underlying assumptions about the social dimension of economic change in the process of a shift from farm to non-farm economic activity is the process of “secularization” or “modernization” of occupational identities. While the traditional agrarian economy is structured around caste, non-farm economy is usually seen as more likely to be a matter of individual choice and ability.

Load more