MODULE 21: RURAL LIVELIHOOD – I

Module details Name Affiliation

Subject Name Social Work Education

Paper Name Rural Development

Principal Prof S Parasuraman and Prof Manish Jha Tata Institute of Social
Investigators Sciences

Paper Prof Bipin Jojo Tata Institute of Social

Coordinator Sciences

Module Writer Dr. Suresh Pathare Center for Studies in Rural

Development (CSRD), Pune
University

Content reviewer Prof. H. Beck Tata Institute of Social

Sciences

Language editor Mr Venkatnarayanan Ganapathi Freelancer, Pune

Module number Module 21: Rural Livelihood - I

and title

Keywords Rural livelihood, Factors affecting rural livelihood, Sustainable rural

livelihood

Summary There are several factors influencing one’s livelihood. Working on each of
these determining factors is the key for securing livelihood for all.
Sustainable livelihood is the greatest challenge for all the stakeholders.
Securing essential livelihood for all the citizens is the fundamental
responsibility of the state government. There are several government
schemes to secure meaningful livelihood for all the rural populations in the
country.

1
 MODULE 21: RURAL LIVELIHOOD – I

1 Introduction

Livelihood is the basic concern for all living beings. It is one of the basic rights of humans.
Livelihood is the primary condition for human survival. Livelihood is both the means and ends in
life. It is the means for happy and successful life. As an end, it is the chief motivator for the
youth. Career and occupation are synonyms to livelihood. Livelihood can be operationally
defined as an economically and socially meaningful and productive engagement or occupations
in life. There are occupations in the organized and unorganized sectors, public and private
sectors, and government and non- governmental [Link] are generally classified as
service, business, agriculture and allied occupations, trades and crafts. Service can be in
corporate sector, and government, semi- government and non-governmental sectors. Service can
be regular or temporary. Self employment or setting up of own small scale business or enterprise
is another important occupation in the unorganized sector. It is the primary objective and purpose
of education and training.

There is marked difference between rural, urban and tribal livelihood. There is maximum variety
and novelty with regard to urban livelihood options, while there are limited options with regard
to rural and tribal livelihood. Livelihood options in the urban areas are often regular, skilled,
highly specialized, organized, formal, flexible, industrial and economically more productive than
those in the rural areas. Urban options are mostly in the secondary (industrial and manufacturing)
and tertiary (service and trade) sectors. Livelihood options in the rural areas are primarily
agriculture and allied occupations. They are often seasonal, irregular, unorganized, informal, and
economically less productive than those in the urban areas. Rural urban migration can be
explained as movement of people from rural areas to urban areas in search of better livelihood
options.

There is little difference between life and livelihood in the tribal areas. Tribal livelihood options
are traditional and often fixed. Tribal occupations are generallynomadic and pastoral. Their
livelihood options are related to food gathering while the rural livelihood options are related to
food production. Several nomadic and pastoral communities get settled with agriculture and
allied occupations in rural areas and become rural communities. Tribal communities generally

2
live in harmony with nature. Their life cannot be separated from their occupations. Their
economic life seldom rises from subsistence level to commercial level. They do not produce
anything surplus so that they would increase their wealth, personal income or profit. Wealth
generation is not their priority.

In contrast with tribal occupations, urban occupations and to some extent the rural occupations
are focused towards generation of wealth, income and profit. Commercial production is the
priority in agricultural as well as manufacturing sectors in rural and urban areas. Increasing the
agricultural and industrial productivity and transportation and trade of the surplus production to
needy people across the world constitute the organized economic activity providing with regular
job opportunities for the people. Such an economic cycle creates formal livelihood options in
primary, secondary and tertiary sectors. Sustainability is always an issue with regard to
commercial production both in agriculture and industrial sectors.

There are several factors influencing one’s livelihood. Working on each of these determining
factors is the key for securing livelihood for all. Sustainable livelihood is the greatest challenge
for all the stakeholders. Securing essential livelihood for all the citizens is the fundamental
responsibility of the state government. There are several government schemes to secure
meaningful livelihood for all the rural populations in the country.

2 Rural livelihood

Rural livelihood is the engagement of rural population in various economically productive

occupations. The hallmark of rural livelihood is agriculture and allied occupations. Major
livelihood activities for rural population are cultivation of food and cash crops, fish farming,
cattle rearing, dairying, food processing, wood industries, organized plantation activities such as
rubber, tea, cashew, coffee, cardamom, pepper etc. It can be seen that there is a gradual and
increasing urbanization and industrialization of rural livelihood. There are several emerging
occupations in the rural sector, such as, rural transportation, rural communication, rural health
and education sector, rural infrastructure, export oriented organic farming, horticulture,
floriculture etc. Increasing the rural and urban connectivity, such as, rurban projects offers new
avenues of rural livelihood.

3
There is close connection and collaboration between rural and urban livelihood. Knowingly or
unknowingly we are following an urban model of economic development. While the government
announces the smart city project, we should not forget that new towns and cities emerge from
developed villages. Every village is in a process of transformation to city. There is constant rural
urban as well as urban rural migration of skilled as well as unskilled people. Therefore, there is a
common consideration for non agricultural occupations in both rural and urban areas. In the
context of urbanization of rural areas, division of nonagricultural occupations in the rural and
urban sectors is arbitrary and unreasonable. What can be called typically rural livelihood is the
agricultural and allied occupations.

Accepting the basic premise that, rural livelihood is what rural populationsdo, rural livelihood
can broadly be grouped into agricultural and non agricultural activities. Non agricultural
activities are similar to what urban populations are engaged in. Agricultural and allied
occupations are typical of rural livelihood. There is a large number of people who are engaged in
agriculture and allied activities like cattle rearing, fish farming, dairying etc. Landless people
constitute the vast majority of rural mass who are engaged in agriculture and allied occupations.
When we discuss about rural livelihood we should exclusively think about the agriculture and
allied occupations.

Rural livelihood is related to rural development. Rural livelihood is just one key component of
rural development. Rural development considers all the agricultural and non agricultural
livelihood options. In ideal situations, rural and urban development considerations are similar or
ideally developed villages are similar to the ideally developed cities and towns. It is a challenge
to distinguish rural and urban development factors. When we consider rural livelihood
independent of rural and urban development, we need to concentrate on purely agricultural and
allied occupations, the factors influencing their promotion and the consideration for the
sustainable rural livelihood.

3 Factors of rural livelihood

There are several personal, social, economic, cultural, religious, geographical, climatic and
ecological factors that affect rural livelihood. These factors are important considerations when
we have to promote sustainable livelihood. We need to work with each of these factors to

4
procure, protect and promote the right combination of rural livelihood options. It has been
clarified in the previous section that rural livelihood refers exclusively to the agricultural and
allied occupations. Even if rural people are engaged in non agricultural occupations such as,
service sector, business, industrial and manufacturing occupations, health, education,
communication, construction and infrastructural development sectors, they should be
distinguished from rural livelihood in the exclusive sense. These are typical urban livelihood
options and constitute the components of rapid rural urban transformation. For a meaningful
discussion on rural livelihood, we need to segregate those rural populations who are engaged in
urban livelihood from those rural populations who are engaged in typical rural livelihood. All the
factors discussed in this section are concerned with exclusively rural livelihood in the agriculture
and allied sectors.

3.1 Personal factors

Most important factor in rural livelihood is personal interest and motivation. The recent trend in
India is a fascination for urban livelihood. Seldom can we find educated and qualified manpower
engaged in agricultural and allied occupations. Unless the rural pop ulation is sincerely interested
in continuing cultivation, dairying, cattle rearing, fish farming and other allied occupations, rural
livelihood options cannot be protected and promoted. These occupations constitute the primary
economic activity. People show a gradual trend of shifting from primary sector to secondary and
tertiary sectors of occupations. This shift is generally considered as sign of economic progress. In
order to protect a nation’s economic stability, we need to reverse this false trend. We need to
convince the people that investment and engagement in the secondary and tertiary sectors at the
cost of the primary sector is harmful to the nation and its people. Government has to take
measures to increase the personal interest, motivation, knowledge, skills and attitude of the
people to turn towards primary sector and practice sustainable forms of agriculture such as
organic farming, export oriented organic horticulture and floriculture. There are highly profitable
agricultural and allied activities which will in the long run, stabilize our economy and economic
growth. We need to leave behind the myth that increasing share of economy in the secondary and
the tertiary sectors is the sign of economic progress. Increasing share of national economy in the
secondary and tertiary sector is the indicator of national dependency on other people and nations

5
for its survival and development. On the other hand, increasing share of primary sector in the
national economy is the indicator of self reliance, independence and sustainable progress.

3.2 Social factors

Social factors constitute the demographic, gender, family, educational, caste and class factors.
Often the rural livelihood is not the matter of personal choice, but a social obligation. One’s
social and demographic factors influence their particular livelihood options. There are traditional
and household occupations, caste based occupations and socially imposed rural occupations in
the agricultural and allied sectors. Government and civil society organizations have to take
special care in dealing with these social factors that influence rural livelihood. There are both
positive and negative impacts of social factors. Positively, these factors provide with social
stability and collective responsibility. Negatively they conflict with individual aspirations,
interests, abilities, talents and motivations. Maintaining a judicious balance between social
change and social stability is the most challenging task in dealing with rural livelihood.

3.3 Economic factors

Inheritance of wealth and the land resources in the rural areas is an important factor in rural
livelihood. There is a vast majority of landless agricultural labourers who are engaged in rural
livelihood options. They fluctuate between rural and urban livelihood seasonally. Since most of
the agricultural operations are seasonal by nature, they have no other option that shifting from
one occupation to another. Since they seldom own rural resources such as land and cattle, they
have limited opportunity in the agriculture allied engagements. They prefer to migrate seasonally
to urban areas and engage in non agricultural, unskilled occupations such as construction,
domestic labour, daily wager, and casual labour in the industrial and manufacturing houses.
Securing productive assets to the rural mass is a challenge for the civil authorities dealing with
rural livelihood.

3.4 Cultural factors

Cultural factors in the rural areas are mainly concerned with caste factors. Other cultural factors
are linguistic and regional considerations. These factors have indelible impact on one’s
livelihood options in the rural areas. Cultural factors play the same role as that of social factors

6
with regard to rural livelihood. Rural livelihoods for many are culturally determined and the
individuals have limitations in the choice of a desired occupation. The government and civil
society organisations have challenging task to deal with all the cultural factors that interfere with
the people’s livelihood options.

3.5 Religious factors

Religion is another important cultural factor which has significant influence upon rural
livelihood. Certain occupations are considered meritorious from certain religious perspectives
and certain others are considered undesirable. Religion sometimes interferes with the personal,
social and national interests and the civil agencies as well as the government face great challenge
to deal with such religious forces while dealing with rural livelihoods.

3.6 Geographical factors

Geographic factors include the type of soil, availability of water, distance from the sea and the
height from the sea level. All these factors affect all the agricultural and allied activities. They
are the major considerations while dealing with rural livelihood. The government and non
government agencies working in the rural sector have to take due consideration of all these
geographical factors while designing new projects for protecting and promoting rural livelihood
options. Conservation of soil and water is the chief geographical consideratio n in the context of
rural livelihood.

3.7 Climatic factors

Climatic factors include the possibility of monsoon rainfall, wind, cyclone or flood conditions,
severity of winter and summer etc. Climatic conditions are related to geography of a particular
village. Therefore, geographical and climatic factors are often considered together and they have
significant impact on rural livelihood. Climatic conditions are often beyond human control and
we need to adapt to such conditions. Rural livelihood options have to take due consideration of
all the climatic forces. For example, the cropping pattern, rotation of crops and farming
schedules have to be in accordance with the climatic factors.

7
3.8 Ecological factors

Ecological factors refer to the environmental impacts of rural livelihood. It is related to the
sustainability of the rural livelihood. Rural livelihood should not affect the ecological balance or
endanger the environment. They should not pollute, water, air and soil resources. People need to
engage in such economic activities that would protect the environment or inflict minimum
damage to the natural resources. From ecological perspective, tribal livelihood options are most
eco friendly and the urban livelihood options are the least eco friendly. Rural livelihoods are
sometimes eco friendly and sometimes ecologically harmful. Deforestation, soil erosion and
water contamination (due to the use of pesticides) are often cited as harmful impacts of
agricultural and allied activities. Farmers need to be taught about orga nic farming and the ways
and means to practice rural livelihoods in harmony with nature. This is related to the sustainable
rural livelihood.

4 Sustainable rural livelihood

Sustenance and sustainability are the key issues of rural livelihood. Sustenance is related to the
survival of rural mass who are engaged in rural livelihood. People cultivate crops just for their
own consumption and they merely survive on such [Link] is the hallmark of tribal
livelihood. Generally all the rural and tribal economic activities at the level of sustenance are
sustainable. When the economic activities in the rural areas rise from the level of sustenance to
surplus generation or profit making or commercialisation, there arises the question of susta inable
livelihoods. In order to increase the production, the farmers engage in large scale farming, using
chemical fertilisers, insecticides and pesticides. All these measures damage the soil and water
bodies and in the long run such kind of farming becomes unsustainable. The land loses its
productivity. The water bodies become poisonous. The farmers will become victims of incurable
illness. We need to discourage unsustainable rural livelihoods. Commercialisation of agriculture
should be encouraged only under organic farming conditions. Let the agriculture and the allied
activities primarily be at the sustenance level. It is the fundamental right of the rural mass. At
any cost, the rural livelihoods should not be unsustainable. It could be commercial provided it
eco friendly or organic and sustainable.

8
5 Summary

Livelihood is the economically productive activity with the primary objective of sustenance and
survival of people. People engage in one or the other or a combination of economic activities
with the purpose of survival. Livelihood is every citizen’s fundamental right. There are marked
differences between urban, rural and tribal livelihoods. Rural livelihoods are related to
agriculture, dairying, cattle rearing, fish farming and other allied occupations. There are
personal, social, economic, cultural, religious, geographical, climatic and ecological factors that
influence rural livelihood. The primary consideration for rural livelihood is environmental
sustainability.