The Pattern of Rural Employment in India

The experience of countries that succeeded in reducing poverty significantly indicates the importance of high rates of economic growth in achieving this. Every section of the Indian economy is now linked with the world outside, either through its direct involvement in international trade or through its indirect linkages with the export or import transactions of other sectors of the economy. The new policy regime is as much important, and relevant, to farmers, industrialists, traders and sundry service providers as to scientists, writers and singers. The present study is to attempts into some of the crucial dimensions of the changing employment scenario in rural India at the national as well as the state level. The present paper mainly focus on the agricultural sector is also heavily dependent on migrant, temporary and seasonal workers; the precarious conditions in which these workers labour often rob them and their families of food security. Low pay, however, is not the only problem facing agricultural workers. Agriculture is one of the most dangerous industries to work in, alongside construction and mining. Indeed, it is the sector with the most fatal accidents. Agricultural workers face many hazards: dangerous machinery, livestock, extremes of temperature and inclement weather, dehydration due to lack of access to potable water, and exposure to biological hazards arising from pesticides and other agro-chemicals. In doing so, the paper attempts to figure out the challenges and threats, as well as the potential for employment expansion that lies ahead.