Chief Mentor's Note

In poverty stricken dry-land regions of India, where I come from, agriculture-dependent and traditional artisan households have been facing declining prospects day-by-day in terms of market and consumer preference. Starvation has been chronic in these households. As a result, migration has been/is acute and common and mostly in desperation for survival.

The condition at the sites of migration has been/is pathetic while the wages have been/are for hand-to-mouth existence. As the literacy has trickled to majority of the poor, the younger generation has been/is reluctant to pursue these livelihoods. While the resources are used sub-optimally, the employers are not finding the employees/labour with skills, market needs of the consumers are not met, etc., the poor are not getting jobs, some of their products/services are not in demand, some other products/services are in demand but not able to provide remunerative prices/wages. These paradoxes and the resultant unhappiness/frustration have driven me to get into rural management and my search for ways to resolve these paradoxes, has led me on to the livelihoods path.