Cover Story: Minority Livelihoods

Minorities in India do not practice livelihoods any different from rest of the majority population. Most minorities in India live in the urban areas. They are engaged in all sectors including agriculture, industry and some minorities are more predominantly found in the service sector. However, this is not to gainsay the fact that some livelihoods are exclusively practiced by minorities to service their respective religions’. At the same time one cannot overlook the inter-religion exchange of services that also take place. Religious conversions have not made a serious dent in the occupations that people traditionally followed. Religion-based educational institutions did make some impact on the way different minorities have placed themselves in different sectors. ‘livelihoods’ teams attempts to understand some significant dimensions associated with ‘minority’ livelihoods and how they come into play with respect to livelihoods in general.

Cover Story: Occupations Losing Ground

Other Backward Castes constitute more than 50% of India’s population. Majority of them are skilled artisans, service providers and food producers. Today many are languishing at lower levels of the economic ladder. Except for few, several sadly missed out on education and economic opportunities and continue their dependence on traditional occupations that are overcrowded and losing patronage and waning into obscurity. Their skills and services that were once critical to village economies are now steadily being replaced with more mechanized and urban services. Even, where their skills are in demand, they remain at the extreme left end of the value-chain, thereby leaving little window for them to adapt to the realities of the changing market. ‘livelihoods’ team attempts to understand these waning occupations and the vast diversity of skills that face the threat of extinction.

Cover Story: Women & Livelihoods

There are no “women specific” livelihoods. Women are everywhere. Women have consistently and for long proved that they can engage themselves in all livelihoods on par with/better than men. They have more physical stamina and mental endurance than men. In fact women are exclusively sought after in some fields like teaching, care taking, counseling etc. At the grassroots level women have increasingly come together and proved to be harbingers of positive change and development. The fact that various organizations, institutions, governments have been increasingly coming forward to work with women and their groups but not with men proves the point. However lot of work done by women, particularly by the poor women goes unacknowledged. Household chores do not come into any reckoning. ‘livelihoods’ team makes an humble attempt to appreciate and portray a sample of women’s work across.

Cover Story: Urban 'Poor' Livelihoods

India is witnessing a steady exodus of people from rural to urban areas. According to the ASSOCHAM estimates the number of poor living in urban areas will increase from current 190 million to 225 million by 2015. The traditional livelihoods in rural areas including agriculture, handlooms and other satellite livelihoods have fallen short of meeting the needs of the people. Most of these sectors are over crowded. Infrastructure in rural India including schools, hospitals, electricity facilities, roads etc are no match to those available in urban areas. Urban India is providing a ray of hope in terms of employment opportunities for many poor. People are migrating in large numbers. While migrants are gaining on some fronts they are losing out on the quality of life by living in slums. livelihoods team sets its focus on the variety of livelihoods practiced by urban poor in India and its associated gaps and opportunities.

 

Cover Story: Nomadic 'livelihoods'

Comprising about 7 per cent of the population, the lives and livelihoods of the nomadic communities in India are in dire straits. Changing villages and consequent loss of patronage to their products and services, changing laws encroaching upon their traditional rights to resources, lack of permanent residence, lack of any asset base, extreme poverty and subhuman conditions, high illiteracy, lack of exposure to new skills and faint or no knowledge of changing livelihoods characterize the lives of the nomadic communities in the country today. They occupy the lowest rungs of social and economic ladder and are the most vulnerable. Many are not registered voters and face neglect. Worse, some nomadic communities continue to languish under the perils of Habitual Offenders Act of 1959.

Cover Story: Rainfed Farming

Agriculture means not just food security, it is not just about productivity and contribution to country’s GDP. Agriculture also means the livelihood of more than 60 per cent of the people in India. Of this 60 per cent about 400 million depend on rain-fed/dry land farms. About 68 per cent of the net sown area constitute rain-fed regions in India. Characterized by water scarcity, poor infrastructure, low productivity and inadequate policies, about 30 million rain-fed farmers are yet to see the silver lining around the dark cloud. The poverty of the country is mostly in the rain-fed areas.