The ACCESS Development Services has brought out first State of India’s Livelihoods: The 4 P Report after the company’s widely appreciated reports on microfinance over the past two years. Whereas the reports on microfinance are focused on a particular aspect of rural economy and urban poor, this one has a broader framework and deals with the more basic questions of livelihood, dignity and sustainability. The four Ps refer to poor, policy environment, potentials and promoters. The Ps framework has made the study quite comprehensive.
Unemployment in India came down from 14-15 per cent in 1973 to eight per cent in 1999. But then it rose to 8.2 per cent in 2004-5. this was largely caused by saturation in agricultural employment. The report holds neo-liberal economic policies and liberalisation of Indian economy as the reason for this rising unemployment.
The report defines livelihood as “a set of activities a household engages in on a regular basis in order to generate adequate cash and non-cash income to maintain a minimum desired standard of living, both on a day-to day basis and over a longer period of time.” Sustainability of livelihoods is being questioned due to “fast-dwindling natural resources”. The international poverty line is two USD, which is Rs 28 per day in purchasing power parity terms. The official India poverty line is significantly lower than this. Livelihood is not a static phenomenon, it is a dynamic one as a lot of national and international external factors play a role in determining the situation. There are five capitals to which a household has access — human, social, natural, physical and financial. Livelihood is assessed on the basis of extent of access to these
capitals.
The report mentions that the employment in agriculture has gone down, and is likely to drop below 50 per cent for the first time in Indian history. One needs to analyse sectors where the unemployed population is being taken. These sectors are trade, hospitality, storage, communications, real estate, social and personal services etc.
The constraints on livelihood can be in the form of environment — crowds, cattle and carrying capacity — as well as in the form of manmade hurdles —disabling policies, infrastructure shortages, and a lack of credit and limited skills. There are many agencies that work toward livelihood promotion, like the government (programmes like NREGS,IRDP, DWCRA, PMGSY etc), individuals (Mahatma Gandhi through Khadi, Periyar’s self respect movement, Vinoba Bhave’s Bhoodan Movement, Medha Patekar’s Narmada Bachao Andolan etc), cooperatives (AMUL, SEWA etc), corporate (Tata Trusts, FabIndia, BioRe Ltd etc), and the NGOs (, MYRADA, PRADAN etc).
The report further assesses the way forward and explores in detail how the issue of livelihood for a large number of people can be sorted out fast. It refers to Eleventh Plan and much more.
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