Rural Livelihood
INTRODUCTION: SUSTAINABLE RURAL LIVELIHOOD
India’s strong economic growth has consistently tried to include the rural population, which is concentrated in areas where rain fed agriculture is the main economic activity. However poverty persists because of limited and inequitable access to productive resources, such as land, water, improved inputs and technologies and microfinance, as well as vulnerability to drought and other natural disasters. Low levels of literacy and skills conspire to keep people in the poverty trap, preventing them from claiming their basic rights or from embarking on new activities to earn income or build assets.
These multifarious and all pervasive issues required a common national effort for solution. The concept of sustainable rural livelihood emerged so as to alleviate the ever increasing problem of rural poverty.
Drawing on Chambers and Conway (1992) among others, the IDS team’s definition of sustainable livelihood is as follows:
“A livelihood comprises the capabilities, assets (including both material and social resources) and activities required for a means of living. A livelihood is sustainable when it can cope with and recover from stresses and shocks maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets, while not undermining the natural resource base.”
The above definition can be disaggregated into five key elements where the first three components focus on livelihoods, linking concerns over work and employment with poverty reduction with broader issues of adequacy, security, well being and capability. The last two elements talk bout sustainability dimension focusing on resiliency building and natural resource base. The five components are as follows:
1) Creation of working days
2) Poverty reduction
3) Well being and capabilities
4) Livelihood adaptation, vulnerability and resilience
5) Natural resource base sustainability
SUSTAINABLE RURAL LIVELIHOOD: A FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYSIS
1) Creation of working days: It talks about the
India’s strong economic growth has consistently tried to include the rural population, which is concentrated in areas where rain fed agriculture is the main economic activity. However poverty persists because of limited and inequitable access to productive resources, such as land, water, improved inputs and technologies and microfinance, as well as vulnerability to drought and other natural disasters. Low levels of literacy and skills conspire to keep people in the poverty trap, preventing them from claiming their basic rights or from embarking on new activities to earn income or build assets.
These multifarious and all pervasive issues required a common national effort for solution. The concept of sustainable rural livelihood emerged so as to alleviate the ever increasing problem of rural poverty.
Drawing on Chambers and Conway (1992) among others, the IDS team’s definition of sustainable livelihood is as follows:
“A livelihood comprises the capabilities, assets (including both material and social resources) and activities required for a means of living. A livelihood is sustainable when it can cope with and recover from stresses and shocks maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets, while not undermining the natural resource base.”
The above definition can be disaggregated into five key elements where the first three components focus on livelihoods, linking concerns over work and employment with poverty reduction with broader issues of adequacy, security, well being and capability. The last two elements talk bout sustainability dimension focusing on resiliency building and natural resource base. The five components are as follows:
1) Creation of working days
2) Poverty reduction
3) Well being and capabilities
4) Livelihood adaptation, vulnerability and resilience
5) Natural resource base sustainability
SUSTAINABLE RURAL LIVELIHOOD: A FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYSIS
1) Creation of working days: It talks about the