Study finds shift from agriculture in rural areas

Over the years, rural household income, disposable surplus and expenditure have increased and reduced their vulnerability to monsoon failure.

Pradeep Kashyap, CEO of MART, told BusinessLine that several studies suggest there has been a silent shift in occupation — from agriculture to regular income sources in services and manufacturing sectors — despite a significant skill gap.

“Salaried employment in rural sector has moved up from 11 per cent in 2008 to 22 per cent in 2013. This trend continues even now, occasional sample surveys suggest,” Kashyap added.

Moreover, the salaries have grown over the years. So have employment opportunities, particularly for villagers, near small towns.

“This has resulted in three times more disposable income in the hands of a village household than that of an urban household,” he mentioned.

Over 95 per cent of the village household has house ownership compared to 69 per cent in urban India, census 2011 and IRS 2011 showed.

“This is a distinct cost advantage that leads to higher disposable income. Added to this is ownership of farmland that earns rural household extra income. Further, overall cost of living in villages is lower than urban centres,” he said.

Emergence of the service sector in providing rural employment (40 per cent) has made a difference. Agriculture employs only 30 per cent.

“Poultry and construction sectors provided growth in employment opportunities the most, studies showed,” Kashyap mentioned.

The retail sector has also thrown up significant employment opportunities. Kashyap’s MART co-created ‘Project Shakti’ with Unilever where 50,000 rural women across 12 States have turned dealers and doubled their family income.

MART, which brought 10,000 tribal women from 500 villages in six of the most backward districts of Odisha into a ‘collective marketing’ model to raise their income levels, is now carrying out a project for a cement company for organising and training a rural sales force.

Kashyap felt that the challenge for rural India is not a deficient monsoon but bridging the employability skill gap. “Only 4 per cent of rural populace is skilled”, he added.

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