Poverty, agrarian change and form of labour in neo-liberal India - a comparative analysis of tribal and upper caste.

Mondal, Snehasis (2018): Poverty, agrarian change and form of labour in neo-liberal India - a comparative analysis of tribal and upper caste.

Abstract

This paper elaborates nature of semi-proletarianization of the Schedule Tribe practised after the period of neo-liberal reforms in different dimensions. Further, an attempt has been in this paper to check how the change in occupational structure varies between the different social groups viz Schedule Caste, Schedule Tribe and Other due to agrarian distress and increasing pattern of dispossession in the era of economic reform and how it influenced the poverty situation among the different social groups. Now in doing so, it contradicts the view of decreasing gap of poverty between social groups concluded several present researchers. It has been found that although it is also evident that, using expenditure as the dimension of poverty, the poverty among ST have a declining trend, but the rate of decline is lower than the that of the upper caste thus the ratio of the poverty index between the social groups taking ST poverty index as numerator is increasing over the time since the neo-liberal policies have been introduced. This indicates a strong divergence which contradicts the view of decreasing gap of poverty between social groups concluded several present researchers. Further, using econometric analysis, it has been found that increasing semi-proletarianisation among STs relative to that of Others is one of the reasons increasing divergence between ST and Others.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• English Title: Poverty, agrarian change and form of labour in neo-liberal India: comparative analysis between tribal and upper caste
• Language: English
• Keywords: semi-proletarianization, dispossession, poverty, Schedule Tribe
• Subjects: Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q1 - Agriculture > Q15 - Land Ownership and Tenure ; Land Reform ; Land Use ; Irrigation ; Agriculture and Environment; Z - Other Special Topics > Z1 - Cultural Economics ; Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology > Z13 - Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology ; Social and Economic Stratification

References

Areeparampil, Matthew (1998), ‘Industries, mines and dispossession of indigenous peoples: The case of Chotanagpur’, Social Action, Vol. 38, July-September 1988

Baxi, Upendra (2008) Development, displacement and resettlement: A human rights perspective’ in ‘India social development report 2008’. ‘Development and displacement’. New Delhi: Center for Social Development, Oxford University Press

Fernandes, F and Paranjype, V. (1997) ‘Hundred years of displacement in India: Is the rehabilitation policy an adequate response? in Fernandes and Paranjype (eds) ‘Rehabilitation: Policy and law in India: Right to livelihood’. Indian Social Institute, New Delhi. 1997

Fernandes, W. (2008). Sixty years of development-induced displacement in India: Impacts and the Search for alternatives ‘in Mathur, Hari Mohan (ed) ‘India social development report 2008: Development and displacement’. Council for Social Development, Oxford University Press.

Padhi, Ranjana. (2012). Those who did not die: The impact of the agrarian crisis on women in Punjab. Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington, DC: SAGE.

Prasad, Archana. (2010). Neoliberalism, tribal survival and agrarian distress: The experience of two decades of reform. In Alternate Survey Group (Eds), Two decades of neoliberalism: Alternative economic survey (pp. 111–138). New Delhi: Daanish Books

Saturnino M. Borras Jr., Cristóbal Kay, Edward Lahiff (2008), “Market-led Agrarian Reform – Critical Perspective on Neoliberal Land Policies and the Rural Poor”, Routledge