Timelines: how rural livelihoods are evolving in Nepal and India

How do the ways in which rural people make a living change over time? Ongoing studies by University of East Anglia researchers along with partner organisations in India and Nepal, are tracking the different ways in which rural people have changed their livelihoods over the past twenty years ('livelihood trajectories'). These have changed direction in the wake of major social, environmental and economic changes. Data were collected on livelihoods in two villages in India and two in Nepal in the mid-1970s. Current research in the same locations throws light on how the welfare of men, women, children and the elderly has since evolved

In Nepal, population growth coupled with severe ecological problems has limited the ability of households to diversify agriculture and adopt new agricultural technologies. To cope with this constraint, farmers have migrated from the hills in search of incomes from non-agricultural activities, which have become progressively more important. However, some have not been able to avoid becoming poorer, although the survival of a middle peasantry is remarkable. A similar process is occurring in the Indian village of Luppi in Giridih District of Bihar. Here, absence of land reform and job insecurity in employment and share-cropping have resulted in little improvement in living standards for most people.

By contrast, in Mohula, West Bengal, villagers have benefited from very modest population growth and greatly increased agricultural production, following introduction of new seed varieties, fertilizers, groundwater irrigation and progressive land reforms. A mass literacy campaign has improved access to long school and college careers for the better-off and for people in general, leading to a wide variety of non-agricultural job opportunities. Nonetheless, people have been drawn back into farming and non-agricultural incomes have not risen in relative importance as in other study sites.

In addition, preliminary findings suggest that:

• changes in land tenure and property rights can have profound impacts on livelihood trajectories
• the poor and better-off restructure their livelihood activities in strikingly different ways: poorer households have turned to low-paid agricultural wage labour, while more advantaged households have taken on better-rewarded work through migration, or investment in agriculture
• caste and ethnic group membership continue to clinch access to scarce resources or non-agricultural jobs in all sites, though in West Bengal allegiance to specific political parties has grown more important
• increased enrolment of boys and girls into primary education has not dramatically improved access to job opportunities, though literacy campaigns have helped in Mohula (see above)
• diversification of livelihoods has not improved gender relations: on the contrary, migration of the male labour force has led to heavier exploitation of women in agriculture in Nepal and India
• collective action and the emergence of diverse grassroots organisations has not led to a redistribution of power or wealth, though some political activists have prospered in Mohula
• changes in property laws and the introduction of communal natural resource management systems do not seem to have encouraged sustainable use of natural resources.

The case studies imply that to enable poor households to achieve sustainable livelihoods, long-term interventions are needed, for example:

• improving transport and communications
• providing more and better primary education, health care facilities and potable water
• recognising the importance of land reform to clarify rights to land for the poorest farmers.
• A political climate where the poor can press their claims with more liklihood of success.

Source(s):
Livelihoods and Long Term Change, Project Report to the Social Research Management Unit, Department for International Development, by P.Blaikie and D.Seddon (1998)

Funded by: Social Research Management Unit, DFID, UK (1996-1998)

id21 Research Highlight: 1998-Mar-24

Further Information:
P. Blaikie & D. Seddon
Overseas Development Group
School of Development Studies
University of East Anglia
Norwich
NR4 7TJ
UK

Tel: +44 (0) 1603 593678
Fax: +44 (0) 1603 505262
Contact the contributor: p.blaikie@uea.ac.uk

The Overseas Development Group, School of Development Studies, UEA, UK