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Agricultural production in developing countries is heavily rainfall dependent. Any unexpected variation in rainfall can affect the welfare of households. Using unit record data from India, this paper shows that households can insure against agricultural productivity (rainfall) shocks. Evidence suggests that they do so by varying the time allocation of individual members to different activities, particularly to regular wage work and human capital accumulation. There is a gender‐differentiated aspect to this response. Rainfall shocks adversely affect women's human capital accumulation. While there is no evidence that households use participation in NREGS to insure against rainfall shocks, the availability of NREGS helps reduce the impact of rainfall shocks on human capital accumulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indian official data points out a progressive decline in child labour during last three decades.Nevertheless, there are several gaps that need to be addressed for targed policy intervention. This paper highlights the key socioeconomic vulnerabilities among children in rural and urban India and also summarize the key focus areas to be prioritized. We posit that children's entry into the labour force is driven by varied access to resources such as education, societal status and gender. The children in Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes households are the most vulnerable. We recommend prioritizing easy‐to‐access quality education among the key strategies for eradicating child labour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]