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Transformation of the countryside from agrarian subsistence economy to non-farm monetised economy is propagated as a precursor of growth and development and involves shifting of labour from farming to off-farm activities. India has started its journey in this path but has a long way to go. Researchers also question whether the changing pattern of rural labour is a positive phenomenon or a distress one. This paper attempts to examine the complexity of changes in rural labour market in India over a quarter of a century to untangle the dynamics. It is observed that the changes taking place are not always conducive to progress as a large part of it is distress driven. While some social groups are going up the ladder, a large mass of the others are stagnating in same or similar occupations. It appears that agriculture still holds the key to rural development. A three pronged strategy of agricultural progress, human capital formation, and rural industrialisation is necessary for breaking the shackles of continuity and usher in changes that are real rather than apparent.

Healthy population is considered to be the engine of economic growth. A healthy person can work with efficiency to earn wealth. Collective wealth of all those persons gives rise to the wealth of the nation. Against this backdrop, the present paper analyses health infrastructure and health outcome in India by constructing composite indices. To have a wider implication at ground level and also to identify the regional disparity in health infrastructure and outcome, the study has been conducted at district level across all general category states of India using data from District Level Household Survey (DLHS-III) and National Sample Survey (NSS). Using appropriate econometric tools, Health infrastructure has been critically viewed from the basic aspects of availability and accessibility of Promotive, Preventive and Curative health services, whereas health outcome/status has been analysed using three basic indicators of Reproductive & Child Health., Morbidity and Mortality. The paper further extends the analysis by discussing the interlinkage between health infrastructure and health outcome as well as that between health status and economic wellbeing. Relative position of the districts within the states is explored to identify the determinants of health status using simple econometric exercise. Results indicate strong relation between primary health infrastructure and preventive & curative health achievements. Close relation between health and economic status/wellbeing of a district underlines the role of health in determining socioeconomic situation of a region. Gaps in health infrastructure in the region needed to be taken care of to tap the full economic potential of the region has also been estimated and highlighted.

Development economics in recent years have become more people centric than before. It has rediscovered that human beings are both the means and the end of economic development process, and without Human Development that process becomes a hollow rhetoric. The maze of technical concepts and growth centric approach to development ruled the roost for the most of post war period and only from the eighties onwards did the intelligentsia started to recognize that human needs and capabilities are necessary ingredients for success of any growth strategy. The pioneering work of Mahbub ul Haq and Paul Streeten under the aegis of UNDP finally institutionalised the importance of human development and the Human Development Reports brought out annually by UNDP reflects the condition of human being in different parts of the world. It has come to be recognised that improvements of human beings – their capabilities, skills and opportunities – are important targets by themselves. Moreover, this has substantial ‘spill over’ effects as greater capabilities lead to higher productivity levels, increased income levels, and wider scope for further human capital formation. Thus uplifting of a single generation of citizen propels all future generations on to a higher growth trajectory. The ‘trickle down’ effects also are significant as better living standards lead to greater care for the environment & resources, a healthy & democratic civic society, and a lower discrimination based on gender, race and caste. These roles of social sector development have catapulted it to centre-stage of research and discussion in recent years. Considering the above discussion as the conceptual and methodological framework, this report explores the trends in educational and health infrastructure availability in the region; trends in educational attainments and health standards of the people; trends in people’s access to social infrastructure and their affordability – especially among marginalised and excluded social groups.

Researchers claim that India is poised for reaping demographic dividend and leapfrog to a higher level of income-employment situation utlising the relatively larger share of youth or working age persons in total population. However, the outcome depends on the contribution of youth to national product. India at present suffers from remarkably high educated unemployment and questions are also raised about the employability of the youth because of their inadequate education, training, and market ready skill. Huge youth unemployment, especially educated unemployment is the surest way to social tension, unrest, and unlawful activities turning the demographic dividend into a demographic nightmare. In this paper we look at the issue of education, skill formation and unemployment among youth in India, focusing specially on educated unemployment. We find that current skill/training situation of youth in India is inadequate. Surplus and shortage coexists in the labour market indicating serious mismatch between supply and demand. There is an urgent need to relook at human resource development strategies in the country. Regional analysis suggests presence of both demand scarcity and excess supply of educated youth in the labour market.

Demographic transition creates a small window for countries to leverage their demographic dividend and leapfrog to a higher level of income-employment situation. This opportunity comes in the middle stage of demographic transition when the population pyramid shows signs of maturity and bulges in the middle, indicating a relatively larger share of youth or working age persons in total population, and hence a low dependency ratio. Consequently, countries can engage this human resource to augment its productive capacity. If sensibly utilised, this can raise per capita income level dramatically – pulling up the country to a substantially higher plane of living standards. However, the efforts will fall flat if this group of youth, on which so much depends, are not productive enough to enhance output significantly. Often questions are raised about the employability of the youth because of their inadequate education, training, and market ready skill and if the youth are not absorbed meaningfully into the workforce and are productive enough, this demographic dividend will turn into a demographic nightmare. Huge youth unemployment is the surest way to social tension, unrest, and unlawful activities. Hence to understand India’s readiness in this aspect we must look at the issue of education, skill formation and employment among youth in India. In this overview paper we find that current skill/training situation of youth in India is inadequate. Surplus and shortage coexists in the labour market indicating serious mismatch between supply and demand. There is an urgent need to relook at human resource development pattern in the country. It appears that a socioeconomic crisis is looming large and demographic opportunities will turn to threat unless intervened immediately.

In recent days, controlling school dropout has emerged to be the prime hindrance to spread literacy and formation of human resource thereby. The present paper is an attempt to identify proximate determinants of school dropout and suggest probable solutions to the problem. Status of enrollment & dropout at national and state level has been explored using macro data. Thereafter logistic estimation technique using micro level primary survey data has been used to identify factors that affect chances of school attendance. We also observe gender differences in chances of drop out as also differences in factors that affect this. Estimation result has been used to frame policy suggestions so as to improve chances of universalization of education.

Improvement in the living conditions of workers is an important objective of development planners and India is no exception. The crux of this lies in returns from work, or wage level. While non-wage aspects are important, wage level is the most pertinent indicator of condition of workers and increase in real wage level signals improvement in condition of labour market. Though most studies compare wages at different points of time from cross-sectional data, they provide an aggregative view without control for variables that are particular to the household/family. Contrary to this, intergenerational mobility in wage income following life cycle theory observes direction & quantum of movement of workers’ wage relative to their parents, therefore filtering out household characteristics, and providing better measure of workers’ conditions and its trends over time. Another important aspect that can be explored by looking at intergenerational wage mobility is related to the issue of equality. Stickiness of wage income with respect to parental income leads to persistence of income inequality across generations and questions the notional objective of equity in opportunity and openness of any society. Historically some groups are belonging to lower strata of society due to economic and or social discrimination leading to lower income and asset possession as well as capability formation which excluded them from the process of capability formation and income-earning. This exclusion and backwardness surpass the boundary of the current generation and spills over to successive generations as well. As a result Intergenerational Mobility is very low among backward classes. Also of importance is to enquire whether economic liberalization and structural reforms have had any impact on the intergenerational income mobility – has mobility today more than that in the 1990s? In this paper we explore these issues, throwing light on a hitherto neglected area of research in Indian labour market studies – intergenerational income mobility, desegregated across social classes and comparing pre-reform and post-reform results. We observe that wage income mobility between generations have been generally low in India. Though such stickiness over generations is declining over time, especially in the post-reform period, stickiness is still higher for excluded social classes. Improvement over the last decade has occurred mainly for the scheduled castes and not for the tribals who are much more spatially isolated and hence outside the orbit of economic dynamics.

Migration is a universal phenomenon. From time immemorial women and men have travelled in search of better living. Historical nomadic instinct of man had been in tune with his necessities – more endurable climate, adequate water supply, fertile land and general availability of resources have attracted the human being always. It is expected that with development migration of due to Push factors will decrease while that due to Pull factors will increase. One of the important facets of labour market is therefore the profile of migrant workers and the nature of their movements. In spite of extensive work on migration in Indian context, recent studies on migration in India have focussed mainly on rural-urban migration or on migration from/between specific regions. The present paper explores the post reform nature of migration in India with special focus on migrant workers. Types of movement, profile of migrants vis-a-vis the natives, occupational distribution, and wages received by them have been examined. This has been contrasted with the pre-reform situation. Whether wage setting process is different for migrants is also examined through estimation of the wage function. Results suggest that migration among males are more of an ‘assured’ type rather than a ‘search’ type, in response to regular wage employment, where the better endowed / skilled / trained are moving. Pull factors are definitely playing more important role than push factors in this regard, though in post-reform period push factors have strengthened. Though better-off states with lower incidence of poverty and higher per capita income have higher migration rates, net out migration rates are considerably higher for poorer states indicating that condition of the source region is perhaps the most important factor in migration decisions.

Developing countries attach enormous importance to physical infrastructure for poverty reduction. We contend that this association is different across types of infrastructure and regions. The present paper explores the multidimensional association between infrastructure and poverty in India in a regional framework. Infrastructural availability improves average living standards and lowers the incidence of poverty but the relation between infrastructural situation and inequality indicates higher inequality in regions with better infrastructure, especially for rural areas. Various sub-components of infrastructure have different impacts on poverty reduction and policy formulations should focus on such differentiated roles while drawing up programmes.

Children accompanying their migrant parents for seasonal employment are the most “at risk” group of all in terms of educational vulnerability and capability formation. They are deprived of basic education and therefore become bonded to the low-skill–low-wage trap that their parents are currently in. Proper understanding of the magnitude and severity of the problem and suggesting innovative policies for breaking this vicious cycle is of utmost importance. Using findings from a Field Survey in Brick Kilns of Bardhaman district of West Bengal, this paper attempts to explore issues related to parental migration and condition of the children. The socio-economic condition of the migrant workers and their children in the kilns, the problems faced by these migrant children in accessing educational facilities, and the incidence of child labour have been explored. Effectiveness of policies taken by Sarva Shikhsa Abhiyan in ensuring education of these migrant children has also been examined. Children are observed to be growing up as replica of their parents and are inducted into the same low-skill profession from an early age. Contrary to neo-classical argument that labour migration in response to market forces will lead to equalisation of factor prices, no such trends are visible. Intervention programmes like mobile & residential schools are necessary to ensure not only basic learning of the children but also to teach them basic hygiene and livelihood techniques. Skill-formation among the children is urgent so that when they grow up they really have the freedom to choose their livelihood.

Healthy population is considered to be the engine of economic growth. The present paper constructs composite indicators of health infrastructure and current health status for a constituent state of India using principal component method and examines the interlinkage between them as well as that between health status and economic development. Relative position of the districts within the state is explored to identify the determinants of health status using simple econometric exercise. Results indicate strong relation between primary health infrastructure and preventive & curative health achievements. Close relation between health status of a district and district domestic product underlines the role of health in determining socioeconomic situation of a region. Gaps in health infrastructure in the region need to be taken care of to tap the full economic potential of the region.

Educational and Occupational Mobility is a cherished dream for all groups of people, more so for those who are at the bottom rungs of society. However, it is often seen that upward mobility is concentrated among the socially well-offs leading to divergence in educational attainment and occupational levels. Such divergence is reflected in earning capabilities as well, thereby aggravating the problems of economic and social inequality. The present paper examines the extent of intergenerational mobility in both educational and occupational attainments for diverse social groups in India to understand the inertia of inequality. A regional dimension is also explored to examine whether patterns are similar or otherwise across the country. Results indicate strong intergenerational stickiness in both educational achievement and occupational distribution among the backward social groups. Occupational mobility is lower than educational mobility indicating that educational progress is not being transformed to occupational improvement and brings up the possibility of discrimination in the labour market. Regional disparities in mobility levels indicate that states in India have had different social processes in force.

Discrimination against specific ethnic groups transcends the boundary of current generation and perpetuates across future generations as well. This is manifested as low Intergenerational Mobility in terms of both Education and Occupation in developing countries in general, and among specific ethnic groups within those countries in particular. The present paper examines the extent of intergenerational mobility in both educational and occupational attainments for diverse ethnic groups in India to understand the inertia of discrimination prevalent. Results indicate strong intergenerational stickiness in both educational achievement and occupational distribution among the scheduled castes and tribes who have been discriminated against historically. Occupational mobility is lower than educational mobility indicating that educational progress is not being transformed to occupational improvement and brings up the possibility of discrimination in the labour market. This also brings to fore the fact that historical discrimination and social exclusion have had a long run effect and the inertia is quite strong.

The recent inflation in India is special both because of its peaks as also for its persistence. While couple of years back the rising inflation was blamed on global factors, this time around there is no denying the fact that it is due to structural problems of our economy, especially those related to the agricultural, specifically the foodgrains sector. Impact of the recent inflation is also not shared equally, with the bottom strata facing uncommon difficulties, as their purchasing power seems to have been halved over the last four years. This short paper estimates effective inflation rates faced by different income/consumption groups in India and comments on the distributional impact.

Industrialization is perceived as inseparable part of economic development and developing economies adopt policies for transformation of agro-based underdevelopment regions to industry-based developed regions. However, public awareness about environmental problems emanating from industrialisation has swelled significantly and researchers have been trying to evaluate the consequence of pollution through field studies and quantitative analysis. It is now accepted that the benefit from industrialisation in a region needs to be examined against the perceived costs of increasing pollution and has to be carefully studied before allowing any further industries to come up in that area. This paper attempts to evaluate monetary costs of environmental damages in the rapidly industrialising locality of Durgapur Municipal Corporation in West Bengal. Using WTP and WTA methods, it is inferred from the study that the residents are quite aware of the problems caused by pollution from the present phase of industrialisation in the locality and are willing to pay to protect / clean the environment. The estimated valuation of environment in the area comes out to be around Rs94 million, if the residents seek to protect current environmental standards. If however, the residents want to go back to the situation prevalent before the neo-industrialisation process was set in, then the cost comes out to be a whooping Rs272 million. This is a pointer to the fact that we must look at such costs before embarking on further industrialisation process in the region to protect ecological/environmental balance and keep the system sustainable.