Changing Rural Labour Markets in India Evidence from a Village in Southern Karnataka

This paper examines changes in rural occupations in a south Indian village, Alabujanahalli in Karnataka, based on household surveys conducted in 2008-9 and 2018-19. While agriculture and allied activities continue to be the major source of livelihood for workers in the village, there are clear signs of diversification towards the non-farm sector, especially as younger workers get absorbed into regular jobs. Factors contributing to this diversification of employment include the expansion of education, the village’s proximity to the city of Bengaluru and to other urban areas, and uncertainty of incomes from cultivation. At the same time, the wage rates for casual workers in agriculture in Alabujanahalli were lower than the corresponding average figures for Karnataka and India, particularly for women. The factors that have depressed wage rates in the village include the high level of control that farmers manage to exert over labour, the poor implementation of the rural employment guarantee scheme, and the migration into the village of agricultural workers.