State of Indias Livelihoods 2016 Girija Srinivasan, N.Srinivasan - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

State of India’s Livelihoods 2016

Girija Srinivasan, N.Srinivasan

Macro situation

• Several new initiatives in agriculture and

vulnerable livelihoods

• Employment growth muted – solutions needed for

a large number of youth over next five years

• Enabling conditions improve – investments on the

ground lag behind

• Farm based activities need greater support for

income enhancement

• Trickle-down theory needs a review
• Technology and consumer trends pose challenges

to traditional approaches to employment

Policy, budget, programmes

• Greater devolution to states – need to make

states focus on development schemes

• Reduction of subsidy bill through better targeting

and digitisation

• Digitisation should ensure inclusion of target

households – exclusion in NFSA?

• NREGS to continue to focus on asset completion –

both common and individual

• Target 100 days work per household
• NRLM should shift emphasis to livelihoods
• Skill India to concentrate on delivery of jobs

Livelihoods in a ‘Changing Climate’

• Climate change projects tend to be islands of narrow

spectrum – need to be comprehensive

• Flood relief, drought relief measures are ad-hoc – Disaster

management to be designed as CCA

• Recent initiatives on regulating water use and exploitation

are timely

• Solutions for drylands needed – LEISA variants for

different crops to be mainstreamed

• Regulatory action with incentives and disincentives to

support CCA initiatives

• Immense potential for carbon sequestration in land

should be exploited in agri, horti, forestry.

• Funding mechanisms of CCA, CCM projects to be

streamlined

Handloom sector– a closer examination

• 1.88 million looms, 4.012 million workers
• Erosion of weaving as a mainstream vocation
• Niche products for discerning markets – good

workmanship has a demand

• Mass market for cheaper goods depend on

government purchases

• Weavers also take up unskilled NREGS jobs –

limited alternatives

• Government schemes touch the fringe of weaver

community – at the top of the pyramid - need for better targeting

Focus on Northeast

• Strategy based on production of food – large demand for

eggs, milk, meat, pork and fish

• Processing and marketing solutions of silk, bamboo,

fruits, vegetables and unique crops

• Infrastructure as a prime livelihood investment
• Skills initiative yet to gather steam – large language

competent population ready to migrate

• Forestry cover declining – but strategy of making

northeast in to a carbon sink needs review

• Traditional practices not to be brushed aside – such as

Jhum, indigenous crop varieties

• Local participation will bring about good results – rather

than imposed solutions in a context that is different

• Access to finance – major challenge

Financing livelihoods

• Vigorous support for agriculture – but more in short term credit
• Mudra shows considerable progress in the first year
• 80% of enterprises and 48% of farmers do not access formal

institutional credit – money lender continues to be significant

• Institutional interventions such as SFBs carry high potential
• Financing is sporadic –project / value chain modes not used
• Post production credit scarce - and poorly designed
• Customised solutions for clusters / sub-sectors are rare –

dependence on template driven lending

• Skills in livelihood finance low – going lower
• Livelihoods require liquidity solutions – not just credit; new

product structures, innovative processes required

• Aggregation of demand and small institution focus can help

Wishlist

• Target profitability of agriculture – serious risk of small

farms going bankrupt – alternatives for farm labour

• Accelerate reforms in agricultural insurance and

marketing

• Good policy initiatives on water security – should find

implementation edge

• 1000 smart towns – more jobs and arrest migration
• Make safety nets inclusive – legislative intent not be

cast away on account of subsidy bill

• Campaign needed to end exploitative relationships in

livelihoods – trader vs farmer, landlord vs tenant, employer vs employee, men vs women

THANKS TO ALL SPONSORS, STAKEHOLDERS, CONTRIBUTORS IN SEVERAL WAYS AND THE READERS OF THE REPORT

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