Publication

This report maps the shift from attached relations extending across generations to fixed-term contracts, and from local daily labor to migrant labor in India. The authors explore changes in rural livelihood by exploring linkages between land distribution and development. The paper discusses the boom in off-farm wage labor between 1975–85 and the restructuring of on-farm labor, which includes the rise of migrant laborers. The paper concludes with a discussion of the future of small and medium farm employment for India's poor and vulnerable populations and of the role of the government in the process of development and employment of skilled and unskilled workers.