Agrarian change and occupational diversification: Non‐agricultural employment and rural development in West Bengal

Abstract

Based on evidence from the quinquennial surveys on employment by the National Sample Survey Organisation, it has been argued that, as part of the process of change associated with the Green Revolution, rural India is witnessing an agricultural growth‐induced diversification in economic activity in favour of non‐agricultural actvities. This article examines that argument using evidence relating to India as a whole and the state of West Bengal in particular. The analysis suggests that the observed occupational diversification in rural India over the last decade‐and‐a‐half is not so much a fall‐out of rural dynamism in the wake of the Green Revolution, but a reflection of the fact that two‐and‐a‐half decades after the Green Revolution began in India, much of the country is yet to experience the impact of that process.