NATIONAL CONFERENCE

TRANSFORMING RURAL INDIA 2030

STRATEGIES FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

Date: 18TH January, 2019 | Time: 9 AM

Venue: SIIB Auditorium, Hinjewadi, PUNE

Organised By
SYMBIOSIS SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS
SYMBIOSIS INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

In Collaboration With
NABARD, MUMBAI

Report on Track 3
SUSTAINABLE RURAL LIVELIHOODS

Submitted by
Rachit k. Jain
 SESSION - I
Speaker: Dr. Rajendra Kulkarni
Position held/Experience: General Manager of NABARD, Regional Office, Pune
24 years of experience in financing rural infrastructure.
Topic: Sustainable Rural Livelihoods
To attain the targets within stipulated time, for rural transformation. now the time left is just 11 years.
As in common notion 10 years is one generation time. It is a reminder for government to attain
sustainable goals and crystalize a road map what can be done to attain sustainable development
goals.Globally speaking it’s a remainder as well as urgency. It was not that we were not doing
anything about SDGs. now, we have SDGs are interlinked and more systematic and organized which
not only looks upon economic issues moreover social needs as well. Which encompasses issues like
climate change, environmental protection which reaps benefits for future generation as well. Within
the national level SDGs come in the integrated form and government is expected to reshape its
developmental plans, development priorities, our development finance or investments. There are lot of
stakeholders in it, in this but in this conference I feel absence of government representative as well as
private representative. Both are the very strong stakeholders for SDGs as well as for the topic of
transforming Rural India. Rural infrastructure as one of the important dimension for sustainable rural
development. Financing rural infrastructure has always been area for work for 24 years and ground
experience shows how rural infrastructure can create a multiplier effect and its combined impact can
change overall picture for rural transformation. Even single dimension of rural livelihood is a multi-
layered concept, just like peeling of a onion as one after another new layer comes up.

When we talk about agriculture we talk about securing livelihood in the agriculture sector. When we
talk about rural India we talk about two third of Indian population, we talk about 70% of work force
participation, 46% of national income. Rural India also contributes half of the manufacturing and
construction sector output and one third of services sector output. Rural India is a major Party to
consumption story as well. If the rural sector does not grow we can not think of Developed India,
sustainability, inclusive development of the country. It is the rural sector which suffers from the
shocks and these shocks with a timeline pass on to the economy as a whole. According to IMF study
2015, which says very clearly that an increase in share of income of poor and middle classes by 1%
point raises growth by 0.38 % in a country over five year period, on the otherhand an increase in
income share by 1 % reduces growth by 0.08%.
Second concern is prevailing dualism specially in agriculture which the largest livelihood sector
provider. Where farmer are progressing and talking about artificial intelligence and on the other hand
we still see farmer distress. This reflects lack of uniform development in terms of lack of finance,
market access and so on. Unless we address this we cannot build livelihood options and other
strategies for rural transformation. Dipankar gupta a well known sociologist have says in context of
rural economy , “Rural economy is not urban yet, but not rural either.” Today agriculture is viewed as
a business operations and it should unlike before. Technology decisively is the major driver in all
these sectors, connectivity which has brought in. We have finacial connectivity, Internet connectivity,
identity connectivity through mobile phones. Now the livelihood options have been paved by these
waves.
Aspirations of rural people is also very important point to ponder, which also tells us that the
aspirations of younger generation are going up. Therefore building their capabilities in tune with
aspiration. In the demand side of agriculture output is changing alot we are moving from cereals and
pulses to protein related products like fish, milk production, poultry their entire value chain are to be
different, their operations are going to be different this is also a big change. So, agriculture is it really
rural now, once upon a time agriculture and rural was used as a coinciding term but no longer it is so.
Agriculture into practice also have moved into significant way with the intervention of technology
and the same time the complexities have gone up. Agriculture and rural cannot be looked
synonymously and also the categorical difference between urban and rural will be no longer valid. So,
these changes should be kept in mind. Some of the question are infront of us. Can we think of a
making a farm viable but allowing a farmer to be unviable ? Many of the times it has happens that the
technology produces the farm produces and the man behind the farm remains unviable should we
allow that ? If agriculture is facing challenges can the rural sector do well and if the rural sector is
doing well can the economy grow ? These are all interlinked issues which are emanating from various
changes when we talk about farmers distress and things like that.
Next, climate change often we talk about this and its impact on agriculture that is crops. Certainly
animals to be also included in it that’s something to be urged upon very strongly because the animal
led production will be the main production over the years. Climate change is very dynamic thing in
nature and it defies set patterns. They are very very location specific be it soil related, precipitation
related, humidity control. If we look at structural transformation of rural economy primarily in terms
of labour force participation and employment. Some interesting things have come up and As per the
NITI aayog study 2017 per labour productivity is at lower side. The more important point is that much
faster growth in the capital intensive sectors in the urban areas have not generated enough
employment . So, that the farmers to come out of agriculture and get absorbed which is a painful
dimension. It warrants special attention towards non farm sectors. NSSO data shows that the half of
agricultural households income comes from non farm sector. Hence non farm sector is growing but at
very slow pace and unless this sector grows livelihood can not really grow. Services sector has a lot of
potential but unfortunately we have lost it in rural sector and limited upto urban only. The
manufacturing sector has grown but employment has not grown and problem is about skill set
requirements prevailing in the industry wants rural people have. Whereas breaking the opine where
people thought of agriculture is something where no skills are required but which is not the thing as of
now. Today’s agriculture requires skills.
Now coming to livelihood in rural sector, agriculture is obviously the area which needs to be focused.
There are institutional mechanisms coming up which are working in some cases and not in some
cases. In this context we know there are all big corporates are into agriculture although for profit
reason but they have their presence by providing technology and services. Like ITC e choupal when it
started it used to cost around 30 lakh ruppess and with the introduction of computer and internet it
came down to 1.5 lakh. Now, ITC is getting on to the which will cut down the cost substantially. Role
of the government is very much essential. Government works on very simple idea called budget and
no single penny can be spent out of budget for different departments. Like MP government has atlest
Started such things by declaration of Krishi budget. Budget separately for agriculture which will help
in better policy formation on how much spending is required. It’s a high time governments should
understand to create separate agriculture infrastructure. We often stops upto roads and irrigation what
about insurance, crop assessments, drones. If we don’t have these things we can’t think of rural
infrastructure within agriculture which is the part and parcel for development.
 SESSION - II
Speaker: Prof. Tara Nair
Position held/Experience: Widely recognised and experienced researcher,
Currently at Gujarat Institute of Development Research, Ahmedabad
Author of Rural Livelihood Report,2013 for Axis Bank
Worked in areas of entrepreneurship development and women related
issues in financial sector
Topic: Sustainable Rural Livelihoods: Concepts, Strategies and Challenges
Overview of Topic:
Prof. Tara Nair chose to give an engaging and interactive session for discussing perhaps the larger but
conceptual contours, that students should be aware about, of sustainable development goals. She
suggested that we don’t take it as given from above but try to scrutinise it in the way that helps us
build our concepts. She asked us to focus upon going beyond the spaces of enquiries by diving deeper
in the complexities of the issues and not to buy concepts that are thrown at us by UN, World Bank,
INO or whoever rather have critical approach and diagnosis before making our own sense out of it. As
previously we studied MDGs and later on we came to know that SDGs were the ones that could fill in
all the gaps in the system. The session here is more focussed on from the point of view of historicity
of these evolutions which would take us to politics of development.
In the late 1980’s most of us had a view of a ‘common world’ as suggested by the Bruntland
committee. So, the idea of sustainable development had its origin from this view to avoid multiple
interpretations of sustainability. Sustainability is inclusive of needs and aspirations that go beyond
basic needs of life. It can be seen as balanced growth of resources along with equitable distribution of
gains at the present as well as future. Sustainable – that which meets the needs of the present
generation without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their legitimate
aspirations for a better life.
It is important to note that during 1980-90’s the world was of the view of multi-dimensional growth
focusing on human growth and poverty in specific. It was an interesting period in the discourse of
development at global scale overall. Understanding the context of these terms like ‘sustainability’,
‘development’ and ‘livelihood’ require attention to its historicity to have a clear understanding of
discussion. The term ‘livelihood’ means ‘adequate stocks and flows of goods and cash to meet basic
needs.’ This concept of livelihood has evolved over time.
Evolved into a complex construct that refers to a combination of capabilities including claims like our
rights that are not tangible which we are aware of now, resources that are not material in its sense,
access) and activities that determines the means of living for individuals.
The Bruntland committee pointed out that there was lot of poverty, diseases and other major issues in
the world that need to be addressed. This led to the rise of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs-
2000). After 16 years of these goals, that is in 2015-16, we started talking about sustainable goals.
SDGs very clearly portrayed to us that development is an interconnected and holistic process which
should make a nation focus on multiple goals to achieve sustained economic growth. After
acknowledging these goals, we know that perhaps some of the goals may not even be achievable. So,
consider for example work-life balance and industrial development may not go hand-in-hand. Some
of these 17 goals therefore remain unattainable in that sense due to their complexity.
There are some critical questions we need to ask ourselves after understanding the complexity of
development and the path we chose. In the current rural context how far can these ideas be put to
action for getting desired results is the real question here. Also, ask whether our current strategies for
the same efficient enough to translate it into possibility. We feel happy about these 17 goals that we
aim to follow but are we capable of doing so is something to study on. Drawing from the experience
we know that there is no direct linkage between increased production or productivity and decline in
poverty of food insecurity. Just because a person earns x amount doesn’t necessarily imply that his
food security or other aspects are taken care of because inequality and growth can co-exist happily.
So, what really matters here is the capability of the small and marginal farmers to negotiate the market
pressures he faces. Along with that comes ecological and environmental, social and institutional
constraints that limit the growth. Marking the infirmities in the market with the problems they face
right now possesses a humongous challenge right now.
It is really painful when we start un-layering the kind of challenges that we have faced recently over
other years. There are multiple challenges. One of the major challenges is posed by the trade-offs.
Consider climate change and livelihood for example. At the banks of Ganges, the tanneries have been
stopped due to water pollution. This is a huge trade-off considering the employment opportunity that
is now lost to maintain ecological balance. As posted by Gardgil Report few years back the conflict
arises between livelihood and ecological security more often like in Kashiganga National Park we see
rhino vs man and so on. These are not sporadic events but are happening in many parts of our country
now showing the disparity between the larger goals that we would ideally prefer to achieve and some
of the livelihood.
Industrial growth and ecological security come up as choices to choose one from and it is even more
complex to do so. Stricter regulations like GST and similar regulations brought up are done with
really appreciable compliance but livelihoods of many poor are affected by that.
There are many spatial regions that have certain level of concentration of poverty and conflicts. Let’s
say if we take Mumbai out of Maharashtra then maybe it is same as to compare Uttar Pradesh with
Maharashtra. This shows the degree of inequality and skewedness that our regional growth has set. A
large part of our country also faces political conflicts at various levels that shows the results of
exclusivity, poverty amongst others.
So, these challenges we discuss need to be resolved first in order to achieve SDGs. In many cases
these challenges are embedded in the SDGs. Recalling those 17 goals under the purview of these
challenges will perhaps would give us the glimpse of need for resolution.
As per her experience in the field of development three things are required to resolve these
challenges: Adequate resources, Appropriate policies and Institutional reforms.
We need to have enough resources without which we cannot achieve to resolve. So, to translate our
goals into reality these three must work together.
Other key areas that are now not much touched upon include land reforms and legal framework
restructure to redistribute women’s claim-making abilities. Agri input and output markets on other
hand are unfinished in many states while some haven’t even begun to do well, especially in pro-small
farmer’s way. Public investment in rural and Agri infrastructure has been reducing slowly each time
and it implies that capital formation is insufficient. Unless there is public investment in these sectors
the private sector won’t respond to it through investment. Therefore, investment and production
capabilities can’t be ignored. We are still are far behind on achieving the degrees of convergence we
expect from schemes like MGNREGA for example in its recent history is showing shortcomings.
Most of the solutions that come up are financialized solutions. The NITI Aayog’s step towards SDG
involves ‘Jandhan Yojana’ and Agri-insurance as a strategy of SDG achievement. There is an
increasing disconnect in the financial sector world and real world and this disconnect only expands as
finance assumes greater role in defining what development sector is and agricultural industry gets
neglected. So, we are not yet capable of driving it through finance.
The intentions and vision of any strategy is going to be shaped by the political spearhead of the
region. Thereby playing a key role and has a strong political purchase angle for achieving sustainable
development. Therefore, partnerships among not just government and private firms but civil society,
corporate, academics amongst others to form a synergy is key.
All these solutions must work together in a tandem only then we may have some hope in developing
sustainable solutions for the common welfare.
 SESSION - III
Speaker: Dr. Govinda Kelkar
Position held/Experience: Worked in UN for 10 years,
at UNIFEM and other International Organisation that focuses upon women
related issues.
Topic: Women’s Role in Livelihood in National Context
Overview of the topic: Discussion was briefly on women’s role in land-based livelihood in rural
India. It included an analysis of practices and policies in the context of national SDG. Discussion
further progressed into understanding the need and issues that arise while policy making and
implementation of it. Dr. Kelkar also threw some light on other women related issues.
What is the meaning of gender? It is not male or female. It is the power relationship between any age
of any category. It can be mother and daughter, father and son and so on. Sex is different than gender.
Sex is what we are born with. Now here we must also give consideration to the third sex –
transgender. They are the most discriminated ones of all in India.
Coming back to SDGs, this is in consultations with the society and the UN. SDGs were formed on
September 2010 by the UN to overcome the loopholes in MDG. The MDG had some issues
untouched or were not sustainable. One of the major mistakes was that while making MDG the
developing countries were not considered and were rather imposed their goals upon them which were
created by developed countries. Even government of India said that if they were not considered while
developing these goals, so we want to reduce poverty that we will, but then why should they be part of
it. The civil society must also be the part of these goals setting.
There are 17 Goals, 169 targets and 230 indicators which are to be achieved from 2015 to 2030. The
preamble of the SDGs says 2 things in particular,
No one will be left behind. Recognizing the dignity of the human person is fundamental. To achieve
general equality and empowerment of all women and girls. (This is the first time that discrimination
against girls was also given importance since it starts at an early age. Especially in the context of India
and China it holds true that many girl children have been killed.)
Considering the feminist research approach, which is contributing to the women development, Mr.
Amarthya Sen (famous feminist economist) has talked about this concept over and over again for
contributing to economic development thinking. The feminist economists have spoken about two
major concepts:
1. The concept of justice to development. A development must be just in order to be development in
its true sense. Not in the consideration of households, the way we are following on right now.
2. The concept of unpaid care. Achieving the paying attention to the unpaid care world. Care should
be taken which is basically to recognize the kind of professional work.
Role of rights are very much significant in context of SDGs. In Mumbai there was a conference held
by Indian Labour Economics with the title – “Unpaid Care Labour: How to recognize it?”. This is
important when we consider not just achieving the SDGs but also making our own thoughts and
concepts sustainable. Aim is to accelerate as a thinker/ bureaucrat/ economist or whichever role we
play and understand our deviation from achieving these goals.
Goal 1 speaks of “End of Poverty in all its form”. In the 1.4 subgroup of the SDG Report, women’s
ownership and control of land and other forms of property has been discussed. We won’t be able to
achieve SDG without successfully managing to achieve this indicator.
Goal 2 speaks of “Zero Hunger”. By 2020, double the income of small-scale food producers,
particularly of women, through secure access of land and other productive resources. This is the
second time land rights have been mentioned.
Goal 5 speaks of “Achieving empowerment and general equality of all women and girls”. Title of goal
is ‘To undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources as well as access to
ownership and control over land and property …’
Now, thrice the land rights of women have been discussed in SDG. The reason behind which is that
many economist and social scientist spoke about policy assessment is done on the basis of household
whereas right to vote is considered based on individuals while not in other things. Mrs. Alka Basu
pointed out that why economist speak of only employment generation and why not about asset
distribution to others. Consider the paid work done, a woman who spends most of her time in
cooking, caring, cleaning and agriculture related work. In agriculture 74% of the rural women are
engage which lefts unrecognized and doesn’t get ownership of land for so. Women can’t be a liability
on the society and dependence on others being an issue is observed from the socio-economic analysis.
Women and their work are not considered in this analysis. Government and civil society came
together to make a point of addition of this to SDG.
India’s ranking has been poor in the general ranking of international level indicators. Especially in the
context of Indian women, the problems faced are:
1. The number of unfreedoms, discrimination of resources and right to capability at two levels
(vertical and horizontal). Vertical being in the community and clan leadership at different levels.
Horizontal is about men and women, for example what happened in Sabrimala. Land and technology
belong to men which is why women don’t get the thinking capability.
2. Women’s dependency on the head of the household. Discussing the features of unfreedoms,
development is the expansion of freedom. Lack of the right to take decision within home and outside
as well has reduced women’s representation in the society especially over the last 20-25 years or so it
was supposed to be achieved. All pervasive gender-based violence takes place because of
transgression of social norms.
There is no data available on this topic even after having such a sophisticated census data collection
system. Solution would be to put women in consideration of the household and subsume them to
create a dependency relationship.13% of Women are operational holders, as per Census 2011,
meaning that they operate that part of land but not own it. Most of which took place after 2005 when
the Land heritage policy was passed. So, government is highly involved in developing the policies to
resolve this issue. In 2018 GOI took steps towards this.
Goal 1: It commits in the poverty indicator that the number of homeless per 10000 household will be
zero. Meaning that there shall be no homeless and everyone should be in a household.
Goal 2: The indicator of SDG is zero hunger. To reduce more than half of pregnant women in the age
of 15-18 years old in anaemia condition. Which doesn’t make sense since not all women are as such
pregnant and inconsiderate about single mothers and so on.
Goal 5: Achieve general equality of women which first acknowledges the high violence against
women in India. The number of female children in 2001 was 927 per 1000 men and now it is 919 per
1000 male. This drastic reduction in the number in such a short period of time is indicating the
discrimination against them.
GOVERNMENT’S INTERVENTIONS
To improve this situation government has set 5 goals:
1. Increase the sex ratio to 954 per thousand males through ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ initiative.
2. To increase the average wage parity.
3. To increase the percentage of seats in general election and national legislative assemblies.
4. To increase the ratio of female labour force participation rate to male labour force participation to
one.
5. To increase percentage of the women to 15-49 years of age group using modern methods of family
planning.
Its distressing that here no economic assets have been talked about in policy making. Unless
economic rights are given the development won’t take place. The recent success of China shows, how
peasants, youth and women were mobilised and independent rights were given. Taking a look at our
economic history focus should be shifted to this point. Deprived of land rights in case of woman
means she becomes powerless and dependent which to demean their authority as well as social and
personal security.
FAO and SEWA are working on projects that are looking at the women managed fields and its
productivity and how they are giving higher yields. Why is it happening? It takes place in the name
of harmony and culture. In north India, women that are considered as ‘Bazaru’ (for sex trade) and are
not allowed patriarchal value. In our history there were no surnames given to such women while on
the contrary women’s title changes after marriage.
In conclusion two important things to be noted here;
1. Giving land to rural women empowers them. It makes them feel valued and have a status and
respect at home. Delinking of land ownership may create wonders on that aspect.
2. Consulted efforts to change general and social norms which influences both formal and informal
institutions. Hindu Succession Amendment Act has also been changed according to this. Norms play
vital role in development thinking so we need to change them faster.
 SESSION - IV
Speaker: Mr. Joshua N. Daniel
Position held/Experience: Manager at Bhartiya Agro Industry Foundation, Pune
Topic: Land Based Livelihood
Overview of the topic:

LAND BASED LIVELIHOODS

About 60% of total population lives in rural parts of India. Generally, over 2/3rd of rural population
get their income from land-based activities that comprises of agriculture, livestock and forestry. Food
grain production irrespective of drought and flood in many regions has been able to flourish with
record breaking level of production almost every two or three years. Production of over 285 million
metric tonnes of food grains have been produced in the last year.
In some countries there is surplus in production of food grains but looking at India’s current position
and nature of the industry that day far away for us. Income from land-based activities have remained
lower than other sectors, like urban, of the economy and its growth rate is also lower. Something
needs to be done to increase the remuneration from land-based activities while aligning it with
sustainable development goals.

CURRENT STATUS
Large portion of land is under forest cover. Whereas land under cultivation accounts to about 50% of
total available in rural space. So, not much can be added there. It is although desired to keep it so but
the pressure upon other resources has made to bring forest land under cultivable category. In India,
the cropping intensity should be 200% ideally because we are favoured with Agri-climatic zones that
enable cultivation in two seasons.
Although in many cases it is not feasible to cultivate in both season due to resource unavailability
leading to lower cropping intensity of 136%. Average yields of many countries are higher than what
we are achieving now. China has also been able to achieve twice of the average yield we get.
Dependence on few crops and lack of adequate market-linkages result in low farm incomes which
shows need for diversification.

CHALLENGES
At many occasions, Mr. Daniel have observed farmers who took record-yields. For example, a farmer
got more than 20 tonnes of rice per hectare. Although it can’t be sustained because the next year a
decrease is observed. When farmer has water resource available in abundance, he tends to use it up for
the main crop during the rainy season which reduces availability for the second crop. Water use
efficiency is so low that we are currently using 2-3 times more than the global averages. Water and
fertilizers if used optimally they can impact positively on farm business and reduces land degradation.
Land degradation is another major concern impacting farmer’s and sustainability of farm businesses.
About 44% of the land is affected due to erosion, salt and chemical pollution and water logging. Post-
harvest handling losses amount to about 5% for grains and more than 10% for fruits. Farmers also do
not get the benefits of processing and marketing. All these challenges together multiply the effect of
dropping income generation capability of farmers.
1. Crop Intensification
On one hand we have very progressive farmers that adopt high end technology as well as advanced
practices and on other we have farmers practicing subsistence farming. One of the measures could be
crop diversification to reduce crop failure and risk of market volatility.
At BAIF we practice ‘Wadi’ system of farming which is a tree-based farming system using principle
of Agri-forestry system. In this system, in addition to food we get fodder and fuel that have shown
great sustainability. Livestock-based livelihood can simply of just two cows that earns income that
keeps them above below poverty line.
2. Health Food Opportunities
Previously the major focus was on the production of produce and changes in lifestyle have shifted the
trend towards uncommon and more desired organic and nutrient rich food. Millets is one of the most
underutilized crops which is why its importance will be recognized in 2023 – International year of
millet.
Organic food fetches a higher price in market and is known chemical-free nature. With increasing
awareness among consumers, farmers risk in selling reduces due to market demand. Nutrient fortified
foods are emerging as a major health concern is now deep rooted in consumer’s mind. Crop varieties
having high iron, zinc and vitamin A are being developed for the same which represents another
opportunity for farmers. Future smart food consisting of underutilised crops (like millets, yams and
wild vegetables) have nutrition benefits for which they are being promoted by several world-wide
programmes.
Ecosystem Services
Ecosystem service includes of actions or activities that are undertaken to ensure environment
protection and conserve. An example of such services is, as suggested by many agronomists, farmers
should insert their rice stubbles within the soil itself to increase the carbon in it and thus reducing
carbon footprint. This is an emerging area where Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) in leeching
on. In this system people are willing to pay for carrying out ecosystem friendly activities to encourage
natural resource conservation. Land-based livelihoods will continue to play a significant role in rural
transformation of the country and help achieve several targets under Sustainable Development Goals.