IASSI-Quarterly

The paper analyses the latest periodic labour force survey data on employment, and National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) data on employment and unemployment and argues that there is an emergence of new rurality in Tamil Nadu. This development is invariably linked to the process of structural change, urbanisation and the inequality trends. The paper finds that the ‘pure non-agricultural households’ (the households where all the employed members of the household are engaged in non-agricultural work) are more than 50 per cent of the rural households. This remarkable break from the primary dependence of rural people on the agriculture sector for employment and livelihood, we argue, implies the emergence of new rurality in Tamil Nadu. The study finds that certain characteristics of the household like education levels, social group and age playing an important role in increasing the likelihood of the households to be ‘pure non-agricultural’ households. The paper suggests that the decline in inequality is associated with a reduction in ‘structural gap’ and the associated occupational diversification of rural households. The argument on the emergence of new rurality is a departure from the rural-urban dualism of earlier scholarship on this question.