Answer to Question #208577 in Political Science for Pinky Aggarwal

Question

Elaborate on the problem of "Stunted' growth in light of the discussion on structural

transformation of the Indian Economy.

Answer 1

Indian economy has a decent economic growth in the last two-three decades but the sad part is that Indian economy transformation has not reflected on the agricultural sector. The rural population and the labour force continue to rise but rural urban migration remains slow. With a rising labour productivity differential between non-agriculture and agriculture, limited rural-urban migration and slow agricultural growth, urban-rural consumption, income, and poverty differentials have not been rising. Urban-rural spillovers have become crucial drivers of the rapidly growing rural non-farm sector, which now generates the largest number of jobs in India. Rural non-farm self-employment is especially dynamic with farm households diversifying into the sector to increase income. The bottling up of labour in rural areas implies that farm sizes will continue to dimish, agriculture will continue its trend to feminisation, and part-time farming will become the dominant farm model. This has resulted in the stunted growth to the Indian economy