* Slowing rural economy runs counter to India’s growth
* Immigrants Say Their Incomes Are Stagnating as Food Costs Rise
* After the elections, the government suggested tackling rural challenges
By Bhasker Tripathi BANDA, India, May 24 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – At her home in one of India’s poorest districts, 35-year-old Vandana searches for new ways to cook potatoes, the only food she has been able to buy for months as legumes and vegetables as an occasional treat.
Vandana’s husband, who works as a structural clerk in Delhi, used to send her 3,000 to 4,000 rupees ($36 to $48) each month, but it has been much more complicated in the past five years, she said. “We are at the top and there is no work, we are forced to cut the number of food and go into debt,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in his village of Banda in northern India, which voted on May 20. country.
The 200 citizens of the village of Vandana, like millions of others, are grappling with an economic slowdown in rural India, which stands in stark contrast to the country’s dramatic economic expansion and the prosperity of its urban population. Rural areas are home to 60 percent of India’s 1. 4 billion people, making difficult economic situations in the countryside a key factor for the country’s next government electorate. Effects are expected until June 4, when polls indicate that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is on track to win a 3rd term, which is rare.
Once the mammoth voting process is over, the new government will have to take on unemployment, wage stagnation and climate change-related losses in the countryside, said Benoy Peter, executive director of the India-based Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development (CMID). . non-profit. ” The rural areas of the country are experiencing economic misery that all successive governments have failed to cope with miserably,” Peter said.
Despite unprecedented economic growth, India has failed to create enough jobs for other people in rural areas, many of whom, like Vandana’s husband, migrate to urban spaces in search of work. Recent economic studies have shown that after adjusting for higher prices, the true incomes and wages of other people engaged in agriculture, construction, production and – who employ the majority of India’s rural poor – have stagnated over the past five years.
At the same time, debt levels have risen. The average amount of rural household debt has risen from about Rs 32,500 in 2012 to Rs 59,700 in 2018, according to the State Bank of India (SBI). In rural areas it was higher than in cities between 2019 and 2024, according to official data, basically due to the effect of emerging food prices, which represent part of the total expenditure of rural families.
In Uttar Pradesh, the Thomson Reuters Foundation surveyed members of about 30 low-income families, many of whom said a lack of normal work and inflation were eroding their stagnant or declining incomes.
Wages sent through migrant workers to cities are one of the main sources of household income in rural India. But since the COVID-19 pandemic, workers say they’re struggling. Worker Ram Kishor, in his 40s, said he used to find 15 days of structural painting a month, but now he’s lucky enough to get 10.
Another migrant worker, 25-year-old Kalka Prasad, said wages were falling because of a tough labor market, especially among young people. “The current salary is 400 rupees (per day). But sellers start offering 200 when they see more people. So, you either settle for a lower salary or you lose your job,” Prasad said.
In their crusade platforms, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP party and the main opposition parties have promised measures to alleviate the economic hardship of rural areas, ranging from distributing food rations to scores of millions of families to raising the minimum wage. specified how they would bear climate change-related losses if elected, Peter said.
“Both sides are silent on how they plan to deal with the loss of livelihoods in rural India due to climate change,” he said. Villagers in Banda and other parts of the Bundelkhand region are increasingly reliant on cash sent home by urban migrant staff due to common droughts and erratic rainfall related to climate change.
“Migration is a not unusual survival strategy for many other people in Bundelkhand, who are forced to go through the collapse of their agricultural livelihoods,” said Ritu Bharadwaj, a researcher at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), a London-based think tank. . PAIN OF CLIMATE CHANGE
In the village of Bhaggu Purva, Urmila Devi grows wheat and rice on two acres (0. 81 hectares), but her source of income is reduced due to multiple problems. Damage to crops from diseases and pests is common, most likely due to climate change. This has caused it to spend more on insecticides to deal with these attacks, adding to already high costs.
“On average, my source of agricultural income is about 10,000 (rupees) a year. But even that is not guaranteed,” Devi said. This is not enough for the family to cover their food needs for three or four months, forcing Devi’s husband to migrate to painting during the day to update his source of income.
Agriculture’s gross price added (GVA), an indicator of the sector’s economic fitness, fell to 14. 5% in the current monetary year, from 16. 3% in 2021, according to official data. In Banda, Vandana, the housewife, is one of many villagers who have no land to lean on, meaning she and her husband have to earn money to be able to buy food. She discovered painting as an agricultural painter.
But for now, her biggest concern is the future of her 17-year-old son, who will soon enter the workforce. As she watches other young people paint structural sites and get them exploited by contractors, she hopes more customers will be waiting for her.
“We’ve cut our spending to provide him with an education, so he can have a smart job in the city and have a better life than we do,” he said.
(This story was not edited by Devdiscourse staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed. )