India's rural transformation journey has been remarkable – characterised by innovation, community resilience, strategic interventions, and continuous learning from both successes and challenges. Delving into India's rural livelihood, this volume presents learnings from livelihood interventions across the country.
Through the authors’ on-field experiences and case studies, the book documents the evolution of flagship programmes like the National Rural Livelihood Mission, showcasing how decentralised approaches and collective action have fostered sustainable changes within India’s most vulnerable populations. Whether it is about graduating tribal communities from extreme poverty to creating women-led enterprises, or introducing watershed management and climate-resilient farming, this book captures diverse strategies that have proven effective in different contexts. Each chapter reveals implementation challenges, success factors, and scalable solutions, demonstrating how government programmes, partnerships, and community ownership create widespread impact far beyond individual beneficiaries. It highlights the critical role of women's collectives, place-based approaches, and the potential of ecological livelihoods in building sustainable rural economies, offering a roadmap for replicating successful interventions adaptable to local contexts and emerging challenges.
Part of the “Innovations, Practice and the Future of Public Policy in India” series, this open-access volume is an evidence-based compilation which will be an essential resource for policymakers, development practitioners, researchers, and students seeking to understand effective rural development strategies and working on global development, development policy, rural development, public policy, and social policy.
Table of Contents:
Lists of figures. List of tables. List of contributors. Series Preface. Preface. Acknowledgements. 1. Introduction: Pathways to Rural Prosperity -Ved Arya, Ayushii Balutia, Ashwini Chhatre, Nivedita Narain Part I: Understanding Rural Poverty and Vulnerability 2. The National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) - Key Lessons for Policymaking - Nita Kejrewal 3. Graduating Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) from Extreme-Poverty: Experience from Jharkhand - Nagendra Nath Sinha and Suvakanta Nayak Part II: Empowerment Through Collective Action 4. Empowering the Ultra Poor: Innovations, Impact and Learning from Satat Jeevikoparjan Yojana in Bihar - Balamurgan Devraj 5. Securing Livelihoods of Rural Poor: Experience of High Impact Mega Watershed Project- Saroj Mahapatra and Manoj Kumar 6. Women's Collectives and Inclusive Development: Lessons from the Field - Amarjeet Sinha 7. Empowering HER: Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) Empowering Rural Women and Enabling Them as Lakhpati Didis - Charanjit Singh and Gajanan Rauta 8. Promotion of Farmer Producer Company: learnings from FDRVC (Foundation for Development of Rural Value Chains) - Alok Kumar De Part III: Diversifying Livelihoods and Fostering Entrepreneurship 9. Ecosystem to Nurture Development Entrepreneurship to Solve Poverty and Unemployment Challenges: The Buddha Institute - Ved Arya, Belal Ahmad, Anupam Pandey, and Shruti Sriram 10. Lessons from the Start-Up Village Entrepreneurship Programme - Raminder Singh Rekhi and Sukanya Chakravorty 11. Livelihoods and Skilling for Adivasi: Indigenous Communities in a High Biodiversity Area - Snehlata Nath and Jyotsna Krishnakumar Part IV: Place-Based Approaches and Sustainable Resource Management 12. New Paradigm for Rural Workforce Diversification: Productivity increase and Wealth Generation through a Place-Based Approach - Neeraj Ahuja and Aliva Das 13. Enabling Adaptation to Weather Vagaries for Smallholder Farmers - Dhruvi Shah 14. Connecting People, Nature, and Livelihoods in Bundelkhand: A Joint Climate Action Initiative by Six NGOs - R Parasuram, Prasanna Khemariya, Stutilina Pal, Ashish Ambasta 15. Ecological Livelihoods: Lessons from Tasar Sericulture (Antheraea Mylitta, the tropical silkworm) in India - Nivedita Narain and Satyabrata Acharyya. Index.
