Contours of Structural Change in Growth and Employment in Bihar

Abstract

The Scheduled Castes constitute one of the most vulnerable sections of Indian society. Years of subjugation have resulted in poor socio-economic conditions and limited educational attainment leading to little diversification of livelihood options. Although many movements meant to uplift this deprived section of society have been initiated in the past by rational thinkers, a lot still needs to be done. Many policies have been envisaged by governments in the past encompassing Acts, and Constitutional Amendments based on the principle of positive discrimination. However, more efforts are required at the grassroots level to procure prescribed ends. To make matters worse, the initiation of Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation (LPG) policy raised the question of the impact of the ‘trickle down’ effect of such policies on the deprived sections of the society. The present paper throws light on different aspects of population growth, occupational structure, extent of poverty, level of literacy and indicators of mortality of the Scheduled Castes in Bihar. The literacy rate remains low among the SC with high poverty. Moreover, the SCs hardly possess any land and so work as agricultural labourers. In addition, the various indicators of nutrition although have improved in recent years, a lot need to be done still for the upliftment of the community.