Through the authors’ on-field experiences and case studies, the open access book documents the evolution of flagship programs like the National Rural Livelihood Mission, showcasing how decentralized approaches and collective action have fostered sustainable changes within India’s most vulnerable populations.
India's rural transformation journey has been remarkable - characterized 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 programs like the National Rural Livelihood Mission, showcasing how decentralized 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 programs, 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.
Arvustused
These volumes fill a unique niche in the continuum between academic research and advocacy. They go beyond merely identifying challenges in various aspects of human development, particularly health, nutrition, and education, and instead explore potential solutions through critical reviews of what works. This makes the collection immensely valuable to both academicians and practitioners, rendering these volumes essential reading for anyone interested in public policy.
Sonalde Desai, Professor, National Council of Applied Economic Research and University of Maryland, USA.
Human development cannot be viewed segmentally through a reductionist lens, since the various elements are closely integrated and impact each other. Health is inseparable from nutrition, and both are influenced by education, environment and economic development. In each of these, equity is the litmus test of development serving its social purpose. These six volumes knit these varied skeins into a unified tapestry of human development. While detailing the key components of each of the main themes, the composite collection connects them to create a coherent design for accelerated and equitable people centric human development in India.
K. Srinath Reddy, Founder (Past) President, Public Health Foundation of India
These volumes compile the results of many micro studies in the areas of health, nutrition, education and rural livelihood development. These are critical areas where India needs to improve performance to achieve the objective of Viksit Bharat. Larger funding is unavoidable but even more important is to ensure efficiency of spending and it is here that these micro studies will provide evidence-based guidance in what works and in what circumstances. The solutions will not be the same across all states and this must be built into the design of each programme at the state level. The collection is an invaluable contribution in this very important area.
Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Ex-Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission of India
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.
Ved Arya is Serial Social Entrepreneur and Founder of SRIJAN, Buddha Institute, and the Responsible Coalition for Resilient Communities (RCRC). Through SRIJAN, he has empowered over 250,000 rural women across six Indian states, forming nine womens federations. He received the Schwab Foundation Award 2025 at Davos, the Business Standard Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award (2018), and IIT Kanpurs Distinguished Alumnus Award (2020). An IIT Kanpur and IIM Ahmedabad graduate, Ved is also a Humphrey, UNEP, Ashoka, and Aspire Fellow.
Ayushii Balutia is Research Associate at the Bharti Institute of Public Policy, Indian School of Business. She holds a masters degree in public policy and management from the University of Glasgow and a bachelors in Economics from Christ (Deemed to be) University, Bengaluru. She previously worked with Womens Enterprise Scotland, co-authoring their 2023 report on women entrepreneurs, and interned with NITI Aayogs Aspirational Districts Department. Her research focuses on good governance, sustainable development, and socio-economic inclusion.
Ashwini Chhatre is Executive Director of the Bharti Institute of Public Policy and Associate Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Indian School of Business. He holds a PhD in Political Science from Duke University and a BA in Economics from the University of Delhi. With over a decade of grassroots experience in natural resource governance, his research explores the intersection of democracy, environment, and development. A former faculty member at the University of Illinois, he has held editorial roles in leading international journals.
Nivedita Narain is Senior Research Advisor at the Transform Rural India Foundation and adjunct faculty at the School of Public Policy, IIT Delhi. With nearly 40 years of experience in development practice, she has led initiatives in gender equity, sustainable livelihoods, and organisational development. She previously served as CEO of Charities Aid Foundation India and held leadership roles at PRADAN. A PhD holder from IIT Delhi, she has held fellowships at Stanford, LSE, McGill, and Göttingen, focusing on gender, food, water security, sustainability, and rural development.
