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This chapter examines how peasant households in China allocate their labour among migration, rural industry, and farming. It is shown that the average and marginal returns to rural labour differ greatly among activities, with returns in non-farm activities exceeding those of farming. Incentives to seek non-farm employment are powerful. These will increase if the inequalities between rural and urban China, or within rural China continue to grow.

The seven decades of the Palanpur study cover India’s life as an independent nation. The chapter highlights those changes in India’s economy and policy that relate, and are relevant, to our understanding of Palanpur’s development. Amongst the key events in India’s history that are of particular pertinence in Palanpur are the land reforms of the 1950s associated with zamindari abolition, the green revolution, diversification of employment into non-farm activities, with increasing incomes in rural areas, the slow expansion of education, rapid population growth, changing social, political, and demographic structures, transformation in communications, liberalization, and the opening of the economy. These changes in the overall economic environment have constituted crucial context for, and forces behind, the changes observed in Palanpur. The seven decades of data and close know ledge of Palanpur also help to illuminate the overall story of India’s development and locate it in a specific and human context.

This chapter examines, in detail, the nature and trends in tenancy in Palanpur. It explores the ways in which the evolution of tenancy is associated with land ownership patterns, landlord–tenant relations, castes, absent or missing markets, and employment in non-farm activities. The chapter starts with an examination of trends in tenancy and different types of contracts in Palanpur. It asks how broader developments within and around the village have affected the institution of tenancy. Patterns of tenancy and of tenancy contracts are also examined in relation to the caste and land ownership of the landlord and tenant. The importance of ‘communities of trust’ amongst villagers—often linked to caste—is highlighted. Such social mechanisms reduce the need for constant and direct monitoring of the tenant’s efforts by the landlord, and can help to explain why sharecropping remains a relatively popular tenancy contract.

Unfortunately, that the youth, despite their contributions to national developments, find themselves trapped in a culture marked by violence and frustration. This is the best time for state to invest in youth and reactivate and relocate their energies if there is any need for economic growth and social development. Employment generation is the key channel through which economic growth translates into prosperity for the population. In a growing economy, employment growth with rising productivity is the most effective mechanism available to the poor to participate in the growth process and raise their standard of living. In order to reduce the unemployment the following points must be considered to frame the policies to eradicate the plague of unemployment. I. Promotion of labour intensive generation activities, for example, horticulture, regeneration of degraded forests, watershed development, etc. II. The non-farm activities in the rural areas should be given preference. There is lot of service activities required in the remote and rural areas in the field of education, health, and in respect of information technology. III. The major employment generation sectors like tourism and handicrafts are required to be encouraged and new tourist spots should be explored. The State of J&K has certain inherent strengths that can be utilized to improve the income of its people and to provide gainful employment opportunities on sustainable basis, which are like strong base of traditional skills not found elsewhere; untapped natural resource; a natural environment which has been very profitably utilized by other countries for high income-environment friendly tourism industry.