Effects of globalisation on employment and poverty in dualistic economies: the case of India

Abstract

Although it is too early to evaluate the long-run socio-economic effects of economic liberalisation and privatisation, along with the overall globalisation process, on a dualistic economy like India's, the paper will first examine the often-raised concern that these economic changes have, in general, led to the erosion of living standards of the poor; increase in regional disparities in terms of industrial benefits; deterioration or, at least, a sluggishness in employment generation; greater casualisation; feminisation and deskilling of the work-force; and growing uncertainty and hidden hardships associated with recent patterns of economic changes; etc. It then intends to look into the kind of ripple effect all these will cause in the unorganised segment of the Indian economy which includes major part of the agricultural sector, rural non-agricultural and urban informal sector activities.