Post - Reform Rural Employment Scenario in India With Special Reference to Tamil Nadu

This paper highlighB the extent and the emerging role of economic reform in determining the level of farm and non-farm employment in rural India by reviewing the past performance and pstulating the conditions for employment generation and the predictted sustainable growth thereby. It attempts a diachronic and synchronic study of the problems associated with unemployment, and disguised unemployment,since the year of Reform. In the first section, attention is drawn to the conditions impacting onite pace and paftern of employment growth in rural India and rural Tiamil Nadu, bth in qualiative and guantitative aspcts. Further, the performance of rural sector in emplogment generation is reviewed on well-established parameters, bringing out the pattern of employment growth witnessed during the last decade of reforms by discussing the exogenous and endogenous factors for changes in the sector.) Moreover, the paper documents trends in employment generation in rural sector of the country and the State of Timil Nadu in the pre-reform and post-reform period. Though Thmil Nadu even as a late comer, has eaned the reputation of being at the forefront of Economic Reforms in the country by implementing initiative in fiscal correction and restucturing of the state economy, there remains, still significant uncovered areas in rural front, more particularly in ntral employment generation. It is imperative that the Sate needs to address these problems, if it is to derive full bnefits of reforms already launched and to make development more balanced, broad-based and sustainable. In the final section, key issues and Government initiatives, which have wider ramifications for achieuing npid employment generation and sustainable growth are outlined