Socio-Economic Changes in a Himalayan Mountain Village under Rapid Economic Growth in India: The Re-Investigation of a Village in the State of Uttarakhand <Research Note>

Okahashi Hidenori

Ishikawa Nao

Chen Lin

Tiwari Prakash C.

Journal of Urban and Regional Studies on Contemporary India

This paper examined the recent socio-economic changes of a village in Uttarakhand that has shown rapid economic growth. We selected K Village as a study field, where we conducted a survey in 2007. Therefore, our primary intention was to examine the changes that occurred over the 10-year period since our original investigation. The research results are as follows. First, we found some changes in the employment structure. The agricultural sector continued to play an important role in employment opportunities, though the number of people who engaged in agricultural work decreased. There was an increase in non-agricultural jobs, particularly in the opportunity for office-work in Indian metropolitan areas (as well as overseas). Second, considering the benefits of tourism development in the village, some residents pointed out positive effects, such as employment creation and increase of aided businesses related to tourism. On the contrary, other residents emphasized negative effects, such as the deterioration of the environment due to improper development. Third, for the future development of agriculture, it is important to develop strategies for improving agricultural mechanization and increasing the value of products as the number of agricultural workers has marginally decreased in recent years. Fourth, we confirmed the continuous progress in income, education, and the spread of consumer goods over the 10-year period. Our 2017 reinvestigation of K Village was able to confirm the tendency for the village to continuously develop, though there were some issues to be solved.

mountain village

employment opportunity

household economy

underdeveloped region

Uttarakhand

India

Economics [ 330 ]

eng

The Center for Contemporary India Studies, Hiroshima University

(c) 2018 The Center for Contemporary India Studies, Hiroshima University

[ISSN] 2188-5222