Vol.:(0123456789) The Indian Journal of Labour Economics https://doi.org/10.1007/s41027-020-00215-8 1 3 ISLE ARTICLE Structure and Changes in Household Income and Employment Across Social Groups in Rural India Manasi Bera 1  · Amaresh Dubey 1 © Indian Society of Labour Economics 2020 Abstract Indian economy has undergone important structural changes leading to high growth and poverty reduction in the last few decades. Rural economy has also registered significant changes during this period. Important among them is the growth in non- farm sector’s share in rural income and employment. This study intends to examine the following two questions: First, given the increasing importance of market-led non-farm sector in rural economy, do caste inequities of the rural economy con- tinue to exist in non-agricultural economy? Second, does caste identity indepen- dently affect the non-farm sector inequities or because of the nature of its associa- tion with non-caste determinants? Findings show growing importance of non-farm sector in rural income generation and employment. However, the opportunities are not accessed equally. While regular salaried work and other transfers are increas- ingly accessed by forward groups (Brahmins, Others) and, OBCs there is high and increasing access to non-farm labour work among disadvantaged groups (SCs, STs, Muslims). Higher education emerges as the important factor in accessing better income opportunities in the rural non-farm sector. Inequality in higher education across caste groups may not allow the differences to disappear soon. Keywords Non-farm employment · Household income · Rural India · Social groups 1 Introduction The concept of economic development has broadened in the last few decades with an increasing focus on poverty, inequality and inclusive development. Equal partici- pation in opportunities and growth is not only desirable from normative perspective, * Manasi Bera manasi.bera87@gmail.com Amaresh Dubey dubey.amaresh@yahoo.com 1 Centre for the Study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi 110 067, India