PRAGATI: Journal of Indian Economy Vol. 8(1), Jan - Jun 2021, pp. 60-76 DOI: 10.17492/jpi.pragati.v8i1.812104 www.journalpressindia.com/pjie © 2021 Journal Press India Economic Dualism Subverting Rural Reforms: Drawing Parallels from MGNREGA and Farm Bills, 2020 Sugandh Choudhary* ABSTRACT Economic dualism is often a major impediment in social and economic reforms where rich and powerful dictate policies and subvert the end intended result of efforts made by the government. MGNREGA could not be successful to its potential due to opportunities being underutilized by the targeted rural workers. Relatively well –off derailed the employment generation scheme as they commanded who gets what and how much. This paper aims to analyze how the Farm Reform Bill is exposed to similar risk as rich states are in a position to dictate the Farm Bill at the expense of poor states. The paper makes global comparison of India’s agriculture performance with other developing countries highlighting a dire need of reform to perform. This paper also highlights the criticality of Farm Bill and arrive at the conclusion that India needs to calm down her opposition to rural reform through dialogues with various stakeholders keeping in mind the already lagging performance of agricultural sector which urgently need a lifeline in the form of Farm Reform Bill. The issue of resistance from farmers has to be met with logic and compassion beside political statecraft to sail through agrarian protests. Keywords: Economic dualism; MGNREGA; Farm Bills; Land distribution; Minimum Support price; Elite capturing. 1.0 Introduction Agricultural progress is an essential part of rural development and despite more than seventy-three years since independence, India is predominantly an agricultural economy, with approximately 65.5 per cent of the population residing in villages (World Bank, 2019). *Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, S.S. Khanna Girl's Degree College, Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India. (Email: sugandhchoudhary@gmail.com)