AGRARIAN CHANGE AND OCCUPATIONAL DIVERSIFICATION - NONAGRICULTURAL EMPLOYMENT AND RURAL-DEVELOPMENT IN WEST-BENGAL

Based on evidence from the quinquennial surveys on employment by the N ational Sample Survey Organisation, it has been argued that, as part o f the process of change associated with the Green Revolution, rural In dia is witnessing an agricultural growth-induced diversification in ec onomic activity in favour of non-agricultural actvities. This article examines that argument using evidence relating to India as a whole and the state of West Bengal in particular. The analysis suggests that th e observed occupational diversification in rural India over the last d ecade-and-a-half is not so much a fall-out of rural dynamism in the wa ke of the Green Revolution, but a reflection of the fact that two-and- a-half decades after the Green Revolution began in India, much of the country is yet to experience the impact of that process.