ABSTRACT
The process of livelihoods diversification, particularly by the poor and vulnerable sections of society, has received increasing critical attention. The reallocation of economic assets and activities, within and outside households, is shaped by the larger process of changes in the political economy as well as by the micro-realities of power and powerlessness. The conflicts surrounding such processes and the political economy of differential access to resources, institutions and opportunities among and within the households have not received adequate attention. The blanket nomenclature ‘northeast’ is misleading because the region is characterised by an enormous degree of ecological, cultural and historical diversity, although there is also a great deal of interconnectedness among the economies of the region. Agriculture continues to be the main source of livelihood for a majority of people in northeastern India, generating about 50 per cent of the region’s income.
