ABSTRACT
In the wake of a market-driven economy, agriculture has been rapidly commercialised, with profoundly adverse consequences for Adivasi livelihoods. Farmers who traditionally cultivated crops for their own consumption have been compelled to shift to cash crops for survival, whose market is skewed against them. With declining forest cover and not-so-good returns for NTFP, large sections of Adivasi communities have been forced to look for new livelihoods outside their traditional environment. This view is substantiated by the data presented by the author in this chapter and indicates clearly that Adivasis constitute about 25 per cent of the total MGNREGA workforce. It appears that many Adivasi households, more than any other social group in the country, is looking towards MGNREGA as a livelihood option. The danger is that they are giving up their traditional livelihood practices and becoming dependent on casual wage labour for sustenance, for very small returns. In the process, they lose their skills, knowledge as well as traditional rights.
