Ideally, such a transfer of labour from agriculture would be towards manufacturing and modern services like information technology, business process outsourcing, or healthcare.
This is called a structural transformation, according to economists.
Instead, Indian agricultural labourers mostly moved to other low-paying and informal jobs such as petty retailing, small eateries, domestic help, sanitation, security staffing, and transport, according to the report.
“…the labour transfer is happening within the low-productivity informal economy. The jobs that are getting generated outside agriculture are mostly in low-paid services and construction; the latter’s share in employment has even overtaken that of manufacturing,” it said.
