Republic of India Livelihoods in intermediate towns

8.3: Incomes from Non-farm Activity: As one would expect, incomes from the non-farm enterprises would vary depending upon the investments one makes. Even though the non-farm economy in rural Bihar has expanded, it does not seem to be generating much income locally. A large majority of our respondent across communities and caste reported near subsistence level incomes from their business. From the total sample, only around 12 percent reported earning more than 10,000 rupees per month, which diminishes for specific caste/community members. Seventy percent of the SC respondents and 61.6 percent of the Muslim respondents reported a monthly income of less than Rs. 7,500 per month (See Table 22).

Table 22: Caste and Monthly Income
Monthly income	Caste (Recoded)					Total
	Upper Caste	Trading Caste	Other OBCs	SCs	Muslim
up to 2500	2 (5.6)	5 (8.1)	9 (10.1)	7 (14.0)	5 (7.9)	28 (9.3)
2501 to 5000	8 (22.2)	20 (32.3)	26 (29.2)	16 (32.0)	25 (39.7)	95 (31.7)
5001 to 7500	6 (16.7)	9 (14.5)	11 (12.4)	12 (24.0)	9 (14.3)	47 (15.7)
7501 to 10000	4 (11.1)	7 (11.3)	12 (13.5)	3 (6.0)	9 (14.3)	35 (11.7)
10001 to 15000	4 (11.1)	7 (11.3)	7 (7.9)	1 (2.0)	3 (4.8)	22 (7.3)
15000 to 25000	1 (2.8)	8 (12.9)	2 (2.2)	0 (0.0)	1 (1.6)	12 (4.0)
25000 to 50000	0 (0.0)	0 (0.0)	2 (2.2)	0 (0.0)	1 (1.6)	3 (1.0)
Not Applicable	5 (13.9)	2 (3.2)	4 (4.5)	1 (2.0)	2 (3.2)	14 (4.7)
Depends on season	6 (16.7)	4 (6.5)	16 (18.0)	10 (20.0)	8 (12.7)	44 (14.7)
Total	36 (100.0)	62 (100.0)	89 (100.0)	50 (100.0)	63 (100.0)	300 (100.0)

It is therefore not surprising that the experience of struggling with subsistence level of earnings for a significant share of respondents also manifests itself in their perceptions and aspirations towards the future of the work they are currently doing, and in terms of what they aspire for their children and how they imagine their life beyond the ‘rural’.