India Rural Wage Increases Discourage Microenterprises
Channel: World Bank Group Jobs
Date: 2013-03-24

Professor Shamika Ravi of the Indian School of Business says India's NREG program has been increasing wages for rural workers but is also discouraging new microenterprises.

Increased rural wages have increased the opportunity cost of running an enterprise, Ravi says, leading many workers to question whether they'd rather run a small business or return to the formal labor force with casual employment. 

This trend of worker migration from self-employment to casual labor is growing across the country and is disturbing, she says, because it raises the issue of if government should be the employer of last resort, or if workers should generate their own jobs and revenue.