Rural Transformation in Gujarat: An Empirical Assessment through Multidimensional Indicators

Abstract

Rural transformation is one of the key social and economic changes that lead to the development of rural communities and the overall growth of any country. A country like India has diversity in terms of the availability of natural resources, work culture, race, and religion for each geographical state unit with its own pace of growth and development. Gujarat is one of the high-growth states in the country, with Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) estimates of USD 253.64 billion in FY22 with a 7% YoY increase (India Brand Equity Foundation, n.d.). However, the rural population in Gujarat fell to 57.4% in 2011 from 62.6% in the 2001 census. This paper tries to assess the rural transformation in Gujarat with multidimensional indices like agriculture, consumption, employment, education, and urbanization that focus on rural transformation with the help of district-level microdata in the broader context of the high economic growth of Gujarat.