Socio-Psychological Drivers of Livelihood Diversification in Lakshadweep

Abstract

Diversification is the incorporation of new activities into the economic portfolio. The rural livelihood diversification
therefore is an integral dimension of development agenda for strengthening rural livelihood and sustaining
livelihood security. The study was conducted among 120 households in Kalpeni and Andrott islands of U.T. of
Lakshadweep to assess the extent of diversification and to analyse the socio-psychological factors promoting
diversification. Respondents were randomly selected and categorized into three livelihood classes based on the share of
agriculture in households' income. Extent of livelihood diversification is studied in terms of number of income
sources of a household and Simpson index of diversification. It is obtained that most of the households were having
diverse livelihood strategy. It has been found that majority of the diversified households have medium diversification
index with average diversification index of 0.32. Determinants of diversification were analyzed using Kruskal-Wallis
test. It was found out that mass media exposure was the most significant factor leading to diversification followed by
social participation, change proneness and achievement motivation.