Second, since a large part of the rural population consists of agricultural labourers, small farmers and non-farm workers, who are all net purchasers of food, a sharp increase in the price of food would squeeze real incomes and worsen poverty. In general, productive employment generation is a crucial link between growth and poverty (although the link is not automatic, as the remuneration for work is critical). The recent economic growth process in India has exhibited a problem which is increasingly common throughout the developing world: the apparent inability of even high rates of output growth to generate sufficient opportunities for “decent work” to meet the needs of the growing labour force.