Browsing by Subject "migration"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Open Access
Contested Spaces: Population Dynamics, the Refugees and Changing Social Landscape of Siliguri (1835 To 2011 C.E.)
(University of North Bengal, 2016-03) Kumari, Minakshee
The East India company in 1835 first acquired the nucleus of Darjeeling district from Raja of Sikkim, it was almost entirely under forest and particularly uninhabited. Although it was stated to have been inhabited probably a more accurate estimate was that these Hill tracks of 138 square miles contain the population of 100. The heavy forest and no communication facilities must have discouraged development and could have been a big obstruction for any increase of population. 1This research article traces how the population of Siliguri changed after independence and especially after the Indo Pakistan war when there was a huge flow of migration of people from surrounding areas and this totally altered the social landscape of the region.
Open Access
The Migrant Nepalis in Balurghat: An Account of Adaptation and Change
(University of North Bengal, 2016-03) Chhetri, Kumar
The present paper is a brief descriptive account of the Nepalis in a cluster in of Balurghat town, the district town of South Dinajpur district. The Nepali households have migrated from various places in different historical periods in connection with their jobs and livelihoods. They have been living in an alienated kind of social situation, far from their own population and places of origin for generations. A long course of association and interactions with local Bengali speaking neighbours have left a permanent mark on their way of life or culture. The main observation of the paper is that despite accepting and adjusting with many cultural practices of the local dominant community the migrant Nepalis have retained their distinct cultural identity.
Open Access
Negotiating Social Security through Network Building: A Study of the Livelihoods of Resident Caretakers in the new Metropolis of Kolkata
(University of North Bengal, 2019-03) Ghosh, Anamitra
The “resident caretakers”, who constitute a distinct category of indentured labor in the newly emerging urban metropolises of India, have remained a relatively neglected component of research in the field of sociology of labor relations, and therefore they rightfully deserve meticulous attention from the scholars. The present study explores the patterns of migration and resettlement of this category of urban labour force in one of the major suburban cities of Kolkata as an attempt to uncover the process of their absorption into the urban informal sector. The growing number of these indentured laborers in the urban informal sector in India has remained marginalized and denied most of their rights that are given to the formal sector workers. The present paper thus intends to examine this issue as a redresser to the problem of social security among these urban contractual laborers that is multiplying every day in the major cities of West Bengal with the development of the new towns, confiscating boundaries of the upper middle class. The study uses ethnographic case accounts drawn from qualitative face-to-face interviews that draw attention to their livelihood patterns and the vignettes of their network building processes through the derivative component of social capital that is constantly been generated in specific interactional contexts. This in the long run builds together in maintaining a constant sense of identity, personal wellbeing and social recognition of their form of labor in a relatively “negotiated” social space.