Socio-Economic Condition of the People of Darjeeling: Out-Migration as a Survival Strategy (?)

Migration sometimes is treated as the barometer of changing socio-economic and political conditions at the national and international levels. There are both negative and positive sides of migration. On one hand, it is argued that underdevelopment is a cause of migration, and on the other hand, prosperity also leads to migration. This paper specifically attempts to study the impacts of out-migration based on some villages of Darjeeling district in the state of West Bengal. The district comprises four subdivisions namely - Darjeeling Sadar, Kurseong and Kalimpong and Siliguri. But, for the purpose of the study two villages from each subdivision (total 8) and again 15 households from each village (total 120)  have been selected and from each village ten out-migrated people (total 80) 50 males and 30 females) have been randomly taken as respondents  for the purpose of study. Informations are collected from field survey and to conclude, purposive and analytical methods are applied. The views of the out-migrated people before and after migration have been analyzed thoroughly.