Rural-Urban Linkages, Labor Migration & Rural Industrialization in West Bengal

This article focuses on the process of rural-urban continuum as one of the basic determinants of rural-urban linkages. The authors discuss labor migration (both short and long term) from rural to rural areas and rural to urban areas and try to understand whether rural industrialization helps find gainful employment in local villages or nearby small towns/growth centers. Livelihood pressure on farm land has been tremendously increasing whereas modern industries have very limited scope for absorbing unskilled rural labor. The case of West Bengal elaborates and establishes the arguments in favor of rural industrialization.