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

Introduction During the past decades, the growth of urban areas in both the developed and developing countries became one of the important characteristics of spatial development. Urbanization is a process to accomplish the art of advanced state of human civilization and therefore it not only refers to change in land use, but also accompanies socio-economic changes which may or may not be apparent as physical changes in the built-up area. The concepts of the dynamics of urban development or the theories of the cycle of urbanization, suburbanization and counter-urbanization (Antrop, 2004; Champion, 2001) failed to explain fully the rural-urban development that is occurring today in many developing countries. It has therefore become indispensible for the developmental policy makers to analyze the process of urbanization along a rural-urban continuum, based on a broad range of indicators. Urbanization is often considered as an indicator of both economic development and a higher state of social welfare. Therefore, the development endeavors in both the developing and underdeveloped countries are becoming typically urban-biased. Thus, rapid urbanization is often seen to be the impact of continuous rural-to-urban migration and various linkages (Aier & Kithan, 2011). One should, however, bear in mind that the process of urbanization which often leads to unequal distribution of income and wealth between rural and urban people not only weakens the process of urbanization itself but also leads to a state of unsustainable development of the economy as a whole. Both the sectors are mutually dependent for their inputs towards maintaining a decent living of the inhabitants of their respective arenas. Although there exists impressive evidence for the differences between the entities of 'rural' and 'urban', the degree of rural-urban continuum steps up with the process of development. The developing countries often find it hard to hide acute disparities between the rural and urban levels. The objective indicators are quality and quantity of public amenities such as health care facilities, education, roads, transport, and electricity, among many others. The subjective ones are social indicators, representing people's own assessment of their quality of life as compared to their community at large. Rural-Urban Linkages One of the basic determinants of rural-urban linkages is the rural-urban continuum. Rural-urban continuum is a process of socio-economic and cultural interaction between villages and towns or cities. In his work on Mexican peasants, Robert Redfield (1930) introduced the concept of rural-urban continuum as folk-urban continuum. He observed that as community moves from folk to the urban end of the continuum, there occurs a shift from cultural intimacy and organization towards disorganization. Consequently, what will happen in the long run is a lack of organization and detachment from culture and that directly reflects in the social aspect of an economy. In a general sense, the term 'continuum' refers to the gradual transition between two extremes (e.g. very rural and very urban). Hence, rural-urban continuum refers to the observed differences in terms of degree of urbanization as one moves from one extreme to the other. As a result, the concept of rural-urban linkages takes different forms in terms of flows (spatial and sectoral). In general, it refers to flow of people (through migration, commuting, etc.), capital (through investments) and goods (through trade) between rural and urban areas. Along with the above flows, there are simultaneous dynamic flows of ideas, innovation and environmental impacts of linkages (Munankami et al. 2005; Tacoli, 2004; Funnell, 1988). Many cultural traits, like dress patterns and new thoughts and ideologies are diffused from the cities to the rural areas. But the outreach of urban lifestyle to the rural areas often depends on their proximity to cities and/or media exposure in rural areas. …