Historical Analysis of Employment and Societal Changes Among Scheduled Castes in Post-Colonial North Bengal
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31305/rrjss.2025.v05.n02.021Keywords:
North Bengal, Scheduled castes, employment, refugee, womenAbstract
This paper examines the shift in work patterns among the Scheduled Castes of North Bengal in the context of the drastic socio-economic fluctuations of the Indian subcontinent during 1951-2001. It outlines the manner in which three significant structural determinants of the refugee influx generated by partition, the state-sponsored agrarian reforms, and the economic liberalisation from 1991 onwards, reshaped the livelihoods of SCs in six districts: Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar, North Dinajpur, South Dinajpur and Malda. Drawing on census data and research from several disciplines, the paper demonstrates that these developments entailed diverse discursive and thematic changes at the sectoral level, from largely agricultural work to manufacturing, services, and wage labour in the informal sector. Post-Partition refugee rehabilitation policies led to the alienation of native Schedule Caste (SC) landholders such as the Rajbanshi, turning them en masse into tenants and plantation labourers. Operation Barga and the land reform of the 1970s could do little for the SCs because of their flawed implementation and caste exclusions. The effects of the 1991 economic liberalisation included the rapid expansion of tourism and service jobs, as well as the further entrenchment of SC workers in casual, low-paid, informal jobs. This paper uses an intersectional map to illustrate SC women in North Bengal confronting a double bind, enmeshed in low-waged agricultural, plantation and domestic work and stuck in a web of wage discrimination. Half a century of policies such as job quotas and self-help groups have done little to shift deeply ingrained problems, such as educational disparities, caste prejudice, and limited access to land, that keep people economically vulnerable. The results call for integrative interventions comprising education, skills training, land reforms, and anti-discrimination enforcement to achieve real equity.
References
Adhikary, M. C., & Barman, L. (2023). Migration and environmental disorder in post-colonial North Bengal: an impact on society. International Journal of Research and Innovation in Applied Science, VIII(XI), 132–138. https://doi.org/10.51584/ijrias.2023.81112 DOI: https://doi.org/10.51584/IJRIAS.2023.81112
Agrawal, C. (2013). The effects of liberalization on the Indian economy: A labour force perspective. Management and Labour Studies, 38(4), 373-398. https://doi.org/10.1177/0258042X13513135 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0258042X13513135
Arora, S., & Majumder, M. (2021). Where is my home? Gendered precarity and the experience of COVID‐19 among women migrant workers from Delhi and National Capital Region, India. Gender, Work & Organization, 28, 307-320. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12700 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12700
Banerjee, D. (2006). Economic liberalization and informal wage in a small open economy: does capital mobility count? MPRA Paper. https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/id/eprint/1353
Banerjee, M. (2022). The partition of India, Bengali “new Jews”, and refugee democracy: transnational horizons of Indian refugee political discourse. Itinerario, 46(2), 283-303. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0165115322000092 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0165115322000092
Basole, A. (2022). Structural transformation and employment generation in India: Past performance and the way forward. The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, 65(2), 295-320. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41027-022-00380-y DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41027-022-00380-y
Bhat, J. A., & Yadav, P. (2017). Economic informal sector and the perspective of informal workers in India. Arts and Social Sciences Journal, 8(1), 1-9.
Bhatt, V., Chandrasekhar, S., & Sharma, A. (2020). Regional patterns and determinants of commuting between rural and urban India. The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, 63(4), 1041-1063. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41027-020-00276-9 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41027-020-00276-9
Biswas, P. K. (2001). Surplus yield and production structure: The case of small‐scale rural industries in West Bengal. Journal of Peasant Studies, 28(2), 119–145. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150108438768 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150108438768
Bose, M., & De Roy, S. (2019). Conditions of employment and livelihood security of informal workers: a study of four villages in Jalpaiguri District, West Bengal. Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy: A Triannual Journal of Agrarian South Network and CARES, 8(3), 414–439. https://doi.org/10.1177/2277976019872869 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/2277976019872869
Breman, J. (1999). Industrial labour in post-colonial India. II: employment in the informal-sector economy. International Review of Social History, 44(3), 451-483. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859099000619 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859099000619
Chandrasekhar, C. P. (1993). Agrarian change and occupational diversification: Non‐agricultural employment and rural development in West Bengal. Journal of Peasant Studies, 20(2), 205–270. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066159308438507 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03066159308438507
Chang, S.W., & Coulson, N. E. (2001). Sources of sectoral employment fluctuations in central cities and suburbs: evidence from four eastern U.S. Cities. Journal of Urban Economics, 49(2), 199–218. https://doi.org/10.1006/juec.2000.2192 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1006/juec.2000.2192
Das, K., & Mahanta, A. (2023). Rural non-farm employment diversification in India: the role of gender, education, caste and land ownership. International Journal of Social Economics, 50(6), 741–765. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijse-06-2022-0429 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSE-06-2022-0429
Das, P. (2023). Creation and destruction of jobs in urban labour market: role of gender, caste and religion in India. The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, 66(1), 225-237. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41027-022-00425-2 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41027-022-00425-2
Deininger, K., Monchuk, D., Nagarajan, H. K., & Singh, S. K. (2017). Does land fragmentation increase the cost of cultivation? Evidence from India. The Journal of Development Studies, 53(1), 82-98. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2016.1166210 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2016.1166210
Deshpande, A. (2022). The Covid-19 pandemic and gendered division of paid work, domestic chores and leisure: evidence from India’s first wave. Economia Politica, 39(1), 75-100. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40888-021-00235-7 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40888-021-00235-7
Duranton, G., Ghani, E., Goswami, A. G., & Kerr, W. (2015). The misallocation of land and other factors of production in India. Working paper, The World Bank. https://fid4sa-repository.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/3815/ DOI: https://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-7221
Eapen, M. (2001). Rural non‐farm employment: Agricultural versus urban linkages ‐ some evidence from Kerala state, India. Journal of Peasant Studies, 28(3), 67–88. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150108438775 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150108438775
Ganti, S. (1996). Economic sectoral bias in the macro-money demand function for India: some evidence. Journal of Economic and Social Measurement, 22(4), 219–230. https://doi.org/10.3233/jem-1996-22401 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3233/JEM-1996-22401
Goswami, P. (2024). The political economy of precarious work in India: a case of languishing social policy? Critical Sociology, 50(1), 125-140. https://doi.org/10.1177/08969205231185270 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/08969205231185270
Hasan, R., & Molato, R. (2019). Wages over the course of structural transformation: Evidence from India. Asian Development Review, 36(2), 131-158. https://doi.org/10.1162/adev_a_00134 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1162/adev_a_00134
Hoffmann, E. M., Konerding, V., Nautiyal, S., & Buerkert, A. (2019). Is the push-pull paradigm useful to explain rural-urban migration? A case study in Uttarakhand, India. PloS One, 14(4), e0214511. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0214511 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0214511
Hoskins, M. (2000). The effects of sectoral and technological changes on the skill composition of employment in the United Kingdom 1951–91. Economics Letters, 69(1), 101–107. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0165-1765(00)00268-8 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0165-1765(00)00268-8
Johnson, C., & Chakravarty, A. (2013). Re-thinking the role of compensation in urban land acquisition: empirical evidence from South Asia. Land, 2(2), 278-303. https://doi.org/10.3390/land2020278 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/land2020278
Khan, G. S. (2013). Partition-migration in Bengal: Political schism and regional-cultural divide. Sociology and Anthropology, 1(2), 72-75. https://doi.org/10.13189/sa.2013.010205 DOI: https://doi.org/10.13189/sa.2013.010205
Khanna, M., & Majumdar, S. (2020). Caste-ing wider nets of credit: A mixed methods analysis of informal lending and caste relations in Bihar. World Development Perspectives, 20, 100265. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wdp.2020.100265 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wdp.2020.100265
Lawson, N., & Spears, D. (2021). Those who can't sort, steal: caste, occupational mobility, and rent-seeking in rural India. Journal of Demographic Economics, 87(1), 107-140. https://doi.org/10.1017/dem.2020.21 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/dem.2020.21
Lehmann, D. (1986). Sharecropping and the capitalist transition in agriculture: Some evidence from the highlands of Ecuador. Journal of Development Economics, 23(2), 333-354. https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3878(86)90122-7 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3878(86)90122-7
Marchang, R. (2020). Education, employment and economy of scheduled tribes of North-East India: a study of Manipur. Journal of Rural Development, 24–45. https://doi.org/10.25175/jrd/2020/v39/i1/152503 DOI: https://doi.org/10.25175/jrd/2020/v39/i1/152503
Mondal, S. (2018). Caste and Reservation in India. International Journal of English Language Literature and Translation Studies, 5(4). https://doi.org/10.22161/ijels DOI: https://doi.org/10.22161/ijels
Nissan, E., & Caveny, R. (1985). A note on regional nonagricultural employment. Review of Regional Studies, 15(3). https://doi.org/10.52324/001c.9605 DOI: https://doi.org/10.52324/001c.9605
Pandoh, A., & Singh, A. (2025). Examining wage inequality among women in India: A multidimensional analysis of socio-economic disparities. PloS One, 20(4), e0320940. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0320940 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0320940
Patra, M. (2024). The visible ‘caste gaps’ amid an ‘invisible’ caste system in West Bengal, India: a study of discrimination in Bengali society. CASTE / A Global Journal on Social Exclusion, 5(3), 498–509. https://doi.org/10.26812/caste.v5i3.676 DOI: https://doi.org/10.26812/caste.v5i3.676
Pradhan, I., Kandapan, B., & Pradhan, J. (2022). Uneven burden of multidimensional poverty in India: A caste based analysis. Plos One, 17(7), e0271806. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0271806 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0271806
Prasad, I. (2022). Caste-ing space: Mapping the dynamics of untouchability in rural Bihar, India. In Sociology of South Asia: Postcolonial Legacies, Global Imaginaries (pp. 293-322). Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97030-7_11 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97030-7_11
Radhika, Dahiya, N, & Rani, M. (2023). Relationship between problems of women laborers and their socio-economic status. International Journal of For Multidisciplinary Research. https://www.ijfmr.com/papers/2023/5/6427.pdf DOI: https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2023.v05i05.6427
Rogaly, B., Harriss-White, B., & Bose, S. (1995). Sonar Bangla? Agricultural growth and agrarian change in West Bengal and Bangladesh. Economic and Political Weekly, 1862-1868.
Saha, A. (2019). Caste inequality, land relations and agrarian distress in contemporary agrarian economy of Bardhaman, West Bengal. Contemporary Voice of Dalit, 11(2), 182–193. https://doi.org/10.1177/2455328x19866997 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/2455328X19866997
Sen, S. (1999). At the margins: Women workers in the Bengal jute industry. Contributions to Indian Sociology, 33(1–2), 239–269. https://doi.org/10.1177/006996679903300111 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/006996679903300111
Sharma, A. K. (2000). Implications of contractual arrangements in land and labour markets at a village level in Palampur Valley of Himachal Pradesh. Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, 55 (3), 353, 2000.
Sharma, S. (2022). Trends in employment and wages of female and male workers in India: A task-content-of-occupations approach. Asian Development Review, 39(01), 169-199. https://doi.org/10.1142/S0116110522500020 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1142/S0116110522500020
Singh, C. (2019). Migration as a driver of changing household structures: Implications for local livelihoods and adaptation. Migration and Development, 8(3), 301-319. https://doi.org/10.1080/21632324.2019.1589073 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/21632324.2019.1589073
Singh, N., & Kaur, A. (2022). The Covid-19 pandemic: Narratives of informal women workers in Indian Punjab. In The political economy of post-COVID life and work in the global south: Pandemic and Precarity (pp. 17-50). Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93228-2_2 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93228-2_2
Singh, N., & Siddiqui, A. R. (2021). Dilemma of Development: impact of small landholding size on economic development with special reference to scheduled caste population in Azamgarh. RESEARCH REVIEW International Journal of Multidisciplinary, 6(12), 28–32. https://doi.org/10.31305/rrijm.2021.v06.i12.004 DOI: https://doi.org/10.31305/rrijm.2021.v06.i12.004
Singh, S. (2014). Pre and post liberalization performance of small-scale industries in India. Journal of Commerce & Behavioural Science.
Singh, U. (2024). Migration, economic policy, and urban labor in India since 1991. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention, 13(9), 41–44. https://doi.org/10.35629/7722-13094144 DOI: https://doi.org/10.35629/7722-13094144
Srivastava, R. (2023). Invisibility of the Discourse of Backwardness in Pre-Independent India. International Journal for Multidisciplinary Research, 5(6). https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2023.v05i06.11317 DOI: https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2023.v05i06.11317
Srivastava, S., Kumar, K., McDougal, L., Upadhyay, A. K., Hay, K., & Singh, A. (2025). Mapping women’s work in India: An application of small area estimation. PloS One, 20(2), e0317783. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0317783 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0317783
Thapa, R., & Mishra, D. K. (2022). Agrarian distress and seasonal out-migration: insights from a field survey in North Bengal. Sociological Bulletin, 71(3), 396–420. https://doi.org/10.1177/00380229221094776 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00380229221094776
Weller, B. R. (1990). Predicting small region sectoral responses to changes in aggregate economic activity: A time series approach. Journal of Forecasting, 9(3), 273–281. https://doi.org/10.1002/for.3980090306 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/for.3980090306
Yamane, L. (1993). Unions and the persistence of shocks to employment. Journal of Macroeconomics, 15(4), 805–827. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0164-0704(05)80011-4 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0164-0704(05)80011-4
Yatheen, & Ishwara P. (2023). Financial vulnerability among scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in India. EPRA International Journal of Economic and Business Review, 19–26. https://doi.org/10.36713/epra17399 DOI: https://doi.org/10.36713/epra17399
