Commuting patterns of workers in a village of Barddhaman district, West Bengal

Abstract

Commuting helps to keep balance between residence and workplace of workers. With growing accessibility and connectivity, the importance of commuting is increasing all over the world. It is becoming a major substitute to migration. In commute-studies, commute-pattern is an important chapter. It highlights commuters’ directions of movement, distance they cover, modes of transport they use, the time they take to commute, etc. Unlike the urban-based commute pattern, commute pattern in rural areas are relatively an under-researched issue. In fact, traditionally rural people are thought to carry a sedentary lifestyle. Using primary data, this study aims to explore the commute patterns of rural workers located in the village of Gandharbapur of Barddhaman district of West Bengal, India. All the commuters were found to be engaged in non-farm work. Commuters stem from two major groups. One group of commuters is accumulated farm-income induced. They possess sufficient agricultural land. Investing their surplus farm-income, they have established non-farm works. The second group of commuters is poverty-driven. They are landless poor or are marginal farmers and to escape poverty, they have slipped into these works. Located beyond the suburban area (Memari being the nearest town), most commuters commute to nearby rural areas. Due to non-availability of public transport, women commute less than men do. Regular-paid government employees commute longer than other workers commute. The article concludes with a summary of findings and recommendations for further research.

Keywords

Commuting, Working Commuters, Commuting Patterns, Rural area, Barddhaman District, West Bengal, India

Supplementary File(s)

Author Biography

Bhaswati Mondal

Geography

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