Social Trends

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Social Trends is an interdisciplinary refereed journal, published annually by the Department of Sociology, North Bengal University. All rights reserved. No part of the articles, excepting brief quotations in scholarly works, can be published/reproduced, without the written permission of the editor.

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2020 - 20252

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Start date: 2020Subject: search.filters.subject.Labour

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    Nepali Migrant Porters in Sikkim
    (University of North Bengal, 2025) Gurung, Viveka
    India has remained a favoured destination of work for many migrants hailing from rural areas of far western and eastern Nepal. Among these migrants, there are some who move towards the larger metro cities in the heartland and others who travel to smaller hilly states to sell their labour. One such group are the Nepali immigrants working as porters in Sikkim. They have a historical presence and are deeply ingrained in the state economy. However, due to the Peace and Friendship Treaty of 1950 signed between the two nations, they are classified as neither local nor foreign workers in India. Such ambiguity makes their labour status unclear and exposes them to exploitation, leaving them unprotected under labour laws. Despite facing several predicaments, these workers can exist in congruence with the host community and make a decent livelihood. The study views these migrants as social actors who can navigate through their adversities of working as unskilled labour in a politically debilitating set-up by utilising their social capital and forming social networks in everyday life to sustain themselves as well as remit to their families. The study uses primary data collected via an interview schedule with the Nepali migrants working as porters, as well as the members of the host area in Gangtok and Namchi districts of Sikkim. Secondary information is collected from relevant articles and journals.
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    ItemOpen Access
    Life of the Workers in an Abandoned Tea garden in North Bengal
    (University of North Bengal, 31-03-2020) Rai, Ambika
    A tea plantation, apart from being an economic unit, is a social institution, which, to a great extent, controls the lives of their resident work force. The tea industry of North Bengal provides employment to more than three lakh workers. These workers are dependent upon the plantation management for food, water, shelter, education, health, sanitation and more. However, it is taken to be caught in crisis since the early 2000s. The closure and abandonment of several tea plantations of North Bengal has thrown the labourers into a situation of dire uncertainty. They lose their jobs, and there comes a shift in the nature of their work, from permanent labourer in the tea estate to casual labourer elsewhere. Besides losing economic security, they are losing whatever minimum social security they had prior to the closure or abandonment of the estate. The paper aims to understand the reason(s) behind the closure of one particular tea estate from the Terai, namely, Panighatta Tea Estate. The estate has been abandoned since 2015. The paper further tries to analyse the impact of the abandonment and closure upon its concerned labourers.