Impact of roads on income and employment of rural households in West Bengal

Abstract

It has been observed in several studies that lots of deprived communities are remote by distance, terrible road conditions, lack of or bust bridges and scarce transport. These conditions make it difficult for rural people to get their sell to market and finding jobs to place of work, to grip health emergencies, to admit children to school, and to obtain public services. In view of this, an attempt has been made in this study to consider the impact of rural roads on income and employment of the households in West Bengal. It has been found that better roads and railway systems lead to access and opportunities leading to diversified livelihood and accordingly diversified income are generated. The study also reveals that there is both quantitative and qualitative divergence in employment of the households between near and away from main road & rail station. The area which has high road and high population density positively influences the educational level too. Better access to education is materialised due to proximity of main road and rail station. The Gini coefficient is higher in case of those households who are near to main roads and rail station as well as a high Simpson index reflecting a diversified rural livelihoods mainly because of better access in income niche and implying a variation and heterogeneity in income.