The Department of Economics of St. Xavier’s University, Kolkata (SXUK) carried out a field survey in Bolpur, West Bengal on January 20, 2024. The objective of the survey was to explore how people in Bolpur, Birbhum, West Bengal diversified their livelihoods.

18 postgraduate students participated in the survey under the tutelage of Dr. Poulami Chatterjee, Dr. Subhanil Chowdhury, Dr. Sayantan Bandhu Majumder and Dr. Chayanika Mitra, faculty members of the department.

7 students of semester four and 11 students of semester two of postgraduate programme in Economics collected primary data from 105 households residing in the rural areas of Bolpur.

Dr. Biswajit Haldar, a renowned Professor of Economics, Visva-Bharati also extended his valuable support to conduct the survey.

Participants collected data on household and personal factors like monthly household expenditure, educational status, asset ownership, type of homes in which respondents live, number of family members, and status of land ownership.

Following that, data on employment migration and availability of government schemes were collected to determine the primary livelihood concerns of the rural inhabitants of Bolpur.

Dr. Sayantan Bandhu Majumder