Challenges of Spatial Development in Darjeeling Hills

Development has often been defined as a progress made by human across space and along the spectrum of time. Initially, we misunderstood development with quantitative progress and overlooked the qualitative part. Economic growth was regarded as pillar and foundation of development. We, however, shortly realised that economic growth was not enough to attain societal development. Qualitative progress of human being was equally found to be important. It was increasingly felt that unless we are socially developed in terms of health, education, gender equity, spatial equity etc there was little or no meaning of wealth. More recently, particularly since the Rio Summit of 1992, environment has become the third important pillar of development. Today, we talk of sustainable development that respects not only economic and social attributes but also environmental parameters.

The importance of Space in Development

Space or spatial aspect is one of the prime indicators of socio-economic development in any region. A region is divided into various spatial/geographic locations. Urban, Rural, Towns, Cities, Villages, Hills, Plains are all part of spatial characteristics of a particular region. Development or progress has to equitably respect all the spatial characters else there comes into play another parameter called ‘disparity’. Disparity in development is one of the prime topics in development discourse across the globe in recent times. It was disparity in development, meted out by the Government of West Bengal and for that matter Government of India that prompted the Gorkhas of Darjeeling Hills to fight against the directors and implementers of development since 1907 that culminated in a violent ‘Gorkhaland Agitation’ of the 1980s.

How far ‘Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council’ been respecting the space is one of the obvious questions that strike us today. Since we fought for almost a century for this ‘space’ it becomes pertinent to put before the development authority (ies), sitting in Lal Kothi, the question of ‘space’ and spatial equity in their development approach. This is so, because DGHC enjoys the executive powers in the hill areas in relation to almost all the development-related activities and the respective development establishments. Besides, it also enjoys the general powers to formulate integrated development plans for the hill areas and implement development schemes and programmes[i].

Importantly, a research scholar in Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, recently studied the levels of rural development in Darjeeling hills as part of his M.Phil dissertation. One of the most important findings of his study is that there has been a rampant disparity in urban and rural areas. Further, even across the rural spaces notable disparities have been found as some of the most backward villages in the region are located across the remote nooks of Kalimpong and Kurseong sub-divisions. In Kalimpong such villages are located beyond Relli Khola. Villages like Suruk, Yang, Makum, Panbu and many others are the prime examples reflecting immense disparity in development within rural Darjeeling Hills.

Cases of Suruk and Yang-Makum Khasmahal Villages[ii]

Administratively, Darjeeling hills have been divided into three major spatial categories. They are Sadar Darjeeling, Kurseong, and Kalimpong sub-divisions. Each sub-division is further categorised into urban and rural spaces. Rural areas are divided into Kamans and Busties (villages). Busties are further divided into revenue and Khasmahal Busties / villages. This is a general spatial structure of Darjeeling Hills under the developmental direction of Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council. Darjeeling Hills as per the Census of India 2001 constitute over 52 percent of the total population of Darjeeling district.

Suruk and Yang-Makum villages are located in the southern most part of Kalimpong sub-division. Yang-Makum has a total population of 3094 while Suruk has a total of 1710 population as per the Census of India, 2001. These villages subsume under them some 20-25 hamlets (sub-villages). Panbu, the most backward hamlet of Darjeeling Hills, as per the research finding, is located in Yang-Makum Village.

Economic Participation
Economic participation refers to the ratio of those men and women who are engaged in one or the other economic activity. The total economic participation of Suruk is about 41 percent while the same for Yang-Makum is 54 percent. In comparison, the total economic participation for the whole of rural Darjeeling comes to around only 37 percent. About 63 percent of the total populations of rural Darjeeling are non-workers, consisting of unemployed, children and senior citizens. In case of Yang-Makum, only 46 percent of the total populations are non-workers while 59 percent are non-workers in Suruk. This means the rural folks of these two villages are economically more active than that of the average rural Darjeeling. It further means people in the area work harder than average rural soul of Darjeeling Hills to sustain their livelihoods.

Agricultural Activity
Agricultural activity is one of the prime economic activities in any rural region. In rural Darjeeling 21 percent of the populations are cultivators and directly depend on agriculture. The rest of them are engaged in other forms of economic activity. However, in case of Suruk and Yang-Makum Villages over 90 percent of the total population are cultivators and agriculture forms the backbone their livihood. These two villages mainly practice subsistence farming consisting of foods grains and cereals. Commercialisation of agricultural activity is yet to find its place in the area although some of the farmers are experimenting ginger cultivation on a commercial basis, more recently. No attempt has been made to diversify the rural economies in the area.

Left over pockets!
Not surprisingly, these two villages are devoid of most basic human requirements like road communication, electricity, safe drinking water, primary health centre, efficient primary and secondary schools and many other basic physical, social and economic infrastructure facilities. As one may do in many parts of the country, the spatial socio-economic structure cannot be analysed in the Queen of the Hills merely by observing the towns and roadside developments. A house-to-house survey in these rural villages will reveal the real picture as to how people are struggling for their livelihood. That the infrastructure is unsatisfactory is evident on seeing the poor still trudging a daylong walk to buy provisions or sell their agricultural produce in the nearest town. The situation becomes worse during the rainy season when frequent large-scale landslides and other forms of mass wasting take place. During this period a large number of villagers lose their lives.

Vicious cycle
The villages in the last few decades have been witnessing a notable male selective migration for better economic opportunities. Migration is mainly taking place towards the urban environment of the district and to the major cities of the country like Delhi, Calcutta, Chennai, and Mumbai, to name the important few. Population pressure, degradation of the Common Property Resources, depletion of forests; long neglect of the region, backwardness of the economy and society, low agricultural productivity, lack of opportunity etc. have played prominent role in this regard. Though this has been bringing home money, needed hands are diminished from home and native village at the same time. As a result, agricultural production has seriously disrupted and has ultimately started declining. The drains of the labour force has caused damage to the subsistence economy on the one hand while on the other they are discouraging efforts to wards self reliance of the village. Also, although, the money earned is sent to the villages; on account of the ecological constraints, inadequate manpower, and low technology, traditional agriculture does not provide the local hill folks with adequate income to meet their basic necessities. Thus, the money is again floated back to buy provisions. This vicious cycle keeps the rural people of these villages with very little savings.

Challenges of Spatial Development Planning

Development, in order to be sustainable and equitable, needs to be planned. An unplanned development approach leads to lopsided development. Lopsided development refers to asymmetrical fruits of development venture. It is, to be more precise, an unequal distribution of the results of development. Equitable distribution of development across space is one of the essential pre-requisites of sustainable development. Some of the major spatial development challenges under the development direction of DGHC may be listed below:

1. DGHC has not been able to plan development and distribute the fruits of development equitably across its spaces;

2. Development maps in the region are drawn by the politicians and associated heavy weights instead of professional development planners;

3. The available development professionals are forced to follow the dictates of elected leaders that are less supported by logical reasoning/scientific explanations and more by vested interests;

4. Precedence of politics and populism over rational development planning makes things further murkier;

5. There is negligible or no participatory (general people’s participation) planning techniques followed in the region;

6. There are many pockets (like Suruk and Yang-Makum) and sub-pockets (like Panbu) across the geographical spaces of Darjeeling hills where DGHC has continuously been unable, or rather turned deaf year, to address the pertinent and grave development issues over the years.

Unless we address the above listed challenges rural spaces scattered across length and breath of the region will continue to reel under the vicious cycle of poverty and hardship. We need to identify needy spaces and include them into development planning of the region. An integrated / holistic development takes along with it all the spaces - rural and urban, remote and nearby, densely populated and sparsely populated. Further, a rational development planning balances between the sectors. For example, roads are important but equally important are other sectors like electricity, safe drinking water, health facilities, educational institutes, rural economic diversification etc. DGHC has not been able to develop a holistic spatial regional development plan. It has also failed to balance / prioritise among various development sectors.


[i] As mentioned in Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council Act, 1988.
[ii] The quantitative data mentioned in this section are drawn from the Census of India, 2001, Primary Census Abstract, Office of the Registrar General of India, New Delhi.

**Vimal Khawas is an Associate Fellow, Council for Social Development, New Delhi and can be contacted at vimalkhawas@gmail.com**