A Comparative Study of Labour Participation in Three Wetland Regions of West Bengal, India

Wetlands are invaluable components of the environment, ecology, resource potential and biodiversity in India. In the Gangetic flood plain of West Bengal, wetlands are used for multiple purposes, and have significant role in the livelihoods of the local people. Thus an awareness of the importance of wetland is raised from few decades, because Government authorities and private organizations are started to realize the fact that wetlands are complex ecological systems, whose structure provides numerous goods and various services, including food storage, water quality sustenance, agriculture production, fisheries and recreation. The objective of this work is to analyze the conditions of unemployed people through labour participation and to evolve an adaptation for the sustainable use of wetlands, emphasizing the economic upliftment for the selected floodplain region. It may be concluded that as some of the floodplain wetlands serves as bird sanctuaries, national parks and reserves of biodiversity, it results in several environmental issues to mitigate and are also used for irrigation, jute retting, collection of edible aquatic plants and animals as well as birds. Thus a plan for floodplain wetlands may be developed to integrate the various uses of the water body with a holistic approach.