Immigration, Remittances and Rural Development: A Case Study of Balasore District in Odisha

In the rural area or household, remittances are quite vital in enhancing the life of the people economically. In Indian rural households, remittances are received by the family members from the internal migrants comprising of skilled, semiskilled and unskilled workers and white collared professionals working in different parts of India as well as from the Indian immigrants or diaspora living in different parts of the globe. India stands at the top in the world in terms of receiving foreign remittances. Remittances have been a very significant source of economic development and philanthropic activities. Remittances are used in meeting the food, health, education and other essential expenditure of the migrants’ family members. Remittances stimulate economic development and generate economic activities in the area of origin of the migrants. Remittances are also used for the village development and many philanthropic activities including building of schools, hospitals, libraries, parks, roads etc. The paper tries to study the impact of remittances especially sent by the immigrant workers residing in different parts of the world on the rural economic development and philanthropy focussing on the immigrants from selected areas of Balasore district in Odisha.