Youtubers from rural bengal are winning hearts of millions of netizens: A study on transforming rural livelihood

Abstract

Bengal being agro-based economy, agriculture is the major source of income among the rural folks. Those with hectares/acres of land, employ other landless villagers to work in their field on payment of minimum wages. Thus, landless villagers (youth) with no other major source of income, face a hardship to sustain in villages as there is rarely other scope of work left in villages other to earn livelihood. Due to lack of employment in villages, the trend of migration to big cities for labour job, mainly in construction sites, hotels, factories etc. is prevailing. However, the situation is again showing a gradual shift and the pattern of earning livelihood is changing with the easy access of new media in rural parts of Bengal. Launch of Digital India campaign in the year 2015 has ushered in electrification and internet connectivity in the remote villages of the country. Smartphone and social media usage has increased to a great extent among villagers. Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Messengers are the widely used applications these days. Though most of them enjoy these applications as a source of entertainment, many have made these apps a source to earn their livelihood sitting at home. YouTubers from rural Bengal are winning hearts of millions of netizens direct from their remote village. They are not migrating to cities, nor working as labours in fields. They have created their own identity through creative contents in YouTube platforms. In this paper, it has been described how the rural Bengal youths have made YouTubing as their source of livelihood.