Women of Darjeeling Hills moving towards Self Employment Generation

The age of old farming system is no longer a sustainable profession in Darjeeling hills. Many women of Darjeeling used to leave their hometown to find work in other cities and foreign lands. With booming tourism business and increase in literacy rates today‟s educated women are choosing to return „home to share their knowledge and experience to work towards development of the community to provide a sustainable livelihood solutions for their family. Homestay business being one of the fastest growing self-employment businesses.Darjeeling is known as “Queen of Hills” worldwide attracts every year a large number of tourists i.e international, national and local due to its beautiful mountain scenery and world-renowned tea gardens. During peak tourist seasons the number of hotels and guest houses becomes insufficient to accommodate the tourists. To overcome this crisis recently a popular trend called Home Stay Tourism has emerged in Darjeeling hills. Local people give their part of the premises in cash where tourists can explore the cultural heritages, lifestyles, and traditions of hill communities during their stay. The essence of such Home Stays is due to the homely atmosphere experienced by the tourists. The outcome of homestays has provided numerous benefits for unemployed women like financial stability, employment generation, social and cultural upliftments. The paper will focus on the three-dimensional views of the economic, social and cultural impact of Home Stay enterprise on unemployed women of Darjeeling Hills.