Migrate and bear the brunt

Promise of work, glamour of being in a big city, rubbing shoulders with the well off and the tales of success from people who step out, tickles the aspiring young villager to take that decisive step. After a journey of adventure, they set their foot in the city of hope and prosperity. The shock is almost immediate when they step in. Huddled into cramped space and the fight to survive begins. Grinding work, wretched living condition, and fight for resources – water, toilet, shelter and power is immediate. Welcome to the world of unwelcome migrants.

We are witnessing exodus of low skilled workers to their respective homes in numbers and hordes. Hazardous journey – walking for days, bone tired and hungry, these laborers are toiling their way home to be with their near and dear ones. Government response – especially the State Government has ranged from empathetic to apathetic Some of the host states from where the laborers are moving back are demonstrating behaviors that closely mock psychopaths. All of this is going to lead to significant impact on economy and livelihood. But who cares?

Political parties in Maharashtra and some states have never been accepting to the migrants. The events in 70’s, and since then, the state has had several occasions in which local political parties have vocalized their angst on the migrants. The neighboring state of Karnataka had witnessed a similar reaction on people from North East in last decade. The exodus is a combination of fear, helplessness and threats to their lives by the local street mafia. In India divisive politics is in existence since ages. The Congress, till date has followed the policy of suppression of the majority in terms of religious beliefs and allowed local politicians to take the same ideology and apply it to other social groups – in particular the migrants from time to time. 

How did the migration to cities begin in the first place ? Agriculture sector in India has been very kind to the rich farmers and devastating for the poor farmers. Have a look at what happened after 1991.

The total number of cultivators (rich and small land owners ) have gone up from 110 million in 1991 to 118 million in 2011.

However Farm labourers almost doubled and outnumber land owners – from 74.5 million to 144.3 million in the same period.  So you can see that more farmers became landless or laborers within this time. All told about 263 million are employed in this sector.

15% of farmers – own 55% of cultivable land in India  - Large farms

85% of farmers own the remaining 45% of land - Small farms

These farmers are rich, and are recipient of major benefits of power and fertilizer subsidy and also enjoy tax free income. 

Are you surprised that most of the politicians from rural India are from this strata. Clearly this is the segment that hires farm labour. The small farmers have small land holdings and are adversely affected by debt. Some become slaves of rich farmers or landless farmers or farm labor. Most of these farmers are from the States where migrants originate - UP, Bihar, Bengal.Jharkhand, Chattisgarh are the bulk exporters of migrants.

Corruption, vote bank politics, poor education and of course muscle power the big farmers systemically encouraged by the Congress I , Left radicals, Caste political outfits in the name of societal change have ensured that this imbalance continues. What we have is frustrated and job less youth trying to get out of misery in the hope for a better life.

In 2015 a study was conducted

The Centre for Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), based in Delhi, found that given an option majority of farmers in the country would prefer to take up some other work. Poor income, bleak future and stress are the main reasons why they want to give up farming.

• 76 per cent farmers would prefer to do some work other than farming.
• Sixty-one per cent of these farmers would prefer to be employed in cities because of better education, health and employment avenues there.
• A high percentage of farmers complained of repeated losses
• 70 per cent of respondents said their crops were destroyed because of unseasonal rains, drought, floods and pest attack.

You can see from the above, labor migration was inevitable – simply for livelihood. So how many migrants of the reported 140 million (14 crore) originate from this belt. As per population estimates the top 51 cities account for 42% of total population. The top 10, Metros and Tier 1 cities have a combined population of 110 million (11 crores).  At 35% migrant labor population in these cities, the total number of migrants  would be around 35 million or 3.5 crore. The migrants who helped build towers of progress for builders who thrive on cash economy were denied paltry wages by this community. The story is same for every sector employing migrant labor. Most of these employers are private individuals and may be operating their business on credit. The entire cash is directed towards personal wealth. Impossible to believe that they did not have cash reserve to pay wages to people who built their dreams.

Humanity, rather lack of it, is fully visible from State Administrations ruled by highly insensitive and incompetent and unresponsive people. Much of this crisis is also due to apathy of the employers whose priority – dump labor but save erosion of personal wealth. The article is not aimed at criticising the culture of a  particular state, but a commentary on on the need for humanity to arise and overcome societal barrier of inequality.