Home

Crowdfunding Countercurrents

CC Archive

Submission Policy

Popularise CC

Join News Letter

Defend Indian Constitution

CounterSolutions

CounterImages

CounterVideos

CC Youtube Channel

Editor's Picks

Feed Burner

Read CC In Your
Own Language

Bradley Manning

India Burning

Mumbai Terror

Financial Crisis

Iraq

AfPak War

Peak Oil

Globalisation

Localism

Alternative Energy

Climate Change

US Imperialism

US Elections

Palestine

Latin America

Communalism

Gender/Feminism

Dalit

Humanrights

Economy

India-pakistan

Kashmir

Environment

Book Review

Gujarat Pogrom

Kandhamal Violence

Arts/Culture

India Elections

Archives

Links

About Us

Disclaimer

Fair Use Notice

Contact Us

Subscribe To Our
News Letter

Name


E-mail:



Search Our Archive



Our Site

Web

 

 

 

 

 

Migration As A Means of Livelihood or An Escape Route: An Empirical Analysis

By Roli Misra

01 October, 2015
Countercurrents.org

Migration is a demographic phenomenon altering the demography of that region or nation which witness migration. According to the Neo-classical economic theory at micro level, generally individuals decide to move out of their native place because of cost–benefit analysis expecting them to give positive net return (monetary) from movement. Furthermore, there are certain cumulative factors explained in the cumulative causation theory of migration given by Myrdal which alters the social context thus, resulting in subsequent decisions for migratory pattern.

One such kind of migration has taken place in the city of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh where a large section of population belonging to agricultural community in rural Barpeta district of Assam have migrated to different parts of Uttar Pradesh and have chosen to become waste pickers in this distant land. It is in place to mention here that in since last two decades these migrants in Lucknow have informally developed a system of door to door collection of waste. They act as Invisible Environmentalists as they clean the city by collecting and segregating waste and providing the resources to the manufacturing industries in the form of recyclable waste like paper, plastic, metal, glass, bones, bottles and rags from garbage bins and dumps . The peculiar characteristic about them is that all of them claim to have come from one place called Barpeta Road and all of them are Bengali speaking Muslims (of East Bengal origin). The field survey at the source station and the destination station has given insight about the problems faced by the migrants at both the places and they are different but with one thing in common that is poverty.

During our visit to the settlements of informal waste-pickers in Lucknow we tried to gather information about their reasons to migrate. We visited those villages in Assam which were told by the migrants in Lucknow. The major problem which we witnessed was that they were not only apprehensive but were scared also to see us and enquiring about their family members in Lucknow. It was only with the help of local person we could manage to interact with them.
We interviewed two types of families-one where at least one person had migrated to Lucknow and other were those families which had no migrant member. The variables which were mainly responsible for migration came out to be the family size, poverty, floods and ethnic violence and identity problem. Due to lack of income and insufficient resources people are looking for other means of livelihood and in this case they have found it in waste.

In their villages they have limited earning options. The only viable livelihood means is cultivation but because of heavy rains and floods, the agricultural fields get submerged and many a times the Char villages get washed away or the river sweeps away a portion of village during floods. Since the district grossly depends on agriculture the livelihood of the local communities got shattered. In such situation these poor people lose their land on one hand and on the other hand are left with the option of either sericulture or daily labour to sustain their families.

It is in place to mention here that the identity of Bengali speaking Muslim people has become dubious in the state of Assam because of their similarity in language, culture and attire with Bangladesh. They are considered as illegal immigrants into India and are often harassed as Bangladeshis especially in Upper Assam .This has become a major issue in Assam since 1971 when Bangladesh was carved out as a separate nation state. The memories of the historical development of redrawing boundaries in the Indian sub-continent still haunt those people who became victims of the creation of nation states when a new definition of their existing identities emerged.

The Bengali Muslim population of East Bengal origin which got divided between Bangladesh and Residual Assam has been living with their transmuted and citizenship status till date. Do they belong to Assam or are the illegal immigrants from Bangladesh? The question is still very much alive in public discourse as well as in political thought and opens up a debate in theoretical space when spoken in context of the marginal or oppressed groups especially. Because of this major problem of identity these poor people are scared to go to Upper Assam or Meghalaya to seek employment and prefer to either get confined to their own or nearby villages or move out of state to the farthest possible distance to have a secure and safe place.

They have adopted a migratory route to escape from harassment so that they find a secure place where they no more face ethnic and linguistic tensions. It is interesting to know from field observations that poorest of the poor is also aware of his voting rights and each of them cast their respective votes in elections. This awareness is visible in migrant population staying in Lucknow also when during elections they go back to their native place just to cast vote. A fear psychosis is reflected in their body language and a struggle for their own identity can be noticed when they come in interaction with masses. Whenever they are asked why you need to cast your vote in Assam, the unanimous reply is that if they do not cast their votes and their name gets struck off from the voter’s list, then they will be called as foreigners (Bangladeshi). Their identities are contested in their own state and they are denied of all rights by getting discriminated. One thing which needs to be mentioned here is that in the urban informal sector, they have entered through social networks or through contractors, hence, facilitating long distance migration.

The out migration from the state of Assam is continuing because the returns from the agriculture are low. The government policy which is supposed to maintain and preserve their identity of this religious minority is non effective in the state of Assam. Flooded with complaints from various civil and social bodies on the presence of a huge number of foreigners, the Election Commission of India on the 17th of July, 1997 issued a circular to the State of Assam to mark ‘D’ against the names of the voters who were found missing or absent and should be put on trial before the Foreigners’ Tribunals. The visibility of the alphabet ‘D’ means doubtful. These D category voters are asked to prove their citizenship by producing the valid documents. Another problem is that of updation of National Register of Citizens (NRC).In Assam after 1951 the NRC has not been updated as there are divided views regarding NRC. These faulty and discriminating policies of the government both at the centre and state level are hampering the process of development and economic growth in Assam.

It is important that the ethnic anonymity gets reduced and development should become more inclusive in nature so that investment can be parked in different avenue in the state and economy can be put on a development path. Then only people will be able to improve their earnings back home and will be able to lead a descent live instead of migrating into the waste-land.

Roli Misra is Assistant Professor of Economics in D.B.S College, Kanpur. Her interest areas are Gender, Migration and Developmental issues. [email protected]

 




 

Share on Tumblr

 

 


Comments are moderated