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A nine-foot bronze statue of Late Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, who originally hailed from Bihar and
Time passed, 6 years on; Every time I pass-by this statue at the southern end of the Gandhi Maidan, a multitude of thoughts sparks. My neurons feels a bit strained thinking what exactly this statue gives message to the society. Does this not an an irony that our state is grandeuring, feeling proud of the story of a migrant to whom we failed to provide even a livelihood? Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam’s success was his personal effort and the system there which helped him reach the top of the island nation of Mauritius and given this fact the Government of Bihar need not to in cash the credit.
Anyway, the Hindi-speaking state of Bihar, UP and others are under the festive Holi fevers grip this week. Trains witness unprecedented (every year the crowds break its own past record) crowd. Every important railway stations is witnessing sea of humans. The Black marketing of railway tickets runs as every year it holds. Any simple Delhi-Patna route SL class berth in any express train being sold like hotcakes anywhere between Rs. 1600 to 2000 against the official fare of just Rs. 435 and 550 for tatkals. The capital city of Patna having two Bus Terminus at Mithapur and Bankipore (Gandhi Maidan) borne the maximum passenger load for interstate services. Even government run buses(BSTRC) runs with passengers on the roof. At this age of low-cost carriers in Indian civil aviation space the non-refundable economy class airfare from Delhi crossed 20,000 this time; against the normal fare of around just Rs. 5000. Airfare from the other important cities like Kolkatta, Pune, Mumbai, Bangalore met similar fate.
Undoubtedly, these visitors to Bihar helps a great financial boost every festive week. But who these visiting people are who borne a fatigue journey, travel insecurity and a lot of mental and physical stress? They are visitors for a week, on a visit to their left behind family, relation and home. It is their annual journey of sentiments. These are the real tourist to Bihar! Nope, they are not tourist. They are migrants instead. The ongoing trend appears every festive season is the crystal clear representation of the enormity of the problem of unemployment in Bihar. This angle of migration story is enough to embarrass any government running into its 9th year. And in susaasan people expects more than that.
Debraj Bhattacharya, a social scholar, who puts his paper in 2013 with the governemnt of Bihar researched the migration phenomenon in Bihar with a quite trustworthy methodology. His research revealed the incidence of out-migration from rural Bihar which is probably greater than anywhere else in India. A combination of circumstances, both natural and societal, has created a situation in the state where sending a family member out to earn was the only way of staying alive. There was a remarkable increase in migration after 1990 and even more during 2000.
After 2005, all hopes lies on the new government and a paradigm shift was expected. But the rural economy ground remained to a virtual standstill in all practical senses. While the government records, witnesses unprecedented growth and historic gain, the migration from flood, drought, closure of industries as well as law and order problems continues to force the outflow of people. Banks are very reluctant to extend loans to poor, farmers and enterpreneurship. More than 90 per cent of the households are dependent on moneylenders and other resources for small to average size loans.
In many research beside Debraj’s it comes flat that the inadequate fulfillment of livelihood and inadequate employment opportunity is the main cause of migration. The randomly selectively chunks across the various districts of Bihar, it comes to a shocking 81 percent case where one person from the household migrates. The dominant trend is for one person per household to migrate to urban areas in search of work. It is very rare to migrate with family in poor societal groups.
The migration symptom among Urban Biharis who are highly educated, techies and are instrumental in the running of world’s best enterprises from IBM to Microsoft, Reliance, Accenture etc. seems to be a different case as brain-drain but not actually so. This self made elite class has never been the part of concern for the earlier governments in Bihar. Ignored perpetually they settled abroad out of this poor state but still holds good value ancestral property and real estate here. From diaspora to NRBs and some world class summits a lot of experiments been done to hit the headline but the ground reality remained as it was in Laloo-Rabri era.
Amit Sinha is a bilingual writer and research Journalist. He can be contacted at facebook.amit
