The Hindu : Searching for jobs, they leave their votes behind

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Saturday, Apr 03, 2004

National

National - Elections 2004

Searching for jobs, they leave their votes behind

A family moving out of its village in Orissa in search of livelihood. _ Photo: V.V. Krishnan

Aarti Dhar

Bolangir, Orissa

Pancho Bai, an elderly widow, stays alone in her house in Kurumpuri village in Nuapada district (undivided Kalahandi) in Orissa between January and May. The rest of the family migrates to neighbouring Chhattisgarh to work as casual labourers in a brick kiln during this period. They generally return before the onset of monsoon for farming. The Centre claims to have generated 84 lakh job opportunities annually, but this is not reflected at the rural level here.

Pancho Bai, who has a couple of `mahua' trees in her field survives by selling its flowers in the market, which are used for making liquor. She sells 6-7 kgs of flowers for Rs. 9 per kg; this sustains her through the week. She has applied for the old age pension scheme that entitles her to Rs. 100 per month but there has been no response from the local administration so far. However, her problem is not money but social security. If she falls ill, there is no one to take her to a doctor or even look after her. Pancho Bai and dozens of other older people depend on each other or better-off neighbours during crises.

The scene is no different elsewhere in the Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput (KBK) belt of western Orissa, where lakhs of people migrate annually in search of jobs because there are none in the region. Rahmin Khan and his wife came to settle in Kurumpuri fifty year ago; they stay alone because their only son migrates to Gujarat every year. Locals say that the 50 per cent of Kurumpuri's population that has migrated would not be there to vote on April 20, when this part of the State goes to the polls. Their votes will either go waste or will be polled by someone else. "[The] hand is what you eat with and makes you stronger while a lotus will shrivel up if there is no water or if there is a strong breeze,'' says Rahmin Khan, giving his views on elections, as others discuss the fate of the migrant votes.

A survey conducted in 400 of the 2,000 villages in Bolangir districts by Action Aid, a non-governmental organisation, suggests that migration was rampant in areas along the railway line. This year 50,000 people have migrated from here and close to a lakh from the entire region, which is much less than the previous year's figures because of a good monsoon.

Migration to nearby towns and cities has emerged as a popular response to drought over the past 35 years. Starting with the failure of the monsoon in 1965, migration has taken strong roots with thousands moving to Andhra Pradesh where they work in brick kilns, construction sites and areas irrigated by canals, says a Participatory Poverty Assessment report of Action Aid. Most of the villagers migrating to the brick kilns in A.P. are contacted by the agents of the owners of the brick kilns, who in turn get a commission from the kiln owners depending upon the number of people gathered by them. The report titled `The Politics of Poverty' also alleges a nexus between the railway officials in Bolangir and the influential contractors as a result of which a migrant labourer finds it extremely difficult to buy a train ticket unless accompanied by the labour contractor. In addition, there appears to be a tie-up between moneylenders and the contractors. Some moneylenders based in the villagers happen to be the agents of contractors. Whenever a debtor fails to pay his due in time, he is caught hold of by the moneylender and forced to migrate and he is denied an advance.

"People even go to Ayodhya and work in the carpet weaving units of J&K,'' says Hira Singh Manjhi of Kurumpuri. Villagers point out that elections do not hold much promise for them because loads of promises are made before elections and then easily forgotten. Elections come and go, but nothing has changed here. India, certainly, is not shining for them.

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