INVOLUNTARY MIGRATION WITHIN INDIA CAUSES AND EFFECTS

Introduction

The importance of migration in economic development and social change cannot be undermined especially in the context of developing countries l ike India. I t plays a major role in manpower planning and urbanization thereby wielding great influence on socioeconomic processes.

The genesis of migration l ies in the dissatisfaction with the contemporary environment. Migration involves a change of residence from one environment to another. An internal migrant moves from one regional unit to another for a certain minimum period of t ime. Such a motion is rooted in his disgruntlement with his exist ing si tuation, which he hopes to overcome by migrating towards an apparently better setup.

Internal migration may be voluntary or involuntary, temporary or permanent. Although the l ine of dist inction between voluntary and involuntary migration is thin, for the purpose of our study, we include under involuntary migration, the mobili ty result ing from such crises as war, violence, r iots, environmental calamities l ike floods or earthquakes. In si tuation where economic constraints result in movement for earning l ive hood, the voluntary or involuntary nature or migration, remains a matter of semantic difference. Thus, interest traders, laborers, art isans, shift ing cult ivators and indeed most job seekers in general can be classified under either category depending on the motivational factors behind such migration. The present study focuses on migration that is forced by circumstances beyond a person’s control . Temporary migration differs from the permanent in the length of the period of the t ime involved in maintaining the changed si tuation. I t is the kind of dist inction, which segregates a ‘native’ from a ‘visi tor’ .

An in-depth analysis of the burgeoning problem of involuntary migration within India is of great

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significance due to the increased dimension of this problem in recent t imes. I t needs to major demographic changes, which trigger a set of economic, social and cultural problems as evident in the big cit ies of Delhi or Bombay. As hoards of job seekers or refugees from places l ike J&K, Punjab, Bihar etc. crowd into slums in other places, a potential ly explosive mine is created. There are the aspects of ethnicity, poli t ical exploitat ion, and psychological consequences l ike alienation or apathy, civic or municipal problems, which threaten the very seams of the city fabric. Organized crime, delinquency, prosti tution or beggary proliferate in these pockets and pose her clean challenge to the administrator and town planners of today.

The present paper first takes a look at the causes and consequences of involuntary migration and subsequently attempts to search for solutions to these threats of migration. The cases of migration from J&K or Punjab due to the prevail ing si tuation are examined in detail and Bombay is put under the microscope, as an example of the i l l effects of involuntary migration.

CausesThe factors leading to involuntary migration are

many the chief amongst them being the economic incentive and the hope for better l iving standards. These factors can be crudely classified under the following heads: - ( i) poli t ical ( i i) economic and (i i i) socio-cultural . Involuntary migration may be due to one or a combination of these factors.

i) PoliticalIndia is a democratic poli ty in which the people

–on account of their vote in the poli t ical market-influence decisions, policies and programmes of the government. The superimposit ion of the west minister model of parl iamentary democracy on the tradit ional socio-cultural setup in India meant the persistence of the use of tradit ional group identi t ies to influence to away of the popular vote and to ensure people’s part icipation. Communalism has been largely an

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offshoot of this tendency to exploit the emotions or mind set of the voter to further narrow poli t ical gains. Now whenever there is frict ion of the communal son i t affects the psyche of the people to the extent that they are forced to migrate towards a promise of security. The recent case of Bombay riots substantiates this proposit ion as also the migration of the minority after the 1984 riots.

The ramifications of poli t ical imbalances in our country are visible in the countryside where a new kulak class has replaced the old, landed aristocracy. The redistribution of land has catalyzed the process of transfer of poli t ical power from one class to another. This noveau riche class is tenacious in protecting i ts socioeconomic status even as the winds of change bring awareness and consciousness of r ights to the hitherto suppresses sections of society. The volati le nature of the conflict between this stubborn tenacity and newfound assert ion of rights, results in caste wars and carnages. Such a phenomenon is frequently observed in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh etc. and breeds a steady stream of involuntary migrants who flee the menace in the areas for the quietude of the city.

The ‘Son of The Soil’ s logan is a much-flaunted slogan these days and becomes a convenient garb behind which ethnic divisions, prodded by economic competit ion, operate. Whenever, these are a competit ion for scarce economic resources the tradit ionally powerful caste clan surfaces and the ‘sons of the soil’ identi ty is intensified by such events as the Linguistic Reorganization of states during 1956. The myopic regional/sectarian identi t ies often fuelled by economic or poli t ical considerations force people to vacate the area for want of a feeling of belongingness. This phenomenon is manifested in Maharashtra (Shiva Sena), in Assam (ULFA) where rising mili tancy has induced a series of involuntary migration.

The Indian poli t ical system has also failed to provide an effective forum where people can raise their grievances let alone store them efficiently. This has alienated the large minority of common people who are fi l led with a feeling of helplessness or apathy. This chronic deficiency in the government machinery breeds terrorist or secessionist forces, which in turn lead to

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involuntary migration of one section of people or another.

i i) EconomicIf the involuntary migration is not a f l ight to

save the dear l ife then most l ikely i t is in search of bread-unemployment or underemployment being i ts genesis.

In a developing country l ike India, despite the government’s active intervention through the instrument of planning in achieving distributive justice there are large, glaring and persistent inequali t ies not only between different states or between different regions in the same state. Thus while some states or zones have been able to create a super-abundance of jobs, these are utterly lacking in some other impoverished states. This invariably and quite predictably leads to migration – a steady trickle that converts i tself to a torrent under adverse condit ions. This type of migration can really be termed as either voluntary or involuntary – voluntary because they migrate on their own accord and involuntary because economic necessity or deprivation forces them to leave their homes and wonder in search of jobs. A visit to Bihar brought us face to face with reality – able-bodied men in vil lage had left as migrant labour in search of employment.

There could be two broad divisions in this capacity – farm or unskil led labour and educated and skil led job seekers.

Terrorism – Violence Related MigrationOver the years the Indian federation has

witnessed an alarming trend – a growing tendency towards terrorism and secessionism. This terrorism related violence forces people to migrate from that affected area because the most fundamental of al l r ights the right to l ive is threatened. Mass exodus from these regions as in case of J&K and Punjab is certainly an example of the extreme form of involuntary migration – where people leave behind flourishing businesses and opulent l ifestyles and become refugees packed in makeshift tents l ike so many sardines. This is the most tragic of al l migrations.

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Victims Of DevelopmentLarge-scale multipurpose projects and dams

result in larger displacements and dislocations. Though i t is mandatory for the government to rehabil i tate and resett le the people so affected such resett lement, which is more often than not involuntary and often coercive results in leaving these people rootless. Though this movement is not str ict ly migration, we call i t coercisive if not involuntary migration. The affected population are compulsorily evicted from their vil lages etc. and resett led in areas alien to them and having no connection with their occupational structure. Moreover the host population is hosti le to the people so sett led.

It is pertinent to cite in this connection the World Bank safeguards on resettlement and rehabilitation:

1. To improve or at least regain the standard of l iving they were enjoying prior to their displacement

2. To be relocated as vil lage units, vil lage sections or families in accordance with the ouster preference.

3. To be freely integrated in the community into which they are resettled.

4. To be provided with appropriate compensations and adequate social and physical rehabilitation infrastructures.

Natural disasters l ike floods, earthquakes and droughts also result in involuntary migration.

Effects Of Involuntary MigrationThe phenomenon of involuntary migration leads

to far reaching effects. Like a pebble thrown into a pond there are an immediate splash and the circle of impact slowly but surely spreads to a larger area.

Economic A major causative factor of involuntary

migration is the endless search for bread or for betterment of economic condit ions. These people when migrate do so a last resort . On migration the standard of l iving deteriorates for some time but over a period of t imes as employment becomes assured the standard of

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l iving generally improves. I t is seen to go up over generations as well . If there is a mass influence of people there is a pressure on employment and there is a download pressure on wages. But this also results in unemployment problems. Many big cit ies are not able this mass influence in terms of employment opportunit ies.

If the migration is rural-urban as is the case most of the t imes, i t results into regional and sectarian dislocations an overcrowding of our cit ies and under population in the rural areas. Also another effect of this rural urban migration could be change in the techniques of production. The rural sector seeks a more capital-intensive technique and the urban sector adopts more labour intensive technique of production.

Socio – Cultural1. Alienation – The migrants having left their roots

behind find themselves alienated from the mainstream of there adopted land. They feel that they are losing their cultural identi ty.

2. Homogenization – there is a reverse trend of an intermingling of cultures over t ime as migrants adopt the l ife codes and the culture of the natives.

3. Breaking of the caste identities - and family units takes place as people move into broader groups and identi t ies. The tradit ional caste structure has lost i ts r igidity primarily due to migration, both voluntary and involuntary. Similarly the age-old concept of a large joint family is also breaking and nuclear families come up instead.

4. Ethnocentricity – i t is also possible that migrant group seeks to perpetuate i ts cultural code and identi ty among i ts progeny and seeks to build or small cultural homeland in an alien sea.

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5. Along with the breaking of the family the separation of the l iving couple, there develops an alternate insti tution, that of prosti tution. The migrant male fuels this insti tution which has wide ramifications in changing ideological structures, health, sanitat ion and even the status of women which also witness a problem of migration.

Political There are widespread poli t ical effects of migration which are enumerated below

1) The son of the soil concept has come about the natives as competit ion for resources increases due to migration. More and more people competing for the same jobs, same commodities, same amenities causes heart burn among the actual residents of the place who feel that the scare resources which should have been rightfully theirs are being wasted on the fresh entrants, al iens, who do not really deserve i t . This sentiment over a period of t ime has acquired poli t ical overtones, as some groups have been able to highlight this injustice, perceived or otherwise, and mobilize the people against the present system on this plank of sons the soil .

Health Migration affects health in the following ways: -

1) Fert i l i ty Ratios in the families that have involuntary migrated goes up, especially in the big cit ies Bombay, Banglore, Calcutta etc. the proliferation of slums leads to many diseases, due to lack of sanitat ion; there is also this scars of the deadly disease AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases which come about due to the presence of ghettos, slums and prosti tution.

Demographic1. Cities expand and slums proliferate2. Demographic profiles of both cit ies and vil lages

change.

Case Study: Punjab

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When a population, prosperous and flourishing is compelled to leave i ts homeland due to fear of death or destruction the ensuing migration, we feel is the most tragic of al l the involuntary migration. The knotty Punjab had resulted in such a si tuation where the non-Sikhs were forced to leave Punjab. I t was all the part of well thought out deliberate strategy to oust the non-Sikhs from Punjab so that only the Sikh population is left behind and this was sought to be achieved by selective mass kil l ings of the potential migrants. Punjab has been a state which has not only seen the inter state out migration (Hindus moving to neighboring states of Haryana and Rajasthan and to Delhi) but also intra-state migration – of the rural urban kind. In this kind of migration the skil ls as well as the non-Sikhs migrated from rural to urban areas. Majority of those who migrated were farmers – i t was perceived that ci t ies and towns were safer and the vil lages to that extent more vulnerable.

The inter-state migration has created many dislocations not only economic but also socio-poli t ical . The out-migrants called refugees who having left rather prosperous l ifestyles back home had to begin from a scratch. They are often not able to reconcile with the charged si tuation and environment and often suffer a lot both on the psychological and emotional front. While new problems in the land migrated to seem beyond solutions the problems back home remain unattended and uncared for.

The most disastrous and lasting effect and also the most conspicuous is the Hindu Sikh polarization. The two communities, which had shown exemplary fraternity in all these years, were on the warpath. The forced out migration of the Hindus from Punjab and the consequent i l l feelings between the two communities was what profoundest of khalisthan wanted. They almost did succeed in this.

BombayInvoluntary migration, which is a rampant

phenomenon in India, leads to various distort ions and dislocations. Bombay metropolis is perhaps the city where the problem is most grave and acute. Such is the problem that the Maharashtra legislature and the Bombay municipal corporation are in fact

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contemplating a legislation, which would restrict the number of migrants entering Bombay. In Bombay t i l l recently around 500 migrants entered the city. Many of them were from the vil lages of Maharashtra. But many more came from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. In most of these cases migration is involuntary especially for those who come from drought strikes vil lages or landless families. I t is perceived and rightly so that employment especially in the industrial sector abounds in Bombay. A huge portion of Bombay’s industrial work force comprises, the migrants. Moreover in Bombay, i t is also relatively easy to find some sort of casual work. The migration to Bombay could thus be explained by (i) job opportunit ies that the city has to offer. ( i i) Perceptions that such opportunit ies are a legion and the standard of l iving in Bombay would be much higher than in the native town and vil lages.

Thus most migrants who come to Bombay are able to eke out a l iving. They do get jobs or employment but their l ife in the city is pathetic and deplorable. They l ive in ghettos and shantytowns and in chawls, a small room shared with fif ty others. And these are the fortunate people. Many do not get accommodation. This explains the proliferation of the encroachments.

The problems than Bombay faces today made the BMC appoint a committee to go into the question of migration and whether i t could be stopped or at least controlled. The said committee after giving a detailed account of the problems came with a proposed legislation, which would init ial ly restrict and eventually stop all involuntary migration to the city. But the law judiciary department has raised objections to the bil l saying that i t would reach the fundamental r ight to move freely thought the country. Opinions are st i l l divided. Many feel that the proposed bil l will well fal l within the reasonable restrict ions. The bil l however is st i l l pending.

Problems Faced By The City1. Over population: the population is increasing at

a study pace. And this indeed the root factor to which most other causes are related. Not only do the

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migrants add to the city’s exist ing population but also the rate of growth of population is the fastest in this class, since they all belong to the lower most strata. A survey has observed that on an average each migrant family has 5 to 6 children. These children are invariably i l l fed, barely l i terate and are going to pose a tremendous problem in the days to come, poverty and i l l i teracy coupled with rising unemployment in the city i tself conspire to make these children criminals.

2. Criminalisation: f irst the tr iggered riots and then the bomb explosions. Though international terrorists are said to be involved in this, these two episodes have also compelled the police and the administration to view the increasing crime rate of the city with greater concern. Gang war has also become a characterist ic of the city.

3. Failure of civic facil it ies: but perhaps the cause for the gravest concerns both for the administration and the common man alike is the near collapse of the civic facil i t ies. Housing is a major problem. The drainage system is unable to cope up with the increasing city population causing health problems. The biggest problem perhaps is that of transportation. The suburban local service and the BEST buses are required to carry more number of passengers than they were designed for, this result ing in overcrowding, traffic jams and sound and air pollution. The exist ing health facil i t ies are just not enough.

4. Prostitution and AIDS: prosti tution flourishes when the migrant enters a new city leaving behind his family. This socio-moral evil gets an added dimension as i t is seen to be the reservoir for the AIDS virus.

5. Regionalism and sons of the soil movement: while regionalism is also a cause of involuntary migration i t is also an effect of migration. The genesis of Shiv Sena in the late sixties can be traced to the increasing migration trends- both voluntary and involuntary.

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6. Encroachments and il legal settlements: highlighted in the judgment of supreme court in Olga Tell is Vs BMC, a public interest l i t igation, where the sc tr ied to reconcile the human considerations of encroachers and the administrative exigencies of the BMC. BMC had removed, but SC did emphasis those encroachments especially on pavements cause problems to the city and the administration alike.

Many t imes removal of encroachments have also led riots, including communal riots in Bhiwandi.

Suggestions And RecommendationsAny worthwhile study of such a hydra headed

problem as that of involuntary migration and i ts consequences, would be incomplete without appropriate recommendations to tackle i t . Essentially, however, migration is l inked l ike most other contemporary issues to the process of development or the lack of i t . Lopsided progress and the simmering desire to transcend one’s exist ing condit ions impel movement towards apparently greener pastures. Therefore the need of the hour is al l pervasive development wherein imbalances are done away with and one is not constrained by one’s surroundings.

To stem the t ide of job seekers, greater bread earning opportunit ies must be created in rural , far-flung areas, which have been left out of the development process. For this, cottage industries, rural growth centers and employment schemes must be init iated. Industrial belts must be dispersed rather than restricted to large city areas so that population would fan out over a greater area. People must be encouraged to migrate back from the congested slums to their place of origin, which must offer them greater opportunit ies for earning their l ivelihood and increasing their standard of l iving. Artisans and craftsman especially those in possession of rare and dying skil ls should be provided incentives for continuing in their professions instead of giving them up for Sundry jobs in metropolis. Encouragement of folk art ists , troupes, skil led craftsmen, tradit ional workmen, would go a long way in achieving this motive. The development of tourism industry would bring more occupational opportunit ies

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to hoteliers, shopkeepers, entertainers etc. another aspect is the proper fi l l ip to agriculture in terms of monetary and resource inputs so that agriculturists do not f lee from the vicissi tudes of the countryside and into the i l lusory security of the city. Awareness programmes must be started to acquaint the people with the real problems that migration to distant dreamlands entails . The benefits of creating opportunit ies and tapping the potential of their habitat should be made known to the people.

Such economic development would go a long way in controll ing other causative factors of involuntary migration such as law and order related or violence forced migration. Once an atmosphere free of communal tension or fissiparous tendencies is at tained, people will automatically have confidence in their circumstances and those who have been forced to leave their homes for instance in J&K, Punjab and Bombay would return to work in peaceful sett ings. For this, terrorism must be curbed with a firm hand and anti-social elements, which drive people away, must be dealt with firmly.

To batt le the multifarious problems of the slums and ghettos, the working of slum development boards and municipal authorit ies must be refurbished. Special schemes for promoting l i teracy, teaching employment oriented skil ls must be encouraged so that slum dwellers can make maximum use of these and rise above their condit ions. Living condit ion in cramped locali t ies must be improved by giving proper attention to drainage, sanitat ion, providing adequate medical facil i t ies etc.

The involuntary migrant and the prospective migrant must be educated and made aware of the psychological and sociocultural problems turning in the temptations of fared by the move to cit ies. They must realize the impending sense of al ienation and loss of identi ty that such a move has in the store. They must be acquainted with the delusions created by migration to an alien surrounding and the plight of their dependents –like aged parents, wives and children back home. No doubt the economic imperatives forces harsh decisions down a person’s throat, but the central assumption of al l recommendations is the development led prosperity of the areas.

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Lastly people who are displaced from their habitat due to large dams and other projects must be carefully resett led in other areas and duly compensated so that they do not become helpless victims to what is beyond their l ines of control .

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Migration and Economic Development of Kerala. Delhi: Mittal , 1988

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