Migration And Unemployment Will Play A Decisive Role In The Upcoming Elections In Bihar

The issue of migration is once again taking centre stage in the upcoming Bihar assembly elections. Rashtriya Janata Dal’s (RJD) Tejashwi Yadav launched a campaign two years ago highlighting the exodus from the state. More recently, the Congress’ Kanhaiya Kumar undertook a month-long march advocating ‘Stop Migration, Provide Jobs’. Political strategist Prashant Kishor has consistently labelled migration as Bihar’s most pressing problem in his rallies.

According to many reports, migration from Bihar paints a grim picture. The state has been termed as the second state, after Uttar Pradesh, from where maximum migration takes place.

However, when Outlook India sought the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) perspective on the persistent migration, a party leader dismissed the idea of work-driven exodus, claiming people migrate out of choice and not out of distress.

To verify this claim, Outlook India travelled to Bihar’s villages to investigate whether any labourer was migrating out of choice.

Four months ago, Arun Kumar’s first child was born, but he could not make it home. The harsh reality of migration forces him to spend roughly eight months a year in Punjab, working to sustain his family. He is hardly able to spend four months at his home. Migration has forced him to sacrifice both joy and sorrow alike.

“What can we do? Nobody leaves by choice,” Kumar laments. “We are packed into trains like animals. If we had regular work in Bihar, even for 10,000 a month, we would not leave. Are there any employment opportunities here? The fields in the village will soon be submerged by the Kosi River’s floodwaters within a month.”

Kumar, from Arraha village, Pratapganj Block, in Supaul district, works at a vegetable shop in Patiala, Punjab, earning 20,000 per month. Two months ago, he came to his village, but within two months, he will have to return to Patiala.

Kumar, 28, has endured a decade of migratory hardship, shuttling between Bihar, Haryana and Punjab. He is not alone. Two of his younger brothers also work as daily-wage labourers in Punjab.

Village headman, Bablu Chaudhary, estimates that nearly every household in Arraha’s 700 homes has a young person who has migrated. He claims that work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) exists only on paper―with insufficient work and delayed payments.

The MGNREGA mandates 100 days of work for cardholders annually. In the Kosi-Seemanchal region, with 550,000 MGNREGA cardholders, only 91,000 received 100 days of work between April 14, 2022, and May 8, 2023.

In the fiscal year of 2023-24, 53.5 lakh families in Bihar sought MGNREGA work, with 46 lakh families receiving work, but only 23,074 families could complete the full 100 days, which is a mere 0.4 per cent. Bihar's daily MGNREGA wage is Rs 245, which is lower than 13 other states.

Arraha is a flood-prone region. Sixty-five-year-old Vishwanath Sao says he had to rebuild his house three times in a span of one year due to the destruction and havoc of flooding.

Sao has spent 40 years of his life as a daily labourer in Delhi and Punjab. When Indira Gandhi was murdered, he used to work as a labourer in Punjab. He believes that families would starve to death if they did not migrate to Delhi, Punjab or Haryana in search of work.

Migration in the Kosi region is not solely due to floods; extreme poverty has also forced people to leave their homes and families in search of work. According to the NITI Aayog’s 2021 report, Supaul ranks fourth in Bihar for multidimensional poverty, with 64.10 per cent of its population living in poverty.

For Kosi’s residents, migration is both a necessity and a compulsion. However, the ruling party downplays its significance, while the opposition exploits it politically.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently inaugurated and laid the foundation of Rs 13,480 crore worth of development projects in Madhubani, including investing Rs 11,000 crore for flood control measures―to construct dams and canals on the Kosi River. Besides this, crores of rupees will be spent in the energy and railway sectors.

But how much these announcements of projects curb migration? That’s the question residents of Madhubani’s Jaynagar are asking.

For instance, Ruksana Khatun’s husband, Sirajuddin, spends a major part of his earnings in repaying loans. Whatever meagre amount is left barely helps them to make ends meet.

Hailing from Baldia village in Jaynagar, Madhubani, Khatun says, “My husband used to work in Delhi, earning Rs 10,000-15,000 per month. But we could not save anything.” “So, we borrowed money and sent Sirajuddin to Saudi Arabia, but he had to return. Now, he will again go back to Delhi to repay the loan. The lenders constantly harass us.”

Khatun asserts that if there were jobs available in in Madhubani or Patna, paying even Rs 10,000, no one from Baldia would leave their homes.

Baldia’s village head, Mohammad Jahangir Hashmi, recalls a time when people from other states came to work in Madhubani, and Jaynagar―which is a subdivision of Madhubani district and Baldia is a village in Jayanagar―sugar and rice mills. With their closure, locals now seek work elsewhere. Despite promises from the government, these mills remain closed.

At least one or two members in nearly every household in the panchayat’s 3,000 households is working outside the state. Even Hashmi’s sons work out of Bihar.

Sugarcane farming was once a significant livelihood source in Bihar, and the state had a thriving sugar industry. However, only eight of the original 18 sugar mills remain now, impacting thousands of farmers and labourers.

Bihar faces both floods and droughts, which are the major drivers of migration. The Gandak, Kosi, and Bagmati rivers flood nearly 20 districts in north Bihar during the monsoon season, destroying crops, homes and livelihoods.

South Bihar―including Gaya, Nawada and Aurangabad―suffers from droughts due to insufficient rainfall and irrigation. Drought ruins the crops of farmers, and they are forced to migrate due to economic hardship.

A report published this month―citing the 2011 Census―states that a total of 74.54 lakh people have migrated from different states of India, which constitutes 7.2 per cent of the total population.

A study by the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) indicates that more than 50 per cent families in Bihar are forced to migrate―family members migrate to more developed places within or outside the country. The livelihood of these families primarily depends on the money sent by the migrant members. Most migrants are poor and landless farmers, and their average age is about 32. The major reasons cited for migration are employment opportunities, better living standards and seeking better livelihoods. This study also mentions that it the male members of the family who mostly migrate.

The BJP had organised a nine-day programme to connect with Bihari migrants nationwide, informing them about the state’s development and encouraging them to vote. This strategy aims to secure migrant votes in the upcoming elections. The party plans ‘Sneh Milan’ events at 75 locations, including Delhi, Mumbai, Punjab and Gujarat, which have a huge diaspora of Bihari migrants.

While the BJP acknowledges the significant migration from Bihar to different states across the country, the BJP’s spokesperson for the state, Prem Ranjan Patel, claims that people migrate for leisure, not work. He says, “The Opposition has no issues, so they are raising the issue of migration.” “Migration happened during Lalu Prasad Yadav’s rule (1990-2005) when merchants and business people had moved to safer places outside Bihar due to incidents of looting, murder and abduction. But after the double-engine government, people feel secure. Industries are being set up, and jobs are being created. People are not migrating from here. Those leaving now are doing so out of choice, not necessity.”

Former agriculture minister of Bihar and RJD MP Sudhakar Singh counters, “Migration occurred during our reign too, but not at this scale. Nitish Kumar and the BJP came promising a double-engine government, yet migration intensified. I believe that this is due to Nitish Kumar’s economic policies, particularly abolishing the Mandi Act, and failing to guarantee Minimum Support Price (MSP). Farmers in Bihar are not getting a fair price for their crops. As a result, the income of the state’s farmers has been gradually decreasing, and migration has increased.”

Sudhakar claims that the Union government wants poverty to increase so that farmers and labourers can be found from Bihar at cheaper rates. Therefore, for the government, the issue of migration and farmers does not seem like an issue, he alleges.

However, studies indicate that the history of migration in Bihar dates back to the 19^th century. The areas around Kosi River, often referred to as “the sorrow of Bihar”, have seen higher rates of migration. Additionally, seasonal migration is more prevalent in the regions of Munger, Saran, and Seemanchal, and the majority of migrants belong to the Scheduled Caste (SC), the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and the Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities.

Migration and unemployment are poised to play a decisive role in the upcoming elections, as the Opposition is targeting the government over the lack of industries and jobs. The political strategies and promises related to these issues will significantly influence the voter’s decisions.

(Translated by Kaveri Mishra)