6.3: Experience of Migration: The incidence and experience of migration varies significantly across castes and communities. Even though members of all class and communities migrate, they do so for different reasons. Those who still have substantial land holdings (mostly from traditional upper castes) or have a decent business in the village do not feel the need to go out for low-end work. However, their children often go out to study and invariably move out of the village for good as they take up well paying regular jobs, often in urban centers. However, the poor from these communities do go with their fellow villagers for low-end work. As is evident from Table 14, the proportion of our respondents who have been migrant workers is much smaller among the upper castes and the trading caste when compared with rest of the three categories.
Table 14: Migration Status across Social Groups among the Respondents.
|
|
Worked as Migrant Outside
|
Total
|
Yes
|
No
|
Traditional Upper Caste
|
10
(27.8)
|
26
(72.2)
|
36
(100.0)
|
Trading Caste (OBC)
|
19
(30.6)
|
43
(69.4)
|
62
(100.0)
|
Other OBCs
|
46
(51.7)
|
43
(48.3)
|
89
(100.0)
|
SCs
|
33
(66.0)
|
17
(34.0)
|
50
(100.0)
|
Muslim
|
36
(57.10)
|
27
(42.9)
|
63
(100.0)
|
Total
|
144
(48.0)
|
156
(52.0)
|
300
(100)
|
Several of the respondents shared their experience of migration. We also spoke to some who are currently working elsewhere and were visiting homes during the fieldwork. One can say that the stories retold to us were a combination of both positive and negative experiences of migration. For some of the migrants, the experience of having lived and worked outside seemed to be an enabling, a positive one - it provided them with some disposable income with which they were able to support their families and meet household expenses, educate their children and do business. These experiences certainly varied across caste and communities. While those from the “upper” and the trading castes experienced and spoke of migration as a positive experience of mobility, many of the poor shared their encounters with hardships and difficulties. A large number of them told us about the meagre amount they earned and saved as migrant workers, the harassment they faced at the hands of the police during their return journey, the withholding of their wages/salaries by employers, long working hours and much more. A man who works in Delhi and happened to be in (Satghara/Bhagwatipur) during the time of our visit told us:
I work in Delhi. I have no choice. If I could get a job here that pays me 250 or 300 rupees a day, I will stay back. Why don’t you do something about opening a factory here, where we can get employment? I can’t even think of starting any business. I don’t have money (punji nahin hai). Even if I were to start a shop, will I get customers?
We also had the chance to speak to Shiv Kumar Mukhia (35 years) who too works in Delhi, as an electrician, and was on a vacation in Bhagwatipur:
Do you like staying in Delhi?
I want to stay in the village. Who would want to leave his family, his mother and father and go out? I like the village (Humhe toh gaon achha lagta hai). I like the village because people know how to behave. They respect women. There is no respect (izzat) in Delhi. I go to work inside the houses in Delhi. I don’t like it. Women wear short clothes…
Another respondent who has been going to Punjab for seasonal agricultural work told us about the compulsions for moving out of the village for work:
I work here but can get employment only for around 10 days in a month. I have no choice but to go to Punjab for work unless I want to starve (agar garib mazdur yeha se Punjab nahi jayega to bhukh se marega). I save
5,000 to 6000 rupees while working for 15 to 20 days during the harvesting season.
Shyam Kumar Mandal worked in Delhi for a few years selling toys on the footpath. However, he soon returned to Satghara and set up his own sweet shop, partly with the money he saved as a migrant in Delhi. Now, he and his brother cater at local weddings and functions. According to him:
Work in Delhi was tough. There was no time to rest. This job is better, easier.
(Dilli ka kaam bahut kathin thaa, koi aaram hi nahi milta thaa. Ye kaam achcha hai)
Another respondent, a Dalit from a neighboring village narrated his experience of humiliation and hardships that he had faced as a migrant worker:
There is only one train from here that goes to Amritsar, Punjab. It is very crowded during the season. Some can’t even get in. However, once we are in the train, no one bothers us. It is when we are returning with some cash in our pockets that the police harass us. Even when we have a ticket, they say it is not a proper ticket. They take money from us, 500 to 1000 rupees. They beat us if we refuse to pay.
The process of migration is by no means a singular event in time. For most of our respondents who are currently engaged in the non-farm economy, the experience of migration prior to this engagement was drawn over time. Some of them had migrated and returned a few times, hoping to find a better opportunity each time they moved out. Some of them still kept an eye and ear out for an opportunity; their current non-farm occupations did not mark the end of their migration story. However, there is a correlation of the desire and ability to move back and forth with the age of the respondents. In our interview schedule, when we asked the respondents a question about whether they had migrated prior to starting their current occupation, we got the following set of responses, which have been cross tabulated with the age of the respondent
Table 15: Age and Migration
|
Age of the Respondents
|
Worked as migrant outside
|
Total
|
Yes
|
No
|
Age 15-20
|
7
(38.9)
|
11
(61.1)
|
18
(100.0)
|
21-30
|
38
(50.7)
|
37
(49.3)
|
75
(100.0)
|
31-45
|
70
(51.5)
|
66
(48.5)
|
136
(100.0)
|
46-60
|
21
(38.9)
|
33
(61.1)
|
54
(100.0)
|
60 and above
|
8
(47.1)
|
9
(52.9)
|
17
(100.0)
|
Total
|
144
(48.0)
|
156
(52.0)
|
300
(100.0)
|
As we can see in the Table 15, more than half of the respondents were among those between 21 to 30 years old, and those between 31 and 45 years old reported having worked as a migrant outside their settlement prior to their current occupational activity. This indicates, firstly that the volume of out-migration has increased with time as the percentage of migration reported declines in age group older than that and secondly, a significant number are of those above 40 years old which may constitute what are permanent return migrants.
Similarly, the migration cycle does not run only between the origin and destination, it would be befitting to state that it runs between origin and destinations. The expansion of networks among migrants, the search for better opportunities and increased connectivity has propelled migrants to go to more than one destination in the time they spend as migrant workers. This too has abetted with time, the current generation of migrant workers deem it more desirable, kismat aazamaana (to test their fate) in more than one place.
Table 16: Age and Migrant's Destination
|
|
One only
|
Two to three
|
More than three
|
NR/NA
|
Total
|
Age 15-20
|
5
(27.8)
|
2
(11.1)
|
0
(0.0)
|
11
(61.1)
|
18
(100.0)
|
21-30
|
31
(41.3)
|
5
(6.7)
|
2
(2.7)
|
37
(49.3)
|
75
(100.0)
|
31-45
|
60
(44.1)
|
5
(3.7)
|
5
(3.7)
|
66
(48.5)
|
136
(100.0)
|
46-60
|
17
(31.5)
|
3
(5.6)
|
1
(1.9)
|
33
(61.1)
|
54
(100.0)
|
60 and above
|
7
(41.2)
|
1
(5.9)
|
0
(0.0)
|
9
(52.9)
|
17
(100.0)
|
Table
|
120
(40.0)
|
16
(5.3)
|
8
(2.7)
|
156
(52.0)
|
300
(100.0)
|
As we can see in the Table 16, it is notable that respondents in the 15-20 years old age group were the ones who reported the highest percentage of having migrated to more than one (2 or 3) destinations for work. Given that the oldest respondents in this category are twenty years old, this number is likely to increase.
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