Abstract
With rising inter-regional disparities in post-reform India, circular and seasonal labour migration from the relatively less developed regions to the urban informal sector has come to be part of the livelihoods strategy of a growing section of rural workers in recent decades. Examining the historical processes of marginalisation and dispossession, labour relations and outmigration in one of the most backward regions of India, through a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis, this paper presents the nature of exclusion and adverse incorporation of the working poor in contemporary India. Drawing upon primary research in interior Odisha, this paper examines the conditions under which a section among the marginal cultivators and labourers gets incorporated into circular migration streams through middlemen and labour contractors, while others rely on friends and relatives to find jobs in distant cities. Such migration creates scope for an escape from the abject poverty at the places of origin; however, a large section of these migrants also works under highly exploitative conditions characterised by varying degrees of unfreedom and bondage. The role of social identities, such as those based on gender, location, caste, ethnicity and religion in these migration networks, can hardly be overlooked. The processes through which labour from the study region are getting integrated into a mobile army of cheap labour raise fundamental questions about the role of bondage and extra-economic coercion in contemporary capitalism.
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Notes
As per estimates based on 61st round of NSS (2004-5), the headcount ratios of poverty in these districts were as follows: Balangir (66.3), Nuapada (70.1) and Kalahandi (70.5), as against the overall poverty level of 46.9 per cent in Orissa as a whole (Chaudhuri and Gupta 2009). In 2012–2013, the poverty levels in Balangir, Kalahandi and Nuapada were 67, 49 and 62 per cent according to the Tendulkar methodology (Government of Odisha 2017).
. There are, however, no reliable estimates of the number of seasonal migrants from these districts. Some NGOs like Vikalpa (Kantabanji) and Lokadrusti (Khariar) have been collecting information on seasonal migration from their field areas.
The upland southern region and the ST population also have a relatively higher incidence of poverty (Mishra 2009). The correspondence between the social and spatial concentration of poverty and seasonal migration within Odisha points to the possible linkages between the two.
We do not intend to provide a comprehensive account of the economic history of the region, rather wish to highlight some historical processes selectively that have played a significant role in shaping the contemporary context of outmigration.
Another report is prepared for the district administration; Nuapada reports the amount to be in the range of 4000–6000 rupees (Tripathy, non-dated: 21). However, we found that the initial amount is often very small, and the lump sum advance is handed over to the labourers just before the actual migration starts in the months of October and November.
In villages with significant seasonal migrant population, operating grocery shops have also become a seasonal activity. This has created a crisis for many petty traders as well.
In our field survey, we came across a number of different cases of violence against the seasonal migrant workers. There were at least 9 cases of disappearances reported by the NGOs over the past 5 years or so. In some other cases, the family members were so traumatised and scared that they refused to follow-up or register the cases. We came across cases where accident victims, even when they were seriously injured, were sent back without any compensation. The case of chopping off of hands of the workers, reported in the media, further confirms such atrocities at the worksites (The Hindu 2013).
In 2015, in a single rain-fed village in Balangir district, for example, out of the 35 seasonal migrants, nearly 63 per cent had migrated to different towns in Maharashtra, and only 7.14 per cent had migrated through labour contractors to the brick kilns.
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Acknowledgements
The author is grateful to Dinesh K Nayak and Rukmini Thapa for their research assistance. Financial support from the Indian Council of Social Science Research and the JNU UGC-UPE II to conduct this research is gratefully acknowledged. The usual disclaimers apply. A previous version of the paper was presented at the EADI-NORDIC Conference on Globalisation at the Crossroads: Rethinking Inequalities and Boundaries, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.
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Mishra, D.K. Seasonal Migration and Unfree Labour in Globalising India: Insights from Field Surveys in Odisha. Ind. J. Labour Econ. 63, 1087–1106 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41027-020-00277-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41027-020-00277-8