PEOPLE MIGRATE FROM BIHAR TO OTHER STATES IN SEARCH OF LIVELIHOOD AS THEY DO NOT GET OPPORTUNITY HERE

PEOPLE MIGRATE FROM BIHAR TO OTHER STATES IN SEARCH OF LIVELIHOOD AS THEY DO NOT GET OPPORTUNITY HERE

2-MAY-ENG 1

RAJIV NAYAN AGRAWAL

BHABHUA----------------------During the English rule, thousands of people were transported to Mauritius as indentured labour over a hundred years ago but the migration is still going on with impunity. Migration to Mauritius was under compulsion of foreign rule but after independence, people are migrating to another States like Punjab, Gujarat, Mumbai, Pune, New Delhi to eke out two square meal a day that reminds the migration to Mauritius. The People who were transported to Mauritius as indentured labour, settled there and started living by mingling with the culture there though they preserved their culture too. Even after more than a century has passed, they missed their country and sometimes they come to India in search of their relatives here. A similar situation persists even in Post Independent India. People from poor families are forced or destined to go to other States of India in search of livelihood and there is no one to take care of them which reminds us of those people who were transported to Mauritius.

A glaring example of such migration is Sikathi village of Bhabhua block in Kaimur district of Bihar whence at least 24 people the same family went to Mumbai to work as labourers in the textile Mills in Mumbai and Pune. The migration started with Badhu Yadav of Sikathi village of Bhabhua block in Kaimur district about 37 years ago who fed up with poverty went to Mumbai with Bhanu Sharma in 1987. Gradually, migration started and today 24 members of his family are living in Mumbai and Pune and working as labourers in textile mills.

52 years old, Badhu Yadav has seven brothers and one sister. At the age of 14 about 37 years ago in the year 1987, when his family was going through a serious financial crisis, he went to Mumbai with the aim of working in a company with Bhanu Sharma of his village. After his marriage in the year 1995, he also took his wife with him to Mumbai. After that his two brothers Chhotu Yadav and Akshay Yadav also went Mumbai and both started earning money by working as labourers in a textile mill.

Of the seven brothers, four stayed in the village and three brothers went to Mumbai and started earning. Gradually other members of the family also left the village and went to Mumbai and Pune to work in textile mills there.

All the people who came from Mumbai said that the biggest problem is that they did not have factories in Bihar. There is no other work here except making bricks and digging and carrying sand. They are forced to go to New Delhi, Gujarat, Mumbai, Pune, Punjab to eke two squares meal a day. If work is arranged here and we get even less money, we would like to stay here and work. Who wants to leave their families and go and work abroad and added that Factories and companies in other states ake advantage of their helplessness.

Dadhu’s daughter’s wedding was on April 19, 2024 and so all his family members who lived in Mumbai and Pune had come to their native village Sikadhi to attend the wedding ceremony. Some people returned to Mumbai and Pune on their work after the marriage was solemnized but his nephews Dhananjay Yadav and Chandan Yadav are still in the village. Dhananjay Yadav said that when we could not find anything in the village, we went to Mumbai to join our uncle.