CHAPTiR VII

SURVEY FINDINGS

7. 1 912;\egti.ves 9 g thg .Fi.cl.d- j'lorAs.

The field wa:"lt was undertaken to examine the

present SDcio-economlc eondi tion of different streams ot mi.uant and to know the actual causes of their mtuation

into Assam. To underetond the soclo-aconomlc condltlon, a

househOld schedul o wa a prepared. The sched.ul e cover-ed

varlous in£ormat1on on mtgronts such as their oceupatt.on,

education, income, saVings, indebtedness, credit need,

credit obtained, deta11 of l.and possession and land utilization.

In acldi tlon~ a ques t1onnaire containing questions on duration

o.f res14ence of the mi~ant. causes o.f mS.gratlon, money

reml ttance, cost incurred for the mov~ent, obstacle faced

or help received from friends and relatives at the time of

their srrlvsl. were also included. Add1 tlonal questions lUte

the changes that took place at the place of aest1nat1on since

their arrival and relative economic cond1 tion of the people

at tne place of or1g1n and pl.ace of destination were salted

to tlle hoad of the hOusehold. Thus primary data about

ml~ants uere coll.ected 'to substantiate our analysis in

earl.1er chapters based on secondary sources.

- 271 -

I SURVEYED AREAS -·-/""" ,_,. . ./(]) . /

./· ( I r·-- ·" ; . "' I ./ a) ·\ II

I . I ·~·--- ·' 1

/

·"·, /.. . .J I ~ · ~· . .., .r-·-... .r·.._..r-·~· -·- ,. .../ / . .~ . .r- . ~ •. - ~ . 1 1 r-' \' I } • .-'

! · (?) @ .~ I :r ··® {j) rj ' '· '5'. ,-' I

' v 1 \iii. ! ' ./ .'\./·"\.. n 'c . ..r . I , . ( .. '- . . ' ( . I ' , ,.-- . I ' I ) V ( ·l / ! ((" ..;·-... rl. .

7 (

1/

I. CHAPAKHOWA 2 .OIBRUGARH 3. GAROIMARPATHAR 4. BELBORI

5. GAUHATI 6.KALDOBA I

7. KALDOBA TI.

v. . . \ l ~· I

~ r '"'\. J j \ . .l

I < )

~- . ~ ( ~ l . ./ -..,.... I

\...'

Ll - - ---·-·· ·· -~ -~:: -- --- ·-· ......

Fig:9

.30 0 .30 60 ----L·- --·--'---·-...J ~ M

__ j

...,

..J f" )>

272

A purpoalve sample of 400 households was selected

£rom five diftes-ant immS.grant Villages an4 two urban places

covert.ns al.l streams of ml~ant throughout th<D State. Two

1mm1gl"ant v111ages, vtz. Kal.doba I and Kaldoba II were

selacted near the Bangladesh bord~ from Ooalpara district,

wh1ch is tha entrance gate for the lmmie,t'anta from Banstadesb

at one end and another ta-nigant Village, vs.z. Ne¥t Chapakhowa

\'las selected .frc:m Lak.blmpur/i>ibrugerh district under SadS.ya

SUb-Divislon. which ls at the other end of the region under

study. Thus t\'10 extreme points were purposively selected to

understand the 1ntenstty of imm1ffatlon fr'an one cornsr of

the State to the other (Fig 9). ~d1t1onal t\10 immigrant

villages vtz. Selborl and Garolmaripathar were selacte4 from

Nowgong cU.strict, a centrally located and also tile most

affected <llatrS.ct by lmml(J'at1on. A sample size of 50

households based on random sampling was selected from each

of thaoe five immt.BJ"ant villages and th.e total number of

households covered by the survey amounted to 250 in rura1

areas. S1m1larl.y. a s:ample of 75 househo1ds ft'cm mlgant

l.ocall ties tn eacb of tho tt-»0 major urban p1aces, vs.z.,

Gauhat1 an4 D1brugarh was selected. Tllese tt-:o urban centres . are a1so l.ocatec1 ln two corners of the State and are affected

by 1nternal. ml~ation.

27S

Hot-rever, before the final solect1on of these

villages and urban places, a pllot survey ~ras conducted

throughOut the State to 1<ientlfy the m1~ant villages and

also th.e m1~ant pocltets ln the urban areas. Tbus in

adcU tion to the above selected vt.llases arul urban areas. a

number of othtr villages and urban areas \'rere also v1 o1 ted

to know th.e overall background of the m1~ants in the

State.

The data trere collected during the perS.od Auguat­

Deoanb~ i982. Some 11m1 tations are inherent in the type of

lnvestlgation and collection of data by tntervS.ewlng the

respondenta at one point of ts.me. Accuracy of data coll.ected

and the co-operation of the households tn obtaining the

requ1re4 lntormatl'>n ere generally grteatly influenced by the

ab1l1 ty and tact of the interViewer. But, 1 t 1 o to be

adm1 tted that desp1 te our tnotful and bast efforts, ~be­

imml~ant respondents~ particularly from ~angladesh~ wao-e

very relllctant to reply to a number of questlono. T~s was

mainl.y due to tbe preva111ng po11 tical awospba-e S.n the

State as a result o£ the agltatlon against ~oreign nationals/-"

Moreover. lt tms very essantlal to establish rapport with the~_

1oca1 l.eadGrs be£ore start of the fiel.Cl 1nvesUgat1on ln \·. .

Bangtade~~-- 1mm1eJ>ant villages. However, no such d1fficul.ti~,8 £_":-,

274

were faced while collecting data from the internal mt.uants

as t1Cll as 1mm1gants £rom Nepal. E~en with all these

limi tati.ons inherent 1n tfie study• 1 t gives the near eat

possiblo description and quant1flcation of socio-economtc

con<iiUon of the mls-ants and al.so the causes and consequences

of mltVatlon into the State.

As tlle socio-econom1c concSi tion of different

stl"eams of migrant differ &om one anotner, 1 t w1U be

proper to tabUlate thg survey findings separately for each

str>eam~ Broadly ,.;e can diVide and tabulate tb.e flndin3s

under the .following three streams2

(1) Immi.e1ants fran Nepal

( 11) Imml#ants t\"Qn Bangladesh, and

(it.S.) Internal ml~onts (Viz. 1nter-d1str1ct and inter-state Clubbed together).

1\l. together elght flnal tables are prepared for

all these atl"eams of migt"onts and are <l1scusse4 in the

subsequent Sl.lb-sectlons.

The age compos1t1cn of different streams of

mlmrant ls represented in Tabl.e 7.1. It is interesting to

observe that in case o£ BangLadeshi immigrants as high as

48.63 p~ cent of the ~pul.atlon ts tn the age group of o-14

as against about 30 pOP cent tor both Nepa1ese tmmimrents

and internal m1~ants ln th9 same age goup. As a resul. ~

the p~centage of popU].ation S.n the age ~oup 15-49 was found

to be 43 .. 44 t.n case of Ba."'lsl.a4eshl 1mm1eJ"ants as oga1nst

54.72 end 61.88 per cent for Nepnleso and internal. ml~ants

respectively. tnus, internal mlc,l'ants showed the highest

parcentasa of population S.n the age group 15-49 t.n comparison

to 1mmluMts trcm BanGladesh and Nepal.. This lndirectl.y

refloets the larger number of working force ennong internal

mie;-anto.

TABLE 7.1 • AGE 001-i?OSI l'lON OF 1VliGR1\NTS

Nepalese % o! Bangla<lesiii % o~ 1nternai % ol' Age Group 'mmyrwa mi~~~2 &.EBm~rmSig ~·2 Mi~~~~ • 0 -14 98 30.82 619 48.63 172 30.50

15-19 53 16.67 137 10.76 15 13.30

2o-24 38 ·u.gs 96 7.54 51 9.04

25-49 BJ 26.10 320 25.14 223 S9.54

50+ 46 14.46 101 7.93 43 7.62

'rota1 318 100 1273 100 564 100

216

The sex ratio of Nepalese 1mml#ante found to be

h~ghest- w1 th 975 females as against goo. and aoa tan Giles

per thousand ma1es for Bangladasht and internal mlgants

respectively. If we eltclwio the S.nter-dlstrict ml~ants.

the scm ratio for internal ml@Fants 1k-an other parts of

India \'JOUl.d be muCh lower.

Ttle aver ags G1 ze of household was found to be

slmllar for th.e im.cnlgranta from Nepal and Bangladeshi

with 6.,36 members. In case of internal mlQJ"ants it \ilas

found to be 3. 76 menbers. Sllall size ot household of

internal. m1uants is more tnnuenced by inter-state

mig'J'ants t1bo d14 not bring their families WS.th then. It

was revealed by a number of sucb respondents that apart ~om

thelr family and other obligations at the plaoe of ort.stn

and aecommodatlon problem at the place of destination, many

of them did not like to disclose the fact that they were

earntne 'through manua1 labour S.n Assam wblcb WOUl.d 1ower

tbeir soclal status a~ the place of ortgtn. ThGJ'efore, they

gaVe an 1mpress1on at home that they were on regular

sal.aried ~bs in Assam. Tttus. tbls S..s an addl tional reason

£or not ba-lllfl1ng their famllies w1 tb them so that they can

maintain secrecy.

The 1evels of education for all. strea:ns of migrant

are collectea in detail. and are presented s.n Tabl.e 7.2.

TABLE 7-.2 ' EDUCA'l'IOI~AL LEVELS OF MICRJ\NTS

Educatt.on · rlepal.ese 95 of Bangla<ieshi ~ of Inter-- % Of s. No. Level. Imml(Van- co1.3 Immigrants col.5 nal. col..?

h m~

;- 2 ! ~ 3 r; ~ 8

1 llUt~ate 99 Z1.99 646 50.75 142 2.5.18

2 LiteratQ but below primary

47 14.78 sch.oo1 228 17.91 " 12.95

3 Prlm~Y School passed 21.70 165 12.96 sa 10.28

4 l\1144le Schoo1 passed 98 so.e2 186 14.61 118 20.92

5 Matl'iculate 9 2.93 42 s.3o 65 11.52

6 Graduate 6 1.88 6 o.47 sa 10.28

7 Post-~aduate and ether higher educo.Uon - - - 50 a.a7

318 100 100 564 100

The above tabl.e shows that tbe percentage of

1111terate was the highest amongst Bangl.aCleshS. immi@'J'ants

emountlna to 50.75 as against 28 and 25 per cent for Nepal.ese

and lnt~nal mtgents respectlvely. However, 1f we combine

all sChOOl. going ml~unts wbo paseed at least Middle School

(up to Class VI), 1 t l s found that 67.30 per cent of the

~~epalese lm.11li(J'ants belonged to tb1s category as against

about 44 tb 16 per cent for 1nterna1 mlgJ'ants end lmmt.u-ants

from Bangladesh. When we FP b1Qher in the level of educatlon

and COI!lbine all matriculates and gTaduates, 1 t ls found tbat

about 22 pe- cent of the tlltal internal mi~ants fall under

this ce.teex"Y as against about 4 per ~~t for 1mm1~ants

from Batlgtadesh and Nepal clearly indicating the fact tbat

1ntS'nal mts-ants are more qu.ali.fied than both the stzea~s

of lmmtgante.

It may be mentioned here that the percentage o£

11 terate emonsst t.mmlgants \'laS mostl.y found ln the young

age lJ'OUp !ndlcat1ng that 1ately they have started sending . their Ch!l&>en to schools. 1b1s aeens to be more enecuragt.ng

in case of ·Nepal.ese immi.s-~"lts rather than the lmmigants

from Sangladesb.

The same deflni t1on and cl.asas.gf..eatlon of workers

as adopted by 1971 Census sre followed \-tblle collecting the

data regardlng ~rk.E!!'s Ell!longst migrants 1n the fiel.d survey.

The per-centage og \10rkers was found to be lot1est among

Bangl.aiies·b1 1mmS.s-ants at 18.38 as against about 2.8 to 29

per cent fer otber t\-10 streams of migrant. Ttle low percentase

of ~kers amons Bangladesh!. imml~ants ls mostl.y caused by

lack of opportun1 ty to worlt ln the overcrowded a€r1cul tural

secto~t.

The fl.nd.lnas highlight tile concentration of

mil!J"a!lfl ~rkers in primary and tertiary sectors. A detailed

brealt•UP of wortter s in different econom1c set1 VS. tlos

within these two sectors lfOUld be rew~ding. But in case

of secondary sector. only a few m1erant wnrkers, mostly

engaged in manufactul"S.ng, processing and construction ware

found. 'lberefore, tbey are not sh.olm separately. The

follot<ilng Tabla 7.3 presents tbe findings.

TABLE 7 ~-:S t OCCUPA1701-lAL DlS'lRIBU'l'IQ-N OF f4ICRAN'l' WORKERS

s. · ategcry No. of Mls­

rant worlt~

J.Ve- Clary mr I Wo-stock sec- n-aae S:ane- btb- k;s fores- tor & port er try • Commer- sto- ser-fl shlng ce rase Vl•

r g. -:~-_,....4- !': 6 1.: ~f?n• 1! lL 1 Nepalese 64

lmmi grants ( 67. 37)

2 Bangladeshi 152 Imml~ants ( 64. 96)

S Intenal i'lisoa.nts -

4 4 ' 6 , 13 95 (4.21) (4.21) (3.16)(6.32)( 1.05)( 13.68)

so - - 16 7 9 234 < 21. 37) < 6.s4) < 2. 99 > < s.s4)

9 s 14 l.t/J e a2 158 ( 5.70) (3.16) (a.s6)(25~(S~(~

280

The table shows that 86. S3 per cent of the Bangladeshi

lmm1erant ~101'kers Qf'e engaged ln the primary sector, of

wbom 21.37 per cent \10rk as a#icultural labourers ana 64.96 per cent as cultivators. It 1s to be noted that

the psrcentase of o~S.cultural labourer, in the sample

from Gcal9Gr~ dlstrtict is as bigb as ,, as against 12 per

cent 1n tha No\1gcng sample ~lbleh is sl.igbtl.y higher than

tha State average. Due to heavy pressure o£ popul.atton on

land, a sl0\1 sb1ft 1n the occupational Clistr'1but1on of

BangJ.adesbl 1crun1~ents ~om agricultural s~tor to non­

agicultural sector seems to have taken place. Table 7.3

shol1S that 13~.67 per cent of the Bangladeshi immigrant

workers ste engaged ln tbe ter-tlary sector.

In casta of Nepalese 1mm1~ants. a\>Qut 76 per cent

t101"k~s are engaged tn prlmary sector ~le about 21 an4 S

per cent workers are engagecl in tertiary and secondary

sectors respectively. lt S.s worth observing that hardly

4 per cent of them are found to be agrlcul~al labourer.

\ib1le analysing tha occupatlcnal. dlst!-ibUtlon of

internal. ml~ants. 1 t is si@Jli£icant to note that about

82 per cent of the \'JCrkers ore engaged S.n the tert1ary

sector. More than n,gty par cent of th.an are in servt.ce

.sector while one fourth of than are founcl to be engaged in

trade anCl commerce. Others are scattered 1n dlf.ferent

economic act1v1t1es and th.G1r number is snall.

281

'to sum up, 1 t l s clear .from the ~vey fincU.nss

that most of tt'la internal mit;rants are engaged 1n the

terti.ory aactor while most of ttle lmmt~ants .trcm Bangladesh

ere en.gaged in Q#1cul.ture. Although a ma~rlty of the

Nepalese workers are engaged 1n the agricul.tural. sector.

1 t 1s seen that a gadual shift of workers paJ~t1cular1y

towards tet't1ery sector has already been talten place mostl.y

du.e to non-avaS.la'bili ty of cul t1 vable land 1n Assam.

Ho\'tever. the process is found. to be slow 1n case of

Bangla<iesb1 ~kers S.n our sample survey.

As ma3or1ty of the lmm1grants ~om Bangladesh

and Nepal. Eire engaged ln the a~1cul.tura1 sector, the

anal.ys1s ol size of holdings of these two streams of

mi{#ant ~11.11 be helpful to obtoln th.e1r comparative

post. tS.on. However, the same is not true in case of

internal ml€)"ants as the sample was col.lecteCl trom urban

areas trhlero ttley bave small reslcient1al. plot onJ.y.

Moreover, most of them are engaged ln the tertl~y sector

and. therefore not comp~abl.e. The s1ze o£ hol.<11ngs per

household for t~epa1ese and Bangl.adesb1 lmmlwants are

shown sepal .. a'tel.y ln Table 7.4.

TABLE 7.4 1 SIZE OF HOLUINGS OF IMMIGRAt~TS WUSEHOLDS

Slze of t~epalese ~of Bangl.adc;,sht %of Holdings Imml~ants co1.2 lmmif#anto col. 4 (in Acres)

1 2 3 4 5

Lanc:lleas 2 4.0 S2 16

Bel.ow o.s 10 20.0 17 e.s o.s-1 - - 2S 14

1- 2 10 20.0 51 25.5

2- '·' 15 :30.0 30 15.0

3.5- 5 1 14.0 'Z1 13.5

s- 1o 5 10.0 13 6.5

10 and above 1 2.0 2 1

50 100 200 100

It ls very clear tlrom Table 7.4 that ma3ority of

tile lmmi~ant households belonged to small and marstnal. aze

of bol41ngs and their concentration 1 s .found to ba raoat ln

1 to 5 ac=-es size of holdings. About 54 pa- cent of the

BanG).adashl and 64 per cent of the Napa1ese households are

~ound ln tbls range o~ b.oldlngs. It 1s to be noted that

the percentage of 1an.dl.ess r.mong Bangladesh1 immigrants is

more than among the Nepal.ese immlg-ants. But wl tb!.n

283

Bang&.aciesh1 1m1n1tP"ants• tha percentage of landless in the

sample fran Goalpara d1str1ct 1s found to be much higher at

29 as agalnst 3 for their counterpart ln the sample from

Nowgong dlstrS.ct. The main reason for highEr percentage of

landless in Ooalpera distr'1ct is that same of the respondents

migrat04 flrcm Bangladesh in recent years and therefore

fall.ed to acquire so f31' any cul. tlvable land in Assam. Most

of these fresh immigrants engaged themsel.veo as sgric\ll tural

labourers. It 1s to be noted from table 7.4 that there are

soma immi~Mt households t·11th relatively blssa- size of

holdings ~ch he1ped tbe fresh immigrants to earn thelr

livelihood as aqlcul.tural labourers.

The income of a household is defined as the

earnings, in cash and ld.nd• accruing to au members of the

b.ousobo1d during tho re.ference period of tt1elve months

preceding the date of !nterv1e~1 after mnk1ng allowance

for depreciation. Table 7 .s presents tile 4eta11 of J.neane

<Jlstrlbution of all streams of ml~ant households covered

by our survey.

294

TABLE 7.5 XNOOME DIS:i.RIBUTION OF lliFFEltBiT CATEGORIES OF tljiQlANT HOUSEK>LDS

fncome ltanse Nepalese' !angta4eshl lntern£ll ( Rs.) Immi.Bt'ants Immigrants Ml~ents

1 2 ! 1+

0- 1200 1 (2.0) 15 (7.5) 12 ( a.o) 1201-2400 s (10.0) 52 (26.0) s ( 3.3)

2401-4800 14 (28.0) 80 (40.0) 16 ( 12.0)

4901-9400 23 (46.0} 42 (21.0) '' (22.0)

8401 & obove 1 (14D) 11 ( 5.5) 82 (54.7)

Total. 50 (100) 200 (100) 150 (100)

N·ow, S.f ,.,e combine tbe annual income of a1l. those

households that do not exceed Rs.4Soo, lt wJ.U be seen that

40 per cent o£ tne t-tepalesa arui 73.5 per cent o£ the

Bangl.a4eah1 households fall under this t.nccme range. If we

relate th1s income range w1 tb their average size of households

wh1cb 1s 6.36• 1 t ls seen that tbe per oap1 ta montbl.y

income o.f the above mentioned households ls e1 ther equal.

or less tb.an re.62.90. We can, therefore, rougbl.y consider

tb.ese housoho1ds to be below tl1e poverw ltne as the cost

of 11V1ng ln Assam ls bighe- ~han ln other oarta o£ the

country. But the same income range cannot be applicable

to internal to internal m1~ants to determine the poverty

line $$ their average slza of househ.old ls much lower \d.th

3. 76 memb~s onl.y.

\1hat is more cleal' from the table S.s that income

distrlbu.tlon position of lnternal ml#ent boUsoholds 1s

far better than of both the stt-eams of lmmS.~ants \'lith 76.7

per cent of the total households baV1ng annual income above

~.ISOo. that too with a smaller size of bousebold. But

when w~ compare the same s1 tuatlon between two streams of

i.mml~ants, 1 t 1s clearly tbe Nepalese imm1erants whose

income pos1-tt.on is better than of tb.e 1mm1(g'ants :from

Bangladesh.

Despl te the relatlve poor economic condl t1on of

the lmmi~ants as reflected 1n their' income 41strlbut1on, 1 t

1s interesting t-4 note that more than 90 per cent of the

respondent claimed that their income hed increased after

migration. Tbis also ineiirectly supports our hypothesis

that economic factors played a si[glificant role in the

dect.s1on making process o~ mle;ratlon.

In case of i.ntGMlal mS.gt"antst tt i.e .foUnd that

near1y 35 per cent (53 househol.ds) of tbe total. houseb.olds

used to sand money to their respective home places and the

average montb1y amount of monev sent by tbem t.s represented

in Tab1e 7 ~-6• In case of imml#ants from Banglaflesh and

Nepal no sucn practice could be traced. It 1s also \10rtb­

ment1oning hero that not a singl.e m1{#ant household from aU

streams receive<! any amount of money from the place of

origin.

TABLE 7.6 t MONTHLY MONBY REMITTANCES BY INT RNAL MIGRANT HOUSEJI>LDS

R eml ttance Range

Below 50

so- 100

101-150

151-250

250 and abo1/e

Total

Number o£ Migrant Household

2

5

8

23

15

53

Table 7.6 shows that out of 53 houseb.olds ,, of

them send money ln tile range of ~. 101 to ~. 250 per month.

Another 15 households ore S.n a poeltton to remit more than

tts.250 per month. It t.s also to be noted that apart from

sendl.ns money regularly every month, they used to take at

1east on an average about FJ.5oo t'll th tt\em t'lllile Vis1 t1ng

th.GJ.r home places. This ls true o~ these mS.gants engaged

in manual. jobs. A1 thcusb we cannot estimate the total.

amount of outnow of money from the above observation due w small s1ze of sample. 1 t at least confirms the feet that a

sizeable amount of money flows out of the State economy

through. those internal migrants as wel.l. An in depth

1nvostigatS.on ln this ragercl is easent1a1 as 1 t affects

the rogtonal mult1p11e~r oi the State economy adversely •

.. SaVing bas been measured as the goss sum of the

net chaligas in value of banlt or post offlc0 account. provident

fund, life 1nmarance reserves. boldlngs of gold• jewellery,

property .ana surplus cash S.n band \'11th tbe intention of not

spentU.ng on consumptlon and m1sce1laneous debts owe4 to

the hOuseholds. Table 7.7 presents the gross savtngs distri­

bution of different sU-eams of ml4Vant households surveyed

by us.

TABLE 1.7 $ CROSS SAVIl~GS DIS'lRIBUTlON OF DUOR.ANT HOUSEK>LDS

saV'-nfG Range fiepQ.\ese Bangl.a~eshi \D• · .. Imm&fatl$ Imtn1fan1i

Below 1000 g 26

1001- 5000 12 48

5001-10.000 16 1

10,001 and above 2 3

'Fiitai 39 76

15

37 17

14

The table shows tbat out of 50 Nepalese households

surveyed, 39 households had the habit of saving. S1m1J.arly.

out of 200 bousebol.da surveyed, 78 Bangladosbi tlouaeh.ol4o and

out of 150 ho\1settolds about 83 internal migant tlousehol.ds

had the saVing habit. It is to be noted that wbile Nepal.ese

S.mm1€,J"ants preferred to save in the form of gold or jewell.ery,

th.e otb.er two streams of mlgroant preferred either in cash in

ham! or savln& account in various financial lnat1 tutions.

Major!. ty of all the siZ' enms of migrant are found to be bel.ow

the savtngs relllge of Rs.5000. Hot~ever, there ara about 16

Nepaleae households and 17 internal migrant households in

tbe sevtngs range of r.s.5001 to as.1o,ooo indtcating the fact

that anothar Gign1ficGnt portion of these mi#ant househOlds

have h1gber propensity to save. The next higher saVings

range is dominated by lnta-nal mS.#ants with 14 housettolCls

as agBinst 2 and 3 for Nepalese and Bangladeshi households.

It w111 be proper t<> adm1 t here that these <lata sean ~ be

not v~y tte1lable on account of conflict w1 th income

data.

Let us now turn our a-ttention to S.ndobtettness of

ml~ants. \11h1le enquiring ab~ut the lndeb~edness og m'!.~ants,

1 t wao gound that many of them avoided such quarries as they

seemed to be ashamed of d1scl.os1ng their poverty to an

outsld~. Despite our tactful. efZort, J..t ~s gound d1f'f'icu1t

to obtain accurate in£ormatlon regardf.ng their indebtedness.

289

In totol 48 households out of 4oo households surveyed

disclosed partially their indebtedness. About 27 households

bel.onged to internal migrants while 13 and a bouoehol4s

belonged to Bangla.deshl and Nepalese lmmS. e1rants respecti Vel.Y•

Most of the indebted households are ln the range bet\>teen

~.soo end Rl.200o ana the interest rate varied from to to 20 per cent. Monelflenders SJlC1 landlords usai to charge

compound interest whi.lo relatives and .fr1e.Ms either prefaTed

simple 1nt~est or offered loan .free of interest. About 9

b.ousohol.4a from internal ml~ants reported that they obtained

loan tree cf interest fr'om thell' ~1en4s or relat1 ves. None

of the households &om either lmml@J'ant streams could

obta1n lean free of S.ntereet.

It is \«))"th mentioning here that most of the

Bangladeshl imml@"nnts both ln Nowgong and Ooalpara d1s'tr1ots

applled tor loan to the District Rural Development Agency tor

various sehenes v1z., poultry, fishing, datry etc. off~ed

by tbe Agency under IntemratecS Ruttal Dsvelo[Xllent Pros-amme•

wbl.l.e thO Uepal.ese 1mmiuants were ;found to be 1(g10rant about

such schemes. It reflects that Bnn[!).adesb!. imml#ants are

more consclous about any £ac111 ty o.f.fered by the Government

as they ere botter organized and ~1ell informed than the

raepal.ese lmmigants.

It 1 s to be a.dmi tted that duration o£ residence .fer

immtgants from Banstadesbl. cOU1<1 not be collected proper-ly

290

as 1 t was a. 'Very sans1 t1 ve question for than due to the

preva1l11l\g poll t1ce1 aimosphere in t!'lG State. Most of them

have e1'ther avolde4 repl.y1ng to thto question or gave vague

replteu:b But. tbe duration of res1dence for lmmlgrents

.from N~pal. and internal ml~ants can ba relied upon as

they bonostly replted to our questlon. Therefore, Table 7 .a presents the duration of residence at the place of survoy

for the .Nepalese and internal mi~ants onl.y.

TABLE 7~8 t DURATION OF RESIDENCE 0 F NEPALESE AND INTERNAL f•llCRANTS

Durats.on oE Nepalese %of Internel. % of col. 4 Residence Immi f!l.' ants co1.2 Mi~ants

• I.

~ ~ 1; !

Less than !j years 11 22 22 14.67

5- 10 years 9 18 37 24.67

10· 15 years 16 32 24 16.0

15- 20 yeezts 3 6 25 16.66

20 yeers and 22 44 42 2B.o above

Total. 50 100 150 100

Table 7.8 shotrs that nearly t.o per cent of the

Nepalese as t'1el.1 as the internal ml (!}!ants stayed at ttle

p1ace of survey for ten yeers or l.ess wb11e the rest 60

per cent stayed more than ten years. Therefore, ?re get an

291

1mQress1on that ma3or1ty ot these migrants ere of psrmmaent

nature t.n Assam. However, to confirm their nature o~ mls-ats.on.

an additional questlcn regsr41ng tbelr v1s1ts to place of

last reoidence was also asked. It 1s interesting to find

that more than 50 per cent of ttle Nepalese immigrants have

not vt.sttea their place of last res1dence et al1 or at the

most they visited only once. Th!.s cl.earl.y tndlcates that

they are not very much interested tD go back to th.elr

respective oJ"lg1nal. places and refl.ects their permanent

natur-e of m1{#'atlon into Assam. But reverse is tne case

w1 th the internal ml~ants as more than 50 per cent of them

havo visited their placo of last :residence at least three

times or more lntU .. catlng a tenporary or semi•pex"manent nature

of tholr tnl#atlon 1nto Assem.

1 .• s ww""' st rawaua Questions regarding verlous push and pull factors

responsible for their ml.grat1on were put to ol1 traspondentS..

Bxcopt the Bangl.a<iesbl i.mml(Vants, others exp1aineti their

causes oZ mlgratlon honestly and properly. As such, th1s

primary in£ormatlon seems to be very use£UJ. to us ln

un<i~ standing the probl.4:lQ oK m1g at1on lnto Aasen.

The two J.mportant push factors respo.nst.bl.e £or

more than £ifty per cent oZ the Nepalese Emi&t"at1on are

292

found to be (1) snal1 stze of holdings due to increasing

Zraf!jnentatlon. and ( 11) the explol tatt.on of landlords ln

Nepal~ Mditi.onal. push factors put forwarded by then are

high price of cultivable land and l.ow pro6uct1Vity particularly

in blll. areas of Nepal. About 13 households reported that

a1 though they orlglnally migrated fttom Nepal, tnatr place

of last residence tros tn some other c.ttstrtcts of the State.

They 16ft 'the earl!. er £)laces because of floocl.

Nollt we come to tbe pull factors. Ex-servlcanen' s

resettl.emant colonies S.n Assam provtded an lmpol"tant pull

factor, The main reason for ex-oerv1cane.'l settling

permanently ln Assam was the link proVided by fa.'lll11ar

enVircn.mcnt dur1ng thelr sGrVice period. Z.toreover, they

fountl land to be cheaper than ln Nepal as ~Tell as havtng

hlgber agl'lcultural product1v1ty. ant1 absence of expl.oi.tatlon

by lertdlords unlike Nepal. I'he prevailing ryotwaJ-1 land

tenure systan ln Assam encouraged these Nepal.ese e»­

serVS.ceae."l to settle permanently thee. 1'hey also acted as

lil'lkmen £or fUrtbES' enigJOatt.on of 'their relat1ves and

friends fl"an Nepal. Thls ls confirmed by the fact tbat out

o£ 50 Nepal.ese housoh.ol.ds surveyed • as many as 37 houseb.o1ds

mlCJ"ated into Assam only after gett1n3 encouragement and

hel.p either .fran thetr rel.at1ves or ~tends.

Those who came in ear1ler periods cllsclosed that

tho sltuats.on over tho 1ast ten years or so changed a lo~

293

as prtce of 1antl 1n Assam has gone up considerably due to

sharp shrinkage ln. cu1. t1vable land. Moreover, there S.s a

·sharp shrinkage ot forest ~ea also whereas the eer11er

·migrants fr'om Mopal used to settle after cleaning the forests.

lt was also added that the economlc cond1t1on o£ the local.

S.nbab1 tants c!eterlorated ove the last decade ma1ril.y due to

shrinkage of cultt.vab1e lane and therefore. they are now

reluctant ~ part WS.tll their lend even at a ht.gtler prlcett

X t was also inf'ormec!l that a small section o~ fl'eab

immlfP,'"ants from Nepal recently \'lent back to their home places

ctue to no~avallab11.1. ty of land and ~ob ln Assam. Thus, 1 t

Qeems that the pull factors have become weakES' ove the

last taw years for migration of Nepal.ese lnto Assam unless

'they penetrate fUrthel" lnto other otatea of the North

Bast.

. Althou~ the i.mmt.#ants irom Bangladesh did not

dS.scloae ~enkly their reasons for emigration ~om Bangladesh,

their poor economl c cond1 tlon that we could see was

sufficient to conclude that they mlgJ"ateCl to Aasam baalcally

for economlc ·reaaons. It S.s also to be observed that ln

the war ravaged state o£ the economy of Bangl.a.destt.

immediately after lnde~endence, the level ot autcul. tura1

output and emp).oyment deel.ined drast1ca11y wbS.il.e 9f"1Ce

1nfl.at1on sot ln. As a rosuJ. t, 1n sp1 ta of a r1se ln the

money wags rate, the real rate decl.lned much bsl.ow the

29·4

level.o of 1969 and 1970. The clecllne S.n, output and inflation

hove blt bard rural. wage-ea:-ners S.n the 1mme<11ate post­

lndepe!ld~ce period o£ Bangladesh and 1 t ls not surprls1ng

there£ol'e that a section of tbase wage earna-s m1gttated

into Asoam seeld.ng a means of continued survival.

~n case of 1ntSf*nal migrants, the basic cause of

mt .. atlon again was found to be eeonom1c although soclel

factors also played a secorutary role. ~1ost of the r-espondents

replled that ttte1r 1ncomas have ln~ease4 after ml~atl.on.

For examp1e, a number of respondents frcm Bihar lnformect

tbat tb0y coUld hardly earn tt.s.oo to ns.6.oo per day s.n Bihar

as manual wage earner as agaln.st ~.a.oo to tl)• 1o.oo per day 1n

Assam for the same 3ob. MCI'eover, S..f one can manage to pull

a rickshaw or a tbiU& (two whoeler carTS.~). tne income

l.mme<ilately S.nct"eae)ea to Ri.20-25 per day on an BVerage. lt

1 s \'Mth mentlon1ns here that many of these rS.cltsha\'t puller a

and ,the).1mfAUas &ankly admitted that they wOUld not bave

done ~base manual. jobo at their home places ns they would be

lootted do~.n upon by the society. It f.s easier on their pert

to COJ'ry out these manual jobs in Assam as no body can

reeogn.tze then.

A section o£ respondents orlgtnall.y from Andbra

Pradesh and belongtng to HeJti~an caste h1gbl1ghted their

1.n£ert.or soc1a1 status at tbo p1ace of origin which al.so

acted as a push factor for their m1GJ"at1on. In addit!.on tD

tbe social 1U-trea1%nent, they t1are being exp:lo1 ted economi­

cally by the landlords. Many of these respondents• fore­

fathers had cul.tlvable land ln Andhra Pradesh but S.n due

cour os of time landlords could successfUll.y occupy theil"

l.an4G and thUs they became lancness and ul'timatel.y ml~ated

into Assam "nere they consider thense1ves to ba better off

both soeially:r~ economically.

'thOse \1b.o ere engaged ln trade and commerce

stt-alghtaway ren•ked that they can earn more profit S.n

Assam than 1n any othe:r parts of In41a. Moreover, scme of

then are be1ns helped ana encouraged by their i'ellow

mambers who al'e already ln a well establlshai posl t1on tn

Assam. Tho oth~ aectlon of internal mlgrant.s belonged to

the serVice sectol' and the main reason for their m1vat1on

t.s tha a~a1l.ab111ty of ~obs 1n Assam.

1b sum up, lt can be concluded that economic factors

played an llnportant role in the mlB'"ation process 1nto Assom.

The ma3or pull factors were thus avo1lab1Uty of land end

jobs. But the sl tuat1on seems to have changed partleular1y

over the 1ast ~ew years and pull tactOl'a are becoming WEl!aker

due to heavy pressure og popul.at1on on land and lack of

"· suff1c:i.ent opportuns. ties ln the no&-a~1cul. tural. sector

Glue to n~ar stagnation o£ the State economy.

296

In addS.tS.on to the flndings analysed above, tt ls

worth ment1on1ng hEre that certain important issues related to

mig ants ware 1reely and frankly d1 scussai w1 tb a cross section

o.f both mS.~ant and non-mlgant people, tncludinS the leading ' .,

personalities. of different areas of tbe state we Vlsi.tecJ.

fllese ecntaln valuable information about ml~ants. We can

claosi.fy those reactions in the form of live observations.

A major concentration of Nepalese immliJ'ants ts

found in Darrang dtstrS.ct. Although detat.led fiel4 survey .

has not been carr1ed out .• our V1s1t to tb1e distl-lct and

subsequent d1 scuss1on ~4th cross aectt.on of people revea1ed

that the!'to 81d.ste4 a good number of t·~epalese ml@J"ants who

could be consldes-ed ae lnter-d1stl'iot ml~ants. For example•

a large mm1be:r of Nepalese #azlers left the flood affected

areas of BoriJUla, Singar1 and Blswanatb ot Dan'ang clt.strict

an4 mlgateci to Dhema~. Silapathar an~ sacu.ya ar-eas of

Lakhlmpur/DS.brugarh dl~ict. Similarly, another s-oup of

Nepa1esG ~az1era t'IerG evicted from B1hal1 area of DaJ'rang

dlstrlct ~mo 1m tially selected Kazlranga reaarve .forest

~or their dairy germlng. After the evtcUon they s:li.gra:ted

to Br.mpur, another place of Darrang dlstl'S.ct.. Unfortunatel.y•

Banpur at-aa was al.so Ul.timatel.y found to be f1ood affected

and twa they·mlsrated to Sa41ya area of Lakh1mpur/Dibrugarh

297

distr'tct. Thus S.nter-41stt-ict mlgratton o£ Nepalese ~azia-s

uas £oW14 to be a camnon phenomenon particularly 1n the

Srabmaputt-a Vall.ey o£ Assam.

1. 6. 2 Ses;gM Q1iUJSFYati.Qp

Goalpal*a d1stl'S.ct is the entrar.ce gate tor 1mml~ants

.from Bangl.ades~ 0\.lr .findings 1n Chapter V ahow tbat

oeonomlcally ~hl s f.s ono of taa most ba<*war4 41.strtcts of the

State. It 1s also reflected by the fact that t.n sptte of

tbe har4-worklna nature of ~he lmmlgrants, the productS. Vi ty

of foo4~ains and other casb crops is found to be comparatively

low a~a to poor quell ty of so11. Ho\'.r&Ver • 1 t ts claimed

by most of the cults.Vatoi-s that lf regular ll'rlgatlon

tac111 tlos are proVided to then, 1 t l'11ll be poaslble on

their pt»rt tO increase the productiVity manlfo1d by u.s1ng

HYV and gertllS.zers as they are keen to take advantage of

sucb fac1l.l tles. Untortunt)telYt no such efforts have yet been

made in tnt.s 4l.rection by the state @'Vernment although the

lmmlt:rants settl.ed in differ-ent parts of Kamrup end Nowgong

districts have enjoyed such fac111ttes.

Jute 1 s one o£ 'the m~r cash crops produced by

lmmJ.~ants D-om BangLadesh in Assam. A ma.jor share o£ their

lncomo !s determS.ne4 by tb1s single crop. Thera.fore. e.

thorough s.nvost1gat1on t13s made to ~ind out the 1evel.

of income based on cost of produotlon of j\&te and its market

prS.ee. It ls surprising to assess that instead of earning

e.dd1 tlonal. income, the jute producers are incurring monetary

losses of at least ~. 10 to Rs. 15 per maund based on the

preva111ng wage rate, cost of S.nputs and mat"ket pr1ce of

jute. The maln reason for producing ~te by the cultivators

S.n ~pita ot sacb monetary losses S.a that many of the poor

end illlterate jUte producers are ignorant of such monet#Y

losses. .I::.ven those wbD t:!X'e aware of itt haVe no other

o1 ternat1ve.

The .Zute Corporation of India (JCI) can play a

vs.tal ro1~ ~n reversing the deteriorating economic condition

of the 3\lte producers. Unfortunately, JCI' s role S.s not

satiggacwy.. It was alleged by a section of people tMt

'Marwart. 1raders• have an understanding \'11th 1lhe Corporation

officials ana tnerefore. tb.e jute producers do not gat much

benefit .&.02n such. government or gant zationa. The 3\lte

producers tt~e compelled to sell their prcxiucts to the tra4ers

at a lott price because of ll'regular Vlsl ts of Corporation

officials at the \'1eekly village market. I"ioreover. tbe ·

1engtb.y of.ficial. .formalS. ties to be fol1owed by the producers

to set a remuneratl ve price t:rcm the Corporation stanci e.a another obstac1o. Therefore. a reorgan1zation of the Jute

Corporation of India ~~tb adequate atafKt stmplified offic1a1

formal.itles and a more remunerative S\.lpportlng price tar

jute are very essentlal. The Gaon Panchaya.t can al.so play

a ma~r ro1e 1n tbls r'egard. Unless the interests of 3Ute

producers ero protected by above means, jUte production 1n

Assam seems ~ have a vr;;ry bleak future.

Tho poor economic concl1t1on of the luunlgJ"ants from

Bangladesh compel.~ed them to find out new source of

earnings and a section of businessmen seem to be teltlng

advantage of thelr poverty. SUch a new source of earning

pointed out by a section of businessmen in Agomon!. area of

Ooalpara <li.str1ct ls that of oatchins toad at night dur1ng

the months of August,.October tNery year. The landl.ess

1mm1@J'ants and marginal farmers are being engaged in tbS.s

occupation. They catcb toad throughout the night and in

return get harcUy Rl.1.50 per kg of toad the next morning.

The average aarnlns per individual 1s about ~.6.00 and the

average amount of toad sold out every morning at Agomoni

market amounts to appro~d.mately 4 qulntals. However. some

time tne amount of U,ads sold out even reaches a to 9

quintals~ 1'nese toads are purchased by a m1ddl.eznan ln tbe

1oca1 market ana after cleanlng the 1nteot1nes etc. are

be1Dg suppUett to tbe next m1ddl.anen at Jalpaigur1 o£ West

Bengal. at: the rate of lh.3.50 per kg. This m1ddl.eman

supp11ed the same to a Ca1Clltta based .firm at the rate o:f

Rs. 7.50 p~ kg. After proper processing an4 pacld.ng, the

Calcutta based firm used to export the:n to different countries

at a vary blgh prtce. China is a major consumer- of th1s

proctuet and this has become a nourlsb1ng business for tile

tim and tne m1dcUemen at the cost of the poor immigrants.

Cheap J.abour terce avallabl.e among 1mm1#ants 1s thus bei.Jla

explo1 ted by different Cl.asses of business communl ty 1n

Assam.

Another important and dom1nat1ng attitude among

tlluellm i.mtlli#ants is that they ere very keen 1n haVing a

plot of cultl.vable J.anel of tho1r own at any cost. Instances

were reported wnen they even did not best tate to bribe

the government officials to achieve their SJ)al. and in most

of 'the cases they got favourable responce trom the corrupt

officers i.n thls regard. In case they failed to gat a plot

-of cu1 tivable land, 1nstances \'tere found in sQme parts~

of tho State ~mere tboy even forceful.ly occupied vacant

eul t1 vable land of prt vate lndi. Viduals.

To sum up, !. t may be mentioned that the lmmlgants

trom Bangl.a<lesh are basically poor and thetr continuous

infl.0\'1 into Assamp 1Gd 'to their economic eatpl.oitatton by a

section og business camnunity ln India. There.fore. it ts

not surprising that the landl.ess immigrants are V(!ry

301

desperate to. bave a plot of cultivabl9 lcmd of their Ol'Jn.

S1ml1arly Nepalese lmmi#ants are also found to be $truggllng

very bard in see;roh. o~ a SUS.tab1e and secured place £or

tb.etr surVival. T~erefore. we :firmly conclude that

economic factors played the most stgn1f1caat role 1n

m1erats.on anal.ysis 1n Assam •

•••