Adivasi Youth Migration From Central and Eastern States to South India

In the recent years three types of migration waves are taking place in the Adivasi dominant states of Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal and Assam. The First Wave is the migration of young Adivasi women to metropolitan cities. The Second Wave is the seasonal migration of whole families to neighboring states. The Third Wave is the more recent exodus of Adivasi youth to the southern states. This paper focuses on the Third Wave and on the challenges faced by young Adivasi men and women migrate to southern states for livelihood and survival.

The paper narrates some of these major challenges based on case studies. The six case studies describe the adverse realities such as exclusion, exploitation, xenophobia, bondedness, human trafficking and loss of lives faced by Adivasi youth from Jharkhand, Odisha, Assam and West Bengal in southern states of India. Key words: Adivasi youth Migration, Waves of Migration, Challenges, Exclusion

Introduction

The Economic Survey of India (2016-17) highlighted the surge in inter-state labour migration towards south Indian states, particularly to Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.

The survey also showed Jharkhand as the major source of migrant working population for different parts of the country. It revealed that Jharkhand had lost about 5 million working age population between 2001 and 2011 averaging about 5 % of the working age population of the state every year as migrant. The economic development, job opportunities and daily wages in the southern states are considerably higher and act as green pastures. Thus, the vacuum created in the manual labour and other works is filled by the migrant workers from northern and eastern states.

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Stan Swamy (2016) connects this recent phenomenon to ‘the third wave of Adivasi migration’ – migration of Adivasi youth to the southern states (the first being the migration of young Adivasi women to metropolitan cities and the second being the seasonal migration of whole families to northern states).

According to him, deepening poverty and increasing state repression have forced thousands of young Adivasi men and women from Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal and Assam to migrate to southern states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for livelihood and survival. However, these survival strategies and opportunities are laden with challenges for these distress migrant Adivasi youth in southern states. The Adivasi youth migrants from north and east Indian states to south Indian states are catapulted into a state of cultural shock. They grapple with alien languages, different cultures, races, climate, food habits, work cultures, etc. These factors at the destinations assume an adverse form and trigger alienation, exclusion and various vulnerabilities despite the same nationality. This paper narrates some of these major challenges based on case studies and probes into the causes. The paper describes six types of adverse realities such as exclusion, exploitation, xenophobia, bonded labour, human trafficking and loss of lives faced by Adivasi youth from Jharkhand, Odisha, Assam and West Bengal in southern states of India.

 Exclusion of migrant Adivasi youth from benefits

Understanding and learning the local language is a major challenge for the migrant Adivasi youth in southern states. Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Telugu, the major languages of the southern states, are of Dravidian family. On the other hand, most of the local population in southern states are not very conversant in Hindi. Thus, language barrier continues to be a major challenge for the migrant Adivasi youth for their communication with the local population, to understand the instructions of the employers, for travelling and for accessing government schemes and benefits available to them.

The migrant Adivasi youth in southern states are physically isolated from the surrounding community which makes it more difficult for them to find out local wage, rights, and support systems available to them. They are excluded from government schemes to varying degrees, from formal residency rights, identity proofs, political representation, adequate housing, financial services, public distribution system [PDS] and membership in trade unions at the destinations. They are also denied access to public health, education and other basic amenities such as water and sanitation.

For instance, according to The Hindu  families from the tribal belts of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and West Bengal are joining the labour force in Munnar’s tea plantations in Kerala that was once predominantly Tamil. A tribal Munda youth from Jharkhand’s Khunti district is the man responsible for bringing nearly 400 labourers from his native State to work in the tea gardens of the Kannan Devan Hills Plantations (KDHP) in Munnar. The receding Tamil labour population is being rapidly replaced by workers from the tribal districts of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha. The Gundumalai estate has 713-strong temporary workforce entirely from the tribal community. But there is no uniformity in wages and allowances – decent shelters, ration, paid leave, Leave Travel Allowance (LTA), health care benefits, gratuity, and incentives.

The exploitation of migrant Adivasi youth

According to Sisters For Change, 80 per cent of Bangalore’s garment factory workers are women and these women undergo high levels of sexual harassment and violence at workplace despite the existence of the act: Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013. A large number of these young women garment workers are from scheduled tribes. A good number of them are Adivasi girls hailing from Odisha, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Assam and West Bengal. The study found that one out of every fourteen women garment workers experiences physical violence and fourteen per cent undergo rape or forced sexual act. Verbal abuse, humiliation and sexual harassment of women garment workers are part of daily life. Factory hostels deprive women and girl workers of their rights to privacy and liberty and create an enabling environment for exploitation.

The vulnerability of the migrant Adivasi youth at work sites is evidenced in the form of low wages, long working hours and lack of safety measures. They are often forced to take up more difficult, hazardous and menial jobs compared to the local workers. They are usually in the 3D jobs – dirty, dangerous and degrading. Very often they are forced to work under inhuman conditions. They are not given equal wages compared to local workers and are often forced to work long hours without appropriate payment for overtime. They are vulnerable to wage theft. Employers vanish when the time for payments is due or pay less than agreed upon. Since workers have no recourse, they are easily cheated.