Jharkhand Journal of Development and Management Studies XISS, Ranchi, Vol. 16, No.1, March 2018, pp. 7623-7639 DEVELOPMENT HISTORY AND DISTRESS MIGRATION OF SCHEDULED CASTE HOUSEHOLDS: UNDERSTANDING THE DYNAMICS IN DISTRICT OF Deepak Kumar Nanda1 The paper provides an understanding of the dynamics of distress migration shaping the rural economy and polity of the district of Balangir in Odisha. It has problematised the issue of Scheduled Castes’ distress migration with “politics of development and inclusive institutions” and addressed the questions of; what constitutes a migration crisis? For what reasons are the scheduled caste households of more prone to distress migration? Why do they keep migrating from generation to generation—what are the causes, pattern, and outcome? In doing so the paper has analyzed the development history of Balangir district in three phases of development - during , British rule, and present democratic state. It has been found that the reasons for distress migration existed in the undemocratic and exclusionary administration of princely state and conceded through British rule to present independent State. Hence, allthough the nature of government and state has changed but the internal structure of discriminatory society has not changed producing dominance and exclusion of scheduled castes causing distress migration. Based on this, the paper concludes that the democracy has been manipulated by socio-political and economic elites and remained constrained in achieving the balanced and democratic development producing poverty and distress migration of Scheduled Caste households and other excluded groups. Keywords : Development History, Distress Migration, Scheduled Castes, Balangir, Odisha Introduction Migration has been an ultimate option and reality in the life of socially and politically excluded groups in the district of Balangir in Odisha. The district at the one hand has produced foremost politicians, lawmakers in the State politics including the Chief Minister in the past and present opposition leader, while on the other hand, considered to be one of the poorest and poverty-stricken regions in Odisha, intrigued with multiple issues of poverty, starvation, and migration. The excluded groups have no other options than distress migration to the nearby towns and cities amidst stark inequality and poverty; working as rickshaw pullers in (); labourers in brick kilns of Andhra Pradesh and construction sites of

1 Ph.D. Scholar, School of Social Work, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Email Id- [email protected] 2 There is also internal migration to the towns of , and within the state to some extent and to outside the state, it is not necessarily only to Raipur of Chhattisgarh but also to the towns of Bhilai and Durg. Similarly in south , along with Andhra Pradesh, they go to Hyderabad, Chennai, and Kerala. However a major chunk of the migration depends on Raipur of Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, and Mumbai.

7623 7624 Nanda

Mumbai2. The precise number of migrants are misleading as there are no institutional mechanisms to record and document from the government side. Predominantly the distress migration is considered as a voluntary and private matter of economic affairs. However, among the mass poverty and migration, it does not remain voluntary and individual affair rather it becomes a public affair attributing the underlying factors of natural, social and political in the society and state.

In the case of scheduled castes households’ migration in the district of Balangir,—the former princely state of Patna—has the cumulative effects of natural, social and political factors contributing to mass distress migration. The natural factors include the recurring drought and dry land; social factors include the stark group inequality among scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other social groups which have a direct repercussion on landholding, village decision making, and larger social structure. Similarly, political factors include public participation in programme planning and implementation, political representations, policy making, and inclusion or exclusion agendas of development.

In this context, looking into the present migration crises, considering migration as social and political phenomena rather than individual or private family business of economic crisis, the paper has attempted to locate the distress migration in the state, society, and politics. It has done a historical and institutional analysis to ascertain the origin of distress migration; analysed the socio-political conditions of princely states of Patna, state during British rule and situations after independence to understand the history of development. It provides an understanding of the dynamics of distress migration shaping the rural economy and polity in Odisha and aims to address the questions of causes, pattern, and outcome of Scheduled Castes households’ migration.

The components of the paper begin with the brief introduction of the context of the subject and study area with the issues of distress migration, followed by a brief review of literature then analysis of development history of Balangir district into three phases. It has analyzed the causes, pattern, and outcome of distress migration in connection to state and politics; and ended with conclusion and recommendation. Development History and Distress Migration of Scheduled Caste 7625

Introduction to the study area The district of Balangir—former princely state of Patna, is located in the famous K-B-K3 a region which is known for its poverty and backwardness in the state as well as in the nation. It is located in the western division of Odisha, sharing the border with the district of , Kalahandi, Sonepur and in the north, south, east, and west respectively (Map of Balangir, (n.d)) (see figure no. 1 Political Map of Balangir district) . It has the total population of 16,48,997, of which 17.88 per cent are Scheduled Castes and 21.05 per cent are Scheduled Tribes. Around 88 per cent of the population lives in rural areas and the total average of literacy rate including rural and urban is 64.71 per cent, while rural literacy rate is 62.11 per cent (Chandramuili & General, 2011). The economy of the district is mostly agriculture where more than 70 per cent of the population depends on

Figure No. 1 Political Map of Balangir district

Source: Map of Balangir, (n.d)

3 Kalahandi, Balangir, and region is considered to be one of the backward regions in India. There are many special area development programmes looking into the intensity of poverty and backwardness. 7626 Nanda it for their livelihoods. It has 43.70 per cent population as workers; of which 23.39 per cent are main workers and 19.3 per cent are marginal workers (ibid). In addition to that, more than half of its population lives below poverty line. It has limited irrigation facilities resulting in stagnant agricultural production characterized by unequal landholding pattern where one-third of the population hold two-third of total agricultural land (Dashingkar, 2006). The villages of Badapara, Kurlubhata, and Chandotara The primary information was gathered in three villages of Badapara, Kurlubhata, and Chandotara, which are situated in the west-south regions of the district near the borderline to the district of Kalahandi and Nuapada. The villages are located within the radius of five kilometers in both the sides of national highway no. 217 connected through Raipur to . The populations in the villages are mostly dominated by Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes, and other backward castes. The economy of the villages is basically agriculture, depended on monsoon. Therefore in rainy season and harvesting period, people are employed in agriculture whereas in summer season they all go disguised unemployed. Again the land distribution is drastically unequal among the caste groups and tribes which make landless households in migration for the whole year. Most of the villagers are marginal workers and cultivators. Except for a few, all the scheduled castes households are labourers and migrant workers. Scheduled Castes households are in two-three generations in their migration to Raipur, Bhilai, and Durg of Chhattisgarh, moreover these days other backward castes households have started migrating to Andhra Pradesh and other parts of south India for bricks making. Road communication to these villages are good as on daily basis bus communication are there to Raipur and Durg of Chhattisgarh. In terms of educational situations, most of the old age populations are illiterates but these days there is consciousness regarding education among all castes and tribal groups to get their children educated. Feudalism, development and distress migration in Balangir The present neoliberal development policy which emphasizes private investment in planning and development helps one region to get more attention than others; thereby wealth is accumulated among few areas and/or with a section of the society. And eventually urban areas get more attention than rural areas resulting in spatial and social inequality in India (Pinto S.J., 2014). In this context, on one hand migration from rural to urban gets accelerated with the degradation of agriculture and rural economy, on the other hand, urban economy gets boom (Dashingkar, 2006; Bird & Dashingkar, 2009). The common factors associated with this movement are “regional inequality, under- Development History and Distress Migration of Scheduled Caste 7627 employment or rural unemployment, history, culture, policy environment and social structure of the society—unequal distribution of land, inaccessibility to education, household debt, poor access to credit, low agricultural productivity, scarcity of land and land degradation, high population density and few opportunities for diversification in agriculture”, etc (ibid). Similarly, the intensity of migration becomes high among semi-arid, drought-prone areas and among the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Muslim (Bird & Dashingkar, 2009). In the context of Balangir, both socio-political structure and geography play a major role in shaping the distress migration. Geographical factors of semi-arid and drought-prone lead to labour migration in a mass level while the high rate of migration among SCs, STs and OBCs could be related with the feudal structure and exclusionary socio-political system resulting to high level of poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, landlessness and poor access to basic facilities. Again the distribution of land also disproportionate among various social groups as “one-third of the population have occupied two-thirds of the total agricultural land, of which Scheduled Tribes and Castes groups comprising 35 percent of total population cultivate only nine percent of the agricultural area” (Dashingkar, 2006). In this state of affairs, it is estimated that around one lakh people had migrated under miserable condition during the year of 2002 drought (Action Aid India, 2002). Moreover, drought is a recurring phenomenon in the district of Balangir. Similarly others apprehend that about 1 to 1.5 lakh people from one single district migrate in a normal year (Samantaray, 2016). Among this, seasonal migration called “Dadan Shramik” are more in numbers who migrate to the brick kilns of Hyderabad and other parts of south India through the local middle- men who face hardships and challenges in their works. Sometimes the migrants go missing or death, held captive and forced to work for longer time, or else face the wrath of their contractors (Nanda, 2012; Sahu, 2013). The socio-political structure lied in the foundation of feudalism in Balangir after centuries of princly rule has connection with distress of scheduled castes. It is believed that developmental process involves politics in the sense of “the activities of conflict, negotiation, and cooperation about the use, production, and distribution of resources” in formal, informal, public or private spheres (Leftwich, 2007). In this conception, inequality is the cause and consequences of “unequal distribution and utilization of resources” taken place within the decision making process of larger “political system” resulted into unintended outcome (Gamble, 1995; Gamble, Payne, Hoogvelt, Dietrich, & Kenny, 1996; Leftwich, 2007). Again in the representative democracy, the 7628 Nanda outcome is dependent on the “agents” along with “structure and agency,” that is the “leadership or political representations” (Besley, 2007). It is believed that development or inequality is the result of interaction between “structure”, “agency” and “agents and the pro- poor development is linked with “good politics and inclusive institutions”. Therefore, anything important in the process of development or underdevelopment is to understand the exclusionary nature of the socio-political structure of the society. In this regard, the notions of “politics” encourages to explore “the interaction of both formal and informal institutions as well as formal and informal sources and forms of power” (Leftwich, 2007, p. 9). In the context of distress migration of Scheduled Castes in Balangir district as socially excluded community, the paper frames the distress migration as the outcome of prevailing exclusionary socio- political structure and institutions. That is, the creation, utilisation and distribution of resources are influenced and manipulated by socially, politically, culturally and economically powerful individual and communities under the decades of feudalism. It is further hypothesised that the sources of power are confined to few elites and interest groups of king dynasty, their associate caste groups which dominate the politics of Balangir leading to deprivation and poverty of socially and politically secluded section of the society. Therefore the question arises; what kind of socio-political, cultural and economic structure prevails in the district of Balangir? what potential agents or agencies or blockage for change are generated by this structure? where are they situated in this political structure and what power do they possess? and how is the changing pattern of using and distributing resources and the involved decisions in such changes about the politics of maintaining of status quo?

Objectives Based on research questions, the objectives of the paper is to locate the distress migration in the development path of Balangir district through analysis of political legacy and the origin of downplaying of the rural economy. Furthermore, to position the Scheduled Castes household migrants in the history of the princely state of Balangir and British rule to explain the existing distress migration.

Methodology The paper employs the methodological perspective of “politics of development” for which an institutional analysis is done with reference to the development of village economy, employment and administration in the district of Balangir in three phases, that is; development during princely state; development during British rule and development after Development History and Distress Migration of Scheduled Caste 7629 independence.The paper has used secondary data extensively from district gazetteers to analyze the development history and institutional analysis. Similarly, primary information was collected from the scheduled castes household migrants of Badapara, Kurlubhata and Chandotra villages. Fieldwork was conducted in the year 2012-13 and a round of physical observation was made again in the year 2017. Findings and analysis History of development in the district of Balangir Development of Balangir district has taken place in three phases namely; initial phase of the princely state up to British occupation in 1803, the second phase of British rule form 1803 to 1948 and the third phase of development after formation of the district under independent nation from the year 1948 onwards. This section has elaborated the history of development based on mentioned three phases below. A. Politics and development during the princely state of Patna (before 1803) The district of Balangir—former princely state of Patna—was ruled by the Chauhan Rajput dynasty before British occupied the state in the year 1803 (Cobden-Ramsay, 1910, p. 22). The princely administration was divided into five clusters, namely; 1) The khalsa—directly administered country, and two estates of and Jarasingha Maharaja; 2) five hereditary estate of Gond Thakur—Atgaon, Loisingha, Pandrani, Balbuka, and Manda; 3) Five binjar estates of Ramud, Nandupala, Bhanpur, Khaprakhol, and Khuripani; 4) Five garhatiahis—cluster of villages, for the maintenance of police and 5) Nine Kondh mahals of , Budbudka, Luwa, Haldi, Talgahaka, Lapher, Pahar, , Tupa, and Upergahaka (ibid, p. 296). Basically, the governing system was based on the division of clusters comprising few villages in one cluster. In the cluster and villages, people were appointed as tax collector and other support staff to maintain the state. The village was given a lease to a higher bidder— the gaontia, for a period of four years even though there was no certainty of the lease in between. The gaontia is the owner of the village as there were no property rights of tenants. In every four years, the land tax was increasing for gaontia and for the tenants based on their land— that is baliti, gur, nalita, and lita4 (ibid) Further, the village economy and employment were purely agricultural based, managed by gaontia and his other support staffs. The tenants were hiring the halia to work the daily business of

4 Baliti, gur, nalita and lita were the local terms being used for differentiating various types of soil indicating baliti as red soil, gur as mixture of mixed red and yellow soil while lita as black soil and nalita as mixed red and black soil. 7630 Nanda agriculture in annual basis and the payment system was both daily and annual basis (Cobden-Ramsay, 1910, p. 296). Sometimes the laborers were given an amount of “Rs. 4 to Rs. 20 for a year without any interest provided the labourers have to give their services. This loan was termed as Bahabandha”. Again there were laborers engaged in cattle and another domestic animal grazing of the whole village. They are provided food, clothes, and paddy by the tenants. In addition, there were some daily labourers’ required for cultivation and maintenance of agriculture (Cobden-Ramsay, 1910, pp. 293-94). Based on above mentioned findings, there were three types of employment opportunities in the village agricultural economy—like halia, khuti, and bhutia. Halia and Khuti were employment opportunities for the term period of one year and the payment was given in the form of paddy and clothes in both daily and annual basis. The oral agreement is for one year but depends on the landlord in fulfilling the agreement. While Bhuti is a daily wage laborers called for basically weeding, sowing and plowing in the fields. Here I want to point out that the village was not a self-sufficient territory in its entire means, for which they had to depend on outside the village for other necessary things exchanged through the barter system. The trader from Raipur and Ganjam were bartering salt, dry fish, coconuts, tobacco, nabat—new sugar, iron bars mainly in exchange for rice and oilseeds. While the principle export articles were rashi—sesamum seed, fibers, cotton, rice, grain, pulses and ghi—butter (Cobden-Ramsay, 1910, p. 295). There were also village servants who were rendering services to the gaontia and the village. There were ganda and jhankar—the village watchman, nariha—water bearer, the village negi—helper of gaontia, the village potter etc. who enjoyed the tax-free land—the bhogra (ibid., p.299). There were other village servants like dhoba—washerman, barik— barber, blacksmiths, ghasi—sweeper and others (ibid., p.37). This hierarchical division of society was obliged to their respective superior castes and authority like gaontia—landlords and king. The system was highly beneficial to the person/groups on the upper rank enjoying land revenue and services of service provider castes while it was exploitative to the lower rank holders—service provider castes— who were leaving in the benevolence of landlords and king. The society was functioning on patronage basis. There was no trace of noticeable welfare provisions for service providers, labourers, tenants as there had no land rights for the tenants. The rulers were specifically interested in land administration and revenue system. They were enjoying the tax of tenants and free service of service castes whereas public welfare and expenditure were less important. The administration system itself was discriminatory and exclusionary in nature where service providers, labourers, and tenants Development History and Distress Migration of Scheduled Caste 7631 remained outside in the decision-making process. Therefore, the economy of these categories must have disastrous and spent in acute precarious situations. They were socially ostracized, undignified; politically insecure and dependent on the benevolence of the rulers of the state. B. Development during British rule in (1880-1948) Just before British rule in 1803, Maratha of Nagpur had occupied the state in 1755 A.D. However, Maratha again restored the state in 1806 but British revered back again in 1818 (Cobden-Ramsay, 1910, p. 286). British have ruled the state for around 130 years but they have not brought any significant changes in the social and political system of the state. They relied on previous administrative mechanism founded by feudal state but in a very informed way. The main economy of the state then was agriculture where “57 percent of the population was dependent on agriculture and around 13 percent were labourers. A few were earning their living by melting iron and making iron instruments while other few were weavers like the principal castes of Bhulias, Ganda and Maharas or Kulees” (ibid., pp.294-295). The British government made a new land settlement in 1871. They leased to the same gaontia and kabuliyats and the installment of tax payment continued as same as before but they made the tenure of lease for five years instead of previous four years. The administration at upper level changed from princely state to British rule but the internal village political economy remained the same—the same gaontia, vis-à-vis other supportive staff of Umrah, Ganda, Jhakar, Nariha, etc enjoyed the tax-free bhogra (Cobden-Ramsay, 1910, p. 297). But this time the power of gaontia was restricted on the monopoly over other support staff, like; he can’t dismiss anyone on his behalf then as before in princely rule. Again the gaontia can’t subdivide the bhogra land or the tenants cannot sale, lease or mortgage their land as gantia owned the village etc. (Cobden-Ramsay, 1910, p. 300). In this way many changes were brought in the tax system, restricting both gaontia and tenants in land rights. The Britishers’ changed in the settlement of 1876 and brought a new school tax for education. This way the tax was increased and further levied on different items. They levied the tax on sources of income other than agriculture. During this stage even though Britishers started education services as an extra tax but the objective was to recruit them as their tax collector and support staffs. Again the education was limited to state (present district) headquarter therefore there were no equal chances for poor masses and service provider castes, the labourers and tenants. Britishers extracted and exploited more the tenants, labourers and service provider castes through their labour work and services ruthlessly. By then, even after changes in the political legacy and 7632 Nanda system at the state level, the situation of poor was same and the nature of administration was same. There were no such records on the health, housing, road, transportation, the population but evidence shows people were dying out of famine, cholera etc. The most sufferers were the service provider castes in terms of socially, politically and economically in the village.

C. Development after independence in the district of Balangir (1948 onwards) Dawn of independence at national level brought the ray of hope among the service provider castes, the labourers, the tenants in the new era of democracy based on equality, liberty, and justice, but the political representation of Balangir was again initiated by the same rulers by forming a political party—Ganatantra Parishad—as they had land, labour and wealth. They or their representatives (former support staff) have become members of assembly and parliament in the region of former Patna state. The “ex-ruler of Patna” has become opposition leader, occupied different portfolios and even Chief Minister in the post- independent democratic state of Odisha (Sarangi, 2017, p. 32). They again dominated the new era of democracy and till now they are doing so. After independence there was no redistribution of land and resources, as a result, the ruler, landlords remained the sources of economy and power while the service provider castes, labourers, tenants remained landless, poor and powerless as like previous stages of development during princely state and British rule. They live hand to mouth and survived as distress migrants. I would prefer to denote this system as “feudalism in democracy”. Essentially in the district level, the ex-ruler has replaced themselves with their feudal-ship to present democratic representatives by occupying different portfolios in national and regional parties; that in Balangir and Kalahandi, the rulers are the present MPs (Member of Parliament), and MLAs (Member of Legislative Assembly). They fight among themselves in the election because of different political association but who so ever win the election, it is the same ruler who becomes the agents of development (Bolangir Election Results 2014, 2015). Similarly, if we systematically analyze the political and institutional dynamics, the politics and power remain in the hand of previously land holding—gaontia, umrah, etc. and upper castes at the micro and macro-level politics—basically the support staffs of the feudal king. However, the former service provider castes, labourers, tenants constitute the larger population of today’s scheduled castes, scheduled tribes who are landless agricultural labourers and distress migrants. This way the previously excluded and marginalized section of the society are excluded and deprived of their basic rights and livelihoods. They Development History and Distress Migration of Scheduled Caste 7633 are dependent on the benevolence of the same dynasty of landlords and rulers for their development who were—the system—responsible for the deplorable condition of service provider castes, labourers, and tenants. However, it cannot be denied that the improved conditions of service provider castes are because of constitutional provisions and rights but the rulers, landlords—the powerful castes and class— benefited double and became capitalists. Currently, there are no questions anymore on feudalism (perhaps because of democracy) as it was at the dawn of nations independence but the history reveals that rulers have benefited enormously in present democracy as well as in different phases of development history undermining general people.

Locating the causes of distress migration in the development history of Balangir In searching the question of which is the most distress section in the society and economy today? Who and why are they moving for livelihoods to the different destination having no option in the localities? Why are they showing their hopelessness? I relate the situation of economy and migration as the reflection of distress village economy and social system. Except for the gaontia, umrha, of enjoying free bhogra and jhankar, Ganda in some cases, the situations of other service providers who constitute, blacksmith, kumbhar—village potter, nariha—waterman, dhoba—washerman, barik—hair cutter, ghasi— sweeper man and halia in feudal states was miserable. Cobden-Ramsay, (1910), sketches in his district gazettes that “The Panas, Dombs, Gandas—previous service provider castes—were consisting most part of the landless community. They were living from hand to mouth”. The Gandas were servile and impure caste; they were removing dead bodies of both human beings and animals; acting as the watchman, weavers of coarse cloth and musicians (ibid., p.39). This was the origin of the plight of the subaltern community during feudatory and British ruled state of Patna and still, it is continued today as distress migrants. The crisis of village economy has begun there during feudal states where both ex-ruler and Britishers have exploited together for generation after generations as much as possible. They had overlooked the situations—socio-economic and political condition of “service” and “producer castes” (Ilaiah, 2009) and the sustainability of the village socio-economic development. Therefore, the crisis of previous political economy, taking the form of huge economic crisis distorting village economy today, results in the mass migration of all its previous “service” and “producer castes”. Here the ex-ruler and their support staff both at the micro and macro level successfully transferred and settled down their capital into changing political scenario of present democratic states. Hence, it is like changing the 7634 Nanda political and economic landscape from Feudal-British-Democracy but the betterment of elite upper castes and class were better in all three positions while the marginalized are struggling for their subsistence. Pattern of distress migration Distress migration is the movement of historically socially, economically and politically excluded caste groups from village economy to alternative livelihoods and economy outside village. The first pattern of distress migration was that “the service provider castes of previous princely state and British rule moving out of village economy”. The service provider caste—the Scheduled Castes5—households are migrating for the whole year, sometimes twice and some are migrating for four to five times in a year. Those moving with family are very poor and preferably stay for the whole year in the destination. Similarly, those who travel alone, leaving their family back in the villages, often they go out, earn some money and return back. In some extreme cases, people are going for four to five times in a year looking into the needs of the family. Similarly, those who stay for the whole year in the destination are in continuous touch with other relatives and the village. They neither can stay in the village nor in destination for the longer period of time. Those who are migrating alone are basically comparatively literate and aware of the city. On the other hand, it may indicate the sufficiency of single person’s income for the subsistence of other family members. Moreover, household migration symbolizes seasonal migration and/or poorest of the poor family. In terms of the history of migration, around half of the migrants who participated in this study are in their first and second generation and few are in the third generation. The shocking finding is about the “child migration” and “late middle age migration”. The children generally migrate with their family together and during the late adolescent, they move along with their friend circles. In some cases, people in late middle age migrate with risky health conditions and suffer health hazards. Again there is a kind of first-generation migration who has permanently settled down in the cities of Raipur, Bhilai, and Durg but have some connection with the villages and relatives.

5 Scheduled Caste communities were the service provider castes under the regime of Patna state. However it is not confined to only Scheduled Castes but there were also castes like teli, mali, kumbhar, gauda etc. who were considered to be service provider castes but now coming under Other Backward Classes. Looking into the limitation and scope of the paper, I have taken the case of only “Scheduled Castes” as service provider in the paper. There is also research scope for Other Backward Classes as service provider castes in princely state of Patna or elsewhere in India. Development History and Distress Migration of Scheduled Caste 7635

Outcome of the distress migration The outcome of “Distress Migration”, based on the findings of the study is divided into both positive and negative. It has both social and economic impact; therefore I have divided the outcome as a ‘social taboo’ and ‘economic development’. i. Migration as social taboo Very interesting life views of the distress migrants are narrated here: “kaen karmu aagyan….. ine amar pet nai chalbaa…..bidesh ke bhuti dukh karba lagi jaensu…….ame pardesia bhuti dukh kari khaebar katha….bal thibar din tak bahan manji khaemi……” (What we will do sir here in the village….our stomachs remain empty, we remain hungry…we migrate for menial works in order to feed our stomachs….we are migrant menial workers and we have to do that…we will do till we can do) (Nanda, 2012). This is the life views of distress migrants who spoke out while interacting with them in the villages. Here I want to mention that “deshantar”—local terminology of migration—is a taboo in localities indicating socio-political lowliness, thereby people behave indifferently which we can trace in their locality saying “haldir kaen rang and pardeshiar kaen dhang” (means, no trust on migrants as like changing nature of turmeric colour). The meaning is that the temporary residency of migrants equalises with the temporary nature of turmeric colour. People derive the social and political status of a family from the permanent/temporary nature of residence of the households. The notion is that there is no faith in the “jabab” of deshantar—standpoint, of migrants—because of their temporary residency in the village which they level as “pardeshia”— immigrants in their own land. Here comes the very notion of “insider and outsider” among the migrants and non-migrants in the village society. The non-migrants—land lords, cultivators—take pride of their land, livelihood and all-weather residency in the villages while they level migrants as the opposite. The difference can be traced in the local concept of saying like, “baramasi”, “desi”—meaning indigenousness— to brand the all-weather residency families. ii. Economic development With the changing political and economic landscapes, the image of migration has gained positive connotation. After the post-reform period with access to road and communication, maximum people started going outside village. While the previous gaontia, umrah, jhakar, ganda have lost their political and economic control in the village and became unimportant because of the division of land among increasing number of descendants and other reasons. On the other hand, the migrants emerge as self-sufficient households; they could save some surplus 7636 Nanda money, invested in village economy through mortgages of land and generated income through cultivation. For them, it is both “pride and income” leading to social prestige in the village. The migrants improved their conditions through constructing better houses, educating their children, generating regular income, etc. However, the economic development is more observed among “sole migration” than whole “family migration”. In the case of “sole migration”, the family members live in the villages and get regular remittance and improve their condition in the villages, while in “households’ migration” they cannot continue their children’s education in the destination even though they improved their economy through labour work. Parents are forced to engage their children in livelihood generation just to ensure their survival in the filthy ghettos, or in the pavements of urban areas. They are bound to endure this life of trauma only due to the unavailability of suitable livelihood opportunities. The unorganised sectors continuously render them a life of insecurity. As a result, the migrants become victims of exploitation as labourers with regard to terms, conditions and necessary benefits of the nature of work as per the rights of workers.

Political institutions and distress migration of scheduled castes The importance of analyzing the movement of subaltern from the structural and institutional point of view is located in its genesis in the discourse of historical aspects of development. For the first time, Ambedkar (1915; 1994) in his economic analysis of caste and Bagchi’s (1982) analysis of social system emphasizes the internal structure of the society based on underlying power relations between dominant and serving castes in India as the major problem leading to mass poverty and inequality. Based on this premises, inequality is the result of unequal creation, utilization and distribution of resources resulted into the unintended outcome, while “politics” is held responsible for maintaining the status quo (Leftwich, 2007). Further, it is strongly suggested that pro-poor development is linked with good politics and inclusive institutions. Based on the historical political and institutional analysis, it is found that the princely states of Patna’s rulers are the agents of development in present democracy in the district of Balangir. Corbridge, Harriss, & Jeffrey (2013), referring to Jeffrey and others argue that the persistent reason of poverty in Bihar and Odisha is because of its “landlockedness” as it was the system of zamindari but not raiyatwari— that is landlordism and rack-renting rather than peasant farming (ibid., p.7). This political system can be noticed in Balangir as well which I have mentioned in “development during princely state” section Development History and Distress Migration of Scheduled Caste 7637 and its presence after independence. Similarly, de Haan & Dubey, (2003), identified neglect of ruling class as the responsible factor for the extreme deprivation and poverty in southern and . In the case of mass poverty and deprivation among subaltern community leading to mass migration, “social exclusion” (Sen, 2000; de Haan & Dubey, 2003) in political, social and economic affairs is the major cause in the district of Balangir. In this context, feudal states laid and maintained the foundation of the political-economical system; reaped and extracted the benefits alone and together with British and the same continued in the democratic state directly and/or indirectly. There are changes from autocracy to democracy but there are no significant changes in the internal structure—the exclusionary nature of feudalism—in achieving the social democracy at grassroots level. The findings showed that it is the service provider castes who were/are always excluded in the political, social and economic affairs in the society. Continuing same feudalistic nature in democratic representation is the matter of social exclusion and the question of domination and subordination which is a hindrance for democratic development or “social democracy”. This is the “contradiction” Ambedkar (1949) rightly pointed out in his constituent assembly debate about the equality in politics but denial of equality principle in social and economic life. The identity of “caste” and “culture” vis-a-vis economy plays a determining role in shaping the mobility of subaltern communities as push and pull factors leading to alternate livelihoods from rural to the urban economy. The service provider castes of the feudal state are today in deshantar—migration and perdesia—the migrants, in the modern economy and democratic state constituting the large chunk of distress migration whereas the same “ex-rulers” of the feudal states are the minister, legislator, and policymakers—the agents of development and democracy. In addition, in the micro level society and politics—that is the village, Panchayat and community blocks— the “ex-ruler” support staffs—the gaontia, umrah, jhankar, ganda— are the workers of same political party or opposite having secured their position in local politics and economy (may not be in all the cases but it can’t be denied). Conclusion and Recommendations Distress migration is the movement of historically socially, politically and economically excluded caste groups from village economy to alternative livelihoods and economy outside the village. And the major causes of this crisis are the internal socio-political structure characterized by exclusion and exploitation of former service provider castes and present Scheduled Castes. Amidst the principally equal 7638 Nanda political life but the contradiction in social and economic life, the district of Balangir is far behind in achieving the real dream of India’s independence that is “social democracy”. Again if the same pattern of political representations continue in the politics the institutions will remain exclusionary; utilization and distribution of resources will not much benefit to eradicate poverty, migration, and inequality. The democracy has been manipulated by the socio-political and economic elites and remains constraint in achieving the democratic development. It is like “feudalism in democracy” which actually cannot or should not go hand in hand ethically and morally which is unfair and unjust. There should be “restriction of political representations” for the entire political representatives in a “time-bound” framework in Odisha for the welfare of the masses in general and the service provider castes, cultivators, and labourers in particular.

Acknowledgement I sincerely thank Prof. Bipin Jojo, Centre for Social Justice and Governance, School of Social Work, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, for his guidance in conceptual and theoretical understanding and outlook.

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