Love them or Hate them: But You need Them..

A migrant worker (img courtesy BBC)

When management guru C. K. Prahlad wrote the famous book “Fortune at the bottom of the pyramid” he had the millions of poor living across the world in his mind. This came almost at the time when India was waking up to the opportunities available around the world and the benefits of having a large population hungry for success. Soon we saw India becoming the back office of the world. Remittances from middle-east and other countries doubled and tripled in no time. Increasing number of call centers, IT offices, H1B visas and increase in remittances sent to India created demand for consumer goods, services, luxury goods and all these factors combined, propelled our economy into a higher growth orbit.

Before this period what was the identity of India across the world? In 1980s some of our doctors and engineers were considered just good enough to taxi in New York. All across Canada and US you could have found Indians working in grocery stores at gas stations, as lorry drivers and in all other menial jobs that you can imagine. They faced abuse, harassment and all other dirty things but still they kept their feet and head grounded and the only reason was that they have to send money back home. Every-one of them had dependent parents, unmarried sisters, siblings studying in colleges and they knew that if they rebel against the inhuman conditions, that will be like murdering the dreams of the people whom they loved and cared for. So they kept on ticking, and kept pushing themselves in the hope that things will change.

Things changed in the 90s. Our government woke up and liberalized certain policies. The money pumped back into the country created engineers, doctors, and managers who could redefine the word India and Indians. India was believed to be the land of snake charmers. The “hungry India poor India” image was beefed up with all those shots of people living in extreme poverty and the backward image was reinforced with news of riots, caste clashes and mob violence. People had an image in their mind but the question is that “Was the whole India poor or backward or illiterate at that time?” Weren’t there enough rich, civilized and intellectual people out there at the same time? Myself being an Indian know the answer to these questions and I actually laugh at those innocent remarks.

The point I want to drive is that the old image of India in the world is now of Bihar (and some parts of UP) in India. The question remains the same, are all the Biharis dirty, poor or illiterate? Add one more allegation “threat to a civilized culture” to it and it becomes a political agenda. Fifteen years ago India was the base of the world’s economic pyramid where it positioned itself as the cheap labour supplier and now it is the duty of states like UP and Bihar to supply labour to all the major industries. Will it be possible for Surat’s diamond industry to survive without migrant workers? I don’t think that Punjab will produce even half of the wheat that it produces now without the workers from Bihar and eastern UP. The same will happen to rice producing regions of Haryana. Who will work as the temporary workers in the construction sector (which is on boom now) for cheap? Without the cheap supply of labour would the balance sheet of these construction companies would look even half lucrative? Who will sell vegetables and fruits on the streets of Mumbai? Who will work as motor mechanics, tailors, coolies, carpenters, cycle rickshaw pullers, security guards and in many other unthinkable jobs without which our lives won’t look half as comfortable as of now?

Forget the menial jobs, how the numerous private engineering, medical and management institutions would survive in the absence of students from these states. Do a random survey and you’ll find that an average Bihari middle class family spends maximum part of it’s earnings on the education (an investment which will change everything) . In the absence of educational institutions in the state, where is this money going? The answer is: it’s going to cities like Pune, Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai etc. Can our society do away with Bihar and UP? Well some people can still afford to say yes but not before they make sure that all the minerals and other resources are loaded away.

It’s unfortunate that the past governments in Bihar and UP have not done enough for the people in those states but does that give us the moral right to humiliate those poor people and deprive them of their basic fundamental right to earn a living at a place of their choice? Why do we forget that 25% of our population resides in these 2 states and it’s the generosity of state like Bihar that all our industries are flourishing now (about 60% of all the mineral deposits were in Bihar and Jharkhand) add to it the human resource available and then you will see that these 3 states combined form the rock solid base of our economical eco system. Migrant workers from Bihar and UP have changed the colours of islands like Mauritius and Fiji.

It’s easy to target these poor people to gain political mileage because everybody knows that they can not struggle. Anybody whose main struggle is to manage the next meal, how come they could struggle against organized mob violence? Time never stands still. 15 years ago nobody gave India a chance but it happened. Today nobody gives Bihar and UP a chance but I know it will happen again. With 25% of population in their fold, they are capable of doing amazing things only if the government wake up and take positive steps to create an environment of growth. They just need to recognize their potential and we should not forget that they have the capability to slow the whole economy down or to speed it up. They form the base of our ecological system and if the base shaken you can just imagine what will happen to the edifice. It's just a matter of time.