Migration
to Manipur: A Problem or Prospect
Reimeingam
Marchang
The Sangai Express, Imphal, 29th May 2009
Migration is a natural phenomenon where a
person migrated from one place to another due to social, economic, political or
even psychological reasons. People migrated towards the so called Manipur since
time immemorial in order to maximize their expectations. However, the process
of migration appears to be a problem in the migration destination. There exists
a prospect in Manipur for migrants particularly among the labourers as social
and/or economic suppressions prevailed in their origin of migration. Seemingly,
there co-exists a problem among the people of aboriginal Manipur of losing
economic opportunity apart from changing social structure.
Perhaps it’s not incorrect that the threatening
or forced policy that is adopted to drive away to migrant labourers from
Manipur, which occurs occasionally and in recent times, is an indication that
the valley based people are probably seeking to follow Mizoram’s policy of
employing their own people in the areas like barbers, cobblers, washer-men and
alike which comprises a significant share in the total workforce among the
migrants. The likelihood of realization and challenges of aboriginal Manipur to
work in such areas is eventually rising although they still considered such
type of work as low dignified job. Such area of work has great income
prospects, therefore the migrants took as a great opening of opportunities for
their livelihood. Some sections of people forcibly drive the migrants who
refused to leave the state through physical elimination. In reality many of the
victims are those migrants who cannot afford their social security and influence
the affluent-politicians or bureaucrats. It remains unanswered that why the
victims are not big businessmen who are earning and accumulating larger amount
of money as compared to those labourers. One of the possible reasons is the intervention
by the “invisible hand” which provides social security. Most importantly, the
rich and influential businessmen likely have the nexus with high profiled
people, politicians and with the so called “parallel government” in one form or
other. This makes a sense that they are being secured because they pay certain
acceptable amount of money at one point of time or periodically.
There is a decline in the migration trend
according to the census of India during the last two decades. This is due to
underreport of headcount of migrant. It is also partially contributed by the
existence of a monitoring mechanism for in-migrants with inner-line permits to
most of the northeastern states. However, there is a crystal clear evident of
increasing size of population among the non-aboriginal Manipur due to the
settlement since their parents’ migration. A person born in Manipur whose
parents were migrants in earlier census reported as not a migrant is another
reason. This section of offspring of earlier migrants or second generation of
the migrants composed of large population size which contributed in
restructuring the population structure.
According to the latest census data majority
of the migrants migrated to the valley districts as the valley is more
convenient in accessing the destination and have more economic opportunities when
compared to the hill districts. In the present analysis, migrants are those
persons who have migrated from the rest of the states/UTs of India (place of
last residence) to Manipur (place of enumeration) with all duration of
residence. Migration toward valley districts has declined from about 66 percent
in 1991 to about 63 percent in 2001. Conversely, migration to the hill
districts has increased from about 34 to 37 percent during the same period. This
indicates a shift in choosing destination to migrate from the valley in earlier
decade to the hill in recent decade which might have influenced by the various
push and pull factors of migration such as opening of economic opportunities in
general and social security in particular. The shares of hill and valley
districts are complimentary in nature. Therefore, the decline or increase in
the share of migrants to hill or valley indicates an increase or decline in the
share of valley or hill.
In general, during 1991-2001, migration to
Manipur has declined in absolute terms from as low as 15,034 to 14,783 persons;
as a result it is growing negatively at -1.67 percent per annum. This is due to
a considerable decline of migration towards the valley. Even though there
prevails a significant positive growth in the hill with 7.43 percent per annum.
Moreover, a separate observation of males and females data showed that male
migrants has declined against an increased of female migrants in absolute term.
Of all likelihood, the increased of female migrants is largely due to marriages.
The decline of the share of migrants to the valley districts is due to the considerable
negative growth rates of male migrants (-21.65 percent) which does not
compensate with the growth rates of females (17.44 percent). Further, the
increase of the share of migrants to the hill districts is contributed by both
the growth of males (6.97 percent) and females (8.28 percent). However, there
exist a common prevalence of higher growth rates for females than males in both
the hill and valley. It indicates that females are becoming more mobile and did
not hide their migrant status unlike the males who themselves considered as not
a migrant.
Most of the migrants to Manipur are males
as the sex ratios (number of females per 1000 males) also manifested low at 786
in 2001. The ratio has improved at state level as well as in both hill and
valley districts during the last decades. The improvement of the ratio in the
hill is relatively low when compared to the significant improvement in the
valley. The ratio is far lower in the hill than valley due to difficulty in
remote accessibility among females and most of the migrants are manual workers
and petty businessmen.
In short, the rate of migration to Manipur is
slowing down; however, the population size of non-aboriginal Manipur is increasing
due to the birth of new generation threatening the social structure apart from
losing economic activities and income. The pattern of migration has shifted
from valley to the hill by un-turning all the available opportunities by the
migrants. For every migrant a social or economic expectation increases that is
a prospect; however, something like a job is losing that is perceived as a
problem in receiving areas. Nevertheless, with all the problem and prospect
migration continue to exist inevitably.
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For
citation: Marchang Reimeingam, Migration to Manipur: A Problem or
Prospect, The Sangai Express, Imphal,
29th May 2009.
