By Matters India Reporter
Guwahati: The greater need for collaboration among voluntary groups working migrants from northeastern India to other parts of the country, especially southern states, was stressed at a recent seminar.
NGOs operate in isolation at the source and destination of migration. This lack of coordination only leads to confusion when crises occur, Jesuit Father Melvil Pereira, director of Guwahati’s North Eastern Social Research Centre (NESRC) and one of the seminar organizers, told Matters India on March 3.
The main idea of the seminar was to connect these groups so that during crises they can give a comprehensive response, he said. The link among the groups would help making quick contacts with home states when migrants face problems.
Father Pereira’s center hosted February 23-24 program along with the Indian Social Institute (ISI) of Bengaluru, southern India. Scores of academics, social activists, students and members of civil society organizations attended the program.
Guwahati, the commercial capital of Assam, is the major exit point for migrants from northern India.
Viriginius Xaxa, a professor of Assam’s Tezpur University and expert on tribal affairs, observed in his keynote that “migration has always been and remains a matter of boundaries, rights, and unequal opportunities.”
Another resource person was Jesuit Father Selvaraj Arulnathan, director of ISI, Bengaluru, who drew attention to “migration as a cause of new forms of social inequalities in metropolitan cities.”
Father Pereira noted that global economy’s adverse impact on local issues had led to increasing in-migration to northeastern India and out migration from the region to metropolitan cities in the country. He called for greater networking among groups that work among migrant youth in northeast as well as other parts of the country.
The seminar-workshop attempted to understand the causes and effects of migration.
Some papers on causes of migration from the northeast explained how globalization, neo-liberalism and corporate expansionism have led to agrarian crisis, land acquisition and ethnic conflict in the region thus triggering migration especially to southern states.
Other papers addressed the plight of migrant workers in metros where they work in “miserable conditions” with or without wages braving racial discrimination, xenophobia, illegal confinements, violence and death.
The program that combined dynamics of both seminar and workshop noted that besides voluntary migration, northeastern India also witnesses ‘distress migration’ caused by poverty, agrarian crisis and ethnic conflicts.
The event also stressed sociological attention on the problems of migrants along with practical interventions.
The participants underlined the need to increase budgetary allocation for agriculture, to secure land ownership rights, to resolve ethnic conflicts and to tackle natural disasters such as floods. These steps could address poverty and result in checking out-migration, explained Father Pereira. He also noted the need for paying special attention to returnee migrants through counseling and other ways to help them re-integrated into society.
The seminar also underscored citizenship rights of the migrants. It called for providing health cover for migrants and educating their children along with tackling what it called was “wage-theft” and denial of salary.
Father Pereira regretted lack of reliable data on the number of northeast migrants in other parts of India. He quoted a report by Northeast Support Centre that estimated 414,850 people from the region had migrated to various cities during the five-year period starting 20015. The same report published in 2011 predicted that about 5 million people would migrate from northeast India during 2011-2015.
The seminar decided to hold another consultation for NGOs and civil society organizations that work in the migration sector by April in Guwahati.