In poll season, migrants urged to return and vote
With two sacks full of makka (corn cob) and other essentials, Narsingh Meda (30), his wife and three kids are waiting for a bus at the Jhabua-Gujarat border near Pittol to go to Rajkot, Gujarat, where they will work at a construction site for the next few months.
They are among hundreds of poor tribals who are migrating to Gujarat every day from Madhya Pradesh’s Jhabua and neighbouring Alirajpur districts, casting a shadow on the Assembly elections scheduled on Nov 28, say political observers.
The five assembly seats in two districts were won by BJP in 2013 polls.
There are at least 50 points along the border between Jhabua and Alirajpur and Gujarat from where buses and other vehicles leave every hour for different towns in Gujarat.
The tribals are packed like sardines in these vehicles, some precariously hanging from specially designed iron rods.
A senior district official estimated that 25-30% of the 18 lakh population of these two districts has migrated.
This estimate is based on details of people leaving the state at border check points with Gujarat by the district officials, who are giving them ‘peeli chawal’ (rice laced with turmeric), which symbolises the promise to return for polling.
Jhabua collector Ashish Saxena says, “We have taken down their phone numbers and we will call them and urge them to come back to vote, reminding them of the promise they made while taking the ‘peeli chawal’. We have sent teams and contacted various factory owners in Gujarat, urging them to allow their employees paid leave for voting. This will help us in the future also in assisting the migrant workers in matters of health and education.”
Narsingh says, “We come for Bhagoria (Holi), then just before the sowing season and then Diwali to our village Retalunja and then go back. We know there is an election, but there is no work in Jhabua and there is no water to sow the winter crop.”
Galku Bai of Bawri Badi village said, “My two sons, their wives and my daughter have all gone to Ahmedabad. I have to look after the goats, a cow and also tend the small field we have. It is tough to manage...”
This annual migration is upsetting the electoral calculations of the BJP and the Congress. It is also worrying the administration, which fears a low turnout and is taking several steps to ensure that the workers come back to vote.
Said a Congress leader who did not wish to be named, “In villages we dominate, we are losing precious voters, and our effort will be to bankroll their return .... The only consolation is that BJP is facing the same predicament.”
Congress candidate Vikant Bhuria says migration is a major challenge that the BJP has failed to tackle in 15 years. Had the ruling party created jobs this migration, which spawns various problems, would have stopped.
BJP candidate from Jhabua, Guman Singh Damor, is defensive about the migration. “It is not really migration. They go to earn and then come back...”
For the administration, the main challenge is to ensure that the voting percentage does not fall below the 54% and 56% that Jhabua and Alirajpur respectively logged in the 2013 Assembly polls. The state polling percentage in 2013 was 74.95.
Social worker Benedict Damore says, “It is doubtful if the tribals will come back, and one should not expect them to come back. True there has been some development but compared to other regions, this region is backward on most parameters.”
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