Refugee Watch-30- Book Review by Binod Mishra

The undivided districts; Kalahandi, Bolangir and Koraput of Orissa have been identified as the poorest zone of the country. This region attracted the attention of the nation and the world in 1985 with the media reporting the sale of a girl child for mere 40 rupees by a tribal woman. Since then the region popularly known as KBK has been used as a synonym for poverty in the country. Twenty years have passed and numerous agencies, both government and non-government, have been engaged in alleviating poverty. But the ground realities present no happy prognosis. Recurrent droughts, starvation deaths, and seasonal migration are conspicuous. The region as a whole being highly deficient in irrigation facilities, agriculture is mostly rain fed. The region receives an annual rainfall of between 1378 to 1522 mms which is higher than the state average (1489mms) but the rainfall is erratically distributed and recurrent droughts are a feature of this region. Starvation deaths are not uncommon in these districts though most of them get covered up under various other names. But the most conspicuous manifestation of poverty in the region is seasonal migration. Every year there is an exodus at a particular time of the year and the same population returns to their villages spending some time outside the district or the state. Every year, nearly two million people migrate from these districts to the nearby states of Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh and even to farther places such as Maharastra and Gujurat. A visit to the districts between November to April would reveal the intensity of migration. Deserted households and even deserted villages is a common feature.

Seasonal distress migration in these districts is neither voluntary and was not habitual. The origin of migration is traced to the severe draught in 1965-66. The author discovers in the local folksongs of this period, the farmers’ lament on the draught condition and the shift in their occupation from agriculture to metal crushers on the road. The folksong further points to the fact that taking advantage of the desperate situation of the tribal farmers the contractors took them away from their homes for employment elsewhere. Since then seasonal migration in search of work has become an annual reality. This annual phenomenon is explained in terms of limited employment opportunity in these districts. Along with land alienation, and usurious credit practices, the author identifies ­­­­­three more reasons for this forced migration. First the quality of the landholding of the tribal is of poor quality that fails to produce surplus for the farmers. Second, lack of irrigation and erratic nature of rain limits the agricultural activities to 4-5 months throughout the year leaving agricultural wage earners jobless for the rest of the year. Thirdly the two districts under study fair miserably in terms of industrial development. To use the author’s statistics, 14 per cent of Nawapada and 16 per cent of Kalahandi’s main workers are engaged in non-agricultural activities and Kalahandi ranked 14 in terms of capital investment in new industries in the study year whereas Nawapada ranked 25 among 30 districts of the state. The popular destination of these migrants workers used to be Raipur in Chattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh and the popular profession for these migrants are rickshaw pulling in Raipur and working in the construction industries in Andhra Pradesh. This situation brings to the forefront the question of why a large section of the population of a particular area migrates every year. Politics of Hunger is a book in search of the causes.

The book Politics of Hunger in India has been divided into two parts. The first part deals with the theoretical questions related to security and welfare of the citizens of a political community. In the second part of the book, the author tests the theoretical concepts in the light of the empirical data collected from two districts of Orissa, i.e. Kalahandi and Nawapara. Delving into the economic history of this region, Bob Currie has identified a process that began during the colonial period and is still continuing causing increased indebtedness among the tribals. He reveals that the region was not economically vulnerable traditionally but it was made so by the political process both during the colonial period as well as the post-colonial period. He discusses at length how the rulers of this region, in order to extract more revenue, invited outsiders to the area giving in their hands the control of land as well as administration. The author argues that the exposure of the tribals to the money-based economy made them victims of market fluctuations leading to their increased indebtedness. He further reveals that recurrent drought caused food shortage in the region. The author argues that the reason for the pauperisation of the tribals of the region, despite it being the rice surplus region of the state, is polarisation of productive resources. Alienation of land and other productive assets from the tribals through unscrupulous means of credit, mortgage, and encroachment resulted in irreversible impoverishment of the tribals making them vulnerable to bonded labour and distress migration.

The author concludes the study with some pertinent observations which advocate greater political participation for development. He argues that greater political participation does not guarantee poverty reduction or development and to achieve these objectives, the form of political participation is important and the author opens this as a further area of policy research on poverty and hunger alleviation. The author favours that a political culture in which the political authorities take upon themselves the responsibility to reduce hunger and wherein exist political associates who bear antecedent responsibility of assisting those in difficulty through direct means of political obligation and indirectly by supporting the relief and welfare measures of the civil authorities which unfortunately does not exist in western Orissa. He concludes that the constitutional freedom and equality is ineffective unless the citizens are equipped with necessary resources such as food, shelter, clothing, access to information and physical security to make effective use of the constitutional freedom and equality.

Being based on the author’s primary research in two most underprivileged districts of the country, the book presents firsthand information and explanation about the causes of poverty, starvation and migration and explains their persistence in a democratic country for fifty years after independence.