My curiosity recently propelled me into finding out more about taxi drivers, probably from the northern part of the country, who have migrated to this distant land of Shillong. And my curiosity led me to the right direction when I met one of the migrant drivers on my way to Police Bazaar.
Though I do not want my readers to digress but I definitely want them to take cognizance of their perceptions of realities which have impelled these men to move out of their lands in search of employment.
Residing in cities, most of us remain ignorant of the cruel realities. This particular taxi driver and people like him who have migrated in search of decent livelihood belong to the most vulnerable class to the extent that they cannot fulfil the demands of their children clamouring for a candy worth Rs 5.
There are specific cases of migration of individuals or a particular group to a specific country but these people mostly lacking in minimal skills in getting themselves engaged in private sectors have little choices at their disposal. So they leave their land and engage in non-skilled professions.
Many factors compel people to migrate in hordes and settle in distant land. This kind of mobility has always been materialised either willingly or unwillingly in distant foreign lands or within one’s own country. Cases pertaining to the mobility within the periphery of one’s own country have been of significance because these have always witnessed the inability of the migrants either to eke out a better source of livelihood in their own place or settling in some other parts of their country in order to have easy access to basic amenities. These cases have retained the characteristics of rural to urban migration and non-identical in some respects with the mobility that usually happens when an individual or a group belonging to a particular community immigrates to foreign lands.
There has been, in a few cases, a sort of concurrence between these two kinds of migration where an individual migrating to a foreign land sees his friend or brother migrating to some other parts of his country for a better source of employment just as he does by going to a foreign land and being in an uneasy state of affairs when he is confronted with a culture that is quite contrary to what he has ingrained in his personality since his childhood.
I would like to concentrate more on the movements of people from the northern part of India, particularly from the remotest parts of Bihar, Punjab and elsewhere, to Shillong.
An individual who migrates to Shillong from any of the northern parts of India has his own story that has a share in the comprehensive saga of mobility. The individual lives here for years and tries to maintain a living almost at the subsistence level and stays aloof and partially detached to certain extent from his folks and kinsmen in his own native land.
Perhaps his memory cannot recollect the times when he or his parents or grandparents migrated to this city in search of employment. Perhaps he has more to tell about his story since this land has always welcomed him and even embraced his folks and kinsmen with warm hearts, has never disappointed him since he has always felt one with this land that has nourished and nurtured him and his family.
More specifically, if careful analyses of these stories are done in general we find that there are exemplary evidences of individuals who have come to this land, settling long time back in the past perhaps spanning over three or more generations in continuity. The main fact behind every story or the moot point that has driven them to migrate to this land and settle here pertains to the reality that complicates any serious analysis being done.
The hard fact that ought not to be ignored is that these people have been coming here in search of employment, hoping for better prospects of education and job and better medical amenities for their children and their family. Lacking in much of the skills required for fruitful employment in the private sector, many amongst them have resorted to driving taxis. These taxi drivers particularly have reclined gladly to whatever they are earning here because this land has provided them with the opportunity to maintain a decent life.
These specific cases are of utmost significance since there are ample cases amongst these taxi drivers where it has been found that despite having large farm lands they are compelled to come here. Awareness is generated among these taxi drivers because when being queried it has been found that whatever they are earning is mostly being spent on education and in availing medical facilities for their family and they have prioritised the fact that their children receive the best of education within their circle of affordability.
The added contribution of the other members of the family, including the female members, has been significant since added contribution means additional earning and savings for their future. But amidst everything it is inevitable that they are in a flux because in trying to secure a firm foothold in this distant land they are losing out on the consolidated inheritances of their land.
The whole play is of dynamic operation of push and pull and variations are always when at certain point, push factors are exceedingly vibrant in their cases of mobility and at other times pull factors have lulled them into this land promising them a better prospective for their present and future.
(Contributed by Mishmi C Chakraborty.
The author holds masters degrees in Sociology and English)