This is a conversation that occurred among three selves of mine- the sceptic, the politician and the capitalist.
(Prologue) India is a predominantly agriculture economy; not that it contributes much to the major indexes of development like GDP or the BSE index, but because it employs more people than any other sector. When the number of people employed by this industry and the output of this sector are tallied, free market entrepreneurs shudder.
(C): So little from so many and we say we have labour deficit in the cities for all the developmental activities we throw away to these third world pieces of shit. Why don’t these labour resources come to cities and work cheap for us?
(S): But how do we get them work for us? Hmmm, let’s see. They may make the bulk of the food eaten by the well to do cousins in cities; they may sell out their produce for paltry sums to the middlemen and eke out a living;
(P): In actuality the government could not care less. They don’t contribute to the stock markets, they are a bane on the nation by pulling down the per capita income with their substantially low income and their only power of self worth, the voting rights can be bought out once every 5 year for a paltry sum and some empty promises. Let’s drive out some of these scoundrels out of their villages ...
(S): Where they have a decent place to sleep under more equitable and liveable conditions.
(P): ... and bring them to cities. Let’s build dams, umpteen lane highways, mine in their territory so that they can be driven out in the name of the greater common good and nationalism.
(S): But what about our food production and security?
(P): Who cares? We have enough money to buy anything we want. If farmers insist on farming we will make it conducive to produce cash crops which require substantially less labour. Thereby a section of the framers, namely the wealthy cash crop farmers get wealthier and the poor will be driven out to cities for our nation building.
(C): All these worthless beings will then folk to the city and will form the basis for the cheap labour that we've been looking. We will get to pay a lot lesser for them. Maybe we can even manage to pay them lesser than that they used to get in their villages.
(S): But then what about the lowering of per capita income?
(C): Fool, PCI of the developing and powerful middle class will rise faster than the rate at which these scoundrels can bring it down.
(S): But what if someone tries to be a hero?
(P): We have all the tags to assign them, like that of nationalism, patriotism, terrorism - we can always sideline, eliminate or make them irrelevant.
(S): What are the ramifications?
(P): India will continue to grow at double digit growth rates. Our stock markets will continue to rise. More foreign investments will come in.
(C): Using which we can gobble up still more land in the villages and drive out more of these scoundrels to cities from which we can pick and choose cheap labour.
(S): What an idea sirji (sigh)...
(Prologue) India is a predominantly agriculture economy; not that it contributes much to the major indexes of development like GDP or the BSE index, but because it employs more people than any other sector. When the number of people employed by this industry and the output of this sector are tallied, free market entrepreneurs shudder.
(C): So little from so many and we say we have labour deficit in the cities for all the developmental activities we throw away to these third world pieces of shit. Why don’t these labour resources come to cities and work cheap for us?
(S): But how do we get them work for us? Hmmm, let’s see. They may make the bulk of the food eaten by the well to do cousins in cities; they may sell out their produce for paltry sums to the middlemen and eke out a living;
(P): In actuality the government could not care less. They don’t contribute to the stock markets, they are a bane on the nation by pulling down the per capita income with their substantially low income and their only power of self worth, the voting rights can be bought out once every 5 year for a paltry sum and some empty promises. Let’s drive out some of these scoundrels out of their villages ...
(S): Where they have a decent place to sleep under more equitable and liveable conditions.
(P): ... and bring them to cities. Let’s build dams, umpteen lane highways, mine in their territory so that they can be driven out in the name of the greater common good and nationalism.
(S): But what about our food production and security?
(P): Who cares? We have enough money to buy anything we want. If farmers insist on farming we will make it conducive to produce cash crops which require substantially less labour. Thereby a section of the framers, namely the wealthy cash crop farmers get wealthier and the poor will be driven out to cities for our nation building.
(C): All these worthless beings will then folk to the city and will form the basis for the cheap labour that we've been looking. We will get to pay a lot lesser for them. Maybe we can even manage to pay them lesser than that they used to get in their villages.
(S): But then what about the lowering of per capita income?
(C): Fool, PCI of the developing and powerful middle class will rise faster than the rate at which these scoundrels can bring it down.
(S): But what if someone tries to be a hero?
(P): We have all the tags to assign them, like that of nationalism, patriotism, terrorism - we can always sideline, eliminate or make them irrelevant.
(S): What are the ramifications?
(P): India will continue to grow at double digit growth rates. Our stock markets will continue to rise. More foreign investments will come in.
(C): Using which we can gobble up still more land in the villages and drive out more of these scoundrels to cities from which we can pick and choose cheap labour.
(S): What an idea sirji (sigh)...
good sarcasm. great. A nice satirist in making!
ReplyDeleteJust adding my random thoughts on the distress migration.
1)Contrary to the intelligent guess that rural urban migration is rising, figures says India still undergoes very low migration rate. Particularly rural urban migration.
Here is my evidences.
a)Component of urban population growth remains monopolized by birth rate of urban population. Migration component is still low.
b)Only our metropolitan cities are witnessing migration - Our tier 2 and tier 3 cities and towns fail to attract the migration.
2)I stand for larger attraction of rural labour into urban areas. Urbanisation is an eventuality which no one csn escape. The myth of ideal INdian village was shattered by thinkers like Ambedkar as havens of oppression. In city atleast the migrants live as equals in a slum(I agree a slum is not a healthy ecosystem).
3)Also contrary to economic assertions of migrtion bringing in cheap labour for manufacturing, INdian migrant labour is denied it's space in formal sector. It is seluded to informal sector of vendors, contract works etc. There I see a point where Indian industry hasnt rationalised it's spread.
4)Indian agriculture is still capable of ushering in a productivity leap when compared to coiuntries like China. It means rural areas can still hold back people at least for time being, provided Govt intervenes massively in agriculture sector.
So as survey on the migration labour I conclude its seclusion to informal sector and manufacturing firms not directly tapping this potential(partially due to the illiteracy and non skill drifting from rural areas) unlike other countries. More over as a general pattern of globalized world and it's penchant for informalization will demand more urban labour supporting the exodus from villages.
But Indian economy is still not structurally fit to absorb which can bring in wider contradictions in later stage.